Nerd Stalker

Apple Espionage, Facebook IPOU, Startup Bus, Kinect, boo Foursquare

2012-02-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

Show notes:
What Facebook's IPO Means for Users bit.ly/zyzLC6
Accidental espionage: how iMessage conversations end up in the wrong handsets http://is.gd/awKuXE
How Google is on the Way to Take Over the Higher Education Market bit.ly/yCltRh
Startup Bus http://startupbus.com/
Feds Seize 307 Sports Domains Ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl bit.ly/xv7Whz
Apple has updated its iBooks Author to clarify that you own created content http://tnw.co/yAqm1A
Your Next Laptop Could Have Kinect Built In (MSFT) bit.ly/ypr2cj
After 3 Years Of A Crummy Checkin Experience, Foursquare Is Working On A Speedier Solution http://is.gd/sEdbbY
Social Greg’s Dripper Tip of the Week: Grab iPhoneography Accessories From Adorama ‘s New iPhone Toolshed bit.ly/xUZqMf
Adolfo’s Drippler Tip of the Week: Download Touchnote Postcards Free for Android – Valentines Special Cards http://www.touchnote.com/
2/15 SF New Tech & Tianji present Chinese Tech Night!

Adobe Design Center is Now Live

2012-01-30T13:05:00.000-08:00

The Adobe Design Center. Explore feature stories, get inspired by fellow designers, and find out more about your favorite Adobe® Creative Suite® software, including Photoshop®, Illustrator®, and InDesign®, as well as other creative tools like Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and Muse (code name).

Boxee Live TV answers Roku stick product

2012-01-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

From the Boxee blog,

"Boxee 1.5 rolls out to Boxee Boxes today and Boxee Live TV tuners have begun shipping! Order one now for your Boxee Box!

With the addition of Live TV, the Boxee Box holds the distinction of being the only mainstream set top box that blends both over the air (OTA) broadcast TV with Internet content (over the top or OTT). We believe the OTT+OTA combo is the best way to get the most entertainment while paying only for the stuff you want to watch.

If you missed our earlier posts on Live TV / Cutting the Cord, and our Facebook integration – the gist goes something like this: the way we want to watch video has drastically changed over the last 10 years. We want to devour seasons all at once. We want to watch the same video on our TV, tablet, phone, and treadmill. We want to be able to watch in our homes, on an airplane, in our offices, and wherever else we might end up. We want to bookmark things for later. We want mainstream shows along with stuff from the web like TED, WSJ, and FunnyOrDie.

The web has given us this freedom. Cable TV has not. The web has made it easy and affordable to find what you’re looking for and enjoy it wherever you’d like. Meanwhile cable’s pushing the same boring interface and charging you even more for it ($75 / month on average) while you’re really only watching 14% of the channels you’re paying for. There’s a percentage of the population that’s realized this and decided to cut the cord and get rid of cable.

Boxee Live TV is a perfect alternative to cable for them.

Live TV Features

Way better than just plugging the included antenna into the back of your TV, Boxee Live TV kicks it up a notch with:

Social Channel Listings – We’ll show you what’s on, what your friends are watching, and how many people total are watching a show as you flip through channels.
Sharing – Share the traditional Boxee way on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr AND you can now passively share to Facebook using our Live TV Timeline App – turn sharing on and whatever you’re tuned into will post to your Facebook ticker automatically. It’s easy to switch off too so your friends don’t need to know about your addiction to HSN.
Edit Channels - Quickly hide channels from your lineup that don’t speak your language or have pissed you off with bad programming decisions like taking Arrested Development off the air. Easily rename WNDHCTA 7.2 to NBC.
All-In-One Interface – done watching a show on broadcast, easily jump into more episodes from the web. It’s the best of both worlds all on the same remote.

While Live TV does not currently have DVR functionality, we’ve heard your feedback and are examining if we could provide it. We’ll make an announcement later this year about DVR support if we can make it happen.

Boxee v1.5 Features

Here’s what’s included in the latest version of Boxee (check out pictures here):

New UI look and feel
Improved search
New library screens with simpler filtering
Browser Pop-up management
Rotten Tomatoes integration
On-Device Social Account Pairing

We’ll stagger this release over the next 72 hours like we’ve done in the past so you might not get the update until later this week. Want it right away, check out these instructions in the forums on how to get it.
You can read the full release notes here."

