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Cisco Umi Brings HD Video Conferencing To Your Living Room [Video]

Cisco's rumored telepresence-at-home system is now official and it's called Umi. The set up comprises a set top box, a remote, and a 1080p camera that sits on top of your TV. It's the new way to visit grandma! More »

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Web advertising groups launch tracking opt-out initiative

Filed under: Web services

Relevant ads can sometimes be useful -- Google's recent hyper-local announcement is one such case. However, there are plenty of users on the Web who aren't all that keen about the behavior-tracking that ad providers employ in order to serve those ads.

And apparently the people behind the ads think the right thing to do is to offer you a way out. The newly-formed Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising is comprised of a handful of media and marketing groups and aims to provide users with easy-to-understand information about tracking and advertising practices.

The group will also maintain an opt-out list. See that little blue icon in the corner of the Crucial ad? You may soon see it popping up around the Web. Click it, and you'll be whisked away to an explanatory snippet and given the option to add yourself to the opt-out list.

It's a bit like the no-call list for telemarketers, except you're still going to see ads on the Web -- they just won't be quite as targeted. Though by simply knowing a site's core demographic, they'll probably still be able to get relatively close even if you do opt out.

[via the Sunbelt Blog]

Web advertising groups launch tracking opt-out initiative originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 08:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Instagram for iPhone, Like a Lomo-Twitter for Your Photos

Instagram is yet another iPhone photo-finessing app, but it?s one that you?ll keep coming back to instead of playing for five minutes and then forgetting about it. Wired.com editor Micheal Calore?s says it?s ?like a mashup of Hipstamatic and Tumblr.?

The app combines a lot of pretty, Lomo-like filters to jazz up your crappy smartphone shots, but the secret sauce is the social aspect, which lets you share the results with Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Foursquare and yes, Tumblr. But that?s not all. You also share your pictures with the Instagram network itself.

I took the free application for a spin on my iPod Touch (you can also share pictures from your saved film roll). It comes on like a kind of reverse Instapaper, only for photos instead of text. Whereas you can dump any article you like, from anywhere, into Instapaper to read later, with Instagram you can take your picture and send it everywhere. That makes it the default place you go to share photos.

Once you have signed up, you can also follow friends, just like you?d follow them on any social network. Best of all, the app talks to the Foursquare API, so when you send a photo from the bar you?re in, the app will geotag it and then Foursquare will use that info to add a place-name to your shot.

The app itself is dead easy to use, and you are walked through the initial step upon first launch. You could just use it to process and upload your snaps ? adding a filter is fast and as easy as clicking on a button ? but you can also browse your friends? picture, leave comments or just explore random images from the Instagram network. You can import friends from Facebook and Twitter, as well as your iPhone?s contact list, but right now I don?t have any contacts also using the service. This is likely to improve over the next few days as all the nerds I know try it out.

Calore, the Webmonkey software supremo for Wired.com, thinks the Instagram is going to be a ?Big Deal.? I was skeptical at first ? who needs another photo-sharing app? ? but after trying it I see just what he means. In fact, I?ll come up with another simile to describe it. Instagram could be like a Twitter for your photos.

Instagram [iTunes]

See Also:

• Hipstamatic Gentrifies iPhone Camera
• Hands-On with Swankolab, a Chemical Darkroom for the iPhone ?
• Software
• Lomo-fy Your iPhone 3G With Brando's Telescope
• QuadCamera for iPhone: Time-Stuttering Camera App
• Digi-Diana: Lomo Lens Adapter for Canon, Nikon DSLRs

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

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Screenshot Tour: Sleep Bot for Android helps you monitor your sleeping habits

Filed under: Utilities, Android

Sleep Bot is a cute little application that helps you get a better understanding of your sleeping habits. Sadly, it doesn't use the phone's accelerometer to check how much you toss and turn at night, which could have been interesting.

Still, for a free application it's quite nice; it has lots of charting options, a widget for the home screen, and a simple data export option. I took a quick spin through the application and even tried it for one night. To take a closer look, keep reading after the fold.

The basic premise of the application is that you tell it when you go to sleep and when you wake up, and it times your sleeping sessions. Above is a crop of the app's home screen, where you can see the going to sleep button. Hit that, and the app starts counting. As you can see, I slept 7 hours and 18 minutes last night, so I have a bit of "extra time." (I told Sleep Bot that I like to sleep 7 hours every night.)

Home screen

This is a full screenshot of the application's Home tab and basic navigation interface. Note the Reset Debt menu option; the app uses the notion that you can accrue "sleep debt" over several days and then "pay it back" by sleeping more. I'm not very sure the human body actually works like that, but I guess it's a useful metaphor for some people.

