Archive for the 'Internet' Category
The Internet’s free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is getting some competition. Google is working on it’s very own knowledge site by invite only. In a twist of digg and Wikipedia, Knol will allow any user to write about anything they desire and users will rate the article. Unlike Wikipedia’s allowing of other writers to make corrections to an existing post, Knol will only allow the original author to make edits. Google’s vice president of engineering, Udi Manber, added to a recent blog entry that he feels knowing who the author is adds more significant power to the article than not knowing, stating, “We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content.”
As everything Google, the author will have the ability to embed ads into each post obtaining a “substantial” amount of the returns according to Google. Further, the ranking value will also have effect of where the article will appear on regular searches from its main page.
Google will be providing the web space, hosting, bandwidth, and editing tools all for free to the author. According to Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Search Engine Land, Google will need such a service to stay competitive. We’ll see if this is truly competitive or just another blur in an already growing arsenal of Internet applications for the Mountain View, California giant.
[Via PC World]
Having worked on the Windows platform exclusively since Windows95 OSR2 (yes, I was an OS/2 hold out), I’ve seen a lot of software for all sorts of uses. Having heard through all those years that Windows dominated for software availability and diversity, one would be surprised to find a killer app on the Mac that wasn’t available for Windows. I first discovered such a killer app several years ago called LaunchBar when slowly migrating to the Mac platform. I soon found others (and by the way, QuickSilver has since replaced LaunchBar in my Utilities folder) and of late, I’ve officially discovered MarsEdit.
MarsEdit is a blog editor with gung-ho power. Supporting various popular blogging engines such as WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, Drupal, and Vox, Red Sweater Software has pretty much covered the majority of you bloggers out there. I’ve seen MarsEdit before but was apprehensive to download and try it because my previous experience with blog editors, mainly on Windows, because they just couldn’t replicating my web interface experience of WordPress well enough. I found myself constantly having to log into my blog via Firefox to “touch” things up before posting. Why bother with an editor then? But I relented and gave MarsEdit a try and boy, am I glad I did. It immediately became one of my “Must Have” software installs!
One post is all it took, folks. With nearly full support of WordPress’ posting features, including the new keywords feature from the latest minor revision, and its seamless integration with flikr, I was hooked. I was greatly impressed with the simplicity of MarsEdit’s layout and the ability to easily customize it for my blog. I can add my site specific CSS tags and edit the preview template for exact representation of a post with SvenOnTech’s look-n-feel as I bang away on the keys of my thin metallic Apple keyboard. The former I had to hack WordPress to allow for custom tags and I would lose those tags after every upgrade. Now, no worries. If that’s not enough customization for you, then crank out some AppleScript and sky’s the limit, baby!
The cool feature list goes on with integration with your favorite editor (TextWrangler for me), macros to handle common repetitive tasks, support for more than one blog, integration with RSS readers such as NetNewsWire, and bookmarklet power. In short, you’ll be hard pressed finding something that sucks with MarsEdit. Look, like I said, I used a half of dozen Windows programs in the past and while they all promised a blogging experience that would lead be away from my web browser, I always found my self un-installing the disappointments days later. MarsEdit hasn’t led me to AppZapper. In fact, it has given me reassurance that there really is a good off-line blog editor out there worthy of $30. Heck, don’t tell Red Sweater, but I would have probably paid even more!
Increasing numbers of cash consumers in the UK are using Ukash when they shop, pay and play online and now they’re going to benefit from getting Ukash direct to their mobile.
Thousands of consumers each day that don’t have or don’t want to use a credit or debit card online use Ukash. Today they get Ukash from thousands of convenient locations such as newsagents and petrol stations and just use the unique and secure Ukash number when they pay at one of the hundreds of websites that accept Ukash. But now they can get Ukash anywhere, anytime!
“Ukash is growing in popularity with the large section of the population that don’t have cards or are concerned about the security of using them online,” comments Mark Chirnside, Ukash CEO. “This new service makes getting Ukash even more convenient for mobile users, meaning they can get a voucher straight to their ‘phone 24/7.”
