8 new stories on The Next Web today

AT&T predicts the iPad, GPS and more, in 1983
More On Instagram (or why Facebook hasn’t won everything)
Canada’s Communication Conundrum: Cheaper Wireless Rates
10 Awesome Video Memes of 2010
The 10 Robots That Rocked in 2010
Hackers crack open GSM networks to eavesdrop on mobile calls
Dictionary.com acquires language learning service Lingt
Pockie could get schoolkids using iPads in every lesson
The Next Web Has a Brand New Look

AT&T predicts the iPad, GPS and more, in 1983

Posted: 01 Jan 2011 03:41 AM PST

These movies seem amazingly correct. Spot the iPad clones!

More On Instagram (or why Facebook hasn’t won everything)

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 03:01 PM PST

One of the topics that keeps coming up in my office is around exactly what makes Instagram so awesome. I mean, photo sharing…. really? Wasn't casual photo sharing won by Facebook, and serious photo sharing won by Flickr? And didn't this happen years ago?

So how exactly is it that a pivoting, iPhone only startup has been able to launch in the face of (at least) two behemoth incumbents and rocket to over one million users in two months?

Some of the theories that we've heard thrown around are Instagram's simplicity, its speed, its feedback loop, its elegant use of location, and the kitschy, throwback use of filters as a self expression tool.

But none of this stuff is new. Everyone knows that apps are supposed to simple, fast, and social. Hipstamatic has been doing the polaroid style photos for a while. Facebook is dead simple and fast for taking and sharing photos. Gowalla and Foursquare both let you post photos with your checkin. The Flickr iPhone app lets you browse and react to your friends' photos, and take your own. And there are lots of well funded startups like Path and PicPlz out there as well.

Instagram's magic seems to lie a bit deeper. In talking to friends of mine who are Instagram addicts, one trait seems to be coming up over and over again. Most of them did not consider themselves serious photographers pre Instagram (by serious photographers, I mean people that would deliberately go out of the way to capture a special shot).

Not the case now. Now my friends are pulling their cars over and putting themselves in otherwise dangerous situations to capture the perfect shot.

Somehow, it seems that Instagram is able to bring out the photographer in people that had never considered themselves photographers before.

Put another way, many of us didn’t know we needed or wanted an app like Instagram. The lack of a better tool for photographic self expression was not a problem for which we needed a solution. Yet Instagram has managed to change our behavior in a very short period of time.

Also interesting is that the shots that people seem to post to Instagram – graffiti, flying pigeons, stuff around the neighborhood – are not the kind of photos you see on Facebook. Instagram has created a new niche – making photographers out of people who were not photographers before.

Which brings me to what this all means for Facebook. Pre Instagram, I would have considered Facebook to be invincible when it comes to social photo sharing. They have the social graph and built in audience, they have a wonderful iPhone app for sharing photos, and they have the installed base. Only a desperate, pivoting startup like Instagram would dare take on the 500M user strong Facebook right smack in its wheelhouse.

And it's not just photos where Facebook is facing Instagram style insurgencies; it's, location, events, college campuses, QA, profile pages, and even in the newsfeed itself. In some of these verticals Facebook is the incumbent, and in some they are the fast follower. But in virtually every vertical and for every Facebook feature, you can find micro services that are doing a slightly better job.

As we enter 2011, the Facebook behemoth would seem to be firing on all cylinders. But breathe deeply my entrepreneurial friends. Services like Instagram and Plancast and Tumblr and Foursquare and Twitter and Quora and Yelp are proving that there is still plenty of oxygen left for those with good ideas, and better execution.

The next big contender in social networking / social media may not be a single company at all. Rather, it may be a thousand companies, each focused in purpose, and each able to provide a slightly better experience than the generic social network.

Canada’s Communication Conundrum: Cheaper Wireless Rates

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 02:42 PM PST

Canadian Flag PIAC is a public interest advocacy centre in Canada and it’s none too pleased with the continuation of the sky high wireless prices.

As 2010 comes to an end, it now marks this almost the 3rd year in the Canadian saga of telcos. In 2008, the CRTC (Canadian radio-television communications commission) opened up the wireless spectrum allowing companies that wanted to get into the wireless carrier business a chance to bid on wireless space. And although many Canadians were murky on the specific details, they quickly realized this meant something big. It meant Canadians were about to save a lot of money.

