Tech Information

New Pipl API Pulls in a Staggering - and Creepy - Amount of People Data Into Your Apps

Klint Finley — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:00:00 +0000

People search engine Pipl's people search API is now out of beta and open to all developers. The API can be used to bring a variety of information about an individual, from social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn to government resources like the United States Patent and Trademark Office and county clerk offices, into any application.

Customer ID, Social Context and CRM

Pipl’s Chief Revenue Officer Jonathan N. Schreiber says the API could be used for customer identification or verification, or to add social context to applications, such as customer relation management (CRM) systems. In this way, Pipl will compete with people-data providers like Rapleaf, which powers services like Rapportive. But it’s a flexible API and could be used in a number of unforeseen ways.

The API, built using Mashery’s platform, is designed to let developers use the GET command to retrieve Pipl’s search results in JSON on XML format, says Schreiber. Developers can specify a specific type of info they want, such as a mailing address, or just the full search results. The results are time-stamped and include a score that reflects how confident the Pipl service is that it has the right person.

Much of the data that Pipl finds is not normally accessible through Web searches but is still publicly available. According to Schreiber, Pipl uses only publicly available, non-logged-in information and respects robots.txt instructions to avoid the collection of information that’s not meant to be crawlable.

Schreiber describes Pipl as a “real search engine,” not a metasearch engine. It doesn’t query each source for each search - it has already crawled and indexed all of this information. Pipl also performs recursive searches: Once it finds an email address associated with a person, it goes back and uses it to find more profiles and information associated with that email address.

Creepy or Not, Here It Comes

This may sound a bit creepy, but Schreiber also says that although Pipl will try to determine an individual’s email addresses, the search engine will never return email address results to users. In fact, Pipl may actually prove useful in cleaning up online profiles by exposing old profiles and information.

Nevertheless, services like Pipl and other people data search engines like Spokeo have proven controversial. See ReadWriteWeb’s recent post: Here Are 20 Companies Who Sell Your Data (& How To Stop Them). While there are plenty of innocent uses for an API like this, it’s not hard to imagine developers using this API to do some unsettling things.

Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Windows 8 Release Preview Now Available For Download [Updates]

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:00:20 +0000

Windows 8 is now almost all grown up and ready for its official retail release. The new Microsoft operating system, which is scheduled to hit store shelves later this year, is now available for download as a release preview.

This is the last step in Microsoft’s process of making pre-release versions of Windows publicly available for testing. The Release Preview is meant to be an example of the complete product with all of its major features available and major bugs squashed. It’s not exactly what will be sold, but it’s close.

What’s new? A lot. Touchpad gestures have been improved for laptops, Adobe Flash is now integrated into the operating system from the moment it is installed, there are new customization options for the Start screen, multi-monitor support has been improved and new Microsoft apps that will replace the current Windows Live suite have been unveiled. All this is on top of a buffet of bug fixes and minor enhancements.

That’s not to say everything is in this release. Microsoft recently announced that it recognizes the problems caused by switching between Metro and the traditional desktop UI and is working on a new theme that will bridge the gap between them. However, that theme is not included. Also, while there are many more apps available in this build, the full suite will not be finalized and fully polished until the product hits retail stores.

You can download the Windows 8 Release Preview from Microsoft’s new release preview website. Do you think Windows 8 will succeed or fail now that you’ve had to chance to see the latest version?

Source: Ars Technica

Can Tim Cook Escape the Ghost of Steve Jobs?

John Brownlee — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:00:00 +0000

At every public appearance by Tim Cook - say, Wednesday's on-stage interview at AllThingsD's annual D10 conference, or the upcoming WWDC keynote - commentators see the specter of Steve Jobs looming behind Apple's new CEO. It's no wonder. Jobs was larger than life, and the force of his personality can still be felt nine months after his death. The soft-spoken Cook is far less charismatic. Is he doomed to labor forever in his predecessor's shadow? What could Cook do to escape the ghost of Jobs?

The answer is simple: He's already well on his way. The idea that Tim Cook is a haunted man, trying to live up to the legacy of Jobs, is absurd. He's his own man, his own CEO, and Apple today is doing better than it ever was under Jobs's leadership.

This proposition isn't subjective. Look at Apple's stock value, which is up 55% since Steve Jobs' death on October 5th, 2011. That stock has been buoyed by Apple's two strongest and best-selling products ever, the iPhone 4S and the new iPad - products that were launched under Cook's watch, not Jobs'. Wall Street has a lot more confidence in Apple under Cook than under Jobs.

Investor uncertainty was partly a result of Jobs' chronic health issues. But a bigger part was Wall Street's distrust of the fabled reality distortion field. While Jobs successfully saved Apple from the brink of ruin upon his return to the company in 1997, his cult of personality was such that, to most outside observers, it seemed as though the company itself was hopped up on Steve juice. In other words, Apple was a junkie, and the moment Steve wasn't around to inject another hit, the company was going to crash. That's not a healthy situation, and to this day, investors continue to undervalue Apple's stock.

Cook has proven that assumption to be false. Apple in the post-Jobs era isn't in decline. It's ascendant.

Some will say this is because Jobs, on his death bed, was personally involved in laying a roadmap for everything Apple is currently doing. The iPhone 4S and new iPad, they will say, were Steve's babies, not Cook's. To say this, though, ignores a simple fact: Apple isn't as huge as it is today simply because of its well-designed products. Apple is the largest and most profitable tech company on Earth because it can design these magical products and then manufacture and ship them out on a massive scale without compromise and at unheard-of profit margins. That's Tim Cook's design. That's his product. That's his "one more thing." And that's why he's the CEO Apple needs right now.

It's not enough to design products that everyone wants to own. You also need to get them into as many hands as possible. Steve Jobs was great at distilling products to their essence and making people covet them, but Apple could not be what it is today without Tim Cook's genius: his ability to get millions upon millions of devices built in total secrecy and then into the hands that want them. When the new iPad launched and lines didn't snake around the block, many saw proof that Apple had lost its mojo. The truth was far simpler: Cook is such a maestro at what he does that almost everyone who wanted a new iPad on the day it came out was able to walk into a store and buy one.

The truth is that Steve Jobs' greatest strength was nurturing talent and excellence. He didn't think of himself as irreplaceable. He set up internal universities at Apple aimed at training the next generation of executives to think more like him. He didn't believe that his way of thinking was unique. He thought it was something anyone could do.

“Once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you," Jobs once said during his wilderness years, "and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use - once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again."

Jobs' goal was not to be indispensable to Apple. His goal was to replicate his DNA and to inject it into Apple's, so that if he ever left the company, it would not be diminished, as it was when he was forced out in 1985.

Before he died, Steve Jobs cloned himself. Apple is now Steve Jobs' brain, and Tim Cook is the cerebral cortex of that brain, making sure that the organism as a totality - from the cerebellum of Cupertino down to the limbs of Apple's supply chain - works as a unit. Cook doesn't need to live up to his predecessor's legacy. That's something the whole company fulfills, with Tim Cook - Steve's chosen successor - at its core.

John Brownlee is deputy editor of Cult of Mac.

Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun]

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 05:36:06 +0000

Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf Geeky Fun during the last couple of days.

Make Good Art (Pic)

Super Mario Bros. Level Built inside Aquarium (Video)

The Evolution of Technology (Pic)

The Power Of Default Settings (Pic)

Every phone should have this (Pic)

On The Internet, Nobody Knows You’re A Dog (Video)

Laziness (Pic)

Cats and Lasers (Pic)

I Worry That Facebook Killing Meaningful Communication (Pic)

David Attenborough Narrates A Youtube Video (Video)

If you would like to keep up with all latest Geeky Fun additions, please subscribe to the Geeky Fun feed here. You can also subscribe and get the latest additions via email.

Fact Checking: Has Mobile Traffic Really Surpassed Desktop in India?

Richard MacManus — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:39:00 +0000

One of the most interesting statistics in Mary Meeker's Internet Trends presentation was that in India, the world's second largest Internet market, the Mobile Web surpassed the Desktop Web during May 2012. A closer analysis reveals that a) mobile only passed desktop during weekends; and b) India's mobile stats are vastly different from any other country's. The global average is only 10% mobile traffic, so has India's mobile traffic been miscounted?

The extraordinary graph above, from Meeker's slides and sourced from web traffic monitoring company Statcounter, shows that mobile Internet traffic in India was almost zero in 2009 and the Desktop Internet close to 100%. Just three short years later, mobile traffic edged past desktop traffic. Or at least it did during parts of May 2012.

It turns out you can check these statistics for yourself, on the Statcounter Global Stats website. This shows that although mobile traffic may have surpassed desktop traffic in India on some days during May, on average desktop traffic was still slightly ahead: 51.29% desktop vs. 48.71% mobile.

The daily traffic graph for India in May reveals that mobile Internet overtook desktop only during the weekends. As a Statcounter representative put it, "mobile browsing peaks at weekends, while desktop browsing is more popular during the working week."

Incidentally, while it's a bit harder to spot the trend in the following graph, U.S. daily data also shows upward bumps every weekend. So the mobile = weekend trend appears to be a global one.

Why Are India's Stats So Different To Other Countries?

The main mystery is why India's mobile traffic statistics are so different from other countries, since the global mobile traffic average is only 10%.

In Japan, which has traditionally been ahead of the curve in mobile, traffic from mobile devices only accounts for 6.4% of its total traffic. In China, it's 4.18%. In the entire continent of Africa, where mobile phone technology is widely used, it's 12.96% (the trend line there has actually dipped in 2012, from a high of 19.17% in January). Meanwhile in the United States, the home of the world's most popular smartphone operating systems iOS and Android, mobile traffic is 9.13% (see graph below).

Faulty Stats?

There has been some suggestion from within India that these statistics aren't representative.

The argument is that Statcounter's data is over-represented by mobile Internet early adopters in India. On its Twitter account, Statcounter responded that it tracks over 900 million page views from Indian IPs per month. While it admits that this is only a sampling of total India traffic, Statcounter insists that it is "a large enough statistical sample [to] approximate the real population."

What's Behind The Mobile Growth in India?

While I think Statcounter's data may be a little suspect, I do agree that 900 million is a significant enough sampling to show the trend. Which leads us to question what is behind that trend; and should we pay it much heed?

One answer is from another slide from Mary Meeker, which showed that 3G subscriptions in India grew by 841% over the past year. India now has 39 million 3G subscribers, up from 4 million a year ago. It should be noted that India still trails the U.S., which has 208 million 3G subscribers, by quite a margin. The difference is that India has a much lower market penetration for mobile than the U.S. (4% in India, 64% in the U.S.).

It's also likely that mobile Internet is more cost efficient and convenient than desktop in many parts of India.

The bottom line is that India is still a very young market for mobile Internet. So readers in more mature mobile markets, like the U.S. and Japan, shouldn't read too much into the India stats. One thing is for sure though, mobile traffic is increasing fast in most countries in the world. Of that statistic, there is no doubt.

Cool Websites and Tools [May 31st 2012]

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:31:20 +0000

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. Most of the listed websites are FREE or come with a decent free account option. If you want to have similar cool website round-ups delivered to your daily email, subscribe here.

Add Your Website Here!

FarFaria – If you have young children in the house, then you know that nothing captures their attention like a good story. But coming up with a story of your own can be very difficult, especially when you need to do it every night. One solution would be to get children’s stories books but then you would have a bunch of books lying around. The most convenient solution for smartdevice owners is a tool called FarFaria. Read more: FarFaria: More Than 100 Stories & Picture Books For Children [iPad](Free Licenses)

		ASCIInator – ASCII art is pretty awesome. Creating an image using only what is on the keyboard takes a lot of time and skill. However, with ASCIInator, you can use images on your Android device to create awesome ASCII images easily, and without spending hours trying to set it up yourself. It’s a cool application, and best of all, it is free. Read more: ASCIInator: Create ASCII Art From Images

		Sleep Timer – Leaving your computer on all the time can really crank up your energy bills. Computers have improved in terms of efficiency, but they can still suck up a lot of energy. However, sometimes you are performing an operation that takes a long time, and you need to leave your computer running. That is where Sleep Timer comes in. Read more: Sleep Timer: Automatically Shut Down Or Restart Your Computer When You Need It To

		Android Notifier – If you are ever in a situation where you cannot get access to your mobile phone, but would still like to be able to find out if you have received any messages, then the perfect solution is Android Notifier. It allows you to receive notifications on your computer. Read more: Android Notifier: Receive Notifications From Your Phone On Your Computer ( Android 1.5+)

		PhotoTime – Webcams may not get you the best quality photos but you sure can do a lot of fun things with them using apps. An example of such is PhotoTime, a free program from the Mac App store that lets you add live effects to your webcam and take cool and creative photos. The app lets you preview the effects in real-time and you can even adjust some of the effects. Read more: PhotoTime: Take Fun Snapshots Using Your Web Camera With Live Effects (OSX)

Add Your Website Here!

These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

WindowFX 5 Is Now Out With New Window Animations And Other Cool Features [Updates]

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:30:42 +0000

WindowFX 5 has just been released with new window animations and other great new features. WindowsFX is a powerful customization utility for Windows which lets you apply cool animations to your windows, application menus, and Start menu, and also offers some useful productivity-oriented tools.

