05. 2.2008
Believe it or not, there are actually still folks out there who design websites and applications for devices other than the iPhone. It may sound like crazy-talk to Apple die-hards, but it's true.
The latest company to recognize that people do use other phones is Godiva, which has teamed up with Digby to create a mobile application that provides BlackBerry users with secure shopping and quick access to the chocolatier's bestsellers. Featuring full-color images, Godiva Mobile integrates with the phone's address book and BlackBerry Maps to simply on-the-go online purchases and identify the nearest retail store for in-person browsing.
To download Godiva Mobile, simply fire up your BlackBerry browser, visit www.godiva.com/mobile, and follow the on-screen instructions.
Via I4U News.
Posted by Jenn
Category:
cell phones
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Tags: chocolate
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04.14.2008
More and more, it seems that what comes up at the top in browser search results is determined by factors having little to do with what I'm really looking for. Google search results may be comprehensive, but what I'm looking for may be buried so deep that I'll never find the one thing I'm looking for. I might accidentally come across just the right keyword to bring up some relevant results, but it's often hit or miss. Human-powered search engines such as Mahalo and iRazoo aim to create and "curate" search results to get around this diving-in-a-garbage-can feel of the big search engines. But humans are flawed and prejudiced, so you're not going to get objectivity with this method, nor will the results always be current (how do a few humans keep up with the volume of new content that comes on daily?).
I've been trying out Surf Canyon, a browser extension that works with Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. This browser add-on (which currently works with Internet Explorer and Firefox) gives you the option to narrow your search results by clicking a bull's eye icon next to a relevant search result to get more link recommendations that you might otherwise not see until you've clicked many more pages into your search results (which, for me, is usally never, as I get impatient after 3 or 4 pages). Using "real time semantic personalization technology" (how's that for a mouthful?) Surf Canyon "sits atop" your search engine to help you hone in on what you're looking for.
Continue reading "Surf Canyon pulls up relevant results deep in your search"
Posted by Hoyun
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| software
Tags: search engines
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04.11.2008
I personally don't receive a tremendous number of rambling voicemail messages, so I've never entertained the wish that I could have my messages transcribed into text so that I have the option to read them instead of listening to them. However, putting myself in the shoes of someone who's important enough to be relentlessly pursued by callers, I can see where such a service might prove to be a real time saver. Imagine having 50 voicemail messages to go through - you would actually have to listen to each message from beginning to end to know whether it contained something urgent and important (especially if the caller is someone like my mother who always waits to the very end of a message to get to the main point). Contrast that with email, where you can quickly browse the text and, thereby, triage your callers.
Continue reading "SimulScribe converts voicemail message to text"
Posted by lydia
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Tags: voicemail
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04. 3.2008
Lynda.com, which offers very affordable online training courses for learning software and Web design - for geeks as well as ordinary people - has introduced closed captioning to their learning library. Because Lynda.com courses require that you follow the instructor's voice as he takes you through various pages on your computer screen, up until now, they weren't accessible to the hearing impaired.
The other benefit of closed-captioning is that it enables users to search within specific lessons as well as across the Lynda.com website. As a user, I sometimes find that I want to go back to a very specific topic wthin a lesson, but don't always remember which section contained that topic. The ability to search closed-captioning text would make this kind of review much simpler. Lynda tells us that the conversion to closed-captioning throughout the library is well underway and should be completed in a few months.
Check out their list of 412 lessons.
Related posts:
Learn to tokidoki at Lynda.com
Lynda.com online training library - not just for geeks
Posted by lydia
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02.19.2008
I've been holding my breath for news of the release of iPhone applications that will offer some of the smartphone features I lost when I gave up my Treo (which I was perhaps a bit hasty in doing). For starters, I'd settle for a simple password keeper (there are web apps for this, but I don't want to send secure information into the big wide uncertainty of the web, and I've found that I'm too impatient to wait for pages to load). After that, something that lets me create and revise documents would be nice, and a program that syncs with Quicken.
Wired predicts that the release of Apple's iPhone software development kit will be followed by iTunes become a software store for the huge community of developers that will arise. Apparently, some developers are a little worried about the loss of control of their products that will come with having iTunes as the primary or only distribution vehicle. For iPhone users, there are obvious advantages to being able to go to one shop to browse through all (or most) offerings. While I enjoy browsing different stores for most categories of products, I've never enjoyed that process when purchasing applications for my smartphones (though I suppose exorbitant pricing may change my view on that).
