ForcaTech Blog

As if society wasn’t lazy enough Hasbro has announced that they will be releasing new varieties of classic board games with an electronic tower that is going to run the game.

The tower will manage aspects of the game such as dice rolls, rent, cash flow, etc. The tower “bathes the board in infrared light, and a camera can see reflectors placed on each game piece.”  The days of dealing out paper money and a banker are gone apparently. Paper money is being replaced by a plastic money card that is automatically reloaded by the tower when you pass go, collect rent from another player, etc.

Monopoly Live will be available this fall for around $50. You can still pick up the classic for around $15 if you are terrified about Sauron’s tower being able to watch your every move don’t want to drop the cash for the electronic version. But just think of all you will be missing. As one of the games designers, Leif Askeland said “The tower never makes a mistake”.

That is probably what this fellow in The-Middle-Of-No-Where, Chad, Africa thought as he looked up to the sky just as the Google Satellites took a snap shot of him. And with good reason apparently. This is one of the areas of the world that allow you to super zoom in with Google Maps. To see this location for yourself visit Google Maps here.

Why this location is candidate for being super zoom-in-able I have no idea. Not very interesting if you ask me.

This reminds me of a video I saw of a picture taken by satellite. It started as a picture of the whole globe and slowly zoomed in to the US, then to a State, then to a City, then to a street, then to a bus and then into the bus so close that you could read the heading of the newspaper a man was reading.

Does anyone know where I can find this video? If I ever find it then it will be up here.

I am not going to comment one way or another.

I am trying to keep this blog strictly tech related but we here at Forca may have enjoyed this video a little too much not to share.

It is true. Gregory McKenna has filed suit against Apple claiming that they are in cahoots with the Mafia in an effort to force him to return to a New York based modeling agency that he left in 2000.

In his 124-page claim he tries to help us see how the iPod shuffle he bought on ebay in 2005 and an ipod mini he bought in an Apple store in 2006 have receivers in them that allow the Mafia to play audio death threats in sync with his music.

Of course this lawsuit–seeking $14.3 million–that incriminates a local mechanic, a private investigator, the St. Louis Police Department, the FBI, and the US Department of Justice is sure to never go through. Even as I am writing this the Mafia has probably already pumping audio files out to Gregory’s iPods telling him that if he doesn’t retract the lawsuit he will be “dealt with”.

Back in 2005 GrandCentral was started as a solution for people who have several numbers by giving you one main phone number. When someone called your GrandCentral number all of the other phones that you had would ring.

Now, Google has bought them out and added lots of new features. Here are some of the great features of having Google Voice.

When you sign up(get an invite) for Google Voice you get to choose one free number to use as your main number.

You can sync your google contacts(from your gmail, etc) and change ringing and voicemail rules for each individual contact. For example if you were tired of Ted calling you every morning at 6am to go to the gym then you can set it up so that when he calls you it goes straight to your voicemail instead of ringing your phone first. Or you can record him a special message pretending to be Pizza Hut or telling him to never call you again or else he will come back from the gym and find a pile of ash where his house used to be. I don’t think I will ever have the time to go in and record custom voicemail messages for every–or even several–of the contacts in my contact directory but having the ability to do so is cool!

Another feature that is potentially annoying cool is call screening. You can require people who call you to leave their name first so you can decide if you want to listen or not. If you don’t remember who Hammond is then you can wait for him to begin leaving a voicemail and listen in as he leaves the message and cut in and begin talking to him if you would like.

If not wait for him to leave the voicemail which you can later access and listen to online.

A big feature that Google has introduced is the voicemail to text. You can receive your voicemails in text format now via email or text message so you don’t even have to listen to the message to see what your arch nemesis friend said.

You can also set your text messages up to be recorded and sent online. That way in case you accidentally deleted an important text you can go online and find it. Or if you accidentally drop your phone in the toilet sink again you will still be able to send out that important text message.

When someone calls any of your phone numbers you have complete control over which phones they ring, how they ring, if it goes straight to voicemail, if it goes to voicemail but they hear it ringing on their phone as well as which voicemail it goes to.