The new version of WindowFX has introduced wobbly window animations while dragging (similar to what you can do with Compiz Fusion on Linux), and several new animations for window operations such as opening, closing, minimizing, and restoring. The application is offered in a free, feature-limited version, as well as in a paid version which costs $10 and has useful desktop icon display controls, the aforementioned wobbly effect, and more.

Animations are not everything: WindowFX 5 offers handy ways to stay focus on what you are doing, even if you are using the free version. You can darken all inactive windows so that the current window visually stands out; you can minimize inactive windows after a while to keep your screen (or screens) from becoming cluttered; and you can make inactive windows transparent.

These new features alone make the free download worthwhile, but the animations don’t hurt, either: Even on a computer which is no powerhouse animations are silky-smooth and fun to watch. The free version comes with several animation options, so you can swap them around if you ever get tired of your original choices. Definitely a fun application, and this latest release looks great.

What do you like about the WindowsFX 5 release?

Source: WindowsFX

Better iPhone Audio & Video: Adapters, Microphones And Accessories For Superior Sound [iPhone]

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 02:30:58 +0000

Last week I rounded up a few of the best apps for capturing video and the accessories you might want to consider if you want to get the most out of your iPhone’s video capabilities. Today we’re turning our attention to audio, the achilles heel of any videographer.

It’s a widely regarded belief in the world of moving pictures that bad video can be rescued, edited and cleaned up somewhat, but very little can be done to purify bad audio. Sound quality can make or break your project, and that’s why it’s important to get it right first time.

Let’s take a look at the options.

Internal Mic

The internal microphone found on every iPhone is great for phone calls and quick voice memos. Unfortunately when recording video this mic is facing to the right or left of the frame, not at your subject (or you, for that matter). To add frustration, the quality is not great and will leave you disappointed if you intend to do any serious filming with your phone.

Since the iPhone (particularly the 4S) shoots such great video, it’s reassuring to see plenty of solutions for bringing the audio up to scratch.

iPhone 1/8 inch Microphone Adapter – 3.5mm male (around $25)

Unfortunately you can’t just plug a mic straight into your iPhone’s headphone/microphone jack without an adapter. To do so you will need this relatively cheap adapter which will allow you to connect most standard standard 3.5mm microphones to your iPhone for direct recording.

It’s cheap, cheerful and works with a ton of mono and stereo mic solutions. If you’ve already got a suitable microphone then this is the missing link you’ll need to start using it with your iPhone.

Works with: Dynamic microphones, battery powered video/condenser microphones, battery powered lavalier microphones and wireless microphone systems. If your microphone is not powered (no batteries, PC-style mic), then you’ll need a condenser adapter instead.

Audio-Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Condenser Mic (around $25)

Coupled with the 3.5mm adapter above, the ATR-3350 clip-on lavalier microphone provides dramatically improved sound quality and comes in at under $50 for the whole kit. While it might seem cheap, the ability to position the mic makes all the difference, and reviews are positive on the whole.

This mono mic is ideal for interviews or narration, with a fairly generous 6 metre cable so you can maintain a sensible shooting distance, just be sure not to trip or tug at the cable too hard.

Audio-Technica ATR-6550 Shotgun Condenser Mic (around $60)

This particular shotgun mic is designed both for short and long-range audio capture. For around $60 this is an affordable kit comprising of a windscreen, jack adapter, stand clamp and battery. This type of mic is ideal if you’re going to be doing one-on-one interviews as its easy to hold and move around.

Prospective buyers might want to consider an additional extension cord as the mic only comes with a metre of cable. Coupled with the first adapter on this list you’ve got a complete mobile interviewing solution and good mid-range recording ability for around $80.

Tascam iM2 Stereo Condenser Microphone (around $60)

The Tascam iM2 is a stereo condenser microphone that sits comfortably at the top of your phone. At around $60, it’s not a bad all-in-one solution for capturing ambient sound, and Tascam claim it will record levels of up to 125 decibels without distorting.

The iM2 has a built-in microphone pre-amp and analog-to-digital converter for its dual microphones. Best of all you won’t need any adapters and it even comes with USB input for powering your iPhone during long recordings or shooting sessions.

Fostex AR-4i Audio Interface (around $200)

If you’re in need of a stereo solution that’s mounted directly on the camera, then the Fostex AR-4i will probably appeal to you. The system uses the dock connector as opposed to the 3.5mm stereo port, and comes with its own on-board analog-to-digital converter for better sound quality.

The iPhone sits in the adapter which has three stereo line-in ports and comes with two microphones which can be adjusted optimal range. The adapter can be used in landscape mode as a mobile shooter or in portrait mode as a mic stand – ideal for podcasting or voice-over work.

VeriCorder iPhone XLR Adapter (around $60)

VeriCorder’s iPhone XLR adapter opens your phone to a world of professional sound recording possibilities. At $60 for just the adapter this isn’t a cheap solution, especially when you consider you’re going to have to buy an XLR mic too.

The adapter comes with a preamp circuit offering 6.1 decibels of gain as well as a headphone output port for monitoring sound recording levels. This adapter is ideal for bands or videographers who already have a decent XLR microphone ready to go and want to use it with their iPhones.

For an example of an entry-level shotgun microphone in XLR format, check out the Azden Barrell Shotgun Mic for $179 on Amazon. It won’t sing to you like a $1000 Shure or Sennheiser, but offers good performance for the money.

Sony ECM-AW3 Wireless Microphone System (around $200)

If you’re averse to wiring then you might want to think about a wireless microphone. The biggest drawback when it comes to wireless microphones is the cost, which is why for around $200 you can grab the Sony ECM-AW3 single wireless mic and receiver.

Paired with the $25 adapter (first on the list) the ECM-AW3 officially operates at up to 50 metres range, though there are reports that it can exceed this by almost double. You should get about 3 hours out of the Bluetooth system before a battery replacement is required, another price you pay for a wire-free existence.

The sound quality isn’t going to blow you out of the water, but then again $200 is a considerable chunk of your next indie flick budget. If you think you could benefit from a wire-free filming setup then the ECM-AW3 offers good performance without breaking the bank. Of course, if you would like to break the bank and ramp up the quality check out the Sony UWP-V1 instead.

Conclusion

Hopefully there are a few ideas here to help you plan how you’re going to shoot your next movie, documentary or interview with better sound. The adapters mentioned should cover most types of microphones, or if you’re after an all-in-one you might want to think about the AR-4i or iM2 instead. If you have any words of wisdom to share about getting the most out of your iPhone’s video capabilities, leave a comment below.

Have you got an external iPhone mic? Any recommendations? Sound-off in the comments below.

Image Credit: XLR Connectors

Windows 8 Release Preview Shows Improved Media Apps, Same Bipolar Interface

Scott M. Fulton — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 02:01:59 +0000

Microsoft may be listening to its customers, though the final preview edition of Windows 8 before the product ships this fall indicates that it turned its customers' volume knob down to about two.

Today's release, with its improvements to Start screen customizability, shows that Microsoft is at least slightly aware of users' chief complaints about the two previous Windows 8 previews. The big customizability option revealed today is a wider range of color scheme choices for the Start Screen.

Now, users may choose a variety of different colors for their Start Screen backgrounds, including brighter reds and oranges, pastels, and combinations of bright colors on grey or charcoal backgrounds. That's not exactly the tweaks that some early Windows 8 testers - admittedly, including this one - were hoping for.

But there are improvements, and they're worth noting. The previous Consumer Preview had difficulty logging in to some Microsoft Exchange servers. For business users who keep their email, contacts, and calendars in Exchange, it's this feature that could very well justify making Windows 8 more similar to Windows Phone 7.

Our freshly installed Release Preview on our test machine did not allow us to keep any of the existing settings we configured in the Consumer Preview, but that may have been just as well. The Release Preview had a considerably easier time recognizing the existing Windows homegroup in our office. Because of this, the revised versions of the Metro-style Music, Video, and Photos apps could more quickly connect with media that is not being stored in the cloud. Connectivity with one's own local media was, after all, the whole point of adding Libraries to Windows 7 in the first place.

This quick connectivity gives the updated Start screen a bit more life. More like what was originally advertised last September, the Photos tile rotates with photos in your library, the Mail tile shows the subject line of the most recent item received, and the People app tile rotates the faces of people to whom you frequently send mail. Ironically, with earlier previews, these tiles would only "come alive" for us when we kept Exchange out of the mix, and when we took Windows 8 out of the homegroup. With the Release Preview, these beta bugs appear to have been fixed.

Also checked off Microsoft's to-do list was a reminder to make error messages associated with apps sound something less like an edict of condemnation. Although one of Windows 8's prominent "charms" (functional icons pulled up from the right side of the screen) is called "Share," few Metro-style apps and no Desktop apps have been endowed with the ability to share data with other people or other apps in the network (beyond the typical Clipboard). In a previous article, for example, I showed how an attempt by a well-meaning though ill-informed user (portrayed by myself, of course) to share data with someone appearing inside the People app was met by the anti-prophecy, "People can't share."

That message has since been edited to read, "This app can't share." Elsewhere, other Windows 8 apps that lack the ability to share greet their users with more friendly-sounding messages. This doesn't change the fundamental fact, however, that despite the undeniable prominence of a "charm" that conveys a message of sharing all-around, this feature remains a singular link to a concentration of dead-ends.

There remain two modes of operation for applications in Windows 8: the as-yet-unnamed Metro-style world of "apps," and the conventional Desktop. Previously, I showed how this dualism leads to the confusing existence of two taskbars: one on the Desktop, and one tucked inside the left side of the screen for Metro apps. Running apps in the Consumer Preview were represented by thumbnails of the apps' screens - which, in many cases, didn't accurately convey their own identities.

Now in the Release Preview, we can see that these thumbnails have now been adorned by titles, making it far easier to recall which Metro apps are running. From here - just as with applications on the Desktop taskbar - you can right-click a thumbnail (assuming you're using a mouse, which I've recently been told is old fashioned) and from the popup menu, select Close to make that app exit. You could do this with the Consumer Preview too, but some thumbnails didn't make it easy for you to know which app you would be exiting. And when a Metro app hung, as a few did in our tests, exiting this way didn't seem to work; only the Task Manager could help us there. The Task Manager, by the way, is a Desktop app, meaning you have to switch to the Desktop to manage Metro. We've only had the Release Preview running for a few hours, and have yet to experience a "hung" Metro app, so we don't know yet whether this behavior persists.

As we mentioned earlier today, the Windows 8 Release Preview is being offered by Microsoft as an upgrade only. Thus, if you try to run it from Windows 7 (or Vista), it will begin assessing your existing Windows installation for an upgrade candidate. Since the Release Preview is a release candidate, we don't recommend you do this. If you've never installed the Consumer Preview or the first Developer Preview, then although this may seem difficult, and you don't have access to the Consumer Preview, then we recommend that you install Windows 7 on a separate partition of a different drive (one connected by SATA), and then immediately upgrade it to the Release Preview. It's an extra headache, for sure, but it only lasts an hour, which is true of most reality shows anyway.

One very noteworthy addition we saw to the Windows 8 Store (which has a few dozen more items for download now) is the prominent addition of Box.net as a featured app. Windows SkyDrive already comes pre-installed on the Desktop, and is used by default by the Photo app for sharing photos through a cloud-based service. But Box is adding features to its system enabling users of tablets, including iPads, to read and even edit Microsoft Office documents. So the availability of Box as a Metro app not only is a step in the right direction for multi-device users, but a show of graciousness by Microsoft towards one of its more important competitors in the cloud storage field.

Microsoft also made available its Release Candidate for what is now being called (no surprise) Visual Studio 2012, and we'll let you know more about how it works soon.

6 Cool DuckDuckGo Features You Won’t Find On Google

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:30:09 +0000

In a world ruled by Google, at least where search is concerned, it’s sometimes hard to imagine a worthy alternative. DuckDuckGo is one website that is trying to offer such an alternative, and if you haven’t heard of it or wonder why you should use it, you can read Danny’s interesting article on DuckDuckGo and how it can provide a better search experience.

As a new user to DuckDuckGo, I’ve discovered it offers some really useful search features, some of which seem to have provided inspiration even to the big boys at Google. If you’re convinced you should give DuckDuckGo a chance, or if you’ve been using it the same as you would use Google, not taking advantage of its cool features, this article is for you.

Get Useful Data Instantly

If you’ve been reading the news last week, you’ve probably heard of Google’s new Knowledge Graph. In a nut shell, Google’s Knowledge Graph gives you instant information about your search query, without you having to click any link. Useful? DuckDuckGo was doing it first. And not only that, if you’re not in the U.S., you can’t even make use of Knowledge Graph yet. With DuckDuckGo, you can have it right now.

That’s not all: If you’re searching for a term that is not as clear cut as “MakeUseOf”, DuckDuckGo will provide all possible options, so you can find specific results for the exact thing you’re looking for. It will even arrange them by categories, to make it easier to find.

!bang

This useful feature is probably the best known one on DuckDuckGo, and for good reason. This feature was mentioned briefly in Danny’s article, but let’s take a more in-depth look at it.

There are searches we perform numerous times each day, week and month. For example, I’m always looking for new Firefox add-ons that do specific things. When I do this, I usually type “Firefox Add-ons” in Google, click on the link, and perform another search. True, you can set up shortcuts for this, but with DuckDuckGo, the shortcut is built in.

