While AOL was officially launching its Socialthing for Websites initiative this morning, it was also quietly making some changes to the design of its homepage. There are some new themes, Twitter integration, a prominent RSS tab up top, and all the information and news modules are now collapsible. There are also a few new AOL content featured along teh left-hand column, such as Paw Nation and PoliticsDaily (see our review).
But if you haven’t been to AOL.com lately (you are not alone), you may not completely recognize it. For one thing, there is a lifestreaming box on the right that lets you log into various social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, and MySpcace. You can see all of the status updates from your friends on other social networks and respond to them from within AOL. AIM and Bebo are also options in that box, but for Bebo you have to click an arrow to even see it (and AOL owns Bebo). → Read More
As more and more people are getting their hands on the Pre, it looks like a few more developers have been given access to the SDK emulator. Well, either that or someone who has had access for a while got a little antsy and finally caved to leaking a ton of emulator screenshots. → Read More
TellMe, which Microsoft bought two years ago, is rolling out an upgrade to its call center automation software which should improve its speech recognition rates. It is also adding Global Crossing as partner for reselling its VoiP carrier service, along with AT&T and Verizon. TellMe handles 2.5 billion calls a year for customers such as American Airlines and ETrade, all on-demand. Even a one percent improvement in automated call completion rates translates into millions of dollars a year for large call centers.
TellMe will be deploying a new text-to-speech engine with an almost-sexy female voice called Zira. She only sounds slightly robotic. Another set of technologies can break up sentences into their constituent parts so that if the software doesn’t understand something it can ask for only the piece of missing information instead of repeating the entire question. or instance, if you say you want to fly from New york to San Francisco on Wednesday, and it got everything but the day, it would only ask you what day you want to fly instead of making you repeat your entire itinerary. → Read More
This hip-hop (or shall I say hip-chop) remix of the Slap Chop infomercial is outstanding. The autotune makes it sound like a legitimate piece of pop music. Of course, they did it to MLK too, but this is far less offensive (and more delicious). → Read More
Conceptual artist and sculptor Kim Graham has created one of the creepiest prosthetics ever. Inspired by horses and other digitigrades, Ms. Graham built what is essentially a pair of stilts fashioned to resemble legs. The video shows two different views of the legs, one as plain metal, and one with fur covering, obviously intended to make your satyr fantasies come true. → Read More
TellMe, which Microsoft bought two years ago, is rolling out an upgrade to its call center automation software which should improve its speech recognition rates. It is also adding Global Crossing as partner for reselling its VoiP carrier service, along with AT&T and Verizon. TellMe handles 2.5 billion calls a year for customers such as American Airlines and ETrade. Even a one percent improvement in automated call completion rates translates into millions of dollars a year for large call centers.
TellMe will be deploying a new text-to-speech engine with an almost-sexy female voice called Zira. She only sounds slightly robotic. Another set of technologies can break up sentences into their constituent parts so that if the software doesn’t understand something it can ask for only the piece of missing information instead of repeating the entire question. or instance, if you say you want to fly from New york to San Francisco on Wednesday, and it got everything but the day, it would only ask you what day you want to fly instead of making you repeat your entire itinerary. → Read More
Apple announced today that its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) has already sold out. That’s pretty incredible considering two things. First, tickets went on sale only a month ago, and are anything but cheap — even the early-bird special was well over $1,000. (And remember, this is a recession, and plenty of other conferences are struggling to move tickets.) And second, last year’s event was the first one ever to sell out — and that only happened a couple weeks before the actual show.
Clearly, anticipation is high for this year’s event for a number of reasons. The first is that developers and presumably the audience at the keynote (which we’ll be at, so that means all of you will get to follow along as well) will get a major glimpse at OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard.” The new OS is currently being tested by developers, but most of the expected user interface changes have yet to be unveiled. WWDC may be the first time anyone gets a real look at those. → Read More
It’s now just about May and there’s still been no official word from Palm when it comes to an official launch date or pricing for the Pre. All we know is what we’ve known for a long time — it’ll launch the first half of 2009; a window that is quickly closing. But a few pieces of new evidence today point to an actual specific date. And it’s a very intriguing one — June 7: The day before a likely Apple keynote address at its WWDC conference.
That is of course interesting because Apple could very well use that keynote to unveil the next version of the iPhone, just as it did last year for the iPhone 3G. A public launch of the Pre the day before could suck some of the wind out of Apple’s sails. But it’s also pretty risky, as it means Palm only has one day to convince everyone that its product is better then the latest version of the iPhone which is likely to have some substantial improvements. And no one knows for sure what all those improvements are — it could very well blow the Pre right out of the water, one day into its young life. → Read More
Over a period of three years, fantasy author Peter Brett wrote 100,000 words on his HP iPaq during his long subway commute. And here I get all excited when I manage to post a new word I learned to my blog, while sitting at a bar. Given the length of most epic fantasy novels (or cycles) I would have thought it an impossible task to thumb out more than, say, 5-10% on something like a smartphone. But this guy seems to actually thrive doing it. → Read More
In a bid to retain its role as a pop culture staple, MTV has announced plans to a launch a show that taps into the power of social media, tightly integrating with Facebook and Twitter to maximize fan interaction. The show will be hosted by British celebrity and model Alexa Chun and begin airing this summer, with plans to move it to the network’s coveted after-school timeslot depending on its performance.
