Cutting The Wire On Photo Uploads

After first writing about it in December of 2007, I finally got a hold of an Eye-Fi card, and now I'm not sure why I hadn't worked harder to get one of these little gems sooner. In my defense they are not readily available in Canada and I really dislike paying the duty that comes with purchasing such things online from outside of the country. I have however very recently obtained an Eye-Fi Connect X2, 4GB+Wi-Fi and there is no turning back... awesome is all I can say. It's very easy to use and the endless memory mode means you never have to worry about running out of memory on your card as it intelligently makes space once your content is safely delivered. The card can be configured to recognize up to 32 Wi-Fi networks and upload content  to 25 different photo and video sharing sites.

Not all went smoothly with the installation on my Windows 7 machine, and I understand that my friend and coworker encountered a similar issue on his Mac. The documentation that comes in the package is sparse, to say the least, but luckily the support forum was easy to navigate and assisted in getting me over the hurdles. It seems as though we both had issues with the "helper" application that analyzes your network and firewall settings. Once resolved the Eye-Fi has performed flawlessly and is my new favorite gadget. 

Adobe's 64-bit Flash Player Unleashed

Adobe has released an early version of it's new 64-bit Flash player code named Square. According to this article on cnet, the download is available via Adobe Labs but note however that if you install Square, you'll have to manually update it on your own.

It's an important move for Adobe as it fights competition from emerging technology such as html 5. Hardware manufacturers have been gradually moving away from 32-bit technology in favour of the speedier 64-bit architecture but software has lagged behind in leveraging the technology. Square is said to take advantage of a computer's graphics chip power, in particular when paired with Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 9 (beta) promising a faster and more responsive user experience with Flash-based content.

Twitter Unveils A New Look

By mid day yesterday it was clear that something was up at Twitter, tweets and blog posts pointed to the excitement amongst employees but nobody on the inside was spilling the beans. Turns out the buzz was all about a new look and user experience that Twitter will roll out gradually over the coming weeks. (I still have the old version of the site as of this posting)

“We’ve made it pretty clear that we are going to create the best experiences we can with all our clients,” says co-founder and CEO Ev Williams “We made it clear to developers that it’s great for everyone if we make it as good as possible, because that will create more successful Twitter users.”

While I've not yet had a glimpse of the new site, I'm hopeful by it's description that Twitter is offering a more flipboard like experience where you get a sense of what's behind those tiny urls before you click through. The NY Times describes it as follows: "The redesigned site, which will be available to all users in the next few weeks, makes it simpler to see information about the authors of Twitter posts, conversations among Twitter users, and the photos and videos that posts link to." so it sounds promising. 

The Android Tablet Cometh

Hold on to your hat Apple a slue of android powered tablets are set to rock the market place to it's core, well maybe. While there have been a few cheap attempts at displacing the iPad, no serious competitor has made it to the market yet but just in time for Christmas are offerings from  Samsung, Toshiba, ViewSonic and Archos with screens ranging from 7 to 10 inches in size and some boasting 1080p resolution, usb interfaces, and of course adobe flash support. The android tablets are set to debut at anywhere from $299 for the Archos 101 Internet Tablet to arround $1000 for the Galaxy Tab by Samsung putting them all around the $499 and up offers for the various iPad models.

It will be interesting to see if the iPad will continue to dominate or if the trend being felt in the smartphone market will carry over into tablets. My prediction is that the lower priced Archos will be a winner, I'd love to see the Galaxy Tab do well but the price point may be a sticking point unless it is subsidized by carriers on a contract. All in all, the android operating system is gaining favour and could propel android powered tablets into compelling alternative status.

Internet TV Comes To Canada

After announcing the acquisition of CTV last week, Bell Canada's Kevin Crull said today that his company was going to roll out Fibe TV an internet television network featuring with over 70 international and 100 HD chanels.

