Taken by Photographer and 360cities.net founder Jeffrey Martin, the Strahov Gigapixel is the highest-resolution photo of any interior space that’s ever been captured. Over the course of five days, Martin painstakingly took 2947 high-resolution individual photos of the library and later pieced them together with a high power PC workstation. The farther you zoom in, the more detail you can see; cracked paintings, priceless leather-bound books, and smooth stone statues. If the image were printed at normal photographic resolution, it would be 23 meters long and 12 meters tall.

Along with this photo, Martin holds other world records for his Gigapixel works, including an 80-gigapixel shot of London, a 26-gigapixel image of Paris, a 70-gigapixel image of Budapest, a 26-gigapixel image of Dresden, and Martin’s previous record holder from 2009, an 18-gigapixel spherical image of Prague.

Image by Jeffrey Martin, www.360cities.net

To view the interactive photograph in all it’s 40-gigapixel glory, head here.

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Glass isn’t just for windows. Corning Incorporated has spent the past 160 years redefining the applications of glass in ways that advance the way the world works. From environmentally friendly fuel-emissions filters to alternative drug-screening technologies, Corning continues to solve the world’s complex problems by using its deep knowledge of optics and molecular manipulation of glass and ceramics. Verizon, Volkswagon, Johns Hopkins, and Sharp have all turned to Corning for answers. After all, it’s their “Possibilites Made Real” mantra that led to the development of LCD television screens.

Research and Development is a crucial force behind their success, having become more than just a business department. They refer to it as their culture of innovation: a unique collaborative team of scientists, manufacturers, and engineers that work closely with supply-chain partners and customers to develop products. Thomas Edison took advantage of their innovative culture to create the glass bulb for his incandescent lamp, and it’s the same system that’s behind their “A Day Made of Glass” video. However, Corning isn’t just imagining these scenarios, the company is currently researching ways to bring these situations to life in the not-too-distant future.

The scenes in the video depict a world in which interactive glass surfaces help you stay connected through seamless delivery of real-time information – whether you’re working, shopping, eating, or relaxing. My favorite scenes are where information is transferred from one device to another by simply dragging and dropping in physical space. Such real-time information depends on communications networks with massive bandwidth capacity, meaning new opportunities for Corning to apply its optical communications expertise. However, Corning Chairman and CEO Wendell Weeks stated that, “While we’re not saying that it will develop exactly as we’ve envisioned, we do know that this world is being created as we speak.” Jim Clappin, president of Corning Glass Technologies, is very focused on the consumers’ demands and how to work them into their vision of the future. “The consumer trend driving our vision for tomorrow is very clear,” Jim says. “We all want to be connected with what we want…when we want…anywhere…and with great ease. Corning’s innovations in glass will enable this journey to continue.” Maybe we won’t see our favorite aspects of the video come to life, but Corning’s optimistic outlook brings a speck of hope to realize our most fantasized visions of the future.

Apple’s Director of Music Marketing, Xander Soren, showed off the new app, which contains all the essential elements of Garageband but with a slick new interface. Once activated, you are presented with a selection of instruments, such as a piano or drums. Once selected, a user-friendly interface pops up that is designed to give the look and feel of playing the selected instrument. Since Apple smartly placed an accelerometer in the device, Garageband can tell how hard or soft you are playing the instrument, making every note expressive and dynamic. The app can even support up to 8 channels of digital recording.

If you missed Steve Jobs’ presentation at the March 2^nd event, he took a hefty chunk of time to highlight the iPad’s achievements in education and medicine in a fluffed-up movie reel. If Apple seeks to be an innovator in education, then they need to extend a hand into more realms of academia. Music producers and songwriters should have a basic concept of copyright law, and since Apple is spawning a generation of anyone-can-do-it songwriters, they should step up and help educate them in intellectual property. With the Garageband app’s built-in file sharing capability, potential copyright infringements are almost begging to happen. The Gorillaz recorded an entire album with the iPad while on tour, but releasing it for free kept legal obligations to a minimum. It’s an interesting paradox; while the app blurs the lines of copyright law, it almost facilitates the means to break those laws. It’s both exciting and daunting, however the iPad 2 promises to make portable music production a staple of our culture.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

(MP3/iPad/iPhone)

Even though it’s March and 2011 is well under way there is no reason why not take a episode to look back at our 2010 predictions and see if we were correct and if we feel the same way about them. Ok, here is the deal, we recorded this when looking back at 2011 was still the thing to do but due to my wedding and the short month of January I’m finally getting it out now. So moving forward in episode 29 we bring back the original gang from the first episode of the Nashville Tech Feed from Dec 2010 to revisit their predictions for that year. We dig into such topics is the convention center, music industry liquefaction and collapse then there is always apple predictions. We recorded several weeks ago and with the release of the iPad 2 you’ll hear how correct we were. Finally as always we finish with what we’re consuming.

Hosts/Guests:

• David Beronja
• Lucas Hendrickson
• Paul Schatzkin – Cohesion Arts

Enjoy, leave comments via email, twitter and 615-280-0505.

The Nashville music scene can appear a bit daunting to enter, especially for new artists and bands. While there are plenty of opportunities to put your music out there, the only problem is connecting with fans. People need an incentive to follow a band’s career as it develops, and — although the music itself is important in achieving that goal — it’s not enough in a town where the advantage lies in the hands of those who are well connected. However, indie artists need not worry; UARadio.net, an online community for indie artists, is aiming to help out in a big way. I caught up with Julian Bankston, founder of the website, and discussed the ideas behind UARadio.

