In addition to privy Google+ invites, Spotify was the other must-have invite only new thing in the tech world this week. We got our hands on some early invites but we now hear anyone can buy it for $4.95 as well. Here is how it works:

Did you get your invite yet?

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is available at Retail Stores in the United States

via Sly Oyster

There are some great new changes with the new BlackBerry 6 Operating System – not released yet, but coming this summer!

About New BlackBerry 6:

In addition to the new fluid user interface, the new video illustrates a few of the new applications and features in BlackBerry 6 that will provide users with a mobile experience that is both fun and approachable, yet extremely powerful including:

- redesigned home screen
- universal search
- context-sensitive pop-up menus
- revamped BlackBerry Browser powered by WebKit
- new applications like Social Feeds (which integrates all your news and social networks into one destination) and more

For more information you can read the posting on Inside BlackBerry (RIM’s corporate blog) by Andrew Bocking, VP of Handheld Software Product Management at http://blogs.blackberry.com/2010/07/blackberry-6-another-sneak-peek/

via http://www.cultofmac.com/problem-of-ipad-printing-has-been-solved-pic-of-the-day

This is a big deal. Watch and learn here:

A new wave of early adopters have jumped on the Google Wave bangwagon. Mucg like the gmail, orkut and google voice methods, the men upstairs (meaning up north in Silicon valley where Google is based) are unleashing the new platform to their “preferred members”. Early adopters can invite other users.From Wikipedia: Google Wave is “a personal communication and collaboration tool” announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009.[1][2] It is a web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking.[3] It has a strong collaborative and real-time[4] focus supported by extensions that can provide, for example, spelling/grammar checking, automated translation among 40 languages,[2] and numerous other extensions.[4] Initially released only to developers, a “preview release” of Google Wave was extended to nearly 1 million users beginning September 30, 2009, with the initial 100,000 users each allowed to invite from twenty to thirty additional users.

Jules Urbach, founder CEO Lightstage & Otoy - Photo from Rod Roddenberry

OTOY outshined AMD at their press conference today, unleashing demos of Crysis running on an iPhone. L.A. Native & founder of Otoy & Lightstage, Jules Urbach (Harvard-Westlake ’92) has a new remote compression technology that is putting game consoles and bulky harddrives on the endangered species list.

Rod Roddenberry tweets: “At AMDs hardware release press conference on the uss hornet aircraft carrier in Oakland Ca. Also launching is my boy Jules 3D compressing …

Jules and AMD president at a conference earlier this year

What if you could play any video game on your phone? Don’t think Tetrus or Suduko – think Grad Theft Auto and Halo! Friend, tech maven & inventor Jules Urbach has teamed up with AMD – who have built a brand new supercomputer just to run his high compression cloud-computing software that beams interactive high-quality content to your phone without any additional software or hardware on your end.

Jules on Halloween - Photo from Ahmet Zappa

Jules is also CEO of Lightstage, an exciting new method of capturing 3D imagery by using a spherical shell of cameras and light sensors to record any object standing in the middle. Game and film developers can now insert a villain or a ship or an animal into this sphere developed at my alma matter USC, and record a perfect 3 dimensional replica of it, and then manipulate it any way they want. Like if James Cameron wanted to sink another Titantic? That would be no problem. The cost? So far … there is no cost other than the development of these technologies so far … it reminds me of the time Nikolai Tesla figured out how to provide free world-wide power to everyone by slinging power waves around the Earth’s magnetoshpere to build up power …

An experimental light stage at USC - Photo from USC

Jules was in my brother’s class at Harvard-Westlake and was best friends with my “other” brother Rod Roddenberry. At 18, while the rest of us were trudging off to college back East, he deferred acceptance to Harvard to develop his first video game called Hellcab … and the rest became history. Jules has since graduated to world domination. A year ago, I would have limited that just to the video game world, but with our changing world, Jules’ inventions can also apply to film and anything that could use a virtual reality such as social networking sites or online shopping.

