ACD - Comprehension

Immersive TV Viewing Apps [List]

2011-05-15T14:42:00.004-04:00

The following are some of the best Apps that offer a more immersive TV watching experience. I saw Qurious demonstrated while at a Boxee Beta launch in Brooklyn, NY and that was definitely amazing. Unfortunately I don't know if they've done anything beyond develop that prototype. For all I know they're now members of some of the other projects listed below.

Apps:
- bee
- blinQ TV (iTunes)
- IntoNow
- Kwarter
- miso
- Qurious
- VideoSurf
- yap.TV

Android apps run on QNX and MeeGo

2011-02-13T15:23:00.002-05:00

Recently two very different OS platforms have been gifted support for Android software. On the MeeGo device it's done through third-party software but it looks like RIM is actually adding the capability themselves to their BlackBerry PlayBook. This is pretty amazing and certainly changes the stakes a bit. No longer do new OS platforms have to do all the work instead they can just build-in a compatibility layer. The example running on an Nokia N900 is especially relevant given all the ruckus lately with Nokia switching to Windows Mobile. This also may be of interest to companies looking for a way around all the corporate lawsuits regarding the Android platform.

- Blackberry PlayBook (QNX-based OS)
- Nokia N900 (MeeGo)

Maybe Nokia should go back to making boots

2011-02-13T11:24:00.008-05:00

So Nokia just went public with a whole new direction without notifying their partner Intel. Whether or not Microsoft will use this opportunity as further grounds to undermine a valid Linux based competitor known as MeeGo remains to be seen. Nokia and Intel share intellectual property in that platform so it's debatable what may happen.

Hardware Issues:
Supposedly Nokia did try to bring to market some devices with MeeGo but there were issues with the hinge construction. So the phone companies turned them down. My personal view on this is why was Nokia still thinking hinges? Slider phones are a joke and the market leader, which is pretty much the iPhone, has no keyboard. Who's stupid idea was it to keep including something that has no market relevance? Slate/slab phones are basic and to the point, easy to construct.

Market Irrelevance:
Overall it's funny to think anybody cares what Nokia does here in the USA. Nokia has always chose to ignore the states in favor of the rest of the world. I thought this was commendable at first but they made all the wrong moves going forward. Not to mention, what good are expensive boutique stores marketing your products if nobody can really buy them?

Mistake of buying Symbian:
Purchasing Symbian wasted money and drew attention away from their other more credible assets. Nokia should have parted ways with Symbian a long time ago. Instead, like their CEO says, they poured gasoline on the fire and purchased the Symbian platform. Then they pretended to make it into an open-source Android rival. They should have focused on their Linux assets like Maemo (now known as MeeGo) and QT instead.

Missed Opportunities:
The Nokia Nx00 series could have beat Apple's iPhone to market but nobody (executive wise) had any foresight at Nokia to make it happen. They treated the Nx00 series like an experiment instead of refocusing their product teams around making it into an awesome phone platform. It took Apple a year or two to totally replicate the advantages of the Nokia Nx00 series (copy & paste, native App store, Flash, Skype) but they at least made an effort. Nokia could have done something but instead chose the worst path, Symbian. The aging Nokia Nx00 series is still the best product they've ever released and just to prove it here's Android running as an application.

Partner Example:
Sony Ericsson was involved a lot with the Symbian platform and look where they went. They sold out to Android because they probably felt like they got screwed over by Nokia when they took total control of the OS. Now Sony Ericsson is making phones with Android and PlayStation Portable integration included. Looks like they didn't see Android as giving up.

Relevant News:
- Symbian remembered by those who started it - Pocket-lint

News Filtration & Dashboards [List]

2011-02-03T21:48:00.017-05:00

NEWS ANALYSIS/FILTRATION:
- DataSift
- Fairspin
- Futureful
- joinbox
- KnowAbout.it
- Parse.ly
- PostRank
- Recorded Future
- SkyGrid
- Summify
- SwiftRiver
- The Orbit
- Qwiki
- Xygnal

DASHBOARDS:
- Chartbeat
- Dashboard.me
- Ducksboard
- Duedil
- Geckoboard
- HootSuite
- Netvibes Business
- Next Big Sound

