Anyone want to sponsor me a Galaxy? (he asked, hopefully.)

CubeStormer II solves the Rubik’s Cube puzzle faster than the human world record.

This ARM Powered robot was designed, built and programmed by Mike Dobson and David Gilday, creators respectively of CubeStormer http://youtu.be/eaRcWB3jwMo and Android Speedcuber http://youtu.be/ylFb4pqAUd8.

Ja right? Ja. Right.

Look, I’m no expert, but it looks to me as if:

The mechanics are constructed entirely from LEGO, including four MINDSTORMS NXT kits, with the addition of a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone running a custom Android app as the robot’s brain. Both the MINDSTORMS NXT kits and the Samsung Galaxy SII use a variety of ARM –based processors.

The app uses the phone’s camera to capture images of each face of the Rubik’s Cube which it processes to determine the scrambled colours. The solution is found using an advanced two-phase algorithm, originally developed for Speedcuber, enhanced to be multi-threaded to make effective use of the smartphone’s dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.2GHz processor. The software finds an efficient solution to the puzzle which is optimised specifically for the capabilities of the four-grip mechanism. The app communicates via Bluetooth with software running on the ARM microprocessors in the LEGO NXT Intelligent Bricks which controls the motors driving the robot. During the physical solve, the app uses OpenGL ES on the phone’s ARM Mali-400 MP GPU to display a graphical version of the cube being solved in real time.

Human speedcubers’ solve times only include the physical manipulation of the cube and don’t include some time which is allowed to “inspect” the cube beforehand. Times recorded by CubeStormer II are for the total solve including: image capture, software solution calculation and physical solve.

Now I just need an Android-powered lego robot to pick my jaw up off the floor.

(thanks Jerm)

You can see my photos, follow me and whatever else you do with Instagram (I’m still learning) here.

I’m just going to see how it goes initially, but already it seems more mobile friendly than Vignette and Flickr for sharing photos. I think that that combination still has its place for longer term photo sharing though. Instagram is definitely more… instant.

Described as:

…a free social mobile app that enables drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation for an optimal commute. 100% powered by users, the more you drive the better it gets.

Waze allows you to send information about your journey to other Wazers on the road, so that a real-time map can be built up and the app can help other users to avoid troublespots. Because of this, it requires a “critical mass” of users to make it worthwhile and, as I pointed up above, it didn’t have that. Now, however, it has joined forces with MiX Telematics who already have 30,000 users using realtime reporting through their vehicle tracking services.

I found out about this from a rather enthusiastic John Maytham on Cape Talk, who has been enthusing enthusiastically about Waze ever since. Quite how this sits with Primedia’s support of the Lead SA campaign, I’m not sure. After all, they aren’t usually very impressed with people using their cellphones while driving.

My first impressions haven’t been brilliant. There are still very few users in Cape Town, and the information seems only to state the bleeding obvious: traffic is bad into town in the morning, traffic is bad out of town in the evening. Add to that the fact that because of the MASSIVE lump of rock we like to call “The Mountain” and its proximity to Table Bay, there aren’t an awful lot of alternative routes to take in the Mother City and Waze’s usefulness is immediately limited.

And then there’s the battery drain. Wow. I have never known an app like it for using power. A journey from Ysterplaat, via town, to home (about 30km) took over 50% of my (admittedly old) battery life. All of which means that even with a fully charged phone, you aren’t going to get much more than 90 minutes of Waze-related driving fun.

I’m too worldly wise to give up on apps very quickly, but Waze is already on the danger list.
Anyone care to tell me why it deserves to stay on my phone?

More on Waze in SA.
Waze on Android Market Google Play Store [QR].

UPDATE: Ooh – looks like 5fm Breakfast is running a Waze promotion next week as well. 6000 miles… slightly ahead of the curve again…

Twilight on Suiderstrand beach on Saturday evening, with the waves gently rolling in onto the pebbles as the sun sank slowly, but surely, into the South Atlantic. (f/8.0, 6s).

This one was edited in the new version of Picasa (v3.9) which has some lovely new features to play with and is becoming more like Instagram every day. Meanwhile, Instagram is “very soon” to be available for Android. I’ll certainly give it a go, but I’m still a huge fan of Vignette for Android.