Ari Emanuel and Mark Wahlberg at Endeavor's Pre-Oscar party in 2006 - Photo from Wireimage

Understanding the artistic possibilities this would present filmmakers, uber-agent Ari Emmanuel (for whom Jeremy Piven’s “Ari Gold” character in Entourage is based ) helped Jules explore the possibilities in feature film for Lightstage and OTOY. Jules has already applied the OTOY lighting system to the “Transformers” movies for Paramount Pictures, culminating in real time 4k and 8k pixel renders and animations of the ILM movie models for Paramount’s marketing campaign during the month of the movie’s release and replicated this with AMD’s help for Sony Picture’s “Spider-Man 3.” The OTOY rendering engine has been used in feature films, animation and online projects for AMD, EA, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Toei Animation, Warner Brothers, Hasbro, and Disney.

Me and Jules at our friend Jeremy Steckler's (Harvard-Westlake '92) father, Len Steckler's, art show in Beverly Hills, 2006 - Photo from Wireimage

Google is handing out free numbers called “Google Numbers” that sync all your phone lines to one voicemail and transcribes your messages to you via text.

Fellow Tweeter, “Isky” (Carl Iskandar), attests to Google Voice: he Twittered: “Got a voicemail on Google Voice this morning and it transcribed it to text perfectly”. Isky, a tech-maven already subscribed to GrandCentral, Google’s $50 million phone company, received an early edition of the app.

I just signed up for my own Google Voice phone number and did a voicemail test and it did, indeed, transcribe my voice perfectly to text! Pay services providing the same thing like “PhoneTag” are about to be toast.

Link to this post.
URL: http://dailytruffle.blogspot.com/2009/03/google-voice-get-all-your-vms.html

Share this post on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and more …

KGB and CHA-CHA answer trivia and other questions via text. Cha Cha is free while kgb is $0.99 per text. Here are some real time questions being asked and answered by KGB as we speak:

Why are Marlboro Blend No. 54 so cheap?
Marlboro came out with the cheaper cigarettes after sales fell due to the tax hike this past year. ~Agent Martin

How fast is the speed of sound?
The speed of sound varies greatly depending on the air temperature. At sea level it’s 340.29 miles per second. ~Agent Scramling

Who sings the theme song for the TV show Cops?
“Bad Boys” was performed by reggae group Inner Circle. Ian Lewis wrote it. “Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?” ~Agent Kresa

http://kgb.com/ & http://www.chacha.com/

Share this post on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and more …

The Darth Vader Alarm Clock, displays the time in his eyes, it has a built in AM/FM radio and 3 sounds effects that are bound to wake you up. If you want one of these cool Darth Vader alarm clock’s they will be available shortly for $30 from Sakar. via Geeky Gadgets

Link directly to this post.
URL: http://dailytruffle.blogspot.com/2009/04/this-will-wake-you-up-in-morning.html

Etsy seller Substrata handmake wooden cases for the 3G, $84.99. [via 7Gadgets ]

Create Your Own Social Network: Today was CNBC’s annual lunch at the Grill Room of the Four Seasons’ aptly coined “Thrill Room” by the well-seasoned who gather to ‘power lunch’ in New York city. CNBC annually welcomes the year’s most promising up-starts. Today’s leading new contender was the build-your-own-networking-site site, Ning.com, whose tagline is “Create Your Own Social Network”

This grand affair where duck is ordered and personal trips the wine cellar are made, is CNB’s day to allow new and old media to get to know one-another, honor eachother and discuss the future. This luncheon once housed then-infant Google, Ebay and Yahoo among others. In case you don’t believe me, Vanity Fair released a piece on The Grill’s upcoming 50th Anniversary, this July. Below is their ‘class photo’ featuring their regulars, many of whom also attended the brunch today.

Photograph by Todd Eberle. Enlarge this photo.
Front row, seated: Georgette Mosbacher, Ed Koch, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Sandy Weill, Julian Niccolini, Henry Kissinger, Pete Peterson, Donald Marron, Liz Smith, Alex von Bidder, Leonard Lauder, Jonathan Tisch, Leo Hindery Jr., Martha Stewart, Donald Drapkin.