Anyone who lives in the great white north will tell you, we pay the steepest rates in the world, and with three companies that held 95% of the market share in Canada, until the spectrum sale, consumers were truly backed into a corner. A few years back, the government stepped in to deregulate Canada's telecom industry and as we'd mentioned open up the wireless space that aimed to lower the cost of landlines, wireless, internet and even satellite TV.

PIAC has now compiled a 218 page report claiming that the prices are still far too high for consumers and said "This did not happen despite all the hype", referring to the lack of discounted services. The Canadian public advocacy group has additionally made claims against the telcos knocking them for charging customers bogus "government regulatory charges". PIAC is looking to the government to come up with a better set of rules and code of conduct in going forward.

Since the wireless spectrum deal finalized, the major players in the Canadian mobile scene (Rogers, Bell, Telus) have been competing with the new kids on the block, discount companies such as Wind Mobile and Mobilicity. And for once, Canadians are starting to see voice and data plans we'd only heard tales of from our American and European friends. But apparently, according to PIAC, customers could still have it a lot better. Canadians did however see unlimited data plans and no contact sign-ups.

Rogers has since launched its own discount brand (along with Bell) called Chatr and shamelessly made misleading claims against the newbie companies saying it had "fewer dropped calls than the new wireless carriers", a comment the CRTC didn't take lightly. Rogers also owns Fido, which was the only other GSM network in Canada at the time when Rogers acquired it a few years back. Once again, taking away the citizens choices as they merged as one.

The new discounted players such as Wind Mobile have only been operating for one year, so really, the fun is just beginning in the Canadian mobile landscape. As of today, there are still companies that have yet to launch their brands despite the fact that they’ve paid millions during the spectrum sale. 2011 will hopefully bring a farther reach for discount brands that haven't penetrated all of Canada yet.

All in all, the wireless industry has been shaken up and it's Oh so sweet for Canada.Image: Canadian Flag Guy, Toronto Sun, The Globe and Mail

10 Awesome Video Memes of 2010

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 10:44 AM PST

With 2010 coming to a close, we thought we’d reflect back on the popular Internet Video Memes of this year. We’ve also included the back stories just in case you wondered where they came from. Without further adieu, here are some of the greatest video Internet memes of 2010:

1. Antoine Dodson – Bed Intruder Song

This was probably the most memorable meme of 2010 although the circumstances surrounding the creation of the video is rather sad. It started out as a serious TV news interview after Antoine Dodson's sister was almost assaulted in her bed. The Bed Intruder song that was later set to music was created by the Gregory Brothers, it even beat out Lady Gaga on YouTube.

2. Pants on the Ground

An American Idol contestant named General Larry Platt, got 15 minutes of fame for his "original" song Pants on the Ground. It was later discovered the Green Brothers of Highland Park, Michigan, claimed that their 1996 recording of "Back Pockets on the Floor" sounds eerily similar.

3. Inception Animals

This meme is based on the uber dramatic movie Inception with Leo DiCaprio. It was the birth of a crazy amount of memes in 2010 and even South Park did an entire episode about Inception that they apparently ripped off from College Humor. Weird. Welcome back dramatic hamster.

4. Double Rainbow Song

Paul Vasquez put a video up on YouTube in which he freaked out over a couple of rainbows and Jimmy Kimmel tweeted the video out to his followers. This started an explosion of remixes and mashups including the Double Rainbow Song. OMG!! It's a double Rainbow!!

5. George Takei Calls Out

Star Trek's George Takei speaks his mind on an anti-gay school board member that encouraged gay teens to commit suicide and applauded AIDS for claiming the lives of homosexuals. Take that Mr. McCance!

6. Hey There Keanu by Azured and SenorZorro2000 (Our “Cheer Up Keanu Day” tribute)

It all started at Reddit when a user posted an image of Keanu looking sad while eating a sandwhich on a park bench. The thread quickly made it to the front page gathering over 280,000 page views. From there it spread virally where people took liberties photoshopping him into different environments and eating different things.

7. Old Spice Guy

Old Spice shows companies how social media is done. In 2010 Old Spice launched a campaign online targeting both celebrities and influential internet folk like Kevin Rose. It made it to the top of trending topics on Twitter, Reddit and Digg.

8. Brenden Fraser's "special" clap Remix

During the 2010 Golden Globe Awards, Encino Man's Brendan Fraser was captured doing an usual clap and the internet went wild. This remix has used a Gwen Stephani to compliment his hilarious claps.