SeatMe Disrupts the Restaurant Business

2012-01-24T01:16:00.000-08:00

SeatMe is a 13 person San Francisco startup that, "started as an idea jotted on a notes app in early February of 2011". They are another one of these startups i've seen who are taking on in house, software/hardware dependent, overpriced, entrenched systems and turn them on their heads. In this case its the restaurant business, when SeatMe was in recent stealth mode I had thought they were nothing more than another reservation system (and yes they do offer a reservation system which is quite nice and straightforward) but thankfully they are much more than that.

SeatMe seems to be initially targeting "Front of house Management", "Hospitality" and "Cost" issues of these old in house systems and offering a slick, lightweight, native iOS iPad app to do this all in. We have yet to confirm if the restaurant is responsible in some way for purchasing the ipad or not.

SeatMe has already partnered with three great San Francisco restaurants Txoko, Chef's Counter at Saison, and Nojo who are running SeatMe live, we suspect the rest of the North Beach eateries to be taken over soon. The SeatMe website says you can manage your reservations, guests, and floor straight from your iPad. If your not at the restaurant the online dashboard allows you to access your books with a web connection.

SeatMe’s guestbook tracks customers unique schedules, preferences and tastes. The app also has a search and export feature to better target customers.

At time of writing we are not sure of the business model but the SeatMe website states they will never charge, "a per-diner or per-reservation fee", this should obviously make it an attractive offering for restaurants and quick adoption. It seems OpenTable could have some potential competition coming very soon.

We will update this entry with details as they come in.

Luxury is dead, Vevo jumping, Rude Phones and more.

2012-01-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

Nerd Stalker Tech Week - Jan 22 2012

Facebook in talks to replace YouTube as Vevo's hostcnet.co/x5OwOn
Know your phone, or else: The case of the philharmonic interruptor bit.ly/ybpDwHvia @geekwire
Teenagers Sharing Passwords as Show of Affection http://nyti.ms/z9grSG
Jerry Yang's Decision to Leave Yahoo Was His Own -- Even If It Was Inevitable dthin.gs/yZ6qDQ
Look at what Apps Google is killing now ow.ly/8B6aS
Microsoft acknowledges Xbox 360 color space problem in last update... | @scoopitvia @engadget bit.ly/A8WUmp
Layoffs Underway at Gilt Groupe Right Now: 'General Atmosphere Is Terrifying' bit.ly/waon8Z
Why Google's Search+ Is a Bigger Deal than You Think bit.ly/xntru9
Adolfo's Tip - iBoostUp Cleans Out Your Mac's System File Clutter in a Minute http://lifehac.kr/zfXokP
Social Greg's Drippler Tip - Ten One Design's Magnus will make your iPad stand up straight drippler.com/apple/ipad_2#!... via @drippler
Node Summit is a two-day conference at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco- January 24-25, 2012 http://nodesummit.com/
1/25 SF New Tech, Meet & See Tethras, IQ Engines, Capy, HeardAbout, RAVN, & more! http://bit.ly/yBp5OD

Cyanogenmod is cool, sopa zzz, chinese cant get iphone? and rupert hates google

2012-01-22T14:39:00.000-08:00

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Nerd Stalker weekly tech podcast

White House come out against SOPA, Rupert Murdoch comes out against the White House for coming out against SOPA, China is crazy for the iPhone 4s, screw pure android go Cyanogen, Samsung goes with another OS? and more.

Look at what Apps Google "killed" now

2012-01-20T15:07:00.000-08:00

From the Google Blog, "As we head into 2012, we’ve been sticking to some old resolutions—the need to focus on building amazing products that millions of people love to use every day. That means taking a hard look at products that replicate other features, haven’t achieved the promise we had hoped for or can’t be properly integrated into the overall Google experience.

Here’s an update on some products that will be merged, open-sourced, or phased out in the coming months:

Google Message Continuity (GMC): In December 2010 we launched an email disaster recovery product for enterprise customers that use Google's cloud to back up emails originally sent or received in an on-premise, Microsoft Exchange system. In the time since we launched, we've seen hundreds of businesses sign up for it. By comparison, in that same time, we've seen millions of businesses move entirely to the cloud with Google Apps, benefitting from disaster recovery capabilities built directly into Apps. Going forward we've decided to focus our efforts on Google Apps and end support for GMC. Current GMC customers will be able to use GMC for the duration of their contract and are encouraged to consider using Google Apps as their primary messaging and collaboration platform.

Google Sky Map: This app was created by half a dozen Googlers at the Pittsburgh office in their 20 percent time to show off the amazing capabilities of the sensors in the first-generation Android phones and offer a window into the sky. Since we launched the tool in 2009, we have managed to share our passion with more than 20 million Android users. We will be open-sourcing Sky Map and are collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University in a partnership that will see further development of Sky Map as a series of student projects.

