The Future of Money-Like Things
But unlike the wild west, today the rails, roads, and freight of payment flows have been flattened. A Bitcoin is inseparable from the database of its agents’ transactions since its creation. Indeed, this is the only material form a Bitcoin ever takes! It is one with its network. Similarly, American Express loyalty points are of a piece with the network that carries them. Because of this, Bitcoin and AmEx points have a kind of non-interoperability. They are systems unto themselves that require still other systems—exchanges—in order to work with other payment systems. This points toward a future of closed payment communities linked by new gateways, new toll-takers. In other words, new infrastructures, sitting alongside the old. Coin will depend on magnetic stripe readers and the existing card networks; what will new payments depend on? The same infrastructures, or new ones? Like the old postal service, will there be common carriers for the internet of money-things? Ultimately, this is not just a technical question, but a political one.
See the full story here: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/future-payment-systems/370902/?curator=MediaREDEF
On the Future of MetaFilter
Peak ads, MetaFilter’s Google Problems, and the need to scale back..
While MetaFilter is relatively small (only about 62,000 have paid the one-time $5 for an account to date and 12,000-15,000 of those members come back to interact with the site every day), we have a great group of members, and I think we consistently have some of the best discussion on the web, with the sites attracting over 80 million readers last year. Our commenters are literate and thoughtful, and our site is watched around the clock by a staff of moderators. Despite the site’s modest stature its influence makes waves in the larger world (like mentions on popular TV shows: Tremé andMythbusters).
Unfortunately in the last couple years we have seen our Google ranking fall precipitously for unexplained reasons, and the corresponding drop in ad revenue means that the future of the site has come into question.
See the full story here: https://medium.com/technology-musings/941d15ec96f0?curator=MediaREDEF
Samsung is making a VR headset for its phones and tablets
First things first, what are we talking about here specifically? A peripheral. We're talking about a virtual reality headset -- along the lines of Oculus Rift, but more akin to the Android-powered GameFace Labs prototype (seen below) -- created by Samsung, powered by Samsung products. This is not the rumored "Galaxy Glass" project.
We're told it has an OLED screen, as good or better than in the second Rift dev kit; it's not clear how the headset connects to your phone/tablet, but we're guessing it's a wired connection rather than wireless. Given VR's reliance on immediacy, a wired setup is a requirement (any lag introduced breaks the immersion, and often makes people sick). It's also not clear how, or if, Samsung's VR headset tracks head movement depth-wise. In the case of both Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift, separate cameras face the player and track depth by reading sensors on the respective headsets.
Beyond beating the competition to market, Samsung's said to be targeting a lower price tier with its headset. Don't expect anything too low -- we're still talking about a VR headset -- but the idea again is to undercut Oculus and Sony. Unlike Galaxy Gear smartwatches, we're told that Samsung's in-house OS, Tizen, doesn't play a part in the VR headset.
This is a device meant for use with games. What type of games? Android games! Sure, but which ones? That's certainly the question.
See the full story here: http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/22/samsung-vr-headset/
A Smart Watch Controlled by Twists, Tilts, and Clicks
A project at Carnegie Mellon University suggests a better way to control these new gadgets: allowing users to physically tilt, click, and twist the watch’s bezel, the area around the screen. This could make it much easier to do things like set up appointments, play music, or navigate a map on the tiny display.
“It’s not that these watches aren’t fast enough or even have enough battery life—it’s that we can’t get the input and output good enough,” says Chris Harrison, an assistant professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, who worked on the project with several colleagues.
The group built a prototype device and presented a paper detailing it at the recent ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Toronto.
Sony Releases 4K Media Player; 1 TB player available for pre-ordering
Sony has announced the pricing and availability of its 4K Ultra HD Media Player, compatible with any Sony 4K Ultra HD TV or 4K Ultra HD projector.See the original post here http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/sony-releases-k-media-player/270472
Business Adapts to a New Style of Computer
...as ordinary products become connected, their manufacturers may enter information businesses whose economics are alien to them. It’s one thing to manufacture shoes, but what about a shoe that communicates? Products could turn out to be valuable mainly as the basis for new services. “You might find the data is more valuable than the shoe,” says Van Alstyne.