This search query will take you directly to the Firefox add-on page and perform the requested search. There is a huge list of supported !bangs, and if you can’t find the one you want, you can submit it. Some more useful examples are !gi for Google Images, !bi for Bing Images, !w for Wikipedia, !gmail for your Gmail inbox, !m for Maps, and even !makeuseof for MakeUseOf! The !bangs you use most will appear in the dropdown menu next to the search box, so you don’t have to memorize them.

Is It Raining?

When you travel, or even at home, one important question you need a day-to-day answer to is “is it raining?”. DuckDuckGo can give you a straight answer to that question, along with other weather related questions.

If you need it, you can also get instant information on high and low tides in different places, computer by Wolfram Alpha.

You can even get the current moon phase in your location simply by searching for “moon phase”.

Keyboard Shortcuts

DuckDuckGo offers many useful keyboard shortcuts, the best of which are K and J to browse results and Enter to open a link. There are numerous others: Typing / before your query will open the first result in the preview window, / when on search results will open the search box, s:d “query” will sort your results by date, Ctrl+Enter will open a link in a new tab, and there are many many more.

If you’re a keyboard person, these can turn browsing DuckDuckGo results into a keyboard-only task, no mouse needed.

Emoticons

Everyone knows what a smiley is, but I sometimes find myself a somewhat stumped when facing something like o_0 or >_<. I don’t know, these just weren’t around when I started using emoticons, and I’m never sure I really know what they mean. DuckDuckGo can help you here too, and will offer explanations to some emoticons you search for.

It even recognizes the notorious xD as an emoticons, which Google fails to do.

Drink Recipes

Like making cocktails? Looking for drink recipes? DuckDuckGo has you covered there too. Simply search for “how to make” the drink of your choice, and DuckDuckGo will spit out a short and concise recipe.

Yum!

This Is Not All

This is by no means all you can do with DuckDuckGo. There are lots of other goodies you can check out, some of which are also available in Google and Bing, others are not. Since DuckDuckGo is open source, people can write and add plugins for things you will never find on Google, such as xkcd.

Know of other cool features in DuckDuckGo? Let us know what’s good!

Judge Sides With Google Over Oracle: APIs Were "Fair Use"

Dan Rowinski — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:57:00 +0000

Oracle has been dealt a final blow in its court case over the use of Java in Android. U.S. District Judge William Alsup dismissed Oracle's copyright infringement claim, bringing to an end a dramatic court case that saw Google win in nearly every single important aspect. Oracle has said it will appeal.

The ruling over whether Google violated the structure, sequence and organization (SSO) of 37 copyrighted APIs fell to the hands of Judge Alsup after the jury came to an impasse during the copyright phase of the trial. The jury was asked to determine several questions concerning whether Google had copied code copyrighted by Oracle after it had acquired the Java programming language when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2010. The jury did not return a complete verdict, ruling that Google had copied the SSO of the 37 APIs but could not decide whether or not that was considered fair use.

When viewed as a whole, Oracle lost every significant aspect of the case. The jury found that Google had not infringed on any of Oracle’s patents and was innocent on copyright violations except for nine lines of specific code out of the 15 million lines that constitute the Android mobile operating system. Oracle, which was rumored to be seeking billions of dollars from Google, will now likely only be awarded between $150,000 and $300,000 in statutory copyright damages.

“The court's decision upholds the principle that open and interoperable computer languages form an essential basis for software development. It's a good day for collaboration and innovation,” Google said in an emailed statement to the Los Angeles Times.

Oracle’s stance on the ruling is profound. While many have viewed the database company’s efforts as a pure money grab, Oracle is trying to present itself and the Java community as victims of what it implies is unabashed theft by Google. As a programming language, Java was created by Sun Microsystems in the 1990s as a way to “write once, run every” and designed to supersede the closed system created by Microsoft Windows. Oracle alleges that Google has violated the promise of Java and betrayed the entire development ecosystem that relies on the code.

“Oracle is committed to the protection of Java as both a valuable development platform and a valuable intellectual property asset. It will vigorously pursue an appeal of this decision in order to maintain that protection and to continue to support the broader Java community of over 9 million developers and countless law abiding enterprises. Google's implementation of the accused APIs is not a free pass, since a license has always been required for an implementation of the Java Specification,” Oracle stated in am email to technology publication The Verge. “And the court's reliance on ‘interoperability’ ignores the undisputed fact that Google deliberately eliminated interoperability between Android and all other Java platforms. Google's implementation intentionally fragmented Java and broke the "write once, run anywhere" promise. This ruling, if permitted to stand, would undermine the protection for innovation and invention in the United States and make it far more difficult to defend intellectual property rights against companies anywhere in the world that simply takes them as their own.”

While Google’s victory in the case is a big win for the company and its Android platform, the legal proceedings are by no means over. Oracle’s eventual appeal will have legs based on both Judge Alsup’s ruling on the fair use aspect and the jury’s split decision over the most important copyright issues.

2 Sites To Find The Best “Socially-Selected” Desktop Wallpaper

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:30:34 +0000

It’s pretty difficult to find a quality wallpaper site anymore. There’s a ton of them, but many are packed full of plain, boring, “stock” wallpapers that you don’t want sitting on your desktop. There are many more that are polluted even more nefariously, with adware, risky pop-ups and pop-unders, and more. That’s not the kind of stuff I’m into.

I like my web content curated. When I want to read the news, I don’t go to WSJ and NYT. I go immediately to Reddit, where the contributions of relevant news is incentivized. That way, I can count on the next guy to force feed me all of the news I want. Isn’t it beautiful? Since that formula works, why not use it for everything? While the aforementioned Reddit does have some a few really awesome wallpaper-related subreddits, that’s the obvious way to go. I’ve got more for you.

4walled

4walled, as the name casually suggests, is an aggregator that indexes all of the beautiful wallpapers posted on 4chan, the largest imageboard in the US. Yes, 4chan. You know, the evil and hateful site that once bred today’s Anonymous? It’s not so bad, overall. The imageboard’s main attention-grabber, /b/, comes attached with a filthy reputation, but they’ve got plenty of other beautiful boards where intelligent conversation is fairly common. /mu/ for music, /fa/ for fashion, and /wg/ for general wallpapers.

As you can see, 4walled is really a wallpaper search engine. Everything you’d expect is there. For board, just keep it as the default selection if you aren’t familiar or interested in 4chan. Now if you don’t know what SFW is, it’s “safe for work.” Basically, the default here is going to include nudity. You’ll probably see a lot of it if you select the default. If you’re not into any of that, select “Safe For Work”.

Here, I ran a search for the keyword “sunset”. As you can see, there’s nothing extra, no fillers, just awesome wallpapers. You can click them to see some statistics about the individual wallpaper and submitter, and from there save the wallpaper to your hard drive.

Social Wallpapering

Social Wallpapering has adopted that same model as Reddit, where users are able to upvote and downvote wallpapers so that only the highest-quality pieces are visible to new users.

Sign up and you’re able to vote for your favorites and upload your own wallpapers to be ranked by others. As far as browsing goes, you can sort wallpapers by their rank, by their category, screen size, or even just randomly.

Just like 4walled, you can see that it takes a really no-nonsense approach. Your wallpapers are all there in a thumbnail for you to easily preview and browse. Click one and you’ll see statistics and resolutions for all available. Contributing to the quality of the site overall is just as easy, as you can favorite or vote for wallpaper by just hovering over the thumbnail.

There’s no reason to make it harder than it should be. Social internet means we can all be freeloaders. Personally, I love when people do the work for me. It’s always nice to contribute, though! What do you think of these two websites?

Master MS Office Keyboard Shortcuts Effortlessly With Free KeyRocket For Windows

Thu, 31 May 2012 23:30:13 +0000

One of the hallmarks of experienced computer users is that they don’t often reach for the mouse, unless they are working in a graphics application. Meaning, as long as they’re working with something like Word or Excel, their hand will rarely leave the keyboard. After all, these applications have numerous built-in shortcuts, and once you know them, they really are much faster to use than futzing around with the mouse and menus. The only question is: How do you get to know all of these shortcuts? Enter KeyRocket, a free application that teaches you keyboard shortcuts for Office interactively, as you work.

That last bit is what makes KeyRocket truly effective: It is not a cheat sheet or a reference that you have to turn to and browse through. Instead, it sits in your system tray and silently watches over your shoulder. As soon as you click a toolbar button which has an optional keyboard shortcut, it pops up a nice notification telling you about it. And if you then remember to use the shortcut key, KeyRocket applauds you. I know “notifications” sound annoying, but honestly, these are not the custom system tray balloons that all applications use, and are much nicer looking.

Installing And Getting Started

Once you step through KeyRocket’s quick installation routine, it will pop up a five-step wizard explaining what’s what and helping you start:

KeyRocket is free for personal users, and trusts you to be honest about whether or not you are a commercial user:

I like a company that trusts its users, and hope that if you make any commercial use of KeyRocket, you’ll pay for it. After all, that’s what subsidizes the free version for home users.

Last but not least, before you begin using the application you must provide an email address:

This is a bit annoying, but the good news is that KeyRocket didn’t actually send a confirmation email, so there’s nothing stopping you from using a fake, nonexistent address. But shh, don’t tell anyone I told you.

KeyRocket In Action

Once KeyRocket is installed and running in the system tray, you just need to launch Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook, and go about your business as you normally do. As soon as you click a toolbar button that has an easy shortcut, KeyRocket will pop up a custom message like this:

So now you know exactly how to use the keyboard for triggering that same function. Next, when you apply your hard-earned knowledge by using that shortcut, you’ll get balloons:

This may look silly at first glance, but it’s pretty rewarding. It feels like KeyRocket understands how annoying pop-up notifications can be, and really took time to design these so they’re aesthetically pleasing and fun to use. Even the reward reminds you what you just pressed, so you can never be confused about what made it pop up.

The History List

Much like the notifications, KeyRocket’s context menu is custom-designed. Here you can see a log of the last few shortcuts KeyRocket showed you. This is great as a quick reminder: Let’s say KeyRocket taught you something five minutes ago, but you’ve forgotten the shortcut. No problem: Just right-click the system tray icon, look at the last message, and you’re good to go. Of course, you could always just click the toolbar button with the mouse, but this is a good way to train yourself to stick to the keyboard.

Looking Up Existing Shortcuts

One area where KeyRocket outdoes Office’s native functionality is search: Let’s say you want to apply conditional formatting to a cell in Excel. You can just tap Win+K while KeyRocket is running, and find yourself in the Shortcut Browser. Start typing “condit,” and the list will narrow down as you type, to highlight just a single shortcut: Alt > H > L. And indeed, that opens up the conditional formatting drop-down in Excel. This feature is nice because it lets you take a more proactive role: You don’t have to wait for KeyRocket to pop up a message teaching you something, but you can just go and learn it yourself, without even taking your hands off the keyboard (of course).

Statistics

KeyRocket’s rarely-seen main window also shows statistics:

These reflect your work in each Office application, and how effectively you are using keyboard shortcuts.

Final Thoughts

I was quite impressed with KeyRocket. Its UI is unique and clean, without needless bells and whistles. I think it would look right at home on a Windows 8 desktop, as it doesn’t use Aero. It did hang once on my system (Windows 7 x64), but behaved well the rest of the time. If you’re looking to become a Microsoft Office monster, this is one quick and easy way to get there.

How Pro Marketers Use Facebook Insights

Dave Copeland — Thu, 31 May 2012 22:30:00 +0000

Facebook introduced five levels of administration to its brand pages Thursday. The added protection means more people are going to have access to (and have to learn how to use) Facebook Insights.

While there are plenty of how-to guides for beginners out there, we wanted to touch on the more advanced side of Insights. We asked three leading social media managers for their top tips on getting the most out of Insights.

More Than Just Likes and Unlikes

Catherine Merritt, an account supervisor in Olson PR’s social and emerging media department, uses Facebook Insights to figure out what is and is not working on the brand pages of her clients. She uses an Insights grid to track what types of posts work and do not work, and doesn’t get hung up on the number of people liking or unliking a page.

“Facebook insights and analytics are part of the puzzle, but in looking at them, it’s important to step back and see what they’re really showing. One of the most important takeaways I leverage from them is what they tell me about the content we’re putting out,” Merritt said. “What are the top five learnings I can gather and what does that mean to the page’s future? It’s not just about the number of Likes [and] Unlikes. It’s about what’s sticking to the wall and making sure you have a malleable page management and content process in place to quickly apply what each nugget is telling.”

Watch for Universal Trends

Tony Wright, the social media manager for Outside Line, manages brand pages for several clients and has used Insights to keep a running list of trends that seem to apply to most brand pages. Among Wright’s findings:

Serious users should consider using a third-party service to store Insights data to avoid glitches that occasionally show up in Facebook’s system.
Shorter, snappier posts are more likely to attract user interaction than longer posts.
Niche brands often need extra attention to build and sustain user engagement.
Wright is also starting to notice some drop-off in the effectiveness of posts ending with a question or with “a dozen exclamation marks.”

“As more brands join Facebook and start competing for exposure among users' busy news feeds, we're seeing lots of brands starting to talk in very similar ways, using quick win tactics to guarantee a good level of response,” Wright said. “While this often works in the short term, users could very well become fatigued.”

