LG Spectrum expected to arrive January 19

The LG Spectrum will fit in quite nicely with other Verizon smartphones.

The full set of hardware details for the Android-powered LG Spectrum has surfaced ahead of a rumored January 19 launch.
Droid Life has obtained leaked information that shows that Verizon could be readying CES announcements for the successor to the LG Revolution.
Hardware for the Spectrum indicates that it will be the carrier's strongest Android phone to date with a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM, and a 4.5-inch HD display. Rounding things out are an 8-megapixel camera, 4GB internal storage, a preinstalled 16GB microSD, and 4G LTE connectivity.
In terms of software, the LG Spectrum will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but we should see a promise for an Ice Cream Sandwich update. Preloaded apps include HD ESPN Scorecenter, Netflix HD, and tools for editing HD video. These, and many other applications, should look stunning on a massive screen that boasts a 329ppi resolution.

Stay secure, time-lapse your face

Not all is doom and gloom in the security world. Facial recognition security program KeyLemon now offers a simple way to create a time-lapse video of your face in the latest update to its free eponymous program.
The new optional plug-in, called LemonDay and available today exclusively from CNET Download.com, takes a photo of your face when you log in to your computer and stitches these photos together into a slightly self-indulgent video.
No separate download is required to install LemonDay. Simply upgrade the free version of KeyLemon for Windows (download) or KeyLemon for Mac (download) to the new 2.6.
The new log-in screen includes a box in the upper left corner that reads, "Enable LemonDay plug-in." Check that box, and KeyLemon will record each of your log-in expressions. There are also a decent number of settings you can manipulate, including image preview speed, exporting the video, and face alignment.
True self-indulgence in the digital age is impossible without a Facebook sharing option. Enter in your credentials to upload the video directly to Facebook, so you can share a fun but no doubt narcissistic benefit of cutting-edge security.

Devour data much? Apple's Siri surely does

Apple's iPhone 4S is a major data user.

(Credit: Apple)

iPhone 4S owners are most likely to consume boatloads of data, a new study from mobile network management company Arieso has found.
According to the company, iPhone 4S owners use twice as much data as iPhone 4 users and three times as much data as iPhone 3G owners. In the company's 2010 study, the iPhone 4 was the top data user.
How did the iPhone 4S take the crown, you ask? Simple, says Arieso chief technology officer Michael Flanagan in an interview published today by Bloomberg: Siri.
Apple's virtual personal assistant, which lets users find content from the Web, schedule appointments, and handle other tasks via voice commands, has been a welcome addition for folks trying to do more with their smartphones. But it has also proven troublesome on the data front because of its regular connections with Apple servers and the Web. In addition, Flanagan said, the iPhone 4S regularly connects with Apple servers to sync content, making it more likely to use data.
The implications of that data usage are huge for both consumers and carriers. Consumers have been forced into tiered data plans by many carriers, including AT&T and Verizon, limiting how much content they can consume each month. If they exceed their data limits, consumers are often hit with hefty fees just to get more data.
Although tiered data plans have been criticized, carriers justify the decision by saying that the move is designed to improve the overall quality of their networks, which are crumbling under the pressure of heavy usage. Back in August, Validas, a company that analyzes cell phone bills for consumers, announced a study that looked at mobile data usage by customer. According to the firm, the average AT&T customer was using 116 percent more data in June than they were in July 2010. Verizon and Sprint saw their data usage per user jump by 150 percent and 69 percent, respectively. T-Mobile had average data usage drop by 2 percent.
That said, Arieso's study finds that only a relatively small number of users are consuming massive amounts of data. In fact, Arieso reported, just 1 percent of all mobile subscribers consume half of all downloaded data, and that would seem to indicate that Validas' study doesn't necessarily paint the whole picture.
"The introduction of increasingly sophisticated devices, coupled with growing consumer demand, is creating unrelenting pressure on mobile networks. The capacity crunch is still a very real threat for mobile operators, and it looks set to only get harder in 2012," Flanagan said in a statement. "The mobile industry needs new investment and new approaches to boost network performance and manage the customer experience."
As Arieso notes, it's not just the iPhone 4S that's to blame for heavy data usage. The company found that Samsung Galaxy S users consume 199 percent more downlink data than iPhone 3G owners. What's more, on the uplink side, HTC's Desire S beats out even the iPhone 4S, trumping iPhone 3G uplink data usage by 323 percent.
According to Bloomberg, Arieso conducted its study on a European network. It analyzed data from 1 million subscribers.

Toy racetrack too cool to be real

(Credit: Japan Institute of Science and Technology (aka Sony))

Quantum superconductors are an amazing thing.
With the right materials cooled down to below -301 degrees Fahrenheit, you can create a superconductive magnetic field known as the Meissner effect that is capable of floating stably in midair.
Over the past year, we've seen the effect demonstrated with a floating crystal wafer and a skateboard, and discussed as a real-world solution for high-speed rail.
With all that said, it seems completely plausible that some bored science students might construct a small-scale quantum superconductive racetrack styled after the '90s PlayStation game Wipe'out. I mean, why not?
Well, as badly as I want to believe in the above piece of awesomeness, it is likely a hoax. The giveaways? Well, Sony Entertainment is credited as a copyright holder on the video, who just happen to be releasing a sequel to Wipe'out in February.
Also, the "Japan Institute of Science and Technology" and the logo shown on the video are an imitation of the real-world Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. And finally, a careful look at the vapor trails of these two futuristic slot cars reveals some crafty CG work.

