So
Google has added some new content and options to their personalized home page. In addition to drag and drop screen layout, probably the biggest news is the creation of an API to allow for developers to create their own widgets and content. It's no netvibes, but it is getting better.
First Apple introduces widgets behind the desktop with Dashboard, Yahoo recently provided widgets on the desktop (as well as on newer Tivo DVRs), Opera is pushing widgets on mobile devices and now Google (not surprisingly) is pushing widgets in the browser (or on the web, if you will).
I believe that there is room for all of them; consumers will decide where and how they want their functionality and information delivered to them.
So
I found this piece on The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users to be a handy reference to some features that I have yet to discover/explore on del.icio.us. I just recently starting using the for: tag to push bookmarks that would be of interest out to other del.icio.us users that I know.
The inbox functionality sounds interesting:
The inbox is a mystery for many folks, but it's a powerful tool. Your del.icio.us inbox allows you to track what's been added to particular tags and to track what particular users have bookmarked. There are a couple of ways to begin using your inbox. You can click the 'inbox' link at the top of any page when you're logged in and then click the 'edit inbox' link on the right side. Or you can just click the 'settings' link (top right corner) and then click the 'inbox labels' link under the 'experimental' section. Either way will get you to the same page where you'll see a couple of text entry boxes. One is for adding USERNAMES and the other is for adding tags. If you know the del.icio.us USERNAME of someone you want to track, enter it in the 'user' field and hit the subscribe button. If you have a particular tag you want to keep tabs on, enter it in the 'tag' field and hit subscribe. Once you get the hang of this, you'll fill up your inbox in no time.
So OpinMind is an interesting take on blog search engines in that it attempts to categorize the blog content as either positive or negative. I would guess that it somehow uses the surrounding text to make the determination.
You can also do comparison searches by putting a 'vs' between two terms. Just for fun, I tried a few, with mixed results: Peace (91%) beat out War (42%), but then again Life (50%) lost out to Death (65%). It probably has all the statistical relevance of Magic Eight Ball, but can be kind of fun to see the results (like the perennial favorite 'Ginger vs MaryAnn').
So
The ShareiPod application will allow you to share the music on your iPod with having to upload your music to a computer. Remember to place this app in your startup items so you can share your tunes whenever you connect your iPod.
“Handheld music machines are extremely popular and users are constantly using small, difficult buttons with the same finger in a repetitive motion,” said Carl Irwin from the British Chiropractic Association. “The nature of modern technology means that these devices are only going to be getting smaller, and I would not be surprised if hand and finger related injuries become one of the most common repetitive strain injuries that chiropractors treat.”
Why would you ever want to do this? Well, its one way to make it easier to connect to your home computer when you are away from home. As the Internet is a wild place, you also need to take adequate precautions regarding what you expose and how. From the nonstopmac writeup:
For those who are still wondering what am I talking about, DynDNS can be used for giving your IP address a good-looking hostname. This is especially useful in situations where you are using dial-up access or ADSL connections with dynamic IP addresses. By using the DynDNS service with a combination of their software installed on your computer, you can be always available through the same host name. You can use this setup when you are hosting a web server on your local computer or when you want to use service like Virtual Network Computer (VNC) to access your desktop from a far away location. In both of these scenarios, you will need a static address, so the DynDNS service comes quite handy.
So Sun has announced that they are giving away (providing for free download and use) of all of their server side software and developer tools. I assume that they hope to make money off of services and support (like Red Hat). This also allows them to claim some karma by now having 'free and open source software' while making a last ditch effort to compete with Windows.
Frankly, it feels like an act of desperation, as they have seen the open source community eating their lunch in the software arena and Intel in the hardware arena. It also feels like a real opportunity for anyone with an interest in Sun software to download and have a look.
So Tivo have announced new Online Services for Tivo series 2 owners who have broadband capability (like me!). Several of the services are tied to Yahoo! (Photos, Weather and Traffic). Others include the Live364 Radio Network, movie information and ticketing via Fandango and the ability to listen to Podcasts.
Apparently, some screenshots of these functions were leaked last week by a beta tester who claimed that they would not be available until some time next year. Tivo was a little more prepared and announced them today. I priority registered both of my units and the confirmation screen said it would take 'a few days' to push out the update. Very nice.
Hopefully, this is the just the beginning for Tivo services and the catalyst for more services being re-purposed from the web onto consumer electronic devices.