Future Drive Society for New Communications Research IndoorAtlas app provides navigation using earth's magnetic field Indoor navigation has long been one of the toughest problems in mobile — GPS satellites are prone to failure when users are underneath more than a few inches of roofing, and there are precious few other ways of reliably determining a device's position. But this is precisely the problem that Finnish startup IndoorAtlas claims to have solved. A spinoff from research at the University of Oulu, IndoorAtlas' upcoming app uses the built-in compass found in most modern smartphones to detect changes in the earth's natural magnetic field — the same technique used by homing pigeons. These tiny alterations correspond to the position of man-made objects such as desks and shelves, as well as a building's fundamental materials, allowing users to reliably navigate around pre-prepared floor plans without the need for GPS or other positioning systems. The company claims that its technology provides accuracy of up to 10 centimeters, easily enough to navigate in most public places.
An Introduction to Networks in the Global Village NetLab is an interdisciplinary scholarly network studying the intersection of social networks, communication networks, and computer networks. Centered at the University of Toronto, NetLab members have come from across Canada and the United States as well as from Chile, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. NetLab has developed since 2000 from an informal network of collaborators into a far-flung virtual laboratory. Where to find NetLab: NetLab43.665016, -79.399325NetLabUniversity of TorontoiSchool140 St. Publications Mobile Marketing Shifts From Content To Consumer 06/13 Mobile marketers are increasingly targeting ads by audience rather than content, leveraging consumers’ “real world actions” to send them ads relevant to time and place, according to mobile ad network Millennial Media. The ability to use location and other data to serve people ads based on where they are and what they doing in the physical world has long been the promise of mobile advertising. Marcus Startzel, Millennnial Media general manager, North America, emphasized the growing shift to audience buying from contextual advertising in mobile during a presentation Tuesday at the Mobile Marketing Association conference in New York. As one example, he cited the ability to target a car ad to a mobile user after that person left an auto dealer’s lot. “Observed real-world behavior. Instead of serving the right ad in the right place at the right time, Startzel talked about finding “the right customer in the right place at the right time.”
NPR’s new guidelines for using social networks: ‘Respect their cultures’ NPR today gave its journalists new ethics guidelines that include a refreshing set of social media policies other news organizations should take as a blueprint. The Ethics Handbook thoroughly covers important standards like accuracy, fairness, honesty, impartiality and transparency in the course of 72 (!) pages. To save you some time, I’ve summarized the social media-related points. What impresses me most about NPR’s policy is that it doesn’t treat the Internet as a land of savages to be colonized and civilized. To get the most out of social media we need to understand those communities. Here are seven additional key ways NPR gets it right. Favor judgment over speed In a breaking news situation, NPR advises: Few in our audience will know or care which news organization was first to report a breaking news story. Don’t let your guard down “Everything you say or do in a social media environment is effectively a public statement from an NPR journalist,” the ethics guidelines caution.
Google Now revisited: One month with Android's new secret weapon One of the most interesting features in Google's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release is one you might not even notice right away. It's called Google Now, and it's poised to show off the power of what a Google-made platform can do. Google Now uses a combination of search data from your Google account and location data from your Android device to compile info you need, when you need it. It shows up sporadically during the day to pass along a nugget of news or shot of information that's relevant to your life in that very moment. Sound futuristic? Google Now: An exciting addition When I first reviewed Jelly Bean, I avoided going into too much detail about Google Now; since the service is based on ongoing usage and patterns, I wanted to give it a fair amount of time to integrate with my life before passing any judgment. Having now used Android 4.1 for a full month, I feel confident in saying Google Now is one of Jelly Bean's most exciting additions. Not too shabby. Google Now: Beyond the basics
How to organize & promote your news organization’s social networks Social networks present new tools for exchanging information with your audience. But how can you help your audience know where to find you? Rather than rely on search, many news organizations are now using public directories to list their social media accounts. It’s a must-have if your news organization is going social (and it should be). Kurt Kloeblen, managing Web editor at KCTV5 in Kansas City, told me via e-mail that the process of assembling the station’s directory has been beneficial for social media growth, but also requires regular attention. “The hardest part about that is adding the new people as they come,” Kloeblen said. Kloeblen is right. Below the widgets, you get more details, such as A-Z Twitter accounts and instructions on how to follow the Tribune’s lists. The New York Times takes a slightly different approach, with separate URLs for Twitter and Facebook. Publicizing your directory can help users find it — and know that it exists.
Should All Ad Impressions on Mobile Devices Really Count as ‘Mobile?’ Every year seems to be the year of mobile. Well, it may just finally be here! Looking at all the trends, there is no doubt mobile is hot. My life is now almost entirely mobile — PC, laptop, iPad, phone, TV, music; all connected via Wifi most of the time. But there’s a question that few people are asking in regards to mobile advertising: “Does an impression on my iPad connected to my home wifi really count as a ‘mobile impression?’ A “mobile impression” is very different than an impression on a mobile device, and we simply cannot apply the term “mobile” to everything. To further confuse the mobile ecosystem, cookies don’t work. A lot of the mobile advertising talk centers around Location Based Services (LBS). With all the confusion surrounding the mobile ecosystem marketers are increasingly turning to IP data and the main proxy for targeting across mobile devices. Mike Blacker is VP of advertising sales and business development for Neustar’s IP Intelligent online advertising solutions.
NPR Ethics Handbook | How to apply our standards to our journalism. Optimizing Digital Photo Enlargment Digital photo enlargement to several times its original 300 PPI size, while still retaining sharp detail, is perhaps the ultimate goal of many interpolation algorithms. Despite this common aim, enlargement results can vary significantly depending on the resize software, sharpening and interpolation algorithm implemented. The problem arises because unlike film, digital cameras store their detail in a discrete unit: the pixel. Any attempt to magnify an image also enlarges these pixels — unless some type of image interpolation is performed. Move your mouse over the image to the right to see how even standard interpolation can improve the blocky, pixelated appearance. Before proceeding with this tutorial, know that there is no magic solution; the best optimization is to start with the highest quality image possible. Recall that all non-adaptive interpolation algorithms always face a trade-off between three artifacts: aliasing, blurring and edge halos. HARDWARE vs.
Notebook Processors The Intel Core 2 Duo class of processors is the successor to the Core Duo with longer pipelines, 64 Bit support, a fourth decoder, an amplified SSE-unit and an additional arithmetical logical unit (ALU). Because of these improvements, the Core 2 Duo CPUs should be 5-20% faster than a similarly clocked Core Duo. As the name suggests, the Core 2 Duo lineup consists of CPUs with 2 cores. Depending on the mode, the CPU features 2, 3, 4 or 6 MB Level 2 Cache (2 and 4 for Merom CPUs, 3 and 6 for Penryn). Every model features eX Bit (Execute Disable Bit) technology, SSSE3 (SSE4), and Enhanced Speedstep support. The mobile Core 2 Duo is identical to the desktop Core 2 Duo processors, but with reduced core voltage (e.g., 0.95 V vs. 1.188 V) and slower FSB to save power. The Core 2 Duo lineup was presented in July 2006 with the Merom core and was produced in 65nm for the Socket P and Socket M. In 2008, Penryn and the Penryn refresh cores were introduced in 45nm. X ...