Read more at Wired.
Via textually.org.
Posted by Hoyun
Category:
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Tags: applications iphone smartphone
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02.15.2008
If you use Snapfish, Shutterfly, or Kodak Gallery, you're very familiar with the wonders of photo creation technology and have probably made countless photo books, calendars, Christmas cards, or coffee mugs with a darling photo of your baby for your mother-in-law. I know I have.
So why do we need another one? Rocketlife claims to be the "next generation of photo creation technology that revolutionizes the way that consumers create all types of personal photo products online." What's different? With RocketLife, there is no need to log into an account (though of course you'll have to create one to PAY) and your projects are stored on YOUR computer, not the service. However, the big difference seems to be with the "Smart Arrangement Technology" which intuitively lays out and designs photos into "artistic works of art."
If you're one of those people who struggle with design and tend to be a tad indecisive, then Rocketlife can make you a collage or photo in seconds. It's like having your own designer genie. As with their competitors, photos can also be manually cropped, rotated, and manipulated, with photo treatments, such as tints, blurs, lighting, textures, text, and graphics, with the click of a mouse.
RocketLife's "3D Digital Merchandising" does give you a better vision of your final project, as with the mug I made for my lovely mother-in-law for Mother's Day (scoring points here!)
But don't take my word for it...sign up for our newsletter and you'll have a chance to win a coupon code so you can try it for yourself.
Posted by Evan
Category:
software
Tags: photos
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01.14.2008
FlyTunes, the new music service for the iPhone (and iPod Touch), is set to be released on January 21st as a free download. It's a web-based service that gives you access to 20,000 music channels, which you personalize from your PC or Mac computer. The idea behind it is to provide a satellite radio experience without the need for a receiver for satellite signals. And you can access your music offline as well, by caching selected music to your device.
FlyTunes also works with all iPods, most other portable media players supporting MP3 files, as well as multimedia-enabled cell phones.
Posted by Hoyun
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Tags: iphone multimedia radio
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01.14.2008
I have nothing against saving money, but there has to be a better way to do it than carrying a thick pocket full of frequent buyer cards, discount cards, and coupons. In this day and age, if merchants can't get together to create one card for each customer to house membership information for every store they visit, I just won't participate, even if it amounts to cutting off my nose to spite my face. Who needs all that mess and confusion in the checkout line?
In Korea, the use of mobile coupons is on the rise - an obvious solution that's even better than my dream solution of a single multi-purpose card. Mobile coupons, which have barcodes that can be scanned at shops (those equipped with barcode readers) and forwarded to friends, are especialy gaining popularity among younger people.
A couple of years ago, I recall some experimentation at CES with mobile coupons (for public transportation) and thought that by now, they'd be really big throughout the U.S. Here, we like our fancy phones, but seem to be very slow to adopt mobile technology for anything other than calling, texting and snapping photos.
Via Web 2.0 Asia.
Posted by Hoyun
Category:
software
Tags: mobile tech
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12. 7.2007
See, that's me with my oooold Blackberry, on my way to CES, flashing my boarding pass on my handheld. I wish! But it's almost a reality. Continental Airlines is set to begin a new pilot program in Houston that will allow customers to board their flights with a cell phone-based boarding pass. The program will run for 3 months and if it's deemed successful, the days of paper-based boarding passes are over. Expect a wider rollout, as other airlines jump on board. It's easy to do really; the system sends a unique barcode to each passenger’s cell phone with the encrypted messages directly tied to the customer’s handset. Hallelujah.
Via Boy Genius.
Posted by Evan
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Tags: airlines travel
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09.28.2007
QR code is 2D barcode that is currently all the rage in Japan. The chief advantage of QR code over standard barcode is that it doesn't require great resolution to be understood by a QR code reader. Even a low res digital photo of QR code is readable. This means your camera phone can turn into a QR reader just by installing a reader application. In Japan, ads display QR code in magazines, billboards and tv, which reveal secret links or messages.
For those of us who aren't in Japan, Jaxo has created a free java app QR code reader, called SnapABar. The app synchs with your camera and then translates the QR code you photograph. They also offer "Barcode generator," which encodes text into four different QR codes. (Unfortunately, there isn't a standard code yet.) For now, SnapABar is fun to download and experiment with for reading code. However, we still need to wait a while for the QR code to become more widely used before it really starts to get useful.
sponsor: PINGER text messaging with your voice
Posted by Ray
Category:
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Tags: japan
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