Needlebase: We are retiring this data management platform, which we acquired from ITA Software, on June 1, 2012. The technology is being evaluated for integration into Google's other data-related initiatives.

Picnik: We acquired this online photo editor in 2010. We’re retiring the service on April 19, 2012 so the Picnik team can continue creating photo-editing magic across Google products. You can download a zip file of your creations through Picnik Takeout or copy them to Google+. As of now, the premium service is free to everyone. Premium members will receive a full refund in the coming weeks.

Social Graph API: This API makes information about the public connections between people on the web available for developers. The API isn’t experiencing the kind of adoption we’d like, and is being deprecated as of today. It will be fully retired on April 20, 2012.

Urchin: In 2005 we acquired Urchin, whose online web analytics product became the foundation for Google Analytics, helping businesses of all sizes measure their websites and online marketing. We’re fully committed to building an industry-leading online analytics product, so we’re saying goodbye to the client-hosted version, known as Urchin Software. New Urchin Software licenses will no longer be available after March 2012.

Resolutions can be hard, and changing products that people love is hard too. But we’re excited to focus on creating a beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google—an experience that will change the lives of millions of people. Posted by Dave Girouard, VP of Product Management"

Nerd Stalker Techweek Product Review: SIRI Like Apps for Android

2012-01-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

Greg Viloria aka @SocialGreg tests Iris, from Dexetra and Speaktoit Assistant from Speaktoit LLC. I tested the the apps with basic questions like What is the weather like?, Where is the nearest Chinese Restaurant?, and Calling a friend and more.

Check it out my review and listen what some of the responses to the questions and who came out on top. [Note: Several updates have been published since and we will update this in the next month]

Apple Apple Apple Marcia Marcia Marcia!

2012-01-12T21:08:00.000-08:00

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Why Apple is in no hurry to settle its iPhone patent suits http://bit.ly/Ak8XVJ
Apple asks Chinese Co. to cease production plans for Steve Jobs figurine, claim... bit.ly/w3EWNc via @9to5mac
Samsung vs. Google http://bit.ly/yQ56ta
Fake Siri arrives on the Android Market bit.ly/vuTTNz via @ubergizmo
Then disappears - Google Removes Siri for Android From the Market | @scoopit bit.ly/u6OESD via @NxtMobilePhones
Ubuntu TV & Opera making its debut at CES, gets short demo clip -- Engadget http://engt.co/z6dMaP
Rumored Apple iTV Could Be the Real Threat to Netflix | @scoopit via @MediaPost bit.ly/w6bWG8
Apple may open stores inside 25 Target locations http://is.gd/XuZuVz
Tomorrow: 2-Day Coding Contest to Win Interviews at Facebook, Quora & More bit.ly/yEV76I via @TechCocktail
Critics rave for Windows Phone -- but who's buying? http://bit.ly/x91iUS
Social Greg’s tip: The Roku Streaming Stick Makes A Regular TV A Smart TV bit.ly/xFBPxU via @reelseo
Adolfo’s tip Boycott SOPA: An Android app that terrifies publishers and politicians bit.ly/zMga33

Node Summit is a two-day conference at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco- January 24-25, 2012 http://nodesummit.com/

1/25 SF New Tech, Meet & See Tethras, IQ Engines, Capy, HeardAbout, RAVN, & more! http://bit.ly/yBp5OD

Nerd Stalker Interview - Social Curation and FLUD 2.0 with Bobby Ghoshal of FLUD News

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Interview with Bobby Ghoshal, CEO & Co-founder of FLUD News. FLUD is one of the leading social content curation app for iPhone / iPad. Mr. Ghoshal talks about FLUD 2.0 - the company's new app release and some of the background to its development. He also touches on the future of curation.

