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Spotify, the music service announced today that they are going to be adding apps to their service. I downloaded the beta version to try it out and to see if this is something that is big news today, but will be forgotten by next week or is it a game changer. I say it depends on whether they can get developers to create apps for the platform. They released the Spotify Api for Apps which allows third-party developers to create applications that can then be added to Spotify. However it is my understanding that the developer is paid nothing for placing their apps on Spotify, (other than the publicity), So I am not sure how many developers will want to develop for Spotify. Right now in the beta version there are 9 applications
Like Facebook when you click on the plus button next to an app it is added to your side bar under the Radio icon. Some like We are Hunted, Moodagent and Pitchfork are great for finding new songs and artist. Others like Tunewiki and Fuse give you information about the song or artist. The one that looked the most interesting to me is Sounddrop, you add a playlist to Soundrop and then share it with your friends, who can vote tracks up and down and add their own. I can see this becoming very popular, it reminds me a lot of Turntable FM. Although the fact it requires you to log into Facebook to use it is a definite negative, at least for me. Also at one point, Soundrop kept on asking me to log into Facebook, even though I was already logged in. I finally had to close and reopen Spotify to fix it. I not sure if the problem was with Spotify itself or Soundrop, this version of Spotify is still in beta and so problems like this are not unexpected. The one thing that was planned that did bothered me was with the Rolling Stone app. The Rolling Stone app recommends various albums, songs and playlists to play. There is also an option to read a review of the song or album, however if you want to read more than the first couple sentences of a review, you are taken out of Spotify and into the Rolling Stone Web site on a browser. I understand why Rolling Stone did it this way, but as a user I hate it.
I plan to use a lot of these apps within my Spotify account but I am not sure it is a game changer, like I said before it will depend on whether developers are willing to develop for the platform, but it has great potential.
A new interactive infographic posted today gives a quick overview of the features of four different devices – a laptop, netbook, smartphone, and tablet. If you are shopping for one of these devices this holiday season, and wondering which you should get, then the infographic linked below will give you a good starting point. To get a general overview of what features are included with each type of device you can just hover your mouse over a device and the features it includes will be highlighted. Hover over a feature and see which device it requires.
The infographic was posted by Chris Byrd, Corp Comm Social Media Team to the Dell blog. Dell, of course, has a horse in this race – they make devices in all four categories. However the graphic isn’t brand specific, but just gives an overview of features. This by no means will tell you exactly what to buy, but it’s a cool, fun way to get you started in your shopping research.
Google Maps before and after
Google Maps announced the other day they will be extending their mapping service indoors. No, the Google street view cars are not going to be driving into your house, but they will be bringing their services into Malls and Airports, so you can get door-to-true end mapping.
According to the Google Blog, the new leg of this mapping service will bring that familiar “Blue Dot” (to indicate where you are) indoors to public spots. That way if you are in terminal G5 at Chicago – O’Hare, and need to get to terminal A15, you can map your destination and make sure you are going in the right direction.
“We’re thrilled Google Maps continues to provide you with new and helpful perspectives—whether you’re rushing through the airport or finding your way around a mall. ” says Brian McClendon – VP of engineering for Google Maps.
Google has partnered with Malls: Mall of America, IKEA, The Home Depot, select Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, Daimaru, Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi locations. Mapped airports at this time include: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Narita International (NRT), among others. As time progresses, they will continue to map stores and other public locations.
Read the release here.
Tags: airports, bloomingdales, chicago O'Hare, google, Google Maps, home depot, macys, mall, mall of america, mapping, san francisco
Posted in google
My Tree Lot Finder
Looking for that perfect holiday tree? The lots seem to pop up within 24 hours of Thanksgiving. But which one do you go to?
A new application has hit the Android market. My Tree Lot Finder ™ can help you find the best tree lots; those “Mom and Pop” lots that use quality trees for best selection. That way, you don’t have to search for hours to find that perfect tree.
The app helps you not only save time and money by locating the perfect tree, but also gives you care instructions for your new purchase. That way, if you are a N00b when it comes to trees, you don’t have to act like one.
“Have you ever headed out after dark to find that perfect tree? Kids in tow? The first lot you go to had nothing but dead and dried trees,” says Wayne Irving II, creator of My Tree Lot Finder. “ Wouldn’t it be nice to know where the next tree lot to you is? So you are not driving further than you have to?”
You can search trees by Zipcode or just scour the map within the app. Target a lot and get driving directions. It will also let you know where the tree farms are and where the non-profit lots (like Boy Scouts, fund-raising lots, etc) are located.
Some lots also have other amenities, such as selling ornaments or if the tree farms have other cool events like hay or pony rides, if they also offer things like Yule logs, wreaths or more.
The application is only available for Android at this time. The parent company – Iconosys - is a member of the National Organization for Youth Safety (NOYS).
Tags: Android App, android os, app, Green, Map, non-profit, search, tree farm, tree lot finder, wreath, yule log
Posted in Gadgets, Information
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Little Printer
London company BERG announced a new product available in 2012. It’s called the Little Printer. This is a cube shaped device that sits on your table, and prints out lists, Facebook comments, stock quotes and a lot more. It would make a great receipt printer or bookmark maker for people that still have books, but is this little thermal printer ten years too late?
