Will You Pay for Hulu? is a post from Chris Pirillo
I’m betting one of the biggest reasons you’re a Hulu fan would be the fact that consumption doesn’t cost you anything. It looks as though the company will soon be switching over to a paid model much like you’d find with Netflix. They are also looking to expand the service onto devices such as the Xbox 360 and iPad.
Hulu, which generated an estimated $100 million in advertising revenue last year, will continue to offer newer episodes of shows like Fox’s “Glee” free of charge, but it will also charge viewers a monthly fee to see older episodes and other content, two of the sources said.
Hulu gained about $100 million in advertising revenue last year. They will reportedly continue to offer new episodes of your favorite shows free of charge. Watching older episodes and other content will likely require a monthly fee. Advertising is what has allowed the service to remain free up until this point. Competition in this market is fierce, and Hulu is stepping up its game in order to be one of the top dogs in consumption services.
Will you pay a fee to catch up on your shows, or will you look elsewhere for them?
You don’t have to pay a monthly fee to gain access to all of the hottest software and apps for all of your machines and devices.
Reading http://goo.gl/ZugA
Last week, Steve Jobs promised that his iPhone and iPads would be open to outside ad networks. Yesterday Apple made good on his promise, by changing the terms of its developer agreement. But he may not have opened the door all the way.
Backstory: Apple’s original license agreement, released in April, appeared to effectively ban third-party ad networks from selling “in-app” ads on its gadgets, by crippling their ability to track user data. In the absence of any clarification from Apple, it seemed to me (and others) that Apple was set on locking up its platform from advertising competition.
But last week at the D8 conference, Jobs either changed his stance or spelled it out, depending on your persepecctive: Apple wasn’t interested in banning rivals to its iAd platform, he said — it just wanted to cripple third-party analytics companies like Flurry.
And yesterday, Apple changed its legal language to reflect Jobs’ words. Here’s the revised language for section 3.3.9 of Apple’s developer agreement, concerning the use of data collection:
3.3.9 You and Your Applications may not collect, use, or disclose to any third party, user or device data without prior user consent, and then only under the following conditions:
- The collection, use or disclosure is necessary in order to provide a service or function that is directly relevant to the use of the Application. For example, without Apple’s prior written consent,
You may not use third party analytics software in Your Application to collect and send device data to a third party for aggregation, processing, or analysis.- The collection, use or disclosure is for the purpose of serving advertising to Your Application; is provided to an independent advertising service provider whose primary business is serving
mobile ads (for example, an advertising service provider owned by or affiliated with a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other
than Apple would not qualify as independent); and the disclosure is limited to UDID, user location data, and other data specifically designated by Apple as available for advertising purposes.
If you compare and contrast with Apple’s earlier version, you’ll see the message is clear: It’s OK to collect user data to help sell ads — though you will need to get their permission to do so.
UPDATE: One important caveat here: It appears as if Apple may still be limiting its biggest potential rival — Google’s AdMob. Note the language about only allowing “independent” ad serving companies to collect data: “For example, an advertising service provider owned by or affiliated with a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple would not qualify as independent.”
Google (GOOG) certainly qualifies as a developer/distributor of mobile operating systems, right? The language also appears to disqualify potential rivals — if, for instance, Microsoft (MSFT) tried entering the mobile display market. I’ve asked Apple for comment, but I’m not expecting any.
Meantime, Apple’s language does appear to be good news for smaller competitors like Greystripe, Millenial Media and Medialets — though it may make them less attractive to potential acquirers
Here’s Jobs’ own words on the topic, last week at the D8 conference.
Found this neat: Hooked on Gadgets and Happy About It http://bit.ly/aw2rpc
- Chris Brogan
When one of the most important e-mail messages of his life landed in his in-box a few years ago, Kord Campbell overlooked it.
Not just for a day or two, but 12 days. He finally saw it while sifting through old messages: a big company wanted to buy his Internet start-up.
“I stood up from my desk and said, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,’ ” Mr. Campbell said. “It’s kind of hard to miss an e-mail like that, but I did.”
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Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price http://su.pr/Adudo1
[Direct Link]How many agree with the story: NYTimes: Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price http://nyti.ms/b0kK8b // @kordless
- Om Malik
Google Desktop is a great tool for social networking. The Twitter and Facebook gadgets allow you to keep up to date with your friends without even having to launch a full web browser. Other gadgets, like custom clocks and computer performance meters, just flat-out look cool.
