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We’ve already heard first-hand how Yamaha can make surround sound emerge from a single soundbar, and now the outfit’s wowing again here at CEATEC. It’s latest aural innovation was tucked quietly away within its booth, disguised as an advertorial for the show itself. Essentially, the banner you’re peering at above is a one millimeter thick speaker that’s made from cloth, and it definitely has the potential to revolution billboards and possibly even portable media devices. As you can clearly hear in the video just past the break, the flat sound waves emitted from the cloth cannot be heard unless you’re standing directly in front of it; even separate audio files playing back just a few feet away didn’t overlap with what we heard coming directly at us. There’s no telling if Yamaha will ever take this public, but if it does, there are about forty billion ad agencies in the greater New York area that would like to speak to it.

Continue reading Yamaha’s 1mm-thick prototype speaker is made from cloth, highly directional (video)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Portable Audio

Yamaha’s 1mm-thick prototype speaker is made from cloth, highly directional (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe is currently holding its annual Interact Congress, an event that brings together the main protagonists of the European digital industry here in Brussels. For the occasion, IAB Europe in conjunction with PriceWaterhouseCoopers today released the findings of its annual advertising expenditure survey for the year ending December 2008. The gist: growth in digital advertising significantly slowed down last year, especially in more mature markets, and the outlook for this year is grim.

In 2008 the total European online advertising market, or at least the 19 markets analyzed by IAB Europe and PwC, was worth €12.9 billion (approx. $18 billion) with a like-for-like growth rate compared to 2007 of 20%. For comparison, online advertising grew 10.6% in the United States in 2008 (outpacing TV) and was worth €16.6 billion ($23.4 billion). However, the 20% growth figure paints a better-looking picture than the harsh reality, which is that it is far below previously stated expectations, of course caused by the crumbling of the global economy and the huge strain it has put on digital advertising spending worldwide.

If you look at the top 10 markets in Europe, year-on-year growth rates were under 20% more often than not. Considering the fact that these markets account for about 93% of the total value of the market, the following chart doesn’t accurately reflect the slowed growth because it over-accentuates the massive growth in Slovenia, Poland and Austria.

Broken down by formats, search remains the leading format in Europe with the strongest year-on-year growth rate (26%), accounting for 43% of online ad expenditure in the countries measured and a value of €5.6 billion. After search come classifieds, with growth rates of 17.4% bringing it to 26% share of total ad spend and a market value of €3.8 billion.

Alain Heureux, President and CEO of IAB Europe, acknowledges that while the overall picture in Europe is one of growth, what is clear from these figures is that 2008 was a tough year for online advertising. And if you thought that trend was going to reverse this year, Eva Berg-Winters, Senior Manager at PwC, is here to put you back with your feet on the ground:

“2009 is set to be a difficult year for online advertising. Decline is likely in a number of mature markets and, where there is still growth, we expect it to be much lower than previously.”

In the U.S., IAB as recently as last week reported that online advertising declined 5% in the first quarter of 2009 to $5.5 billion, compared to the first quarter of 2008. Industry revenues were down an even steeper 9.8 percent sequentially from the fourth quarter’s $6.1 billion.

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TV on the go has been a reality for awhile. What with Verizon and Sprint offering their users streaming TV on their cell phones for more than a year. Today, though, a large third party player enters the fray: a Qualcomm subsidiary, FLO TV, has just announced that they are expanding their service nationwide. The launch date is slated to follow the DTV transition this Friday, June 12. (If you’re wondering what DTV is, you probably won’t care much for FLO TV, and you can read more about DTV here.

FLO TV will launch in 39 new markets, and offer “its service to an additional 60 million customers with a total reach of more than 100 major markets and more than 200 million potential consumers nationwide by the end of 2009.” This is great news for AT&T customers, always the last to get any sort of decent new technology on their phones (except the iPhone!). But, don’t rejoice yet – iPhone users; Apple isn’t allowing any streaming video applications on the App Store. Arrrgh. Doesn’t that make you want to break something?

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The only thing surprising about Martin Eberhard’s latest move is that it took so long to happen. Eberhard was co-founder of Tesla Motors along with Mark Tarpenning, and he was ousted from the company in November 2007 by then-chairman Elon Musk. Musk has never been one to hide his feelings about other people (or much of anything) – and comments he has made about Eberhard and his role in the company have clearly not gone over well.

