technically speaking

One of the big events of last week was Y Cominator’s Demo Day where 30+ companies showed of their technology in hopes for securing additional funding. Last week’s Demo Day was so big it took 2 days, if you couldn’t be there TechCrunch gives a run down of a few of the presenters.

• If you have Gmail, then you might want to check out Rapportive’s browser plug-in. While viewing your email it’ll provide a sidebar full of the contact’s profile including various social services and CrunchBase. At the bottom of the sidebar is an area to add personal notes for the contact. It’s a simple addition but could be priceless once you start using it. For more see TechCrunch’s write up.
• As a UX lead finding out how users are interacting with a design is invaluable. There are a number of new solutions out there providing inexpensive remote testing options. But eye tracking has required use of specialty equipment. Even though we have one where I work it’s a huge hassle and the whole process makes for a very artificial environment. GazeHawk’s offering may change all that as it uses standard webcams. Additionally, offer a service to use their network of participants to test your work. For more see TechCrunch’s write up.
• There was even stuff for the couch potato in all of us, Teevox showed off their iPhone app. It’s a remote control for watching Hulu and Netflix videos on your PC. The app’s UI is simple and straight forward and even better is there is nothing to install on your PC in order for it to work. I encountered a few crashes on my 3G, but that seems like standard behavior with iOS4, so I can’t fault them on that. Fore more see TechCrunch’s write up.

The merger of TV and PC is getting closer everyday. Working in the industry it’s all to clear where things are going so it was interesting to read TechCrunch’s somewhat harsh editorial on the full-on assault being staged against the cable companies. In the TechCrunch editorial they get the gist right but fails to keep in mind that not everyone is as technically inclined as the TechCrunch audience. With that in mind cable TV’s convenience, flexibility and overall simplicity (despite the poor UI of their set-top boxes) will keep it alive for years. They followed up the editorial with some put things into perspective for anyone outside the industry.

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Ok, this one’s title alone made me laugh last week, Twitter’s not stupid – you just have boring friends. Andrew succinctly states for those that think “Twitter is inane, pointless, time-wasting or just narcissistic bleating only means either a) the people you’ve chosen to follow are the wrong ones; or b) you’re expecting something from Twitter it’s not offering: passive entertainment.” Still, Twitter isn’t for everyone.

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The patent war continues. With the Oracle’s suit against Google people hypothesized that it was the patent war to end all patent wars…well last week Microsoft’s co-founder, Paul Allen (via Interval Licensing) launched his own patent lawsuit. The list of patent violators named in his company’s lawsuit covers just about every major web player out there sans Microsoft and Amazon, as noted in FastCompany’s coverage. On first blush the patents in dispute seem horribly vague and undeserved as Amazon’s “one-click” patent.

Other news that doesn’t include Google being sued for patent violations include their addition of Google Voice into Gmail.  Though I’ve read that due to high demand there has been some issues with Voice, but I’m sure that will be address shortly. In the meantime, enjoy Google’s little promo video.

Yahoo! launches an experimental search engine with a knowledge of history. Seems like an interesting concept, was a little awkward to understand the search results so I’d like to see where they go with this one.

Speaking of too little, too late, MySpace is finally getting on the Facebook bandwagon with their new Facebook status syncing feature.  Even though this is only the first version, it’s kind of funny that it only goes from MySpace to Facebook, which would require you to actually go to MySpace in the first place. Ironically, I went to MySpace for the first time in over 18 months in order to watch this video promoting their new profile editor. It features Steven Slater, JetBlue flight attendant that went off in a rage on a customer. It’s actually entertaining, smart and even makes a self deprecating reference to being dominated by the FB.

Had enough, if not Mashable has a Weekend Recap: 15 Stories You May Have Missed. Lastly and completely random is a list of 24 things you might be saying wrong.

Maybe one of the biggest announcements of the week surround Facebook Places becoming a reality. Facebook held a live, streaming event to announce they were getting into the location check-in game. Rather then take on the two biggest social location services Facebook is actually working with Foursquare and Gowalla. They will soon have an API for other location services to use as well. Almost instantaneously there were people referencing FB as Stalker’s Paradise.  Clearly with Places as an auto-opt-in service it could be yet another privacy concern.  If you want to block your friends from being able to “place” you Bill Cammack entertainingly walks you through the steps.  If you have the Facebook app for iPhone or use touch.facebook.com you can start using Places now.

Even before iOS4 came out and crippled my iPhone 3G, I’ve been leaning towards switching over to Android. Before I make the switch I’m bringing my 3G back to life by reverting it back to iOS3, here’s how. If you want an idea of what it’s like to switch, my buddy Arpit, wrote about his first month with Android covering some of the differences between the two platforms both as a user and a developer. A concern of many developers is if Android is a viable market place, Aaron La gives details on his experience with his Advanced Task Manager app. At $10,000 a month in supplemental income I’d say he’s doing pretty good.