But Google Desktop isn’t just a novelty. There are many gadgets available for Google Desktop which can improve your productivity. This guide rounds up the top five productivity-improving gadgets you can find for Google Desktop.
To best way to add these gadgets is to simply to right-click on your Google Desktop sidebar and then click Add Gadgets. Type the name of the gadget in the upper left hand search field to find it. Then hover over the gadget’s icon and select Add. Google Desktop will handle the rest.
Having a to-do list can be great, but the old-fashioned method of putting it down on paper isn’t always the best. Paper can be easily lost, and you don’t want to have to stuff a list of things to do in your pocket whenever you travel, do you?
There are quite a few to-do list gadgets available, but the best one is the Task List and Time Timer. This list really serves two functions. The first is to keep track of what you have to do today. The second is to keep track of how much time you spend doing it. If you’re someone who is self-employed the timer is an amazing tool, as it keeps you honest about how much time you’re actually spending on work.
News isn’t always a distraction. For many people, it is important to have information as quickly as possible. However, the news gadgets which are provided by many media outlets are very limited in what they can do for you. They’re usually focused on getting you to go to their website rather than presenting news to you clearly.
That is where the Read Feed reader comes in. This simple RSS reader allows you to follow multiple RSS feeds at once. The news is formatted in simple text with basic images and dated, making it easy to read while minimizing its ability to distract you when you’re hard at work.
Adding your Gmail to your Google Desktop can help you answer emails quickly, but displaying your entire Gmail inbox in the Gmail gadget feels a bit clunky. A better, more focused way of responding quickly to emails is to use the Gmail Notifer.
Rather than displaying your entire inbox, the Gmail Notifier only displays unread messages. It displays them in a large, easy to click read format. Your can either read a summary of the email or open Gmail in your default web browser to reply.
Google Calendar is an amazing tool for all of use who can’t seem to remember meetings, birthdays and other important dates. The Google Calendar gadget goes even further by making it easy to access your Google Calendar information from your desktop.
Any date on which you have something scheduled will be show up in bold text on your Google Calender gadget. You can then click on the date to read a summary of what is scheduled for that day. You can also create a new event from the Google Calender Gadget or double-click on a date to open up Google Calender in your default web browser and display an expanded view of the day’s events.
The ability to connect with others across the globe online means you’ll inevitably come across situations where you want to read something which isn’t in a language you speak. Finding a website which will translate the text for you is one way to go about it, but if you find yourself running into this problem frequently you’ll find it much easier to use Google Translate, a Google Desktop gadget which will translate text for you once you enter it.
Google Translate can translate supports numerous languages. This includes widely known languages, like English, Chinese and Spanish, as well as less well known languages like Cherokee and Icelandic. Simply type in or copy and paste the text you need translated and Google Translate will handle the rest.
Ever want to know how a word is spelled as quick as you can snap your fingers? Usually you’d have to open Word in such a situation, or you might just type your suspected spelling into Google and see what you end up with, hoping that the Internet steers you true.
With the Spellchecker Gadget, however, you have no reason to doubt. This simple gadget allows you to enter a word. Press Enter and the word is checked for spelling errors and corrected if there are any. You’ll also receive a quick definition below the word.
If you work with web designs or photographs you’ll often need to measure an image of a size of page element. However, this can be difficult, particularly if importing the item you’re working on into your favorite editor is, for whatever reason, not possible.
The On-Screen Ruler can solve this problem. It is very simply a ruler which appears on your desktop and can measure the size of an image in pixels. By default it is 500 pixels wide, but it can be adjusted to be as wide or as narrow as needed.
How do you use Google Desktop? Any more productivity gadgets you’d like to recommend? Voice them out in the comments.
Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
"Google Desktop is a great tool for social networking. The Twitter and Facebook gadgets allow you to keep up to date with your friends without even having to launch a full web browser. Other gadgets, like custom clocks and computer performance meters, just flat-out look cool. But Google Desktop isn’t just a novelty. There are many gadgets available for Google Desktop which can improve your productivity. This guide rounds up the top five productivity-improving gadgets you can find for Google Desktop."