Still, as far as corporate-funded viral hoax videos go, this one is pretty great. Just don't hold your breath for a superconductive toy racetrack set popping up at Toys "R" Us anytime soon.

Modai concept phone wants to be your friend

(Credit: Julius Tarng)

Today's smartphones are already pretty smart, but New York-based designer Julius Tarng thinks they can be smarter.
Imagining a mobile device that's more human than machine, Tarng came up with a concept phone called the Modai that learns from your behavior and adapts itself to different environments.

The Modai can provide information based on your location.

(Credit: Julius Tarng)

For example, it would know when you're at work and when you're at play, and adjust the contents of your home screen accordingly to present the most relevant information at that time.
Tarng also sees the Modai giving contextual prompts based on location, so if you're at a bus stop or out grabbing lunch, the phone could help out by displaying a bus schedule or today's lunch specials while you wait.
With more use, the Modai learns more about you and can even try to fix your bad habits. Late for a meeting again? The Modai knows this and will set your alarm for earlier next time, so you're not tardy for the party.
The Modai has other cool party tricks up its sleeve. A muscle-wired Peelstand on the back of the phone enables it to move and alert you to new messages, calls, or alarms. When it needs more juice, the cover on the phone's charging port will automatically open, so you can connect to an outlet.
You can check out more of the Modai's functions on Tarng's Web site, as well as some of his other concepts. Tarng, a former intern at Nokia and Kodak, is currently a designer at Smart Design.
(Via Ubergizmo)

Would you wear a TV?

David Forbes is a man with a fashionable vision.

The TV vest originally evolved from the video coat, as seen here.

(Credit: David Forbes)

After completing a working video coat with a mega assortment of color LEDs, Forbes has moved onto a smaller, slightly more practical application: an LED TV vest.
The $20,000 array is no slouch, using custom-made circuit boards that pump nearly 5 gigabits of data to 14,400 red, green, and blue LEDs.
Surveillance video technology limits the resolution of the video so content is watchable on the flexible vest, which displays content at 160x120. Battery life clocks in around 90 minutes, and runs off lithium-polymer batteries commonly used for remote control hobby vehicles.
A wearable TV sounds like something from Daft Punk's latest fashion line.
The evolution of a wearable TV is a fascinating journey into the impractical imagination of Forbes, an electrical engineer who resides in Arizona. In his video coat manifesto, one quickly learns that the true inspiration for these unique displays is one of the biggest and brightest events in the U.S.: The Burning Man Festival.

Twitterize Yourself makes visual sense of big data

A tool from Visual.ly that analyzes and visualizes users through Twitter posts demonstrates one way make easy-to-understand visualizations of big data.
One example of the increasingly important trend of combined analysis and visualization is evident in Visual.ly Labs' Twitterize yourself application, which provides a good representation of how companies can use large data sets to quickly identify user characteristics to increase engagement or upsell goods and services.
I spend most of my time in my day job looking at data across the extended software development life cycle (design, develop, deploy, maintain, etc.), looking for the patterns that show how software goes from design into development and then into production, and observing how the data sources interact with each other.
We recently identified more than 60 sources in which developers and operations teams might be interested, not including e-mail, existing social networks, and other tools they personally use.
Of course, not everyone uses every data source, but the mixing and matching of data across boundaries has introduced a whole new world of complexity and a need for analytics that help make sense of data--regardless of the type of data, or the people or machines that generate it.
There is so much data from so many sources that it becomes more and more critical for companies to start looking at their data analysis strategy early on in the product development process in order to best take advantage of the information available.
The important thing to keep in mind about all of the data you collect is that it should add intelligence to your processes. Whether you're trying to sell more product, make better decisions, or take actions faster, the data you gather is what should drive everything your business does. (Note: this is a great focus area for startups)
Visual.ly's tool uses data from your tweets, combined with data from Infochimps, a data access provider to help form a picture (literally and figuratively) of you as a Twitter user, including key statistics and a partial personality profile.

The "outfits" and "accessories" are chosen based upon keywords most associated for you. For example, if you tweet a lot about wineries, you will see a wine glass in your hand. Go to the ballpark often? Then your avatar will be dressed in a sports jersey, and so on. There are a total of 11 possible outfits that depict your overall Twitter personality and 29 different accessories that could be assigned to show your interests.

While it's certainly fun to have an infographic of yourself--especially one that dresses somewhat like you--the more interesting parts here are how much data is already out there about you and how much more analysis could be done, if you aggregate a bit more data. The University of Vermont, for example, recently analyzed some 46 billion words tweeted by 63 million users since 2009 to reveal that we are less happy than we were two years ago.
Think about being able to correlate your Twitter profile score with Amazon purchases, Facebook updates, credit card charges, or other consumer-oriented transactions. The data trail is extensive, and over time, companies are going to get better and better at making sense of it all. (And yes, you should be at least a little bit afraid of that.)
The challenge for businesses is that the tooling for this type of analysis is still pretty difficult to use, if available at all. If you consider that each site mentioned above is a silo, you'd first have to aggregate all of the different data sources, then run analysis against the full set, and then against subsequent smaller data sets (by user, group, location, etc.) to reveal the most relevant findings.