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San Francisco to test wireless parking sensors, cause rat races to momentarily open spaces
We dig the idea in theory, we really do, but we can definitely see this causing more harm than good. Starting this fall, San Francisco will begin a trial involving wireless parking sensors in 6,000 of its 24,000 metered spaces, enabling antsy drivers to be alerted via street signs or cellphones when a spot becomes available. Only one problem -- give 50 anxious motorists the same message that a single spot is unoccupied, and you've just created a bona fide mess. Though it'd probably be fun to watch from the sidelines, wouldn't you agree?[Via Core77]
TUAW predicts WWDC '08
With WWDC right around the corner, the bloggers at TUAW have compiled a list of predictions for WWDC '08. While we are not sure what will be released, this is a fun list of what we think might be coming, or things that we really want. Be sure to voice your predictions in the comments, and by taking part in our poll. Steve SandeI'll take ".Mac rebranding and expansion to iPhone and Windows, 3G iPhone, iTablet, and Mac nano" for $500, Alex!Robert PalmerI think we might find out what the next "big cat name" will be for 10.6. [We're pretty sure we know what that'll be.] I think we'll start to see a development toolset for bringing all of Apple's devices together. Imagine a novice user being able to create a small app that runs on the iPhone, as a Dashboard widget, and maybe as a widget for some future Apple TV in one build. To do that, we need the next generation of Apple development tools. That's what we might begin to see at WWDC. Joshua EllisFlash on the iPhone, 3G, and I'd really love to see that iTablet and Mac nano action.Mike SchrammWe'll see 3G and new .Mac for sure, and I think we'll see some more official iPhone apps from Apple, in addition to everything else from the App Store. I don't think we'll see any other new hardware (a redesigned MBP may be in the cards, but an iTablet or Mac Nano is a no), but I do think we'll see a years-off glimpse of 10.6 -- with Leopard out and updated, Apple needs to start up some more OS hype.Chris UllrichiPhone 2.0 with 3G and video shooting capability. .Mac rebranding with new features similar to Google Apps and accessability to Windows users. iPhone 2.0 applications and some details on the next version of OSX code named "insert name of big cat here."Cory BohonWe'll definitely see some .Mac rebranding going on, some new "mystery hardware," and a sneak peak at what's beneath the hood of Mac OS X 10.6. I don't think we will see the iPhone 2.0 firmware hitting the streets just yet, and I think that Mac OS X 10.5.4 might be right around the corner.Brett TerpstraEnterprise solutions on the iPhone (I know, generic prediction). MBP update. Announcement that Apple was actually serious about using me.com, followed by a Keynote presentation with focus group study data indicating that it's actually a really, really good name.Michael RoseCan't wait for the over-the-air sync of .Mac/MobileMe, and I don't even own an iPhone! I think we'll get a launch date for the App Store and an on-sale date for iPhone 2, but neither of them will be during the show. I think we'll see a 10.6 seed preview and the Mac Nano... and maybe, just maybe, the iPhoneBig.Scott McNultyI'm with the crowd on the .Mac rebranding, and the 10.6 dog and pony show. We'll see (I think) iPhone 2.0, but what I'm really hoping for is a redesigned MacBook Pro. I'm about ready to replace mine, and I'd love to get one with a keyboard like the MacBook's.Now, it's your turn.%Poll-15011%
Discounted code for Social Gaming Summit
Previously reported, the Social Gaming Summit is full steam ahead and ready to go on June 13th at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, CA. It will be a day full of interesting panels and discussions about the interface between social networks and game spaces. If you were thinking of going but were on the fence, perhaps this will sweeten the deal for you: Massively readers have been offered a 10% discount code by the kind-hearted organizers behind the Summit! To register, visit the site and enter 'MASSIVELY' (minus the quotation marks, of course) where appropriate. This blogger will be in attendance, nosing around for news and interviews -- hope to see you there![Thanks, Charles!]
