June 1st, 2009

Computers and the Internet have pervaded the society that people in the United States today who do not even have street addresses feel it necessary to have Internet addresses.

For that reason, New York City has installed 42 computers in five of the nine shelters that it operates and plans to wire the other four this year. Roughly half of another 190 shelters in the city offer computer access.

A  non-profit group which is based in San Francisco, Central City Hospitality House, estimates that half the visitors to its new eight-computer drop-in center are homeless, demand for computer time is so great that users are limited to 30 minutes.

Shelter attendants say that the number of laptop-toting overnight visitors is increasing today though the hike is small. SF Homeless, a two-year-old Internet forum, has 140 members. It posts schedules for public-housing meetings and news from similar groups in New Mexico, Arizona and Connecticut, and has a blog with online polls about shelter life.

Low-price computers and free Internet access have triggered the trend, and so has the increasingly computer-savvy population. Many job and housing applications must be submitted online. Some homeless advocates say the economic downturn is pushing more of the wired middle class on to the streets.

A young computer programmer said his Macintosh PowerBook has been a survival kit since he was laid off from his job as a hotel clerk in December and moved to a shelter. Sitting in a Whole Foods store with free wireless access, he searches for work and writes a computer program he hopes to sell eventually. He has emailed city officials to press for better shelter conditions.

But staying wired on the streets takes determination because electricity and Internet access can be hard to come by, while threats including rain and theft have remained a problem.

Yet, a 49 year-old meticulous man who lost his apartment in December has carried his Asus netbook everywhere since then. He quit a security-guard job late last year and spends some of his US$59 monthly welfare check on haircuts,but he could not find another amid the economic crisis today.

Aware that he would be homeless,the man bought a strong backpack to store his gear, a security device for his footlocker at the shelter and a US$25 annual premium Flickr account to display the digital photos he takes.

One day in the morning, he sat in a cafe that sometimes lets customers tap its wireless connection, and shows off his personal home page that features links for Chinese-language lessons.

He said his computer helps him feel more connected and human. “It’s frightening to be homeless, but when I’m on here, I’m equal to everybody else,” he put it.

Sling Media is offering cable and satellite companies a facility for getting television to various kinds of mobile gadgets equipment with no need to develop specific video services for each of the mobile gadgets set.

Sling has launched an application for the Apple iPhone recently, at price of  US$29.99 despite claim from AT&T that it work only over WiFi and not over the carrier’s 3G network. AT&T said it worried that Sling’s streaming video could hog its bandwidth and lead to dropped calls.

In 2007, Sling was acquired by satellite TV firm EchoStar which then split the company into two public firms namely consumer TV business Dish Networks and Echostar Corporation, which is owner of Sling and is wholly devoted to developing and licensing digital equipment for the television industry.

Under this new owner, Sling is expected to become more important, but the question today is whether EchoStar’s stewardship will propel Sling into most American homes, or just relegate it to the wayside on the road to convergence of TV and the Internet.

The idea of licensing Sling, even if they covet the gadgets technology, might feel a little like climbing into bed with a fierce competitor. But it seems that Echostar understands the sentiment. Probably the biggest obstacle in this business is the politics of common ownership, so the future of Sling and its Internet vision is likely to depend on the issue.

Sony Ericsson’s has packed the new Satio mobile phone with 12.1 megapixel camera features intuitive touch focus, Xenon flash and and face and smile detection. It has a crystal clear 16:9 3.5-inch widescreen(640 x 350) and using Symbian operating system.

The new Satio mobile phone using the MicroSD expansion slot, while the features include TV out, WiFi, on-screen QWERTY keyboard, A-GPS dual-band HSPA. More about Peress release and new Satio mobile phone images.

Peress Release:

Visual communication like never before with the Sony Ericsson Satio

Get the ultimate multimedia experience with Satio. Feast your eyes on movies, TV-series’ and video clips thanks to the 3.5 inch screen and crystal clear 16:9 widescreen format – just like watching them live. A friend pulling a funny pose? Snap them with the amazing 12.1 megapixel camera and share the picture with friends.

London, UK – May 28, 2009 – Sony Ericsson today announced Satio which provides you access to all your media in one place – just tap directly into your favourite features with the five standby panels and you’re ready to go.  First introduced in Barcelona as the ‘Idou’, Satio puts the future of mobile entertainment in the palm of your hand. You can watch your favourite movies on the bus or catch up with your TV shows while on your lunch break thanks to Satio.

“With Satio you can enjoy any form of entertainment anytime, anywhere. Whether its music or movies you will never be more than a tap away from your favourite tracks or shows,” said Fredrik Mansson, Market Business Manager at Sony Ericsson.  “Just tap directly into your favourite videos and music with the unique full touch media menu, standby panels and music player.  Snapping perfect pictures also just got so simple thanks to the 12.1 megapixel camera, intuitive touch focus and Xenon flash.  Share them with your nearest and dearest via your social networking site, produce huge prints and you can even comment directly on your images.”

Download exciting music, movies and games from PlayNow™ arena to personalise your entertainment experience on Satio and enjoy them in crystal clear 16:9 widescreen format.  PlayNow™ arena provides a full range of mobile entertainment available by dual download to both your PC and mobile phone with specially developed ring tones and music tones and DRM-free music tracks and TrackID™ charts from around the world.

Those who like making artistic illustrations can now use four apps for creating such illustrations as artist Jorge Columbo drew it on an iPhone by using an app called Brushes that appeared as a cover illustration of the New Yorker.

But this app which costs US$4.99 requires some artistic skill and familiarity with digital paint or illustration programs, so we can turn to the other three apps that will enable us to use an existing photo as the basis for an artistic illustration.

Artist’s Touch is sutiable to an untrained and unskilled and even untalented artist. The US$2.99-app offers various tools such as virtual bushes, pencils and others to apply to your photos. It also has several paper and canvas textures and saves a larger finished image than the others.

The basic technique with Artist’s Touch, as with most of the programs, is to start by selecting a big brush. Rubbing your finger over the photo applies the brush to the picture and obscures details so you have a blobby mess. Besides, we can now go back with smaller brushes and rub over the areas where you want more detail, and the details reappear.

Gesture has fewer tools than Artist’s Touch but its ability to zoom in, so that I could work on smaller sections in finer detail, produced a pleasing result. The $4.99 app also has an automatic pointilize feature that will instantly make scenic photos look painterly.

Impressionist, the 99-cent app, failed to turn us into Monet. It took a long time and a lot of tedious finger-swiping for an end result that will not make Mary Cassatt fear for her standing.

The free app Oil Canvas did a tad better, although the digital globs made the dog in the photo look more like a cottage cheese sculpture than a painting. It worked better on a shot of flowers with sharply contrasting colors.