netherlands

Augmented reality: iPhone 3G S killer app?

While video recording, more storage space, faster processor speeds, and better games have been the main calling cards for the iPhone 3G S, the biggest reason to upgrade may be yet to come--and it has to do with the seemingly most innocuous feature of all, the magnetometer.

Imagine a browser in which you view the real world through a camera lens and a heads-up display picks out interest points amid the living cityscape. This type of augmented reality has been the stuff of science fiction, but the cell phone browser Layar by Dutch software developer SPRXmobile claims to make it real. See the video for yourself.

Layar takes the sort of GPS POI data in current map-based apps, like ATMs, houses for sale, or nearby hotspots, and displays them overlaid on the landscape as seen through the camera lens.

It's debuting later this month for Android phones in the Netherlands--not exactly a huge starting demographic, but if it works, this could be the start of something big.… Read more

Google Street View arrives in U.K., Netherlands

Google has brought its driver's-eye view of the world to more parts of Europe, releasing Street View imagery for the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

As with the United States and other countries that have Street View, not all areas are photographed, but major cities have some coverage. Google Blogoscoped had this list of cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, and York in England; Belfast in Northern Ireland; Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland; and Cardiff and Swansea in Wales.

For the virtual tourist, Google Maps Mania … Read more

The 404 213: Where Justin is not Jason Howell

Dagmar Heijmans from Sellaband.com joins the show to explain how his website allows you to invest in up-and-coming bands that tickle your fancy. Users can buy shares, or "parts," of a cool band and once that band reaches $50 K, they record an album. As stakeholders, Sellaband users share in sales revenues. So far 27 bands have reached the coveted $50,000 mark. In the second half of the show: A McCain supporter is mugged in Pittsburgh and has a "B" carved into her face, really Fox News? San Francisco votes on Proposal K, a Taiwanese students eats himself to death and, of course, the weekend box office.

Dan the Mantern here. When listening today, be sure to enjoy Wilson's pathetic grasp of geography. No Wilson, Holland is not the capital of Denmark. Holland is a province in The Netherlands. Wilson, is your geography so pitiful because U.S. Americans don't have maps? Was your education in South Africa, or such as, the Iraq, such as, really that bad?

NOTICE: The "Photoshop Dan Ackerman in an Inappropriate Situation" contest continues. Make us a funny photo of Dan and win yourself a copy of Far Cry 2 or Baja for 360.

EPISODE 213 Download today's podcast … Read more

Netherlands Patent Office makes nation safe for open source

The U.S. patent system is increasingly broken, a point argued persuasively on ReadWriteWeb, but there is a huge array of factors working against successful patent reform.

In the meantime, both proprietary and open-source software is constantly threatened, making intellectual property indemnification the No. 1 issue lawyers negotiate when working through software contracts here in the U.S. (This is, incidentally, very different from the issues my company and others face when negotiating contracts in Europe--just one of many differences between open source in the U.S. and in Europe.)

Open-source savvy patent reformers can take heart, however, from this … Read more

T-Mobile Netherlands puts reception issues on Apple

T-Mobile's Netherlands division is blaming the iPhone 3G's reception issues on Apple.

In a company blog posting Tuesday morning spotted by a forum contributor at MacRumors, T-Mobile Netherlands threw the iPhone 3G under the bus, blaming Apple for the problems its customers have been experiencing connecting to 3G networks in that country. Complaints have been cropping up in the U.S. as well about the iPhone 3G's performance on AT&T's network.

"The 3G coverage of T-Mobile is as good as the competition, there can therefore not lie. We suspect that it is a … Read more

Dutch paving stones clean air pollution

A Dutch University will see if chemically tricked-out paving stones can clean the air.

The University of Twente (UT) has devised a concrete capable of converting the nitrogen oxide from car exhaust--the source of smog and acid rain--into a nitrate, another chemical that will wash away in the rain.

When fertilizers are applied heavily, high levels of nitrates can enter the soil or water and be toxic to humans or livestock. Jos Brouwers from the University of Twente said that the nitrate production from its paving stones will be "harmless" and well below Dutch water standards.

The researchers … Read more

Segways banned on Dutch roads; cannabis and call girls remain legal

A fair number of U.S. college students have been known to make pilgrimages to Amsterdam for more than the historic value of the city: it's a well-known fact that a tantalizing number of activities that are illegal in the States are permissible or semi-legal for the Dutch. But now, according to the AP, you can't ride a Segway around on Dutch streets anymore. The "human transporters," once touted as the most significant technological advance since the Internet but now widely considered to be a universal symbol of dorkiness (its prominent role on "Arrested Development&… Read more