Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

It would appear the nature is slowly becoming obsolete. Who needs real plants when fake ones are easier to look after? Who needs real light when light bulbs, light balls and light walls are easily available? And who needs beautiful scenery when you can make it in Photoshop? It is becoming more common for people to just ignore nature, and instead replace it with expensive electronic gadgets. And it would appear that not even the sky is excluded from this ‘anti-nature revolution’.

I am not saying that SkyCeiling is totally useless and has no purpose, and to be fair it seems to be very good at what it does; imitating the sky. It is programmable, essentially meaning you can customize the sky that you see through a skylight in your ceiling. It can change throughout the day, and throughout the seasons which will at least keep it interesting as well as having some ‘theatrical effects’ such as dark blue moonlight or long shadows.

The website for the product emphasizes the ‘health benefits’ of this product, claiming that it can help a range of patients, from dementia to Alzheimer’s, which you cannot deny is a good thing...but can it be comparable to the health benefits to being outside under the real sky?

In conclusion I cant see how this will sell particularly well, for several reasons. People don’t often look at the sky in the same way they would look through a window; and the principal purpose of a skylight is usually purely for light. This taken into account, it would seem that SkyCeiling is little more than an expensive, advanced and largely unnecessary novelty.

Product [TheSkyFactory]

It could be the first 21st century plague. Or a class action lawsuit waiting to happen. In any event, a Santa Fe, New Mexico man is leading the charge to get wireless hotspots banned from public buildings in his city, claiming he and others are ultra-sensitive to Wi-Fi radio frequencies.

No medical or scientific groups have come out yet to substantiate claims like these, which have been making the media rounds for the last couple of years; a British woman who is trying to raise awareness about what some are calling electro-sensitivity received some press last year. Her story (and even the photo of her in protective headgear, which looks like a beekeeper’s helmet) may remind you of a Todd Haynes film from 1995, “Safe,” starring Julianne Moore as a woman who was having unhealthy reactions to toxins in air, water and food - “environmental pollution.” Are we now on the cusp of spectrum sickness?

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Both Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault are now offering their services - and servers - to consumers who want to store their personal health records (PHRs) online. Consumer advocates say they’ll be keeping a close eye on both technology giants to make sure they have a healthy respect for their customers’ privacy.

Yet Google Health’s privacy policy admits that its service is not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act (HIPPA), which Congress passed 12 years ago to protect medical records. And HealthVault’s privacy policy makes no mention of HIPPA, instead asking consumers to put their trust in TRUSTe, the independent, non-profit group founded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and sponsored by Microsoft and AOL, for enforcement of privacy standards.

I asked the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C. for its reaction to Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault. The email I received from Deven McGraw, director of the CDT’s Health Privacy Project, acknowledges that both companies have good privacy policies.

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The Microsoft-Yahoo! game goes into extra innings, but the Kings of Search motor along as if they were, indeed, the only game in town.

The Official Google Blog’s latest post from VP of Search Product Marissa Mayer lets slip a few R&D goodies stemming from an “informal gathering - a factory tour of sorts.” The company also took its Google Health service public, allowing users to store their medical records and information online and share them with authorized parties in what Google promises to be a safe, secure setting. Microsoft’s Healthvault promises the same level of privacy; yet another battlefield for the two tech giants to play on. I can’t wait to see which brand convinces the most consumers that their data servers can indeed be trusted with this extremely sensitive user information.

Mayer’s blog post points to coming innovations in user intent search, geographic search, “as well as how ads might work to enhance the user experience in image search.” That last point will no doubt stir the pot now bubbling over with talk of Microsoft buying Yahoo’s search ad business, or Google and Yahoo partnering up in that category. And tell me again how a potentially unwanted advertisement will add to my user experience when I’m searching for a photo on Google?

Read [Google Blog]

A report was released today that’ll be good news for all the gamers out there that have significant others telling them to stop gaming. Besides past studies that have proven that gaming improves hand-eye coordination, a new study has come out saying that playing video games helps improve vision by up to 20%. More specifically, the study lists action games, such as Unreal Tournament, Battlefield 2142, and Counter-Strike as the games most likely to improve a person’s vision.

The study tested two different games, the classic Tetris game, along with Unreal Tournament. Tetris had almost no effect on the eye sight of its players, while Unreal Tournament gave its players a 20% boost in eye sight. The test was conducted at the University of Rochester.

Read [Gizmodo] Via [University of Rochester]

Last week Philips had their annual “Holiday’s in June” showcase where they presented the hottest new Philips products in style in good ‘ol NYC. The video (though not prettiest coverage) walks you through the new products as well as this image gallery. It looks like there will be a bunch of great new product for us to feast our eyes and ears on including the new Portable Media Center, Ambilight Full Surround TVs, HTS6500 Home Theater System, MP3 players and don’t forget the HD7832 Senseo Coffeemaker.