Verizon has been having a good few weeks. More rumors about the iPhone coming out for the Verizon network, though I wouldn’t run to far with that one just yet. They did announce their new HD guide for FiOS subscribers. I don’t have FiOS but I’m glad to see one of the biggies pushing those Motorola boxes into the 21st century.  The current set top box that powers America’s TVs features technology that’s nearly a decade old.

They also boasted about there upcoming iPad app that’s will work as a second screen as part of their TV Everywhere.  They also talked about updating their VOD experience.  Comcast and Time Warner are also working on iPad apps.  Comcast showed their prototype  earlier this Spring at the Cable show and Time Warner shows theirs in this YouTube clip. If you’re not up to speed on TV Everywhere check out GigaOm’s Everything You Need to Know About TV Everywhere.

Though not everything has gone as Verizon would like.  Their new “rule the air” campaign is targeting women with the chance for equality, through Verizon of course. See the commercial and a great rant from TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis.

In the most recent issue of Wired, they proclaimed that the web is dead. So of course the retorts started to follow, Boing Boing uses Wired’s own numbers to show that the Web is alive, well and growing nearly exponentially.  Then again they said Print was dead, Rock was dead…Technologizer has a collection of the death of everything.

To end here’s a beautiful time-lapse video of the Perseid Meteor Showeras seen from Joshua Tree National Park and taken by Henry Jun Wah Lee .

Late last week there was an article via the NY Times asking “Could a deal between Verizon and Google destroy any chance for Net Neutrality”.  Instead, Google and Verizon called for a press conference on Monday to explain what they’ve been working on. Based on Google’s (and Verizon) blog with their post titled “A joint policy proposal for an open Internet” they spell out that it’s quiet the contrary. Later in the week Google then countered the many concerns about Google selling out or undermining the system.  The NY Times continues to question the proposal and “Who gets priority on the web?” What it all really means is yet to be seen but makes me wonder if this is a dig at Comcast and their win against net neutrality earlier this year.

Google is also getting some heat from Oracle as well.  This time it’s their Android platform that is getting the heat, more precisisly Google’s version of Java that runs it. Daniel Eran Dilger takes Google to town in his long but engaging article “How Oracle might kill Google’s Android and software patents all at once.” Charles Nutter gives a different point of view in his “My Thoughts on Oracle v Google.”

Apple also had some patent fun this week when they published an exact copy of FutureTap’s Where To app inside one of their patents.  Where To has been around since the first generation of iPhone. Apple and FutureTap have worked things out, mostly just a failure to credit rather then a stealing of ideas.

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Every week I send out/post/share a number of links that I think are informative or sometimes just purely entertaining. This is my first attempt to collect them in one place. Hope you find something of worth and I welcome any comments, suggestions or links. Thanks.

Google is looking to get into the social web, they move their big idea gun Vic Gundotra from Android to all things social (Google Me) at the same time they decided to kill Google Wave, another of their social fails. Though, I believe Wave was more of a UI/workflow fail then a social failure, none the less Google has people talking. Om Malik breaks down Google’s social skills with a great analogy between cricket and baseball.

Meanwhile the current king of social media, Facebook gets some heat for their take on Yahoo! Answers, called Facebook | Questions. Based on the name alone, I’d say it’s a poor choice, who doesn’t prefer getting answers rather then more questions. Makes you question if even the mighty Mark Zuckerberg (and crew) understands his market. With that in mind here is a great rant/request for Facebook Dear Mark Zuckerberg: Ask the Question by Ellen (a Facebook user since 2007)(a Facebook user since 2007).

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Kids have it in abundance and it killed the cat but what is it?

In a recent blog post Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, waxes poetically on the matter. Explained through examples he succinct and clear enough for just about anyone to understand. More importantly he points out how curiosity can be used to judge a person’s true interest.

link: Scott Adams on Curiosity

Sites using social media as a cheap method to both promote and host their videos/photos/etc has been done before, Skittles and Boone Oakley are two mentioned here previously.  Celebrities taking jabs at their image is also not new….but using James Lipton and his beard for PSA’s on mobile harassment is pure genius.  The Give It A Ponder campaign, sponsored by LG, is a mix of TV, print and web promotions all revolving around James’ beard and thinking before texting.

The videos (featuring James Lipton) are campy, creepy, funny and to the point.  The imagery and quirkiness leaves a lasting impression and the copy is so Lipton’esque that everything seems normal yet far from it at the same time.

Carlos is Angry

Stephan and Zoe

Tracy and her beard

The print campaign is also humorous though not as powerful and may be confusing as to what it’s actually for.  Still they’re eye catching and well related to the TV/Videos and Web experience.

