5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Hauppauge Digital Broadway Box Streams Live TV To Your Mobile Devices
Hauppauge have this week launched their new Digital Broadway Box which has been designed to provide an easy way to watch live TV on your mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets whilst on your home network or while travelling. All you need is access to a Wifi connection.

2. Yahoo Is About To Spin Off A Billion Dollar Business
Yahoo is going to spin off its Hadoop unit this week, a Giga Om report says.

Hadoop is an open source software framework pioneered by Yahoo that's useful to handle tons of data in the cloud, which is exactly the type of thing that is really hot these days. We wrote previously about Yahoo's impending Hadoop spinoff; it's a potential billion-dollar business that's not in Yahoo's core, and so would be best spun off with Yahoo retaining a stake.

3. How NextDrop Is Using Cell Phones, Crowdsourcing To Get Water To The Thirsty
In cities where the water coming from pipes is anything but reliable, a new service alerts people so they don't have to sit at home all day waiting for the tap to turn on.

4. All-You-Can-Watch MoviePass Brings Netflix Model to Theaters
MoviePass, a new $50-per-month service for film fans, will let subscribers watch unlimited movies in theaters using their smartphones as tickets.

Using an HTML5 application (native smartphone apps coming soon), MoviePass will let users search for a film, find a local show time, check in to the theater and go straight to the ticket-taker.

5. Top 10 Reasons Geeks Should Love the Tour de France This Saturday, the 98th edition of the Tour de France starts in Province of Liège, kicking off three weeks of bicycle racing. Twenty-one teams of nine riders each will have to endure 3,400 kilometers of racing and 23 mountain passes to reach the finish line on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. It’s an event full of incredible human achievement and endurance. But it’s also full of geeky goodness. I decided to update my article from 2009 encouraging you to enjoy the race.

BONUS

6. Apple “steps up its game”, new iOS 5 firmware to block downgrades
Apple has started to introduce new security checks in its new iOS 5 software that could possibly restrict owners of an iPhone, iPad or iPod from downgrading the firmware on their devices, the iPhone Dev-Team has revealed.

7. Companies Are Erecting In-House Social Networks
What would Facebook look like without photos of drunken nights out and tales of misbehaving cats? It might look a lot like the internal social network at the offices of Nikon Instruments.

8. Take that Netflix, HBO Go app sees big growth 
If you don't believe cord cutting exists and that there isn't any competition between Netflix and cable programmers, then you needn't read on. If on the other hand, you at least see the potential for Netflix to some day snatch customers away from the cable guys, then take note: this weekend HBO expects to see the 3 millionth download of the HBO Go app, which debuted on May 2, a company spokesman told CNET. There are 28 million HBO subscribers in the United States so the 3 million downloads would indicate that roughly 10 percent of the company's audience has tried out the app.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Sony cut online security staff two weeks before it was hacked
Lawsuits against Japanese electronics giant Sony have revealed that the company laid off a number of employees responsible for network security, two weeks before attacks brought down the PlayStation Network.

2. How to use Twitter in the classroom
The advantage to using a tool like Twitter for education is that it’s instant and it’s to the point. There have been countless articles about whether or not social media makes us lazy, or whether it affects our attention spans. If that really is the case, why not use that to our advantage?

3. Laptops Powered by Typing Could Be on the Way
Australian researchers have figured out a way to harness the energy we use while typing to power a laptop. Using piezoelectricity, this method works in a similar way to cigarette lighters that create a spark by striking a piezoelectric crystal.

4. Stack Exchange Gets In The Conference Game With Stack Overflow DevDays
Q&A network Stack Exchange will be launching Stack Overflow DevDays this fall, a two day series of conferences targeting coders who want to brush up or dive into the latest programming technologies like MongoDB, HTML 5 and Coffeescript, with hour long tutorials put on by speakers culled from the developer community.

5. GitHub Releases Mac Client
Today GitHub announced a client for OSX, GitHub for Mac. The client walks developers through the process of creating a GitHub account and uploading repositories and provides a local admin interface similar to the traditional Web-based one.

