First, we heard rumors about the hardware. But you can only have so many rumors about hardware, so after a while everything we’ve heard about Apple’s mythical Tablet merely resulted with one huge pile of colorful images, with little real substance. The rumors about publishers who are already having big plans for the device, however, are galore. The latest on the list? Condé Nast, which – according to All Things Digital – claims it’s preparing a digital version of Wired magazinefor the Apple Tablet by the middle of next year, followed by its other 18 titles. The interesting thing about this news is the fact that Condé Nast claims they haven’t talked to Apple, and they don’t even know the company has plans for such a device. While this is very hard to believe, if it’s true, it would mean that Apple has attained a new, truly outwordly level of influence: companies are making plans and spending money based on what Apple might do.Imagine the power: all the major news publishers bend to your will even before it has materialized. You can simply wait until the demand is big enough, and then come down from your pedestal and deliver the goods (earning a huge heap of money in the process). Snapping back to the real world, it’s quite obvious that Condé Nast, New York Timesand others have been talking to Apple and yes, the tablet is coming. Its look and hardware-related details now seem to be less interesting than the question: will it save the newspaper industry? If it does, I suspect that Apple will have a nice, healthy chunk of the profits. Tags: Apple Tablet, conde nast, Wired
Cisco’s popular Flip camcorder has helped sparked a revolution in digital and online video. By making video recording quick and easy to record and upload, millions of random moments have been captured (and then summarily uploaded to YouTube).However, the Flip is getting some major challengers. Kodak’s Zi8 video camera boasts impressive features and 1080p HD quality (note: I own both a Flip and a Zi8), but perhaps the bigger threat to Cisco’s camera is Apple: the iPhone 3GS can directly upload to YouTube and even theiPod Nano now boasts a video camera.Cisco’s fighting back with new features, though. The next-generation Flip MinoHD, due in the first half of 2010, includes double the memory, a larger screen, and direct Facebook uploads. Now according to Pocket Lint(and confirmed by Cisco), the Flip will, for the first time, include Wi-Fi.The development doesn’t surprise us: this is an area where Cisco is proficient, and with the iPhone 3GS changing the face of video (YouTube uploads rose by 400% right after the iPhone 3GS after its release), the Flip had to evolve to match. You won’t be able to upload video from anywhere, but it does make it a lot easier. There’s one more new feature that shouldn’t be overlooked: the new Flip will increase its screen real-estate by have a sliding screen that reveals the record and menu buttons. Sweet.Reviews: YouTubeTags: cisco, Flip, wi-fi
This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.Name: CanvasPopQuick Pitch: CanvasPop allows you to upload and print virtually any image onto a canvas, even iPhone and Facebook pics, at any size you want.Genius Idea: CanvasPop lets users and artists turn their photographs or digital art into canvas printed wall art. You can use photos from Flickr, Facebook, your iPhone and more and make your artistic creations really stand out.It’s funny to think that, in under 10 years, the film camera has all but disappeared. Sure, film lovers still keep around their pristine 35mm and lens collections and toy camera lovers (can I get a holler from my fellow Holga owners?!) find new ways to create unique and different images, but at this point digital is by and large cheaper, faster and of higher quality. As a result, many of us have the bulk of our photo albums stored digitally, uploaded to services like Facebook or Flickr, and only print out those really special photos.But what do you do when you have a really spectacular photograph or digital image and you want to do something bigger with it? CanvasPop is a service that lets users easily and affordably have their creations printed on canvas in a variety of sizes and with the option to use digital filters to add in some really specular results.If you’ve ever tried to get something printed on canvas, you know that it can be expensive. CanvasPop is surprisingly reasonable, with prices for rolled canvas prints starting at $30 for an 8×10 and framed images starting at just $49.As the holiday season approaches, having a photo or digital image printed on something large enough to hang on a wall or above a desk can be a great, great gift. CanvasPop makes it easy to use an image from programs like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator or from your digital camera or from services like Facebook. Flickr and Picasa.We love it when digital technology can merge with something more tangible. What do you think of canvas photo printing?Spark of Genius Series Sponsored by Microsoft BizSparkBizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platformfor their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest– use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”Reviews: Adobe Photoshop, Facebook, Flickr, PHP, PicasaTags: canvas, canvaspop, digital printing, facebook, flickr
