Tag Archives: technology
Facebook on your desktop
Facebook has released a desktop application built with Adobe AIR. That means that it is platform independent (Mac, PC, Linux).
You will have to have Adobe AIR in your computer and then install the Facebook application.
Facebook also announced their Open Stream API technology. With the API now the limit is the sky and you will start seeing interaction of Facebook with unimaginable applications. For instance, I use brightkite, a sort of improved twitter with location and photos integrated. Well, now when I update my location, or I add a note or a photo in with my brighkite application in my iphone, it is published in my Facebook wall.
Facebook Desktop for AIR isn’t the only application to take advantage of the new APIs, but it is the first. It also has the benefit of being labeled an “official” application since it’s put out by the company itself. Still, many people will prefer more full-featured clients like Seesmic Desktop, for example, which also includes support for Twitter. The Seesmic folks say they’re working on a new app that will offer full Facebook Open Stream API support and it should arrive shortly.
3G portable router
This is the first 3G portable router.
LevelOne 3G MobilSpot Portable Wireless HotSpot (WBR-3800) by CP Technologies.
Putt your 3G sim card into the router’s CardBus or USB interfaces and you’ve got an instant portable network for sharing to any 802.11b/g WiFi or Ethernet device. A 10/100Mbps WAN jack lets it double as your home router with auto-switching 3G backup for those of you with particularly troublesome DSL/Cable providers. The device measures 129 x 124 x 32mm (which isn’t that small) but costs a reasonable $149.
A Mobile App That Saves Lives, Literally
Written by Jolie O’Dell (www.readwriteweb.com)
DataDyne‘s EpiSurveyor program, funded by the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation, has been implementing mobile technology to track and contain disease in developing nations since 2007.
In a recent and potentially devastating polio outbreak in Kenya, EpiSurveyor’s new mobile platform was used to track virus carriers and immunize affected children. The campaign targeted around 2 million Kenyan children. Mobile tech will be used exclusively for new nationwide initiatives in children’s healthcare, and the World Health Organization has made EpiSurveyor the standard for data collection in sub-Saharan Africa. Screenshots and video included below.
“mHealth” is a recent term for medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and other wireless devices, especially in areas where Internet access via computers is lacking. Related programs allow health officials to quickly gather and assess data regardless of location or access to more traditional resources, permitting immediate mobile response to health crises. Users can create forms, view records, and share data with others.
The EpiSurveyor program began using donated Palm Pilots to gather health data in Kenya and Zambia less than two years ago. Currently, DataDyne is migrating the program to Java-based platforms for mobile phones. Beta testing began in April 2009 with Nokia S40 series devices and will expand to support other devices in May.
There’s an interesting and rather basic tutorial video for field workers here which demonstrates some of the uses of EpiSurveyor’s data collection tools. Much more interesting is this video, an interview with an EpiSurveyor mobile developer in Kenya who had been working through the night to prepare a stack of phones for data collection in the field:
Interestingly, DataDyne’s Coded in Country (CIC) initiative puts at least 50% of the coding duties in the hands of local developers, helping to bolster both local tech communities and local economies.
Since most developing areas have far greater saturation of mobile devices than of actual computers with Internet connections, these devices are of the utmost importance for collecting, storing, retrieving, and transmitting critical and even life-saving information.
Last year, EpiSurveyor training took place in nine countries (Benin, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda). This year, Botswana, Burundi, Chad, Eritrea, Gabon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Togo will also have training programs. Overall, more than 800 health officers throughout Africa will have been trained on the EpiSurveyor program with potential to reach over hundreds of thousands of patients throughout the continent.
Datadyne founder, pediatrician and CDC epidemiologist Dr. Joel Selanikio, also recently won this year’s $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability for his contributions to public health and international development.
Blocked port when webcasting with Stickam or Ustream
This is an open question. I am trying to broadcast with Stickam and Ustream from a location that apparently has the port 1935 closed. This plus probably a private ip.
I tried and skype video goes through, but skype is clever and can go over http if necessary.
Stickam and ustream use a flash application where you select the camera and uploads the stream to their servers.
Anyone has a workaround for streaming in such conditions?
Socks proxy? Torify? Please let me know how you would do it.
I could use a middle server where I could install whatever necessary (linux).
Genius G-Shot HD520 HD cam with 720p for less than $150
Are you looking for a low end camera that records pretty good video resolution? Here you have the winner: Genius HD520. It shots 5MB stills and 720p video.
It is a high definition video camera, can output on high-resolution flat-panel TVs using the HDMI cable ; it supports high efficient MPEG4/H.264 image compression format and reduces the file size so you can easily upload clips and photos to share with friends. Other features of the G-Shot HD520 camcorder: shoot photos up to 11MP, listen to music, read E-books, voice record, and it can be a portable media player to view clips or even still images.
Brightkite
I would like to talk a bit about a very promising web application and also great iPhone application that has been out there for a while but has not been very successful in terms of people using it.
It is true that we are surrounded by Social Apps. For iPhone, web, such a facebook, twitter, amongst many others, so I guess it is not easy to get a place under all this giants.
Brightkite is a service that for the US uses SMS (not in Switzerland…) that lets you “check in” at various locations out in the real world and then see who else is there, has been there, and who is nearby. You can check in via text, web,or iPhone, but text is easiest if you’re using a traditional cell phone.
So you might think that similar tools are out there. Twitter in the iphone using apps such as Twinkle or Twitterfon already take your location, but this are add-ons for twitter.
In brightkite you can select your level of privacy so for instance your trusted friends can know exactly where you are, your friends the city where you are and the rest nothing. You decide when to “check in” your location. You can post updates in a Twitter-like fashion and upload photos to your Brightkite-enabled stream, available at a URL in the format of brightkite.com/people/username. The newly launched “Wall” feature makes Brightkite ideal for conferences and live events as it allows anyone to display the live stream of notes, photos, and checkins at any one place in a large, full screen view that can be shown on any monitor, projector, or TV. You can even link it with your facebook account.
Give it a try.
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