Use Insights on Your Domain

Alison Kimszal, a new media business analyst for DefinedLogic, said many users don’t realize they can use Facebook Insights on their domain as well as their Facebook brand page.

“While the Facebook Page Insights are great for gathering how much interaction your posts are getting, the Domain Insights provide you with valuable information on how many people are coming to your domain from Facebook and organically sharing links to your site,” Kimszal said. “Metrics on shares, likes, comments and demographic information for each domain and URL on your site can be measured via the Domain Insights. Domain Insights also collects data on Facebook Social Plugins such as the like button, the send button and the comments box.”

8 Of The Best Mobile Apps For Your Dropbox [Android / iOS]

Thu, 31 May 2012 22:15:49 +0000

Nearly all of us have smartphones these days, plus some form of cloud storage as a backup solution. However, we’ve really only just reached the point were lots of apps are being written with integration to cloud storage in mind. Because of this, you may not have realised that quite a few very useful apps have popped up with integrated Dropbox syncing. We’ll be covering some of the best of these today.

Recently we covered the 10+ best apps for your Dropbox, but we deliberately didn’t mention any of the great mobile apps for Dropbox. That’s because there are just so many fantastic mobile apps out there for use with Dropbox that it was worth making a list just for mobile.

1. The Dropbox App [Android / iOS]

It goes without saying that if you love Dropbox you should grab the official app for your smartphone device. Get the Android app or the iOS application for free.

2. CamScanner [Android / iOS]

CamScanner lets you take photos of receipts, white boards and more, then auto-enhance and crop so that you have a scanned-quality image. It’s got auto-sync capabilities for Dropbox and other cloud storage so you can keep your scanned documents backed up easily. We’ve covered CamScanner in detail before here. Get CamScanner for Android or iPhone for a free trial or $4.99 for the full version.

3. Documents To Go [iOS]

Documents To Go has been around since the glory days of the Palm Pilot and has continued to improve and adapt their applications since then. Their iOS application has Dropbox integration included as well as Google Docs and other cloud services. The Android version doesn’t yet claim to have Dropbox integration, but it’s surely on the cards.

4. QuickOffice Pro [Android / iOS]

QuickOffice Pro is yet another office documents editor, so you’ll probably want to choose just one. QuickOffice Pro lets you edit all of your regular office suite documents, plus annotate PDF files. Syncs to many forms of cloud backup, including Dropbox. Get your copy of QuickOffice Pro for Android or iPhone for a little over $10.

5. 1Password [Android / iOS]

1Password is a popular password manager which syncs your password information across devices securely. Dropbox can also be used as an option for backing up your password details. 1Password is available free for Android or iPhone.

6. BoxCryptor [Android / iOS]

If you’re keen to keep your documents extra secure, then encryption is the way to go. BoxCryptor is one of many web-based encryption services for Dropbox, but it also has fantastic apps for use on Android and iOS devices in order to keep documents encrypted and usable on all of your devices. We’ve covered BoxCryptor in detail before.

7. Todo.txt Touch [Android / iOS]

Todo.txt Touch is the simplest, most elegant To-Do list solution for your mobile device and desktop. All your data is stored in a simple .txt file and synced across devices via Dropbox. Despite the file’s simplicity, the app still manages to offer task prioritisation and other primary to-do list functions. Grab the application for iOS or Android now.

8. DropSpace [Android]

If you want to automatically sync photos from your phone to your Dropbox or get music from your computer to your phone just by putting it in your Dropbox, DropSpace is the perfect app to make it a little bit easier. What DropSpace does is automatically sync any given Android folders with your Android Dropbox folder when and how you wish.

So, which mobile apps that sync to Dropbox do you love?

Cricket's Impact on the U.S. iPhone Market

Dan Rowinski — Thu, 31 May 2012 22:09:00 +0000

For as long as the iPhone has been available, people in the U.S. have been clamoring for a prepaid version of it. That was never going to happen when AT&T held the iPhone monopoly. The company has to subsidize the cost of cheap phones to customers, and long-term contracts are a way to recoup that expense. Enter Cricket, a small U.S. carrier that will release the iPhone 4S to its network with unlimited data, voice and text for $55 a month.

This is a very strategic move for Apple and an early Christmas present for Cricket. Apple is showing the Big Three U.S. carriers that it is not entirely reliant on them for iPhone sales in the U.S. One thing that Apple will be losing out on are the subsidies that Sprint, AT&T and Verizon pay for iPhones, but that cost is offset by the fact that the handsets are nearly full-priced for consumers. A 16GB iPhone 4S from Cricket will run $499.99, while an iPhone 4 will be $399.99. Apple is losing a bit of money by going directly to consumers through Cricket, but the volume of sales that Cricket will provide will be small in comparison to what the Big Three sell. For a company that makes near $12-$14 billion in profit a quarter, Apple can afford the small hit on subsidies through Cricket.

The win for Cricket is obvious. It is the first prepaid iPhone available in the U.S., and it augments the carrier’s thin line of available devices with a high-end smartphone. Check out the lineup of Cricket phones and you will understand. There is much left to be desired beyond the low-end devices from bargain manufacturers ZTE and Huawei. Cricket will offer unlimited voice minutes and texts, which has become pretty standard. In terms of data, it will technically be unlimited but will be throttled after 2.3GB of usage, which the company terms as “fair use.”

There is one clear loser in Apple’s deal with Cricket: T-Mobile. The carrier, which struggles with competition from above by A&T, Verizon and Sprint, now must contend with competitors from below. T-Mobile is, of course, the only major U.S. carrier without the iPhone. It has said repeatedly that it can compete without the signature device and does offer several high-end Android phones. Yet, it must be starting to feel like the ugly stepchild at this point, as it's repeatedly passed over for the affections of Apple.

The biggest winners, and really the most pertinent for all parties involved, are consumers. A $55 data and voice plan is the lowest entry point for a single individual on the market. The lowest an individual can find among the top three carriers is about $60 (an AT&T voice plan of 450 minutes at $39.99 and 300MB of data for $20). Where Cricket wins in this scenario is that it is both cheap and its voice and text are unlimited. In terms of the 2.3GB “fair usage” plan, that number is likely quantified by the average amount of data that a consumer uses per month through the Big Three carriers. Both AT&T and Verizon price 3GB plans at $30 a month. Over the length of a 24-month contract from the Big Three, consumers can save about $500. That is slightly offset by the higher cost of the phone, but Cricket does not require contracts and there is no early termination fee on the network.

Look for Apple to start making more deals with prepaid carriers both in the U.S. and abroad. It is one of the remaining untapped markets for the iPhone.

SpaceX Dragon Returns Safely to Earth

Jon Mitchell — Thu, 31 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

After completing every objective of its nine-day mission, the first private spacecraft ever to dock with the International Space Station splashed down off the coast of Baja California today. The landing was right on target. The 19-foot-long SpaceX Dragon capsule was quickly recovered to begin its trip back to the SpaceX facility in McGregor, Texas. SpaceX's successful mission sets the stage for private spacecraft operations to take over some routine responsibilities from NASA, potentially saving money and increasing capabilities.

The Dragon launched on May 22 aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to make its historic rendezvous, successfully docking with the space station on May 25. The following day, the crew of ISS Expedition 31 opened the hatch and climbed aboard, reporting that the Dragon's interior "smell[ed] like a brand new car."

The Dragon brought some nonessential cargo to the station, which the crew unloaded and replaced with spent equipment to return to NASA. The agency has made Dragon's full cargo manifest available to read. It includes crew provisions and clothes, racks and storage containers for science experiments, plus some mission hardware, including spacewalk gloves.

After completing all the tests and experiments, Dragon spent its last day at the station yesterday as crew finished loading its 1,455 pounds of cargo to return to Earth. Dragon unberthed from the station's robotic arm at 4:05 a.m. Eastern time today.

Dragon fired its engines to slow down and drop from orbit, then streaked through the sky over the Pacific, deploying its parachutes at 45,000 feet and touching down right on target at 11:42 a.m. Eastern time.

In future missions, Dragon will land on a pad using precision thrusters, rather than the more traditional water landing.

See also: Profile of SpaceX founder Elon Musk

With the success of this mission, SpaceX begins a series of cargo missions for NASA under a four-year, $1.6 billion contract. If all goes well, private spaceflight companies will take on even more responsibility. The Dragon capsule is designed to accommodate up to seven crew members, and SpaceX plans to begin manned flights within three years.

With private companies like SpaceX handling routine flights, NASA can free up its resources for more ambitious, longer-term missions.

Lead image via SpaceX/AP

Kayak Has Much More Than a Derailed IPO to Worry About

Antone Gonsalves — Thu, 31 May 2012 21:30:00 +0000

The decision by online travel service Kayak Software to delay its initial public offering has been blamed on Facebook's botched public offering a couple weeks ago. But while Facebook's roughly 25% plunge in share price is a great reason for skepticism in the next Internet company IPO, that's not Kayak's only problem.

The online travel market is crowded and Kayak, which launched in 2004, is battling many more competitors than just other old timers, such as Expedia and Orbitz. Newcomers like Hipmunk are giving Kayak and the others headaches by offering visitors a simpler layout that makes it easier to find the cheapest flight and hotel room.

Founded in 2010, Hipmunk surpassed 1 million monthly searches after its first year in operation and was growing roughly 15% each month, according to the San Francisco-based company. The company raised more than $4 million about a year ago in a funding round headed by Ignition Partners.

As a testimony to its better user experience, Hipmunk has made gains in the market despite its similarities to Kayak. Neither company actually sells airline tickets and makes hotel bookings, like Expedia and Priceline.com. Instead, they get a cut when their visitors book travel at the sites of airlines, hotels and other travel services. Kayak also sells ads.

This doesn't mean Hipmunk hasn't hit some bumps. The company started out only searching for flights and had to add hotel rooms after it realized airlines weren't willing to pay much for having traffic directed to their sites. As a result, hotel bookings have become the bigger revenue generator, according to the company.

Besides fighting Hipmunk, Kayak is also feeling the heat from tech giants. In 2010, Google acquired travel software company ITA Software for $700 million in order to start its own flight-search service. Microsoft is also in the game with Bing Travel, which has its own twist. Rather than just selling an airline ticket, Bing can tell the traveler the probability that fares for that trip to Paris will fall over the next week.

To Kayak's credit, the company has done well over the last year, despite the competition and being a fraction of the size of its largest rivals. The company is profitable. At the end of the first quarter, it reported a profit of $4.15 million, compared to a loss of $6.91 million during the same timeframe a year ago. Revenue rose 39% to $73.3 million. The number of travel searches rose by 45% to 310 million, according to its IPO papers.

And there's no doubt that Facebook's IPO cast a shadow over Internet company IPOs in general. The world's largest social network, with more than 900 million users, went from being the biggest technology IPO on record to the worst-performing public offering in the last decade. The fall from grace has been caused by doubts about its future ad revenue growth and mistrust in the way underwriters handled the share sale. Morgan Stanley led the Facebook IPO and was hired to lead Kayak's offering.

Kayak's IPO to raise $50 million was expected as early as last week. The company, which first filed to go public in November 2010, has denied it has delayed its IPO, saying it never set a firm date. A Kayak spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal that the company is waiting for market conditions to improve.

So its unlikely Kayak will be the first post-Facebook tech offering and therefore a bellwether on investor appetite for Internet company IPOs. That honor may go to ServiceNow, an IT cloud-computing services company, or Palo Alto Networks, an Internet security company, according to financial news service Bloomberg. Both are also to be led by Morgan Stanley.

In the meantime, Kayak will have to continue to fight hard and prove the rivals nipping at its heels won't derail its growth.

Why Microsoft Sucks – Again (Opinion)

Thu, 31 May 2012 21:15:26 +0000

In 2011 I wrote an op-ed piece (for a different website…!) about how I felt that Microsoft had moved away from being the many-tentacled corporate beast with no interest in providing a solid, working operating system and every interest in raping dollars out of customers.

I argued that after the failure of Windows Vista, Microsoft had emerged as a company in touch with its user base, listening and almost caring. A case in point was the unprecedented granting of an audience with the developers of Windows Phone to the ChevronWP7 team, whose interest in maintaining a homebrew community (a thriving developer base had formed around the old Windows Mobile platform) and offering an unlock tool was – remarkably – given consideration and accepted.

It might be one of the technology industry’s ironies that Microsoft’s best product (Windows Phone) is the one that is selling the least, but generally speaking, everything that seemed to me to be good about Microsoft 12 months ago is quickly slipping away…

A PR-Driven Façade?

Has the smiley Joe Belfiore-lead Windows Phone love-in tainted my judgement, or has Microsoft genuinely lurched from being a corporate giant with a bad reputation to a nice, happy, family-oriented provider of useful desktop, gaming and mobile operating systems (with the obvious corporate side going unspoken) and then back again in the space of 18 months?

Has it all been a PR trick, performed to protect the formative steps of Windows Phone and the Metro UI?

This certainly seems likely. In hindsight, it seems Microsoft were being extremely generous with a system that could be (and probably has been) used to run pirated software on its phones. While there are plenty of useful homebrew tools available, however, the use of the ChevronWP7 unlock has been largely limited to enthusiasts and those of us requiring screenshot tools.