Frank Chimero - The Shape of Design

2012-01-06T09:01:00.001-08:00

The Better than Best of 2011, Best of 2011 Nerd Stalker Picks

2011-12-28T12:56:00.001-08:00

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Adolfo’s Best of 2011 Picks

Evernote Clearly

Hack Education Blog

Amazon Wishlist Browser Plugin

The Verge Podcast - Josh Topolsky, Nilay Pitel

Google Calendar

Blogger

Twitter

Mac OSX

Jquery Mobile

iPad2

iPhone 4s

Macbook Air

HTML5 and the rise of Javascript

Chrome

Social Greg’s Best of 2011 Picks

Windows 8

Steve Jobs

Android & More

Tablet ( iPad2 / Android Tablet )

Death of Adobe Flash mobile

Social Change: Google+ / Facebook changes

Natural Disasters Change Tech: Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami Impact & Thailand Flooding Impacts HDD

Google Motorola buy

ICANN changes the Web

Meg Whitman / HP

Netflix / Changes / PR Disaster

Solar Impulse Plane

Google Marketing Challenge

2011-12-21T15:25:00.001-08:00

From the GOMC team:
"Professor registration for the 2012 Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) is now open.
GOMC is a global online marketing competition open to professors and their students in any higher education institution. Professors sign up for the contest and then serve as guides and mentors to their student participants throughout the competition. Over the course of three weeks, student teams are tasked with developing and running a successful online advertising campaign for real businesses or nonprofit organizations using Google AdWords. In the process, they sharpen their advertising, consulting and data analysis skills. (Note: student registration will open on January 31, 2012 and students can only enter if their professors have signed up already and must sign up under their own professors).

After running their online advertising campaign for three weeks, students summarize their experiences in campaign reports, which they submit online. Based on the performance of the campaigns and the quality of the reports, Googlers on the GOMC team and a panel of independent academics select the winning teams.

The global winners and their professor will receive a trip to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. The regional winners (and their professor) will win a trip to local Google offices, and the social impact award winners will be able to make donations to nonprofit organizations that were part of the GOMC competition.

Last year’s challenge had 50,000 participants representing 100 countries, and this year we expect even more. For more information, visit www.google.com/onlinechallenge. Professors, here is a chance to help your students sharpen their marketing skills and make a global impact!

Posted by AJ Pascua, GOMC Team"

Make a custom Santa video thanks to Google

2011-12-21T07:40:00.001-08:00

From the Gmail team, "Last Friday Santa opened up the Ho Ho Hotline and teamed up with Gmail to sendpersonalized holiday phone calls to anyone you know who has been nice (or naughty, for that matter) in the U.S. or Canada. In just a few days Santa has made hundreds of thousands of calls to your friends, family and loved ones, and received many a message from you at his Google Voice number (855-34-SANTA).

Santa has one more surprise in store. Starting today, anyone in the world can create and senda personalized cartoon video message (in English only) from Santa to anyone you know, anywhere in the world, and share them through email and Google+. Watch our sample video below and create your own at SendaCallFromSanta.com.

The Gmail team wishes you a happy holiday!

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Product Marketing Manager"

Web TV, Louis CK, Iran Hacks Drone, Zynga IPO let down, studio pirates

2011-12-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

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Recap my panel talk on the Future of Online Video with Hermione Way (The Next Web), Carlos Rodela (Host), Tara Long (The Destructoid Show, Revision 3), Murray Newlands (Host), and John Davison (Gamespot.com ).
Some Thoughts On The Louis CK "Experiment" bit.ly/s42dTo
Did Iran Hack U.S. Drone? GPS weak link? bit.ly/u2VQQI
Wall Street isn’t jumping into Zynga’s stock game http://bit.ly/rMk3vT
Sony, NBC Universal and Fox employees caught illegally using BitTorrent http://bit.ly/s89Ddp
How Disney's Club Penguin Became the Biggest Social Network for Kids via @D_RockingChair http://bit.ly/sVe2N2
Should Computer Science Be a K-12 Requirement? http://http://is.gd/2G0Mf9
Startup incubator takes to the seas with wild idea to house foreign entrepreneurs @geekwire bit.ly/sZop2g
Greg’s tips - Is That Amazon Price A Good Deal? @geekmom http://bit.ly/u2SDvA

Cnet Tech 2011 Holiday Gift Guide [video] http://ht.ly/83o4I

Adolfo’s tips - Google launches Android Training for aspiring developers http://bit.ly/u3BeqY and A:Ho-ho-hold the phone: Santa’s on the line http://bit.ly/tvqcEu
Holiday Holidays from Nerd Stalker

Episode 20

Meet The People Behind The Windows Phone Redesign

2011-12-16T07:47:00.001-08:00

REDMOND, Wash. – Dec. 15, 2011 – It’s not every day that a person gets to create the user interface for a mobile phone that will be used by millions of people around the world. But that is exactly the work of a small group of engineers at Microsoft.

Clockwise from top left: Ricardo Espinoza, Sue Loh, Joshua Phillips and James Drage work on the Windows Phone Shell Team, which makes Windows Phones intuitive and engaging to use. The team recently finished work on the feature-rich Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” update.

