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All the entries posted on June 16, 2008.
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Monday, June 16, 2008
Disney’s (new) house of the future
Disneyland - along with some heavy hitting high-tech partners - opens up to the public its Innoventions Dream House in Anaheim, Calif. today, showing off what they think our houses might be like in the future. Disney let the press take a sneak peek on Monday.
If have a 100-inch TV in the living room, a Microsoft Surface computer for my dining room table and digital picture frames that change with my mood, I’ll be pretty happy.
The mirror in the make-believe daughter’s room, which lets her (or as you’ll see in the video a male Disney actor) try on virtual dresses, glasses and other looks is pretty cool too.
Some of the stuff in the house is a bit over-the-top, though, like the talking, touch-sensitive computer embedded in the kitchen countertop (see video) that can even suggest recipes when you place an RFID-tagged grocery item like flour or sugar on it.
And I’m thinking that somewhere in our technological futures, there will still be iPods and Apple computers. You won’t find those in Disney’s house, though, because Apple didn’t pay - $1-million up - to be apart of the exhibit/marketing gimmick (I’m guessing they weren’t invited). Instead, just about everything in the $15-million exhibition house is based on Microsoft Windows.
Along with Microsoft, other partners in the house are Hewlett-Packard, home automator Life/Ware and builder Taylor Morrison.
Located in Disneyland’s “Tomorrowland” area, the new Innoventions house is a very updated version of the all-plastic, pod-like Monsanto House of the Future that was a Disneyland staple in the 1950s and 1960s.
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Green phones from Samsung; the Bat phone from Verizon
Samsung Electronics came out with two new phones today that are green.
No, not the color. These phones are environmentally friendly, or so the company says.
The W510 is made from corn-based plastic. No heavy metals were used in the handset. Using corn-based plastic has been around in lighter products such as plastic bags and water bottles but now cell-phone companies are making heavier items from it.
The second phone, the F268, is also corn-based. But its accessories contain no polyvinyl chloride or brominated flame retardant, chemicals thought to harm the environment.
Unfortunately, both are being released in Asia first.
Holy Flip Phone, Batman. Verizon Wireless and Nokia are teaming up to offer a Batman-themed edition for its Nokia 6025 in advance of the release of The Dark Knight. It’s a black flip phone with a Batman emblem and comes preloaded with wallpaper, voice tones, animated screen savers inspired by the film as well as a movie trailer.