Vodafone customers go to the secure Ukash Mobile web page using their phone’s internet browser. They confirm that they require a £10 Ukash voucher and as long as they have credit on their ‘phone they’ll receive a text with their unique 19-digit Ukash number. They’re then ready to pay on any web-site or mobile internet site that accepts Ukash.
Buying and using Ukash is incredibly simple. Uniquely numbered Ukash vouchers are widely available from 40,000 payment terminals in the UK, in newsagents, grocery stores, petrol forecourts and other convenient locations. Ukash vouchers can be redeemed on hundreds of lifestyle, shopping, communications, social networking and gaming websites in the UK.
Handmark®, a global leader in mobile media, and the Canadian telecommunications company TELUS announced today an agreement to bring Handmark powered services to TELUS clients. Handmark is providing an updated version of its popular Pocket Express application on TELUS smartphones that features travel services tailored for the mobile professional along with the ability to download content download digital content including applications, games and ringtones directly on their smartphone.
Pocket Express offers a comprehensive suite of breaking news, sports, weather and stock updates, residential and business directory searches and movie times. Pocket Express on TELUS smartphones delivers a powerful collection of travel services with airline schedules and flight status updates from the Official Airlines Guide (OAG® ) including details on more than 75,000 daily departures from more than 3,500 airports around the world.
In addition to providing TELUS with the award-winning Pocket Express service, Handmark is also powering a new desktop Web store at telusmobility.com/mobileapps where TELUS customers can discover and purchase top quality applications, games, and content for their smartphone.
Most new TELUS smartphones will come preloaded with Pocket Express. As well, existing clients can download the Pocket Express application at telusmobility.com/mobileapps.
"Treo, BlackBerry, and other smartphone customers on the TELUS network now have instant, and most importantly, easy to use access to essential information on the go through Pocket Express," said Paul Reddick, Handmark CEO.
Handmark also created an integrated billing system that makes it easy for TELUS customers to purchase content for their smartphone. Any purchase a customer makes within the Pocket Express store on their device or through the Web store will seamlessly show up on their monthly TELUS bill.
“It is our passion and our purpose to present our clients with the best products and services on the market to create the best mobile experience possible,” said David Neale, TELUS senior vice-president of Products and Services. “Handmark has a proven track record of delivering excellent mobile media, including Pocket Express, and we are confident that our customers will be pleased with the outcomes of this partnership.”
For more information about the new Pocket Express Travel Edition, visit www.pocketexpress.com or check out the TELUS store at www.telusmobility.com/mobile apps.
Classical label, Deutsche Grammophon, is bringing it’s catalog to the web for global consumption. With over 2,400 titles to chose from, many “gems and perls”, as Helene Grimaud (sorry, I don’t have the accents for her first name) puts it in her YouTube commercial. We have Lang Lang (pronounce Long Long) her to tell you how excited he is about the new service.
DG Web Shop, as it’s titled, is under the Universal Music Group umbrella and such, this is yet another fist-a-cuffs gesture toward Apple’s iTunes. While it is a global market, pricing is in Euros and thus after the conversation rate - surprise - is more expensive than iTunes. All files are encoded in 320 kpbs MP3 and thus there is no DRM attached to these fine pieces of art. DG Web Shop’s press release notes this as, “part of Universal Music Group’s ongoing market trials of DRM-free downloads, announced earlier this year.” No notation how it balked at Apple when it asked for the same after the EMI announcement. Mmm.
President of Deutsche Grammophon Michael Lang states in the same release, “By launching this easy-to-use, intuitive DG Web Shop, we are not only expecting a significant growth in turnover but are also aiming to solidify and expand the digital future. In concrete terms, this means establishing innovative sales channels and concepts: by attracting the classical novice and, of course, those already steeped in the genre – and everyone in-between – as they transfer from being only CD buyers to exploring the advantages of downloading, in CD-comparable audio. This web shop’s easy-to-use search function helps all music enthusiasts find and select music by categories such as genre, composer, artist, as well as filter by awards, reviews and series.”
That’s where all you classical lovers come in and vote with your dollar, er, Euro. Now with Amazon’s music download service and this service, the heat is on at Apple which is a good thing for even iTunes lovers. Competition is always good. Now let’s just see how well this works out for Universal. Time will tell.