Graph screen

This is the graph screen that you get under the Tracker tab. As you can see, you get a ton of graphing options. The Pattern button is a bit misleading, since the application does not use the phone accelerometer for monitoring your actual movement pattern while you sleep. So, this button only shows you a pattern of sleeping sessions -- not what goes on within a single session.

Managing Entries

This is the Manage Entries view (found under the Tracker tab), which allows you to check the history for specific sessions, edit them, add new sessions, or export the data as a CSV (which I did, and you can see it at the end of this post).

Resources

The Resources tab is shown above. It's basically a list of short articles with quick reference information concerning sleep. Among other articles not shown are "Sleep Hygiene Basics," "Types of Sleep Disorders," and more. It's nothing you can't find online, but it's handy to have it right there in the app.

Settings

The Settings page is extensive. The Optimal Hour doesn't let you specify when you wish to go to sleep every night, but rather how long you wish to sleep for. You can also set the default graph and have the application pop up a reminder every night and morning so that you won't forget to punch in and out. You can even set a separate, custom text for each of the two reminders. You can have the device switch into Flight Mode when you go to sleep, so calls cannot come in, or if you'd like, you can have it automatically switch to silent mode and switch off the Wi-Fi in order to prevent other alerts.

Also, note the MySleepBot.com option. I suspect a business model hides in there somewhere, but it's inactive for now.

Data Export

Finally, if you're serious about archiving your sleep data, here's the CSV export. This is a crucial feature for me, because I have an existing system to monitor all sorts of vital statistics, so it's good to know that Sleep Bot can play nice with it.

Screenshot Tour: Sleep Bot for Android helps you monitor your sleeping habits originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 02 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shut Up, Gene Simmons, You Clown [Blockquote]

Gene Simmons. Once upon a time, he played bass and unrolled his tongue out for that brown paper bag of musical hurt that is Kiss. Now, he just goes around saying stupid things like this: More »

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The Best Navigation Apps [Appbattle]

One moment it's a phone in your hand. The next, it's a full-fledged turn-by-turn nav unit with an active internet connection. What happened? These apps, is what. More »

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Daily Crunch: The Operating Theater Edition

SteelSeries Shift Keyboard Lets You Switch Between Differet Keysets Kindle for Android Update Adds Voice Search, Wikipedia Dictionary The CitrusSaw: You Know, For Citrus CrunchDeals: Many Drives, Many Discounts Beautiful ?Naked Radio? Repurposes Parts, Looks Amazing

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12TB NAS for $1899.99?

I saw over on Engadget that Seagate released a new BackArmor NAS 440? That has 12TB of storage in a 4-drive NAS for $1899.99 . No, that’s not a type-o : 12TB of storage in a 4-drive array. Somehow the BlackArmor team has snagged the 3TB drives that us regular people can’t buy at the [...]

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, News

Tagged: NAS, Network Storage, Seagate

12TB NAS for $1899.99? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 3, 2010 at 3:19 pm.

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Mercedes-Benz gets in on the factory iPad integration game, makes headrests a little smarter

You didn't think BMW would be the only one releasing hideous in-car iPad integration, did you? Mercedes-Benz, a company we previously thought had a bit more class, has released images of its strikingly similar headrest-mounted iPad docks. The idea is that the person in the back seat can comfortably use and recharge their device whilst their manservant, bodyguard, or parental guardian whisks them to their next destination. Of course, reaching forward to touch the back of the headrest in front of you is hardly an ergonomically sound position, and since that could very well be where your face ends up in a major accident we'd love to see what star rating the tablet's glass scores in a crash test. No price is given for the accessory at this point, but it'll surely be rather more accessible than the truly egregious Brabus iBusiness S Class.

Gallery: Mercedes-Benz iPad integration

Mercedes-Benz gets in on the factory iPad integration game, makes headrests a little smarter originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Was Just Phase One Of Facebook?s ?Lockdown? ? Redesign Still Coming

Last night, we noted that after a two-month "lockdown" Facebook was emerging with the fruits of their labor today. We heard that the likely result would be a site redesign, but obviously, that didn't come. Instead, Facebook rolled out a few new features such as a way to download your information, a dashboard for connected apps, and, most notably, a completely revamped Groups feature. That being said, the redesign is still coming, we hear. And it shouldn't be too long. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the event today by acknowledging that they have been in what they call "lockdown" for several weeks. And he indicated that the result of it would be several new launches over the coming weeks and months. One of those will be a redesign, which is meant to unify the look of the site.

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