BONUS

6. Cloud computing requires new thinking on privacy
The move to the cloud has broad implications on privacy and requires a lot of discussion on the boundaries and expectations for data in a cloud environment. The government’s approach to data privacy, in particular, is of great concern, from the legislation it enacts to the way law enforcement uses it, said Nolan Goldberg, senior counsel for IP and technology at law firm Proskauer.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Sources: PopCap In Late Stage Acquisition Discussions With EA For $1 Billion+
PopCap Games is in late stage acquisition discussions for a sum of over $1 billion — we’ve now heard from two sources that the buyer is Electronic Arts.

2. Google Invests $102 Million More Into California’s Alta Wind Energy Center
According to an official company blog post today, Google is increasing its investment into California’s Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC) by $102 million, bringing its total investment in the renewable energy facility to $157 million.

3. Tips for taking good handheld photos at night
The problem with taking photographs in low-light situations is that the camera has little alternative but to leave the shutter open longer to soak up more light. These tricks and tools will help you take better nighttime photos, without having to pack a tripod.

4. Music Discovery Platform exfm Goes Mobile With A Killer App For iOS
The artist formerly known as Extension Entertainment, now known simply as exfm, has officially gone mobile today, releasing its first mobile app for iOS. I’ve been enjoying exfm for a few months now through the startup’s Chrome extension, so I’m very excited to be able to finally bring that experience with me on-the-go.

5. A New Mobile Social Games King In The U.S.? Former Facebookers Take Storm8 To 210 Million Downloads
On the heels of PopCap’s billion dollar acquisition comes some interesting news from the social games front: Game developer Storm8 is today announcing a few impressive stats. Among other things, the company is claiming that it has become the “largest mobile social games developer in the U.S.”, boasting over 210 million downloads across iOS and Android. While those numbers are certainly impressive, with Angry Birds raking in over 200 million downloads, I think Rovio, Zynga, PopCap, Outfit7 and quite a few others might have a thing or two to say about that, each of which has fairly sizable user bases in the U.S. Then again, Rovio is in fact Helsinki-based and Outfit7 is international as well so Storm8′s claim to American soil likely stands — at least in relation to the Angry Birds and Talking Tom Cat makers, respectively.

BONUS

6. Google Launches New DOM Snitch Chrome Extension To Keep You Safe From Malicious JavaScript
Google has this week announced via its security blog a new tool its created called the DOM Snitch which is an experimental Chrome extension that enables developers to identify insecure practices commonly found in client-side code.

7. Amazon’s “state of the cloud” — it isn’t stacking up
When it comes to the cloud, just forget about the stack. Cloud computing is evolving beyond the data structure of interchangeable layers, said Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President at Amazon, during his “state of the cloud” address at GigaOm’s Structure conference.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Your next set-top box could be the size of a deck of cards
The future of TV navigation is upon us, as cloud-driven programming guides could soon make it possible to disrupt the current set-top box market. As we’ve written before, we’re dreaming of a future where we don’t need a cable TV set-top box at all. In that utopia, users will be able to plug a TV in, connect it to their wireless home network and it’ll just work. In the meantime, though, we’ll settle for something like Sigma Designs’ new self-installable thin client.

2. How NASA, DARPA Are Keeping Kids Interested In Space
The end of the Space Shuttle era is slightly depressing. NASA won't be flying its own astronauts into space for a while, either, putting a further damper on the good PR that comes from the visually and intellectually stimulating space program, which encourages students of engineering and science. To keep folks interested, NASA and DARPA are pushing (a little) money into a program that's directly aimed at students themselves.

3. CHART OF THE DAY: People Are Spending More Time In Mobile Apps Than On The Web
People are spending more time inside mobile applications on average than they are on the web, according to an analysis from Flurry, a mobile analytics firm.

4. Adobe releases tools for creating mobile apps
Adobe has released an update to its Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 software to enable developers to build applications for iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry PlayBook.

5. Windows SkyDrive Says Sayonara To Silverlight, Embraces HTML5
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about consumer cloud services. There’s Apple’s recently-announced iCloud, Amazon’s Cloud Drive, Google’s Music Beta (which is your music in the cloud) and, of course, Microsoft’s SkyDrive. All of these to one extent or another are moving away from simple online lockers, and we see that today with the release of the latest update to SkyDrive.

