The woefully incomplete Louvre app for iPhone offers little to smile about.
J'adore France and the French people. But I'm pretty disappointed with Musee du Louvre, a free but painfully brief virtual tour of the famous museum.
The app consists of four main sections. In Louvre: The Visit, you get a video tour of seven well-known areas of the museum, including The Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa.
However, each "tour" lasts less than 20 seconds, and the default language is French. If you tap the screen to bring up the controls and then tap the language icon, you can select English (or German or Japanese), but there's no way to make it the default. You have to perform this step for each video, each time you watch it.
In Artworks, you get a Cover Flow-style selection of famous paintings--but only 20 of them. Tap one to get information about the work, a zoom-and-pan-able full-screen view, and a map showing its location within the museum.
The Palace follows the same format, but focuses on areas of the Louvre itself rather than individual artworks.
Finally, there's the prerequisite visitor information, including hours and admission fees--but no maps to or of the museum (save for the aforementioned few).
Musee du Louvre does let you bookmark any item for easy reference, but with so little content, this seems rather pointless. Hopefully the curators developers will turn this incomplete tease of an app into the rich, arts-friendly resource it should be.
In the meantime, anyone planning a visit to the actual museum would be much better served by Rick Steves' Louvre Tour ($4.99).
The Pyramids at Giza sound like the perfect place for an Apple Store.
(Credit: Crave UK)Apple has opened an Apple Store at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, an upscale shopping center beneath the famous Louvre art gallery. We reckon Apple products will look right at home in an art gallery, and we've come up with some suggestions for where Monsieur Jobs should open the next branch of Apple Store.
The new Magasin du Pomme, which opened this weekend, is located beneath the Louvre Museum. It features the usual white decor and split-level glass staircase.
The Paris shop is the first Apple Store in France. A branch in Montpellier was ready sooner, but the opening has been held back until Saturday to let the Paris branch grab the headlines. Microsoft, which is branching into its own dedicated stores, has a cafe on Rue Sebastopol where Parisians can try out, but not buy, Windows 7.
So where next for Apple? Here are our suggestions.
Read more of "Apple Store opens in the Louvre: Where next?" at Crave UK.
How can one be expected to work on the 802.11n spec when this is right outside their hotel? No wonder it took so long.
First up, Eric narrowly escapes getting struck by lightning but still gets to see fireballs race past his window in the wee hours of the morning. True story.
Then a PSA: Dong finds a new old charge on his AT&T phone bill and explains why you should look at yours more closely.
Then, Kanye Interruptus, Serena's intimidation, and Joe Wilson mouthing off? What's going on?!! We share our theories.
Lastly, we're apparently in the wrong business. Dong explains why we should be in the Wi-Fi standards business. From the sound of it, it's a lot more fun.
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There's more where that came from.
(Credit: ChicBuds)It's once a week I turn away from the monitor and gag at the latest Swarovski crystal-embellished gadget. I think to myself: "Will someone really purchase this bling-bling Hello Kitty camera? If they do, will they take it out in public?"
Well, Paris Hilton would. Or so says the newest company embracing the Swarovski trend, ChicBuds.
ChicBuds prides itself on being what it says is the only electronics company targeting women: "products made by women for women." Their goods are created with a woman's "needs" in mind, and have reached celebrities including Paris Hilton, Paula Abdul, and Audrina Partridge.
The featured products, like the PinkTooth Bluetooth Wireless Headset with Swarovski crystals, suggest that what we need is a collection of generic, so-so earbuds covered in so many crystals the 'buds become unrecognizable.
It's unsettling that companies target women with shiny accessories, clumping us into a group of flamboyant divas. Although there are women who enjoy this style of product, there are also many women who choose products according to the quality of the gadget.
An ideal woman-targeting electronics company would feature high-quality gadgets with a conservative touch of girliness--a little pink here perhaps, some swirls there. My personal favorite along these lines is Motorola's H680 Bluetooth headset.
