London police launched on 25th of February a new advertising campaign. Posters and TV ads are urging Londoners to turn in people who might be taking pictures of CCTV cameras.

"Thousands of people take photos every day.

What if one of them seems odd ?

Terrorists use surveillance to help plan attacks, taking photos and making notes about security measures like the location of CCTV cameras.If you see someone doing that, we need to know.

Let experienced officers decide what action to take." 

Other posters target households:

"you see hundreds of houses every day. What if one has unusual activities and seems suspicious"

as well as mobile phone users :

"Thousands of people have mobiles. What if someone with several seems suspicious?"

What's going on in London ? Is the Metropolitan police not busy enough ? did they become completely paranoiac ? or do they need some budget increase ?

Where is this so famous British phlegm ?

As a response, many people have already redesigned the posters to point out the absurdity of them. Some samples are available on BoingBoing.

Tags: 2008, advertising, ATT, attack, blog, camera, civil liberties, counterterrorism, CTU, design, february, fon, ia, ict, im, King, lan, launch, location, london, mobile, mobile phone, nomadcom.net, officer, paranoia, PDF, phone, photo, photographers, Photography, picture, police, post, posters, public, security, snitch, suspect, terror, terrorism, uk, USA, user, wp, www, XP

This time iA (Information Architects) have taken almost 300 of the most influential and successful websites and pinned them down to the greater Tokyo-area train map

An A3 printable version is available as well as an online clickable one.

Where your prefered sites are located on this map ? Are you moving by the trend ? 

Tags: 2008, arc, blog, bt, ces, ia, im, information architects, lan, map, mapping, nomadcom.net, online, PDF, release, tendancy, train, trend, web, website, wp, www

Since, mid-2006 mobile phones with a built-in 3 MP camera and optical zoon are available on the market and already represent an alternative to low end digital camera. More than 70 models are available today with a 3 to 5 MP resolution. One of the first phone with a "real camera" was the famous one Nokia N93 and its Carl Zeiss Optics.

Samsung is now putting even more pressure on camera makers with the soon release (first on European market) of its G800. A 5 MP digital camera with 3x optical zoom into mobile phone… or is it the opposite? 

The specifications are rather attractive:

• Quad bands (900 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100  )
• Data network HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
• 2.4 inches TFT display with 256K colors
• Size 101x52x19mm for 129 gr (25% lighter than the Nokia N93)
• Standby 220 hours, talk time 3.5 hours.
• Memory 160 MB + MicroSD slot
• Document views (Office, PPT, PDF,)
• Email (POP3, IMAP), SMS, MMS,
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB 2.0, PCSync, OutlookSync, etc..
• FM Receiver, Java embedded, MP3, etc..

and indeed the built-in camera:

• 5 Mio Pixel
• 2592х1944 pixels
• autofocus
• video recording mode: MPEG4, 3GPP, H.263, H.264
• xenon flash
• 3x optical zoom /4x digital
• 4 shot modes
• 4 quality settings
• brightness adjustment

 All other specs are here

The big plus is definitively the 3x optical zoom which makes the difference with other 5 MP phones.  The resolution race continues as Samsung (them again) Electro-Mechanics announced on November 15th that 8 MP camera phones may be available by next summer following the successful development of a 10.5 x 11.5 x 9.4mm 8 megapixel CMOS censor.

Will camera makers develop new "point and shoot" camera with built-in phones  and multimedia facilities such MP3 player and FM receiver ?

I'm impatient to have one "box" less to carry when traveling…

What will you drop first ? your camera or your phone ?

Tags: 2007, 5 MP, 8 MP, api, ATT, blog, camera, ces, connectivity, development, digital, europe, flash, fon, gap, ia, im, lan, light, map, megapixels, memory, mobile, mobile phone, models, network, nokia, nomadcom.net, PDF, phone, phones, photo, point and shoot, press, release, resolution, samsung, sms, sun, Travel, uk, usb, video, wp, www

If everybody recognizes how useful PDF files are, most also agrees that Adobe Acrobat reader is big (download package is 22 MB) and really slow to load.

For a fast opening of PDF files, Foxit, a free, light and fast viewer often replaces Acrobat Reader but Foxit still requires an installation package (2 MB).

Sumatra PDF (beta 0.7), a new comer, is a free, light (0.8 MB), opensource, and single executable file which can easily be installed either on a computer or on an USB stick. 

 Via : Lifehacker

Tags: 2007, adobe, adobe acrobat, blog, ces, computer, foxit, free, HP, ia, im, install, lan, LED, light, nomadcom.net, opensource, PDF, portable, reader, space, sumatra pdf, usb, wp, www

HTC S710 is one of the first Windows Mobile® 6 devices to ship, and will be followed by a range of products based on the new operating system in the coming months.

In addition european owner of HTC recently launched “messaging” products such as the HTC Advantage, the HTC TyTN, the HTC S620, the HTC P4350 as well as the HTC P3300 will also benefits of Windows Mobile 6 as they are entitled to free Windows Mobile 6 upgrade.

The upgrade will also be available for some of HTC operator-branded devices. 

The upgrades will be rolled out from June, in line with HTC operator partners’ strategies and will be available for download at: http://downloads.europe.htc.com.

Sources: HTC Europe,  Coolsmartphone

 

Tags: 2007, art, blog, ces, europe, free, htc, HTC Advantage, im, lan, launch, LED, messaging device, microsoft, mobile, Mobile Communications, nomadcom.net, P3300, P4350, pda, PDF, phone, press, prophet, S620, S710, smartphone, space, TyTN, upgrade, windows, windows mobile 6, WM6, wp, www