BONUS

6. Sony Ericsson Preps NFC For Android Phones
Talk of NFC has been around longer than I can remember, but when are we actually going to get to wave our phones around and magically pay for soda, or a movie, or whatever else our little hearts desire?

7. An educator’s thoughts on using iOS 5 features in an iPad classroom
Apple’s announcements at WWDC included a large array of improvements to iOS, including beefier AirPlay support, wireless syncing with iTunes and iCloud backups. Fraser Speirs, the Head of IT at Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Scotland, recently took a look at what those new features mean for an educator using iPads in the classroom.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Five years from now, there’ll be no such thing as a webpage
Every time Facebook changes its interface, an outcry erupts in my News Feed. Without fail, my network transforms into a village and Mark Zuckerberg is our Frankenstein. Minor tweaks send us into an outrage, and we want Facebook’s head on a platter for our momentary confusion. But then a few days pass, and instead of anger, we see adaptation. The voices of dissent subside and we’re back to business as usual. After all, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who can recount exactly what the first Facebook profile was like. Furthermore, it’d be difficult to find someone who cares.

2. HP Working On Cloud Music Service For webOS
It seems that another company is in discussion with the record labels about bringing a music streaming service to their tablet and smartphone operating system, according to a recent report by Billboard, HP is in discussion with a number of record labels about launching their own music streaming service for webOS.

3. Mozilla gets tough on Firefox memory leaks
Mozilla will try to plug more memory leaks in Firefox with a new, aggressive approach that relies on weekly bug triage meetings.

4. Skype Is Coming To Your TV Through Comcast
Comcast will begin offering Skype video calling to customers next year. The two companies announced the deal this afternoon ahead of the National Cable and TV Association's annual conference tomorrow.

5. Angry Birds looks to conjure some location-based Magic [Video]
Rovio is looking to take Angry Birds local with location-based integration, which will now enhance the game play for users when they visit real-world locations. The feature, called Magic, builds off a previously announced NFC feature for certain Nokia phones, which allows a very limited number of users to unlock additional levels when they tap two NFC phones together or tap an NFC tag at a location.

BONUS

6. Google Mobile Search Now Featuring Places Integration
The Google Search mobile landing page got a change overnight that deeply integrates Google Places, making it easier to find nearby restaurants, coffee shops, and bars directly from the front page. Other Places directories, like ATMs, fast food, and gas stations, can be searched locally with just one more tap of the finger.

7. Appcelerator Launches Titanium Studio: Mobile, Desktop & Web Development in One
Today, cloud platform provider Appcelerator is expanding beyond mobile and Web with a new offering designed for developers looking to build cross-platform applications. Now, in addition to building for smartphones, tablets and the mobile Web, developers can use the new Titanium Studio to build, test and deploy to desktop platforms including Windows, Mac and Linux as well as build HTML5 Web applications, all in one single development environment.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Steve Jobs Confirms Discontinuation of iWeb in iCloud Transition
Since last week's unveiling of Apple's new iCloud service and the transitioning of the company's existing MobileMe service into iCloud, many users have been wondering about the fate of some of the MobileMe services that were not mentioned in the transition discussion. In particular, users have been concerned about iWeb, Apple's website creation software included with iLife that can be integrated with site hosting via MobileMe.

2. DIY U: The Future Of Learning [Video]
The future of learning is open--and it's in your hands. This video series, based in part on my book DIY U, explains that while the higher education bubble may be overblown, there is an explosion happening in the edu-world, with technology and openness transforming content, social learning, and accreditation all at once. Part One explains what's happening and why the old models no longer apply.

3. Bunchball raises $6.5M, doubles down on gamification
Bunchball, the social gaming software company, has raised $6.5 million in a new round of venture capital. The San Jose, Calif.-based startup plans to put the funds toward growth initiatives such as hiring, new product development, and international growth, CEO Jim Scullion told me in an interview last week.

4. Sony Knows Cross Game Chat is a Huge Thing
No, Sony is not talking about PlayStation LifeStyle’s podcast, “Cross Game Chat.” Andrew House of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is talking about cross game chat for the PS3.