Julian started UARadio after following his own affection of music. “It all comes down to what you know and what you love,” he explained. Utilizing his IT background, he created a website where he and other unsigned artists could display their work. Once more and more unsigned artists began to put their information on the site, he realized that the value was not in his music, but within the community his website was creating.

Julian handles all things technological on the website including the UStream, their most beneficial feature. “Artists need to have the ability to showcase their music to a broader audience and transcend the physical limitations of a venue,” he said. “By streaming their showcases live, artists have acquired new fans from countries as far away as France, the UK, and Australia.” In fact, the live stream not only brings Nashville artists to distant territories; unsigned artists in foreign countries also use the UStream to broadcast to the U.S. One of the biggest rewards is that fans can watch a show from the comfort of their own living room, regardless of the distance or location of the venue.

The creativity of using the UStream for publicity and promotion seems to be boundless. According to Julian, “the response has been phenomenal and artists are now using us for CD release parties, showcases, and special events. Artists can now engage with their on-line audience during and after the show with features such as live chat, video conferencing, and more.”

On top of the UStream, UARadio also offers a free radio stream that can be categorized by genre, individual artist pages complete with songs and albums available for streaming, charts that display which songs and artists have the most plays per week, a classifieds page for artists to connect with each other, advertising space, blogs, photo and news galleries, album reviews, and a daily “featured artist” column. The UARadio staff handpicks the featured artists in an attempt to help them “rise above the pack” and get the recognition that they believe they’ve earned. The best part for artists is that all of these services, including advertising and live stream rates, are affordable and custom tailored to the artist’s budget.

However, Julian wants artists to understand that his efforts are mutual. When asked how artists can further use the site for more exposure, Julian answered, “Exposure is all about doing the work. Very few sites give automatic instant success or huge fan increases. We have given artists a dedicated niche market to help increase their chances of being noticed on the web.” Despite this, UARadio is a developing business, currently seeing 4,000 unique hits to the site monthly — and growing. “We are currently working on a battle of the bands feature that will be fun and refreshing, but still have our unique spin,” he says.

Visit www.uaradio.net or contact Julian directly.

We are on the verge of taking yet another step forward; “Cloud-based music services,” as they are commonly called, are starting to surface. Here’s the gist of how they work:

• The websites (such as mSpot.com) use a dedicated server to store music where users can upload their music from their hard drive.
• Once uploaded, the music can be accessed/downloaded/streamed by the user from virtually anywhere by almost anything with internet access (personal computers, iPhones, and more recently Android mobile devices).
• Users subscribe to a service usually for free, but they are given the opportunity to upgrade to the amount of space they would like for a few more dollars.

One advantage to these services is that you can basically keep your music on these servers and take it off your computer’s hard drive, leaving you with a few more GB of space (however, it’s probably smart to keep a back-up of your music files).

Possibly the most exciting aspect of these services is the licensing opportunities involved. Good music publishers should always look for new ways to get their repertoire into the market, and an opportunity such as this has the potential to get a publisher’s entire catalog more revenue.

There’s evidence that Google, as well as iTunes, may be starting their own cloud services in the near future. Google recently hired a veteran music industry lawyer to aid in music licensing deals, who recently told Billboard her opinions on cloud-based subscription services. I smell big opportunities for both consumers and copyright owners.

List of Cloud-based music services:

mSpot

• Upload music for free using mSpot’s Uploader software and access it from any computer or smartphone. Storage plans range from 2 GB (free) to 100 GB ($13.99/month).

Spotify (UK based, soon to be in the US)

• Import music from your music library, stream music directly from the software, and share playlists within the Spotify community. Users can upgrade to a “Premium” account, which offers higher bitrate streams, offline access to music and use of Spotify on mobile devices.

Thumbplay

• Thumbplay’s subscription service costs $9.99/month for access to 10 credits that can be redeemed for content in its online store. Consumers can sync their music — as well as images and video — to the site.

Rdio (UK based, soon to be in the US)

• Instant access to more than 5 million tracks through a web browser, downloadable software or mobile app. Available for free for three days and then for fees of $5 (web only) or $10 (web plus mobile). Lets you see what people are listening to, what they like, and who they know through real-time feeds with integration to Facebook and Twitter.

MOG

• For $9.99 MOG users can download or stream unlimited tunes from the company’s catalog to their mobile phones or PCs. Users can store music from the site into their cache and stream it from their phones and PCs directly from the web browser. Also offers a unique radio function where users listen to music and are given the option to store songs into their cache from the radio.

MP3tunes

• Users create their own music locker and store their digital music online, which can then be created into playlists and streamed from PCs or smartphones. Users get 2GB of storage for free, or can go for ‘paid for’ plans that enable them to store 50-200GB of music depending on the subscription level.

AudioBox.fm

• 1 GB storage for free with upgrades as low as $3.99/month for 11GB. Integrates with Last.fm, Twitter, and YouTube. Can be accessed from PCs or mobile devices without installing additional software.

Maestro.fm

• Free social music network that gives you access to your own digital music via remote storage. Rather than uploading songs in one go, Maestro.fm’s system stores your music online as you listen to it using PCs and Maestro enabled smartphones.

Deezer

• Free music service that offers an unlimited amount of storage for your MP3 collection; only you can’t upload MP3 files that exceed 10Mb. Offers an on-demand streaming audio services as well as creating and sharing playlists with the Deezer community and making Deezer radio stations that other members can tune in to.

MusicPlayer.fm

• Gives users online storage to stream their music collection wherever they may be for free. They can also use the service to easily search for a track to play and organize their collection using playlists. There’s also the option to create their very own digital radio station based on their favorite genre.

ZumoDrive

• Upload up to 1 GB of music for free and access it from any device. Pricing ranges from 10 GB for $2.99/month to 500GB for $79.99/month.