Skype comes to iPhone, finally…

Skype finally announced that they have created an official app for their services. It took them a while, but this may be the beginning of a solid platform for VoIP on mobile phones.  It is able to place and receive calls through your existing Skype account, however it still requires WiFi capabilities (will work on the iPod Touch as well). Here’s some more info:

Skype’s screens are well organized and use the iPhone’s ability to add filters, for instance, to sort your contacts alphabetically, or by who’s online. There’s chatting as well, though Skype’s flagship feature is its VoIP calling that’s free to other Skype users and an inexpensive per-minute fee to landlines. Calls on Skype for iPhone work only if you’re in range of a Wi-Fi network, so your call quality will in part be at the mercy and strength of wireless networks nearby–calls will not work over the cell phone network on the iPhone (but chatting will.) Assuming your connection is solid, you can dial a number or quickly call a contacts stored in your address book. iPod Touch users will need earphones with an embedded mic to talk. During a call, you can mute the line, go on hold, or put the call on speakerphone. In the My Info window, you can follow a link to buy more SkypeOut credit online.

——————-
Sources:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10206786-233.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=iPhoneAtlas

Read Full Post »

The Singularity is getting closer…

I have been fascinated by Ray Kurzweil’s hypotheses on Artificial Intelligence since they year 2000 when i read The Age of Spiritual Machines.  We are seeing unprecedented change in our daily lives due to the rapid growth of computational capacity that our computers and electronic devices contain.  It won’t be long until a netbook can be bought for every child for less than $100, and cell phones will house the capacity of computers that we use today.  Barring any major distruptive disaster, I see the process of technological advancement as an inevitable process.

In astrophysics, “singularity” refers to conditions on the far side of a black hole. But it was Kurzweil who gave the term new resonance in his 2005 best seller, The Singularity Is Near. Here, it designates a point in the not-so-distant future when artificial intelligence will outstrip human brainpower and ingenuity. (Think IBM’s Deep Blue vs. Kasparov, on a planet-wide scale.) In Kurzweil’s best-case scenario, man will merge with machines via tiny robotic devices implanted in our bodies and brains, extending our lifespans and vastly enhancing our mental prowess. Bionic brains, Kurzweil says, will make short work of the world’s intractable problems, from climate change to drug-resistant diseases.

Borrowing from microelectronics, Kurzweil uses the paradigm called Moore’s Law to show that the singularity isn’t just plausible but inevitable. Simply put, it states that the power of semiconductors doubles every two years. Engineers have repeatedly declared the end of this cycle, only to see computers grow more and more powerful. Turning to biology, Kurzweil notes that it took 15 years to sequence the HIV virus. In 2003 scientists took less than a month to sequence the newly emerged SARS virus.

See my previous blog post here for a video that exemplifies some of the changes we are currently seeing in our daily lives.  Before watching the video in the previous post, imagine someone showing you this video 10 years ago and telling you that technology would reshape the world the way it has in only 10 years!  Now try to imagine our world 10 years from now!

—————————
Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com//magazine/content/09_12/b4124044178284.htm?chan=magazine+channel_new+ideas+for+growth

Read Full Post »

Did You Know?

We are living in a time when information is being created at an exponential growth rate.  This means, to be successful, you must change the way you process, assimilate and utilize information.  Below I have attached to awesome videos that descibe the massive amounts of change that we are seeing. Watch the shorter version if you are time constrained.  The longer version contains more technology facts than the first.

Short Version (5 min)

Longer Version (1o min)

Read Full Post »

Federal Debt Held by Foreign & International Investors

This stuff is crazy.  These numbers represent the amount of US debt held by foreign investors.  You can see over the past 8 years the number has tripled!  This pattern cannot hold forever or the US Dollar will collapse.  This is evidence that supports all those that are bullish on gold and ther commodities and hard assets.  Note, these numbers are published by the US Department of Treasury!

2001-06-30  1000.5
2001-09-30  1005.5
2001-12-31  1051.2
2002-03-31  1067.1
2002-06-30  1135.4
2002-09-30  1200.8
2002-12-31  1246.8
2003-03-31  1286.3
2003-06-30  1382.8
2003-09-30  1454.2
2003-12-31  1533.0
2004-03-31  1677.1
2004-06-30  1739.6
2004-09-30  1798.7
2004-12-31  1853.4
2005-03-31  1956.3
2005-06-30  1879.6
2005-09-30  1930.6
2005-12-31  2036.0
2006-03-31  2084.5
2006-06-30  1979.8
2006-09-30  2027.3
2006-12-31  2105.0
2007-03-31  2196.7
2007-06-30  2193.9
2007-09-30  2237.2
2007-12-31  2352.9
2008-03-31  2507.5
2008-06-30  2634.2
2008-09-30  2848.2
2008-12-31  3125.0

Note: These numbers are in billions, so as of Q4 2008 the US has $3.125 Trillion in outstanding foreign debt!

———————
Sources:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/FDHBFIN.txt

Read Full Post »