AT&T may have lost the battle, but the war is not over. Of course we’re talking about all the hubbub over Verizon’s Map for That ads, which paint AT&T’s 3G network as inferior to Verizon’s.Verizon’s holiday adsstirred the poteven more, inflaming AT&T to file a lawsuit, which, as we found out earlier today, was not a successful endeavor. The legal defeat hasn’t stopped the wireless carrier from rushing out the first in a series of new ads as counter commercials to shoot down Map for That claims.They’ve tapped funny man Luke Wilson to drive home the message that AT&T’s 3G service is superior to Verizon’s. Of course, they also make sure to mention their exclusive iPhone deal and Apple’s impressive 100,000 applications. Watch it below and let us know what you think in the comments.[via iPhone Blog]Tags: att, map for that ads, trending, verizon
After grumblings earlier in the week, the deal is now apparently done: MySpace has inked a deal to buy imeem. The going price? A pittance, apparently — a lowly $1 million in cash. For that, MySpace will bring in about half of imeem’s 55 employees and use some of the company’s assets to pay off its significant debt.After a number of iterations during its lifetime since it was founded in 2003 and first debuted in 2005, imeem finally gets its exit. We doubt it was the exit founder Dalton Caldwell was hoping for, but the company’s trajectory plus the overall bleak state of the online music service playing field (thanks in large part to relentless assault from major label lawsuits) led it to this ultimate fire sale.It’s not known whether the imeem brand will even continue to exist under MySpace management, or whether the talent and assets will be folded into MySpace’s own extensive lineup of music and music video offerings. Until the deal is officially announced though, anything could happen. A MySpace spokesperson declined to comment to us on the terms of the sale or the potential roadmap for the company. Are you an imeem user sad to see its bitter end, or hoping for its continuation under new parent company MySpace?Reviews: MySpaceTags: acquisitions, imeem, music, myspace, online music, online music services
Nice try but no dice: a federal judge has declined AT&T’s plea for a temporary restraining orderagainst Verizon’s “There’s a Map for That” ads, a lawsuit they slapped the rival carrier withearlier this month.AT&T’s argument was that the Verizon ads mislead consumers into thinking the carrier has little to no wireless internet coveragein huge swaths of the country, by putting two 3G coverage maps side by side and obfuscating the fact that AT&T nevertheless does have 2G data coverage in many of those areas. They wanted an injunction that would pull those ads off the air, but the Atlanta judge disagreed.The carrier says they intend to appeal the ruling, although even if AT&T were to eventually get the courts on their side it’s already fairly late in the game, as the ads have already been running for over a month. Verizon had fired backwith a rebuttal of its own to the court earlier in the week, which was apparently enough to help sway the favor of the court against the plaintiff.The battle is getting ugly at this point, and we wonder what we’ll see next. What do you think: was the court’s ruling fair? Tags: 3g, att, iphone, lawsuit, Mobile 2.0, verizon
Just a few weeks ago, one of the biggest changes to hit Twitter was launched: Twitter Lists. The feature has permeated every corner of Twitter, allowing you to curate lists of Twitter users that others can follow.Now Twitter is rolling out improvements to its Lists feature, starting with one that many Twitter users have been asking for: descriptions. Before, only the title of your list indicated what it was about. However, the microblogging startup has rolled out a solution. When you go to edit any list, you will find a new field, Description, that allows you to describe the list you have created in 100 characters or less.It’s a small addition, but a good one nonetheless. If you’re still struggling with getting started, here is our list ofways to use Twitter Lists.Also see: 15 Social Media Lists to Follow and ExpandReviews: TwitterTags: twitter, Twitter Lists
Facebook took a big leap up the video streaming ladder last month. It is now sitting pretty in the number 3 slot behind YouTubeand Huluin number of total streams. In addition, the social networking site clocked up over double the unique viewers of Hulu, although in total streams Hulu eclipsed Facebook almost 4 to 1.That’s a significant gain for Facebook, who just squeaked into the Top 10 the month before. While YouTube is still way out in front of both sites, execs at Hulu might want to take notice of the sheer viral power of the Facebook network to socialize video in ways that Hulu, with its spartan social features by comparison, simply can’t as easily leverage on its own (in fact, it seems they have noticed).The picture for online video overall seems somewhat plateaued, with a Nielson reported 11.2 billion total stream in October — which is only enough to match the numbers from the hot summer video season this past July. Still, total views are up slightly from September’s 11 billion, although uniques have fallen very modestly to 138.6 million from 139.3 million the previous month.What do you think: will Facebook’s inherent virality be enough to propel it past the premium content from major networks aggregated by Hulu? Do you find yourself watching and/or sharing more videos on Facebook?[via NewTeeVee]Reviews: Facebook, HuluTags: facebook, hulu, nielson, ONLINE VIDEO, video streaming, viral video, youtube