- Kol Tregaskes
I’ve been thinking about a new series for awhile. The idea is I get to share my favorite applications, gadgets, and services that I use on a regular basis. Each one I am either already paying for or I would have paid for in a minute if they had not already sent me a free copy (and some I even pay for anyway just because I want to support the company since I like it so much). This is your peak into my life and the things I use on a day-to-day basis. These are the things that were so good they got me to spend time out of my busy schedule to share with you. Listen carefully to these, as these are truly the technologies I really, really enjoy and I think you will too. The first of these, which I’ve been trying to write about for awhile now, is an iTunes competitor called Spotify.
As I write this, I’m sitting here, listening to Dave Morin, a Facebook friend’s playlist of 90s music and none of it is hosted on either of our computers. I’m listening to Sugar Ray’s “Every Morning”, and the cool thing is I haven’t even downloaded the song yet! Spotify is a 100% cloud-based subscription service based in the UK where you pay a monthly fee, and get to stream as much high quality as you like to your computer.
Spotify’s database is amazing! While there are some rarer songs that are harder to find, Spotify has been able to satisfy just about every search query I’ve given it, providing me with music all over the world in just a few clicks. New releases come out on the service almost as quick as they come out on iTunes, and some like Mika’s new album even get exclusive release on the service earlier than they release in stores (Mika’s had an overlay for the pre-release time asking you to purchase the album).
Every song on the service can be added to a playlist, which, as I’ll show in a minute, all your friends can then subscribe to and also listen. You can easily access any of your playlists, and it also keeps track of your searches so you can go back and access those as well.
Each song can be added to a playlist, or you can view your friends’ playlists
Social Integration
Spotify has the most amazing social integration of any music service I’ve used so far. I think of it as “Twitter lists, for music”. If you link your Facebook account it will immediately show you the playlists of all your friends, and you can “subscribe” to the playlists you like and have them appear in your sidebar for listening later.
In addition to subscription to friends’ lists, sharing is quite simple as well. Just right-click on any song, click “Send to”, and you’re given the option to immediately share that song to Twitter, Facebook, or even friends on the Spotify service. Your friends can then listen to the song on Spotify and add it to their lists as well. I’ve found myself listening more to my friends’ music than my own playlists, discovering all kinds of new music, and music that I have not heard in ages via this means. Remember listening to music with your high school buddies? Now you can do so again through Spotify’s social integration.
Clicking on the “What’s New” tab not only gives me a customized view based on my listening habits of new music tailored for me, but I also get a feed of my friends’ listening activities. I can see, in real-time what all my friends are listening to and check out what they are interested in right then and there.
Clicking “What’s New” gives me a feed of what all my friends are listening to
Downloads
With a near $20/month subscription, any user of Spotify can also download any of the music streamed on the service. This way if you don’t have an internet connection later you can still listen to the music with no problem. You can even take it further though – in any friend’s list, if you swipe a box next to “Available Offline”, all of that friend’s list will download to your computer for listening later. This makes it easy to bring the entire musical experience with you no matter where you go.
Mobile App
I actually loved the service so much that I proxied the service so I could pay them the monthly fee (I had a free blogger copy) just so I could try out the iPhone app. The iPhone app provides most of the same functionality as the desktop application, and also gives you full ability to download music for listening when you don’t have a connection in the car. I’ve found the music quality on the iPhone is not quite as clear as the iPhone’s native iPod player, but it is still good, and worth using. The service is also available on Android and Symbian devices.
Spotify’s iPhone version
US Release?
Spotify currently is only available outside the United States, and to select bloggers in a limited US trial. I originally got access to the service for free, but I liked it so much I am now paying the monthly fee just to support the service. Rumors abound about a US release, but it is still unclear on when this will happen.
So, if you’re in the UK or any of the areas Spotify is available, be sure to check it out and give it a try. For those of us in the US, we’ll be stuck waiting until the US music industry gets its gear in order, contracts are signed, and we too will have the opportunity to try out the goodness that is Spotify. Spotify is the most amazing music service I’ve ever used, and I quickly find it replacing my usage of iTunes and even social streaming services like Last.fm and Pandora Radio. Spotify has revolutionized the way I listen to music. If you can, I highly recommend you check it out.
My Favorite Things: Spotify, the Social Music Streaming Service
- Niklas SjostromMy Favorite Things: Spotify, the Social Music Streaming Service
- Rob Diana
We’re adding broadband connections to our televisions, our phones, our reading devices and our game consoles these days, to the point that we expect such connections in almost everything we own. But while connectivity is awesome 90 percent of the time, it’s also scary because it can turn what were once private habits such as reading a book or answering email into something social — in some cases, without us knowing.
