XM versus SIRIUS
The idea of America’s biggest two satellite-radio joining forces has been up in the air for almost four years. Although XM had a year’s start, Sirius came back on the market, eventually with both companies sharing the market in half. So, what’s to choose? XM or Sirius?
First thing’s first. XM and Sirius are based on the same principle, each of them providing music, news, sports, etc. on their channels, but, every service has its ups and downs so we will try to discuss it in this present article. A careful analysis shows that XM Satellite Radio provides a total of 136 streams, where two are premium channels (Playboy and High Voltage), twenty-one are traffic and weather based channels and nine are sport-dedicated ones. On the other hand, Sirius offers a total of 119 streams, the premium streams not being available. Let’s take a closer look now on two – music and news - of the categories that the two major satellites are battling.
Music streams comparison
The number of music streams that both services offer is pretty much the same: 65 on Sirius and 68 on XM Satellite Radio but the difference is not in the number, but in the music genres that the radios offer.
Music – Decades
Read more
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Computers merge ever closer with humans
By 2020 the terms ‘interface’ and ‘user’ will be obsolete as computers merge ever closer with humans.
It is one of the predictions in a Microsoft-backed report drawn from the discussions of 45 academics from the fields of computing, science, sociology and psychology.It predicts fundamental changes in the field of so-called Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).By 2020 humans will increasingly interrogate machines, the report said.In turn computers will be able to anticipate what we want from them, which will require new rules about our relationship with machines.
Table map
The report, entitled Being Human: Human-Computer Interaction in the year 2020, looks at how the development of technologies over the next decade can better reflect human values.
“It is about how we anticipate the uses of technology rather than being reactive. Currently the human is not considered part of the process,” said Bill Buxton, from Microsoft Research.
Read more
Google Maps was banned for military pictures
Pentagon bans Google from taking images and video of military installations. Services like Google Earth are viewed by many to be nothing more than an interesting curiosity. However, for the U.S. military and other world governments the satellite images and other footage Google offers on its
Earth service represents a big security risk. BBC News reports that the Pentagon has banned Google from filming inside and making detailed studies of U.S. military bases. The ban comes after detailed footage from inside and outside of the U.S. military base at Fort Sam Houston in Texas turned on up Google Earth’s Street View service. Street View is a service of Google Earth that allows users of the application to travel down streets from the perspective of a car driver.
Read more