At today’s Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC), Microsoft unveiled the first beta version of Silverlight 4, its answer to the domination of Adobe Flash. This is a developer beta — no end-user runtime is available at the moment — but the new beta offers up some new features developers can play with to make web apps using Silverlight more robust.Silverlight 4 brings a slew of new features, including support for printing, webcams and microphones and rich text and custom menu options, as well as the ability to interact with local files in trusted applications. Although sometimes dismissed, Silverlight as a technology has a ton of potential, especially in the area of cross-platform support.Info on the New Silverlight BetaSilverlight 4 applications are said to start faster and run 200% faster than the equivalent Silverlight 3 apps. Silverlight 4 also adds support for Google’s Chrome browser, which is good news for anyone who wants to use Chrome with Silverlight powered sites like Netflix.With Silverlight 4, it looks like Microsoft is blurring the lines between WPF desktop apps and the Silverlight space. The advantage here is that developers can essentially write one app and deploy it either on the Windows desktop or put it on the web where it can be run cross platform. By adding the ability to access local files for trusted apps and have custom context menu and rich text support, Silverlight might finally present itself as a platform for web apps that need to be more powerful than just the browser, but still cross platform and light weight. If you’re interested in what is new, check out this video (Silverlight required). It’s a little dry for non-techies, but the information is still valuable.What do you think about Silverlight and Silverlight 4?Reviews: ChromeTags: microsoft silverlight, Silverlight, silverlight 4
One of the drawbacks of e-Ink technology is that color displays are still a couple years out, if not longer. That means eReader devices that want to take advantage of e-Ink’s significant benefits like low eye strain and low power consumption are stuck with a black and white reading experience for the time being.Other devices are starting to break the mold, like the Barnes & Noble Nookwith its two-pane design providing color support in a smaller LCD screen. But mobile chip-maker Qualcomm is hoping to leapfrog past the race to color e-Ink panels with its own display technology dubbed mirasol, a low-power and highly reflective (good for reading in direct sunlight) project it hopes to take to the market by late next year. Now the company is showing off a 5.7-inch prototypecapable of both full color display and video playback, without sacrificing too much in the way of battery life.Interestingly, the technology behind mirasol is similar to what enables a butterfly’s iridescent wings to shimmer. Qualcomm is working with unnamed partners to get a variety of eReader devices based on mirasol onto the market by late 2010, most likely at similar pricepoints to current eReaders available now. The plans include multiple devices both with and without full QWERTY keyboards and touchscreens.Do you have an eReader device currently? Would you consider upgrading — or are you holding out — for a digital book reader that supports color?[Images courtesy of Slashgear, Vick Is Nature(Flickr)]Reviews: FlickrTags: color eReaders, e-ink, ebooks, ereader, mirasol, qualcomm
About a year ago, Google launched Chrome, their super fast, open source web browser. Since then it has grabbed just over three and a half percent of the world’s web browser market, according to Net Applications. That’s not bad, but still puts Chrome firmly in fourth place behind Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. One of the reasons why Chrome has been stuck in fourth place: extensions — Chrome hasn’t got them.Or more precisely, Chrome doesn’t have them yet. At least, not officially. If you ask most Firefox fans the main reason they won’t switch to Chrome, a good majority of them will probably cite its lack of extensions. But that might change, because Chrome extensions are coming — perhaps soon. And for users of the developer’s build of Chrome, they’re already here. So for those of you brave enough to use the unstable developers release of Chrome, here are 6 extensions that social media addicts will want to install.Where to Find Chrome ExtensionsChrome only has extensions enabled in the developer release. To get that release, you have to subscribe to the Chrome Dev Channel. Once you’ve downloaded the developer’s version of the browser, you can begin to install extensions.For now, the best place to find and install extensions is probably from the ChromeExtensions.orgdirectory, which offers one-click installation of extensions from its categorized listing. You can also find extensions via the ChromePlugins.organd GoogleChromePlugins.comforum communities, and via the My Chrome Addonsblog. However, Google has recently dropped hintsthat an official extensions gallery may be coming soon, which also indicates that support for extensions in the stable release of Chrome might be right around the corner.Once you’ve installed some extensions, you can manage them by navigating to chrome://extensions in the address bar or clicking on ‘Extensions’ in the tools menu. Chrome extensions are still a very new animal, and Chrome’s developer build changes frequently, so be prepared for the extensions listed below to break on occasion. 