This is an oldie but goodie, Microsoft Research showing off their scene stitching and management software called Photosynth. The program lets you navigate and view linked and related images without having to pre-tag photos. It also lets you fly thru a scene of photos to view them from any angle. It even recognizes key objects in a photo and automatically applies hyperlinks to them. So far its sounds cool, like a super charged iPhoto on crack but the really cool stuff is its 3D stitching capabilities.

Photosynth allows you to recreate three dimensional experiences you can navigate thru by stitching together 2D photos of that scene. For example, you want to relive your recent trip to the Eiffel Tower? Assuming you took enough photos, Photosynth can recreate that seen for you to view and share.

Best part is it’s free. You’ll need a decent graphics card with XP SP2 or Vista installed. Happy photosynthing!

It’s about damn time sheesh! Nokia just released version 1.0 beta of their Media Transfer software for Mac users and it looks pretty cool. Via USB or Bluetooth, you can drag and drop photos directly from iPhoto, sync non-DRM’d music and movies from iTunes, and install additional applications and games. They’re still working on syncing calendars and contacts but all in due time.

Media Transfer is compatible with all Symbian S60 phones and applications. I hope Sony Ericsson decides to do the same thing soon for their Symbian based mobiles.

Get the download here.

[Via All About Symbian]

That “other” codec often ignored by Mac zealots wants you to love it so for today and today only, DivX Pro Mac is free. That includes the player, DivX Converter, and the DivX codec. Before you dismiss it, didn’t your mother teach you never to poo-poo anything free?

Download it now!

Software and industrial design house Frog Design have created a new music jukebox player for Alltel Wireless subscribers called Jump Music. It has direct compatibility with eMusic and like iTunes and iPod, will keep your music synced with your Alltel phone. Kinda ironic since Frog Design once designed Apple products during Steve Jobs’ ousting. It’s also kinda ironic that Alltel would go thru all this trouble for all 4 of its customers. Okay okay, I’m being mean - all 8 of their customers.

[Via Crunch Gear]

Seems the buyer of a small mobile OS developer called SavaJe was revealed to be Sun Microsystems itself. SavaJe is a Java based mobile platform aimed at manufacturers who want the flexibility of open source software combined with the power of Java. The buy out could mean Sun will take on Microsoft, Symbian, Palm and now Apple in the mobile OS market.

Things could get interesting since Sun has been looking for something new to invest in. Many games and 3rd party applications already use Java. That ubiquity could potentially give Sun a huge step-up in matching the bevy of apps available for Symbian and WinMo based phones.

Manu Kumar, a doctoral student from Stanford University, believes the mouse will one day be replaced by our gaze.

The aptly titled project GUIDe, Gaze-enhanced User Interface Design uses eye tracking software called EyePoint with a hi-definition camera to navigate files and surf the web. The approach requires the user to simply focus in on the area they wish to interact with. The area becomes magnified and a hot-key is released to initiate the click. Kumar hopes to eliminate the need for a hot-key altogether and future gazed-based iterations will only require you to blink to initiate a click.

It seems interface design is moving away from tactile responses towards modular digital interfaces. The reasoning being they better imitate the natural gestures people use. Understanding this dichotomy, Kumar originally included a blue dot to follow your gaze so you always knew where you’re looking at but the eye is so much faster optically, the dot slowed a user down considerably. We don’t have natural tactile feedback when we look at something so subsequent tests sans the blue dot revealed people could navigate almost as fast as a mouse if they just trust themselves.

[Via Technology Review]

By now everyone has heard of the game Second Life or as I affectionately like to call it, “the game that isn’t Warcraft.”  Ok, ok, I relent…some of you out there may like it. It does have some “unique” features like being able to privately own in game property. Indeed the games motto from the start was to allow the user to completely immerse themselves in a virtual world.  Well it just got more real.

Starting March 6, Second Life will begin beta testing a new integrated voice chat which will allow the user to communicate with their fellow Second Lifians in their own voice. This new chat feature will have two settings, personal voice chat, allowing anyone in the vicinity to hear the conversation, and also group voice chat, allowing only designated players to hear the person’s voice.

Players who currently pay the $295 monthly maintenance fee (should get their head examined) will not have to fork over any more cash to have this feature installed on their properties. However those players that have been grandfathered in with lower fees may be required to upgrade.

Sounds like we are one step closer to jacking into the matrix. Just make sure you all make it back to Zion in time for dinner.

[Via CNet]