Software posts

Apple has a host of patents to its name, and rifling through them can offer some fascinating insights into the potential future of technology and the possibilities that are open to the company as it executes its vision for the future convergence culture. We’ve taken a look at some of the most recently published Apple patents and chosen six of the most exciting to tell you all about. 1. iSpecs: an advanced head-mounted display system for the iPhone or iPod This system (above) may even host its own video camera or be able to communicate with the camera that’s already inside the iPod touch or iPhone….

Fresh in from the historical inevitability department comes news of a failed Adobe Flash demo — and an all-new video clip showing what the proprietary multimedia standard can do on an Android phone. Last week’s FlashCamp Seattle saw Flash Platform evangelist Ryan Stewart demo Flash Player 10.1 on a Nexus One phone during his opening keynote. It didn’t go well, wrote blogger, Jeff Croft. Here’s what happened: On his Mac, Ryan pulled up a site called Eco Zoo. It is, seemingly, a pretty intense example of Flash development — full of 3D rendering, rich interactions, and cute little characters….

Mike Beltzner, Director of Firefox, presented a slide show to the Mozilla community, outlining possible new features planned for Firefox 4, although he was careful to warn that the feature set was far from final. The slide show, which can be viewed here on SlideShare, starts with groundbreaking research questions, such as “who uses Firefox?” and “what are those people trying to do?”, leading to the revolutionary conclusions that “speed, power and control” should be central to the browsing experience. Insightful industry analysis aside, the Firefox team has broken down it’s key demographic…

Next time you sit down for a slap-up meal out keep an eye on the waiter – he (or she) may well take your order with an iPad. This replaces older PDA-based ordering systems, and could mean diners can even take a look at luch full-colour pictures of what they are ordering. It may even help restaurants keep an eye on the stock they have in hand. System developed by 4asoft.com. Perhaps you’ll be paying for your meal using an iPad, too. Square today introduced an iPhone credit card payment system, following last month’s introduction of a similar system for the iPhone. Via: PocketLint. Thumbnail image…

Tamagotchis never really carried any guilt, did they? You could let them die, and just hit reset. No biggie, right? iHobo is about to make you feel like utter crap for all the virtual pets you never saved, and then some. iHobo (yes, that’s its real name) is a free charity iPhone app that leaves you in charge of a virtual homeless person, but believe it or not, the app is not in bad taste – rather, it’s meant to call attention to the issue of homelessness at large. Well, actually, in the UK specifically, but the message is universal. iHobo takes up residence in your iPhone for three days, and it’s up to you to…

Hey, you know Microsoft Office, that thing you’ve been downloading illegally for free all these years? It would seem that Microsoft’s finally catching up with the current state of computing – in June, they’ll be offering it for free, for real. In a move more than likely inspired by Google Docs’ sudden usefulness to people who want to be able to use one set of tools across the cloud, Microsoft will be releasing a free, ad-supported, online version of Office along side a more robust, un-free version in June. The hope is that, as approximately 90% of Office users are business users, they’ll prefer the…

An ambitious, if not entirely business-savvy entrepreneur has a great idea for a business: buy The Pirate Bay and re-imagine it as a legal content distribution network. The only minor flaws: he has no money, and the owners of The Pirate Bay have maintained that they are not for sale. Donald Trump wannabe Hans Pandeya is convinced that users currently paying small amounts to sites distributing illegal copyright material are ripe to be moved over to a level distribution system. Hans had hoped to buy the The Pirate Bay’s site and domain name and simply make the switch. The Pirate Bay has been a thorn…

It was only a matter of time before the iPad started seeing spyware surface. But I, for one, sure couldn’t have guessed it’d be like this. Mobile Spy is an app (I use the term loosely – I’ll explain in a moment) that allows an individual to collect the usage data of the target device, be it an iPad, Android phone, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile device, and view it via an online account. Said James John, CEO of Retina-X, the company behind the software: “Any device that can browse the Internet or send email can lead to unauthorized activities. Before now there was no method to monitor activities of children…

Use your iPhone to monitor your baby remotely. Automatically log your baby’s activity so you gain insight into its sleeping patterns or receive instant notifications when it cries with the app playing a recording your own voice to sooth your child until you arrive. So, I’m a geek, my wife’s a geek and we’re engaged in bringing up a new generation of geeks, and that’s why we’re really pleased to have come across this really rather useful Baby Monitor and Alarm app for the iPhone. What it does? It does it all, really. It will monitor noise in the room of your sleeping child and send an SMS message…

If you’re one of those new million iPad owners then you need to know about Dropbox for iPad. This free app is the missing link if you want to use your iPad for some light business. It works with the online Dropbox service, which offers you 2.2GB of free online storage. That storage syncs with your Mac or PC’s Home directory – where all your data sits – so you get access to all your most important files from wherever you happen to be. Dropbox on the iPad/iPhone/iPod touch lets you access those files. Better, if you have the right app it lets you open and work on those files. You can open a PowerPoint presentation…