9. Rent: Too Damn High! Song

Jimmy Mc Millan was a mayoral candidate in both 2005 and 2009 and in 2010 he ran for governor of New York. His main platform was " The rent is too damn high"
Funny enough, it was later discovered that Mr. Mc Millan doesn't pay rent. He allegedly had been "rent free" since the 80's according to The New York Times.

10. Down On Me(With Me And 50 Cent)

Keenan Cahill, a 15 year old wannabe singer has posted a series of hilarious lip-syncing videos including one with 50 Cent. Keenan was on Chelsea Handler's show Chelsea Lately where the video originally debuted.

What’s your favourite meme?

We’d love to hear what your favourite video meme of 2010 was. Please let us know in the comments. Happy New Year!

Image: Antoine Dodson

The 10 Robots That Rocked in 2010

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 07:32 AM PST

Did you know we received the word robot from the Czech word “robotnik” meaning slave? The word is fitting for the machines we’ve asked to endlessly compute algorithms for us and clean our floors. But exactly what a robot is has evolved from the days when robots were largely factory drudges. These days, robots can be as cute as pets, as efficient as a nurse or frightening enough to raise ethical questions. There are telepresence robots that we can send to work for us, humanoid robots that send us chillingly into the uncanny valley and of course, beer serving robots who are our friends in our laziest times.

Check out our list of 10 robots that rocked the robot genome in 2010.

1. NASA’s Humanoid Robonaut 2 (R2)

I first reported on Robonaut 2, also called R2 in IEEE Spectrum before he was launched into space in November. R2 is currently at the International Space Station, where he is working alongside humans as a robotic helper. He can operate both autonomously or via remote control in a “joysticked” fashion directly from Earth, although there’s a delay of several seconds for commands to reach the space station. “It's the first time ever in the history of the planet that we've decided to launch a humanoid robot into space,” Nic Radford, the Robonaut deputy project manager said to me. “It's been an amazing experience.” R2 is certainly one giant leap for robotkind. You can follow Robonaut’s progress in space on Twitter here.

2.Willow Garage's PR2 Robot

One day, the roboticists at Willow Garage were thirsty, so they decided to teach their quick-learning PR2 robot a few tricks. PR2 already knew how to fold laundry and play pool but now it is much more useful. When you want a beer, you just have to open a web interface, choose your preferred brew, and click the “Beer Me” button. The PR2 opens the refrigerator, scans its contents using image recognition software and retrieves a bottle of the correct kind, then brings it back to you. It can open the bottle as well. I want one (right now). Watch a video of it in action here.

3. The Anybot QB

“I’ve been doing videoconferencing for years,” said Stephen Wolfram, a well-known physicist and founder of the computational knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha who tested the Anybot earlier this year. “But the mobility of “being a robot” was interesting. It was surprisingly useful to be able to wander around an office as an Anybot. And attending a reception as a robot, people seemed to get used to “me” surprisingly quickly.”

The Anybot QB is a telepresence robot that can be remotely controlled from a home computer. Send the Anybot to the conference room or to an employee’s desk to say hi. The Anybot’s head displays a live webcam video so employees can see their co-worker’s digital face. Wired describes it as “a self-propelled Skype-cam on a stick,” while Slashgear said it looked “a whole lot like a frisbee stuck on top of a Segway.”

Anybot QB weighs 35 pounds and is 5 feet tall. It runs on eight hours of battery life (perfect for an average work day), supports 802.11g Wi-Fi, comes with a 5-megapixel video camera and zooms around at a top speed of 3.5 miles per hour. A 320 x 240 LCD screen on the bot offers videos, photos and acts as a control panel. The robot can be controlled through a web browser with the up and down controls on a computer keyboard. Unfortunately it does not have bobble head action. Anybots, based in Mountainview, California, and led by Trevor Blackwell from YCombinator and Bob Christopher, formerly CEO of UGOBE/Pleo, is currently accepting pre-orders for a whopping $15,000.

4. Santander Banking Group's SiGa robots

In Spain, Santander Banking Group's new visitor's center features sexy, Ferrari-red, knee-high wheeling robots for assistance. As visitors enter the building, they are greeted by SiGa robots, which stands for The Santander Interactive Guest Assistants and means "follow" in Spanish. The robotic butlers can process multiple languages, conversations, directions and take visitors wherever they need to go—while playing ambient music. The autonomous bots, which look like light cycles from Tron as they move, use RF tags, gyroscopes, and odometers to situate and 16 sonar sensors to locate objects and sense their human guest while they move. They can run for 6 hours on their battery and know how to recharge themselves when drained.