5. Apple iCloud Not Supporting Windows XP
We strongly suspect all the support Apple has shown the venerable Microsoft OS with iTunes and Mobile Me has mostly been a way of keeping people from buying shiny new copies of Windows 7, but that’s all coming to an end with Apple’s music-streaming iCloud, which won’t be featuring Windows XP support and will need either a Vista or Windows 7 PC to run.

BONUS

6. Use Binder Clips to Replace Broken Keyboard Feet [MacGyver Tip]
They make great cable organizers and phone stands, but the humble binder clip can also fix things that are actually broken, too. In this case, it's those little flip-out "feet" on the bottom of most keyboards. Just take the metal wings off two clips, and replace the feet by squeezing the those wings into their place. If nothing else, it's a lot cheaper than replacing the keyboard.

7. iOS 5 Allows For 1080p Video Exports, Confirms iPhone 5 8 Megapixel Camera
The iPhone 4 features a 5 megapixel camera, and it is capable of recording video in HD at a resolution of 720p, we have been hearing rumors that the iPhone 5 will feature an 8 megapixel camera, possibly a Sony CMOS sensor, which would mean it would be capable of Full HD Video in 1080p.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. PlayStation Branded 3DTV Announced, Coming Bundled With A Copy Of Resistance 3
Do you like the idea of all this new-fangled 3D technology in games but can’t stump up the cash for a new TV and 3D glasses? It seems like you aren’t the only one, and Sony has been listening to your pleas.

2. Google Maps can now tell you when your bus or train is late
Google has offered travel information in Maps for quite some time, but now it’s going real-time – in a handful of cities, at least.

3. Square Raising New Round, Joining Billion Dollar Valuation Club
There are a bevy of startups in the process of raising big rounds of capital at billion dollar or higher valuations – something that was a rare occurrence even a few months ago. We’re tracking most of these deals (and have written about the ones we’ve confirmed). Now, we’ve confirmed via multiple sources, is payment startup Square’s turn.

4. Tribalfish may just change the way you have discussions online
Tribalfish wants to solve the difficulty involved in conversations on the Internet. Twitter has helped us to solve part of the problem by allowing us to reach a wide variety of people, but it’s still a one-to-many conversation. Internet forums have been the better answer for longer, deeper conversation but they require you to go to a different destination for nearly every topic.

[ I have a few Tibalfish invites if you woud like one ]

5. Snapseed for iPad: Photo editing at the swipe of a finger
The iPad is quickly transforming itself into the photographer’s smorgasbord for quick photo editing. The list of free and paid photo editing apps keeps getting longer and longer, and if you’re anything like me, you’re probably grateful that more developers are coming up with new and exciting apps to edit your photos on the go.

BONUS

6. The game theory of discovery and the birth of the free-gap
It all started because of the discovery problem.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Juniper: NFC Payments To Reach $50 Billion Worldwide By 2014
We know Google has made a big bet on near field communications (NFC) as a payments system with the launch of Google Wallet, but does the technology have the potential to be the future of how money is transacted? Juniper Research seems to think so. The company is releasing a new report that forecasts that global NFC mobile contactless payment transactions will reach nearly $50 billion worldwide by 2014.

2. Salesforce Invests In Video Messaging Startup (And Skype Rival) VSee
VSee, a video collaboration service provider, has received a capital injection from Salesforce, TechCrunch has learned. The amount was not disclosed, but we’ve been informed that the investment amounted to ‘multiple millions of dollars’.

3. Apple tries to tighten its grip on media with Newsstand
Slowly but surely, Apple is trying to convince more media companies to play in its sandbox, and the latest move is an iBooks-style digital news stand for iPhone and iPad. As part of the raft of new features and services it announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, Apple launched the Newsstand — a single interface for all of a user’s subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. Whether the new offering will convince more publishers to sign up and hand over 30 percent of their subscription revenues to the company remains to be seen.

4. Movie & TV streams still missing from Apple’s iCloud
Here’s one feature you won’t find in Apple’s new iCloud service: video syncing. The cloud-based media storage service introduced at Apple’s WWDC conference in San Francisco on Monday offers the ability to sync your personal music library with the cloud without uploading any of the actual files, making it possible to access thousands of songs on any of your devices in a matter of minutes. Apple calls this feature Music Match, and charges users $24.99 per year to instantly access their personal music library online.