But as it becomes clear that Metro is increasingly important to Windows Phone, it seems ever clearer that Microsoft was merely protecting its new UI. Subsequently Metro has appeared on Xbox 360 and will soon be gaining popularity – or, more likely, notoriety – as the main feature of Windows 8.

Caring Family Oriented Microsoft vs The Truth

You’ve probably seen those “I’m a PC” adverts, the Windows Live Essentials commercials and the fun Windows Phone promos, that all paint Microsoft in slightly different ways. A result of the Vista debacle, they centre in Windows 7.

Let’s get this straight first of all: Windows 7 is the most secure, stable and confident operating system release from Microsoft yet. Like Windows 98 SE and Windows XP Service Pack 2 it has grabbed its user base by being competent. It’s arguably better than Mac OS X, the first time that a Windows OS has been able to claim this, and its use continues to grow. The adverts have been a success.

Which is why the continued insistence by Microsoft to keep pushing forward with a single operating system UI for Windows 8 across desktop, laptop, tablet and hybrid devices seems all the more ridiculous.

Want a Touch Screen Desktop Monitor? I Thought Not…

There seems little justification in forcing users to use an uncomfortable touch screen desktop display for Windows 8 in order to get the most out of the OS, and little sense in pushing Metro as the only UI.

While business users have expressed concern over the day-to-day desktop ability of the implementation of Metro in Windows 8, Microsoft has continued to ignore the concerns of its biggest market. Redmond knows best, see?

Of course, Microsoft has an ulterior motive in ensuring that Metro survives Windows 8. In order to reduce OS development costs in future they’re planning to issue a single OS across computers, consoles and phones. But a touch screen desktop monitor? This is madness!

In the post-Kinect era, monitors with that motion capture technology built in seem more appropriate. And what is wrong with a desktop touch pad, as seen with the recent Apple computers?

The Mask Slips Towards Disaster

As Microsoft continues its march towards a single platform at all costs, I have a bad feeling about Windows 8.

It’s a brilliant UI for tablets and hybrids, but absolutely pointless for a desktop computer. Without the facility to disable Metro, this makes Windows 8 nothing more than an expensive UI overlay, something that many users – corporate and home – will have already spotted.

Many people have noticed the “alternative release” pattern of Microsoft Windows over the years. As revolutionary and impressive as Metro and Windows 8 are in context, 2012 looks set to be another bad year; it might even be worse than 2007 and the release of Vista.

Did Microsoft Ever Stop Sucking?

Looking back on 2010 and 2011, it seemed that Steve Ballmer – a character who is regularly mocked, despite his successes – had put the right people in place to help Microsoft overcome its bad press. The ChevronWP7 situation was a key example of this, as was the wonderful use of Metro UI in Windows Phone 7.

However, while high profile, these seem like mere blips. A dogged determination to disregard the concerns of the very people expected to use Windows 8 is potentially damaging. But, do you know what? I think Microsoft genuinely did stop sucking for a few months. I think they really did believe what their adverts were telling us and the company made some very good noises.

The problem is, they didn’t like the noises coming from the critics and rather than take the feedback on board with Windows 8, they’re pushing forward with an OS that no desktop user wants. And that sucks.

Steve Ballmer Image Credit: Off2riorob | Xbox 360 Image Credit: Jericho1337

Microsoft Offers Windows 8 Release Preview as an Upgrade

Scott M. Fulton — Thu, 31 May 2012 21:04:00 +0000

The worst-kept secret in Microsoft’s history may well lead to a surprise anyway. This afternoon, the company made available a program that prompts curious Windows users to download the latest Windows 8 Release Preview - the final preview before general release expected later this year. But Windows 7 users who run this little jewel will be surprised to find that it tries to upgrade their Windows 7 to the Windows 8 Release Preview.

The Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, available here, assesses whether your existing operating system can be upgraded to run the new Windows 8 preview. ReadWriteWeb is testing the Upgrade Assistant's efficacy on a partition containing the previous Windows 8 Customer Preview (the second of three). We have encountered no problems so far.

So, for now, we can advise you to run the Upgrade Assistant on (or more accurately, from) a partition containing a test version of an operating system, which may be either a disposable test copy of Windows 7 or an earlier Windows 8 preview. The program checks existing applications for their relative compatibility with the upgraded system, but even though we had installed multiple test applications in the Consumer Preview, the Upgrade Assistant did not offer an installation option that would let us keep any of them. “Keep nothing” was the only choice provided.

A Microsoft spokesperson told ReadWriteWeb to expect some of the improvements that many of us have been actively campaigning for. Once we see evidence of them, we’ll photograph them and tell you more about them here. One that we’re particularly keen to see is described as “increased personalization options for the Start screen.” Although tablet users testing the Consumer Preview have been impressed with the Windows 8 Start Screen functionality, the way in which it was visually segregated from the Desktop environment, coupled with Microsoft’s decision to make switching between the Start Screen and the Desktop more obscure, has been the principal complaint among Windows veterans (including myself).

One critical discovery: The "Keep nothing" choice, which may be your only one, means that whatever was in the "My Documents" folder on your old operating system's home partition will be completely deleted. So make certain you back up any contents from that folder that you wish to keep.

More information, including screenshots, still to come.

Top 10 Windows 8 Features #5: Live Performance and Reliability Charts

Scott M. Fulton — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:30:00 +0000

Perhaps the most visible change to the Windows 8 Desktop (the "old" half of Microsoft's new operating system) will come from live performance graphs. Improved heuristics in the new Task Manager and all-new graphs in Windows Explorer, of all places, will tell you when "burst mode" kicks in and when your hard drive is slowing down.

In this 10-part series, 26-year veteran Windows tester Scott Fulton walks us through the best features, faculties and functions of Windows 8.

No. 10 : Refresh and Reset

No. 9: File History

No. 8: Storage Spaces

No. 7: Client-side Hyper-V

No. 6: Secure Boot

Performance, to the user, is the impression that things are moving smoothly and promptly. It's been said that if you find yourself measuring performance, it's because you don't have it - although now that I think about it, a politician may said this, not an IT pro. With Windows 8, Microsoft is becoming more comfortable with giving everyday folks easier access to meaningful performance metrics - and by "meaningful," I mean "not the Windows Experience Index."

Making Performance Meaningful

Mind you, there have been performance monitoring tools for Windows for quite some time. The screenshot above shows Windows 7 (not Windows 8), and in the upper right is Task Manager, with a graph from its Performance tab. The window on the lower right is an independent tool called Resource Monitor, which can be pulled up from Task Manager. The problem with the original Sysinternals tools (maybe the only one, really) is that they present their data in very rich detail, making it somewhat inaccessible to the amateur. Like the tax code, you can decipher it easily enough if you know what it means.

Last week, one of my hard drives began failing on my multiboot test system. What I noticed first, however, looked like a complete system performance drop-off. I noticed the trouble in both Windows 7 and Windows 8, so I expected a hardware failure. But I wasn't certain: Perhaps the addition of a certain Media Center device driver to both operating systems was interfering with both systems.

It was the new Task Manager in Windows 8 that gave me the evidence I needed of a cache memory failure on one of my disks. I can't show you the exact moment I saw that data, but I can show you where it was: It's in the Task Manager window. Don't you see it? In the screenshot above, it's on the right.

The Performance tab on Windows 8's new Task Manager presents basic utilization charts in a much more easy-to-read format that dispenses with the "stereo volume bars" nonsense. (It's a computer, folks, not a graphic equalizer.) And in its new format, you can select Options > Always On Top, then right-click the window and select Summary View to eliminate the window dressing and narrow it down to just the contents. In this form, you can stretch and size the contents, and then drag them to some out-of-the-way place.

As the screenshot at the top of this article indicates, yes, Task Manager and Metro-style apps can co-exist, and not by means of Metro's funky app-snapping mechanism. For that shot, I double-clicked on the CPU utilization chart to have Task Manager center on that chart only. In case you're wondering, CPU utilization in the context of Windows 8 means the relative workload at any one time for all cores in the CPU collectively. On quad-core PCs, Windows 7-based utilization tools tend to render results on a 400-point scale. So folks who think their Web browsers hog CPU cycles at 105% utilization (as if that's really possible) might be interested to learn that their processor is really being taxed at about 26%. Here in Windows 8, the chart correctly registers full utilization at 100%.

In Windows Explorer (the file manager program), every version of Windows since Windows 95 has had a progress bar indicating the relative completion of long copy operations. In Windows 8, the optional "More Details" view (which you can turn on once and leave on) reveals a heuristic graph showing the bandwidth of transfers in progress, inside a taller version of the progress bar. I was able to isolate my failing hard drive as the cause of the system slowdown by attempting a big copy operation, then watching the graph. Rather than a consistently slow copy, I could see that the bandwidth had been reduced to zero, then would occasionally burst to full and regular speed and maintain that speed for as much as a minute. That's behavior consistent with a hard drive that either has a failing memory cache or whose regulator is not reporting it's spinning at a consistent speed.

A Full Rundown That Makes Sense

Finally, for the first time, Windows now has no problem actually showing you, on a graph, when and how it's crashed over time. One of my absolute favorite new performance graphs in Windows 8 is called Reliability Monitor. Think of it as a crash dump you can actually read.

The line at the top represents a "Reliability Index," which represents Windows' own internal assessment, on a 10-point scale, of how well its internal services, functions and drivers are working. It's surprisingly harsh on itself, grading itself gradually higher for each hour that no critical or nominal events occurred, but scoring itself down the moment something does go wrong. While the index itself may be an unimportant number, the telltale stair-steps in the line tell you when critical events occurred, as plotted against the calendar axis along the bottom.

To get a full report of every Windows-related event that happened on a particular day, including ordinary things like patches, updates and software installations, you click on the day in question. Now, how many times has this happened to you: You install something that Windows Update said you must have, and suddenly your performance slows down. With this chart, you can verify your suspicions: You can see the time when you installed the update (or when your PC installed it automatically), and you can gauge the relative performance drop compared to before the installation.

Microsoft is famous for burying great new features behind mountains of junk, and Reliability Monitor appears to be no exception. The company may change things for the final version, but in the Consumer Preview, you find Reliability Monitor like this: In the Notification Area, click the Action Center flag, and from the pop-up, select Open Action Center. Click the Maintenance category, then from the choices that slide down below it, locate and click the hyperlink View Reliability History.

Hardware fails and software fails. Operating systems fail even more often. These are everyday facts of life, which won't change just because some PC users switch to tablets. The way to cope with and overcome everyday failures is through information - through being able to perceive what's wrong rather than having to guess.

In the Microsoft Vista era, when a security feature was tripped, rather than give you any clue as to why it was failing, the Vista screen went completely black. It's a bit like having a disease, but instead of being told the diagnosis, having all the doctors in the hospital lock themselves in their offices. With that type of response, you might conclude it's not only fatal but contagious. And that could be for something minor like a misplaced Registry entry.

Being explicit about its own performance in Windows 8 tells me that Windows is finally maturing. After three decades of this, it's about time.

[Video] Q&A About the New Chromebook & Chromebox

Jon Mitchell — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:30:00 +0000

Jon has been testing the new Google Chromebook and Chromebox for a couple weeks. He and Dan discussed whether these things are ready for prime time. Then Dan's audio cut out, so he continued to mime comments while Jon answered reader questions. There were lots of them! We hope this video answers all your Chrome OS questions, and if not, leave some more in the comments.

Here are links to the posts and topics we talked about:

New Chromebook & Chromebox Are Good Enough to Grab Minds & Market Share (Jon's big review)
Why the New Chromebook Still Doesn't Cut It (Scott's counter-review)
More Bad News For HP: The New Google Chromebook Compared to a Typical HP Laptop
Chrome On a Tablet? New Video Emerges (August 9, 2011)

We hang out at 11:00 a.m. Pacific on Thursdays, and you're welcome to join us or just watch live. (Here's the time for every time zone.) Make sure to follow +ReadWriteWeb on Google+ if you want to watch or participate. We'd love to have you!

Gamifying the Executive Suite

Antone Gonsalves — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:00:00 +0000

It’s easy to think of gaming as kids stuff, and the behavior-driving techniques honed by the gaming industry limited to getting the unwashed Internet masses to play Farmville or boost engagement in marketing campaigns. But it turns out that the same motivators that get the adrenaline pumping in a 15-year-old gamer also drive executives. So those gamification techiques are also being used to nudge corporate executives into performing desired functions - including completing online training programs in large multinational corporations.

Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA) is relying on gamification techniques to get more than 10,000 harried corporate executives in 150 companies to complete online training programs. “Fundamentally, what we’re doing with gamification and DLA is to really drive that stickiness to the platform to create semi-addictive behavior,” explained Frank Farrall, national leader for Deloitte Australia’s online consulting practice.

Gamification refers to taking the gaming techniques that harness people’s drive for winning and glory and apply them to education, marketing, scientific research and public policy campaigns. While some experts say they believe the tactics will slowly lose their effectiveness, neuroscientists are finding that earning rewards for completing tasks can cause feel-good chemical reactions that motivate people to move to the next undertaking, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center.

Executive leaderboards and badges

Deloitte is getting executives' juices flowing through the use of a leaderboard that ranks how well trainees are doing in learning leadership skills, such as managing people and teams and incorporating techniques for driving innovation. Common in gaming, the leaderboard provides immediate recognition of the top performers.