You may also enjoy previous desktop background suggestions from January and February.
And there are a few more photos from this weekend here.

Sonic Notify is a flexible technology solution that presents a unique opportunity for content strategists focusing on proximity and live experience solutions. Their clients purchase a speaker, or a “beacon” (which come in multiple shapes and sizes) that send out high pitched audio signals inaudible to the human ear within music and other soundtracks that trigger compatible apps to launch websites, videos, texts, maps…etc.to pop up on people’s smartphones that are within range of the device. The technology can be installed anywhere from a super market, to a football stadium, to a personal wallet.

So you hear nothing, but your cellphone reacts to the inaudible signal and pops up with some content relevant to your current location. Here’s the video, in which the presenter (or rather the presenter’s smartphone) meets Jim and buys some cheap nappies:

Outstanding. And yes, while this technology has the potential to be rather invasive, it also has the potential to be hugely useful and beneficial to the smartphone user. I love it.

They were on the up, with about 37% of market share, RIM was in freefall (down to 25%) and Apple was doing “ok”, fairly steady at about 25%. Well, now Business Insider have updated that graph for November - 6 months on:

As BI note:

Android now has 52.5% of the global smartphone market. No matter how you want to slice it, that’s amazing. It’s stealing share from every other smartphone operating system other than iOS, which is basically flat.

Which begs the question, when you look for your next phone – why would you look at anything except Android?

Obviously, I can’t tell you which relationships it sums up perfectly, because the the relationshipees in question would probably be quite insulted.

As a devout Android fan and a devout Flickr fan, you can only begin to imagine my excitement when I heard that there was a new OFFICIAL! Flickr for Android app out. And that it seems set to challenge the currently iPhone only world of Instagram:

…there’s one feature that will catch everybody’s attention: photo filters.
The photo filters feature is almost identical to that of Instagram. The app comes with 10 filters that [Flickr Product Manager Markus] Spiering says are designed to “beautify” photos. They’re automatically uploaded to Flickr but can also be shared via Twitter, Facebook and email.

All well and good, but when I went to download it, I was told:

This app is not compatible with devices in your country.

Boo! At the time, there was nothing about this on the official help topic on flickr, nor on their blog, although they’ve now updated with a FAQ topic, telling us:

The Official Flickr for Android app is currently available in the below countries from the Android Market. To find it just go to the Android Market and search for “flickr yahoo”.

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States,

If the official app isn’t available in your country yet try one of the other great third party apps that you can use to browse and upload to Flickr!

Which is great. Unless you’re not in one of those countries and you want to use the app, obviously. I’m not sure what the restriction is – or rather why the restriction is, but as a fully paid up member of Flickr since 2005, I’m a little annoyed to be left out.

In the meantime, I shall continue using the undoubtedly brilliant Vignette (QR code) and the undoubtedly “ok” Flickfolio (QR code) for my photo-taking and uploading to Flickr needs.

Right, so you know when you are passing the harbour in Cape Town or looking down at it from the Mountain? [Joburg readers will have to try to imagine the scene, it's like looking down at a pool of acid drainage from a mine dump, but with ships and a higher pH]
Anyway, you know when you do that and you see all the ships and you wonder about what they’re doing there and where they’ve been?
Well now you can find out, thanks to MarineTraffic.com. And what’s more, you can see which ships are on the move and where they are going.

Some green ships and a red ship off Agulhas this evening.

And should you wish to impress your friends with your impressive knowledge of all things nautical, all you have to do is click on a boat and you get all sorts of “interesting” info about the vessel in question:

Which is all well and good, but which does require you and your friends to have a sea view from your office. Or to have your laptop on the beach. And that’s not ever so helpful.

If only there was an app for your phone so you could have the information to hand, wherever you were.

And of course, there is: for Android (QR code below), for iPhone and not for BB.

Perhaps it sounds rather dull, but it’s actually quite addictive. Soon you’ll be tracking tankers, cargo ships, German Navy vessels and mysterious “Unspecified Craft” around our shores. And because it’s free, you can try it risk-free and simply delete it for a full refund if you’re not completely satisfied.

You’re welcome.