Hehehe. You’ve got to love what the dollar can buy you. Apple purchased a spot on the main Vista page of CNETs site to place a very amusing Flash advertisement that uses two banner ads that work together. You find PC and Mac in one banner looking up at another a yet to be lit board with some words on it. PC attempt to get all the lights to brighten the message, “Don’t give up on Vista”, yet things just don’t seem to work out that way. Stop by and see for yourself. Pretty funny.
So Microsoft, whatcha gonna put on the Apple page? The gloves are off! 
Looks like Malcor is at it again. With “his” love to disable Apple-centric sites or sites that are just too heavy on Apple “propaganda”, Maclor simply hacks the site with a picture of rotting apples and the message (full sized image):
Notice
This website has been flagged for excessive Apple fanboism, and has been taken down for 24 hours.
This is a message to the rest of the Mac community, so listen up. Ever heard of hubris?
Tone it down, and you will not be attacked. Everyone else is open game.~ malcor
Nothing glamorious, just painful for the website administrator to clean up. Maclor has been on a renegade path to shut down “fanboy” sites one day at a time and the question is, which will be the next site?
Excuse us now while we find something we can say nice about Microsoft so we can get that into a post. (Thankfully, we have been posting lots of non-Apple stuff lately. )
UPDATE: This was just a hoax. I’m very disappointed in MacApper (its response) and MacHeist and the other sites that “teamed” up to do this. Just not right and plain stupid. MacApper’s blaming of WordPress and it’s security was suspicious and caused undo pain to thousands of readers running WordPress. I enjoy reading MacApper but I’ll always wonder about it’s editoral opinion on software reviews and such in the future.
Whether staying in a hotel, waiting for a flight or drinking a latte at the local coffee shop, Alltel customers can now connect to the Internet virtually anywhere. Alltel Wireless, America’s largest network providing coverage across the nation, today launched Alltel Wi-Fi, an easy-to-use solution powered by Boingo Wireless that instantly provides customers with laptop access to thousands of hotspots throughout North and South America. Alltel also provides wireless broadband access via Alltel Wireless Internet service, allowing customers to access the Internet from their laptop or smartphone at speeds of up to 2.4 Mbps on its nationwide data network.
Through Alltel’s relationship with Boingo, the world’s largest network of Wi-Fi hotspots, Alltel customers will be able to enjoy a fast connection all over the country. To provide customers with maximum coverage, Alltel is offering a Wi-Fi and EVDO Wireless Internet “bundle,” delivering unlimited Wi-Fi access from any supported hotspot starting as low as $9.99 per month, in addition to the customers’ Wireless Internet Plan. Pre-paid Wi-Fi cards are available at Alltel Wireless retail stores for $19.99 per week or $9.99 per day. Additionally, users can purchase Wi-Fi access at https://wifi.alltel.com.
“Wi-Fi is an excellent complement to Alltel’s existing portfolio of wireless internet solutions and is a good fit with Alltel’s strategy to provide customers with more ways to connect wirelessly to the Internet, email, or corporate intranet,” said David Maddox, director of product marketing for Alltel Wireless. “Alltel customers will get the best available wireless broadband connection throughout the country with EVDO and Wi-Fi from Alltel.”
Well, looks like Universal had a trick card up its sleeve when it “left” iTunes for Amazon. (It really didn’t leave, but rather stated it would be selective in material available on iTunes for the future.) Many thought it was going to an “Unboxed” formula with music downloads on Amazon but I must say, Amazon’s MP3 Download service is mighty fine. Fine indeed. No DRM and with a bit rate of 256 kbps, this looks like it has a good start out of the, um, box. Add the fact that you can use Amazon’s MP3 Downloader, both for the Mac and Windows, that automatically adds all purchases to your iTunes library, and now you have a bona fide contender for an iTunes Store competitor. Yeah!