If you have one main phone number that you give to everyone you can have it ring your cell if it is your friend, ring someone elses cell if it isn’t, ring your home phone only between 4pm and 7pm, etc.

The best part is this is all free. The only thing you will have to pay for is additional phone numbers and international calls(a few cents per minute to most places).

One problem is your outgoing caller ID is still going to show your cell phone number. Google is putting together a work around but for the time being if you have a Android phone or Blackberry(iPhone app is in the works) you are in luck. You can download a Google Voice app that allows you to dial through your Google Voice number.

I have also heard of a rumor that IF YOU ARE USING THE PHONE APPLICATION(currently only available on Blackberry and Android phones) you can get unlimited free phone calls with those phone carriers that allow you to choose your “inner circle” of friends or family that are always free. T-mobile and Verizon are two companies like this. Add Google’s phone number to your “in” group and then always use your Google Voice number to receive and make phone calls.

Now there are several reasons why I see this not working. One, even if Google Voice is just a simple forward more than likely Google Voice won’t just use one phone number to use to access your phone. Two, T-mobile and Verizon have blacklists of phone numbers that can’t be in your inner circle for this very reason. If they haven’t already I am sure it is only a matter of time before they will add Googles block of numbers to that blacklist. Finally, even when you are talking to the people in your “in” group your minutes still add up. If you are on a 700 minute plan and make 700 minutes worth of  “in” phone calls you are now out of free minutes to use to call other people. If you make 700 minutes of calls to non-free numbers then start calling your in group you will be fine.

On the other hand if some how the Google service is on the trunk level then it may not even be viewed as a call by your provider and you have yourself a big win of free minutes.

Once again I have to say it. This is just one step closer to Google’s total world domination.

More information has come out about the motion sensing response to Nintendo’s Wii from Microsoft. Gates himself has let is slip that Microsoft is serious about Natal and that they may be planning to use it in more than just video games:

‘[The concept also works] for media consumption as a whole, and even if they connect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication…I think the value is as great for if you’re in the home, as you want to manage your movies, music, home system type stuff, it’s very cool there.’

Since the device is able to detect movement, distance and audio of multiple people it opens the door for all kinds of fun functionality at home and at the office. Not to mention the limitless power that Microsoft will have once they have a camera hidden in every home. You think you can use Windows illegally?!? Not now that we can see you! Now facial recognition will be required to activate Windows instead of your serial key.

On a lighter note, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO has confirmed that we will be seeing natal next year and in the same speech said:

‘The new device will be equipped with technology that is “really, really, close” to an actuality. The console, which was described as having a “natural interface,” will have a built in camera with the ability to recognize movement and voice.’

So will we be getting a new console as well next year? We think not. After this statement Microsoft responded by saying:

‘As the Xbox team stated at E3 two weeks ago, we are not even halfway through the current console generation lifecycle and believe Xbox 360 will be the entertainment center in the home for long into the next decade. Project Natal will be an important part of this platform, but we have not confirmed a launch date at this time.’

We got to see the scripted videos from the Xbox website as well as the live footage but this was cool to see people who didn’t know the system have the ability to jump in there and play it. Given it is a little buggy now but they have until next year to work out all the kinks.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post about the features of Firefox 3.5 some browsers–Chrome 2.0+ and Firefox 3.5+ to be exact–now have location based services available using the W3C Geolocation API.  If you are using one of these browsers and go to Google Maps you will notice a new little box with a circle inside.

This–theoretically–allows Google Maps to locate your position. Location based services like this have been more or less a fad in the past and none have really caught on save location based cell phone applications.  Only time will tell for this one.

My experience with location based Google Maps has been less than ok. When I clicked the button, told Firefox  to allow Google Maps to access my location–and remember my settings–I was told I was about 60 miles off of where I really was.

Come on location based services! You can do better than that. Its not like I am in the sticks on a poor connection either. I am in a decent sized city on a fiber internet connection and that was the best they could do.

I’m not complaining really. The less “they” can find out about us the longer we can postpone the apocalypse–which is fine by me…