But gamification in a corporate setting requires a different sensitivity. Deloitte acknowledges that such rankings could cause resentment and drive people away from the program. So DLA avoids placing the “top user on a pedestal” and making the No. 1 position the goal.

“We more want to say, ‘Here are the people who are gaining on you, and here’s what you can do to make sure that you overtake the person above you,’” said James Sander, product and client manager for Deloitte Digital.

Another technique borrowed from games is the awarding of badges for completing tasks. For example, finishing the lessons supplied by Harvard Business Publishing earns the participant a specialist badge for that content. “Basically, you’re giving a bit of a dopamine release to the user whenever they achieve something, and that drives that semi-addictive behavior,” Farrall said.

People can collect multiple badges and announce their achievements on the academy’s social network or on Twitter and LinkedIn. Because the badges carry the Deloitte brand, they have credibility within the professional community, according to Farrall.

The gamification aspects of DLA are licensed from Badgeville, a company specializing in the use of such techniques in training and marketing. Deloitte consulting, which is separate from DLA, has listed gamification as one of the top 10 technology trends of 2012. Beyond education, gaming techniques are being used to motivate people to succeed in the workplace, according to Deloitte.

An executive backlash?

Driving people through rewards and recognition doesn’t sit well with everyone. “If everything was a game, no one would have a reason to invent; any metric corrupts, as people shape their behavior to ensure that they come out on top,” Susan Crawford, former Obama White House technology policy expert, said in the Pew study. “There have to be other routes to excellence… it can’t be that we’ll be adding up points for every salient element of our lives.”

One big question is how well these techniques will apply to sophisticated corporate populations more likely to be aware of how they’re being manipulated. Another issue is whether reliance on gamification for motivation might reduce creativity and “thinking outside the box.”

DLA acknowledges that gaming techniques have their limitations in motivating people. “Common sense would tell you that it will have limits as to how much core influence it’s going to have,” Farrall said. “Otherwise, we would become mindless drones.”

How effective Badgeville’s gaming adaptation will be in the corporate arena remains to be seen. DLA has only recently started using the techniques, so not enough data is available to determine effectiveness. Nevertheless, usage on the academy site is going up and people are earning and talking about their badges on LinkedIn and Twitter – signs that this modern-day form of manipulation is beginning to work.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

MIT Brain Who Beat the Casinos Launches Service to Quantify Developer Performance

Klint Finley — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:30:00 +0000

Jeff Ma, the MIT blackjack team member who served as the inspiration for Ben Mezrich’s book Bringing Down the House and the film 21, gave developers at the Atlassian Summit a glimpse of his new stealth startup: TenXer.

TenXer is a tool for measuring employee performance, and is now available as a plugin for Atlassian’s bug-tracking tool JIRA via the relaunched Atlassian Marketplace. Atlassian makes a variety of tracking, collaboration and software development products.

Using the JIRA plugin, development teams can track their metrics and see a performance dashboard. This appears to be the first public release of TenXer, and it doesn’t seem to be accessible outside of JIRA yet.

Ma and his fellow MIT students earned big bucks with their card counting system in the 1990s, but were eventually banned from just about every blackjack table in the country. Since then, Ma has occupied his time founding companies like PROTRADE and Citizen Sports, which sold to Yahoo in 2010. He’s also been giving talks on teamwork at various conferences.

In his keynote at Atlassian Summit, Ma explained that he noticed that successful individuals and teams, from athletes to businesses, quantify their performance and measure progress toward specific goals. That led him to found TenXer to create a system tracking employee performance. To this end, the TenXer plugin for JIRA measures metrics - such as bugs closed, bugs fixed and work logged - to help quantify developer performance. The name TenXer comes from the idea that “great employees are 10x better than the average.”

According to Business Insider, Niel Robertson, co-founder of Trada, is also a co-founder of TenXer. AngelList cites David Jeske as an investor.

The Atlassian Marketplace is an app-store style service for purchasing and installing plugins and integrations for Atlassian products. It was formerly known as Atlassian Plugin Exchange and was relaunched today at the summit.

Read/Write Daily: Tractor Beams & Smelly People

Jon Mitchell — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:02:00 +0000

Today's theme is mad scientists. In covering tech, we tend to focus on the products, the problems and the money. But arguably the most important parts of the story are the people themselves. It's their personal obsessions that take dreamy ideas and make them real.

Here are a few science and tech stories focused on fascinating people.

Richard Dawkins has leveled some interesting criticisms of renowned biologist E.O. Wilson, whose new book tries to rewrite the story of natural selection. (via 3quarksdaily)

Sixteen-year-old Shouryya Ray has solved a 350-year-old math and physics problem. (via 3quarksdaily)

Richard Resnick's 11-minute TED talk might convince you that his work on fast genomic sequencing is about to revolutionize health care.

Elizabeth Norton has written up the work of neuroscientist Johan Lundström, who is trying to understand the distinctive scent of older people.

FastCompany has a great interview with Steve Lee, the product lead for Google's Project Glass cyborg goggles.

Are tractor beams technologically feasible? Haifeng Wang thinks so.

Image via Shutterstock.

Past entries from Read/Write Daily

Patient Privacy Threatened as Laws Fail to Keep Pace with Technology

Dave Copeland — Thu, 31 May 2012 17:03:00 +0000

Health care privacy laws can’t keep up with rapid technological advances on health websites and social networks, according to a paper in the spring edition of The Neurodiagnostic Journal.

While the Internet has increased the ability to store, communicate and reference medical information, study author Jacquelyn M. Polito of the Neurology Department at South Shore Hospital in Massachusetts wrote that advances in medical information technology have also raised new ethical questions about confidentiality and caused disputes over who is ultimately responsible for a patient’s privacy.

The paper also noted that many of the health information websites that patients rely on to gather information may be inaccurate. One study compared 60 websites with information on childhood diarrhea with recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics and found that 80% of those websites contained inaccuracies.

Other findings:

In a poll, 60% of medical school administrators said they were aware of unprofessional postings, with 13% of those infractions being breaches of patient confidentiality.
A 2008 review found that some medical school students were making online posts about medical situations in a way that made it possible to identify the patient.
Not only are laws failing to keep pace with technological advances, but they often give patients and doctors layers of confusion. “The regulatory framework can be a seemingly chaotic tangle of laws and policies by local, state and federal agencies,” Polito wrote. “With such ambiguous wording and layers of potentially confusing regulations, therein lies the capacity for different interpretations and misunderstandings among health care providers, patients and their families.”

In another poll, 86% of physicians said they had consulted the Internet for the latest medical information and for consulting experts on difficult cases. That, however, could cause problems, Polito wrote, because many organizations that offer electronic health records - including Google Health, which is being discontinued and Microsoft’s HealthVault - are not required to follow HIPAA rules. Those sites usually operate under their own privacy policies, which they can amend at any time without consent, according to the Internet Business Law Services.

“Despite nearly two decades of burgeoning Internet use, no online activities can be guaranteed absolute privacy. Clearly, these sites and their usage must be closely monitored, yet by whom and how?” Polito concluded. “As technologists and health care professionals, we need to be ever-mindful of safeguarding privacy, of the uncertain integrity of information received, and of emerging policies and laws with regard to Internet use of electronic protected health information with every patient, every time.”

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Google Launches Full-Scale Shopping in Search

Jon Mitchell — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:01:00 +0000

Today, Google begins an experiment to change the way you shop online. When you search for a product, Google will deliver paid listings for shopping options right next to the search results. By searching for a product, you've demonstrated a possible intent to buy it, so Google has extended its search results page to allow participating merchants to sell it to you.

Google is not selling products the way Amazon does. Rather, it's giving merchants who use its commercial ad model the opportunity to sell to you from the Google search results page. The ads aren't simply text. They include images and descriptions and current prices, and they only show items that are in stock. Google's shopping ads come with an API that lets merchants keep their listings accurate.

Google and merchants "have shared incentives to make sure this information is accurate," says Sameer Samat, Google's VP of product management for Google Shopping. These are ads, certainly, but they're also search results, and Google has to provide the most informative and accurate results here or else shoppers will head straight to Amazon. "It's about the reliability of the data. Consumer expectations have risen over the years, and this information needs to be accurate."

So instead of a mixture of small ads along the top, text ads on the side and shopping links inside search results, a large box will present Google Shopping ads within product-related searches. Google is testing a few layouts, but basically it will either be a row of products right above the organic results or in a big box on the right side.

Sponsored listings will be clearly marked as ads, but they'll also be much more attractive than ordinary search results. In some of the experimental designs, they'll resemble the info boxes for the recently launched Google Knowledge Graph, except that shopping results will be marked "Sponsored."

Old Google product results:

New Google Shopping results:

Google's New Kind of "Paid Inclusion"

Google has long shown shopping results in Universal Search. "Universal" refers to organic Google results that are more than simple links to webpages, such as images, news stories, hotel rooms and flights. Those aren't ads, they're just different kinds of data than pure webpages, so Google gives them a different presentation.

But as Google has added more shopping opportunities to Universal Search, it has started to move toward paid inclusion. MarketingLand reported yesterday that this seems to violate principles Google laid out explicitly in the past. Google didn't do so-called "paid inclusion" before. Results floated to the top of search because their reputation on the Web was the best.

But with all these new Universal sections, Google has begun to sell the opportunity to be listed. It has to keep these results up-to-date and accurate, and the only way to do it is to charge the providers as ad partners. It hasn't compromised organic search, but it has created these big, attractive boxes - labeled "sponsored" for clarity - in which merchants can pay to play.

Merchants will now bid on the opportunity to be listed in Google Shopping results, and organic search results for other products will be less enticing. But this isn't a clear-cut case to point and laugh at Google's unfortunate "Don't be evil" mantra again. Google Shopping results will provide people who are searching for products with the information needed to make a purchase, and if they're just doing research, the organic search results will be there below.

If Google is going to make money off of searches for products, it's not just a matter of running text ads. Google has to make search results into a storefront. If it can pull off the presentation and convince merchants to pay and participate, Google could break people of the habit of going to sites like Amazon to shop.

The experiments start on Google.com today, and merchants can participate by setting up Product Listing Ads campaigns. There will be a transition period this summer as shopping results move away from free, Universal Search results toward paid listings. Google plans to complete the transition by this fall.

Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Things to Know Before you Download Windows 8

Thu, 31 May 2012 16:00:03 +0000

Microsoft today unveiled the “release preview” version of Windows 8 which mostly indicates that the new Windows operating system is feature-complete. Windows 8 Release Preview is available as a free download and it is very likely that your existing system specs are good enough to run Windows 8.

The System Requirements for Windows 8

According to this Windows 8 FAQ, any machine equipped with 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of hard disk space and 1 GHz processor should be able to handle Windows 8. The minimum RAM requirements are 2 GB in case you would like to install the 64-bit version of Windows 8.

Should you download Windows 8 Setup or the ISO Image?

As you may have noticed on the Windows 8 download page, the installation of Windows 8 can be done in two ways.

You can either take the easiest route and download the Windows 8 Setup program – that’s also the default option.
Alternatively, you can download ISO Images of Windows 8.

If you are planning to install Windows 8 on your existing computer, either on a different partition (dual-boot) or just want to upgrade from an older version of Windows to Windows 8, the default Setup program is a good choice.

Please note that that your installed software programs will only be preserved if you are upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8. If your planning to install Windows 8 on top of Windows XP or Vista, only the files will be preserved but not the various software programs that you may have on the disk.

The Windows 8 ISO image may be more handy in other situations like:

Your computer has an x64 processor but is currently running the 32-bit version of Windows. If you want to install the 64-bit version of Windows 8, download the 64-bit ISO.
You want to install Windows 8 on your Mac (iMac or Macbook) using Boot Camp software.
You want to install Windows 8 on multiple computers. In that case, you can download the ISO once, create a bootable DVD and boot the other systems using this newly created Windows 8 disk.
You plan to run Windows 8 as a Virtual Machine inside your existing copy of Windows.
You are running Windows XP.

The universal product key for Windows 8 is TK8TP-9JN6P-7X7WW-RFFTV-B7QPF.

Will my software programs run inside Windows 8?

Before grabbing the ISO image of Windows 8, quickly run this setup utility and it will show a list of all software programs and hardware drivers on your system that are compatible with Windows 8. Alternatively, you can visit this page to see a list of all known software and hardware devices that are found to be working with Windows 8.

How should I go about installing Windows 8?

You can have Windows 8 on your computer in three ways – you can install Windows 8 side-by-side (also known as dual-boot), as a virtual machine (so that it runs inside your existing Windows just like any other software) or you can have Windows 8 as your primary OS (there’s no going back from here).

If you just want to try out Windows 8 but without modifying any of your existing set-up, the safest bet is to use a Virtual Machine. If you have a vacant disk partition or don’t mind creating one (it’s easy), go for the dual-boot option. Else, if you have a spare computer, you can consider upgrading to Windows 8 overwriting the previous installation of Windows.

Also note that if you are upgrading from Windows 8 Consumer Preview to the new Windows 8 Release Preview, none of your installed programs, files and account settings will be preserved though everything would be moved to the windows.old folder.

This story, Things to Know Before you Download Windows 8, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 31/05/2012 under Windows 8, Software.

