Ideas Maverick Blog by Preetham Venkky

Just a few days back, there was a rumour doing the rounds about Steve Ballmer (CEO, Microsoft) getting stage time at the upcoming Apple WWDC 2010. Though it was just a rumour from an unverified source, the news had hit leading technology blogs on the internet. Several news publications carried the story too.

Traditionally, under such circumstances, companies involved would issue an official company press release. But in this particular case, Microsoft decided to do it differently. Instead of issuing a press release, they decided to use PR 2.0 practices and issued a light-hearted tweet from their official Twitter account instead.

I’m going to put my money on more companies increasingly replacing their official press releases with simple responses to rumours and other web related controversies / conversations. Welcome to the new age company press release. Not only does this set the record straight, but it also expedites the process of getting the word out as quickly as possible. It also becomes a point of reference helping bloggers and news agencies get an official source. I for one, enjoyed the humour brought out in Microsoft’s tweet.

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More often than not, simple innovation comes from the most unexpected companies. Recently, Panasonic launched the world’s first digital SLR capable of interchanging lens, with a touch based movable LCD viewfinder; the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2. While there are enough reviews out there to fill your lonesome hours, I would like to highlight the benefits of such technology to the user.

• Improves interaction with the subject through the screen
• Allows you to automatically adjust the auto-focus
• Clicking just by touching the screen improves stability
• Easy browsing of stored images
• Comfortably view images in full-size

Besides the capability to click images, the Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-G2 can record HD quality video at a depth of 1280 x 720 in their proprietary ‘AVCHD Lite’ format. A dedicated video record buttons allows you to access this function almost immediately. External microphone support has been extended while the in-built microphone claims to be able to cut background and wind noise effectively. You can read more about it here.

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Babylon Ltd., just a few moments back announced the inclusion of iBabylon application over at Apple’s iTunes store. Priced at a steep $11.99, iBabylon is targeted at the international traveler. With a 75 language dictionary and language translation support for 33 languages, iBabylon boasts of the following features:

While there are plenty of translation and dictionary applications for the iPhone, iBabylon integrates the two and provides you a plethora of options. Its features will definitely make you sit-up and take notice, but what remains to be seen is if iPhone users buy into it despite the steep $11.99 price-point. I for one, think it’s money well spent.

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According to Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, 150 is the maximum number of personal relationships an individual can maintain at any given time.

“cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships”.

While this could explain Facebook’s generous 5,000 friends limit (though a tad on the upper side), what it doesn’t explain is the 2,000 odd contacts I maintain on my phone list. Though the number is a theoretical extrapolation based on the relative size of the noecortex in non-human primates, Dunbar might be onto something. While the number might vary based on your psychographic, it is clear that trying to maintain stable ‘meaningful’ relationships with more than 150 people is both time-consuming and impractical (unless you are a Member of Parliament under the Indian democracy).

My Dunbar is 172

I conducted a simple analysis and tracked back my E-Mail, Facebook and Twitter conversations as well as phone calls made over the past year. I highlighted interactions with a regularity of atleast once every 3 months. Based on this, my Dunbar’s number was a conservative 172. Do let me know about your Dunbar Number in comments below, approximations are welcome.

Interesting Reads

Anil Dash – Life on the List
Clive Thompson – In Praise of Online Obscurity

Photo Credit - Ol.v!er [H2vPk]

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It’s not uncommon to find spectacular panoramas and make them interactive using either of the following three technologies:

a. Quick Time VR Plugin
b. Java Applet
c. Flash Script

Panoramas are usually shot either using a 360 lens or by shooting at intervals of 45 degrees and then stitching the photographs. This, might I add, is last generation technology. I found something far more interactive and interesting over at the CNN blog – Video Panorama.

Video Panorama

The next generation in panoramas is the technology which enables panoramic views within a video. While it’s a little difficult to explain it in words, you can experience it by clicking on the following image.

The video was shot using a Yellow Bird Camera. The camera captures all the possible directions using six lenses. The video stream is captured at 1200 Mbps in an uncompressed format. Interestingly, the website has the longest URL ever.

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