Author: Scarlett Madison

There have been insinuations that Gene Roddenberry came up with the idea for the iPad or even the flip phone, or that Leonardo da Vinci inspired a plethora of ideas that turned into modern technology, but this predictive design by inventor Kane Kramer in a patent filing in 1979 is about as close as one can get to detailing the design for the iPod. The IXI was to use flash-based memory, had a display screen, quad-directional controls, and was supposed to be the size of a deck of playing cards. Sound familiar? As Gizmodo explains, he even had a vision for DRM: He predicted DRM, though he didn’t go into many…

According to a group of researchers, the robotic walking leg simulation in the video below is the closest we’ve come to being able to replicate the way biological organisms move. To some, it will be impressive. To me, it’s still pretty weird looking. You decide – am I being too picky? From the report: A key component of the human walking system is the central pattern generator (CPG). The CPG is a neural network in the lumbar region of the spinal cord that generates rhythmic muscle signals. The CPG produces, and then controls, these signals by gathering information from different parts of the body…

Families argue. It’s part of being a family. When your “family” is made up of unhappy robots getting ready for a nutritious meal of glowing objects, you know the only way the ensuing dispute will end is with dubstep and 3D graphics. Lights and flying radioactive cylinders highlight the short film by Fluxel Media with a dubstep remix of Nostalgia’s “Knights of Cydonia”. …

Research In Motion has been the whipping post for tech bloggers for a couple of years, now. We’ve taken our own swipes at them here (and here, and here, and here), but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a smidgen of hope coming from the Blackberry maker. The hope is being broadcast loud and clear by CEO Thorsten Heins who was claiming on Tuesday that “there’s nothing wrong with the company as it exists right now.” Blackberry 10, which many consider to be the last chance RIM has of regaining a bigger slice of the pie and staying in business as they are now beyond 2013, was delayed again last week. 5000 layoffs…

Most would agree that the technology behind Google Project Glass is pretty impressive and people will definitely buy them, but will they make us look weird when we wear them? There was a time when Bluetooth headsets were new and people said, “You’ll get used to them,” but after years of seeing dozens of people a week wearing them I still think they look like the Borg. Project Glass takes Borgwear to another level. Weigh in here or on Facebook. Despite the technology, will they be really acceptable in a relatively-short period of time or will they always get a double-take and the occasional glare when…

Every day we see more people using their smartphones to make payments whether through apps directly on them or by using them to pay for purchases at stores. The rise of mobile payment types is only being outpaced by adoption which is accelerating at a breakneck pace. This infographic by Mobile Payments Infographic comes to us from Long Beach Honda and breaks down what the future of mobile payments may look like. Click to enlarge. Related articles Mobile Payments Infographic Shows a Jackpot for Business The mobile payments wars [Infographic] Lois Hamblet, CEO of Ziptip, a Mobile Payments Solution…

It only takes 140-characters or less to send a Tweet and it takes under 1,000 employees to operate the company according to research done by social media firm Social Jumpstart. In fact, Disney’s Club Penguin, a social network for kids, has more employees. LinkedIn has nearly 1,800 employees and Facebook has over 3,000. Comparing the different leaders in social media, it’s easy to see which niches take the most effort. Social news site Reddit, for example, has 11 employees servicing “The Front Page of the Internet”, a site that can send hundreds of thousands of unique visitors in hours to a picture…

There was a time when an unhappy customer was an unhappy customer. Best practices said to deal with their concerns, empathize, try to fix it, and if you couldn’t move on. Today, the last step has changed thanks to social media. Customers are empowered to be able to voice their concerns to a much wider audience than ever before. The old saying was that an unhappy customer will tell 10 people. Today, they can tell 10 thousand with the click of a few buttons. At the very least, they can tell their friends, family, and co-workers by simply posting their disgust on Facebook. The game has changed. This infographic…

Call this a #protip for social media use. If you’re helping your grandmother count her life savings, don’t try to impress your friends by snapping a picture of it and posting it on Facebook, particularly when your home address is on your Facebook profile. That’s exactly what a 17-year-old Australian girl did while helping her 72-year-old grandmother. Thankfully, the masked robbers armed with knives and a club broke into her own house and robbed her 47-year-old mother instead. It was her mom’s house that was on her Facebook page. As Jolie O’Dell at Venture Beat put it, “Use the sense God gave a horse…

In Aladdin, when Jafar was pulled into the lamp after making a monumental mistake of going for too much power, he grabbed his untrusty sidekick on his way down to be stuck in lamp limbo together. The same things seems to be happening with Facebook and Zynga; as Facebook’s IPO crumbles, Zynga’s shares continue to sag. In this Chart of the Day by Statista, it’s easy to see how the fate of the larger company is dramatically affecting the future of the smaller, dependent company. Click to enlarge. Related articles An Inside Look at Zynga’s Bribable Approach to Customer Loyalty (dailyfinance.com) Zynga,…