Interactive Guest Assistants

Santander’s Group City in Madrid is certainly one of the most advanced places. Apparently this is the location of one of the largest banks in the world, and is employed by about 5,500 people.
These are “Interactive Guest Assistants” with a screen in front of them to ask the visitor where they want to go. They will then take you to the conference room or wherever you wish to be going. Do not let the perspective in this photo fool you, these robots are only a little higher than the average person’s knee

Apple unveils new iPod with Wi-Fi

SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Apple announced Wednesday the first major overhaul of its popular iPod music digital players in nearly two years and slashed the price of its new iPhone.

CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a series of iPod upgrades - including more storage and bigger screens - but the showstopper was a new model dubbed the iPod Touch and fashioned after the iPhone.

The new iPod Touch is modeled after Apple's new cell phone, the iPhone.

Apple (down $7.40 to $136.76, Charts, Fortune 500) also announced a new version of its iTunes music store that will allow users to buy songs wirelessly.

In iPhone news, Jobs said Apple will discontinue one of the two models sold since late June. The remaining version, with 8 gigabytes of storage, will now sell for $399, or $200 less than before.

Investors, however, weren't happy about the price cut (and neither were iPhone owners). Apple shares closed down 5.1 percent on Wednesday.

Jobs detailed the iPhone changes and other developments at an invitation-only press conference held in San Francisco.

The biggest news centered on Apple's iPod line. To date, the company has sold more than 100 million iPods, but sales have been drifting since last year's holiday shopping season and profit margins are shrinking.

Apple now sells four different types of iPod: the Touch, Shuffle, Nano and the original model, which Jobs christened the Classic on Wednesday.

A new version of the Classic comes with a full metal design and is thinner than its predecessor. A $249 version has 80 gigabytes of storage and 30 hours of audio. A slightly thicker model features 160 gigabytes of storage and will retail for $349.

"This boggles the mind," Jobs said. He noted that the original iPod could hold up to 1,000 songs. Today, an iPod can store 40,000 songs.

The new Nano, meanwhile, will have video and a larger, brighter screen with an interface similar to the iPhone. Apple will also bundle three games into the new Nano, including Sudoku from Electronic Arts.

The new Nano will feature two memory sizes: A 4-gigabyte model for $149 and an 8-gigabyte model for $199. It will be sold in black, red, silver, blue and green.

Jobs said the new Nanos should be in stores by this weekend.

As for the iPod Touch, Apple watchers had speculated for days that Apple would unveil an iPod similar to its new mobile phone. Though slimmer than the iPhone, the iPod Touch features a similar multitouch interface, built-in Wi-Fi and the Safari Internet browser.

Like the iPhone, the iPod Touch can play YouTube videos. It will retail for $299 or $399, depending on the memory installed.

One thing the iPod Touch can't do that the iPhone can: make or receive phone calls.

Jobs said Apple will begin shipping the iPod Touch this month.

Next up: The 'iCar'?

Fathers Create Bulletproof Backpacks

It's time for parents to make the annual trek to get back to school items, which usually includes jeans, jerseys and a few notebooks.

NewsCenter 5's Pam Cross reported Thursday that a couple of North Shore men want parents to consider something else -- a bulletproof backpack.

"They have them with them on the floor, on their laps, on the bus. They always have a backpack," said Joe Curran, of My Child's Pack.

It started with the Columbine shooting in 1999. Curran and Mike Pelonzi said that they watched and worried for their own children. They had the idea to hide bulletproof material inside a backpack. They call it defensive action.

"If the kid has a backpack next to them, or under the desk, they can pick it up, the straps act as a handle and it becomes a shield," Curran said.

It's much lighter than a 15-pound police vest. After three years of experimenting, the backpacks that were tested by an outside lab ranked threat level two. It stops an assortment of bullets, including 9-millimeter hollow point bullets. The fathers researched school shootings from 1900 to this year.

They will sell for $175, but do the special book bags play upon paranoia when most schools are called safe?

"I want to keep my kid safe. I don't care what you do -- if you want to fight the good fight or fix the world's hurts, I can't help you, but my kids are going to be safe because of these backpacks," Curran said.

Copyright 2007 by TheBostonChannel.com.

Casio Exilim

User created content has really taken off in a big way, which is why you see tons of social networking sites, blogs, and video sharing services online today. Take YouTube for example - it is safe to say that this is currently the most popular medium for you to, in the website’s own words, “broadcast yourself”. Casio certainly has not let this aspect past their attention, and the company’s sensitivity to market changes is shown in the latest range of Exilim digital cameras. Both the Casio Exilim EX-S880 and EX-Z77 are standard compact digital cameras which are capable of facilitating multiple movie uploads directly to YouTube as well as various video sharing websites. In addition, it comes with optimization capability for eBay photos, enhanced blur reduction, and face recognition capacity.

For those who were early birds to the home video scene, they can definitely tell you that presenting your video material to the entire world back then was a whole lot more complicated than today. Casio has certainly made this process dummy-proof in both cameras, where the YouTube capture mode will record video in MPEG 4 H.264 high quality video format in the most optimal compression ratio, enabling users to record longer without the need to sacrifice their movie’s quality. Resolution stands at 640 x 480 at 30fps, which is pretty commendable by any standard.

The Exilim EX-Z77 and EX-S880 come with a megapixel count of 7.2 and 8.1 respectively, where both run on the Exilim Engine 2.0 image processing module for the sharpest possible pictures under any condition. An auto-tracking automatic focus system and motion analysis technology helps reduce blur during shooting, which definitely comes in handy for people like me who seem to suffer from shaky hands (a sign of too much coffee, perhaps?). The eBay Best Shot Mode is also pretty interesting, capturing photos at a size that is image optimized for display on eBay. Those interested in either camera will be able to pick one up this August, where the EX-S880 retails for $299.99 while the EX-Z77 is $70 cheaper.

personal gps.....

Keeping track of a teenager often involves a keen mind and a sensitive nose, but thankfully we have the people-buddi GPS system that helps you keep track of your family no matter where they are. Small enough to be tucked into a pocket or backpack, the people-buddi GPS system uses both GPS and GSM technology to keep you informed of the individual’s whereabouts that can be accessed via the Internet or the company’s customer support line. The people-buddi isn’t cheap though, retailing for $600 a pop and requires an upkeep cost of $40 per month.