Eideard

It doesn’t have quite the appeal of sending a robot to do your shopping, but this Smart Cart service being trialed by SK Telecom could definitely take some of the hassle out of trolling the supermarket aisles.

Just launched at the Shanghai Lotus Supermarket in China, the system consists of WiFi-enabled, tablet PC-equipped shopping carts and a smartphone app that can be synchronized with the tablet. By utilizing indoor positioning technology and augmented reality, the shopping “Smart” cart becomes a virtual shopping aide.

The Smart Cart application allows customers to search for shopping and discount information, store coupons, as well as to create a shopping list.

After getting to the market, the app synchronizes with the tablet PC mounted to the cart’s handle, uploads the shopping list and authenticates the user. Wandering through the store’s aisles, customers get product and discount information linked to their current location within the store, which is established to within three feet via a WiFi network.

Way cool. I’m the sort of regular shopper who knows aisle-by-aisle what I’m looking for; but, that doesn’t allow for new goodies to tempt the palate.

Apple’s iPad is cutting into sales of netbooks and notebooks, according to Best Buy’s CEO.

Brian Dunn, the company’s chief, told The Wall Street Journal that Best Buy’s internal estimates show the iPad, which was launched last April, has cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50 percent. Starting Sept. 26, the company is planning to sell the iPad in all of its 1,093 stores nationwide (so far it’s been available in 673 Best Buy stores).

Pricing on the iPad starts at $499 for a Wi-Fi-only version. And while most netbooks, and even some laptops, are less expensive than that, the iPad has been a hit with consumers looking to take even-lighter devices (the iPad is 1.5 pounds) with them when they’re on the go, with more screen real estate (9.7 inches) than a phone and long battery life (up to 10 hours).

“We see the iPad as the magnificent shining light in what will become a whole new category, and that is tablets,” Dunn, told Bloomberg in a recent conference call. “In many cases, it’s an incremental device. In some cases, it’s a substitute device for netbooks. We think that’s going to stimulate a lot of customer interest.”

Target, which began selling Amazon’s Kindle e-reader earlier this summer, may also be getting ready to offer the iPad in stores, perhaps as soon as Oct. 3.

I’ve already traded-in “in advance” my laptop for a credit at the Apple reseller I deal with, PowerMax – for the next-gen iPad which I expect will have at least a front-facing camera for Apple’s FaceTime video conferencing.

UPDATE: Dunn has backpedaled on how he was quoted in the original WSJ article.

No one ever quite realizes how much traffic is engendered by an announcement from Apple and Steve Jobs. I’ll be updating this right through my usual post time of noon MST.

Yes, it is called the iPad.

Click on the photo for Gizmodo’s first hands-on experience.

Read the rest of this entry »

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Amazon, displaying a sense of urgency, perhaps driven by the pending launch of Apple’s tablet-style computer is turning its Kindle device into a platform. The Seattle-based company…announced that it will allow software developers to “build and upload active content” and distribute it through the “Kindle Store later this year.” Amazon will be giving out a Kindle Development Kit that will give “developers access to programming interfaces, tools and documentation to build active content for Kindle.” The company will launch a limited beta effort next month.

I would also like to see what developers come up with. An Electronics Arts’ executive in Amazon’s press release says that the company is looking to develop games for the Kindle platform. I wonder how much can you do with the limited hardware that is a Kindle. Screen refresh rates are low, the inbuilt processor is puny and of course no color. Unless Amazon is planning to launch a beefier and color version of the device, game developers are unlikely to be able to create great experiences on Kindle…

As I wrote back in March 2009…people are looking for a cheap, connected Internet device that is “not a laptop.” I was recently watching an interview with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos on “Charlie Rose” in which he talked about the Kindle being flexible enough to encourage new kinds of media consumption, including multimedia books and newspapers with immersive content and interactivity. I think he is spot on — and just from that perspective, Apple has to be thinking really hard about this looming opportunity.

There’s only one reason to make the announcement early. Trying to cop attention for the project before Apple’s launch party on the 27th.

I wish we could get KB into the official launch for a hands-on review.

For ages experts and laymen have been analyzing and trying to crack the code of handwriting characteristics, in order to detect an individual’s personality traits, or in most cases, gauge their innocence in the case of a crime. Although this science has often gone the way of pseudoscience, researchers are now discovering that with the aid of a computerized tool, handwriting characteristics can be measured more effectively.

The research, headed by Gil Luria and Sara Rosenblum at the University of Haifa, is published in an upcoming issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology. The researchers utilized a computerized tablet that measured the physical properties of the subject’s handwriting, which are difficult to consciously control (for example: the duration of time that the pen is on paper versus in the air, the length height and width of each writing stroke, the pressure implemented on the writing surface). They have found that these handwriting characteristics differ when an individual is in the process of writing deceptive sentences as opposed to truthful sentences.

The handwriting tool has the potential to replace, or work in tandem, with popular, verbal-based lie detection technology such as the polygraph to ensure greater accuracy and objectivity in law enforcement deception detection.

Additionally, polygraphs are often intrusive to the subject and sometimes inconclusive. The handwriting tool therefore provides ease and increased accuracy over common, verbal-based methods.

More work, more work, peer review and experimentation.

Imagine reviewing historic documents with micro-analysis to retrieve significant data!

A new financial analysis predicts that Apple’s yet-to-be-announced tablet will launch in early 2010 and sell about 2 million units in its first year — and at an estimated $600 each, that would be an additional $1.2 billion in revenue.

The report, from market research firm Piper Jaffray, states that potential revenue from such a device has not yet been included in forecast models for Apple on Wall Street. The firm predicts that the product would increase the company’s overall revenue by 3 percent in 2010.

“While at first glance this may appear to address a niche market, we believe the addressable market is larger than that of the Apple TV, of which Apple sold about 1.2m in its first year,” the report states…

The firm sees a tablet filling a void between the iPod touch and low-end MacBook. While the product will not be a netbook and will not be marketed as a netbook, Senior Research Analyst Gene Munster believes the product would be geared towards users who want convenient, inexpensive computers for simple tasks like Web browsing and checking e-mail…

Munster also speculates that the device will run a version of the iPhone OS and have access to the App Store. The larger screen could also allow for multitasking, which is not currently available on the iPhone. He believes this is more likely than Apple making OS X “touch friendly.”

I still find no pressing need for a Tablet Mac in my life; but, then, I don’t own an iPhone either. They still make a great deal of sense – and Apple’s technology and design standards pretty much guarantee success.