On Technology

iPhone Ocarina

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When you hear the word “oca­ri­na”, what do you think of? Well, for me, the first thing that came to mind is The Leg­end of Zel­da. Though I haven’t played the 1999 Game of the Year, I still hear that mem­o­rable tune/soundtrack play­ing in my head when I think of Zel­da.

Upon hear­ing that some­one made an appli­ca­tion for it on the iPhone, I just had to go see it. The appli­ca­tion is called Oca­ri­na.

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Brightkite iPhone App

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Brightkite recent­ly announced it’s iPhone App com­ing to the iTunes App Store soon. Here’s the video demo of the appli­ca­tion:

I have been using Brightkite along with Twit­ter for cou­ple of months now since James has invit­ed me to the ser­vice. It’s a darn impres­sive social net­work­ing appli­ca­tion that uses Yahoo’s Fire Eagle which allows users to man­age their loca­tion.

The fea­tures that are planned for the Brightkite iPhone app are:

  • Auto geo-loca­tion includ­ing Place Snap­ping and Pick a Place
  • Noti­fi­ca­tions (near­by friends, posts, friend requests, com­ments & men­tions)
  • Post­ing pho­tos and notes to loca­tions
  • Near­by peo­ple and activ­i­ty feed
  • Friends lists and activ­i­ty feed
  • Peo­ple, places and posts search
  • Thread­ed mes­sag­ing
  • Pro­file streams
  • Place steams
  • Place­marks
  • Com­ment­ing on posts

The only draw­backs that I cur­rent­ly forsee are the fol­low­ing (at least w/ Brightkite.com web app):

  • You must have the dis­ci­pline to “check in” to your cur­rent loca­tion. I’m hop­ing the “auto geo-loca­tion” can address this with no sweat.
  • Some­times, the sync­ing between Brightkite and Twit­ter does not work. I think this is more on Twit­ter’s end (from what I heard fol­low­ing @brightkite).
  • There were a cou­ple of times an emailed pho­to would appear late (2‑hours late one-time) from the time it was tak­en.

All in all, it’s a great ser­vice. I can’t wait to use that iPhone app vs. going to Safari every time to check-in. I just hope the sync­ing (Brightkite to Twit­ter) get’s pol­ished.

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Adobe Creative Suite 4 Released Today

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It’s out! Anoth­er land­mark day in the Cre­ative world. Adobe Cre­ative Suite 4 is ship­ping and in-stores ear­ly this morn­ing. Adobe also announced that for a lim­it­ed time, own­ers of: CS2, CS1, Macro­me­dia Stu­dio 8, Stu­dio MX 2004, or Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio will qual­i­fy for up to $200 on eli­gi­ble upgrades to CS4. This spe­cial offer will last till Feb­ru­ary 28, 20091.

You may order CS4 via Ama­zon by click­ing the one that is appro­pri­ate for your line of work:

  1. Upgrade to an Adobe Cre­ative Suite 4 Design, Web, or Pro­duc­tion Pre­mi­um edi­tion from an ear­li­er ver­sion of Adobe Cre­ative Suite, Adobe Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio, or Macro­me­dia Stu­dio soft­ware and save up to US$200 off the reg­u­lar upgrade price. Offer valid on Cre­ative Suite 1 or 2, Adobe Pro­duc­tion Stu­dio, Macro­me­dia Stu­dio 8, or Stu­dio MX 2004 Pro­fes­sion­al. Offer ends Feb­ru­ary 28, 2009. Prices are in U.S. dol­lars. All prices are avail­able from the Adobe.com store and by call­ing 800–585-0774 and are valid in the U.S. and Cana­da only. Applic­a­ble local sales tax­es and ship­ping charges may apply. Allow 2–3 weeks for soft­ware deliv­ery. Offer sub­ject to change or with­draw­al with­out notice. Void where pro­hib­it­ed. [↩]

Apple Releases New MacBooks

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If you don’t know already, Apple has just announced its new line of Mac­Books1 ear­li­er at 10 this morn­ing in Cuper­ti­no. Today’s line is a com­plete­ly new build from the ground-up, start­ing with its “uni­body” approach.

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  1. Mac­Book, Mac­Book Pro, and Mac­Book Air [↩]

18 Year Old Invents SMS-Based Car Anti-Theft System

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Rock­et­boom Field Cor­re­spon­dent Ruud Elmen­dorp speaks with Mor­ris Mbet­sa, the 18 year old inven­tor of a sys­tem that allows you to mon­i­tor your car via SMS.

YouTube Preview Image

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