Magazine-like News Readers [List]

2011-01-17T22:56:00.010-05:00

- Brief me
- Denso
- Editions by AOL
- Flipboard
- Flud
- Hitpad
- Jux
- news.me
- NewsMix (by sobees)
- Ongo
- Mosaic
- Pressly
- Promepi
- Pulse
- Taptu
- Zeen
- Zite

Reflections & Outlooks [Lists]

2011-01-17T21:19:00.002-05:00

Technologies:
- 40+ Things You Need to Watch in 2011 - Mashable
- 8 Sci-Fi Technologies That Are No Longer Just Fiction - Mashable

Movies:
- 55 Science Fiction/Fantasy Movies to Watch Out For in 2011 - io9
- Some cyberpunk moives to Look for in 2011 - Cyberpunk Review

Games:
- Zero Punctuation: Top 5 of 2010 - CrunchGear

Interactive Automotive Platforms [List]

2011-01-09T10:33:00.007-05:00

- Audi Multi Media Interface (MMI)
- BMW ConnectedDrive
- Bug Labs OpenXC
- Chevrolet MyLink
- Ford MyFord Touch
- Parrot Asteroid
- Saab IQon
- Toyota Entune

Cellphone Loyalty-card Replacements [List]

2010-11-18T23:33:00.003-05:00

- CardBank
- cardMobili
- CardStar
- Key Ring
- LoyaltyCard
- OneGratis
- PlacePop
- Punchd
- Scanaroo

Apple over-coming iPhone log-in hell by integrating Facebook?

2010-05-22T22:03:00.005-04:00

Image via CrunchBase

The biggest nightmare for me using the iPhone is logging into every stupid App I download. Lately it sounds like Apple might be looking for a way to fix this by integrating Facebook Connect. Facebook no doubt already has the largest user-base and effective log-in platforms known.

Safari already offers an option to remember passwords but does nothing for the problem described. Each iPhone App wants you to create an account with yet another user-name & password. This annoyance is most noticeable once you find yourself restoring the phone to it's original configuration. Few of these accounts do little more than store user-settings in the cloud, from what I can tell. It's not like they ask many personal questions beyond what do you want your user-name & password to be.

I'm not overly concerned with privacy but I know there's been lots of commotion regarding Facebook's overly complex privacy settings. I'm guessing Apple will likely just make it an option to speed up the log-in process on Apps.

NEWS LINKS:
- Pocket-lint - Facebook integration on way with iPhone OS 4.0
- Gizmodo - Facebook Might Be Built Into iPhone OS 4

Google phone store closing!?

2010-05-22T21:30:00.005-04:00

This is my plead to Google, please re-purpose the Google phone site into a useful comparison tool for picking the right Android phone hardware & Apps to meet customer's needs. Am I only one who cares to compare? Also Google would you please set a proper example to company's like Apple. Yes that fruity company that tries to convince us all they always know what's best & shouldn't question their leadership, that's a joke people.

Overall I just want an easy way to look over the latest & greatest Android hardware & Apps. Perhaps even add a social layer to the mix. I know Google has failed at that in the past but this is new, this is Android. I want a way to sync my phone and share my travels. Come on Google! Show me having options stands to better my options instead of the complete opposite. Right now I'm confused by the abundance of Android phones on different networks. Help me to see through the confusion & complexity. The phone companies aren't going to do it, that's for sure.

SYNC/BACKUP FEATURES:
- photos (example Picasa integration)
- music
- SMS, MMS (make search-able via online interface)
- App preferences
- phone settings

LINKS:
- Google Phone

Personalized Wardrobe

2010-05-08T10:50:00.009-04:00

SUITS:
A Suit That Fits
DressMonkey
Indochino
Modern Tailor
My.Suit
Oumlil

DRESS-SHIRTS:
Bespokeable
Blank-Label
J. Hilburn
Joe Button
Second Button
ShirtsMyWay

DRESSES
CONTINUUM: Ddress

T-SHIRTS:
Reactee
SonicShack
Twitgear

SWIMWEAR:
Shortomatic

Mobile Platforms

2010-02-18T00:05:00.029-05:00

This is certainly somewhat unexpected. Especially given who everyone is competing with but Samsung, Creative, and some others are releasing mobile platforms of their own. Not sure what chances these have against Apple & Google. Regardless of what you or I think these new platforms do seem to bring a lot to the table with regard to user-interface design.

