Tech Check: Why Text Messages are 160 Characters Long

photo and copyright by Giusi-gurL on Flickr

Have you ever wondered why your text message can only be 160 characters in length? It's not your phone or your service provider but rather a universal standard! The man behind the plan was the German Friedhelm Hillebrand, chairman of GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications). Back around 1985 communications researchers were trying to standardize a way for cellphones to transmit text messages and these texts needed to be short for two reasons. One, the bandwidth was very limited at the time and two, the wireless networks back then were mostly only used by car phones.

Hillebrand did some at home research where he typed up all the simple messages he can come up with, and you guessed it they were all under 160 characters in length. So how did he convince everyone that 160 was the magic number without any real market research? Most post cards back then were less than 150 characters in length, and most of the messages sent via business messaging system Telex also clocked in around 150. Even emails were rather short, so as far as they knew the whole world was already used to communicating with less than 160 characters.

So that's the short story of the why text messages are only 160 characters in length, and Twitter's 140 character limit is definitely based off of the text standard. For the detailed story check the link below!

+ Why text messages are limited to 160 characters [LA Times]

- Sonic

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Tech Check: Phillips Cinema 21:9

photo from Technabob

Not another LCD HDTV!! Well it is, but this one is not your average TV. This is the Phillips Full HD 52" Cinema 21:9 LCD TV. Ok, so what does 21:9 mean? It's the aspect ratio which for most HD TVs out there is 16:9. When you are watching movies with your standard HDTV you see a lot of black bars or you are stretching the image out. The 21:9 however is a very close ratio as the cameras/films used in shooting most hollywood films so there are virtually no black strips for the first true cinematic experience right at home. On the negative however, when you are watching standard 4:3 HD content on this beast there will be some serious black bar-age going on. It could just be a matter of preference but this one maybe more in lines of whats to come. Take a look at the link below for more specs and details!

+ Phillips 52" Cinema 21:9 LCD TV [TFTS]

- Sonic

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Tech Check: Wild Things in Brooklyn Laboratories

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Click this link and read the article now.

As reported in the New York Times, scientists at a state university in New York, where I live in Brooklyn, seem to have found the molecule in the brain that reminds us of trauma. Also, they’ve developed a drug that can block the molecule. While it’s only been used on animals so far, they potential for this is great – a sort of traumatic memory eraser. This, of course, reminds me of Michel Gondry’s kick ass film, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, where a new service can erase memories for people so they can get on with their lives.

Now, reading this article – which I really hope you did by clicking the link at the top of this post – made me think about a million and a half things. I started thinking about all the things I’d want “erased” out of my mind: My absolutely overwhelming phobia of dogs. Any memories of any Michael Bay movies I’ve ever seen. Junior High. Any time I ever spent in Boston. You get the idea.

While the practical – let alone the designer – applications for this are a long ways away, it’s very interesting to see where the research and development is headed. And, if nothing else, it made me think about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind again, and I said to myself, “Hey, self, wasn’t Mark Ruffalo in that? I don’t remember seeing him in anything recently, not since Zodiac - I wonder what he’s been working on?”

Booyah.

Where The Wild Things Are. Are you kidding me? This was one my favorite books growing up – right up until I started reading Michael Crichton novels. And Spike Jonze doing it? Oh man. October can’t come fast enough. If only Brooklyn scientists could find a way to erase time between now and October 16th.



+ Brain Researchers Open Door to Editing Memory [NY Times]

- Goodchild

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Tech Check: Clarion MiND

Check out the full specs at Amazon.com

Navigation systems can be very helpful on the road, and the Clarion MiND does more than show you where to go. For starters the navigation system offers 2D or 3D view, lane guidance, display of speed limits, house number resolution and of course all the usual nav features as well as some new ones which utilize the internet and it's 4inch touchscreen display.

Yes, the internet! It uses wi-fi connections where available or you can use the internet from your phone via bluetooth. It has a FireFox based browser with quick links to MySpace, YouTube and all the good stuff. It had a media player so you can listen to music and store photos within it's expandable 4GB memory.

The downside is that this mini-computer costs about $650 bucks (although it may be cheaper and a lot better than a pre-installed nav option on a car), and if you don't want to rely on conveniently finding a free wi-fi hotspot or your phone's internet connection, you need to subscribe to its 3G service.... but we all know 3G is really not that fast. It is portable though to be used at home or at your office or with your bike and the navigation works anywhere. If you were looking to get a navigation device, you definitely should take a deeper look into the Clarion MiND.

+ Geekologie Review: The Clarion MiND [Geekologie]

- Sonic

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Tech Check: Music Ownership or Streamership?

photo and copyright: Joe whk

The topic was briefly covered on some panels during last year's CMJ Festival and apparently it came up at Austin's SXSW Festival as well. We are talking about the way we see ownership, particularly in music. A lot of us already don't physically own music; we make playlists and stream it from our favorite service provider whether it be Rhapsody, Imeem, Myspace, PureVolume, Pandora or any of the other ones out there. So, once our internet and gadgets reach the point of becoming super reliable, we may not need to own music even in it's digital form.