5. Apple Didn’t Tell Mobile Carriers About iMessage
When Apple announced iOS 5 yesterday, one of the new apps that was unveiled it called iMessage, it is basically a messaging app that will let you send and receive messages to other iOS devices similar to BlackBerry Messaging.

BONUS

6. RIM acquires Scoreloop to take social gaming to a whole new level
RIM has just announced that it has acquired Scoreloop, one of the pioneers in mobile social gaming.

7. Sorting Through Apple’s Many Announcements
Yesterday, at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), Steve Jobs took the stage to reveal what the company’s been up to. Turns out the answer is: a lot.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. i’mWatch The Android Powered Wristwatch
We have seen quite a few different watches that can be used with your smartphone here at Geeky Gadgets, but I think this may be the first one that is powered by Google’s Android OS, the i’mWatch.

2. Instagram Turns Your Likes Into Photo Albums
Social photo app Instagram pushed out a new update today on the iPhone. The first thing you notice is that uploads are a lot faster. Speed, quite frankly, is one of Instagram’s competitive advantages. But the update also includes some new features, the most important of which is the ability to see all the photos you’ve liked in the past.

3. Clouds Are Like Buses: Public Isn’t Always Better
Since the concept of “private cloud” was introduced, there have been efforts by certain people to prove it “wrong” or show that it doesn’t make sense when compared with the public cloud. This seems like a silly crusade, not because I’m a supporter of private cloud (which I am), but because both provide tremendous value if you actually understand the value that “cloud” has delivered to the industry.

4. Spending More Time Outdoors May Help Prevent Nearsightedness
Playing outside is one of the great joys of childhood, and studies now indicate this sun exposure may also help prevent kids from developing myopia, a.k.a. nearsightedness—if they spend enough time outdoors.

5. The Power Of Online-To-Offline Is Moving Beyond Local Commerce
While the idea of ‘online to offline’ for purchasing is proving to be powerful in the local commerce world, the trend of linking the physical world to the web is producing a number of startups that are innovating beyond just purchasing from local merchants or finding a product nearby. Many of the most interesting startups that have emerged over the past year or so are making our lives in the real world better; using data, location and curation as their competitive weapons.

BONUS

6. 6 Free E-Books and Tutorials on HTML5
HTML5 is popular for building rich Web sites as well as cross-platform mobile applications. And it looks like with Windows 8 Microsoft is embracing using HTML5 and JavaScript as a paradigm for building desktop applications as well. With everyone from Apple to Microsoft embracing HTML5 as "the future," if you don't know it yet, you should probably get started.

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Pulse Ups The Ante On Mobile News Consumption

Pulse, an iPhone app that presents news and blog feeds in a grid fashion has upped the ante with their latest release.

So far I think Pulse is the best iPhone app on the market. And now you can access the app on any web enabled device using their new website, pulse.me. This is huge. Another feature that rocks this app is the ability to save an article for future reading. In the past I've had to email the link to myself so I could read it when I had time.

And Pulse now allows you to send article links to Instapaper and Evernote. Again, this is huge on many levels. The ability to send content to Evernote is great for me because I use It throughout my day.

Take some time to check out Pulse, you'll be glad you did.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Apple’s iCloud To Be Free At Launch, Then Pay To Play
Apple Inc. has just sewn up its contracts with the four major record labels Thursday for a cloud music service, with agreements from music publishers to follow on Friday, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

2. Mashape, the Marketplace for APIs, Moves to Beta
An app is like a Lego construction, Mashape is your Lego box. Search the API you need an easily integrate it in your project.

3. Robots With Laser Vision, Ford's New $100M Investment
Ford's new army of laser-sighted robots has the very benevolent aim of reducing wind noise in your next car.

4. Why +1 Could Crush Facebook (And How Google Could Blow It)
Yesterday they were joined in hope by Google +1, and while many are saying that it too will fail, I believe Google has a SERIOUS opportunity here.

