Monday, 16 December 2013
Google reportedly testing smart thermostats in 'EnergySense' program
Google Glass Upgrade Arrives Just in Time for New Year's
Nielsen: users embracing smartphone apps while ditching traditional web services
Nueve libros sobre ciencia para regalar estas navidades
En El Correo le han pedido a Mauricio-José Schwarz que haga una lista de libros que regalar estas navidades para gente interesada en la ciencia, lista que hasta donde yo sé no está en línea, así que aquí va:
- La partícula al final del universo, de Sean Carroll, sobre el bosón de Higgs y el model estándar de partículas.
- Hasta el infinito y más allá, de Clara Grima y Raquel García Ulldemolins, que parte de la premisa de que Las matemáticas no son ni aburridas ni difíciles. Y menos para los niños. Un spinoff de Mati y sus mateaventuras.
- Un universo de la nada, Lawrence Krauss, sobre lo que la cosmología conoce sobre el universo recorriendo la historia de los descubrimientos de los últimos 100 años acerca de cuanto nos rodea, incluido el origen del universo.
- Grandes enigmas de la ciencia, en el que 52 colaboradores del blog colectivo de ciencia Naukas participan en un volumen que toca los más diversos temas de la ciencia, el escepticismo ante las pseudociencias, la tecnología e incluso el humor alrededor de estos temas.
- La tabla periódica, de Hugh Aldersey Williams, sobre el descubrimiento de los elementos de esta.
- Las grandes preguntas de los niños y las sencillas respuestas de los grandes expertos, de Gemma Elwin Harris, en el que se recogen cien preguntas de entre las miles que le enviaron niños de escuelas en toda Gran Bretaña y las respuestas de científicos, actores, deportistas y otras personas célebres. Respuestas para niños que seguramente sorprenderán a muchos adultos.
- Darwin en el supermercado, de Mark Nellissen, un análisis sobre como la evolución ha condicionado nuestro comportamiento.
- Neurociencia para Julia, de Xurxo Mariño, acerca de cómo funciona nuestro sistema nervioso, ya reseñado aquí.
- Arquímedes, de Eugenio Manuel Fernández Aguilar, una biografía de uno de los grandes precursores de la ciencia.
- Diez libros sobre divulgación recomendados para estas navidades, aunque de las de 2012, pero sirve igual para dar ideas.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/libros/nueve-libros-sobre-ciencia-para-regalar-estas-navidades.html
Una oferta de Google que no podrás rechazar
Como forma de conseguir que la gente se apunte a Google Plus, la gente de College Humor ha preparado un vídeo sobre el proyecto supersecreto Google Chantaje , un sistema que publicará todo tu historial de navegación, búsquedas, vídeos guarrillos y otro material si no te apuntas rápido. Al fin y al cabo también tienen tus calendarios, correos, chats… ¡Ya estás tardando!
(El insólito giro final es buenísimo, por cierto.)
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/humor/oferta-google.html
Make A Little You With Shapify.me
Arctec, makers of high-end 3D scanners for industrial clients, have added a little whimsy to your day with Shapify.me, a service that can scan and print your body in full color, allowing you to make a little mini me for your very own.
The system uses the Kinect Sensor – it works with either the Kinect for Windows or Kinect for Xbox 360 – and allows you to scan your entire body using a PC or Mc. The software then lets you download the scan for 3D printing or order the print for $59. Prints are available in the US and Canada but more countries are coming soon.
Capturing the image is a little tricky – there are a lot of lighting issues and lots of turning – but the service seems to be outputting smooth, usable scans. Arguably these aren’t as beautiful as some other services we’ve seen including the incredible Twinkind but because you’re depending on a fairly low resolution system like the Kinect and limited processing power it’s easy to forgive some of the elisions in the model.
I’ve learned that 3D scanning is hard and anything that makes it easier is a good thing. While it might be a little late to give a Shapify figurine to your dear old mother and father, it’s definitely a fun little toy and could be an interesting tool for home hobbyists. Besides, who doesn’t want a 3D selfie?
