Thursday, April 29, 2010

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Apple Patents The Invisible Button Top
One of Apple’s famous minimalist design principles is to get rid of buttons whenever possible. With touchscreen devices like the iPhone and iPad, almost all of the buttons appear when needed on the screen. But what about Macbooks with aluminum casings? A new patent application titled “Disappearing Button or Slider” shows that Apple is at least thinking about how to bring elements of touch computing to all devices by replacing buttons and other controls with capacitive controls which appear only when needed. The patent describes a way to create backlit micro-perforated holes on the aluminum casing of a MacBook or other device which could be used for buttons on the lid when the laptop is closed or below the keyboard when it is open. The buttons could serve as simple displays for WiFi signal or battery strength, control playlists and volume for iTunes songs or movies, or even replace the trackpad. AppleInsider notes The input appears invisible to the user because it would be made of the same material as the housing it is contained in. The use of “invisible” backlit holes could make the input selectively visible or invisible for the user. One illustration included with the application shows an iPod-like control wheel located to the left of the notebook’s trackpad. Such controls could be displayed with the touch of a finger, and then disappear when they are not in use — such as when a user’s wrist is resting in that area for typing on the keyboard. Buttons are so over. CrunchBase Information Apple Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Thinking Screen Media Raises $2 Million To Shift Focus To The iPad Top
Thinking Screen Media , formerly Frame Media, has raised $2 million in funding from Scala . This brings Thinking Screen Media’s total funding to $7 million . The startup provides a platform for delivering content to to digital frames and other screen devices wirelessly. As part of the deal, Scala has acquired the digital signage division of Thinking Screen Media, the SignChannel platform. Thinking Screen Media's FrameChannel platform allows screen owners to select, program and deliver personalized content to a variety of consumer devices, selecting from a library of over 1000 content widgets. The library includes integrations with leading photosharing and social networking sites along with news, weather, sports scores, stock quotes and hyper local content. FrameChannel is available today on devices from over 20 consumer electronics providers including Tivo, Roku, Samsung, Sony, Philips, Motorola, Kodak, Toshiba, Viewsonic and Apple. The funding will be used to develop Thinking Screen Media's offering on the iPad. The startup launched a FrameChannel iPad app a few weeks ago, which is available for download here . CrunchBase Information Frame Media Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Sony Turning to Intel Chips and Android to Revitalize TV Sales Top
Look out, Sony is actually trying something new and might announce Intel Atom-powered TVs next month at Google I/O 2010. A new Android released dubbed Dragonpoint is said to run on these TVs and will be just the beginning of Sony's venture into the so-called Smart TV market. The report comes from Bloomberg who sources two people familiar with the matter. The timing is certainly right. Sony hasn't been in the top TV spot for years, constantly losing marketshare to others like Samsung , LG , and even Vizio . Something needs to be done and so Sony is said to be testing a whole line of home entertainment devices that will bring the wonders of the Internet to TVs and Blu-ray players through Android. Logitech is even said to be in on the venture and will contribute a wireless keyboard that will work as a remote. But as sweet as an Android TV sounds, it might not be the right solution -- at least not for the North American market. This could either be a huge win or a fail whale.
 
SimpleGeo Founder Joe Stump Talks Up Location-As-A-Service (Video) Top
I had the chance to sit down with Joe Stump , former Lead Architect at Digg who recently co-founded a startup called SimpleGeo , at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam. We’ve covered the company he started with Matt Galligan (of Socialthing fame) a number of times in the past, but I was interested to learn how things were working out for the fledgling startup, which is looking to capitalize on the location craze (some call it a war , Stump calls it a gold rush ) by delivering relevant infrastructure services . Think Amazon S3 for geodata. Stump tells me that the company, which has raised a little over $1.5 million in funding from an impressive list of high-profile investors, now counts 13 employees, almost all of which are engineers. SimpleGeo is based in Boulder, Colorado, but will be opening an office in San Francisco in June. The company has attracted about 2,700 application developers to sign up for the beta, and added between 1,000 and 1,500 more in recent times. Stump also detailed SimpleGeo’s pricing model, which they’re currently tweaking after having found that the plans weren’t quite flexible enough for its customers, but I’ll let you watch the video for details on that. Of course, we also touched upon Facebook’s and Twitter’s plans regarding the location game. With Twitter recently having acquired SimpleGeo competitor Mixer Labs / GeoAPI , I was wondering if Facebook had approached the startup for a similar deal by now … CrunchBase Information Joe Stump SimpleGeo Information provided by CrunchBase
 