It also allows advertisers to better track our activities and to offer up personalized ads. Thanks to more gadgets with a web connection, we all live in glass houses where friends, neighbors, advertisers and potentially the government can see what we’re up to. What’s worse is that the records of our daily activities aren’t a transitory blip; they’re kept for months on end and can be searched, resold or shared.
Sure, your glass house has a great view of the world, and the ability to let your friends know what TV show you’re watching so they can share the experience is nice. But sometimes — perhaps for no other reason that a desire to be alone — you might want to close the drapes.
I place very high value on the notion of privacy. It disturbs me to find that Amazon might be sharing my anonymized highlighting of my Kindle books with the world — not because I’m learning how to make a bomb or reading Harlequin romance books — but because reading is a private activity for me. I’m similarly disturbed when a company that’s already pushing my comfort zone on privacy says one thing, but is apparently doing another.
If we’re going to live in glass houses, here’s what we need as connected consumers:
Transparency: Services shouldn’t say one thing but do another. Nor should they explain what they share in convoluted or complicated terms. And given how fast things change online, when privacy policies are amended, users need to be explicitly told (GigaOM Pro, sub req’d).
Standards: We need the companies that want to use and share our information to agree on terms, and market the heck out of them as a means to educate consumers. IP addresses, for example, are generally considered anonymous but they can be traced back to a household. Consumers need to know that. They also need to get a real sense of other potentially invasive ways tech can track them and understand which ones matter. Having a unified schema for entering and storing data would also help because it would enable users to move their information to other providers and perhaps shop around on the basis of privacy.
Control: I think we’re in many ways having the wrong debate over privacy. Most people don’t know what’s being shared, which means they don’t know what to do about it and instead, just freak out. If you give people information in a standardized format suddenly they can have control — they can decide what to share and with whom.
Having control may not mean that a consumer opts into sharing information through an arduous, click-filled process, but with enough transparency and standard language, can tell immediately what’s going to be shared upon signing up. In many ways the Internet is about the ability to access information or services easily and virally, and opt-ins create a barrier to entry that’s pretty high for businesses. Plus, the expectation that has developed around the Internet is that it’s easy to sign up and share information, but you need to clearly tell people what’s happening and offer them a way out before they share more than they intended.
A Line of Demarcation: How much someone is willing to share online is pretty personal. Already I share more online than I ever thought I would, while I’m sure my daughter, who is now three, will share even more. But as we connect financial and health information to the Internet through broadband-connected medical devices and online health records, we need to set limits as to who owns those records and how they can be accessed.
I think that data should belong explicitly to the user and methods to read it should be interoperable so that it can be shared at will with service providers when needed, while the user retains control. There is no sharing without an explicit opt-in.
Clearly this isn’t going to stop egregious violations of privacy, such as photos of a dead teen being posted online despite the family’s wishes, and it doesn’t mean one shouldn’t exercise common sense when, say, pondering whether or not you should post that pic of your friend drinking.
One way or another, instead of debating the nebulous issue of whether we share too much, we need to talk about how to set standards and educate consumers. Only then will we be able to have a healthy debate over what privacy practices we need in a connected age. We live in glass houses — let’s accept that and start shopping for blinds.
Image courtesy of Flickr user seier+seier
RT @pblackshaw: NYTimes: One on One: Brian Lam of Gizmodo.com http://nyti.ms/c7y5St
Gillette Geek is a post from Chris Pirillo
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Gillette. All opinions are 100% mine with a cmp.ly/3 disclosure.
I’m a guy.
As such, I get facial hair – and it’s not all that much fun to deal with on a daily basis. I also have two nosehairs which are plucked fortnightly – but that’s not of any consequence (nor do I believe this factoid will ever show up in a game of Trivial Pursuit).
I’m a geek, too.
Over the years, I’ve amassed quite a collection of hardware I like to refer to as “man gadgets.” These are largely comprised of shiny objects, many of which are now obsolete or relatively functionless (but my, do they shine).
I’m partnering with Gillette to bring to light some of their shiny objects for men now.
Yes, I happen to accept advertising in a variety of ways (often pushing the envelope with it) – but instead of running simple banners or doing something tricky with text), I’m working with Gillette in a sponsored conversation format to think around the blade. They’ve given me the rather comfortable title of “spokesblogger” for one of their new products online.
