Tourists Archive

  • AT&T making tourists even more annoying with free Times Square WiFi

    AT&T making tourists even more annoying with free Times Square WiFi

    Posted on May 25, 2010 | No Comments
    AT&T's master plan to relieve 3G data congestion in New York City? Give the crush of upward-facing tourists in Times Square free WiFi. AT&T will announce its first ever free outdoor WiFi hotspot later today located at the north central part of Times Square, near 7th Avenue between 45th and 47th Street. Qualifying AT&T customers with smartphones like the iPhone will automatically switch from 3G data to WiFi when in range. Great, just what Times Square needs: smartphone wielding pedestrians enticed by fast data to be even more oblivious to the pace of busy New Yorkers. If successful, AT&T will add WiFi hotspots to other high-traffic areas... and hopefully help push through tourist-lane legislation that could solve NYC's real congestion problems.

    [Photo courtesy of MarkArms]

    AT&T making tourists even more annoying with free Times Square WiFi originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Layar Launches Store for Augmented Reality Layers

    Layar Launches Store for Augmented Reality Layers

    Posted on April 29, 2010 | No Comments
    Augmented reality is being touted as the new hotness. I'm sure most of you have heard of the augmented reality browser, Layar. Basically, Layar offers a window through which to view the world, where handy hints and information are displayed over the top in real-time. The Amsterdam-based company released Layar last year for both Android and iPhone, and a number of interesting "layers" have already made their way into the application. The layers mentioned in that post were created by interested developers, but today, Layar opened up a store for selling layers.

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  • Videos: Tower robot Tsutenkaku conquers Akihabara, meets Asimo

    Videos: Tower robot Tsutenkaku conquers Akihabara, meets Asimo

    Posted on April 22, 2010 | No Comments
    Remember Tsutenkaku, "the world's biggest" robot? Tsutenkaku, basically a 170cm tall robot that looks like a city tower, recently made the journey from Osaka (where he was made and is supposed to attract tourists) from Tokyo. Needless to say, he first went to Akihabara, Tokyo's robot geek paradise, and while he was there, Tsutenkaku met Honda's famous humanoid Asimo, too. Tsutenkaku looks weird on pictures, but he's actually much, much weirder on video.

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  • CatholicTV launches 3D programming. Yes, you read that correctly.

    CatholicTV launches 3D programming. Yes, you read that correctly.

    Posted on March 24, 2010 | No Comments
    Paul would have been so jealous right now. Massachusetts-based CatholicTV has launched 3D programming on its Web site, and plans to launch a proper 3D TV network, à la ESPN 3D, shortly. Take me now, O Lord!

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  • One man against a Juggernaut

    One man against a Juggernaut

    Posted on February 22, 2010 | No Comments
    Be brave, seller of iPod and iPod Touch accessories. Though you vend below the shadow of the Apple store in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan, your work will not be forgotten when Apple’s goons come out to beat you into the gutter and steal your wares. You will return, more powerful and more magnificent, with [...]

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  • Garmin hops on the satellite imagery bus

    Garmin hops on the satellite imagery bus

    Posted on January 19, 2010 | No Comments
    Newsflash: birds see a LOT of stuff thanks to the fact that they can fly. Garmin wants to give you the same sensation (minus the flying part) with its new “BirdsEye Satellite and Aerial Imagery” feature, “an annual subscription service that gives users the option of loading highly-detailed photo-based maps to select Garmin handheld navigators,” according to a recent press release.

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  • Toshiba works on instant voice translation software for cell phones

    Toshiba works on instant voice translation software for cell phones

    Posted on January 6, 2010 | No Comments
    It makes a lot of sense, but it seems to be hard to realize: Using the cell phone for instant voice translation of basic sentences whenever you're in a foreign country. But Toshiba is one of the companies working on this, and apparently they're almost ready to offer a decent solution. Their translation software, in its current iteration, enables cell phones to interpret between English, Chinese and Japanese. Toshiba says that the database, used on their TG01 "smartphone" (pictured on the left), for example, boasts a database of 30,000 words spoken in each of these languages. Toshiba optimized existing PC software for use in cell phones, which obviously have less processing power.

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  • Giant Gundam statue to make a comeback next year

    Giant Gundam statue to make a comeback next year

    Posted on December 23, 2009 | No Comments
    He'll be back: The awesome 1/1 scale Gundam statue that was erected on Tokyo's artificial island Odaiba in June and that was deconstructed in September this year, will be seen again in its full glory. We reported several times about the statue, which stands 60 feet tall and shows some cool special effects (see video below).

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  • Digital Contents Expo Tokyo: Giant squid robot Ikabo (video)

    Digital Contents Expo Tokyo: Giant squid robot Ikabo (video)

    Posted on October 28, 2009 | No Comments
    The Future University (cool name) in Hakodate, Northern Japan, presented the Ikabo, a giant squid robot at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo (that ended on Sunday). Not only is the robot tall (2.2m), cute and pretty heavy (weight: 200kg), but it also mimics your hand movements via Wii motion controllers.

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  • Take a virtual trip on a Russian sub

    Take a virtual trip on a Russian sub

    Posted on August 6, 2009 | No Comments
    EnglishRussia has a fantastic photo set showing the inards of a Russian sub. I burned a good amount of time pursuing the set. The sub is a B-413 that once was part of the Soviet Northern Fleet, but is now hosting tourists at the Museum of World Ocean in Kalinigrad. Supposably, the interior is just as it [...]

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