The buzz about flipboard propelled the app to #1 this week. The big questions asked are”what is flipboard” and “why do I need flipboard”. The simple answer to these questions is Flipboard organizes the news, features, stories and media you care about. How does Flipboard do this? It’s quite simple really, and quite brilliant may I add - When you install Flipboard on your iPad (sorry iphone/ipod and Droid users) you get to link your Facebook and Twitter accts to Flipboard - meaning stories your friends post to either Facebook or Twitter appear inside Flipboard.
Well, I hear you say, whats so cool about that? The answer my friend is below, sometimes a picture is worth more than 1,000 words. The Flipboard presentation of aforementioned feeds is visually stunning. Now even your old Auntie Joan looks like she’s a writer for Conrad Black (ouch!) or a photographer for the SI Swimsuit issue…
Take a look around, it’s a little like 1994 out there. Back in the glory days of the internet, every man and his dog wanted, no, needed a website. No-one knew why, but if you were anyone, or if you were a company that was looking to be cool, you needed a website. 16 years later, it’s 2010, and now every man and his dog needs an App. Got a problem, there’s an app for that, need to find out what the waves are like on the North Shore? There’s an app for that.
Problem is, as an iPad, iPhone and iPod (and dare I say, Zune) owner, where the heck do I go and find the apps that I need? Has anyone tried to use the app store from Apple? It’s a dark and mysterious place controlled by Stephen P Jobs Esquire and his merry band of control freaks at Apple. It’s next to impossible to do a real search of the more than 200,000 apps available… I need to be able to search for an app, or follow a taxonomy that allows me to find the correct app for me, not just because the developer paid apple a wad of cash to make them a featured app… Not saying thats how it goes down, but y’know… who knows.
Steve Jobs was wowing the earth with his latest release - not the iSlate but the strangely named iPad. The tech specs for the ipad are as follows:
Display: 9.7 inch IPS Size and Weight: 9.56 by 7.47 by 0.5 inches, and 1.5 to 1.6 pounds Resolution is 1024×768 Processor: 1GHz Apple A4 Chip Storage: 16, 32, or 64GB flash Battery life: 10 hours battery life, over 1 month standby Connectivity: 802.11n Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Other Features: Accelerometer, compass, speaker, mic, 30-pin connector Starting at $499
It comes preloaded with twelve applications - essentially multi-touch versions of existing Mac software such as iPhoto. “We’re pioneering the next version of digital journalism,” said Martin Nisenholtz, a senior executive at the NY Times newspaper. iPad also includes the firm’s iTunes software built in, allowing people to purchase songs and movies straight to the device. The cheapest iPad, which will come with 16GB of flash memory and wi-fi will cost $499. The most expensive version, with 64GB of storage and the ability to connect via a mobile 3G signal, will cost $829.
Yellowbird are taking a leaf out of Google’s Streetmapping technology, with the key difference being that the YellowBird camera records video instead of photographs. The camera uses six lenses in order to capture every possible viewing direction simultaneously. Through a double glass-fiber connection, a stream of 1200 Mbit per second is captured and saved in an uncompressed format. Along with the video, a surround sound microphone system enables to record surround audio at 96 khz…. Enough with the geeky details, check the video below - use your mouse to move around the action… Maybe this could be used for Virtual Tradeshow applications or as extra footage for concerts?
PS3 Owners will soon be able to stream videos direct to their TVs via the just announced Netflix streaming service. This means the Microsoft Xbox dudes will have to come up with yet another way to justify why the X360 is a better box than the PS3. Personally, with 3 (yep, three) failed X360 consoles in my house, and a solid running PS3, I couldnt be happier. Read more…
Guardian News & Media has lost £20 million from Guardian.co.uk in the last seven years. Editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger wrote on the site: “Since 2002/3, our spending on Guardian.co.uk (operational and capex) has exceeded revenue by just £20m. Rusbridger’s comment confirms one of two Guardian.co.uk figures reported anonymously by FT.com last week, when it said: “A person with knowledge of the business claimed the total net loss on the digital side since 2002 had been £20 million, although no breakdown of those figures was provided. Read more…