Your iPod won't have gigs of songs on it anymore, it will just be an interface for you to call your favorite songs on which will be streamed directly and instantly to your device. You can obviously see where I'm going with this, but if you can stream music anywhere you want anytime you want, it kind of erases the need to own it in any physical form. I know companies like LaLa are already assuming that this will be the case.

This won't happen this year or maybe even next year, I mean 3G is really not that fast and even our internet at home craps out often enough..... but it seems that it will be sooner rather than later. Anyway it's definitely something to think about, hit me up with your thougts.

+ How Will The Cloud Change The Way We Think About Music Ownership [Crunch Gear]

- Sonic

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Tech Check: Linksys by Cisco Media Hub

photo from Crunch Gear

It was bound to happen, and now it's here. A remote access media server slash external hard drive with a ton of space. The Media Hub allows you to store all your photos, videos, music and files in a 500GB or 1TB storage unit and let's you access it from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection.

You can even stream HD movies through your PS3 and XBOX 360 or listen to your favorite song at cousin Mike's. It even allows you to upload files remotely so those vacation photos you just took can be shared and stored before your flight home.

For more info and to learn how it works check out the website below. This is some pretty cool ish.

+ Linksys by Cisco Media Hub [Official Website]

- Sonic

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FYI: It's Okay, Doodle Away!

photo and doodle by Stray Muffin

This one is for all of you that doodle through your boring office meetings and classes. Scientists have spoken, and they have discovered that your supposed bad habit actually helps you retain more information and allow you to show better concentration than non-doodlers.

While a full-blown daydream takes a lot of brain power and leaves you with no recollection of the task at hand, doodling asks very little of your brain and leaves plenty cerebral power to remember the lecture or whatever your boss is trying to make you do. Check out the links below for more information, but basically you can improve your concentration by concentrating less. Awesome.

+ Doodling Increases Focus and Recall [Life Hacker]
+ A Sketchy Brain Booster: Doodling [Wired]

- Sonic

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Gadget Obsession - Flip Mino HD

Photo by psilver on Flickr.

In today's technology ruled world, an abundance of new gadgets are are invented everyday that it's almost impossible to keep up with the new trends. The technology industry is extremely saturated and highly competitive that when a great product is created it quickly penetrates through all the crap that is out there, and quickly rises to the top of the food chain becoming an obsession to the gadget craving community.

The obsession that took over the video camcorder market over the past few years and took the media by storm was the Flip Video by Pure digital. It's crazy that every since the launch of this new simple little toy back in 2007, it holds 13% of the camcorder market. Fast forward 4 generations later and the new HD version of the Flip Mino has been released, raising the bar even higher. The great thing about the new Flip Mino HD is that it's an HD camcorder that fits in your pocket and has a sleek look similar to that of the ipod. It's such a simple device that can be pulled out of your packet in a matter of seconds, and with one click you can capture an instant moment I'm sure most of you bloggers and youtube crazy kids can appreciate. Between its cheap price tag of $230 dollars and the high quality HD resolution you can't go wrong with this purchase. Just like the ipod and sidekick the Flip became a novelty embraced by the celebrity community from the likes of Tom Cruise, David Arquette, Oprah Winfrey, Jon Favreau, Hugh Hefner and Pamela Anderson to name a few. For all you youngsters, hipsters, skaters, bloggers and amateur porn film makers out there I definitely recommend this cool little gadget. See ya on the FLIP side and enjoy!


Video from Andy Ihnatko on Vimeo.

Obsessable Flip Mino HD Review [Obsessable Blog]
A Camcorder Insurgent Goes HD [NY Times]
Flip Mino goes H to the D with a WSJ review [Engadget]
Showcase showdown! Flip Mino HD versus Kodak Zi6 [Celestial Waste of Bandwidth]

- Mitch A.K.A Panda Bear

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If you were wondering about Blu-ray.....

photo by /pitzyper! on Flickr

Just as VHS won the video tape battle over Beta, the Blu-ray Disc reigned supreme over HD DVDs. So yeah, the graphics are amazing, but what's the big deal? Well, first off it's not just video, the audio quality is much better as well. While CDs, DVDs, and Blue-ray discs are all optical disc formats which utilize lasers to read the information written on the discs, Blu-ray uses a blue-violet laser of a shorter wavelength which allows you to focus the laser spot with more precision. In a nutshell this allows BDs to hold more than 5 times the amount of information than a regular DVD. That's what it's all about, the storage space. This is the technology that brings you true HD movies and HD gaming experiences to your door.

photo by 37prime on Flickr

DVDs are not going to disappear over night, and quite frankly they still get the job done for me, but it may be worth your while to start making the switch. The prices going down on BD players, and I am even finding ones for under $200. The movies themselves are about $30 a piece, and when you are paying $20 for a regular DVD, it's really not that bad a deal...... and there's always the PS3 option so you can get the best of both worlds.

+ some prices for BD players at buy.com

- Sonic

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