"We went from black and white to colour and then to high-definition," Crull said. "And you think of the size of each of those leaps, and now going to FibeTV is an equally large leap for the product, and it's just going to continue to evolve. It's the platform, very much, of the future of this industry."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/09/13/bell-fibe-tv.html?ef=rss#ixzz0zRxSToPC

Where I Work In Plain English

Five months ago, almost  to the day, I started work at ScreenScape Networks a relatively young company that was in expansion mode. The previous several years of my working life had taken it's toll on me both mentally and physically and ScreenScape was an exciting new opportunity that I embraced with great enthusiasm. I was introduced to the company founder, Mark Hemphill, through a mutual friend and from the moment I began talking to Mark and the rest of the folks at ScreenScape I knew there was something special going on here.

I did my due diligence, played with a free Test Drive account, spoke to people working here, and to customers of the company around town. Mark, I'm sure, did his due diligence as well and the rest as they say is history. I have not for a moment regretted the move, and I embrace each and every day with the knowledge that something wonderful is happening here. The days fly by and our team is constantly improving upon an already incredible product, this is the most productive team that I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Don't get me wrong, I've worked with hundreds of good people, and a handful of great people, but talented people alone can not make up for bureaucracy, communication issues, questionable management policies, and other productivity zapping corporate practices... but I digress.

Recently ScreenScape had the following video produced and it does an incredible job of explaining what it is that we are so diligently working on. Check it out, and if you see the merits in what we are producing check us out... knowing that there is an extremely motivated, awesome team, behind every line of code.

ps. I write this entirely of my own volition.

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Google Instant - Exciting New Search Upgrade

Let me start by apologizing to you all in advance. I only have but a moment to post and I wanted to get this news out, in case you haven't already read it somewhere else. Google has made some great refinements to search in Google Instant. Check out the Official Google Blog for details or watch this quick video...

TrackDropper For Android - Putting The Booty Back Into Piracy

Think of how exciting it must have been back in the swash buckling days of yore when pirates sought riches and buried their treasure in chests, with maps marked with X's. arrrgh!

Today pirates are much less scary, mostly geeks who choose to acquire their audio files in less than acceptable ways, at least according to the real pirates who run the music industry. If the thrill of a potential lawsuit is not enough for ye thrill seekers there is a new way of looting your music. Trackdropper is an Android app that lets users "drop" songs in physical locations. Then, other users of the application can go on a treasure hunt to find and play the dropped songs. The goal is to make music piracy much more like old-fashioned nautical piracy. Here's how it works, courtesy of one of it's coders Yves Raimond:

TrackDropper from Yves Raimond on Vimeo.

Source: cnet

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Heart Attack Does Not Stop Twitter User From Tweeting - Addicted Maybe?

Tommy Christopher, a writer for mediate.com wasn't going to let a little thing like a heart attack stop his tweeting habit. "I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. Beat that!" he typed.  Followed by:

"Paramedics think I will live. Gonna get a cardiac cat. Jeez, I'm old. This is depressing,"

"This is not like the movies. Most deadpan heart attack evar," he wrote. 

"Still hurts even after the morphine."

I thought that I was a bit obsessed with twitter, my posts aren't that frequent but I check the site frequently. I will however curb my obsession in the event of pending doom.

No word on Christopher's current condition...

Source: couriermail.com.au 

Thanks to @ColinMaria for putting me onto this story.


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Perceived Security Threat Has Indian Government Concerned About RIM, Google, And Skype

With all of the concerns recently expressed by Middle Eastern nations about the Blackberry and it's use by spies and terrorists, India has added Google and Skype to the discussions by asking the companies to set up servers in India and allow access to web data, citing fears that the voip services could be misused by militants. Though Google has said it has not been contacted.

"India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said RIM had begun giving India access to its secure data from Wednesday.

“Discussions for technical solutions for further access are continuing and the matter will be reviewed within 60 days,” Chidambaram said in a statement."

A Google spokeswoman based in India said: “We have not received any communication on this issue from the government. If and when we do, we will review and respond.”

According to The Globe and Mail.