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/1mM75uZ_IVM/
Sony Xperia Z1 comes to China Mobile with more memory and minor hardware changes
San Francisco starts offering free WiFi, but only on Market Street
Rumor: Samsung Galaxy S5 Will Scan Your Eyes
Twitter's promoted accounts might start showing up within your timeline
Cornell 3D prints a working speaker -- coils, magnets and all
Report: Nokia's Illusionist Tablet Disappears
Nokia's all-in-one Camera app expands to entire Lumia range with new beta
Sony begins Android 4.3 rollout for Xperia Z1 and Z Ultra
Sprint's LTE roll out gains momentum with addition of 70 new markets
My Long Road To Self-Publishing
After blindly supporting it for a number of years, I’ve decided to crowdfund my own project, a novel that I wrote for my son, and then write about the experience for you guys. Today I’d like to talk about my own experiences in publishing and why I think crowdfunding is, at the very least, a viable alternative to the traditional models. Be warned: this is a little introspective and I’m writing it from the perspective of a crowd funding – but not a publishing – newbie.
First, understand that I’ve been entrenched in the traditional model for most of the decade. I’ve written two books, both directly acquired by technical publishers and without an agent. The advance for my first one, Black Hat, was negligible and I receive almost no royalties. My second book, Blogger’s Boot Camp, netted about $10,000 for the first edition and the same for a second edition we just completed. That’s split with my co-author, Charlie White.
So I haven’t gotten rich.
I did, briefly, have a nice contract with Random House in 2008 which fell through for a number of reasons, primarily a number of changes at the imprint I was working with as well as the financial collapse and the destruction of Borders. That was the highlight of my writing life up until then but I was quite unhappy. I worked for two years on the book, spending evenings hunched over my keyboard until 10pm. I gained 30 pounds over that period – drinking a lot and having young kids didn’t help – and I’m now trying to reverse that damage.
Having a “real” book contract paralyzed me. It was a huge amount of work and lots of travel. I spent a month in Israel and a month in Europe and suffered from a bout of some kind of stomach cramping that debilitated me and eventually landed me in the emergency room. I think Jason Fagone describes the dread of having to write a big book quite ably: “I started to get scared.”
How did I get the contract? I emailed my buddy Farhad Manjoo who had published a book. I asked him who his agent was and he sent me to a guy named Larry Weissman. I sent Larry a few ideas and he liked the tale of Marie Antoinette’s watch. The story is compelling: a watch made for Marie Antoinette was the iPhone of its day. It could measure time elapsed, ticked like a grandfather clock, and even had an thermometer. You could pull a little handle and it would chime the time. It was, in short, one of the most important pieces of technology of the late 18th century. The creator, Breguet, never saw it finished and neither did Marie Antoinette – they were all dead after the Revolution. The watch floated around, was stolen, and reappeared in 2008. I was writing the book at just the right time and I got some great interviews including some time with the thief’s wife.
Another thing I learned is that the book proposal has to be almost as long as the book itself. Larry ran me through a boot camp that I won’t forget. I was sick of him, but he pounded and pounded until we got out a great proposal. All of this – the story, the agent, and the proposal he birthed with me – helped propel the book into the vaunted halls of high stakes publishing.
But I failed. They cancelled the contract a few years later and the book is still floating around, unloved. I may be republishing it soon, but it’s been a disappointing road.
I popped out of the other side of this crucible with only a tangential understanding of the publishing business but a little more insight into the creative process. I knew I needed more eyes on my work and so I found a network of first readers. I also learned that your first draft shouldn’t go directly to your editor. Publishers are like any editor: they want a good first draft that will go, with minimum work, straight to press. The days of Maxwell Perkins sitting down with a fat, degenerate inebriate and editing his or her work until it shines are long gone. Publishers are happy if the work slightly glimmers and they hope the cover art will sell a few copies. This is obviously not true of all editors but we humans love the path of least resistance.
During that period I was visiting Madrid when we stopped in the Retiro Park where I saw the statue of Lucifer. I was in a historical mode at the time, always looking at old monuments and clocks for the book but I also wanted to write something for my kids. I imagined something hidden under the statue and plotted out a weird Da Vinci Code-like thing in my head. Then the word Mytro popped up. I decided to work on two projects.
