Researchers at Lab42 wanted to know “what makes certain codes so scanworthy,” so they conducted an online survey via social networks of 500 Americans over 18, and found out that many people don’t even know what a QR code is.

via Why Are Some QR Codes More Scanworthy Than Others? [INFOGRAPHIC].

Eric at the lab showed me this. The project is called CrazyCopter. It is basically a micro quadcopter built complete on a PC Board and four motors. The board is densely packed with 2 gyros and an accelerometer feeding a Cortex-M3 processor. The whole thing can be programmed via wireless…and it sends its telemetry data to the computer via 2.4GHz Radio as well.

I want to build one badly. Hopefully these guys will release the plans and open source the project. *Drool…*

It could be that I’m still a bit telephonophobic for social calls, but it is more likely that the design of the phone call has subconsciously made me choose not to use it for anything where it isn’t absolutely necessary.  While I’m on the phone all the time for work, I will almost never call a friend up on a telephone…and some find that weird.  But, this story articulates many of the reasons why I dislike phone calls.

“Consider: If I suddenly decide I want to dial you up, I have no way of knowing whether you’re busy, and you have no idea why I’m calling. We have to open Schrödinger’s box every time, having a conversation to figure out whether it’s OK to have a conversation. Plus, voice calls are emotionally high-bandwidth, which is why it’s so weirdly exhausting to be interrupted by one. (We apparently find voicemail even more excruciating: Studies show that more than a fifth of all voice messages are never listened to.)

The telephone, in other words, doesn’t provide any information about status, so we are constantly interrupting one another. The other tools at our disposal are more polite. Instant messaging lets us detect whether our friends are busy without our bugging them, and texting lets us ping one another asynchronously. (Plus, we can spend more time thinking about what we want to say.) For all the hue and cry about becoming an “always on” society, we’re actually moving away from the demand that everyone be available immediately.

In fact, the newfangled media that’s currently supplanting the phone call might be the only thing that helps preserve it. Most people I know coordinate important calls in advance using email, text messaging, or chat (r u busy?). An unscheduled call that rings on my phone fails the conversational Turing test: It’s almost certainly junk, so I ignore it. (Unless it’s you, Mom!)

Indeed, I predict that as this sort of hybrid coordination evolves, it will produce a steep power law in the way we use voice calls. We’ll still make fewer, as most of our former phone time will migrate to other media. But the calls we do make will be longer, reserved for the sort of deep discussion that the medium does best.”

via Clive Thompson on the Death of the Phone Call | Magazine.

Why the iPad Hasn’t Killed Kindle – Newsweek.

This article has a lot of reasons why the iPad hasn’t killed the Kindle…yet.  I read a LOT on eBook devices, and originally I thought the same thing.

In an attempt to travel with less devices, I started reading on the iPad. Yes, it may be a bit heavier, you’ll need to recharge the iPad more often, and there is a bit more eyestrain if you don’t adjust the brightness of the iPad if you are reading in the dark…

Even so, I find the ONLY real benefit to the Kindle and the other eInk eReaders is that they are much easier to read in bright sunlight.  This is because eInk depends on light reflecting off the screen like normal paper–the more light, the better!  In contrast, the iPad screen generates the light that you are seeing, and bright sunlight reflecting off the screen actually overwhelms the light being put out by the device and makes the screen harder to read.

This isn’t a big problem normally as I read mostly indoors, but it can be an issue if you do a lot of reading outdoors at the beach or lounging by the pool.

This article also misses a point.  Actually I think the writer was a bit confused when writing that section of the story.  With Apple iPad you are NOT locked to just Apple’s bookstore.  The fact that the iPad can run Apps means that it can run Amazon Kindle reader, the app for Kobo, etc.

The variety of sources for reading makes it the best eReader available.  I just finished reading a couple of Kindle books on the iPad and it worked well–actually better as the iPad has a touch screen that I could swipe to change pages.

Amazon likely doesn’t care either.  They’re making their money selling eBooks.  The Kindles are only a delivery and consumption mechanism.  If they can increase their eBook revenue stream without producing, selling, or supporting hardware, in my view that’s a big bonus!