PLATFORMS:
- Aliyu
- Apple - iPhone OS
- Azingo
- Baidu Yi
- Creative - Plaszma OS
- Google - Android (user-interface replacements Aro, Borqs, HipLogic, HTC - Sense UI, Intuitive User Interfaces, CyanogenMod, Fluffy Spider, petitpetit PTPT, Rightware - Kanzi, Samsung - TouchWiz, Sony Ericsson - Timescape, SPB Shell 3D and TAT)
- MeeGo (merger of Moblin and Maemo)
- Microsoft - Windows Mobile (user-interface replacements HipLogic, HTC - Sense UI, Intuitive User Interfaces, SPB Mobile Shell)
- Palm - webOS
- RIM - BlackBerry OS
- Samsung - bada
- Sharp - ELSE (built off of ACCESS Linux Platform)
- Symbian

APP STORES:
- Apple Apps
- Apple Web Apps
- Nokia Ovi
- Samsung Apps

Stuff Apple iPhone/iTunes Should Fix

2009-02-27T13:47:00.011-05:00

WHAT TO FIX:
- iTunes should provide an easier way to organize the iPhone's applications (example: App Management in iTunes)
- iTunes should allow the management of iPhone application settings (for easier inputting of complicated passwords)
- Give applications the option to run in the background

RELATED NEWS/LINKS:
- MobileCrunch - 8 Little Things We Still Can’t Stand About the iPhone
- The Industry Standard - Nine really frustrating things about the iPhone
- PleaseFixTheiPhone

Stuff Google Reader Should Fix

2008-11-30T18:07:00.007-05:00

I'm pretty sure any and all information obsessed people are using Google Reader by now. The thing though is that despite how great it is there are still some pretty annoying issues with it. A lot of these options no doubt shouldn't be added to everybody's account, but instead should be handled like Gmail with the lab projects.

WHAT TO FIX:
- Add filter options (to block unwanted news and better organize news, example: Google Reader Filter, FeedHub)
- Add an option to customize the keyboard controls
- When searching, dig deeper into articles
- Qualitatively rank news (example: AideRSS, PostRank)
- Consolidate similar news items and only show the most informative source unless I want to dig deeper
- Stop accepting article updates as new news
- Stop screwing up the times of articles, just date the article as it is posted not as I change the tags or whatever else
- Stop erasing my tags when I star an article
- Integrate a preview option
- Provide a list for reviewing which articles you just looked at regardless of when they were received
- Enable the “Send mail as” feature from Gmail
- Support password protected feeds (example: FreeMyFeed)
- Enable expiration options (for high volume blogs)
- While in "List" view mode the scrollwheel should high-light one article at a time

WHAT HAS BEEN FIXED:
- While searching allow editing of tags in list/expanded view

Stuff Facebook Should Fix

2008-11-16T10:20:00.007-05:00

If go to the applications page you'll see that you can add a bookmark to Causes and Groups but not Pages. There's also a number of other problems that just drive me nuts which I've listed below.

WHAT TO FIX:
- Add a "Recently Added" link to the actual friends page
- Add "Pages" to the "Authorized" applications page
- Add "Pages" to the "Wall Permissions" applications page
- Add "Pages" to the tab-bar (along-side Photos, Causes, Boxes)
- Make it possible to add a bookmark to "Pages" just like you can with Causes and Groups
- Split the "Authorized" applications page with a Facebook default apps section (not a new page just add a header for default apps with all the Facebook default stuff)
- The "Wall Permissions" section lists old apps you've removed from your Facebook (they might as well rename it the history page)

NOTE: When I say bookmark I'm talking about that little bar at the bottom of Facebook where you can stick quick-access links to your Facebook apps.

Does MySpace hate the Groups feature? (Profile 2.0)

2008-11-16T09:35:00.012-05:00

Go check out the brand-new profile editor and you'll see what I'm talking about, no groups module and no links to your groups. Practically the only way to get to the groups part of the website is through the "More" menu. Once you get to the groups page you still have to click once again if you want to see only your groups.