The Second Life Musician Showcase
On May 14th, San Francisco's Rock-It Room will witness the second coming of the Second Life Musician Showcase, featuring not one, not two, but seven Second Life musicians in the flesh. On the roster for the evening are Keiko Takamura, Melanie Keller, Hailey Bailey, BabbleGrabble Swindlehurst, Pato Milo, Jacopo de Nicola, and ZeroOne Paz.The previous show was a huge success, with the event simultaneously streamed into SL. Bravo to the Rock-It Room for the vision to host the event, and wishes for a great evening of fun and great tunes. For those local to SF, there will be a $5 cover, and the rest of you will likely be able to check out the stream. Contact Hailey Bailey in-world for more details![Thanks, Lisa!]
Comcast launches six new HD channels in San Francisco Bay area
Stressing out over taxes? Sure, a new half dozen HD channels on your EPG isn't apt to solve your problems, but at least you'll have something to look forward to when you're done fighting the lines at the post office, right? Comcast has announced that six newcomers are headed to the San Francisco Bay area today: Sci-Fi HD, Food Network HD, Animal Planet HD, The Learning Channel (TLC) HD, CNN HD and AMC HD. Users in the region will also have access to over 400 high-definition on-demand choices, but the release does note that certain parts of Santa Rosa, Hayward, San Leandro, Sunnyvale, Los Gatos and Saratoga will sadly be left out of the upgrade. Here's to hoping The Man isn't holding you down, eh?
The things we do to get you swag: Bourne Conspiracy strings us along
"Are you Mr. Stern, by chance?" A built man in a black suit asked, standing in front of a black Cadillac. His black sunglasses evenly split M.I.B. and The Matrix.I'd just stumbled into the daylight after an afternoon meeting near San Francisco's Union Square. I'd been standing on the sidewalk for a moment, shifting my attention between my notebook, phone, and this man. I'd stolen glances like I was meeting a blind date, wondering if this was my contact but not quite approaching himI confirmed my identity, and he motioned me over to the sedan. "I'll be taking you to the drop zone," he said and then was silent.A few weeks earlier, FedEx dropped off an unmarked, prepaid mobile phone. The carbon-copy shipping slip gave no origin address or FedEx account number. I called the delivery company and asked for more details, and all they could dig up was the location the phone was picked up. Some place called "Vivendi University" according to the agent. And so the marketing stunt began.%Gallery-20464%
Cinemassively: Second Life Bravia commercial
Two years ago, Sony dropped 250,000 colorful, bouncy balls down a street in San Francisco to show the clarity of their Bravia televisions. Last month, Second Life resident Dorky Mohr decided to recreate that commercial as a machinima. While it pokes fun at the physical balls not crashing the sim due to the Havok 4 upgrade, this blogger still saw the beauty of the original commercial in this one.[Thanks, Dorky!]If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
Second Life musicians to play San Francisco
Three accomplished musicians with regular gigs in Second Life will be bringing their music to San Francisco on March 12th in the Rock-it Room. Melanie Keller, Cylindrian Rutabaga, and Keiko Takamura will be bringing the Real to their previously virtual shows. Additionally, this event will be streamed into SL by way of the Friends of the Urban Forest, an organization that helps Greenify the environment by planting trees. Their sim will host the stream for those who can't make the event in SF. For those of you who've never seen a simultaneous SL/Real life event, it's worth the cost of admission alone!
GDC08: An evening with Will Wright minus friends (video)
I applied for, and received an invitation to 'An Evening with Will Wright and Friends', held in Mezzanine, a swanky club in San Francisco's SOMA district on Thursday evening. I didn't know what exactly to expect, but I knew two things: 1) It wasn't going to be about Spore, and 2) It was Will Freaking Wright. How did I know Spore wasn't on the offering? 'Cause we're all kind of Spore'd out, aren't we?I was right about the lack of Spore, but was pleasantly surprised and gratified to hear Will speak on a variety of topics -- James Bond, cosmonauts, Gilligan's Island as the predecessor of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics, Godzilla, Care Bears, Lost, Walt Disney, Battlestar Galactica, Spiderman, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -- before finally wrapping it all up with the observation that the stories that resonate with us are deconstructible; we can reduce them to components, and using those components, build our own stories. Finally, accepting questions from the audience, I asked him what advice he'd give NASA as they create their MMO. His friends never showed up, but man, Will Wright is always worth a listen. He knows his stuff so well and is such a wonderful speaker ... check out the video I shot after the break, and you'll see what I mean.