9 Photo Filter Apps to Enhance Your Mobile Photography

Dan Rowinski — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:30:00 +0000

With the advent of the smartphone, photography has fundamentally changed. While professional photographers will scoff at the masses and their apps, some great art is being created through smartphones. Mobile developers are rushing to meet the demand, and photo filter apps are a hot commodity right now, especially after Facebook spent a cool billion dollars to acquire Instagram. There are so many photo sharing, editing and filtering apps out there now that it is hard to determine what is best for you. To narrow the topic, we take a look just at apps that provide filters and give you nine of the best on the market.

Instagram

(Free -- iPhone, Android)

Let's get the obvious one out of the way first. Instagram, Facebook's billion-dollar baby, basically launched the entire category of photo filters turned into mobile social media networks. Others have tried to emulate it, but have never succeeded in besting Instagram's easy-to-use interface, its variety of filters or the community it has built. What is Instagram? It is a camera app that can make your photos look like the best hipster smartphone photography you have ever seen. It also functions as a Twitter-like mobile social network, allowing people to follow each other and see what great photography they are producing with their smartphones. Sound extremely simple? It is. But, sometimes the simplest ideas can be worth a billion dollars.

Facebook Camera

(Free -- iPhone)

So, Facebook spent a billion dollars on Instagram knowing full well that it had its own camera app complete with filters in production? Hey Facebook, it's your dime. Do as you please. This is an app for the iPhone that taps into your entire Facebook photo stream and provides nominal filters for your photos. The filters are nowhere near Instagram-cool, but Facebook at least gave it a nominal shot. Check out the settings in this app and you will understand why Facebook created it. It cannot access the iPhone's camera roll if location services is turned off, and one thing that Facebook craves more and more of these days is your location data. As for the filters themselves, they are relatively ordinary, very tame in comparison to other great photo apps that are available.

Retro Camera

(Free -- iPhone, Android)

Before Instagram came to Android, a plethora of interesting photo apps tried to fill the filter void. One of the most fun is Retro Camera (also available on iOS). Ever wanted to see what your smartphone photos would look like from a pinhole camera? Or maybe that old Polaroid that your father always lugged around on family vacations? Retro Camera gives users a variety of old-school cameras to give their photos that traditional feeling.

Camera Fun Pro

($0.99 -- iPhone, Android)

Camera Fun is... well, it's fun. It has one of the widest selections of filters to add to your smartphone pictures, but instead of trying to be hipster cool, it is more geek chic. What does your scenery look like in black-and-white chalk outlines? Or perhaps you prefer it to look like a blueprint. Green nightvision will give you that "this is what it feels like to be a Marine in the dark" feeling. Try out the various sketch filters to see what your photos would look like if they were drawn by a talented artist using a pencil.

Camera+

($0.99 -- iPhone)

Camera+ is more of a photo editor than a filter generator, but there are a variety of filters baked into this feature-packed app. In addition to adding borders, cropping, adjusting the rotation and adjusting lighting for your scenery, its filters come in four different categories with nine options each. That includes your standard color filters (sepia, cyan, etc.), retro filters such as toy camera or "hipster," special effects including miniaturization and polarization or nostalgic filters like Contessa or Helios. Camera+ is easy to use and allows you to do just about everything you ever learned in high-school photo class.

Camera Awesome

(Free -- iPhone)

We love it when application developers come up with fun new words. In this case, we are presented "awesomize" from SmugSmug, the makers of Camera Awesome. The "awesomize" feature is a one-click button that optimizes your photo base on sharpness, contrast, lighting and vibrance. The filters in Camera Awesome have fun names, too. The black-and-white feature is called "Hoth" (the snow planet from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back), a faded, sepia tone is called "More Cowbell," and a filter that looks a lot like it was derived from photos from the American Civil War is called "The Dude." Our John Paul Titlow once said of Camera Awesome, "an iPhone app that Instagram and Apple could learn from."

Hipstamatic

($1.99 -- iPhone)

We are sensing a trend here. Apparently, photo filter apps were built by hipsters, for hipsters. You thought that Instagram was the ultimate hipster camera app? Hipstamatic takes uber-cool and aloof to a whole new level. It employs a series of lenses that give photos that retro feeling and is similar to Retro Camera in that way. The difference from other camera apps, though, is that the user interface is more difficult to navigate, it is a paid app ($1.99 is not that bad but still not free), and it requires a series of in-app purchases to acquire new lenses. Users can send their photos to Hipstamatic, which will print them and send hard copies to the user. Also allows for easy sharing with Instagram, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Photo FX Ultra

($4.99 -- iPad)

Photo FX Ultra is an unusual entrant into this list because it is not iPhone or Android smartphone-centric. Rather, it is an iPad app that has the most robust preset of filters on the market. The reason that developers create photo apps specifically for smartphones is simple: that is where people have their cameras. Very few people use their iPad as a camera. That might change now that the third-generation iPad actually has a decent camera, but the iPad 2 was terrible for taking photos. Yet, as a photo editor, the iPad is a great tool. If you can import your photos to the device, Photo FX Ultra can allow you to make them look like almost anything you want. It has 77 filters organized into eight groups, 934 preset settings and 65 different color or black-and-white film looks. Share across almost every photo platform. Fo the serious photographer, the $4.99 is a great investment.

PicPlz

(Free -- iPhone, Android)

PicPlz deserves a spot on this list even though many other photo filter apps have ecilpsed it in recent years. In comparison to other photo filter apps, it has a limited selection such as "Russian Toy Camera" or "The 70s." It allows you to share photos to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Dropbox and Flickr. One interesting feature is the ability to add stickers to photos. Hey, that could be zany with good fun had by all. PicPlz's best attributes are that it is simple, it is free, and it's available on both the iPhone and Android platforms.

Google Recreates the Hindu Epic Ramayana in HTML5

Thu, 31 May 2012 15:06:37 +0000

Google Indonesia has launched a new Chrome experiment that reimagines the story of Ramayana for the digital age.

The plot of the story is the same as the classic version but here the characters – Ram, Sita, Hanuman and Ravan – use modern web tools like Google Talk, Maps, Docs, Gmail and even Web Search to plan their strategy. Jatayu even writes a blog.

The Ramayana in the Google Era

I have captured a few screenshots here but you should head over to ramaya.na to enjoy the complete work.

The script is written in Bahasa Indonesia but if you are even slightly familiar with the original Ramayana, you’ll get through easily. Extremely creative advertising for Google products though I am not sure if the site would work in non-Chrome browsers.

Panchwati

Ravan’s Lanka on Google Places

Ravana using Google Chrome’s Incognito mode to disguise himself

This story, Google Recreates the Hindu Epic Ramayana in HTML5, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 31/05/2012 under Google, India.

Government Market Drags Microsoft Deeper into the Cloud

Scott M. Fulton — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:30:00 +0000

The single biggest and most valuable customer any software vendor could hope for is the United States government. Microsoft has had a lock on the public sector for decades. But now as many government agencies turn to the cloud to cut costs and meet slashed budgets, Microsoft finds itself in a defensive battle to retain its most important single client - including a new instance of Office 365's Web apps in the cloud targeted specifically at government agencies.

Microsoft's share of the public sector applications market is so large that, not too long ago (November 2010), Google sued the U.S. government in an effort to even be considered as a competitor. It's very difficult for anyone to compete with Microsoft Office for customers who expect their productivity functionality to be delivered to them as Microsoft Office. For enterprises, Office is not just a set of programs and file formats, but a molecule-like system of interdependent components, including training, support and "line-of-business functionality" - programs developed to be used specifically by Office apps, including customers' built-in business logic.

If anything is to render Office obsolete, it has to address all of these areas. Now, not only Google but other competitors are building arsenals of functionality capable of accomplishing precisely this in one fell swoop. Last month's announcement by Salesforce of a separate cloud-based implementation of the Force.com platform specifically for public sector customers has forced Microsoft to accelerate the pace of its efforts to forestall an outright coup.

Now, just a day after Google received critical ISO 27001 security certification for its Google Apps for Business suite, opening it up to public-sector customers who must maintain levels of compliance and auditability by law enforcement, Microsoft is announcing the availability of a separate instance of Office 365 for Government.

What This Changes, if Anything

While Office 365 does include Web-based applications and uses cloud-based storage, its hybrid licensing scheme also includes provisions for on-premise installations of Office 2010. So it isn't exactly a cloud app suite in the strictest sense. On the other hand, up until recently that hasn't been a noticeable drawback for users. But with Windows 8-based tablets on the horizon, government customers - including those who work for the big building with the white dome - are looking for Microsoft to build more full-featured Web-based apps in the Office environment, not just quick editing tools for existing documents.

A Microsoft spokesperson told ReadWriteWeb on Wednesday afternoon that the new instance of Office 365's Web apps in the cloud is not actually functionally different from its commercial counterpart, and Microsoft has also indicated the new instance won't be priced differently either. But the door is being left open for Microsoft to add new compliance features, and quite soon.

"Office 365 for Enterprise and Office 365 for Government offer the same level of functionality," the spokesperson said. "Both offer a FISMA package and have best-in-class security, transparency, and compliance features." Microsoft obtained official compliance with terms of the Federal Information Security Management Act just two weeks ago. Those terms include regulations prohibiting data of sensitive or higher class from being housed on servers outside of U.S. borders. Google actually received similar FISMA certification for its Google Apps for Government a few months before suing the very government that granted the certification.

"The difference is that Office 365 for Government separates government data from other enterprise data in the cloud," the spokesperson continued, "treating this data as unique. If the customer has no special need to be in a [multi-] tenant community that only has other U.S. government tenants, then we recommend staying in our Enterprise cloud. If the customer has a special regulatory need to migrate, we will help them do so."

Hybridization and a Word of Caution

Just last March, Microsoft's public sector vice president Curt Kolcun proposed on his company's public sector blog that public cloud-based storage may never be a perfect solution for all government agencies: "There isn’t a 'one size fits all' solution here. What works for the Department of Agriculture might not work for an intelligence agency, and that’s OK. A diversity of missions requires a portfolio of solutions... The reality is that not every workload or customer is headed to the cloud in the near future. Agencies will continue to operate IT infrastructures that include both cloud and on-premises assets, and it’s important for technology leaders to strongly consider interoperability and flexibility features when building and managing these 'hybrid' IT environments."

Since Office 365 itself relies to some degree upon hybridization, at least with respect to on-premise data storage (which, in government situations, usually ends up being networked anyway), Microsoft may need to reconsider whether its cautionary tone from this spring will help the company in its cloud applications battles this summer.

Photo of U.S. Capitol Rotunda interior by Scott Fulton.

5 Ways to Tell if a Co-Working Space is Right for Your Startup

Rieva Lesonsky — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:30:00 +0000

What's less structured than a business incubator and more community-oriented than executive suites? For an increasing number of startups, the answer is co-working spaces - where entrepreneurs rent desks, office space and access to office amenities by the hour, day or month.

But how can you tell if a co-working space is the right solution for your company?

From the 2nd Annual Global Coworking Survey As the co-working trend spreads from big urban centers including San Francisco and New York, most major cities now have at least one co-working space… and that number is growing. According to the 2nd Annual Global Coworking Survey, 36% of all co-working spaces plan to open additional locations this year, and 85% expect membership to increase.

But just because there’s a co-working space near your company, that doesn’t necessarily mean it - or any such space - is the right fit for you. Consider these five fact factors before moving in:

1. What kind of people do you want to work with? Co-working spaces come in many flavors. Some cater to creative workers like writers or graphic designers; others focus on women business owners or entrepreneurs who need child care during working hours; still others attract software designers, game designers or other techies. You’ll be spending a fair amount of time among these people, so choose your co-workers carefully.

2. How many amenities do you require? Some niceties you can expect to find include coffee makers and refrigerators, access to office equipment such as printers and fax machines, storage space, open-plan seating areas and meeting rooms. If there are any factors that are especially important to you, ask about them. Also find out what hours you can access the facility and how far in advance you need to reserve meeting space.

3. What plan options are available, and how much do they cost? Most co-working spaces offer a menu of options, from “drop-in” hourly space rentals to part-time or full-time membership plans. If you have employees, ask about group plans and make sure the center can accommodate the size of your team. If possible, test out the space with drop-in rental before making a bigger commitment.

4. What’s the vibe? Visit the co-working space to get a sense of how friendly, collaborative, energetic or practical it is for your purposes. In general, co-working spaces are informal by nature; the ease of sharing and meeting new people is part of the charm. But you also need to make sure it’s not too noisy and hectic for you to focus (unless you’re the type who thrives in chaos).

5. What “extra perks” are available? Some co-working spaces are affiliated with startup accelerators, business incubators, local universities or other programs to help members’ businesses grow. Many sponsor events, gatherings or classes tailored around topics of interest to their members. This can make a big difference to some startups, but have no value for others.

What kinds of startups should use co-working spaces?

In general, co-working spaces work great for solo founders who want others to bounce ideas off of or to simply keep them from going stir crazy in a home office or the local Starbucks. They can also be a great place to network and meet potential partners, professional advisers or clients.

As your business grows and your team gets bigger, however, you may outgrow your co-working space.

Other warning signs a co-working space might not be right for you:

You need privacy to discuss sensitive issues or trade secrets you don’t want others to overhear. It’s hard to keep secrets when you’re sitting elbow-to-elbow with strangers. Some co-working spaces offer dedicated space with privacy for teams, but you’ll need to make sure this is available and appropriate for your needs.