I’m being transparent.
Don’t worry; I’m not going to shave myself in public. At least, that’s not what I signed up to do. I’m more interested in how it seems that larger corporations are starting to understand that the future of their brand rests in the hands of of the community. In this case, it’s the community of guys who shave. There are quite a few of us out there, I believe.
I’m putting my face on the line, though – literally.
I suppose my question to you at this juncture is simple: does shaving matter to you?
Look for my first post in the series on Tuesday.
I've been waiting for this - it changes everything as far as gadgets go: http://bit.ly/9NhbdV - Sony roll-up OLED screen. #mkx
[Direct Link]
Bored of reading fanboy stories about Apple yet? So are we. So that's why we bring you the occasional Apple horror stories, too.
Alas, today, this is as close as we can get.
Turns out, I'm in the market for an iPad. (Not for me--for my Dad, who loves gadgets and is recovering from surgery and therefore has more time than anyone would ever want to lie on his back and fiddle with a new toy).
I planned to stop at the Apple Cathedral on 5th Avenue this afternoon to pick one up on my way to see him, but I was reminded that demand for iPads has been so intense that Apple is frequently out of them.
So I called first.
And for a minute there, I thought I had an honest-to-God Apple customer-service horror story.
I listened to the canned (but pleasant) voicemail message about how the magical new iPad was finally here and how I could get store hours or book an hour with a Mac Genius and so on by pressing particular buttons. There was nothing in the voicemail about iPads actually being in stock, so I assumed that the magical availability that the canned voice was referring to was a theoretical availability--as in, "can be purchased somewhere, sometime". This, it turned out, was the correct assumption.
The voice said to press "5" for all other questions. So I pressed "5".
And I got the beginning of the voicemail again!!
Imagine my shock and horror. Apple, the awesomest company in the world, resorting to endless loops of voicemail hell! (What was this, Citigroup?) As I listened to the voicemail again, wondering if maybe I'd misheard something, I was already composing a rant.
At the end of the voicemail, there it was again: Press "5" for all other questions (including, I assumed, the question that most callers want the answer to: "Do you have any iPads?")
Still in disbelief, I pressed "5" again. And this time, thankfully, Apple redeemed itself. The voice informed me that all customer service representatives were busy and that there was... one call ahead of me.
That was more like it.
I waited 30 seconds, and then a real live Apple human being gave me my (disappointing) answer. No iPads available.
I called the other three stores in New York. This time, pressing "5" immediately got me a person. Alas, I learned that there are no iPads available in New York. So my dad is going to have to make do with his iPhone for a while.
Now, based on my experience calling the other stores, my guess is that the first "press 5 and get an endless voicemail loop" for the 5th Avenue store was not, in fact, a glitch, but a planned default when all store representatives are busy. Apple probably figures that at least some callers don't listen carefully the first time through and can be helped automatically with the repetition.
If so, I don't think this is the BEST customer service option. I think the best one would be to default to a live human being (or a queue). But perhaps other Apple customers disagree.
It's also possible, of course, that I just pressed the wrong key on my iPhone and that it was my error that started the loop again. In which case, Apple's customer service cannot be said to suffer from even this minor blemish. (Except, of course, for the lack of availability of those iPads).
In other news, yesterday I saw iPads used the way I eventually expect them (or other tablets like them) to be used in basically every house in the country. I walked into a venture capitalist's office and there were two of them just sitting on the foyer table.
Right now, you have to be a venture capitalist to afford that. In a few years, though, when iPads cost $199? Every household will have a couple.
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Wow. Must be a slow news day. Incredibly slow.
- felixZagg Your Way to Extra Power for USB Devices is a post from Chris Pirillo
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The people at Zagg asked me if I wanted to take a look at the ZAGGsparq.Their claim is that it is the world’s most powerful battery backup and charger. They aren’t kidding, folks. This thing packs 2000mA hours inside of it! The 6,000 mAh Lithium Polymer Battery has enough juice in it to fully charge an iPhone four times.