Click for larger image.

For the past several years, the Windows Phone Shell Team has been continually improving the user interface for Windows Phones with the goal of making them incredibly intuitive and engaging to use. The team recently completed work on Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango,” the largest and most feature-rich software refresh of Microsoft’s mobile operating system to date.

The “shell” refers to the phone’s core user experiences, such as the lock screen, start screen, live tiles and similar components.

“Our work is very visual, very engaging, and it also has the Mom factor—you can show your Mom exactly what you’re working on and she’ll get it,” says James Drage, a senior software development engineer on the Windows Phone Shell Team.

Ricardo Espinoza, a software development engineer on the team, agrees. “Working on the Windows Phone has taught me how important it is to create something that’s intuitive right out of the box,” he adds. “Mobile phones need to be easy to use even for somebody who’s never used one before. You can’t have a learning curve.”

Microsoft News Center (MNC) recently sat down with Drage, Espinoza and two of their colleagues on the Windows Phone Shell Team to talk about their work and their lives, both inside and outside Microsoft.

Drage helped develop several features for the start screen including a prominent feature called the “task switcher” that enables users to flip back and forth among applications that are running. His interests outside of work include cooking, snowboarding, performing music and playing the piano and guitar with his 5-year-old daughter.

Espinoza worked on the lock screen for the Windows Phone 7.5 update, including how appointments, missed calls, incoming messages and personal wallpaper are visually displayed. Outside of work, he likes to travel, go to the movies, hang out with friends and read.

Joshua Phillips, a program manager, worked on the “Smart DJ” feature, which automatically creates a music mix based on an album, artist or song the user likes. When he’s not at work, he’s likely hanging out with his 2-year-old dog, Ender, playing volleyball, riding his motorcycle, traveling the world or skydiving.

Sue Loh, a senior software development engineer, monitors the health of the Windows Phone including performance, battery power, memory—all of the things that can affect how the software functions. Her life outside of Microsoft includes watching her two young daughters, playing hockey, and volunteering her time to encourage high school girls to pursue careers in computer science.

MNC: How is your work going to change the world?

Phillips: Well, we’re not going to cure cancer or end world hunger, but I’m confident we’re changing the world’s perception of Microsoft. Our team has played a key role in getting the company to integrate design deeply into the development of our products. Windows Phone is also the first place where many of our great assets—Bing, Xbox LIVE, Zune, Office, etc.—came together to make an amazing product. It’s a pretty great feeling to show your friends a Windows Phone and hear them say: “Wow, that’s sexy.”

Espinoza: I think our work is changing the way we interact with computers and with each other. Now you can look up or verify information right in the moment, wherever you are. You can make restaurant reservations and find movies on the spot, for example. You can also erase the distance that exists between you and your friends—no matter how far away you are, you can be in constant touch via IM and email.

MNC: What’s the thing you’re most proud of about your work?

The “Smart DJ” feature, shown on the left, automatically creates a music mix based on an album, artist or song the user likes, while “task switcher” enables users to flip back and forth among running applications.

Click for larger image.

Drage: I’m proud of the people I’ve managed and mentored to help make this a better company. While I’m not currently a people manager directly, I have been in the past, and that experience has always rubbed off on me. I feel you can always be five or 10 times more effective if you help other people to grow. I’m also proud of the products we’ve put together, especially Windows Phone. I talk to people a lot about their cell phone, and I always get really positive feedback about the Windows Phone that we’ve built.

Espinoza: I’d have to agree with that. I like to walk into the stores and see the Windows Phone displayed, knowing that I helped to build it. It makes me proud to see the phones out there in the field.

Loh: Yeah, the impact we’re able to have on other people’s lives is really amazing. From my years on Windows CE and Windows Phone, there are literally millions of devices out there running software I’ve worked on. I’ve loved the interaction I’ve had with OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], software developers and end users over the years. I’ve been proud to influence so many peoples’ lives.

MNC: What makes Microsoft a great place to work?

Drage: I’d have to say definitely the free soda.

Phillips: Ha! A great benefit, for sure.

Drage: All kidding aside, I’ve been here for 15 years, and what keeps me coming to work in the morning is the opportunity to work with the most amazing people in the field—I mean literally. For example, the design team that we work with are the top designers in the mobile field in the world. To be able to work with those people day to day, brainstorm crazy ideas, and actually implement some of them is really cool.