The Huffington Post Starts To Give Out Badges To Readers Top
The Huffington Post is taking on more of the trappings of a social network. Borrowing from Foursquare, today it will start giving out badges to loyal readers who share a lot of HuffPost stories via Facebook and Twitter (the Networker), comment like crazy (the Superuser), or flag inappropriate comments (the Moderator). The site also redesigned its user profile page to better highlight each user’s comment stream, and her friends, fans, or followers. Last summer, the site launched its HuffPost Social News network , allowing readers to log in with their Facebook IDs, and friend, fan, and follow each other on the site. It later added Twitter, Google, and Yahoo as login options. “We want to incorporate the best of social media,” Arianna Huffington tells me. “It is important for the growth of the site so far, and even more important for the future growth.” The Huffington Post is already fairly huge. Five years after she launched it as a politics blog, it now attracts 23 million readers a month in the U.S. (comScore, March, 2010), which is more than the NYTimes.com (13.3 million). And the site now covers 20 different news categories, including media, entertainment, sports, business, and local city sections for New York, L.A., Chicago, and Denver. An art section is launching next month, and after that a travel section. Politics now represents less than a quarter of the HuffPosts’s traffic. Of those 23 million visitors, most are casual readers. But 800,000 of them have HuffPost Social News profiles. They are the ones who log in and leave 2.3 million comments a month. In an effort to “maintain a civil environment” and prevent the “trolls from taking over,” says Huffington, in addition to the site’s own paid comment moderators, readers are encouraged to flag inappropriate comments. Now, those who earn the Moderator badge and level up will be able to delete comments as well. Much of the HuffPost’s growth is coming from readers sharing links on Facebook , Twitter and elsewhere with their social networks. The Networker badge is supposed to reward that kind of behavior. The HuffPost also encourages this behavior with its aggressive promotion of Facebook and Twitter buttons all over the site. Links spread through social sharing “is the fastest growing part of our traffic,” says CEO Eric Hippeau. “Search is still bigger, but referrals from social networks is growing much faster.” In other words, the more the HuffPost becomes like a social network itself, the more it will rely on Facebook, Twitter, and the rest to drive its growth. CrunchBase Information Huffington Post Arianna Huffington Information provided by CrunchBase
 
LinkedIn Follows Facebook And Twitter Into 'Follow' Model Top
LinkedIn has been working to make its professional social network, well, more social. With the massive popularity of Facebook, and Twitter, it makes sense for LinkedIn to use some of the feature from these networks in order to make its platform more social. Last fall, Linked integrated with Twitter, allows users to Tweet from its platform and send Tweets from outside clients to LinkedIn with a hashtag. Today, LinkedIn is launching a small yet very familiar feature: the ability to “follow” a company’s profiles. So now, any LinkedIn user can follow a company on the network, and will receive real-time alerts from the profile in their news and activity stream. It’s very similar in theory to the act of “following” someone on Twitter of becoming a fan of someone on Facebook. The idea is to help users keep track of company updates, such as job openings, new developments and more, but in real time. You can now click a “follow” button on a company’s profile, and their updates will automatically be added to your stream. You can also choose the volume of and types of updates you receive from these companies. It’s not surprising that LinkedIn is pushing more social features, as this seems to be a part of a greater strategy. With 65 million members, LinkedIn is steadily growing in terms of users but wants to bring LinkedIn to any sites or platforms that people may use in their professional life. In the past few months, the company has launched a new URL shortener and enhances sharing features, integrated with Microsoft Outlook and opening up the platform’s API. However, it should be interesting if LinkedIn integrates with Facebook in some way, as it did with Twitter. Weiner told me recently that after the Twitter launch, status updates on the social network have increased significantly. With Facebook’s 400 million plus memebers, it would make sense for LinkedIn to tap into the immense power of Facebook’s social graph. CrunchBase Information LinkedIn Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Textie: A Handsome, Simple Messaging App From The Guys Behind Tweetie & Borange Top
Before Twitter bought Atebits , Loren Brichter was busy. Not only was he hard at work on a follow up to Tweetie for Mac and a version for the iPad, but he had a secret side project that no one knew about. Until now. Meet Textie . Textie is a dead-simple application with one purpose: free and beautiful texting for the iPhone and iPod touch. Given what a complete and utter rip-off traditional text messaging is, it’s a little surprising that there hasn’t been any backlash against the format. Instead, it’s exploding in usage. But as apps such as TextPlus have proven, there’s clearly a market for people who want to send messages without the fees. While TextPlus focuses mainly on group texting, Textie’s angle is to keep things clean and simple. The key ingredient is the interaction between the app and email. Once you download Textie (the app is free and ad-supported by FusionAds , or you can pay $1.99 for an ad-free version), you register by tying it to an email address. You can tie it to multiple addresses, and even U.S. phone numbers. This is the way that people will be able to communicate with you on Textie. When you load the app, you simply select the person’s email (or phone number) from your address book and send a text or picture message. If they have the app installed and registered to their email (or phone number) they’ll get the message within Textie. But even if they don’t, they’ll get an email (or regular SMS) with the message. If they respond to it, it will go right to your Textie app. This seems like a very smart way to get people to use your app. They can install Textie if they want to, but they don’t have to for you to still be able to use it with them. And installing Textie will make the process just a tad more seamless. “ It effectively replaced SMS for me ,” Brichter says. Brichter built Textie alongside the creators of Borange , a nice, simple social activity app that we wrote up in December . Both teams clearly have a great eye for design, and Textie is no different. It’s simple just as the iPhone’s default messages app is, but with little additions here and there such as the way photos are attached to messages when you send them. This seems like the perfect app for an iPod touch, which of course, doesn’t have SMS capabilities. You can find Textie in the App Store here . CrunchBase Information Atebits Borange Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Kindle Update Adds Facebook And Twitter Interaction, Password Protection, And Better PDF Control Top
Not to be outdone by Nook , Amazon has released the Kindle 2.5 firmware. The new software adds a number of interesting features including the ability to share passages of books with your Facebook and Twitter friends providing that, unlike mine, yours are literate (don't worry, they won't be able to read this). The firmware will launch later next month and includes the following features: The 2.5 software update for Kindle and Kindle DX is coming soon. We are rolling out the new software update to a limited group of Kindle users and plan a broad release in late May 2010. Check back here for updates on the release schedule. Here's a list of the coming enhancements: Collections: Organize your books and documents into one or more collections. PDF Pan and Zoom: Zoom into PDFs and pan around to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics.
 

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