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Developers are really starting to show off their HTML5 chops these days, and Google is clearly a leader in this area. If you are a Google Music Beta user, but prefer iOS to Android, you’ve been suffering with a lack of good integration with the service. This still isn’t the level that Android phones get, but it’s a really nicely done HTML5 app that shows off how much you can do in the browser these days. 

Google Music Beta releases mobile web app for iOS

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaNzbCtxtcY Disney AppMATes: The New Mobile Application Toys for iPad

Disney AppMATes: The New Mobile Application Toys for iPad (by DisneyLiving)

Here’s a new concept in iPad interactivity from Disney…toys that provide unique identifiers to the screen (I’m assuming via some pattern of capacitive dots on the bottom of the toy) and thus allows for custom interactive experiences. Very clever, and the general idea is brilliant. Storytelling with an added dimension for the child to interact with. 

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Origo is a company who’s developing an extruded-plastic 3D printer that’s easy enough for kids to use. As they say on their site: “Right now, I am just an idea. I will be as easy to use as an Xbox or Wii. I’ll be as big as three Xbox 360’s and as expensive as 3 Xbox 360’s. I will sit on your desk and quietly build your ideas, drawings and dreams. There are other 3D printers. But none will be as easy to use as I will. None will be as reliable or work as hard for you. I’m not a kit or an industrial machine. I’m not complicated. I’m an appliance, like a toaster or a microwave. Only I’m purple and make your stuff.”

Origo: a 3D printer for ten year olds

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Reading Rainbow for the iPad generation from the article: “LeVar Burton, a children’s literacy advocate and a former star of Star Trek: The Next Generation, plans to make an ambitious comeback, giving the once-loved Reading Rainbow brand a 21st-century upgrade. Burton’s for-profit venture, RRKidz, plans to launch an educational iPad app that lets children explore topics of interest—such as, say space—in a multimedia-rich environment, with voice-over-enhanced children’s books, familiar videos of Burton at real-life places (like NASA), and, of course, games.”

Reading Rainbow: The Next Generation

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOaZspeSBZU Arthur C Clarke predicting the future in 1964 (by elabjer

Arthur C Clarke predicting the future in 1964 (by elabjer)

One of my favorite pieces ever about predicting the future…as Clark points out, if you make a prediction, and it sounds reasonable, it is almost certainly wrong. And if it sounds fantastic, it will be dismissed…even though the future has consistently been more fantastic than almost everyone could realize. Clark was one of the true visionaries…he saw clearly how breakthroughs in electronics, satellites, and communications would effect the world. 

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3D printers are likely to explode in variety in 2012

Ultimaker: There’s a New 3D Printer in Town

Yet another option in fabrication beyond the Makerbot, 3D printers are likely to explode in variety in 2012. The Ultimaker looks like a promising entry into the increasingly competitive field.
Check out the Ultimaker blog for more information.

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IBM is building the largest data drive in history, a storage unit that will hold 120 Petabytes of information. For those who might not recognize the prefix, a Petabyte is 1,000 Terabytes, or 1,000,000 Gigabytes. Using every librarians favorite measure of information storage the “Library of Congress”, the new IBM storage unit could hold over 12,000 copies of the entirety of the Library of Congress.

IBM Builds Biggest Data Drive Ever

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Google’s recent entry into social networking, Google+, is beloved of the technorati, but hasn’t gained a lot of ground generally. But features like this really push the service in interesting ways…Google now has sharing between Google Books and Google+, so that you can seamlessly share details, highlights, etc from Google Books into your Google+ Circles.  Very well done, and when they finally launch Google+ for businesses/organizations, the ability for a Library page to share this sort of information easily could be very interesting. Well done, G+!

Inside Google Books: Share Your Favorite Books

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Some evidence that 3D printing is becoming a customer-facing business that makes sense, as a variety of big name tech industry investors (including Jeff Bezos of Amazon) are putting $10 Million into Makerbot Industries.

All-Star Lineup Invests in MakerBot « MakerBot Industries

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It appears that the HP Touchpad isn’t do so well at retail. 

Ouchpad: Best Buy Sitting on a Pile of HP Tablets