The ZAGGsparq plugs into a regular old wall outlet and allows you to charge two devices by way of USB while plugged in. The cool thing, though, is that it will hold charge inside when you unplug it from the wall. You can throw it into your pocket or bag and then use it to charge any personal electronic device that requires a USB plug for connectivity. It’s small and lightweight, so it’s easy to take with you when you’re traveling or attending a conference. If you fully charge your ZAGGspark before you head out for the day, you don’t have to worry about finding an outlet to recharge your gadgets while you’re busy and on the run. Just pull out the ZAGGspark and get the go-go juice you need.
The ZAGGsparq does have UK adapters in case you’re traveling abroad. There is also a lit-up indicator on the side that will tell you exactly how much juice you have left. This thing will definitely be a part of my accessory kit from now on. I’ve done reviews on what I use when I’m moving around, and this is going to be a perfect addition to the mix.
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Twitter is finally getting serious about making money today with a demand that third party Twitter providers give them a cut of advertising revenues.
The new demand follows a change to the Twitter API announced earlier that has banned all third party ad providers from auto-posting to Twitter accounts (details here.)
According to the TOS changes, Twitter wants a cut of advertising sales “where Twitter content is the basis (in whole or in part) of the advertising sale.” Notably though, what the cut is isn’t defined.
The new clause reads:
In cases where Twitter content is the basis (in whole or in part) of the advertising sale, we require you to compensate us (recoupable against any fees payable to Twitter for data licensing). For example, you may sell sponsorships or branding around gadgets or iframes that include Tweets and other customized visualizations of Twitter.
The move makes sense for Twitter, but does again highlight the odd nature of Twitter’s recent treatment of third party providers: on one hand praising them, and on the other killing them outright or slowly by a thousand cuts.
If you’ve hitched your business around the Twitter API, you’re either brave or crazy mad.
According to Apple’s latest commercial, “iPad goes anywhere” — anywhere, that is, except for Yankee Stadium. Yahoo Sports confirmed with the stadium that the iPad falls under its “no laptops” security policy and patrons won’t be able to enter the ball field with one in their possession.
Say what? The TSA says that you don’t have to take an iPad out of its case to go through security, but Yankee Stadium says the device is a no-go? The discussion surrounding the ban was spurred by a message from Spacekatgal on the IGN Boards. Spacekatgal tried to bring her iPad in to the Yankee/Red Sox game, only to be turned away at the gate. Undeterred, she did re-enter the stadium with her iPad in her jacket, but the ban exists all the same.
While you can reasonably conceive why someone would want to bring an iPad — or any electronic device aside from a cellphone into a ball game for that matter — the outright ban of such a device strikes us as odd, especially given that Wi-Fi is available throughout the complex.
In any event, if you want to bring an iPad to Yankee Stadium this summer (assuming you’re sitting in the shade), you might want to make sure you’ve got a bag or windbreaker that can mask said device from the security guards. Or you could just leave the gadgets at home and watch the game.
What do you think of this security policy? Let us know in the comments.
Tags: Baseball, ipad, ipad ban, yankee stadium
Yankee Stadium Bans iPads
- Sarah PerezI'll bet @percival will buy this if he dare clicks on the link http://bit.ly/9678vB
Sometimes when you’re sitting at that computer screen it gets awful lonely. No amount of social networking or online chats will give you the companionship that you need and crave. Just tap this silver little pet and he’ll respond to your touch in all sorts of pleasant ways. Then when you’re tired of his bouncy little personality, you can force him to fall asleep.
These lights come in a blue and red form. Tap them once while they’re asleep and he’ll pop to life. You can also lightly tap him and make him wink as well as make him go a little crazy. To make him sleep again just hold down with your finger a little bit longer. It plugs directly into your USB port to keep it up and powered. This won’t be available until about the mid point of June. You can pre-order the Mathmos creation for £35.00 or about $50.
Source: NerdApproved
With Google in conference mode, that means one major thing, lots of product announcements. Several blogs have reported on the email contextual gadgets for Google Apps. Third party developers can now built GMail contextual gadgets and have them available in the Google Apps Marketplace. In the announcement, they listed several applications that would be available immediately, AwayFind, Kwaga, Gist, Pixetell, Smartsheet, Xobni, Rapportive, Manymoon, Newmind Group, and BillFLO. This is definitely an interesting list of applications, but this is only available to Google Apps customers at this time. I am assuming that these applications will eventually be available for all GMail users, but most people will need to wait. More importantly, this announcement continues the push towards enterprise adoption of Google Apps. However, this was not the biggest announcement of the day, regardless of how much coverage it is getting.