5. Microsoft refuses to comment as .NET developers fret about Windows 8
There is a long discussion over on the official Silverlight forum about Microsoft’s Windows 8 demo at D9 and what was said, and not said; and another over on Channel 9, Microsoft’s video-centric community site for developers.

BONUS

6. Cloud Computing Takes Us Into The Future of Technology, Chrome OS Leads The Way
In the future, computers could be distributed via a monthly subscription and the hardware and software update could become history.

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Why YouTube Adopting Creative Commons Is a Big Deal

Mashup artists, your life just got easier. YouTube is now making it possible remix existing videos right within its online ... Read more

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

1. Push.IO Buys Mobile App Framework TapLynx From NewsGator
Push IO, a startup that offers a cloud-based mobile feature platform for developers has announced the acquisition of mobile app framework TapLynx from NewsGator.

2. Lendio Scores $2 Million More To Assist Business Owners In Securing Loans
Off the heels of raising $6 million in venture capital, Lendio has secured another $2 million in debt financing from Square 1 Bank

3. Windows 8 Brings Entirely New Look And Feel, Unifies Touch And PC Interfaces
Microsoft has just given a demonstration of what they’re calling Windows 8.

4. Apple Is Building Twitter Into Your iPhone And It's A Game-Changer
Twitter integration is coming to the next version of iOS – Apple's operating system for iPads, iPod Touches, and iPhones.

5. Google’s +1 Button For Websites Goes Live
Google announced their new +1 sharing button back in March, and it has now officially launched the +1 button for websites, which will let you share your favourite websites with your friends.

Bonus:

6. With Twitter Deal, A Photobucket Comeback Is Officially On
Photobucket just made a major leap forward on the comeback trail. The online photo sharing pioneer confirmed Wednesday its technology will power Twitter’s highly anticipated native photo sharing feature.

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5 Tech Stories Worth Reading

Today's Tech Stories I found interesting:

1. Google Wallet
Google is getting into the mobile payment market.

2. Twitter Photo Sharing
Twitter is finally putting a photo sharing service online. But can we expect constant outages with Twtimg as well? One interesting note, especially for developers. Twitter is going to crate it's own version of your stand alone client application. If you rely on Twitter for your core business, expect to be challenged, by the source.

3. Apple iCloud
Apple plans on announcing it's newly minted iCloud (formerly MobileMe), among other new products, at WWDC on June 6th. Expect Twitter and other Interwebs to be inundated with traffic.

4. Craigslist switches to MongoDB
Cragislist is in the process of incorporating MongoDB as it's primary database system. MongoDB is a document style repository versus a traditional relational database.

5. Five Best Set-Top Boxes for On-Demand Video
On-demand video is taking the net by storm. Just look at Netflix, who is now responsible for +20% of all Internet traffic. Gaming consoles are very popular, but boxes such as Boxee and Roku are priced very competitively, and stream the same channels like Netflix, Hulu+, and Amazon Video on Demand.

What cool Tech stories have you read today?

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We Need To Cut The USPS Lose

According to this Bloomberg article, the USPS is far beyond repair, trying to save is is throwing good money after bad. Will people be impacted if the USPS is closed? Yes, some will be. Is the impact worth the billions and billions the United States is losing year after year? No. And I don't think anything could have been done to save it.

I've been thinking about some alternatives that this black hole could pursued to stay competitive and stay ahead of demand. And I simply could not come up with one.

Do you think the USPS should still exist? What products or services could USPS innovate to lead their market, or new markets?

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Could Microsoft Survive A Windows Phone 7 Failure

I've been reading all about the new Mango release of Windows Phone 7, and all the companies that are tied to the success of the product. Would you like to be one of the companies who have bet the ranch on a timely release of a Microsoft Operating System?

This isn't like other products Microsoft has failed gain market share with, and eventually cancelled, like the Zune. This to me is a make or break product line for Microsoft. The future is mobile. And if they are unable to keep up, they deserve to fail, and fast. There is no way Microsoft can say they didn't see this coming. As I've said in the past, they have an enormous developer base. They should have been tapping into that long ago. They should have an app store that rivals Apple's iTunes App Store.