As far as I can tell I worked on Mytro from about 2009 onward, writing a thousand words a day into a program called Scrivener, which is a great tool for writing long form pieces and even better for books. I worked on it on and off, at one point abandoning it for a long time while I dealt with the cancellation of my contract. I was extremely lucky – I had a great outlet here at TC and I didn’t let the contract slow me down. Because I had to write every day, that’s just what I did. I worked on Mytro, on a few other things, prepared proposals that never went anywhere, and tried to relax. I had kids I had to try to enjoy and a life that scooted by while I was in my attic working.
When I “finished” Mytro – it still needs a good copy edit – I sent it to an agent in New York who expressed interest in my fiction and wanted to send it around to young adult houses. Why did I choose young adult? First I wanted a book for my kids to read. Second I knew that the last paper and hardback readers are kids and teenagers. Sure Stephen King can sell a few million fat copies of his books to die-hard fans, but I was no Stephen King. Why not try for a market that was still growing and that could potentially support a trilogy?
The agent passed it on to a younger assistant who was tasked with passing it around. I waited all summer for news back but no one wanted it. I don’t blame the assistant but, in the end, she quit the agency and went on to do non-profit work.
It was then I realized that I was placing some of the most important things in my life in the hands of people who were at worst hostile and at best really busy. Why did I keep going back to this system? First you have to understand that it’s very comfortable. You write your 100,000 words, submit it, wait, respond to some emails, and then you see a printed book come out the other end. The book appears in bookstores, you feel momentarily cool, and then it drops off the face of Amazon sales rankings like a stone. By then, however, it’s been so long since you wrote the thing that it doesn’t matter. You’re on to bigger and better things. Again, I know I’m a special case in that I’ve been able to stumble into some degree of publishing success, but I think any writer would love the black box nature of most publishing houses.
Second, I thought these gatekeepers were important. I spent an evening with an old fiction professor of mine who told me he didn’t like Kickstarter and the self-publishing craze because he had made it and he didn’t want these new writers to have it too easy. In a way he was right. Why should they have instant riches when he had to punch up through layers of entrenched editorial control to achieve success? He is a literary writer with a wonderful voice and he got that voice out in an era when rejection slips still came on paper. He worked hard. Shouldn’t I?
I don’t know the answer to that and I don’t think I ever will. I’m crowdfunding Mytro for a single reason – I need to see crowdfunding up close and I’m not about to make a smart thermostat or watch anytime soon. Therefore Mytro is the only thing I can offer the world of value that is mine and solely mine. I’m saying “Here, I made this” and watching what happens.
I don’t expect riches from this endeavor but I do expect to see the power of the network over old, entrenched markets. If I can make an acceptable advance for a first-time fiction book and publish a nice book at a nice price in a nice format, then I’ll be happy. To be clear I don’t disagree with my teacher. But I don’t think crowdfunding is a sneaky way of getting into his private literary club. I think it’s a way of creating a new club that is just as vibrant as the old one. One worthy of respect and, ultimately, admiration. To make it on your own terms, based on your own efforts, means something, and thankfully, the world is finally catching on.
I’ll be writing about my experience crowd funding my novel over the next few weeks as well as featuring a few interesting guest posts from people who have gone through the process. You can read more about my experience here.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/Nhn3GMFxSxQ/
Cyrus Lyric plays high-grade audio from seemingly any source
Dell Venue 8 Pro review: a good Windows tablet, but wait for the bug fixes
Windows Phone 8.1 reportedly getting a Notification Center and personal assistant
$10,000 and a bout of madness nets you this gold-plated Xbox One
Notion Ink launches oddball tablet with edge-mounted ticker display
With $5.3M In Funding, Entitle Launches E-Book Service Emphasizing Ownership And Big Titles
In the past few months, we’ve seen the launch of several e-book subscription services using a Netflix-style pricing model, where users pay a monthly fee and get access to any title in the catalog. A new service called Entitle is going in a different direction — users still pay a subscription fee, but they can only download a few books each month.
Isn’t that a worse deal? CEO Bryan Batten argued that it’s not, for a couple of reasons. First, Entitle users actually own the books they purchase, so if they unsubscribe they still have access to the titles that they’ve already paid for. And while many people have become accustomed to the pay-for-access model popularized by Netflix and Spotify, Batten argued that there’s still “a majority of people who like the thought of owning something.”