WHAT TO FIX:
- Add a groups module to the new profile editor (preferably make the module look identical to the "Friend Space" module)
- Add a "My Groups" link in the Profile menu
- Add a groups link next to "View My:" on your profile
- Fix the "My Groups" page, it's miscounting the number of active-groups (dead groups seem to still get counted)

Google Android - Future Devices

2008-11-07T20:43:00.019-05:00

Since I'm having a difficult time remembering what devices are in the pipe for Google's Android, I thought I should compile what I do know. So far HTC is the only company with a product on the market and Motorola is apparently not going to have anything until Christmas of 2009.

DEVICE MAKERS:
Archos
Asustek
Garmin
General Mobile
GiiNii
HTC (T-Mobile site)
Huawei Technologies
Kogan Technologies
Lenovo
Motorola
OpenMoko (official site)
Samsung

UNOFFICIAL DEVICE MAKERS:
Nokia

Consolidation of the Linux cellphone OSs

2008-09-04T13:24:00.006-04:00

Considering how much consolidation has took place in the last year, I thought it'd be worthwhile to make a list of all the acquisitions. So far this is as many as I've come up with.

NEWS LINKS:
- Wind River buys Mizi Research
- Intel buys OpenedHand
- Nokia buys Symbian
- Nokia buys Trolltech
- Microsoft buys Danger
- Access buys PalmSource
- Google buys Android

Web Innovations [list]

2008-08-27T10:45:00.160-04:00

Below are some of the most intriguing innovations when it comes to enhancing productivity. I've gathered as many of them as possible but other examples exist.

DATA-RETRIEVAL/EXTRACTION:
- CoScripter
- iOpus iMacros (Firefox add-on)
- Kirix Strata
- OutWit Technologies (Firefox add-on)
- Silk

BLOG (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- DashBlog
- Tynt
- Wordpress.com Sidebar
- Zemanta

HISTORY (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- dscover.me
- historious
- Infoaxe (Firefox add-on)
- Newtiny
- Peer Belt
- Sitesimon
- Voyurl
- Wowd

AGGREGATORS:
- Flud (iPhone)
- Flipboard (iPad)
- Genieo (iPhone)
- NewsSquares (Chrome)
- paper.li
- PostPost
- Pulse (iPhone, iPad)
- Seesmic (Chrome, iPhone)
- TweetDeck (Chrome, iPhone)
- Twimbow (Chrome)

NETWORKING (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- Greplin
- joinbox
- Wowd

SEARCH (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- Boounce
- Buzzdock
- Click.to
- CloudMagic
- FastestFox
- Glydo
- Juice
- Qitera Assist
- SimilarWeb
- Veoh Video Compass
- yolink

PHILANTHROPIC (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- Better Human Race
- Better The World

EMAIL (BROWSER ADD-ONS):
- ActiveInbox
- AwayFind
- Bccthis
- Boomerang
- Boxbe
- ClearMyInbox
- CloudMagic
- Gist
- Greplin
- Gtriage
- gwabbit
- harmon.ie
- Meshin
- NudgeMail
- OtherInbox
- Rapportive
- Sanebox
- Taskforce
- ToneCheck
- Unsubscribe.com
- YouSendIt
- Xerox - Business of Your Brain
- Xobni

RICH INTERNET APPLICATIONS:
- Adobe AIR
- Appcelerator Titanium
- CloudStack
- Google Chrome Web Store
- JavaFX
- Microsoft - Silverlight
- Mozilla - Open Web Applications

SITE-SPECIFIC BROWSERS:
- Bubbles
- Fluid
- Gabtastik
- Mozilla Prism
- Pokki
- WebRunner

COMMAND-LINE TOOLS:
- ActiveWords
- GoogleCL
- Humanized Enso
- Keyboardr
- Kwyno
- Mozilla Ubiquity (Firefox add-on)
- PodiPodi
- Quix
- Shortwave
- YubNub

ELECTRONICS:
- Curisma
- Decide

PRODUCT DATABASES:
- Drippler
- gdgt
- MeetGadget
- ProductWiki
- Tech Limelight
- thingd