If you're a Windows Phone 7 user, what are the missing pieces? Do you feel you have backed the right horse? Could Microsoft survive a Windows Phone 7 failure?

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Two Features Social Photo Sharing Services Must Have

I'll be the first to admit I'm a social photo sharing application addict. I install apps all the time on my iPhone and try them out. Most of the apps I delete as fast as I install them. There are two must have features every social photo sharing service should have, or they will struggle to catch on; a web site for each user, and a mobile application.

You Must Offer A Web Site

Viewing one photo at a time is, a waste of time. I want to see a grid, or a gallery, or a time line of photos. I want to see a description, the ability to like, republish (via Twitter or Facebook), and comment. I want the ability to build a community around a photo or a collection of photos. Many of the most popular photo sharing services offer this type of web experience.

Not offering a web site, or one that is so restrictive and lacking in features, is a huge misstep.

You Must Offer A Mobile App On Multiple Platforms

Apple'siPhone is a very popular device, and is becoming one of the most popular ways to take photos. Just recently flickr announced the iPhone is number one camera used to to take the photos uploaded to it's service. That is huge. But it's not the only game in town.

Android based phones are becoming, if they haven't already, the most popular phone in the world. As this new platforms gains popularity, with phones having larger screens, dual core processors, and cameras that exceed 10 mega pixels, to ignore it would be another huge misstep.

No one else in my Family has an iPhone. Services that require an iPhone to view photos in a mobile app don't work for me. Many of my developer friends don't have an iPhone, they have an Android based phone. A large portion of the market is being left out. And it's a misstep if your services doesn't cater to all mobile platforms.

Developing For Android Sucks

David Karp, CEO of Tumblr recently said in a live interview at TechCrunch DISRUPT, Android "Absoutley sucks to develop for." Wow, what a statement.

Crazy amounts of investor money is being thrown at photo sharing services, and I'm hoping these services have something up their sleeve besides an API and an iPhone app. I know Android isn't the easiest platform to develop on, but there are alternate methods that would allow you to get started. I'll post more on those later. In the mean time, give us the full experience, and the ability to share with all our connections, not just the ones who own an iPhone.

 

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Amazon CloudPlayer Fail On iOS

No luck using Amazons new web based CloudPlayer on iOS. Wants me to use Internet Explorer. Really? Did Microsoft pay for that?

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Exclude Images From WordPress Gallery Display

I wrote this post yesterday which had several images as part of the content. One image was used in a different section of the post, but I wanted to group specific images together to highlight a point I was making.

WordPress adds all images uploaded during post creation to a Gallery. Once all the images have been uploaded, you can select the Gallery tab, and insert the gallery right into the post. However, I wanted to exclude one of the images. But there wasn't anything in the image manager that allowed me to exclude an image. (WordPress guys, please add this feature.)

No worries though, the WordPress Gallery is really short code, and the short code allows for parameters. In this case, I was able to add the exclude parameter with the ID of the image I didn't want in the Gallery, and whala, I was able to display what I wanted. You can get the ID of the image in the Library and hover over the image, you should see a value for attachment_id, make note of it. The short code lookes like this:

[ gallery exclude="123" ]

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Simply Design Your Web Site

I visited the io9.com web site today, after getting there from an external link. I've visited this site before, and mostly read stories they publish via RSS. But today, when I landed on the home page, I was frozen. I had no idea what to do.

Over the past several weeks I've been working on a project where the initial landing page needs to give the visitor enough information about the sites offering, and make it painlessly obvious what options are available. I consider myself an expert web browser, but I must admit when I landed on io9.com today, I had no idea what they wanted me to do.

Experimenting, redefining, shifting, and tossing, has shown us so much can be accomplished through simplicity. Using a sifting method, we have been able to remove the pieces of a web site that shift the focus from the message. Are the elements on your site changing the focus of your message. If they are, remove them, or add elements that speak to the message.

For example, looking at my site, I can see there are several elements that probably distract visitors from my message. Those are things in the side bar. Here are some things that could probably be removed. I wonder if I can find something that would let me track the effectiveness of these sidebar elements.

[gallery link="file" columns="2" orderby="ID" exclude="1556"]

Remember to "simply" design your website.

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