Watch a video featuring Santander Group's financial complex, located on the outskirts of Madrid and the bots here.

5. Athlete Robot

Athlete is a humanoid robot, that I wrote about earlier this month, with a pair of prosthetic blades and fourteen artificial, pneumatic-powered muscles. This running robot may one day outrun us all. The bot is the pet project of Japanese researcher Ryuma Niiyama, who is currently working on his post-doctorate at MIT. According to ieee Spectrum writer Erico Guizzo, each leg has seven sets of artificial muscles, each with one to six pneumatic actuators that correspond to muscles in the human body such as the gluteus maximus, adductor and hamstring. Currently, Niiyama and his team are trying to get Athlete to run farther than three steps (at 1.2 meters/sec) before collapsing, which is its current best effort.

Check out a few details behind the tech here:

6. SADbot

SADbot, or the Seasonally Affected Drawing Robot, is a solar-powered, interactive drawing machine created by Eyebeam artists and former ITP students Dustyn Roberts and Ben Leduc-Mills. In the photo above, two women pause to see a pen doodling across a canvas behind a window. When they touch little circles on the glass, the pen changes direction. SADbot uses an Arduino microcontroller, four photocell sensors, a battery, and two stepper motors to control two cables attached to a pen. The electronics gets power from solar panels on the building's roof. But light not only powers the installation — it also affects SADbot's behavior. Because it is solar powered, at night SADbot stops doodling and "goes to sleep." But when the sun is out, SADbot lets people interact with it and doodles across a large canvas. ”People are only happy when it's sunny," says Roberts. "Just like our robot." SADbot was displayed this summer at New York City's Eyebeam studio, an artist's hub dedicated to the convergence of art and technology. SADbot raised $1,175 of its $1,000 goal on Kickstarter and also made our recent list of this year’s coolest projects on Kickstarter. Roberts, who also teaches at NYU’s ITP school included SADbot in her recently published book, titled Making Things Move.

7. Gamma Two’s Wilma and Basil

Gamma Two, is a Denver, Colorado based robotics company run by husband and wife team Jim and Louise Gunderson. The cabinet-shaped machines named Wilma and Basil respond to voice command to deliver drinks and snacks and even host a monthly event at the couple’s home. The Gundersons have ambitious plans for the bots and believe that people who need a nurse’s aide or butler could use bots like Wilma and Basil instead. The greatest thing about these bots is that they were made by an incredibly intelligent and well-educated husband and wife team in Colorado, as opposed to a government funded organization or University science lab, proving that we’ve come a long way as a society in the field of robotics.

8. Aldebaran Robotics' Nao Robot

The Nao Robot by Aldebaran Robotics, is an amazingly advanced bot that boasts cognitive skills, a high level of motion with 25 degrees of freedom and its programmable. While currently only available to academic institutions, it’s rumored that a consumer model is planned for 2011. Check out the bots dancing to Bolero here at the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

9. Cornell’s Ranger Robot

Another speedy bot is Cornell’s Ranger Robot, which broke a new walking record this year. The unofficial record was set this July when Ranger walked around Cornell’s track 108.5 times for a total of 14.3 miles in 10 hours and 40 minutes. Ranger, a four legged bi-pedal robot, uses gravity and momentum to walk, swinging his legs forward and back much like a human on crutches.

Watch a video of Ranger at Cornell here.

10. Mazor Robotics’ SpineAssist robots

Three days ago, FastCompany reported that an Israeli company has created small robots for spinal surgery that appear to reduce pain and complication risk for patients. By using SpineAssist’s tiny robots for surgery, we are able to cut the risk of infection and reduce hospital stay time. The bots could truly revolutionize spinal surgery, particularly in how it helps surgeons avoid making deep incisions while repairing the spine. They are currently in use in the United States, Germany, Russia, Israel, South Korea and several other countries.

Hope you enjoyed the robots! Let me know any other cool robots that you loved this year and Happy New Year’s Eve everyone!

Hackers crack open GSM networks to eavesdrop on mobile calls

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 05:45 AM PST

Researchers have found a way to eavesdrop upon any mobile call or text message sent via any GSM network, utilising open source phones that cost as little as $10, it has emerged.