Most songs come in at 89 cents and albums at $8.99 (USD). This is a dime and dollar difference from iTunes. I’ve found other albums that are at the five dollar mark making Amazon’s service a first stop for me before making any music purchases. What I love about this service is the ability to pay less than $9.99 per album than if I went to iTunes. I love the irony in Steve Jobs “one price” model and yet iTunes Store is littered like the Las Vegas Strip with high priced trash all over it. I still can remember the first time I tripped over an $18 album. And yes, I ended up purchasing it on CD from Amazon for $11.99 shipped. Now, in some cases, I can get it cheaper…downloaded!
I must say that I do love the iTunes Store. It’s a one stop place for most of my (DRM-free) music shopping. But with Amazon’s downloader and cheaper prices, I’m going to go here every time first. If the song or album is not available or is more expensive than iTunes (which I doubt will ever happen,) then I’ll hit iTunes. Thankfully, I once again have a choice and I intend to fully use it. Just like the old days of going to Tower Records, Rainbow Records, or the Record Factory, to find the best deal on Billy Squire’s Don’t Say No, I can now shop around “town”.
This of course gives Steve Jobs a problem that he’ll have to re-evaluate his pressure hold on the music industry. While it’s fairly common knowledge that Apple really makes very little on music purchase from iTunes, variable pricing may be something Apple will be forced into accepting with the advent of the Amazon store.
Looks like all of us early adopters got the shaft. For all that had to have their iPhone first, well your camping out and waiting in line for hours basically cost you more than time, it cost you money, too. About $200. For those that waited, you’ll be pleased to know that you can pick up the 8 GB iPhone for $399 right now. No waiting needed.
Wanting to fuel its blitz-paced sales for the iPhone that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that there was, “No chance the iPhone is going to get any significant market share,” Apple showed its desires to punch over the 1 million mark by the end of the month with the $200 discounted price. That gives Apple just as many months since the iPhones release to double the sales amount by Christmas with a much lower cost to the buyer. “We want to put iPhones in a lot of stockings this holiday season,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs told a crowd of reporters at Moscone Center this morning in San Francisco.
Jobs also announced a slew of other incredible news. A new iPod that basically is the iPhone minus the phone, called the iPod Touch. With all the iPod features of the iPhone, the iPod Touch comes in both 4 and 8 GB versions. Equipped with Wi-Fi like it’s bigger brother the iPhone, you will be able to make a purchase and download it immediately to your iPod Touch when logging into the iTunes Wi-Fi Store, available tonight. Wi-Fi purchased songs will find their way onto your computer upon you next syncing. Jobs disclosed that the iPhone will have the same functionality in a few weeks with the next firmware update.
It’s pretty well known that Jobs enjoys Starbucks, so it wasn’t a surprise when he announced a partnership between Apple and Starbucks. With it, you’ll be able to use the iTunes Wi-Fi Store to purchase something you’re looking for or even the song that is currently playing. How? Your iPhone or iPod Touch will display it on the screen for you! “You will know what songs they’re playing in Starbucks, and you can buy it with one tap of your finger. And if you just missed it, you can look at the last 10 songs they’ve played.”
Other goodies include an iPod that finally will hold all my (compressed) music! The iPod video (5.5 G) has been renamed the iPod Classic (remember the Macintosh Classic?) and comes in 80 and 160 GB versions. Finally! 160 GB. Man, my mouth is watering! The Classic gets a new shell as well. Full Metal jacket, in fact. Still just black and white for colors.
Speaking of colors, the shuffle welcomes red into its line. No other changes for the tiniest of iPods, though.
The nano on the other hand, no surprise from the weeks leaks, has been squished and given a 2.5 inch screen that matches the 5.5 G screen resolutions. You’ll be able to watch videos on the third generation nano with amazing clarity for such a small screen.
Oh yes, did I forget ringtones? The iPhone will be able to get custom ringtones that you can edit in the pending updated version of iTunes. Start and stop the song where you want and for whom you want. Steve Jobs made a jab at NBC by playing John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” telling the crowd that it was for when NBC calls him. Apple’s CEO tried to break pricing easy to the audience by reminding them that some ringtones cost as much as $2.49, but truth is, 99 cents for a ringtone is still too much especially when you already own the stinking song! Not all songs in the iTunes store will be available as a ringtone and there was no mention of being able to use current non-iTunes material for ringtones. For the price of 16 iTunes ringtones, iToner is a better alternative.