There’s beena lot of buzz in the past month about Google’s “open handset alliance” for cell phone development called Android. In January, there were rumors of a Google hardware answer to Apple’s iPhone. The video below features a preview of android in action.
Better still, developers like me get to add to the feature set by developing our own applications, and Google’s putting up ten million bucks for developers to get involved. I can’t wait to start digging in.
Early this year, I wrote about a pretty cool interactive search engine called Ms. Dewey. Today, I found something a little more creative, even if it is slower, with less video quality, and has no sound. Still, LivoRobot is pretty cool.
I’ve been home sick today, so I was playing for a bit and here’s some of the funny searches you should try:
George Bush – Get all presidential Linday Lohan – Dance like a wild girl maps – she uses maps apple – the ipod comes out vonage – make her chat on her cell Star Wars – the force is strong with her google – she uses binoculars to search flickr – she’ll take your picture youtube – smile for the video
The star of this new search site is MySpace hottie, April Syrup, and judging by her site, I think I’ll have to play with LivoRobot some more. After all, I’m sure there’s dozens of easter eggs to be found.
One of the smarter aspects of the site is the points. The idea is to keep you on the site, searching the night away, and it works. I’ll bet the bounce rate is next to nothing. Here’s how it works. You get points every time you search. When you get enough points, you get a bonus. The first bonus was a fan that you can use to blow her skirt up. Then came the x-ray vision magnifying glass, followed by the peeping tom keyhole and the pole dance show. I haven’t gotten any further, but I am certainly curious now.
If you want to see my gallery of screen caps, click here.
I bought a computer from Circuit City in 1994 and returned it soon after. Since then, I’ve not really shopped there much. They didn’t burn me at the time or anything, but I just found better deals, etc. at other places. Today, they actually made me decide to never go there again and to write this post about how Circuit City baited me into the store with one price on their site and had a different price by time I got there.
Black Friday is about getting Christmas presents for family and friends without breaking the bank, but it’s also a great way to fill your own needs for less. Black Friday is also about planning your shopping strategy carefully to maximize savings and minimize frustration. I had been searching for a GPS unit for my car for a few months, casually. After reading reviews and comparing features and prices on several units, I decided this morning on the TomTom One Third. Radio Shack had it for about $139, and better still, Circuit City had it for $129 online and it wasn’t in their black Friday ad, so I felt good about being able to hit all the other stores and then come back for it last.
Price at 3:30 AM
Price at 8:30 AM
After our other shopping was done, my wife and I headed to Circuit City for my TomTom. Knowing what we wanted, we asked the greeter where the TomToms were and he directed us to the back of the store, where we found a short line of people also needing warehouse items. While the price was advertised online and that unit wasn’t mentioned in the print ad, it’s still an advertised price that they changed on the biggest sale day of the year. Even the sales guys were a little confused. Two of them noted that last night they saw the price I saw. For reference, here’s the full page captures:
Product Page at 3:30 AM
Product Page at 8:30 AM
Had I not known about Radio Shack selling the same item for $139, I might have fought for the price they advertised. I also didn’t feel like giving them my money at that point, so I headed to Radio Shack, instead.
This Thanksgiving, I want to thank all my fellow MyBlogLog members who have joined the JoeTech.com community. Here they all are with links to their MyBlogLog pages. Thanks, everyone!