When Neil Armstrong pressed the first bootprint into the Sea of Tranquility, most of humanity watched the televised low-res blob and felt pride welling up in their chests. But a few watchers felt something entirely different—an unconfirmed, squinty-eyed skepticism that something about the whole deal smelled fishy. How could the United States, which could barely put a chimp into space in 1961, get two full-grown men on the surface of the moon eight years later? How could anyone confirm that men actually made it to the moon? And, how, exactly, had that $25 billion Apollo budget been spent?
Hoaxers do a diservice to the sicentific community. If 8 years was too short a time to go from toy satelite to manned launch, then we could debate that we are still in caves pretending to live in large complex cities! Guess where China is going in about the same time?
When MIT professor Hal Abelson heard that Google was about to release the software-development kit for its free, open-source Android mobile-phone operating system, he immediately decided to teach a class that would design programs for it. “Android is about to change people’s experience of what they can do with computers,” he says, because the computers in our cellphones will soon be the ones we use the most. These seven applications, developed by students in Abelson’s class, show what Android-equipped phones will be able to do.
I think the all map related applications should work like this: 1. Load map by GPS location or address & navigate map. 2. Touch building and do any of the following: 2.1 Get phone number and call the business. 2.2 Do any of the following without making phone call, per business type: a. Get Reservations b. Get Tickets c. Purchase any service or goods at that location d. Make appointment Why phone numbers when you can connect directly?
Want a new cellphone? Just press a button. What looks like painted artwork on the Hitachi W61H phone is actually a new E-Ink screen. Unlike LCDs that add bulk to a device, manufacturers can add these screens—just twice the thickness of a hair—as if they were stickers.
Make it large enough. Add color to the technology. Stick it on my car and I can change the color of my car every day. The potential is endless.
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