Global cruise company Royal Caribbean International has unveiled the design of a Central Park-like area to be featured on its innovative Project Genesis ship.

Project Genesis’ Central Park will be a huge outdoor space the length of a football field located in the center of the ship.

An exquisite public gathering place featuring serene pathways, seasonal flower gardens and canopy trees, Central Park will provide cruisers with more choices in a unique outdoor space. One of the ship’s most ground-breaking spaces, this new concept is the first of seven neighborhoods to be unveiled on Project Genesis. Each neighborhood will provide vacationers with the opportunity to seek out relevant experiences in various locales based on their personal style, preference or mood.

Elegant and lively, Central Park’s central piazza will be the ship’s “town square” which evolves from a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere during the day to a gathering space for alfresco dining and entertainment in the evening, where guests will enjoy concerts and street performances. The neighborhood is lined with balcony staterooms rising six decks high with views of the Park below and the sky above. [Royal Caribbean Press]

The new Central Park will be surrounded by different types of bars and restaurants, ranging from elegant fine restaurants to causal bars, as well as stylish selection of upscale boutique shops.

When Project Genesis launches in late 2009 it will be the largest and most revolutionary cruise ship in the world. The 220,000-ton ship will span 16 decks, carry 5,400 guests, and feature 2,700 staterooms. The ship will sail from Fort Lauderdale, FL.

A neuro-technology company called Emotiv has unveiled a revolutionary personal interface for human computer interaction that makes it possible for video games to be controlled and influenced by the player’s mind.

Emotiv Systems, headquartered in San Francisco, California, was founded in 2003 by four award-winning scientists and executives: internationally recognized neuroscientist Professor Allan Snyder, chip-design pioneer Neil Weste, and technology entrepreneurs Tan Le and Nam Do. These founders all shared the same inspiring vision: to introduce the immediacy of thought to the human-machine dialogue. Together they have developed a technology that utterly transforms the way we interact with computers.

While Emotiv is currently focusing on the electronic gaming industry, the applications for the Emotiv EPOC™ technology and interface span an amazing variety of potential industries — interactive television, accessibility design, market research, medicine, even security. Plans for introducing Emotiv into these and other broad realms are already in the works. [Emotiv]

 

The neuroheadset prototype, called Emotiv EPOC, uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals produced naturally by the brain to perceive player thoughts, feelings and expressions. It connects via wireless with all gaming platforms, from PCs to consoles.

The device will be available later this year and will cost $299. It will be sold with a range of games designed by Emotiv, but users will be able to use it with existing PC games.

Yahoo has announced a partnership with rival Google to start testing Google-generated ads in its website during a period of two weeks. A starting date was not specified.

The test will involve placing Google search ads to about 3% of the queries made in the U.S. through Yahoo’s search engine. After the two-week trial, Yahoo will evaluate whether it generates more revenue by outsourcing ads from Google or through its own ad sales system.

Yahoo’s move is clearly an attempt to show Microsoft that it has other options besides taking its initial bid of $42 billion (or $31a share). Over the weekend, Microsoft set a three-week deadline for Yahoo to begin negotiations, a demand Yahoo declined by restating its contention the offer undervalues the company.

Microsoft fired back saying that a deal between Yahoo and Google would make the search market less competitive.

Indeed, according to ComScore’s MediaMetrix data, Yahoo’s market share continues to drop and accounts to 21.6% in February. In the same way, Microsoft’s share is also down to 9.6% for the month of February. In the meantime, Google’s share has grown to 59.2% for the same time period. If a Google-Yahoo alliance occurred, it would represent a total of about 81% of the total search market.

Yahoo said it would add new voice-enabled features to its mobile platform to make Web search easier to cellphone users.

The new OneSearch 2.0 technology will let consumers use voice commands for search services beyond current mobile voice recognition systems. The service will allow wider searches for locations, restaurants, flight information, Web sites, news or local listings.

Yahoo mobile voice searches may take as little as five seconds to recognize the search and to return the results to the device on conventional networks and from 10 to 20 seconds on slower networks.Yahoo plans to introduce the service on 500 different devices and international markets by the end of the year. Consumers will be able to download OneSearch at m.yahoo.com/voice.The company, which predicts there will be more than 40 times more mobile devices than PCs by 2010, expects to monetize OneSearch and other mobile services such as instant messaging or e-mail through advertising.

Amazon has launched a new service that allows shoppers to compare prices and buy products on their cellphones via text-messaging.

The service, called TextBuyIt, is designed to let users text the name of a product, its description, its UPC or its ISBN to “Amazon” (262966 on the keypad) and then returning matching items as well as prices. Buyers can instantly purchase their selection by texting back the single-digit identification number next to desired item. Amazon then calls to confirm the order and walk the customer through the checkout process.

Amazon will be facing competitors such as mShopper, which launched a similar mobile shopping service in 2007.

Sony Pictures Television said it will become the first Hollywood studio to launch a movie network on cellphones in the U.S.