BOOKMARK SLIDESHOWS:
- Bookmark Previews (Firefox add-on)
- BridgeURL
- delicious
- Favthumbs
- Flem (Firefox add-on)
- Flowgram
- Iterasi
- MyJugaad.in
- Qitera
- Viewista
- WebSlides

OVERLAYS:
- Apture
- bit.ly Preview (Firefox add-on)
- Cortex (Chrome)
- CoolPreviews (Firefox add-on)
- Deckkr Rollscreen
- Evri
- HeyStaks (Firefox add-on)
- HHOTT (Internet Explorer add-on)
- Hoverme (Firefox add-on)
- Identify (Firefox add-on)
- iGlue (Firefox add-on)
- Interclue (Firefox add-on)
- Issuu - Smart Look
- Kikin (Firefox add-on)
- KwiClick (Firefox add-on)
- MashLogic (Firefox add-on)
- Microsoft - Gaze
- ParrotFish
- PopIn (Firefox add-on)
- Quiqee
- SearchMenu
- Snap
- stix.to
- Veoh Video Compass (Firefox add-on)
- Vysr

INTERNET TV:
- Boxee
- Chumby
- DivX TV
- Flingo
- Google TV
- LG - NetCast
- Kylo
- Microsoft - Mediaroom
- Open Screen Project
- Samsung Apps
- Sharp - AQUOS Net
- SONY - BRAVIA Internet Video Link
- TVBLOB
- Yahoo! Connected TV
- YouView
- YourScreen

Why DOS was better for gamers than Windows...

2008-07-09T21:39:00.004-04:00

I have to admit my first experience with Windows started with Windows 3.1 on an emulation program called SoftWindows, yes it was slow as hell and the first game I played was Day of the Tentacle. I grew up using Mac OS for games and when I first used Windows I thought it was pretty ridiculous that you had to go back and forth between DOS and Windows. In fact when I first used Windows 95 I thought their plans were to keep DOS around for gaming purposes. However, now that it's a decade later and I'm using Windows Vista, I know that was never what they intended. No instead I now play games for as long as Windows will let me before it shuts my game down without even so much as an error prompt to tell me why.

My reasons for a return to a DOS-like environment for gaming is simple:
- it reduces the number of system resources used to just those needed
- doesn't allow other Windows programs to prompt you while playing games (especially those pesky anti-spyware programs)
- it's brain-dead simple

Sideloading, the future of downloading

2008-06-30T13:20:00.003-04:00

I have to give credit to Amazon and Michael Robertson for this idea. I say Michael Robertson because he created the SideLoad website which is where I draw inspiration from for this concept. I also mention Amazon because I've read articles in the past about how they are or were wanting to allow customers to keep a digital copy of all their purchases online. This will gain more relevance to Amazon as they move more and more of their inventory to digital content.

Overall the concept is simple, you go around the internet and save your purchases to a storage space in the cloud (as everyone likes to say). The difference is that this more easily enables you to share things with others to see. In some ways this conflicts with my idea that everything should be available via an unlimited subscription model. However, I'm gonna stay on the safe side and anticipate that they'll still be a strong demand for people to feel like they have some sort of personal ownership.

Does Sony's PS3 movie service really need the other movie picture companies?

2008-06-30T12:53:00.009-04:00

There has been some talk that Sony's plan to add movies to the PS3 is in trouble without the other movie companies on board. For instance, this was mentioned on the The Game Reviews blog where they state "it is obvious that Sony will need their support in order to give the service any real weight." I have to laugh at this type of concern. The reason is simple, look at all the other online movie services (ex. MovieLink, CinemaNow). If Sony can guarantee that their whole archive of movies will be available in HD (720p at least) over the internet, they won't need anybody else's archive of movies. Then the other movie companies will be desperate to get their content onto the system just like with iTunes.

However if this is going to be another half-baked service, then yes they need other companies to offer their own half-baked archive of movies too.

Access vs Ownership

2008-06-30T12:26:00.021-04:00

In grade school kids often make a big deal about the things they own or think they own. The same goes for some adults as well. However, the future should largely rule this argument irrelevant. I'm betting the future will consist of content distributed based on access rights instead of ownership.