Little printer connects up to your wireless router. You configure Little Printer through a phone app – which they will have partner content from Arup, Foursquare, Google, the Guardian, and Nike. Once configured with the content you want, press the button on this device and it will print out said content.
“We love physical stuff” says Matt Webb, CEO of BERG. “Connecting products to the Web lets them become smarter and friendlier – they can sit on a shelf and do a job well, for the whole family or office – without all the attendant complexities of computers, like updates or having to tell them what to do. Little Printer is more like a family member or a colleague than a tool.”
Little Printer is the first in a line of small devices BERG plans to put out in the next few years.
The device is pretty interesting, but in this day and age, this is content we can get on smartphones and tablets. Even if you don’t have a smartphone, you can get a text message with similar content, eliminating the paper factor.
There could be advantages to this – Possibly if this connects up with a Point of Sales (POS) register system. Another advantage is if you are a book reader, this could be a bookmark for the day. Puzzles and games like Sudoku might be another reason to get this printer.
This is an update to the article I wrote on the 26th of November Malls Maybe Tracking Your Cellphone. A brief background, two malls in the United States, the Promenade Temecula in Southern California and the Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va, where planning to test Footpath by Path Intelligence, a technology which allows malls to track the path of their costumers. One of the concerns that I and others brought up was the issue of privacy. The fact that in order to opt out of the tracking you had to turn off your cellphone, which isn’t realistic in today’s world. This issue was also brought up in a letter by Senator Charles Schumer of New York. In a press conference and also in a letter to the mall and the FTC, Senator Schumer stated “A shopper’s personal cell phone should not be used by a third party as a tracking device by retailers,” Schumer said in a press conference on Sunday. “Personal cell phones are just that—personal. If retailers want to tap into your phone to see what your shopping patterns are, they can ask you for your permission to do so.” He especially had an issue with the idea that a consumer had to opt out of the tracking by turning their cellphone off. He stated this should be something consumers opt into and not opt out. Forest City which owns both the malls has not abandoned the plan entirely, but is trying to find a way to make it opt in. Path Intelligence the maker of Footpath, insist that this method of tracking is no different than cookies on the Internet. This maybe true, but I can manage online cookies, while this is an opt in or opt out period. I don’t expect this technology to go away, but it does need to be updated to be opt in.
PANTONE The 20th Century in Color looks to me like a great Christmas gift for anyone interested in colour and history: graphic designers, interior decorators, costume designers, website builders, Renaissance geeks. Authored by Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker and published last month, it’s a view of the last century with a focus on colour. Of course, it inserts the relevant Pantone colours allowing you to recreate colour schemes from the past to great effect.
The blurb says, “Pantone, the worldwide color authority, invites you on a rich visual tour of 100 transformative years. From the Pale Gold (15-0927 TPX) and Almost Mauve (12-2103 TPX) of the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris to the Rust (18-1248 TPX) and Midnight Navy (19-4110 TPX) of the countdown to the Millennium, the 20th century brimmed with color. Longtime Pantone collaborators and color gurus Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker identify more than 200 touchstone works of art, products, decor, and fashion, and carefully match them with 80 different official Pantone Color palettes to reveal the trends, radical shifts, and resurgences of various hues. This vibrant volume takes the social temperature of our recent history with the panache that is uniquely Pantone.”
Hyperbole aside, I think this will be fascinating look back through the past century and will be more than just a coffee table book: it’ll be a source of inspiration for when you want to get that “period feel”. It’s on my Amazon wish list so with luck, I’ll be able to bring you a review in the New Year.
(You’ll just have to forgive the twin spellings of colour and color in this article.)
Ok folks back from Okinawa more on that in the show. One show only from Salt Lake City. Utah and then back to the Studio in Honolulu. Obviously my body has no idea what time zone it is in. So we have a short show today. Not a lot of tech content due to the long weekend, but things will ramp up as the week goes on. I will be doing an insider show on my trip to Okinawa and the whole process that we went through.
-No Video on Today’s Show Wirecast failed me as the Audio/Video progressively went out of Sync..
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Seagate Drives Not affected by Flooding.
AT&T – T-Mobile FAQ.
Rovi Marketing to Set Top Boxes.
Wireless Spectrum Crunch.
Feds take-down 150 Sites Cyber Monday.
YouTube Editor.
Cord Cutter Holiday Guide.
Smoke Detector Messages you!
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If you grew up in the era of Atari then you probably still get nostalgic for it once in a while. Thankfully, there are still ways to get your Atari fix. I occasionally fire up an emulator on my computer from time to time and play a game of Centipede or Asteroids. But, if you don’t want to sit in front of your desktop or laptop, you can now take your Atari addiction mobile.
Atari’s Greatest Hits is now available in the Android Market. The app itself is free and comes with Missile Command. Additional games packs are available for $0.99 each, or you can purchase all 100 games for $9.99. The game packs can only be purchased from within the Atari’s Greatest Hits app, and are sold through the Amazon Android App Store.
Atari requires you to be running Android 2.2 or newer. If you’re looking for a fun way to waste some time and take a stroll down memory lane then this is a must-have app for a reasonable price – and, hey, if you just like missile Command, it’s even more reasonable at the price of free. You can check out the brief intro video below.