6 Must-Have Social Media Extensions1. Gmail CheckerStaying up-to-date with email is one of the most important tasks for social media fanatics, and Chrome makes that task easier for Gmail users with the Gmail Checker extension. It’s one of Google’s official sample extensions and adds an indicator icon next to the address bar in Chrome that shows you how many unread messages you have in Gmail. The extension only works if you’re logged into Gmail, but that’s nice because it means you don’t actually have to share your password with any third-party.2. Chromed BirdThere are a bunch of Twitter extensions for Chrome, but the best one might be Chromed Bird. It’s a fairly polished extension that lets you read and reply to tweets directly from within Chrome. It worked very well in my testing today, though you do have to share your username and password with the app (no OAuth support). Chromed Bird’s icon changes color when you have new tweets waiting, which is a nice visual cue, but the extension has no support for @reply or DM notifications, even though it has (non-working) tabs in the UI for filtering those types of messages. In all, Chromed Bird is very barebones, but functional as a basic, in-browser Twitter client.You should also check out Metrist, which is highly rated, but in Chinese (and I couldn’t get it to work properly).3. Twitter TickerIf you’re less concerned with tweeting, but would rather just stay up-to-date with tweets in your stream, then Twitter Ticker is a great extension to have. Once installed, the addon will scroll tweets in the bottom status bar of the browser as they happen. Holding your mouse over the scroll will pause it.On its own, that’s not very impressive, but when used in tandem with Chrome Bird — which, lacks advanced tweet notifications — Twitter Ticker is definitely very useful.4. Micro Last.fmMicro Last.fm is a very simple set of controls for Last.fm radio. It certainly lives up to its name by offering a super tiny UI that lives in the bottom status bar in Chrome. One of the nicest things about Micro Last.fm is that it doesn’t need your login credentials — and you don’t even need to be logged into Last.fm for it to work!The extension functions by opening up Last.fm radio in a new tab in Chrome, and then linking itself to that tab so you can control the radio station.5. TPGoogleReaderThere are a bunch of Google Reader addons for Chrome, but most just display your unread count or allow you to subscribe to feeds in Reader more easily. TPGoogleReader does a lot more than that, however. Made by the same person as Micro Last.fm, it is one of the most complete Google Reader extensions currently available for Chrome.Perhaps its most compelling feature is that you can set it to automatically open stories in a new tab in Chrome as they come into Google Reader and mark them as read. For heavy RSS readers that might be a nightmare, but for those subscribed in Google Reader to just a handful of feeds, the feature offers a way to get news pushed to you as it happens throughout the day without ever having to actually visit Google.Also check out Google Reader Checker, which just checks Reader for unread items, but does it in an elegant way.6. Facebook Notification CheckerFacebook Notification Checker works just like Gmail Checker, but for Facebook. It adds an icon next to the address bar in Chrome that alerts you to new notifications in Facebook. In my testing it was a little finicky and didn’t always catch new notifications, but for avid Facebook users it will nonetheless be useful.One of the nicest features of Facebook Notification Checker is that it doesn’t require you to give it your username and password — you just need to be logged into Facebook in order for it to work.What other Google Chrome extensions would you recommend to social media addicts? Let us know in the comments.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Mike_KievReviews: Chrome, Facebook, Firefox, Gmail, Google, Google Chrome, Google Reader, Twitter, iStockphotoTags: addons, chrome, extensions, List, Lists
For as long as we can remember, there have been rumblings that a Qualcomm chip would find its way into iPhones of the future. The speculation was especially high around the time that the 3GS was released. While thatfuture date isn’t here just yet, there is an increasing likelihood that the day will come.In statement to Bloomberg, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs confirms that there is ongoing interest to become a chip supplier for Apple’s iPhone.The remarks were made during a television interview in Hong Kong earlier today, and continue to paint the picture of an eventual marriage between Apple and the San Diego-based cell phone chip maker.Jacob’s words leave the door open for a deal. He says, ““We continue to discuss it, but haven’t made it yet … Hopefully, in the future, we will have the