Staff Picks: Conflux Festival, Kanyelicio.us, Solar iPhone Charger and More
Alli
If you’re in NYC, check out this annual festival that brings together people from a wide variety of backgrounds to re-imagine the city. The Village Voice describes it as a “network of maverick artists and unorthodox urban investigators… making fresh, if underground, contributions to pedestrian life in New York City, and upping the ante on today’s fight for the soul of high-density metropolises.”
Some things to check out:
Urballoon
7:30pm, Tompkins Square Park
A giant balloon that projects images, text and video sent in via mobile site (www.urballoon.com) to the ground below
Foursquare @ Conflux
8:30pm, Barney Building
An interactive iPhone-driven social networking event that will lead participants on a tour of hidden East Village locations using Foursquare (www.foursquare.com).
Full schedule here: http://confluxfestival.org/2009/schedule
Matthew L
Likely the next BIG thing in both internet gambling and the fantasy sports industry, fangamb.com is a truly unique hybrid. This new gaming site allows participants to set up a private league with their friends (just like the preexisting fantasy sports model), but rather than drafting players to create an imaginary roster, the goal of the game is to bet on the outcome of games. Players can bet on both professional and NCAA football games and are able to place many types of bets that are available through a bookie such as straight bets, parlays, teasers, betting on the spread or the money line, etc.
The site is free and every player starts with a bankroll of $25,000 in pretend betting money. Players in each league then compete against each other to make their bankroll the largest possible by the season's end. The site is easy to navigate, the game is fun, it gives sports fans added incentive to watch games and have a vested interest in the outcome, and best of all you don't empty your bank account to feed your gambling habit. Not unless you and your friends have bets going on the side.
Mike
Just how influential is Kanye? Just copy/paste any URL and you’ll find out. Fantastic and timely.
Lynn
Ever wish you could be at the big game, but couldn't get tickets? Well, your wish is about to come true-3-D television could be coming to your home as soon as next year. By wearing a pair of 3-D glasses, new 3-D TVs would allow you to feel like you are sitting on the sidelines at a sporting event. Panasonic believes that this type of technology will be common in homes within the next ten years and, in fifteen years, 3-D TV could be available without the dorky glasses.
Jeannette
And you thought you were gonna have to buy one of those solar-powered phones . good news for all of us iPhone users who suffer from battery drain. Someone's created a solar charger just for us! Novothink has created "The Surge," which is going to be available a little later this fall for $70. And it's Apple-approved. Swanky.
Andrea
If you’re a supporter of local music, stop what you’re doing and head over to citysounds.fm. The site profiles musicians from cities around the world and streams them directly to you! The Board section of the sites allows you to see the most active musical cities of the moment and clicking on a city opens up additional genres, tracks and stats. There’s also a chart where popular cities are listed on Twitter. When you tweet a favorite track, the site recognizes that you’re listening to the it and boosts its rank
Matthew R
Talk Talk is a website in which people can draw with light on their computer monitor through their webcam. Technology wise it's pretty nifty and it's cool seeing what people draw. It was coded entirely in Flash Actionscript. It recently won a Favorite Website Award.
