In New Zealand, pastors are looking to technology to reach their flock. With social networking sites like BeBo and taking advantage of the fact that youths are using text messages more than the phone, ministers are including these options as indispensable tools in their quiver for reaching them. According to Rev Paul Stanaway, young people are more comfortable using technology to deal with difficult and uncomfortable issues in their lives. In addition, Church websites now have streaming church services and sermons, online bible studies, podcasts and even the lighting of virtual candles. Kids can rely on technology as a kind of layer between them and those they are confiding in, making them feel a little more at ease with sharing often embarrassing secrets or “sins.”
“We have a whole new congregation out there who I have never met,” said Rev Wally Behan, whos website gets thousands of hits every week. “Communication is changing so rapidly that we have to keep up with it and it presents us with huge opportunities.”
But all too often, the very tools that ministers say can be beneficial in communicating to the faithful, can also be abused and cause more harm than good. Even in the church world, cyber and text bullying can be destructive and is forcing those in ministry to be more knowledgeable and understanding about what is going on in the wired world we live in. Kids are looking for help and advice from those who get it, and not from a luddite who can only speculate what it’s like to deal with the embarrassment of social bullying online.
Here’s hoping Seminaries get the trend and begin training in technology along with Bible study.
When every company out there is cranking out the same 10-inch 1.6GHz Atom netbook, there aren’t many ways to make your product stand out: the obvious trick is to go low on price, but ASUS isn’t messing with its profit margins. Instead, it’s apparently going negative in the most adorable way possible — check this hit piece on the Acer Aspire One. If all these frowny faces are to be believed, using the Aspire One will basically be awkward and unergonomic for a short while, at which point you’ll burst into flames. Not only that, but ASUS can’t even bring itself to spell out “Aspire,” instead starring it out like someone might catch them saying it out loud. Very mature. Still, if anything can revive our flagging enthusiasm for the entire netbook category, it would be one of these WINNER crowns packed in with every Eee — now that’s a real differentiating factor, ASUS. Full image in the gallery.
Welcome to another coolest gadget of the week. Simply vote for which ever you think is coolest and the winning blog will gain respect from the masses.
Leave a comment explaining why for a chance to win a $50 Amazon voucher and (new this week) if you tell (not spam) a friend via the Email a friend link about the contest you’ll be entered into another draw to win $50, so if you’re really really lucky you might get the full $100. Happy voting.
Beer Burglar Alarm
If you’ve got some beer-thieving scoundrels living in your pad, be sure to equip yourself with some protection.
The full post can be found on Decide What to Buy.
SL2 Survival Tool: Don’t be tool at the campsite
The SL2 Survival Tool is designed to help keep you alive (or at least in good spirits) when you’re camping, hiking or fishing. It features a serrated locking ‘A’ grade blade and comes with a Swedish Defense Department created, firesteel, which produces a 3,000°C hot spark to light fires even in the wettest of conditions.
The full post can be found on Gaj-It.
Tantrum Throwing Alarm Clock For Lazy Folks
The most interesting feature of this Alarm is that it will throw a tantrum at you if you let it ring for more than a minute. This will go on for an hour but if you still do manage to sleep then for sure your sleep is deserved. Otherwise, everybody would wake up at its tantrum.
The full post can be found on Lifestyle Buzz.
Spy Planes to Assist the US Army
The COM-BAT is designed to provide short-term but real-time surveillance and feedback to soldiers in urban combat zones using a collection of sight, sound and smell sensors while running on 1 W of power.
The full post can be found on Eco Talks.
Wicked Lasers Torchlight Can Burn Paper
It has about 4100 lumens and can start fires and burn your skin to ashes. It is as good as carrying your own floodlight and is touted to be the most powerful torchlight in the whole wide world.
The full post can be found on gadgetsblog.org.
Boomcooler: A ride-away entertainment system!
For as little as $899 you can have a BoomCooler which essentially packs a car stereo into an ice chest, rendering ineffective for storing beer, but extra effective for rocking out.
The full post can be found on Elite Choice.
Da Vinci Alarm Clock Allows Only Four Hours Nap
Designed by Marc Owens, the alarm clock helps stick to a 3.5/.5 sleep schedule by displaying words AWAKE or SLEEP instead of time, the first for three and half hours and the latter for half an hour in a four hour cycle that repeats six times a day.
The full post can be found on Designer Gallery.
Wind-Up Walkie Talkie
With all the functionality of battery ridden chatterboxes such as a 3 km range, 8 channels, LCD display screen and being generally pretty darn rugged, these Walkie Talkies are, as the name suggests, powered by winding them up. The dynamo mechanism knocks past dynamo efforts into a cocked hat, making it simple with just a few cranks to get connected.
The full post can be found on RGS.
Critter Cruiser
This is the coolest/most foolish hamster wheel, the critter car. Watch your pet hamster power his car around the track.
The full post can be found on Foolish gadgets.