Loh: I agree. We are working with the smartest people possible—really world-class people, and we’re working on really world-class products. There’s no way that 90 percent of the other software development out there compares.

Phillips: The biggest thing for me is the opportunity to work on all kinds of things. There’s such a large range of products and disciplines. It’s the kind of company you feel you could never get bored at, especially compared to companies that are focused on just one thing like the Web, hardware, or operating systems. We have it all, from games to developer platforms and tools—and that always makes it pretty interesting.

Espinoza: That’s true. And I also think there’s a very great emphasis on ownership. It’s not just that you have tasks to do; you really own how things work, and that puts a lot of responsibility on people, which is great. The other thing is that I get to work with people who really love what they do. That’s a contagious feeling—it creates a lot of excitement.

MNC: Do you have a personal motto?

Windows Phone 7.5’s lock screen shows appointments, missed calls, incoming messages and personal wallpaper.

Click for larger image.

Espinoza: I think it was Gandhi who said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Very often, if people don’t like something, they say, “Why do people do this?” or “Why does it work this way?” I try as much as possible to think in a way that says, “OK, can I do something different about that? Am I doing enough?” Every time I see something that needs to be changed on the outside, I try to change something about myself so I don’t have to complain about it.

Loh: Here’s one that keeps ringing through my head: John F. Kennedy, and I’m paraphrasing, said, “We chose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” I really like that. To me, it means that you don’t really achieve anything by accepting where you are. It’s OK for life to be a little difficult; it means you’re working toward something important.

Drage: My life theme is “Keep it Surreal.” I like things that are unusual, that don’t follow convention, that dare to break the rules.

MNC: What’s your favorite movie?

Phillips: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is probably my favorite movie. The way relationships are portrayed is pretty real. You don’t find that a lot in films.

Loh: The first one that comes to mind is “The Princess Bride” so I’ll go with that. It’s just goofy, it has a lot of really great, memorable moments in it, and it’s fun to watch over and over.

Drage: One that I really love is “City of Lost Children.” It’s very dark and surreal, of course, and has a girl who’s about seven. Having a daughter, I always think about her strength and independence. It’s one of my favorites of all time.

Espinoza: A recent movie I liked a lot was “50/50.” It was an interesting combination of comedy and tragedy, and a topic we typically don’t want to discuss, which is how we face a terminal illness. I really liked the feelings that movie provoked.

MNC: What do you value most about your friends?

Loh: Just being laid back and not having a lot of hang-ups about stuff. My husband and I are pretty relaxed people and enjoy hanging out with other folks who just get together for fun and accept you for who you are.

Espinoza: I want to know that my friends will be there for me in difficult times—that they care, that they can empathize. I try to be there for them and want the opposite to be true as well. I think that says a lot about friendship.

Phillips: The biggest thing for me is balance. I’ve met a lot of people who are very extreme in the way they think or behave. I’m able to relate to people who are more balanced and am kind of turned off by people who are very extreme or who aren’t open-minded.

MNC: What’s your dream of happiness?

Loh: Having my grandkids bounce on my knee some day. It really helps put things in perspective to think that whatever it is that just went wrong, it’s not going to get in the way of that.

Phillips: I’d like to eventually own my own business, which is another reason why I enjoy this company. Even as an individual contributor, you have a lot of say in the direction of the product. The entrepreneurial spirit here is very much alive.

Drage: My dream of happiness—if it could get any better than it is right now—would be to slow things down a little so I’d have a little more time to relax and enjoy things. My daughter’s growing up so fast and there’s another baby on the way in April, so things are kind of flying by.

Espinoza: Happiness is knowing there’s nothing major you’d change if you had the chance. I can’t think of a lot of things I would change. I feel happy right now.

MNC: If you could have a super power, what would it be?

Phillips: I know a lot of people say flying but I’ll have to go with it anyway. I’m already jumping out of planes, so why not fly?

Drage: I agree. I think it would be cool to fly too. If I had a super power, it would have to be something that’s both fun and that furthers the good of mankind, and I think flying is a nice balance.

Loh: To not have to sleep. There are just too many things I want to do with my life and not enough hours.

Espinoza: Tele-transport so I could appear in once place and then immediately in another. It would be a nice way to render distance completely meaningless and to experience many things in many places without constraints. In some respects, that’s what we’re trying to achieve with the Windows Phone.

New Photoshop tool helps you design for Android

2011-12-13T10:01:00.001-08:00

LunaTik Touch Pen

2011-12-13T07:28:00.001-08:00

Very Nice.

