Apple filed a patent last week for a “fully fledged digital liefestyle fitness companion” reports Apple Insider (via Zeus Jones). I must admit being a regular(ish) user of Nike Plus I’ve always thought a heart rate monitor would be great (being an old fart and all). I’m not sure what some of the other monitors are about – anyone know? The patent seemed to utilise some of the existing Nike Plus graphics, but apparently is submitted entirely by Apple.
First the Wii inspired a bunch of folk to get off the couch and get active with gaming. PS2 and Singstar realised this yonks ago. My eight year old desperately wants Guitar Hero… now gaming with GPS enabled phones gets kids outdoors again. UK-based LocoMatrix has developed a number of location-based games kids can play outdoors using their GPS-enabled mobile phones. Judging from some of the feedback on the site this is seriously good fun (the kids target is obviously a psychographic one too).
Tip o’ the hat to Springwise
Sales of home PCs in Japan are declining, in what potentially may be reflected in other key markets in coming years.
Full details from The Age.
In summary:
With phones and games consoles etc becoming ever more converged, backed with more processing grunt, the main leisure functionality of PCs (internet browsing, email, gaming, photo sharing) can be done without the aid of a PC. And as few Japanese take their work home with them (they just stay late at the office!), there is little need for having a device to run spreadsheets etc at home.
The PC market is diminishing in Japan and key makers such as NEC and Sony are considering exiting the consumer market altogether. And in order to achieve sales, the form of PCs has evolved away from the beige box to more closely resemble hi-fi equipment, or a piece of art with custom graphic designs adorning the box.
One of the most popular social networking sites is only accessible through a mobile device.
With Google’s recent announcement of their new mobile platform, Android, the PC-centric future is looking shaky in the West too…
Nintendo have launched a free mixed-reality game “Treasure Quest: Enoshima – Treasure of the Dragon,†where users travel to an island 50km south of Tokyo to begin their quest. The players use their Nintendo DS to search for clues as they travel around the 4km island. Through the DS’s wireless feature the game will know where the users are and adapt the game accordingly.
read more at pinktentacle.com
There seems to be a few real world applications for the DS popping up at the moment. As reported earlier Disney are looking in to using the DS as interactive theme park guides. Read more
One step better than Google Street View is EveryScape which allows users to actually go inside buildings. It’s a nice fusion of Google Street View and Google Local in a way – which I suppose is really the best way for a company to develop an idea better than a Google idea: put two of them together to form one mega idea.
New York City’s St.Regis Hotel has just opened a technology-driven, interactive wine bar that lets guests explore for themselves the wide variety of wines available.
Adour features built-in interactive technology from Potion Design helps patrons choose a wine by allowing them to browse Adour’s complete wine list by wine type, country and varietal. Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar’s surface.
When a visitor selects a wine, a rosette appears that contains information about the wine on its five petals. Adour’s Wine Director manages the wine list using a custom-designed content management system, and can update the interactive bar on a daily basis or for a special occasion.
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