Karsten Nohl and Sylvain Munaut demonstrated their toolkit at the Chaos Computer Club Congress (CCC) in Berlin, demonstrating techniques acquired from other researchers but also utilising their own technology to record calls.

The toolkit took a year to built and works by locating a target phone, identifying and taking its unique ID and collecting the data sent and received by the handset and the base station as calls are made or texts sent.

To capture the data, the duo utilised specific Motorola handsets that could have the default firmware swapped with that of an open-source alternative. From here, they were able to strip out the GSM “filters”, ensuring that they would be able to receive all data being broadcast by a base station.

Once the data was collected, it could be cracked upon using a pre-compiled Rainbow Table, a list of encryption keys generated independently of the hack. With a huge list of encryption keys at their disposal, any mobile call or text intercepted can be recorded and unscrambled.

Its worrying to think that people might be able to spy on your calls but you needn’t worry…for now. Nohl has said that he will not release the kit for others to use, instead the duo simply wished to establish aware that the GSM standard could be compromised and that it would need additional security measures enforced as a result.

Not bad considering a professional eavesdropping system costs around £35,000 and the toolkit mentioned above comes in around 1000 times cheaper.BBC News, Image Credit

Dictionary.com acquires language learning service Lingt

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 05:32 AM PST

Lingt, a service that aims to make learning languages fun by applying game mechanics, says it has been acquired by Dictionary.com.

The Boston-based startup made the announcement today via its homepage which states that the existing product will close on 28 February 2011 to live a new life as a part of the dictionary service’s flashcards product.

Funded by seed investment scheme YCombinator in 2009, Lingt was founded by MIT seniors Scot Frank and Chris Varenhorst after a frustrating experience in a Chinese language class while learning pronunciation. Aimed at use in the classroom, the service ‘game-ifies’ language lessons with unlockable achievements.

In its announcement on the site’s front page the company notes “Building Lingt and watching it grow has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for all of your support and everything else along the way.”

The value of the acquisition has not been disclosed but we’re digging to see what we can find.Hacker News

Pockie could get schoolkids using iPads in every lesson

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 04:42 AM PST

One area where we haven’t seen massive take-up of Apple’s iOS devices thus far is school age education. Australian startup Innovate Freely hopes to change that with the forthcoming launch of a new platform called Pockie.

Pockie promises to let students download an app for every subject in the curriculum. Apps are distributed via each school’s internal app zone and teachers manage the distribution of new content. Push notifications will alert students when new content is available to download.

Compatible with the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone, Pockie will allow teachers to create their own custom content, meaning that lessons can be tailored to specific requirements of individual schools.

The question is, will schools have the resources to invest in iOS devices for their students? Innovate Freely’s Adrian Maciburko tells me that the Pockie is aimed at schools that either wish to make use of students’ own personal devices or that want to make the most of iPads bulk-bought for student use.

Pockie is set to launch in Australia in early 2011, and the company is assessing interest in a US launch at a later date. While some schools have already purchased iPads or iPhones for students to use, a platform that allows teachers to make the most of these investments could be just the ticket for justifying the expense.

The Next Web Has a Brand New Look

Posted: 31 Dec 2010 04:37 AM PST

Array

(Before I start, have to say a massive thank you to Andreas Creten, Marco Jardim and the rest of the gang who helped to make this latest design iteration a reality.)

We’ve just launched a brand new look on The Next Web. Our homepage has a completely new look, the channel/blog homepage have also been given an uplift and posts pages an extensive revamp.

These are the most significant changes:

1) Speed. Without question, the primary purpose of this latest revamp was to improve page load times. While we’ll never stop tweaking to improve the speed, this is without question the greatest improvement we’ve seen.

2) New Homepage. We scrapped the default widget view and are now introducing a minimalist, speedy new homepage. As much as we wanted it to, the widget view just didn’t get enough uptake, we hope with this new look you’ll find navigation a breeze and the interface a lot easier on the eye. Above all else, it should load faaaaaast.

3) Position of the sites navigation. Whereas before the main navigation was to be found at the top of the site, only visible by hovering over each menu title, you’ll now find the navigation in a left sidebar visible throughout the site no matter what page you’re on. We hope this will make it clear how the site is structured but also help you navigate the site easier.

The design is currently being rolled out across the site and we’ve got a bunch of changes/tweaks we need to implement over the next few hours but for now, here are a few screenshots for you to enjoy. You can also see the live site on the main homepage and our Entrepreneur Channel.