Second row: David Dinkins, Gael Greene, Thom Browne, Edgar Bronfman Sr., Edgar Bronfman Jr., Richard Meier, Peggy Siegal, Michael Ovitz, Arne Glimcher, Joel Ehrenkranz, Zac Posen.

First row, upper level: Christine Quinn, Raymond W. Kelly, Lally Weymouth, Tom Brokaw, Ralph Schlosstein, Nina Zagat, David Boies, James B. Lee Jr., Bruce Wasserstein, Joni Evans, Bill Rhodes, Sandy Lindenbaum, John Veronis, Lauren Veronis, Jonathan L. Mechanic, Wilma Jordan, Gershon Kekst, Richard Johnson, Dolly Lenz, Bill Rudin.

Top row: William O’Shaughnessy, Jes Staley, Bill White, Aby Rosen, Charles Masson, Michael Wolf, Ed Lewis, Tim Zagat.

From Matt Tyrnauer at Vanity Fair: The Thrill Room: A “class photo” as the Four Seasons turns 50.” Plus: watch the video from this historic photo shoot.

Link to this post directly.
URL: http://dailytruffle.blogspot.com/2009/04/ning-is-darling-of-cnbcs-annual-power.html

Designed by Intuitive Surgical, the da Vinci Si system consist of a surgical console with 3D HD vision brought from the merging of two separate HD optical channels for maximum accuracy. The console includes a patient side cart with four robotic arms. While seated at the console, the surgeon can view the enhanced images and control the robotic arms for endoscopic procedures.

Google has moved several tons of electronic storage unit to bardges in the ocean – not for privacy protection but to harness the immense power of the sea waves which generate more power at a lowered cost than paying rent and buying conventional power on land. Read more here.

A recent patent application made by Google was found that sites, “Computing centers are located on a ship or ships, anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away.”

According to a 2005 study completed by Stanford researchers, the year’s power bill for all datacenters worldwide was $7.2 BILLION, so the incentives are in place for innovative power and cooling opportunities. The concept suggests that massive floating barges approximately 11 km off shore could house the data centers and be tethered to land with the massive cables needed to transmit the data.

Now, wave power is immature, the methods for cooling are not yet in place, and the risk of a huge floating bomb target that could take down significant data communications are all problems yet to be solved, but the concept is innovative thinking, and I for one am a fan.Edited by deej – Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:35:52 GMT Stroy from http://greenhome.huddler.com/forum/thread/684/the-interwebs-powered-by-wave-energy?replies=2

Eco Energy: Google sketches patent for wave-powered floating Data Center. Eco Factor: A Data Center that uses wave energy to fulfill all its energy and cooling needs. It seems that people are realizing the power that the ocean holds in its waves with concepts like Wave Powered Gymnasium coming up.

Google seems to have unearthed another gold mine by visualizing a data center that floats on the sea. Google apparently filed a patent in the US Patent and Trademark Office in early February this year. The document shows Google’s plan to build giant floating data centers on waves. The new data centers would be completely powered by wave energy and a freshwater-seawater cooling system would be used for cooling the peripherals.

A data center of one square kilometer area would produce 30 MW of electricity and Google says that this would be sufficient to run the data center. This not only cuts down on fossil fuel use, but keeps the data centers close to customers and reduces transmission power. The Dark Side: Such database centers floating on waves worldwide could hamper and destroy that already fragile ocean ecosystem. The ocean ecosystem is already known to be very sensitive to even the minutest of changes, and this could possibly affect the balance.

Addendum March 12, 2009: NASA is making strides in developing ways to harness sea power much like wind power. Read more here and here.

http://www.bravenewleaf.com/environment/2008/03/wave-power-gain.html

http://thefutureofthings.com/pod/6415/efficient-wave-power-in-sight.html