San Francisco bus getting WiFi, deathmatch to follow
Finally things are starting to get a little more futuristic around here. Beginning next Monday, bus riders in San Francisco will get a chance to hop at least one ride that will take them to the Columbus stop, Van Ness stop... and the World of Tomorrow. Thanks to the combined effort of SF's Muni and Cisco, the "Connected Bus" will be hauling around free WiFi and touchscreen maps on its walls (which will also carry updated connecting transit information). Sure, it's no citywide wireless coverage, but combined with the BART train WiFi rollout, it's certainly a start. Cisco tested the bus with 15 riders checking email and downloading music and movies on laptops, and say that the signal was "strong and uninterrupted," though they admit they haven't tested the system during a 15-player fragfest. Anyone up for a ride?[Thanks, Paul in SF]
Massively's at GDC!
Happy Monday, everyone! Joystiq and Massively are out in force on the streets of San Francisco this week covering the Game Developers Conference. Through we're bleary-eyed from late night Rock Band sessions and just starting on our daily caffeine allotment (hey, it's still morning in California!) we're here for you, covering all the news that's fit to virtually print. Today and tomorrow we'll be at the Worlds in Motion Summit, where it's all virtual worlds, all the time, and for the rest of the week we'll be out on the show floor searching out every tidbit of MMO news. Keep an eye out for the latest on all of your favorite games this week from GDC! Gallery: GDC 2008 Pre-show
Joystiq vs. GDC: We're here!
Which is good news for you, the reader, but precisely the opposite for the poor developers that have to suffer our obscure questions, grating complaints and hideously broken social skills. It is the Game Developers Conference, after all, and not the Incessantly Whining Bloggers Conference (which totally sucks, FYI). Still, if the bustling city of San Francisco wishes to blame anyone for a recent invasion of laptop-wielding lunatics, it would have to point its sky-scraping finger straight at you. It's your fault, you know. It's your fault that we'll be here covering every aspect of the conference and your fault that you'll be reading constant updates throughout the week. You're also to blame for our early trip to an empty Moscone Center and the resulting post and image gallery. We hope you're happy.%Gallery-16275%
San Francisco's CBS affiliate (KPIX) flips newscasts to HD
Hard though it may be to believe, San Francisco's own CBS affiliate still wasn't beaming out its newscasts in high-definition earlier this week. Thankfully for those looking for one more reason to tune in, KPIX-TV has finally gone live with HD news and can be seen in high-def on channels 5.1 (OTA locally / DirecTV / DISH) and 705 (Comcast). Go on, Bay Area, bust out the party hats -- CBS 5 is now bringing you 30 hours per week of local HD programming. Check out the full release after the jump.[Thanks, Akilah]
WiFi trial comes to San Francisco's BART trains
Merely hours after hearing that a contactless payment trial was going live on San Francisco's BART, along comes word that a test of a slightly different nature was also underway on the very same public transportation system. Reportedly, a recent Wi-Fi Rail installation on a select stretch of track proved that WiFi could be delivered to passengers at around 15Mbps -- up and down -- and if things go smoothly, the firm hopes to get its technology onto all sorts of rail systems across the globe. Unfortunately, there doesn't look to be any firm plans for the trial to stick on BART, but who knows, keep on refreshing that nearby network list on the morning commute and you might just get lucky.