From Kickstarter:

The LunaTik Touch Pen seamlessly goes from paper to tablet with a click of a button.

It writes. Both ways!

HELLO AGAIN!

Thank you for checking out our LunaTik Touch Pen project. Ever since we launched the TikTok+LunaTik Watch Kits on Kickstarter last year we have been constantly asked when we were going to do another project. Well, we have been working on a variety of ideas which we plan to launch in the near future. One of the first ideas is a simple and obvious solution inspired by the way we work between the analog and digital worlds every day.

INSPIRATION

Paper and pen will never be replaced. However, more and more people are embracing their iPads and tablets to take notes and capture ideas in a new hybrid analog-digital workflow. These users continuously switch between paper and touch screen during the day. This means they require both a traditional ink pen and a digital stylus.

While both are great on their own we would prefer to have our everyday pen be compatible with iPads and tablets with a click of a button eliminating the need to carry both items. This was the inspiration for the LunaTik Touch Pen. The idea was born from a desire to integrate our pen of choice, the rollerball, with the digital stylus.

OBSESSIVE DESIGN

The Lunatik Alloy Touch Pen is manufactured from premium materials and features an aircraft grade aluminum barrel, a die cast clip that is hard coated with PVD plating, high grade silicone rubber grip as well as our patent-pending dual mode tip that allows you to seamlessly use the LunaTik Pen with any touch screen. Our custom engineered materials are designed to meet our demanding specifications for touch screen responsiveness and flow. And on paper, the Touch Pen uses precision Japanese rollerball components for a fluid inking experience.

We are also offering a LunaTik Plastic Touch Pen in a range of colors that are more expressive and less expensive in case you are always losing your pens like us. :)

With either the Alloy or Plastic Touch Pens, going from paper to screen is as natural and simple as clicking your pen like you always have. Once you have transitioned to the digital side you have endless ways to express yourself with the same pen through a wide range of note taking and creative apps. While we love multi-touch as much as anyone we believe that the stylus is an important tool for certain types of precision input that fingers were not designed for.

KICKSTART US THE REST OF THE WAY

So here is where you come in. Designing products is what we, MINIMAL, do day-in and day-out for big brands. We also enjoy designing our own products. But as with TikTok+LunaTik, funding, minimum order quantities, manufacturing and distributing a new product and category is a whole other story. Kickstarter is a great way for us to test and realize many of the ideas that we have in our small studio that we believe people will love but big companies are too scared or too slow to do. And we love creating cool stuff without the big company politics and indecision. We believe in the emerging power of community and the individual to bring ideas to life and challenge convention.

WHERE THE FUNDING GOES

Products take a lot of time and money to develop and launch. Here are some areas where the pledge money helps to make the product a reality.

Tooling & Development. Our tooling and development will be approximately $50,000 based on the current designs.

Minimum Order Quanities (MOQs). Factories often require MOQs thousands of units per design. This is a huge risk for a startup. Kickstarter can validate whether you should produce the product or not.

Patents. The patents we have filed protect this simple idea from being knocked off by every pen manufacturer on the planet. We hope someday all pens have this functionality. Just not next week. Everyone wants the Kickstarter products they support to stay original and unique longer than that.

Development trips. Ideas are worthless without execution. Over the next several months we will need to go to Asia to manage and oversee development, tooling and production to make sure the products live up to your expectations.

With your support we are targeting to have these products in your hands by April. We hope that you are inspired and excited by the idea and choose to support the project. Either way please spread the word and share with your friends.

Fire Photojournalists, SOPA Pays, WebOS Lives!

2011-12-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

Download MP3

ICNN Fires Photojournalists – We May Be To Blame and We May Be Next bit.ly/sjHHa8
User Generated Content gives CNN photojournalists the axe
Congressional staffers behind SOPA get shiny new jobs as entertainment industry lobbyists http://bit.ly/uGLYvH
Fallout continues over smartphone tracking app http://bit.ly/vSmR7H
SF smart phone muggings on the rise bit.ly/ussULg
An easy way to curb smart-phone thieves CW Nevius
HP cuts its losses, makes webOS open source http://t.co/hjpLqTvW
iPhone 4 Explodes Midflight on Australian Airline
Touch App Review http://is.gd/0V8fSq
The most hated buzzwords http://is.gd/DxvW6W
Adolfo’s tip - Print Friendly for Chrome Lets You Easily Remove Unwanted Web Page Elements Before Printing http://lifehac.kr/rSjXo4
Next SF New Tech reminder: Casino royale Night - Sandbox Suites http://www.sfnewtech.com

Lovely Charts for iPad

2011-12-10T08:38:00.001-08:00

Lovely Charts for iPad from Jerome Cordiez on Vimeo.