You’re worried about competition. It’s great to learn from others in your industry, but not everyone is there just to help you. If you’re concerned competitors may steal your ideas or employees, a co-working space might not be right for you.

There are several resources to help you find co-working spaces in your area:

But the best approach may be to ask around to see what co-working spaces other startup entrepreneurs in your area use and recommend.

Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Enable Video Thumbnails in your Windows Explorer

Thu, 31 May 2012 11:49:09 +0000

Windows Explorer does not display thumbnail images for unsupported video file formats and thus it is difficult to determine what’s inside a video unless you play the clip in an associated media player.

For instance, here’s a screenshot of my movies folder – Windows Explorer uses the default video icon for all media files that solve no purpose.

There’s however a free utility called Media Preview that will replace these generic icons with image thumbnails generated using the first few frames of the video file.

All you have to do is launch the configuration wizard once and enable video thumbnails.

Windows Explorer can natively handle Windows Media and Quicktime formats only but the Media Preview utility can display video thumbnails for virtually all popular video formats that are out there including 3GP, Flash video, Real Media formats, DVD file and more.

Here’s a second screenshot of the same movies folder in Windows Explorer but with video thumbnails enabled. Much better.

Windows Explorer with Video Thumbnails

Media Preview is available for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The specs say that the utility is also compatible with Windows 8.

If the utility has trouble generating thumbnails for your video files, just launch the Media Preview utility from the Start Menu, switch to the Testing tab and click Clear Thumbnail Cache. [via Snapfiles.com]

This story, Enable Video Thumbnails in your Windows Explorer, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 31/05/2012 under Windows Explorer, Software.

Google’s Policy on Tracking Clicks on the Google+ button

Thu, 31 May 2012 08:49:49 +0000

Google has a strange clause in their policies document that may affect platforms like AddThis and ShareThis who provide social sharing buttons (or widgets) for websites and blogs.

If you add a Google +1 button to your website, Google Analytics can automatically track how site visitors are using that button without you having to modify the code.

Alternatively, you can use the analytics services of external social sharing platforms – like AddThis or ShareThis – to record interactions that people are having with the Google+ button (and other social buttons) on your web site.

Google’s button policy document however discourage that approach:

Publishers may not sell or transmit to others any data about a user related to the user’s use of any Google+ button.
For the avoidance of doubt, this prohibition includes, but is not limited to, any use of pixels, cookies, or other methods to recognize users’ clicks on a Google+ button, the data of which is then disclosed, sold, or otherwise shared with other parties.

When you implement Google+ on your website through a third-party widget, it will most likely track the clicks on that button and Google’s policy clearly prohibits that activity.

I find this clause strange because when Google introduced social tracking last year, they kind of encouraged developers to build this kind of tracking on top of Google Analytics but the button policy says otherwise. Or may you can only use Analytics for recording the +1 interactions that occur on your site.

This story, Google’s Policy on Tracking Clicks on the Google+ button, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 31/05/2012 under Google Plus, Internet.

Remote Control your Android Phone using SMS

Wed, 30 May 2012 19:11:10 +0000

How do you locate your mobile phone if the ringer is off? Maybe you switched the phone to vibrate mode while you were in a meeting and the device is nowhere to be found.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could borrow your colleague’s phone and use it to turn on the ringer of your missing phone?

Meet Agastya, a new Android app that lets you “remotely” perform various tasks on your phone from any other phone via simple SMS commands. The other phone, that is sending the commands, need not be running Android – even the basic Nokia 1100 would do just fine – and either phones don’t require GPS or data plans (Internet).

The workflow is easy. You send an SMS command from a friend’s phone to your own phone in a given format and the app reacts accordingly. For instance, a command like “ringer” would turn on the ringer while “silent” would put the phone to silent mode.

The app can also help you retrieve your missed calls list or your incoming text messages via, you got it right, SMS. This feature should be handy for people who own multiple phones – you can easily check the call and SMS logs of your secondary phone from the one that’s in your pocket.

Here’s a complete list of SMS commands that you can try on your Android phone:

SILENT – Turn off the phone’s ringer
RINGER – Turn on the ringer
IMEI – Get the IMEI number* of your phone
LAST MESSAGES – Retrieve the last 5 text messages received on your phone
LAST CALLS – Know the last 5 missed/received/dialed numbers
– Fetch the contact number of a person from the address book.

[*] The IMEI number can help you block a misplaced (or stolen) phone from accessing mobile networks (type *#06# to know the IMEI of your existing phone).

Agastay isn’t the first app that offers such features. The more popular Where’s My Droid app can not only turn on the ringer of your phone remotely but will also send you the phone’s current GPS location by SMS. There’s overlap but these apps are more inclined towards locating your lost phone while Agastay is like a command console – you can toggle between phone states or even fetch details of a contact remotely from the phone’s address book. The IMEI feature is also handy for blacklisting your misplaced phone.

In my tests, Agastya did work as advertised and the SMS based commands executed almost instantly though the app did crash in one instance. The company says that Agastay works on Android 2.2 and above.

On a related note, if you aren’t allowed to carry cell phones in your office, you should grab the SMS to Gmail app as it will auto-forward all your incoming text messages and missed calls list to your work email address.

Also see: Remote Control your PC with SMS Commands

This story, Remote Control your Android Phone using SMS, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 30/05/2012 under Google Android, Sms, Software.

The Best Google Chrome Extensions for YouTube

Tue, 29 May 2012 07:53:56 +0000

Do you spend more than a few minutes watching videos on YouTube? Here are some essential extensions for Google Chrome that will add new and missing features to the YouTube website thus improving your overall YouTube experience.

The Best YouTube Extensions for Google Chrome

1. Looper – This add a new “Loop” button near the YouTube video player and once clicked, the current video will play in an infinite loop until you hit stop. This comes handy if you are enjoying a music video on YouTube that you want to watch (or listen) over and over again.

2. Toggle Comments – Viewer comments on YouTube videos are annoying, they rarely add any value and are often filled with profanity. The Toggle Comments add-on will automatically hides the comments from all YouTube video pages (default behavior) but you can always press the “Comments” switch to bring them back.

3. Turn off the lights – This lets you watch YouTube videos in a distraction free environment. While you are on a YouTube video page, click the bulb icon in the Chrome address bar and everything but the video player will fade to dark – much like the cinema screen. You can also use the shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + L to toggle between regular view and dimmed background view.

4. YouTube Feed – If you have subscribed to multiple channels on YouTube and would like to be notified as soon as new videos become available in your subscriptions list, the YouTube Feed extension is for you.

YouTube Feeds adds a little button to your Chrome extensions bar and offers almost instant notifications whenever new videos are uploaded or liked by the channel owners that you are subscribed to.

5. YouTube Thumbs – YouTube generates three thumbnail images for all videos and sometimes these still frames can give you a good idea of what the video is all about.

With the YouTube Thumbs extension installed, you can hover your mouse over any video thumbnail on the YouTube website and it will auto-play the three thumbnails in a loop much like an animated GIF.

6. YouTube PIP – You are watching a video on YouTube but would simultaneously like to work on other tabs as well. Earlier I would “detach” the browser tab that contained the YouTube video and then used Always on Top to ensure that the video was always in the foreground but there’s a better way – YouTube Picture-in-Picture.

With YouTube PIP, the video detaches itself from the Chrome browser, docks to the corner of your desktop and always stays on top without requiring any additional programs. Thus you can work on other things while the video plays in the foreground.

6. YouTube Downloader – I am not sure how this extension made it to the official Google Chrome store but if you ever wish to download any YouTube video as an MP4 video or as an MP3 audio file, this will help you do that in one click.

7. YouTube Ratings – If I were to install just one YouTube extension in Chrome, it would most definitely be YouTube Ratings.

This useful extension adds a color-code ratings bar next to every video thumbnail that displays the percentage of likes (green) and dislikes (red) of the corresponding video. Thus you can easily figure out whether a video is worth watching or not without having to open the video page.

Also see: The Most Disliked YouTube Videos

All-in-One Chrome Extensions for YouTube

The YouTube extensions listed above are meant to perform exactly one task but there are several add-ons that can do even more.

I have tried three extensions in this category – Magic Actions, YouTube Options and Fancy Tube – they are extremely powerful and let you customize most parts of YouTube including the default playback quality, the size of the video player, they can block ads (including pre-rolls), they offer cinematic mode and more.

The extensions are versatile though the choices they offer can easily intimidate new users.

Also see: Master the YouTube Search Commands

This story, The Best Google Chrome Extensions for YouTube, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 29/05/2012 under Google Chrome, YouTube, Internet.

How to Tell if a QR Code is Safe or Not?

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:03:44 +0000

Is that QR code pointing to a safe website?

Quick Response (QR) Codes make it easier for you to open web pages on a mobile phone without having to type the long URLs. Retailers put QR codes in print ads that customers can scan to learn more about the advertised product. Museums use QR Codes to offer more detailed information about exhibits.

Sometimes you may encounter QR codes at random locations – may be on a street pole – that you are often tempted to scan. It could hold a discount coupon for some retail store, maybe its part of some scavenger hunt or, in the worst case, it could be trick to direct you to a malicious website. How do you know if a QR code is safe or not?

Protect yourself from Bad QR Codes

Unfurlr, an online tool that helps you unmask the long URLs hiding behind short URLs, now offers a QR scanner app for both iPhone and Android mobile phones. Unlike other QR scanners, Unfurlr won’t just reveal the URL hidden inside a QR code but it also offers a security report suggesting if the underlying web site is safe or not.

You can use Unfurlr on your mobile to scan links found in email messages and chat messages for badware as well. Just copy the link to the clipboard, launch Unfurlr app and it will automatically offer you an option to scan the link available in the clipboard.

The app uses Web of Trust, an online database that offers reputation ratings for domain names, to determine problematic URLs. I wish it also supported StopBadware.org, the same database that is used by Google and Mozilla to block harmful pages in your browser.

Here are some screenshots of the Unfurlr app in action.

This story, How to Tell if a QR Code is Safe or Not?, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 28/05/2012 under Qr Code, Security, Internet.

An Interactive Size Chart for Women’s Clothing

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:43:21 +0000

Your anniversary is near and you plan to gift a beautiful dress to your wife. The only problem is that women brands often follow different systems for measuring size – for instance, an H&M size 8 could be equivalent to Banana Republic’s size 10. Sizes can vary by country as well – a UK 8 dress may not be the same as US 8.

When there are no standard sizes, how do you find that perfect fitting dress for her?

A Universal Size Chart for Women

Meet What Size Am I, an online visualization tool that is designed to help women find branded clothes that fit. The tool was created by computer programmer Anna Smith.

Just enter your measurements (in inches or centimeters) and tool will recommend dress sizes for many popular US & UK brands that will work best for you. You can also select two or more stores to relatively compare their dress sizes.

The design of the web app isn’t mobile friendly yet but the data is also available in a spreadsheet that you can download offline and refer on your next visit to the store.

This story, An Interactive Size Chart for Women’s Clothing, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 28/05/2012 under Visualization, Websites, Offbeat.

The Share on Google Plus Bookmarklet

Sun, 27 May 2012 07:10:50 +0000

The Google +1 button is widely seen as Google’s answer to the popular Like button of Facebook as they share similar goals – you can recommend web pages to your social circles with a click. This 1-sheet overview explains the +1 concept in greater detail.

Google +1 Bookmarklet

Most websites and blogs have added the Google +1 button but if you like to recommend a web page on Google Plus that doesn’t have the +1 button, you may use the following bookmarklet – just drag the link to your bookmarks toolbar (video demo) and you will be able to +1 any web page on the Internet.

Google +1

Share on Google Plus Bookmarklet

The Google +1 bookmarklet, discussed above, helps you +1 web pages that would then show up in your Google Plus profile under the +1’s tab.

However, if you would like to share a web page, video or picture among your circles on Google Plus, you need to install the Share on Google+ bookmarklet.

Share on Google+

The Share on Google+ bookmarklet, when clicked, opens a little overlay window and you can share the current page in your Google Plus circles without leaving the existing page.

All you have to do is drag the above link to your bookmarks toolbar. And since it is a bookmarklet, it should work across all browsers including on your iPhone and iPad.

How to Install the Google+ Bookmarklet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqDvimLPtpw

This story, The Share on Google Plus Bookmarklet, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 27/05/2012 under Bookmarklets, Google Plus, Internet.

Calling All Indian Bloggers

Tue, 22 May 2012 05:54:07 +0000

The Indian Bloggers directory (version 1.0) has been around for several years now but I need your help to take it to the next level.

Please go to indianbloggers.org/me and add your blog(s). This step should not take more than a minute and you should add (or rather claim) your blogs even if they are already part of the existing directory.

You may submit regular blogs as well as video channels and audio podcasts to the new directory.

All submissions will be manually reviewed, like before, but the upcoming version will offer even more visibility to your blogs among other things. And it won’t just showcase the best blogs from India but also the people (or bloggers) who are writing these blogs.

Also, the minimum criteria for including your blog in the directory is:

Your blog has been around for at least 5 months.
You have published at least 30 articles on your blog.
Your blog is active and has a decent readership.

You can follow the Indian Bloggers directory on Twitter and Facebook for updates. Thanks!

This story, Calling All Indian Bloggers, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 21/05/2012 under Blogging, India.