To nobody’s surprise, Eberhard has filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court in San Mateo against Musk and Tesla Motors. In the suit, Eberhard accuses Musk of slander and libel, along with breaching the contracts that he and the company had with Eberhard. At 146 pages, we haven’t yet had time to digest the entire complaint (though we do find it interesting that our coverage is mentioned in the lawsuit), but we have a sneaking suspicion this one is going to get ugly. You can read the filing in PDF form by clicking here.

ABG reached out to Tesla for comment, and spokeswoman Rachel Konrad provided the following statement:

“This lawsuit is a fictionalized, inaccurate account of Tesla’s early years — it’s twisted and wrong, and we welcome the opportunity to set the record straight. Incidentally, Tesla will also be filing counterclaims and in the process present an accurate account of the company’s history.”

More as it happens…

[Source: San Mateo California Superior Court]

Filed under: Tesla Motors

BREAKING: Martin Eberhard sues Elon Musk and Tesla for libel, slander and breach of contract originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now, to answer what we’re sure is a burning question on the minds of all of our readers… yes, it is possible to ride a Segway on a supercross track. Well, it’s a burning question if you happen to be AMA Supercross Champion James “Bubba” Stewart, that is. As you’ll see in the video we’ve conveniently pasted after the break for your viewing pleasure, for the rest of us, probably not.

From the looks of things, this particular Segway is one of the brand’s off-road models and has some specific modifications to help improve its chances on Stewart’s own personal supercross track. For instance, note its deeply lugged side-by-side tires, and, most importantly, the Renthal dirtbike-style handlebar complete with appropriate padding for safety.

Kids, don’t try this at home. Now, how long ’till we see this replicated on MythBusters?

[Source: JS7 via Hell For Leather]

Continue reading VIDEO: Motocrossing a Segway with James “Bubba” Stewart

VIDEO: Motocrossing a Segway with James “Bubba” Stewart originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, WWDC, Developer

One of the first developers I got a chance to sit down with at WWDC was Dan Wood of Karelia Software, makers of the website-building app, Sandvox. I got his thoughts on the Keynote and the state of Mac software development. He’s recently been blogging about marketing for developers and working to start a conversation about self-promotion in the Indy software community. Check out the interview after the jump, and be sure to check out the developer marketing tips offered at his blog.

Continue reading WWDC Live: Dan Wood, Karelia Software

TUAWWWDC Live: Dan Wood, Karelia Software originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, Internet Tools, First Look

Google released a new tool for Mac users today. With Google Quick Search Box (QSB), you can perform searches of anything on your Mac or the Web with a few keystrokes. After downloading QSB, I installed it and gave it a test drive on my MacBook Air. After a short first look, I can say that QSB is going to be in constant use on my Macs.

The application takes up about 18 MB of space on your Mac hard disk, and once it is installed a small search box hovers on your screen (see above). You can toggle the presence of the box by pressing Control-Space Bar. The keyboard shortcut, as well as the appearance of the search box, can be customized in a very thorough preferences panel.

Continue reading TUAW First Look: Google Quick Search Box for Mac

TUAWTUAW First Look: Google Quick Search Box for Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kids today are increasingly savvy at using things like computers and cell phones—this much is no surprise. But, according to a new report from the NPD Group, children’s use of tech is growing exponentially and is changing over time to reflect their parents’ changes in technology usage. There are differences between genders when it comes to different devices, too, and more kids than ever are getting their own laptops, cell phones, and other electronics.

NPD sampled 3,212 US households with children between the ages of 4 to 14 who have used at least one electronic device. The firm found that TVs and computers remained in the top two devices used by kids, though there has been a shift away from standard-definition TVs to HDTVs and from desktops to laptops. Of course, this is because adults are also shifting to HDTVs and laptops—therefore, that’s what’s available in the house. Still, NPD notes that there’s an increase in kids who have their own laptops, suggesting that parents are buying them specifically for the child’s use.

Click here to read the rest of this article

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We got plenty of advance word about this one, but EVGA has finally gotten fully official with its Mac Pro-friendly version of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 285 graphics card, which is now available to order from the Apple Store for the not so low price of $450. That’ll of course get you a card that’s mostly identical to its less-than-new PC counterpart, including 1GB of DDR3 memory, a whopping 240 processing cores, a memory clock speed a 2,584MHz, memory bandwidth of 159GB/sec, and a pair of dual-link DVI ports that can each drive a 30-inch monitor at 2,560 x 1,600 with ease — assuming you can still afford a pair of 30-inch monitors after you shell out for one of these, that is.

[Via PC World]

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

EVGA rolls out GeForce GTX 285 graphics card for Mac Pros originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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