This is incredible. The price for transferring data into your S3 account is now FREE! Starting July 1, 2011. And now they have pricing for data storage in the Petabyte range. That just blows my mind.
New inbound data transfer price for all regions (effective July 1, 2011)
New data transfer price for US-Standard, US-West and Europe regions (effective July 1, 2011)
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.
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.
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.
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.
In:
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In:
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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.
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.
Remember to "simply" design your website.
Amazon recently release a new product called CloudFormation. It’s basically an automated build out of several Amazon AWS products, driven by a simple XML file.Before
After
Stop whining. Stop making excuses. Stop worrying about failure. Stop stopping. In a nutshell, that's what I got out of Seth Godin's new book, Poke the Box. Seth is a great story teller. He's great at painting a picture you see yourself in, and then paints the alternative picture which he want's you to put yourself in. And this book is no different.Developers are getting iOS 4.3 a little early I guess, to make sure there apps run on the new OS. Fun times. http://bit.ly/g3Aimw
Get your apps ready for iOS 4.3 which features faster Safari mobile browsing performance with the Nitro JavaScript engine, iTunes Home Sharing, enhancements to AirPlay, and Personal Hotspot. Be sure to update your iPad apps so they take advantage of iPad 2 features including the powerful Apple A5 chip, built-in front and rear cameras, and gyroscope.
Cool feature of 4.3 - AirPlay: Stream video from your app to a widescreen TV using new Media Player APIs that support AirPlay video. You can also update your web content to support AirPlay.
First let me say, there are probably a million ways to do this, and probably 99% of them are the right way, including my way.
Site: WordPress. The need: Pop up a video using Lighbox for a registered user. Record the video was shown to the user. Record in usermeta table. Don't show it again on subsequent visits. And lastly, make sure the video only plays on the Home page.
Works like a charm. The video pops up in a Lightbox window. Meets our needs.
via picplz:
We have just pushed a new update to the picplz iPhone app.
Changes:
Screenshots:
Sometimes small books carry big punches, and that's just what Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service
(Amazon affiliate link) does. The funny thing is, Disney doesn't do anything small. If you want to get an insiders view of how Disney makes the world a happy place, this is the book for you.
Mozy sent me an email this morning, which I'm sure went out to all their customers, outlining new pricing plans. According to the email, MozyHome Unlimited has been discontinued, and they are moving to a tiered storage structure:
