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PayPal Launches Order Ahead and Pay at Table Mobile Services

Posted: 24 Mar 2014 12:00 PM PDT

PayPal Order Ahead and Pay at the Table Smartphone Features

The new features of PayPal’s smartphone app will enable people to place orders at the Japanese food chain Wagamama and some other 2,000 high street shops and restaurants ahead of arriving.

With the introduction of these two new features, PayPal could help people say goodbye to queues. The downsides are that first of all, currently the features are being only tested on a small group of people, and secondly, Order Ahead and Pay at Table will most likely be available only in US, as is the PayPal card.

Rob Harper, Head of Retail Services at PayPal UK, explained how the inclusion of the new features into the PayPal app for smartphones could make our lives easier: “The smartphone has changed our lives, and we wanted to use it to solve some of the most common frustrations about traditional ways to pay on the high street. Our new Order Ahead and Pay at Table services save busy people valuable time. Why wait for the bill when you can pay at the table with your smartphone? And why wait in a restaurant for your takeaway when you can skip the queue by choosing and ordering ahead on your phone?”

On the other hand, Tom Cheesewright, Applied Futurist for Book of The Future, explained that the high number of PayPal users could definitely make the new features of the smartphone app a great success: “Amid many moves to popularize mobile payments, the arrival of PayPal in over 2,000 high street stores stands to be the biggest boost to date. The PayPal name is already familiar and trusted. People don’t need to add a new app or account, or move money around in order to take advantage. This lack of friction combined with the big name brands adopting the technology should accelerate the understanding, and ultimately the use of mobile payments on the UK high street.”

The Pay by picture service will also be extended, in order to allow a greater number of restaurant and shop owners to identify the app users from their shop. I hope that such features will have plenty of followers to convince PayPal to implement them globally. After all, the non-US customers of this company want to benefit as well from the new functions implemented in the smartphone app.

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Dali’s Elephants Become LEGO

Posted: 24 Mar 2014 07:00 AM PDT

lego-dali-elephant

You can’t write LEGO without “leg”, and that’s the most prominent feature of Dali’s elephants, so in a geeky way, this is a match made in heaven.

Surrealism is one of the greatest styles of art, and Dali’s iconic “Los Elefantes” might be one of the most well-known pieces of the genre. Well, thanks to the work of Jin Kei we now get to take a new look at the grand master’s work in a completely new way, that is, made entirely by LEGO pieces. Keep going to see the original right below these lines, which further emphasizes the level of detail that went in this particular creation.

Source: Geekologie

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10 Famous Quotes William Shakespeare Might Have But Didn’t Write

Posted: 24 Mar 2014 06:00 AM PDT

The earth has music for those who listen

William Shakespeare wrote some great stuff. It’s sometimes hard to believe how much work he got done in his 52 years. But he didn’t write every brilliant line about love you might remember. Some people deserve credit too, even though they don’t usually get it.

Expectation is the root of all heartache

 

Where it’s from: Commonly said to derive from the Second Noble Truth of Buddhism: desire is the root of all suffering.

So dear I love him that with him/All deaths I could endure/Without him, live on life

 

Where it’s from: Paradise Lost by John Milton.

You say you love rain…

 

Where is it from?: A turkish poem titled, I Am Afraid.

When words fail music speaks

 

Where it’s actually from: A paraphrase from Hans Christian Andersen's "What The Moon Saw". The actual quote is, "when words fail, sounds can often speak."

Love is a wonderful terrible thing

 

Where it’s really from: Gabriela, Clove, and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado. The quote is actually Love—the most wonderful and most terrible thing in the world.

The earth has music for those who listen

 

Where it’s really from: It's most commonly attributed to poet and author George Santayanaor Oliver Wendall Holmes.

When I saw you I fell in love and you smiled because you knew

Where it’s really from: An 1893 Italian opera, Falstaff, with a libretto by Arrigo Boito.

Love is the most beautiful of dreams and the worst of nightmares

 

This is by: The Notebook of Love twitter handle.

The less you speak of greatness, the more shall I think of it

 

Who said it? Sir Francis Bacon to Sir Edward Coke in 1601.

We're all in the same game; just different levels. Dealing with the same hell; just different devils

 

Believe it or not, this is a Jadakiss song.

Via: 

For a bit more on quotes, this time those that aren’t remembered properly, check out the most famous misheard lyrics of the 1990′s, and if you’re feeling a bit modern, check out the 2013 edition.

 

The Music Of Nature: Plants Play Synths In Real Time

Posted: 24 Mar 2014 05:00 AM PDT

Plants play synths 1

Plants might not speak any language at all, but it turns they can express themselves through music, thanks to the magic of technology.

There’s a neat little project going around Kickstarter by the name of MIDI Sprout. That is not a pokemon, but a way to convert the activities of plants into music for your ears – literally. The idea is to learn about nature by transforming the biofeedback signals into music. The goal behind this kickstarter campaign is to give all backers the means to access these synths/translators to help bridge the plant world to ours.

How it works is actually very simple: two probes measure the small electrical currents on a plant’s leaf; this technique is called galvanic skin response when applied to humans, but what the MIDI Sprout does is actually convert these fluctuations into MIDI notes and controls that can be read by synthesizers and computers. Afterwards, thanks to the software, this creates a tune that, basically, expresses how the plant feels. See a more complete explanation in the video below.

Now the problem will be once we realize plants make better musicians than humans, but if that becomes a reality, that’s a debate for another time…

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Vaavud Wind Meter Connects to Smartphones, Helps Agriculture

Posted: 23 Mar 2014 01:45 PM PDT

Vaavud Smartphone Wind Meter

A piece of hardware containing no electronics, along with its accompanying smartphone app, could help the world better harness the power of wind.

After running a successful fund raising campaign on Kickstarter last year, Danish startup Vaavud has recently closed its seed funding round. Angel investors helped this company to access $375K which will be used for the further development of the eponymous smartphone wind meter.

As mentioned before, Vaavud does not contain any electronics. So how in the world does this interact with a smartphone? Well, after connecting it to the headphone jack, the wind meter will start communicating with your smartphone via soundwaves. Vaavud's app further interprets these soundwaves and displays the wind speed measurement on the smartphone’s screen. All in all, everything’s peachy till now, but who could ever need a wind meter for their phone? Unless you’re planning to launch kites or play badminton, such a smartphone accessory doesn’t have much use for the common man. However, if you want to find the best placement for a wind farm or to determine whether the distribution of pesticides for crops is safe or not, knowing the speed of the wind is vital.

In this context, Vaavud has already established some important partnerships with companies from the agriculture industry. Swedish agricultural coop Lantmännen Maskin AB is already collaborating with the Danish startup in an attempt to make the distribution of pesticides for crops a lot safer. Of course, in Sweden, this is imposed by laws and regulations, and given the importance of this topic, I dare say that this approach should be taken by more countries from all over the world.

Vaavud CEO Thomas Helms explained that up to 4,000 measurements are made weekly using the smartphone wind meter developed by his company. Helms seemed very optimistic, since he pointed out that as the spring has started in the Northern Hemisphere, where Vaavud is popular, this number will continue to grow dramatically.

A PhD in Computer Science will help Vaavud develop a companion app for Android, thus expanding their reach even further. At the same time, the specialist will help the company improve their algorithms for indoor readings, as there might be a lot of people wanting to test the wind meter by blowing air into it.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the flow lights that conserve energy and the LED wind turbine.

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