Contactless payment trial goes live on San Francisco's BART
We knew full well that a contactless payment trial would soon be underway in the city by the Bay, and now it's finally ready for use by 230 guinea pigs. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of details on the Samsung handsets and the technology itself, but we do know that the program is being closely watched in hopes of it operating quite smoothly. If indeed that happens, it could be "expanded," presumably allowing others in the area to have their bank account dinged with the swipe of a cell each time they need a lift. Furthermore, a video clip at CBS5 shows the pilot phone being used to snag some totally nourishing grub from Jack in the Box. Hungry for more? Hit up the read link to take a peek yourself.[Thanks, Hans]
San Francisco security cameras ineffective due to poor framerates
We're not huge fans of overzealous security camera deployment, but if you're going to spend taxpayer money deploying nannycams, at least make sure they're capturing more than one frame every two seconds -- the rate at which San Francisco's $900,000 system is running. A study of the city's 68 cameras found that the system has only led to one arrest in two and a half years of operation, and the main reason for the failure is uselessly slow video -- which is grainy, to boot. Compare that to Chicago's much-hated (but effective) system, which runs at 30fps, and it's obvious why the president of San Francisco's Police Commission said the city was "throwing money away." There's no word on how or when the issue might be resolved, but the city is due to review the system and issue a determination soon. Check the read link for a video of the system in (in)action.[Thanks, Paul B.]
IDS to offer up floating data centers?
Details are still murky at this point, but it seems a company dubbed IDS is getting set to change the way we look at traditional data centers. The San Francisco-based startup is reportedly about to build 22 new centers, but rather than looking for unused closets and underground caverns to store hardware, it's planning to erect said data centers on decommissioned cargo ships. The plan doesn't really sound all that far-fetched -- after all, it can use sea water for cooling, there's loads of on board fuel for power generation during disasters and they can be easily used in coastal cities where free land is an issue. Purportedly, IDS will be transitioning out of secrecy in the near future, so we should be hearing a lot more on how it plans to progress real soon.[Via DailyTech]
The Second Life Philip Linden/Gavin Newsom Fireside Chat, Part 1
As reported here, today saw the meeting of minds between Second Life's Philip Rosedale (aka Philip Linden) and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom at the New Globe Theater, a meeting held and sponsored by Millions of Us, a metaverse development company (MDC), with Reuben Millionsofus as moderator. This is the mp3 and transcript of part one of the chat. I have chosen to edit out of the transcript, for the most part, verbal tics that don't contribute to the content of the chat, but these elements remain in the mp3. If you're unfamiliar with Second Life, every now and then you'll hear what sounds like a Polaroid camera going off -- this is the sound of in-world snapshots being taken of the proceedings. You will also hear typing sounds from time to time -- this is the default typing animation sound.Part two will go up tomorrow at this time. Enjoy![Mp3] Download the MP3 directly[Thanks, Celebrity!]
San Fran buses to get cameras for ratting on bus lane parking offenders
Sure, everybody's done it at one point or another, but San Francisco is trying to put the kibosh on traffic-chocking illegal bus lane parking with new cameras the city will be mounting on public transport buses -- Big Brother style. The cameras are mounted behind the windshield and bus drivers can use them to automatically photograph offenders. During the trial phase, parking baddies will get off with a warning, but in a month San Fran will start issuing $100 tickets. Better get that shopping done soon! [Via AutoblogGreen]
Meraki promises free, citywide WiFi network for San Francisco
It looks like the folks at Meraki are angling to the fill in the WiFi gap left after San Francisco pulled the plug on the much-hyped Google / Earthlink deal, although, conveniently for them, that doesn't amount to them doing anything all that different than what they've always been doing. Still, with a fresh $20 million in funding, the company is certainly better positioned to put the citywide mesh network into place, which they say could eventually use as many as 15,000 wireless antennas to bounce WiFi signals around the city (quite a boost from the 500 repeaters now providing service to a few neighborhoods). If the network spreads as far as the company hopes, it would apparently be the largest mesh network in the US and, obviously, be quite the showpiece for the company to use to attract business elsewhere.[Thanks, Paul B]