Somehow the announcement of Google Apps Script improvements got generally ignored.If you do not remember what Google App Script is, it is the Visual Basic for Applications language for Google Apps. So, if you look at the details of what has changed in Google Apps Script, and you remember why Microsoft Office became the dominant player in office suites, you should be amazed that people are not talking about this more. Here are the highlights taken from the Google Enterprise blog post:
So, you can connect to MySQL and build a custom user interface if you have the Premier Edition. There is also more integration with Google Docs. Does anyone remember how many applications were written using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and Microsoft Access? What Google is trying to do is take that model and put it on the web. The reason is simple, there are hundreds of millions of people still looking for ways to automate tasks in a spreadsheet without involving the programming department. Many of those small departmental applications written in Access have not been ported to the web because of the amount of programming involved. Google just tried to remove that barrier.
In addition to the major additions targeted at corporate customers, they threw everyone else a Google Docs treat. You can call a script from any website. So, you can create your own polls using the spreadsheets and embed it in a blog post or widget. This does two things without making it incredibly obvious. First, they allow people to use Apps Script on their own websites and slowly push their employer to start using it. This is how many things gain adoption in the workplace. Second, they have start pushing their own Apps Script as a framework for the web. This is not a small task as other scripting languages are firmly entrenched, but those languages do not have the simple hooks into an office suite. So, with other scripting languages, it is hard to save data without server side programming like Java or PHP. With AppsScript, you can write some simple script and save the data to a spreadsheet. Yes, Google is trying to create VBA for the web application, and it is in a language that many people already know, JavaScript.
Simple programming has always been the holy grail of software development, especially when talking about small departmental applications in the enterprise. Will typical business people be able to create great applications with Apps Script? I doubt that, but we could easily see many applications created that serve a specific purpose, quickly automating various tasks for spreadsheets and other office suite documents. If this simplicity can be translated to the web as well, we could see some interesting developments. Because Apps Script is really just JavaScript, there could be a huge library of scripts that automate various tasks. As an example, who will be first to release a script using Apps Script and Google spreadsheets that is a simple polling widget that you can easily embed on your blog? Another question should be on your mind as well, can Microsoft quickly answer with their new online offerings?
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In the late nineties and early aughts, MP3 players were known, well, as MP3 players. However, when Apple launched the iPod on October 21, 2001, it was such a huge success that it only took a couple of years for most people to simply start using the name “iPod” when they referred to the idea of an MP3 player.
Apple sold 125,000 iPods by the end of 2001; it sold a flabbergasting 225 million by 2010. Coupled with the music management/online music store one-two punch that was iTunes, the iPod turned out to be one of the most successful gadgets of all time.
In the amazing infographic below, you can see the rise of the iPod and iTunes (and how they’ve affected our lives) in the last nine years. It’s true: the rest of the MP3 market never stood a chance.
Tags: apple, infographic, ipod, mp3, music, online music
United States President Barack Obama, during a speech today at Hampton University, criticized the use of gadgets like Apple’s iPad and iPod touch and called these devices a “distraction” and “diversion” for the nation , specially for the students.
He further said in his speech, to the students of Hampton University, that information as entertainment is becoming more as a burden to the young minds rather than an empowerment tool.
He further said
You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth meter.
With iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it’s putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy.
This speech of President Barack Obama shows that he is concerned about the young generation of U.S. but still devices like iPad are more like helping gadgets rather than tools of destructions. Every gadget is made to help the user but if somebody would spend his whole day playing on iPad or any other gadget than it’s a mistake of the user rather than the gadget.
iPad is not only for browsing and playing games, it is also a ebook reader so it is also helpful for students to an extent. Overall, devices like iPad are very helpful and if it is a distraction then our laptops and computers are worst distractions than the iPad.
[source Huffington Post]
Stadium implosion video/QTVR (Thanks, Mack!)
so cool, aber eigentlich viel zu schade für die kamera. aber cool das 720° videos schon möglich sind
- Dickbuttkick
I would... I would pay money to be able to watch US content
- Johnny Worthington5$ a month tops
- CarolineI'd only pay if the paid version didn't include ads and if it had the full library of the shows I watch so I could watch the episodes at my leisure. Also, none of that stupid 8-30 day streaming restriction. I don't want to pay to be the last one to watch my favorite shows.
- Jon, the Beartato of '10what movieguyjon said
- Chieze Okoye