Cool

The Most Hated Buzzwords

2011-12-09T13:35:00.001-08:00

via Meeting Boy.

Here are the rest of the hated buzzords (with percent of people who said they hated it):

think outside the box (16%)
circle back (15%)
synergy (14%)
it is what it is (13%)
touch base (13%)
at the end of the day (13%)
let’s take this offline (12%)
low-hanging fruit (11%)
value-added (11%)
proactive (10%)
paradigm shift (9%)
best practices (9%)
going forward (8%)
take it to the next level (7%)
30,000-foot view (or any other multi-thousand foot view) (7%)
win-win (7%)
on the same page (7%)
leverage (6%)
a lot on my plate (6%)
robust (6%)
work smarter (5%)
impactful (4%)
rockstar (4%)
holistic (4%)
no-brainer (4%)
net-net (3%)
do whatever it takes (3%)
plus-up (2%)
flawless execution (1%)

Macro Cell Lens Band

2011-12-09T13:18:00.000-08:00

Clipped from: photojojo.com (share this clip)

clever

Touch by Enflick - Mobile App Review

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

By Adolfo Foronda
Beluga is dead but Touch is very much alive. (mp3)

A few of us here at Nerd Stalker have been testing the pre-release version of the just released mobile app "Touch" (note the released version will differ from what we were provided). Touch is the latest product to come out of the Waterloo, Ontario based company Enflick, creators of TextNow and PingChat!

Whats particularly impressive about the Touch release is that Enflick is going the painful route of natively supporting iOS devices (OS version 3.0+), Android (1.5–2.3) and Blackberry (5.0+) on day one!

Touch allows you to create groups or private chats of all sizes as needed, you can share text, images and emoticons for free (think what Baluga should have been).

Install and setup on the iPhone and Android was a breeze (note we did not test Blackberry) our only comment on signup was that (on the Android version) when registering for the first time the password you choose is not obfuscated as you type until after you submit the sign up.

Adding friends was simple with the search, Facebook, address book, and email options. Accepting requests was also straightforward and prompted in the app. The UI is quite clean and simple for the most part, starting a chat is a no brainer. There is an option to "Help your friends find you by confirming your phone number" which works fine if you have a typical account unfortunately for your Google Voice users this could pose a problem. Each time I tried to confirm my GV number it would text my actual cell number. The issue with this is that most GV users opt out of the text plan on their given carriers since it's free on GV, thus each confirmation text will could potentially cost you. The current workaround to this is to simply not verify your number.

The one feature you may have some question with is what Touch refers to as the "Experience". The Experience feature boils down to uploading an image and selecting who you want to share it with. The uploading of images and chat response time is crazy fast (depending on your network), in fact when someone is writing back to you (much like iChat) there is an indicator that the person is typing back to you as they respond, I hope this remains the case when the volume of users increase. The one ui quirk we ran into on the Android during using the Experience feature was when commenting on an image the image disappeared both as we were commenting and after submitting the comment so we actually had to hit the back option in order to see the image again.

We had mixed feeling about the chat indicator that displays a message you sent as received or sent. The received message will display the message prepended by an "R" over a checkmark and the sent is the same but in place of the "R" you see an "S". One of our reviewers found it visually cluttered where I found it quite helpful to get that confirmation in the event I send a message and can see it was never received. Battery performance on the iPhone was normal but on my DroidX version there was a noticeable drain I would get the occasional gps usage flash but cannot confirm if this is a coincidence of the beta install or not.

As far as my future pie in the sky non confirmed predictions for the app I would guess there may be a desktop interface, tablet app/option, and given that this is being referred to as a "platform" an api could be a possibility as well. The only challenge for Touch is user adoption, although they are "upgrading" a huge preexisting PingChat! user base its another app you have to convince your friends and families to install.

I really like this app it's incredibly responsive, has a nice clean ui and I appreciate the no frills features, I recommend you give it a go today.

Thanks to @socialgreg @punkymunky @kikintrikl for helping review.

Flotspotting: "E-Motion" E-Bike Concept by Stefan Reichert

2011-12-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

Flotspotting: "E-Motion" E-Bike Concept by Stefan Reichert - Core77:

Clipped from: www.core77.com (share this clip)

X is for X-Ray Amazing iPad app For Kids

2011-11-29T14:21:00.001-08:00

Wow