By now, everyone has heard of Apple’s new iPad. Google quickly followed up with an announcement that they would bring the ChromeOS to a tablet. Tablets are really nothing new, since even Apple in the 1990s had the Newton, which was far too large to be considered a PDA by recent standards. Even touchscreens, the darling wonder of the iPhone and iPod Touch, have been in use with restaurant and checkout point-of-sale systems for years–sometimes in conjunction with computers running DOS! Sure, everyone wants colors and games and music, but are ebooks really the defining feature of tablets?
One thing is for certain: without innovation on the part of the greater community, tablets will remain a static way to consume information, and serve as an entertainment kiosk. One Lifehacker editorial pointed out the Achilles’ heel nicely–the iPad is a completely closed system. Gone are the days of kids at home programming apps and hacks for their computers. All roads lead to the app store, and sure you can sign up for the developer’s program with a little help from your parents and a lawyer, but you still have to program apps on a separate computer and sync constantly or use a simulator to see what you’re getting. In order for tablets to bring something new to the table, innovation needs to continue outside of a closed system.
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Happy new year! Now that 2010 has been rung in, it’s time for some reflections on a year of search, and a year in search.
Google has compiled the popular Zeitgeist statistics for 2009, which shows Michael Jackson, Facebook, and Twitter as a few of the most popular rising searches of the year. One of the most surprising statistics of the year was caught by TechCrunch, which reported that for the first time ever, Facebook surpassed AOL in monthly traffic volume. What is shocking is not that Facebook is continually spreading across the planet, but rather that AOL still commands a huge amount of viewers (and subscribers). It’s a battle of Web 2.0 versus Web 1.0, and it should be pretty clear which will ultimately prevail.
2009 also brought us a Yahoo wiffle-waffle on search, with Shakespearean wails of “to be (a search engine) or not to be.” But moving forward quickly was Microsoft, which brought Bing into the field as a replacement to Live.com and the awful MSN search. Spending copious amounts of cash on nationwide, offline marketing (at times it seemed that every cab in NYC had a Bing ad atop it), Bing was able to become a formidable force in search.
But ultimately, it was the 800-lb. gorilla in the room, Google, which stole the show. Playing with realtime search, product search, and blog search, while developing a phone, operating system, browser, and a bevy of other services, Google proved that it is a force to be reckoned with. Even if Google was officially launched in the late nineties, 2000-2010 could officially be pronounced the Google Decade.
What’s in store for the coming year? To soon to tell. If Google’s near-acquisition of Yelp is any indication, location-aware services may be the next big thing.
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Developing a web app is no small task…unless you have a small web app to develop! Increasingly, Ruby is being used as the cloud platform of choice, and several micro platforms have been spun off as tools to develop fast, clean, tiny apps. Camping is a micro framework for Ruby, while Sinatra is essentially a library that incorporates everything you need to start working with GET/POST HTTP requests.
Once you’ve developed your micro app, deployment becomes an interesting quandary. Why overpay for a Virtual Private Server (VPS) so you can install all the necessary runtimes, when your web app is actually small enough to run on the most basic of shared hosting accounts? That’s where Heroku comes in. Heroku lets you deploy your apps right from GitHub with just two lines of code, and you can scale your piece of the server pie from a basic free slice to a big slice. It’s a great way to invest small for your small projects and get them running ASAP.
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Posted by Paolo | Posted in web2.0 | Posted on 30-09-2009
It isn’t often that one startup takes the API of another startup and makes something useful out of it, but Brizzly has figured out how to do just that. Love it or hate it, Twitter has become the social network that’s here to stay, with celebs tweeting night and day about their inane exploits. Yet part of the frustration of using Twitter is actually using their website, and it all comes down to a matter of links. If someone links to a photo, it’s a text link which you have to open in a new window (tab) to find out what it is. No previews, no inline viewing. Since the 140 character limit is not great for long URLs, shorteners pick up the slack, which leaves you wondering where exactly the 301 redirect will take you. Finally, let’s face it, some of us have friends or family that just tweet too much, and there’s no good way to put a lid on certain people’s updates.
Brizzly fixes all of that, and hopefully will be moving out of beta-invitation stage soon. (Drop a line if you’d like an invite.) It lets you mute individuals you follow temporarily so you can clear up your tweet stream, and it automatically follows shortened URLs and displays the actual path in each tweet. Best of all, it brings up images and YouTube videos inline, so you don’t have to follow any text links to get there, significantly speeding up checking in with everyone’s updates. It’s a Twitter power-user’s dream tool, and a great way to reinvent the wheel while adding useful features, instead of just cloning it.
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Posted by Paolo | Posted in tools, web2.0 | Posted on 09-03-2009
It’s been a busy few weeks so I haven’t had time to write up comprehensive evaluations of some of the tools I’ve been using, but here’s a quick rundown of some useful resources for independent contractors and work-from-home computer folks.
Button Generator – This flash-based button generator makes shiny buttons that you can export as PNGs in a jiffy. Great for prototyping quick projects, or sprucing up a graphic.
The Invoice Machine – This is a great web based invoice generator that allows you to create professional invoices quickly, and even generates PDFs and billing notifications for you. The basic level is free; heavy users pay nominal monthly fees.
Survey Monkey – Create free surveys instantly with this very intuitive tool. Design web forms that are radio buttons, checkboxes, comment forms…you name it. Get better feedback from clients with specific questions.
Google Chat Badge – Use Gmail for business? Set up a chat badge and put LiveSupport-type chat on your website whenever you’re online for free. There is a lag if you sign off (generally I’ve found 10-15 minutes) but the price can’t be beat, and there’s no server-side coding.
Noupe’s Handy Design Tools List – A great rundown on 40 different web tools to help design sites, graphics, and even some AJAX and Javascript code.
DigiVendor – Have digital content that you want to sell but can’t figure out a good, easy way how? DigiVendor is a low cost way to sell music, PDFs, graphics, software or anything that is downloadable. It uses the PayPal shopping cart (which has no monthly fee) and can be tied into any web hosting account that has PHP and MySQL installed.
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