Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
March 18th, 2008
It was exciting news when apple released details of the SDK for developing iPhone applications last week. Watching the roadmap video I was very impressed with the direction that Apple have taken for rolling out the development of apps to third parties and distributing said apps in a brand new apps store.
Of particular interest (aside from the accelerometer controlled games) was the AOL messenger. It got me thinking about the messenger system we use to remote-connect at work - Skype.
With rumours rife around the whole subject of a G3 iPhone - and now the ability for third party developers to bring their apps to the worlds best mobile platform, it isn’t a great stretch to suppose that they’ll be skype for iPhone.
Obviously, the 2.5G EDGE network that the UK iPhone currently uses wouldn’t be enough to support VOIP calls - but with 3G support it’s not unthinkable that iPhone users will be calling each other for free - Using their O2 unlimited data.
I wait with bated breath to see what O2 (and by arbitration Apple) will do about this threat to their revenue. If Apple’s recent actions are anything to go by, there must surly be some kind of reaction to this.
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February 11th, 2008
ebuzzing is a new pay-to-blog service from France, just launched in the UK. Their man Dan dropped me an email asking me to give it a look see, so here’s what I thought of it.
As a rule, I really don’t like pay-to-blog (P2B) sites as they’re usually really restrictive on what you can write about. Why would you write a review on a product you don’t own or particularly care about? Selling your integrity to the man has never been high on my agenda with this site, but Dan insisted that ebuzzing was different…
They basically have two ways to feed the blogger content - Network and Direct.
Network is the regular fare I’ve come to expect from P2B sites - there’s a big list of products and services that people want you to blog about with a price they’re willing to pay for you to do so. I say big list with some trepidation, as currently the ebuzzing UK site only has a request to review their own site (cue this review). Dan assures me that the French network is much bigger and they’re working hard to bring across some of their French partners as well as some big British advertisers.
Direct is what makes ebuzzing somewhat different. When you sign up for an account and add in your blog you’re given a recommended price per article (or you can specify your own). This is based on several things (technorati rank, inward links, etc.) but it looks like it’s mainly based on your Google page rank.
As far as I understand the idea behind this is - Advertisers that have a particular product or service they wish blogged. They are then presented with a list of blogs that write about that sort of stuff (via a number of tags you specify). I actually really like this idea - it means (at least if it works like it says on the tin) that you’ll only get offered the sorts of stuff you’d normally blog about anyway. And, if they’ve got any brains, the advertisers will have read a bit of your blog and know that what they have to offer will be well received. That way - less selling out and a nice little earner for you - just for writing about the stuff you normally would anyway.
If this actually works remains to be seen - but at least ebuzzing have thought outside the box a little.
The only other thing I’d like to say about their service is their website. Good idea, slightly rickety website. It’s still a little rough around the edges (for instance, some of the Javascript popup alerts are still in French). The whole site needs some serious interaction re-design. It’s not really intuitive or easy to use. But I think once they’ve sorted that out they’ll have a potential killer service.
In summary - ebuzzing is a great idea that hinges on them getting some big blogs together with some decent advertisers. Do that, and they’re in the money.
This is a sponsored article
10 Comments »
October 17th, 2007
Whist in Italy I took the opportunity to capture several images of the same thing - the bay at Salo, the Tower at Sirmione and the Arena in Verona.
Now by themselves, they look pretty rubbish, but stick them in a crazy-go-nutts program called Calico and out the other end you get beautiful panoramic shots.
I’m so impressed with this software. I didn’t use a tripod for these shots, I simply ensured there was plenty of overlap and then exported them full-res from iPhoto. Once in Calico I simply loaded the photos in, and clicked Align.
You can of course rotate each photo or change their order, but Calico takes care of the rest. Alignment, colour balance, the lot! Crop off the black edges and you can’t tell the photos were ever separate.
Pretty sweet! Sorry for those of you with a PC - perhaps someone could suggest something similar for other platforms?
2 Comments »
October 5th, 2007
Well, no great supprises but it turns out that there was an iPod touch in the box.
So far I love it!
In the box you get: The iPod (ohhh momma), Headphones, USB cable, A silky cleaning cloth, one of those dock adapter things (so you can use the Touch with Apple Speakers, etc) and a crappy little plastic stand. No stickers (didn’t they used to give you them with everything?) and a useless quick start guide in every language on God’s green Earth.
But onto the main event, the Touch itself. The interface is amazing! Even the keyboard (which pops up whenever you need to type anything) is easy to use, despite the keys looking too small for my chubby fingers to press. It really is well done, and well thought out!
The pinch-zoom is awesome, as is the double-tap - both really intuitive. No wonder they don’t provide a big manual, when it’s this well thought out it’s easy to use. You just kind of instinctively know what to do. Even the built in sound effects give you that warm glow of a well delivered feedback.
I LOVE Coverflow on this - I only wish iTunes could find more of my album art. The accelerometer (the device that flips the display or puts the ipod into Coverflow mode when you tip-up the device) makes yet another thing that could have been a User Interface nightmare a snap to use.
The only few gripes I have with it, so far, are…
- No Mail - What? Why? Come on Apple, why no mail app, surly this would be a natural thing to add in seeing how we have a web browser. Maybe they’ll release this soon
- No Bluetooth - This would be really useful to transfer photos, etc with my mobile and other devices.
- The bug in Videos - Sometimes (randomly) videos will pixelate to such an extent as to make them unwatchable. This is sorted with a restart, but it’s still annoying.
- No Quicktime in Safari - Again, What? Why? Maybe something to do with the zooming. Come on Apple, I’m sure your boffins can sort this.
- No games - Only a matter of time though I think
So in summing up - yes, it was a bit of a splurge (the first big spend I’ve made in a very long time) - but I’m very impressed. I’m sure they’ll be a new post soon about the dangers of the Mobile iTunes store! So look out for that one.
I’m on holiday for a week now, so roobottom will be back after a short break.
8 Comments »
September 26th, 2007
Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed that my Mac has been slowly grinding to a halt, overheating and basically not bringing me as much maccy joy as she used to.
After a little investigation, I discovered that (for some unknown reason) Dashboard was chewing up memory and processor power by the fistful. In fact, it was claiming a mighty 80% chunk of my 2.3 Ghz core 2 duo.
80% !?! Something had to be done.
After a little investigation I discovered that there was a way to completely disable my little used Dashboard. The Dashboard app is run as a process of the Dock, so it’s a two stage task to disable the pesky thing.
First, start terminal and type the following
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
This will tell your mac that you no longer require Dashboard, then restart your Dock…
killall Dock
There. All better. If you (for some strange reason) decide that the Dashboard is a good idea, you can reverse the process with this command.
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
The run the ‘killall’ again, and you’re back in business - Although why you’d want this piece of useless gadgetry is beyond me. Have fun!
4 Comments »
September 18th, 2007
The iTunes store is great, I love it! And that’s the problem. They have my credit card details and it’s way too easy for me to click the all to available ‘buy now’ button. And, to make matters worse, we now have TV shows in the UK store.
Oh crap, Ugly Betty is quite good, and I don’t watch TV so this seems like the perfect solution. Click, watch.. and then cower under the table when my Visa bill is delivered each month. They add more stuff all the time, why wont they let me rest?
And then, the final straw. They go and launch the iPod touch. How do Apple do that? Make you want their things? And with WiFi access to the store I’d be as dangerous as a granny with a chainsaw.
Somebody help. Surly there must be a support group for this kind of thing?
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