The company has signed deals with AT&T and MediaFLO to start offering movies from several labels as early as May.

The channel, called PIX, will contain full-length movies that have been already broadcasted on TV, theatres or DVDs such as “Karate Kid,” “Ghostbusters” or “Resident Evil.”

The service will be ad-supported and not be available on demand although Sony could eventually convert PIX to an on demand model or take it online.

AT&T has not yet disclosed a price for the new mobile TV package.

Apple is considering a new business model that would give costumers free unlimited access to its entire iTunes music library if they pay extra for the devices.

The company is seeking a deal with the big record labels to offer an “all you can listen” model similar to Nokia’s “comes with music” deal with Universal Music. If successful, Apple could either increase the price of its iPods and share the profit with the music companies, or set a monthly subscription fee for its iPhone users that would add up to their monthly bill.

The key is how much Apple would end up paying the record labels for the access or simply if it makes sense for the Music labels to go for the deal.

Hulu, the long-awaited online video joint venture between NBC and Fox, went live today offering hundreds of free TV shows and movies to anyone on the Internet.

The site displays ad-supported films from NBC, Fox as well as over 50 media companies including Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and MGM.

Hulu’s ambitious and never-ending mission is to help you find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, where and how you want it. We hope to provide you with the web’s most comprehensive selection from more than 50 content providers including FOX, NBC, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and more to deliver premium programming across all genres and formats, television shows, feature films, and clips. Watch full-length episodes of current primetime TV shows such as The Simpsons and The Office the morning after they air, classics like Miami Vice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and clips from Saturday Night Live, Nip/Tuck, and others. Hulu also offers full-length feature films like The Usual Suspects, Ice Age, Three Amigos!, and The Big Lebowski as well as clips from films such as Napoleon Dynamite, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Devil Wears Prada and many more. Hulu is free and ad-supported — available anytime in the U.S. [Hulu]

Hulu has been in beta version since October but has been slowly inviting users to join the site. Unlike competitor YouTube, Hulu offers high-quality professional video content which, presumably, will be more attractive to advertisers.

Currently, Hulu is running traditional 30-second ads in the long-form video. However, for certain shows the company expects to let users choose from an array of commercials in advance of a video choice. Some viewers will also be given the opportunity to watch a two-minute film preview before a TV show, and then skip all the other advertising breaks. Because viewers choose the ads they want to see, they will potentially have more interest in the products being advertised.

Hulu’s implementation of new advertising formats in combination with rich high-quality content could be the alternative major marketers have been waiting for.

A company called Microvision specializes in the development of new generation display and imaging products for mobile applications.

Our products address the unmet need facing growing mobility markets. Namely, consumers want a far better viewing experience than they currently get from traditional small displays on their mobile devices. Microvision offers OEMs in the telecommunications, consumer electronics, automotive, and avionics markets customized design and development of our proprietary display engine, called PicoP™. PicoP enables an ultra-miniature video projector capable of producing color rich, high resolution, large images, but small and low-power enough to be embedded directly into mobile devices, such as cell phones.

Other potential display applications based on the PicoP are numerous and include tiny projectors embedded into or used as accessory displays for mobile devices such as personal media players, gaming devices, laptops, and DVD players.

We are also working to leverage the PicoP into vehicle displays, including automotive and aerospace head-up displays, as well as wearable full-color displays designed as fashionable eyewear. [Microvision]

PicoP is capable of producing full color, high-resolution images (848 by 480 pixels) for up to 2.5 hours. Mobile devices such as cell phones, digital cameras, portable media players or laptops can be enabled with pico projection capabilities turning photos, videos, and other content into big viewing experiences that can be shared with others.

PortoMedia, a startup based in Ireland, aspires to revolutionize the movie rental market. The company plans to set up kiosks that will allow consumers to download movies to a memory or portable hard drive.

PortoMedia has developed a high speed flash memory card (Movie Key) that enables a fully secure DVD quality movie to be downloaded from retail Movie Point in less than 15 seconds. Each Movie Point is loaded with between 500 and 5,000 titles and is refreshed regularly via satellite/DSL with the latest movie and TV content.

The consumer has the option to rent or purchase content. The content is protected by Windows DRM, guaranteeing both security and compatibility with a wide range of playback devices. We will offer a low cost reader/ set top box that attaches to a TV allowing the consumer to simply plug in the key and press play to view the movie on the big screen TV. [PortoMedia]

Users will plug in a USB memory device from PortoMedia, enter a PIN code, and download a movie. At home, customers simply slide the memory device into a dock connected to a PC or TV.

The key to the service is the proprietary USB interface that transfers data at a faster rate than standard USB devices. Movies can be loaded into a memory device in less than a minute, depending on the length, definition and chip speed.

The hardware will be sold in package with movies. The starting hardware set will be sold for around $60, and comes with a flash key, a dock, and six movies. A higher end pack will provide a handheld with a 1.8 inch hybrid hard drive with 240 GB of storage and 12 movies.