opportunity.”For a little background on why the deal would be a huge win for Qualcomm, Bloomberg writes:“Qualcomm seeks to join suppliers including Toshiba Corp. and Infineon Technologies AG to win chip orders for the iPhone, one of the two top-selling smart phones in the U.S. in the second-quarter, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. The San Diego-based company already sells semiconductors for handsets that use Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile technology, and Google Inc.’s Android software, Jacobs said.”The iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry Curve were the best-selling smart phones in the U.S. in the second- quarter, NPD Group said in August.While it’s still speculation, the strong statement from the CEO is definitely an interesting tidbit worth paying attention to. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if Qualcomm was able to make the deal happen in time for the next big iPhone release.Image from San Diego Shooteron FlickrReviews: Android, FlickrTags: iphone, qualcomm
For lots of web designers and type lovers, there’s much to talk about when it comes to typography and the web. Traditionally, embedding specific fonts into live content (that is, not just using a font to create a text graphic) has been difficult because it means that the end-user needs to have the font installed on their own computer system in order to view the page as designed.However, with the inclusion of @font-face in CSS3, most web browsers will be able to display fonts that are stored on a web-server, so that as long as users are using a compatible browser, they can see the typography as the designer intended. Of course, there’s a catch. Because of the way font licensing works, it is still incredibly difficult for designers to embed fonts outside of a small library into their designs without violating the foundry licenses or intellectual property claims. In May, the service Typekitwas announced as a way to facilitate foundries and web designers to work together and offer more fonts for web page embedding. The service officially opened to the public last week.How Typekit works is that you can subscribe to a monthly (or yearly if you prefer) plan to have access to Typekit’s font library of professional, fully licensed fonts for your websites. The price is pretty reasonable; the portfolio plan costs just $49.99 a year for access to Typekit’s complete library on up to five different websites.Today, Typekit has announced that they have partnered with FontFont, a well-respected and high quality font house. FontFont fonts like FF Meta, FF Speak and FF Netto are now available for Typekit users to embed into their sites.This is great news for web typography fans because it means that even more great fonts can become available to more designers — and in a way that makes the font license holders comfortable.I’ve been using Typekit for several months and am impressed with its growing library of fonts. As foundries continue to grapple with the licensing issues that will affect web typography and design, it’s good to see solutions like Typekit continuing to gain momentum.What do you think about the state of typography on the web?Tags: css3, fontfont, fonts, typekit, web typography
Earlier this morning, I went on NBC in San Diegoto talk about the online hysteria surrounding Twilight Saga: New Moon. The segment is embedded below, but given that both Crimson Hexagon and Trendrr were kind enough to provide exclusive (and astonishing) data surrounding New Moon social media mania, we thought it best that we expand on a few of the interesting findings here.By now you’re well aware that the MySpace/Ustream partnership to live broadcast the red carpet premiere to the web was a record-breaking winfor both companies. Amassing 3 million viewers, and 2 million uniques is no small feat, and it happens to be a first for Ustream. It’s quite the coup; after all this was just a red carpet event.Data from Trendrralso shows that tweets, around the time of the premiere, peaked at more than 12,000 tweets per hour. And the hysteria is just getting started. As you can tell from the graph above, New Moon related tweets are now climbing at an exponential rate, with over 81,000 tweets on Tuesday, November 17th.For those of you already sick of online chatter, you’re not alone, but you are outnumbered (so be careful out there). Crimson Hexagonanalyzed the content of more than 13,500 tweets and found that 8% of you are sick of the hype and somewhat shocked and dismayed by the attention the movie is getting.The rest of the tweets, 92% in total, paint a very positive picture for New Moon ticket sales. 13% of tweets include twitterers who are trying to plan ahead for their New Moon events, going so far as to use the medium for coordinating viewing parties. As to be expected, the majority of tweets, 59% to be exact, are expressing excitement and counting down the days and the hours until they can catch the flick in theaters.Clearly New Moon mania is in full force online. If you’re looking to pre-order tickets, you better act fast, as movie sites like Fandago and MovieTickets.com are reporting huge demand and sellouts.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, LeggNet.Reviews: MySpace, iStockphoto, ustreamTags: new moon, Twilight: New Moon