“With an all-you-can-eat type service, people might put five or 10 books on their bookshelf that they may not ever get to,” he said. “And they don’t get to them, they’re lost if they cancel.”
Second, the Netflix model may make more sense for, well, Netflix, where it really is possible to binge watch an embarrassing number of movies and TV shows. But while there are bookworms out there who read dozens titles in a month, for the average reader the number is probably much lower.
And appropriately for a content company, Batten said the biggest lure for Entitle should be the books themselves. The company has deals with major publishers including Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, HarperCollins Christian, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, with more than 100,000 professionally-published titles from authors like Stephen King, Dan Brown, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Crichton, Walter Isaacson, Janet Evanovich, Mark Helprin, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (uh, some of those are more contemporary than others). Batten pointed out that the Entitle catalog includes recent releases like King’s Doctor Sleep, Glenn Beck’s Miracles & Massacres, and Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit.
For a point of comparison, when Scribd unveiled its subscription service in October, its big publisher deals were limited to HarperCollins (including HarperCollins Christian), and it didn’t include the publisher’s newest titles.
We actually wrote about Entitle last month in an overview of various “Netflix for e-books” services. At the time, however, it was called eReatah. Apparently, the biggest piece of feedback during the beta period was to change the name, and even Batten admits now that the old name was “pretty terrible.”
Entitle’s current pricing is $14.99 per month for two books, $21.99 for three books, and $27.99 for four books. (In some ways, the pricing seems closest to a book-of-the-month type model.)
The company is also announcing that it has raised $5.3 million in funding. (Turns out the funding was actually disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the summer, but the filing didn’t attract too much attention.) Batten said the money comes from a single investor who asked not to be identified.
You can read more about Entitle on its website and download its iOS app here and its Android app here.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/6lZbgk2fUng/
Minecraft creeps to PlayStation 3 on December 17th
Amazon shooting 2014 original series lineup in 4K
'Breaking Bad' spin-off 'Better Call Saul' will be a Netflix exclusive in Europe and Latin America
Rebtel Launches Sendly, A Money Transfer App For Topping Up Pre-Paid Phones
VoIP provider Rebtel has been steadily growing ever since launch in 2006, with over 20 million users and an increasingly popular VoIP SDK.
But today the company is dipping their toes in a new pool, launching a credit transfer service called Sendly.
Sendly is a standalone app that lets almost anyone in the world send credit to their friends or loved ones that can be used to top up prepaid phones.
Obviously, this move makes sense for Rebtel’s existing customers who are predominantly using the app to talk to loved ones who are in a different country. Sending funds to distant loved ones goes hand-in-hand with that, especially as pay-as-you-go phone plans become more and more popular.
To use Sendly, all you need is the app and the recipient’s phone number. You can choose the amount you’re sending, and when the notification is received, the money automatically turns into phone credit.
Here’s what Sendly’s Mans Ullerstam had to say about the launch:
We know that the people who use our calling app the most are those with family and friends in other countries. With Sendly, we want to give millions of callers an easier and quicker way to provide their loved ones with credit to use on calls, texts and data. The ability to send mobile credit to prepaid phone users is another big step we’re taking as a leading communications platform that’s powering stronger connections between individuals, businesses, and mobile subscribers around the globe.
The app is free, and thanks to existing relationships between Rebtel and over 60 global mobile operators, fees taken by the company are lower than other, traditional forms of money transfer. According to CEO and founder Andreas Bernström, Rebtel’s fees are about 12% of the value of the transfer.
But even more interesting are the opportunities beyond topping up a phone. Rebtel sees huge potential for this type of technology to be turned into an API, allowing other app makers to implement money transfer within their apps.
Sendly is available in over 50 countries at launch, and interested parties can learn more here.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/oZElyzJveV0/
Small winged bot flies autonomously for nine minutes, still can't find a mate
14 Kickstarter Projects We're Excited for in 2014
LG finally joins the Spotify Smart TV party
13 Tech Products That Stood Out in 2013
Samsung's Galaxy Core Advance Features Physical Buttons, Low-End Specs
Physical buttons make a comeback in Samsung's low-end Galaxy Core Advance