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If you have a teenager, you already know this. In a study released this week, polled teens say that after clothing, a cellphone tells the most about a person’s social status or popularity. It took a Harris Interactive and CTIA-the Wireless Assn., study to tell us this?
So, for example, the fact that my daughter has an iphone (old version) brings up her ranking even more than the funky jewelry or the latest Vans. It’s not that I recommend giving 13-year olds iPhones necessarily, but as the daughter of a gadget reviewer she inherits all my hand-me-downs. Having the latest cellphone is “absolutely essential,” according to 28% of all teens and 34% of kids 13 to 15 years old.
More breaking news from the study:
- About 4 of every 5 teens carry cellphones, up 40% from 2004 - Nearly half of them say having a cellphone is “key to my social life.”
What’s more , 42% of the teens surveyed said they could text while blindfolded.( Let’s just hope they don’t text while driving.) The only surprise; it turns out male teens talk on their phones more than they text, while females text more than they talk. Females are generally more dexterous, which may account for those results.
Advertisers- for whom obviously this study was designed — will be overjoyed to know that 59% of teens would be willing to provide personal information to wireless providers so they can receive targeted text messages, and about 40% of teens believe that mobile phones should be free and paid for by advertisers, much like television.
Since teenagers are going to be the drivers for the new technology and phones, they were queried about the next generation. No surprise, they expect them to be waterproof and drop- proof, able to translate languages instantly (handy for Spanish homework), and run the rest of the gizmos in the home. I’m surprised they don’t expect them to open the kitchen and bring them a snack.
Read the entire study here and starting saving for that brand-new smart phone for your teenager. A small price to pay for popularity?
You know about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon which was one of the ancient seven wonders of the world? Well, here’s a play on the past with products of the future - these portable hard drives are able to hang around your notebook’s LCD display, so make sure those hinges are tight enough to accommodate your 2.5″ hard drive.
Sony’s PRS-700 Digital Book Reader has just been announced, and some of the improvements over its predecessor include a touch screen display for a more intuitive reading experience. No larger than a paperback book, the PRS-700 tips the scales at just 10 ounces and would make for a great classroom tool in order to relieve our young from carrying tons of tomes around school and campus. The 6″ display lets you flip pages simply by sliding your finger across, although multi-touch function is not supported. You can also highlight important segments of text with the included stylus, while notes can be composed on the spot thanks to the virtual keyboard. In order to cater to as many people as possible, the PRS-700 comes with five pre-set text sizes for you to peruse your e-book. Extremely readable even under direct sunlight, the PRS-700 even has a built-in LED reading light just in case ambient light isn’t enough. The PRS-700 will be able to last for up to 7,500 page flips before requiring a recharge. It will hit the market sometime next month for $400.
Sony Ericsson is working on its new automatic zoom feature that will probably make an appearance in its - yes, wait for it, 12 megapixel cell phone that will be released sometime next year. This improvement will see the zoom functionality improve in addition to shutter an autofocus speeds, most probably in its line of Cyber Shot handsets. What does the automatic zooming feature constitute anyways? Well, it follows the handset movement, allowing you to zoom in by moving the camera away from your body, while moving it back will let the image zoom out.
Sony Ericsson is working on its new automatic zoom feature that will probably make an appearance in its - yes, wait for it, 12 megapixel cell phone that will be released sometime next year. This improvement will see the zoom functionality improve in addition to shutter an autofocus speeds, most probably in its line of Cyber Shot handsets. What does the automatic zooming feature constitute anyways? Well, it follows the handset movement, allowing you to zoom in by moving the camera away from your body, while moving it back will let the image zoom out.
Nokia’s luxury handset arm, Vertu, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary by unleashing a white gold Vertu-branded cell phone with a price tag of £24,000. For that much money, you will get a pre-loaded copy of a specially composed musical piece performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, a ‘concierge’ button that provides expert advice and assistance at your beck and call (this is not your personal Aunt Agony, but is meant to cater to your Vertu-related questions), while a patented keypad holds solid ruby bearings. Just in case you don’t have £24,000, there are yellow gold and stainless steel versions that go for £18,000 and £7,540 respectively.
At the CREATEC show in Tokyo, switch-maker Nikkai has shown of some Lebedev-alike OLED buttons, and they are being aimed straight at the reseller market. The switches are not as fancy looking as those on the Optimus Maximus keyboard, but they will undoubtedly be cheaper.
The OLED displays offer a resolution of 64 x 48 pixels and up to 65,536 colors. Nikkai claims a life of one million actuations, and the units can stand temeperatures from -20 to +70 degrees C (-40 to 158 F). We’d say that these switches, which offer three types of click (a two-way rocker plus a normal push-to-click) are destined for vending machines, where they would sit perfectly.
But Nikkai also makes a home-key version, a key with a little nubbin to tell you that your fingers are on the ASDF JKL: keys. That means we’ll start to see some Lebedev knock-offs soon enough.