Back in the late 90′s, an MTV show called Total Request Live was a staple in dictating what was hot in popular music. That show gradually lost steam over time (it was finally canceled in late 2008) and while MTV has maintained some succcessful properties, it’s lacking a flagship show that its audience tunes into on a daily basis. According to this AP report, viewership is down 18% for the first three months of this year. → Read More
Man, they’re just cranking these things out. Just two weeks after iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 3 (which was, in turn, two weeks after iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 2), we’ve got another Beta. Beta 4 of iPhone OS 3.0 is now available for developers, as long as they’ve downloaded the brand spankin’ new iPhone 8.2 pre-release. It just went live, so we’re not quite sure what’s new here. If you spot anything, let us know – we’ll do the same. Also, it’s starting to look like we can expect Betas every 2 weeks until release. Next one ought to be on Tuesday, May 12. Update: Details are still incredibly sparse, but here’s what we’ve heard so far: MMS now working on more carriers without modified carrier bundles (Only one report – still working on confirming this.) General performance updates, far less crash prone than the past builds. The “Store” settings pane now functions, allowing you basic control over your iTunes account API Change: “SKErrorPaymentNowAllowed allowed and was replaced with SKErrorPaymentNotAllowed” More as we hear it. → Read More
Ethanol may not be the solution for the fuel crisis, but is it the solution for the social fireplace crisis? Ask yourself this: when was the last time my friends and I gathered around a fire at a bar and clinked glasses over the flames? I’m guessing never. But these EcoSmart fireplaces may change that, since there’s no wood. At least, I hope so. Been a long time since my last weenie roast.
As you can see from the picture, they’ve even put a nice sneeze guard in this new model. Or is that so hot grease doesn’t hit you in the face? → Read More
I doubt this sort of behavior is approved by the Bay Area Transit Authority, but it sure as hell looks like a lot of fun. I can imagine that the acceleration and deceleration of the trains makes for some weird swing antics… maybe I’ll try it on the Monorail. → Read More
Creative Japan today announced the ZEN MX [JP], a portable media player that will be available in Nippon starting at the beginning of next month. The company plans to offer an 8GB (ZN-ZMX8G-BK) and 16GB (ZN-ZMX16G-BK) model, both featuring a 2.5-inch LCD screen with 320×240 resolution. → Read More
Wow, interesting to see someone actually quit their job nowadays but a game developer for 2K Australia did just that. And he went out with a bang, too, creating a browser-based Mario-inspired game with several short levels with thank you’s, reasons for quitting, and so on. → Read More
Ah, the Chevy Volt. Will it ever make it to market and/or will it save GM? That’s a another post entirely. Anyway, GM-Volt.com founder got behind the wheel of a Chevy Volt prototype and seemed impressed. This mule drive was a battery-only demo and didn’t show off the engine generator switchover, which is what many of us onlookers are curious about. That point and how a $40,000 vehicle will save the nation’s largest automaker during a recession and a period of relatively inexpensive gasoline? Video after the jump. → Read More
No fair! I wish I had a broken arm with a bionic LEGO cast that allowed me to accessorize with several wonderful gadgets like flashlights and voice recorders. Lucky! → Read More
My G1 just rang with an unfamiliar 1-800 number. Uh oh, I thought, one of those singles lines I spend so much time on is trying to collect. I answered and after a second, a recorded voice said “Hi! This is a free call from T-Mobile to thank you for your loyalty.” It then repeated this message in Spanish and hung up.
Seriously? → Read More
It looks like the guys at Spoonfed have stolen a march on Time Out and other event guides with the release of their iPhone app, the Spoonfed Events Radar, available free from the App Store as of today. The launch is the first step of the startup company’s mobile strategy which extends the Spoonfed events listings database to the mobile platform, making it easier for Londoners to find interesting things to do while already on the move. It also puts paid to one of our major criticisms of the Spoonfed service when it officially launched in January this year, when the mobile strategy was one of many planned but as yet unrealised features. Using your location as a point of reference, the Event Radar scans the surrounding area for events happening that day. Found events are represented as blips on the radar dial, and users can then tap each of the blips to find out more information about cost, artists, genres, time, distance and what to expect from the event itself. The radius scanned expands or contracts dynamically depending on how many events it finds in your vicinity, and results are usually limited to between three and 10 events from which to choose. Each event listing integrates with Google Maps, so you can find your way to the venue without a hassle. You can see a screencast of the navigation, which is among the smoothest I’ve experienced using an iPhone app, here: Events Radar was developed in conjunction with mobile apps agency Ubinow and is the frontrunner to the next stage of mobile development, which will bring the same functionality to other handsets. Another recent addition to the site’s functionality is integration with venues’ Twitter feeds, so that Spoonfed users who aren’t on Twitter don’t miss any of the last minute cancellations, news of secret gigs and other announcements venues such as the Science Museum or Koko make via their Twitter feeds. Spoonfed’s revenue model includes ticket sales and outsourced advertising as well as event marketing services targeted at venues and promoters. Being able to drive the website and brand over mobile will no doubt make the company’s offering more appealing to a corporate client base. Alexander Will, who co-founded the company with Henry Erskine Crum after they met studying at London School of Economics says all the planned mobile products are about differentiating Spoonfed from their competition. Given a → Read More
Over a period of three years, fantasy author Peter Brett wrote 100,000 words on his HP iPaq during his long subway commute. And here I get all excited when I manage to post a new word I learned to my blog, while sitting at a bar. Given the length of most epic fantasy novels (or cycles) I would have thought it an impossible task to thumb out more than, say, 5-10% on something like a smartphone. But this guy seems to actually thrive doing it. He talks about his experience, and why he went with an HP iPaq of all things, in this interview. He’s pretty bullish about the Kindle, much more so than I am, but it’s true that it is a breakout device; authors and publishers need to start working with e-books early or risk ending up like the recording industry. My question is, if he knew he was going to be doing so much typing, why not get something with a really sweet keypad like a Sidekick or Blackberry? Update: If you’re curious, the book has been uploaded to Scribd, so you can get an idea of just what one can write from a moving subway train, on a device I’d be afraid to compose an email on. Check it out below. → Read More