As long as we're on the subject of Swarovski, you can see more crystal-clad disasters here. And be sure to vote in this week's Friday Poll. We ask what companies should do to attract more female customers.
OK. Maybe not everything in today's show is super cute, but it gives the ladies the chance to speak in exaggerated falsettos. Jason, on the other hand, balances all the cute with an unintentionally awkward joke about one of the newest segments. Oh, you'll see.
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EPISODE 127 |
Candy Comfort Earphones are comfy and kitschy
PBS Sprout makes iPhone apps for preschoolers
Yuruppy, a virtual-pet petting gizmo
Australian IT expert invents the shoe phone
Could the Bra Dryer save your lingerie?
... Read more
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Kia bared its Soul at the 2008 Paris Motor Show, and that's the last time we're going to make a pun on this car's model name, we swear. The Soul could be seen as a Scion xB rip-off, but we really like the look of this new little car. It has the same functionality as the xB, but with a fresh new look. Interior options are interesting, as well, including a mood lighting system for the stereo. iPod integration is standard.
Click here for photos of the new Kia Soul at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.
Click here to see more photos.
Our favorite part of any car show are the concept cars, design studies shown off by automakers to test audience reaction. At the 2008 Paris Motor Show, we've saw a variety of concept cars demonstrating everything from small, eco-friendly city cars to high-performance exotics. Some of these cars are merely a gleam in their designers' eyes, while others are already being slated for production. Take a look at the automotive future.
Click here for photos of concept cars from the 2008 Paris Motor Show.
Mazda's Kiyora concept uses the Nagare styling theme.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)The Kiyora concept, shown at the 2008 Paris Motor Show, is another in Mazda's lineup of concept cars featuring Nagare styling. Mazda designers have built a new Nagare concept car for almost every major auto show. Nagare means flow in Japanese, and the cars built under this concept show styling cues that represent the way wind and water flow over earth and rock.
The design is intended to evoke water.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)Although previous cars in this design theme have been low and sporty, the Kiyora captures the strong trend at the Paris show for small city cars. As such, it is designed as a compact four seater with minimal cargo space.
Mazda specifies a 1.3-liter engine for the Kiyora, using similar variable valve timing tech and direct injection as the 2.3-liter engine found in the CX-7. Along with low displacement, the powertrain enhances its economy with an idle-stop system, a feature commonly found in hybrid cars. Although Mazda hasn't specified actual fuel economy numbers, it does tout CO2 emissions of just 90 grams per kilometer, a particularly good rating compared with current cars.
As the theme for the Kiyora, the notion of water gets carried throughout the interior and exterior styling, and even to one innovative feature. Large translucent panels in the doors evoke the clearness of water, while the front of the car looks like a bow wave. The driver interface uses a large, curved touch screen which, when the car is stopped, shows fixed icons. Turn the car on, and these control icons flow down to positions previously set by the driver.
Organic shapes define the interior.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)As a typically exotic feature for a concept car, but still within the water theme, the roof is designed to channel rain water to a carbon filter. The filtered water is caught in a bottle between the front seats so that passengers always have fresh water on hand. This is truly the car for a water-starved future.
GM gives the Chevy Volt its first auto show exposure at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. With a game-changing power train, the Volt is as relevant in Europe as it is in the U.S. The Volt uses a series hybrid system, using an electric motor to drive the wheels with a gas engine to generate more electricity once the car's lithium ion battery pack is depleted.
Under electric power alone, the car has a 40-mile range and can be recharged at any AC outlet. For many people, that range will cover their daily commute, which will result in no actual gas usage during a typical work day.
Click here for photos of the 2011 Chevy Volt at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.
Audi had us drooling over the S-line cars at the 2008 Paris Motor Show, but of the three we cover here, only one will be available in the U.S. Audi showed off the new S4, based on the redesigned A4 launched last year, which has some very interesting changes over the previous S4 model. We also got a look at the S3 and RS6, the latter billed as the most powerful production sedan in the world.
Click here for photos of the Audi S3, S4, and RS6 at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.
