Tech for Lunch!

Techcrunch just reported that Playboy now has an iPhone version of their official website, Playboy.com. I always say that music and technology go hand in hand, but sex is also a great partner (pun intended) for technology as well. Some statistics indicate there are over 4.2 million porn websites, roughly 12% of the internet. Keep in mind that statistics like these are very difficult to get so the numbers may be off or outdated, but I don’t have a hard time believing that the Adult Industry occupies a large chunk of websites.

The website is built with an interface designed to look like the rest of the iPhone so you feel right at home, at Hot-or-Not clone to find out which playmates are the best, nightlife adviser and Playboy radio. Playboy radio is an MP3-based online radio show.

This isn’t the first contact between Playboy and the iPhone. In june 2007, Playboy had announced a free pack to “make the iPhone even sexier” which was called iPlayboy. The pack contained 12 “sexy non-nude wallpapers” for the sleek Apple handset, a special photo album with another dozen photos of Playmates, an episode of Playboy’s Sirius Satellite Radio show, and a video customized for the iPhone’s interface.

There was a post on Mozilla Lab’s blog to announce that they have partnered with Last.FM to offer a prize package for the “Extend Firefox 3″ contest. They are looking for “the best new music-related Firefox Add-on that demonstrates excellence in user experience, innovativeness, and use of open standards“.

The prize package includes a very cool trip to London and VIP tickets to attend one event presented by Last.FM and, for the gadget lover in all of us, a Logitech Squeezebox network music player.

Of course you need to know a little bit about what you’re doing and code something nice for Firefox 3, but since I’m a confirmed geek and love the technology/music mix, I feel that the more people know about this contest, the better the chances I’ll get a really cool extension for my Firefox!

The panel of judges will include Toby Padilla, Last.FM’s Vice-President of Client and Desktop Software.

Official rules and details on this new addition to Extend Firefox are available at www.extendfirefox.com

If all goes as planned, the Microsoft Surface will be marketed to the general public within 3 years. This is what the senior management of the company seems to be telling us.

In an interview with Fortune magazine, Tom Gibbons, the head of products at Microsoft, explained that the demand exceeds all expectations, but some design issues must be resolved before moving to mass production.

The Microsoft Surface is a computer, integrated into a tabletop and who’s touch screen measures 30 inches. There is no keyboard or mouse; everything is done using your fingers, a bit like Apple’s iPhone(but don’t worry, the Surface already had demonstration videos out before the iPhone was unveiled!). The results are downright spectacular. If you want to see Microsoft Surface in action, you can watch the following video:

This new gadget was introduced last year for the first time. The prototype that was used impressed many enthusiasts. Microsoft wanted to market this invention to the commercial sector, such as bars, restaurants and even casinos, with prices ranging from $ 5000 to $ 10000. But, obviously, the enthusiasm from the population has ensured that Microsoft will now mass market. The price of a so-called “family” version has not yet been defined.

According to Tom Gibbons, Microsoft was literally besieged on all sides by organizations and industries that seem very interested in this product. The problem is that the gadget is so new that it is almost necessary to write new software for each utility. Indeed, it is clear that the interface for the casino industry is not the same as for the general public.

For now, Microsoft is pulling all the stops to produce the first copies quickly for the commercial sector. The company is several months behind on the original schedule, since the product was supposed to be launched last year.

In the mean time, it was reported that the Microsoft Surface will be implemented in AT&T stores on April 17 in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco. AT&T said that the purpose of the Surface in each store will be for customers “to learn about the growing universe of mobile applications and devices“.

I personally cannot wait to actually try one of these nifty computers!

It turns out that Spongebob Squarepants isn’t the only one who loves April Fool’s day! Google plants a few interesting pranks on this day every year and if you’re not careful, you can get caught believing them for a moment or two. Here are the reported pranks for this year…

ADsense for Conversations: Google can now place advertisements in your conversations (although that one wouldn’t be all too surprising..). When you sign up, they will send you head gear to wear on which the ads will display, based on your current conversation.

Gmail Custom Time: This “feature” was implemented in Gmail to allow users to select a date on which to send your emails. The great advantage here is that you can send emails in the past, so you never miss a deadline again. The new feature “utilizes an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality“.. they really thought of everything and that one launched a Wikipedia debate.

Virgle: This is a fake collaboration between Virgin’s Richard Branson and Google for an “open-source” Mars expedition. The first users should be able to get to mars by 2014. You can see one of the videos here.

Youtube’s Rickrolling prank: Rickrollin’ is a geek-culture phenomenon in which users send falsified links to others to redirect them to a youtube video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give you Up”. For the prank, all the featured videos on Youtube’s page redirected everyone to that video.

Google Wake-up Kit: This one was on Google Calendar(you can see it here), offering users new ways to get a wake-up call. “First it will send an SMS message to your phone. If that fails, more coercive means will be used“

I’m Feeling Lucky Dates: Google Calendar also added the famous “I’m feeling lucky” button to allow users to add random events to their calendars, usually dates involving celebrities.

Future Search: Google Australia joined the fun by adding a button under the search bar allowing users to search the web as it will be tomorrow. See the description for gDay here. The technology behind this revolutionary search method is aptly called MATE (Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation).

Google Paper Airplane: This one was on Google Docs and was a new option in the file menu labeled as “New Airplane”. It opened up a document with instructions to fold and make your paper airplane. You can get the PDF document here to fold your very own airplane!

We’ll see you next year for the next pranks…