Movies (example: Netflix)
Renting and buying movies will likely no longer exist in the future. Netflix currently has the best example of the future model. If you subscribe to Netflix you can get unlimited access to movies online. Yes that's unlimited just the way it should be. This also means that streaming is the best solution, it also helps cut down on the illegal distribution problems. The only problem is that there aren't enough movies available at the moment, which I blame on the ignorant MPAA and the old-fashioned movie rental businesses like Blockbuster.

Games (example: OnLive, Gakai)
These services are still somewhat unproven but both present the best examples of the future and of what to expect years down the road.

Music (example: Rhapsody, Napster, Kazaa)
Most music retailers are moving to a DRM-free model, which is great and I totally appreciate the change, but in the end I still feel an unlimited-access subscription-based model will be the best bet. Even TechCrunch wisely states, "Streaming music may be the way of the future - especially when reliable and fast wireless technology becomes ubiquitous" which is totally in line with what I've been preaching.

Magazines / Newspapers
This is probably the only thing that doesn't really need streaming but the unlimited-access subscription model certainly still applies. In the case of magazines/newspapers, digital copies of all back issues should be available to subscribers and should also be easily searched. To this day Zinio is one of the most complete digital magazine services I've used.

Advantages of Streaming
- No worries about having enough storage space
- No worries about people stealing (sure I can record my computer screen but for games that's never gonna pass)
- Fewer worries about customers having the appropriate hardware
- More environmentally friendly
- If unlimited, no worries about usage issues

Companies back from the dead

2008-06-26T18:58:00.010-04:00

Not to sound like a jerk but I really am surprised that these businesses are coming back to life. I tend to wonder what brings some businesses back to life, after all they failed don't most people like to throw insults and dance on the graves of failures? So anyway I know there are a couple other businesses that have risen from the dead recently which I can't remember (I'll add more as I come across them). So here are the ones that I can remember. The only reason I know Bolt is back again is only because they emailed me, otherwise I haven't heard any of the usual blogs (TechCrunch, Mashable) say a thing.

Nau
This company makes a lot of well designed apparel using environmentally friendly methods/materials. While their designs were great I always questioned their pricing. Perhaps now it'll be a bit different this time around. One other problem from before was the over-use of Flash for their website design, and unfortunately they are still over-using it on the new site. Seriously people stop with the Flash. I have always felt that Flash was great for promotional purposes and I still do. However, using it for your whole website is just crazy unless your website is some sort of elaborate Flash-based application (example: Pandora).

Bolt
Overall Bolt never really offered anything that amazed me much. Nothing really distinguishes it over other networking sites. Why does that matter? I'd say because there are already several good general-interest networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. I only get excited these days when I find a well done networking site that is focused on a niche that I care about.

Sharper Image
The brick-and-mortar stores annoyed me, but their website has actually been a regular resource for me to find things I'm searching for. If they stick with just the website this time around they should do fine but the stores were tacky. Now if only Brookstone would drop their retail act. (Oops nevermind Engadget is already reporting that they will live on as just a brand. Which is practically the worst possible thing they could do.)

Moviebeam - ADDED July 14, 2008
I was kind of happy when this company went under, mainly because it required purchasing another practically useless set-top-box. These things still use wires, ya know. I'd say the only set-top-box worth buying is either an Xbox or PS3, which are game consoles that double as many other things. What gets me though is that people are still trying to make money off boxes you plug into your TV. Talk about re-inventing the wheel, there's a box that already does everything it's called a computer. If more companies would integrate software like Splashtop, then I'd hear even more people agreeing with me.

Webcam Gesture Control & Security Software

2008-06-14T15:38:00.015-04:00

These days almost everybody has a webcam integrated into their mobile computer, so why not find more uses for it right? Below are some great tools for using your webcam as a sort of mouse-like tool. Most of the programs will track your head movement, some track eye movement, and others (like CamSpace) track any object you tell it to.

So far I haven't tried any of these but as soon as I do I'll be sure to elaborate more on their functionality. So far I've signed up for the CamSpace beta, but haven't been invited yet.

GESTURE:
- CamSpace (in beta stage)
- EyeTwig
- Handsfree 3D
- Kubree - Virtual Viewpoint
- Mgestyk
- uMouse
- VR-Wear

SECURITY:
- Crime Catcher
- Dorgem (how-to)