London Underground's mobile plans hit buffers

Plans to offer mobile phone coverage on the London Underground have been derailed because of high costs.
Talks between Chinese telecoms provider Huawei and the UK's operators have broken down.

They had agreed to examine the idea of getting coverage on the tube in time for the London 2012 Olympics.

But putting antennas throughout the Tube's antiquated network have proved too costly.

"As a group we will continue to positively explore all other avenues available to us in order to provide a service at a later date," they said in a joint statement.

Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere and Three are believed to have already spent several million pounds on the project.

Huawei had offered to donate some of the necessary equipment.

"We are grateful to the companies who explored the possibility of getting full mobile coverage on the Tube, although disappointed that the genuine problems encountered could not be overcome on this occasion," a statement from the Mayor of London said.

Plans to expand wi-fi coverage on Tube stations will continue.

Kinect Breaks Guinness Record, Sells 10 Million Systems, Tops iPhone and iPad

It looks like Kinect's officially a record-setter, grabbing Guinness' attention long enough to snag the title 'fastest selling consumer electronics device'. According to Microsoft, their controller-free Xbox 360 motion-sensing camera has sold a whopping 10 million units since it launched in early November last year.

Read that again: 10 million units. We're talking iPhone- and iPad-beating launch (and comparable sustained) sales here.

To be clear, that's units sold, not sold-through. The distinction's ever-important, since it refers to Kinect sensors shipped to stores by Microsoft, but not necessarily plucked off store shelves by customers. The numbers are probably close, though, and I'm told Kinect sales through the holidays were pretty close to the company's undisclosed sell-through figures.

Guinness's independent hand adds serious oomph to the press statement. The records-keeper notes Kinect sold through an average of 133,333 units per day (since November 4) and rallied an astonishing 8 million units during its initial two months on sale, through the holidays.

Let's get Guinness on the record. Gaz Deaves, Editor of the Guinness World Records 2011 Gamer's Edition, writes "The sales figures here speak for themselves" and confirms that "no other consumer electronics device sold faster within a 60-day time span," calling it "an incredible achievement considering the strength of the sector." By "strength" he means the downturn in overall 2010 video game revenue.

Microsoft adds that it sold more than 10 million standalone Kinect games worldwide to date. If that sounds like an odd match for units sold to you, it does me as well. It implies Microsoft's selling games and sensors at a 1:1 rate. Maybe I'm missing something, but you'd think that many Kinects sold might yield at least a 2:1 or 3:1 games-to-sensors ratio.

In any case, hats off to Microsoft for an unmitigated success. I still have mixed feelings about Kinect, but I know the company's working on tightening things up, and bringing more of the sort of games I'm into to the motion-control party soon.

Toyota to show off iQ EV prototype, put it into production next year

Toyota has been showing off an electric vehicle concept based on its iQ ultra-compact for a couple of years now, but it looks like it's finally worked up enough confidence to actually put it into production.

The first step down that road will occur at the Geneva Motor Show next month, where Toyota will show off a "near-production" prototype of its iQ EV (not necessarily the actual name), which is apparently much like its FT-EV concept, but with an improved lithium-ion battery pack that promises a range of 105 kilometers (or 65 miles) on a single charge. Assuming all goes as planned, the car will then be put into production following some additional testing later this year, and Toyota will reportedly begin leasing it to consumers at some point in 2012 -- Europe seems to be first in line for the car, but it will apparently be headed to North America as well.

iPad: Second Monitor Wirelessly (New)

DisplayLink announced an $1.99 application today that turns an iPad into a second monitor wirelessly connected to a Windows computer.
The application works with Windows XP, Vista, and 7 and requires an iPad with iOS 3.2 or later, the company said. It's configured with the DisplayLink software that the company offers for its primary line of business, USB-connected display technology.

"The productivity benefits of multiple displays has been proven, so leveraging the idle screen of the iPad while computing is ideal for parking and for running applications like instant messaging, e-mail, social networking, Web browsing, and other business tools to avoid constantly switching views on the laptop screen," DisplayLink said in a statement. 

That may sound like a lot of marketing fluff, but I love having a secondary monitor. Also, if you already have a DisplayLink-connected external monitor hooked in with USB, the iPad can become a third, the company added.

Magic Mirror: See Your Own Skeleton !

Another day, another Kinect hack. The Microsoft motion-control camera is fast becoming the go-to Augmented Reality accessory for the geek set. This week’s demo has a decidedly medical bent; the magic mirror project lets you see a real time view of "your" skeleton like a real-time x-ray.

The cross section isn’t actually the user’s skeleton but a volume visualization of a medical data set. Still, the corresponding programming magic is still impressive. The whole thing uses the Kinect for tracking and then has a simple mask revealing the skeleton underneath.

The project was made at the Technische Universitat Munchen in Germany as one of several Medical Augmented Reality projects as the university. Since the overlay isn’t actually of your own skeleton, it’s probably not accurate enough for, say, surgery or setting bones, but it’s not hard to imagine it being used for chiropractics a few revisions down the line or just for the basic medical education suggested on the project site. Or if you’re less interested in the advancement of medicine it can just be a pretty kicking display at your next Halloween party.
[via Wired] {Thanks: PCworld}

The Future of Displays in Video

The Open Innovation has created a video which shows the near future displays. This is not science fiction, but that which we will use in  2014. Most of the technologies shown in the video already exist in prototype form . let's see this amazing video after the jump.

Why is this video here on CoveringWeb? Recently a lot go to discredit Apple fashion , although there is a good aspect of the Cupertino company  that it is objective which is undeniable, it is the most innovative technology company in the world.

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