The Virgin

Peanut Butter Muffin

Junk Drawers

Source:
AdFreak
Bee

The big problem with this months Refresh Philly was that I couldn’t be in 3 places at once.  That’s because rather then the usual meet on 45 for great views and two presenters, Refresh met in CIM City and broke up in to three groups.

The main act was Jonny Goldstein, a giant white board and a bunch of folks interested in learning visual note taking and how to better get their ideas out of their heads and onto paper (via drawing).  I didn’t catch much of this one though it was high on my list, from what I did see, one of the things to keep in mind is to keep it simple…as in simple shapes (squares, circles, etc.).  Don’t get caught up in drawing the right shape for say a cat, go simple and move on.  Add the polish later (FYI, that was me paraphrasing right there).  Every time I saw the group they looked either fully engaged in what Jonny was saying or they were busy drawing.

On one side of CIM City was K-Fitz and others that wanted to work together to create an application using data from Data.gov.  Kevin broke down the details of the contest and connected designers with developers so they could break into smaller groups and work out a plan.  Near the end I saw them regather to talk as one big group again. Wish I could tell you more but I was on the other side.

On the other side of CIM City was Livia talking about “Design Games.”  The name may be confusing but basically they are fun and effective methods used to help problem solving (often used in the design process).  I’m sure you may have heard of a few of these included free listing, reversal, role playing, and divide the dollar.  Livia provided a great pamphlet explaining each of the different techniques, you can visit DesignGames.com.au for similar details on each of the games.  She then led the group in trying some of them out.  We picked the game to try and some of their pros and cons became clear as we used them.  After each round Livia pointed out some of the real world nuances to be aware of ensuring better results.  I look forward to having an opportunity to put some of these to use while they’re still fresh.

Links:
Refresh Philly
Jonny Goldstein
Kevin Fitzpatrick
Livia Labate
Data.gov
DesignGames.com.au

Back in the day The Crystal Method, Chemical Brothers, Underworld, The Prodigy and others were the captins of cool.  Essential parts of MTV’s Alternative Nation’s life blood.  Known for both their innovative visuals as well as their hypnotic beats.  With their mixing of sources, styles and sounds everything felt new, electronic and energetic.  Times and tastes changed, as did their sound.  Well looks like 2009 may be come back time.

Earlier this year The Prodigy returned with some new tracks and a new album, Invaders Must Die.  The first single, Omen is an updated version of the classic Prodigy attitude and sound.  The title track continues that trend, if nothing else it may even have kicked it up a notch.  Thanks to the Internets you can rock some samples from ThePodigy.com

The Crystal Method have returned to dropped some new beats as well. Their first single Drown in the Now is a bit more or a departure from the TCM of yesteryear. Visually the video ups the cool quotient, though I need to take in a few more listens before casting an opinion on the new sound. Got to say it’s growing on me. In both cases they sound nothing like any of the other new tracks I’ve been listening to which is refreshing all its own.

Links:
ThePodigy.com
The Prodigy – Omen
The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die
The Crystal Method
The Crystal Method – Drown In the Now

Not sure how many people have seen this months The New Yorker magazine’s cover (shown on right).  What looks like a water color painting is really an illustration created on his iPhone.  The app is called Brushes along with a companion app that will provide an animation/video of the process.  The New Yorker’s blog offers more details and a video of the illustration being made using the companion app.

I never had a reason to go to Gatorade’s website before but the link was sent to me from a designer friend of mine (Neuarmy).  Once going there it was obvious as to why he shared it.  Sporting the new aesthetic of the Gatorade “G” the site takes it to another level of sophistication rather then pure simplification.  It’s an all Flash site boasting lots of black, simplified layouts, vibrant images and large video headers.  Navigation is through the use of large black and white silhouettes for both the products and the athletes.  Which acts as a great accent to a highlighted item and it’s inline videos.  While you may learn more then you ever needed to about Gatorade check out the site for a great sample of extending a brand’s aesthetic across media.

Another gem sent my way from Neuarmy is by Boone Oakley and their use of YouTube for their website.  Ok, so it sounds a bit like Skittles attempt to use Web 2.0 tools to stitch together a web experience…well this isn’t that.  It’s literally their website embedded in humorous and (a touch) twisted little videos.  Very innovative use of such a common medium and a great way for them to show off their conceptual/strategic muscle.  They also feature some great work from that last few years, I’m sure you’ll recognize a few.  Well worth checking out.

Links:
The New Yorker’s blog
Brushes iPhone App for painting
Gatorade
Boone Oakley
Skittles
Neuarmy

Honda created the worlds largest LED display from the headlights of their new hybrid car, the Insight. As if this wasn’t enough to catch your eye, they worked with Vimeo to integrate the video with the page it’s on.  See the full video on Vimeo or watch the embedded version below.

Links:
Honda Insight – Let It Shine
Making of Let It Shine