24 julio 2010 – Gabriel Catalano®

Why Flipboard Matters

e were the first big media source to cover Flipboard, and ever since that moment the iPad application has taken over the technology scene leaving many scratching their heads: what about this application is so special? Let’s take a moment to break down just what Flipboard is, why it is a big deal, and what it means for future media applications.

To begin, Flipboard is not finished or perfect. It has annoying feature holes, but like an unfinished painting you can see the bigger picture in the gaps. Flipboard needs, among other things, offline access, stronger posting capabilities for Facebook and Twitter, more pages per section, a ban button, and better controls to prevent repeat content. All that will be solved over the next several releases, it’s just a matter of time, so let’s put that aside.

By Alex Wilhelm

We were the first big media source to cover Flipboard, and ever since that moment the iPad application has taken over the technology scene leaving many scratching their heads: what about this application is so special? Let’s take a moment to break down just what Flipboard is, why it is a big deal, and what it means for future media applications.

Antennas: Jobs Was Right. They’re Still a Challenge

For most of today’s basic voice and data cell signals, the right antenna length is about three inches or seven inches. FM radio and broadcast TV antennas are longer, though antennas can be bent to fit inside tiny phones. The optimal length is half the frequency the antenna is designed to receive divided by the speed of light. Any longer or shorter, and the reception can suffer. Furthermore, «the [human] body has a major effect on the antenna because at different frequencies it acts differently,» says Stuart Lipoff, an electronics consultant.

: Image via CrunchBase

As phones continue to shrink, fitting antennas in and making them work correctly often comes down to trial and error

By Amy Thomson

Whatever you think of Steve Jobs‘ defense of the iPhone 4 and its reception issues, the Apple (AAPL) boss was right about one thing: Antennas are a technological challenge, one that engineers have wrestled with since before Gordon Gekko barked orders into his Motorola (MOT) DynaTAC from a beach in the Hamptons. And as phones continue to shrink, fitting antennas in and making them work correctly often comes down to trial and error, says Stephen Temple, a retired engineer who helped plan Europe’s GSM technology. «It would be fair to say that antenna design is a little bit of a dark art,» Temple says. Continuar leyendo «Antennas: Jobs Was Right. They’re Still a Challenge»

Microsoft shows off TellMe voice control in Windows Phone 7

We know Microsoft and TellMe (who Microsoft bought) worked close together on the Samsung Intrepid (awful phone, neat service), but nothing else ever came out from it.

We also know Windows Phone 7 will have some type of voice control (see Dieter hilariously try to activate it back in February) and low and behold, Microsoft has recently demoed it for it us.

by Malatesta

We know Microsoft and TellMe (who Microsoft bought) worked close together on the Samsung Intrepid (awful phone, neat service), but nothing else ever came out from it.

We also know Windows Phone 7 will have some type of voice control (see Dieter hilariously try to activate it back in February) and low and behold, Microsoft has recently demoed it for it us.

The good… Continuar leyendo «Microsoft shows off TellMe voice control in Windows Phone 7»

40+ Web Design and Development Resources for Beginners

Brian Casel is a web designer and owner of ThemeJam WordPress Themes and CasJam Media. You can follow Brian on his blog at BrianCasel.com or on Twitter @CasJam.

It’s no secret that web design is a fast-growing industry. Virtually every type of business is in need of a quality website. There are opportunities at the large agency level down to freelancers developing small-business websites from home.

So how do you break into this exciting field? With little or no experience creating websites, getting yourself up to speed can be a daunting task. There are so many different avenues of design and development to explore. Which way should you go first? Which skill sets suit you the best?

We aim to give you an overview of a few things things that are essential to a well-rounded knowledge of web design. These are starting-points, if you will. Below each item, we’ve listed additional resources for you to continue on in your learning process.

Before we get into it, heed one important lesson: You can’t become a professional web designer overnight. It takes years to reach an expert level in any aspect of the field. But everybody starts somewhere, and there’s no better time than the present begin your web design education.

ipsum image Brian Casel is a web designer and owner of ThemeJam WordPress Themes and CasJam Media. You can follow Brian on his blog at BrianCasel.com or on Twitter @CasJam.

Weekly Web Design and Development Inspiration

This is our selection of our favorite web designs from the past week or so, some sites we discovered, but the most of them have been recommended by our readers.
Thanks for all your recommendations, and we hope you like this selection of sites as much as we do, feel free to comment and let us know what you think.

This is our selection of our favorite web designs from the past week or so, some sites we discovered, but the most of them have been recommended by our readers.

Thanks for all your recommendations, and we hope you like this selection of sites as much as we do, feel free to comment and let us know what you think.

Paul Bennett

Continuar leyendo «Weekly Web Design and Development Inspiration»

Case-Study: Make Web, Not War

Internet is the most important scientific and technological discovery since mankind conquered the Moon in 1969. No discovery over the last years had such a great influence on our civilization. Since the 90’s a new step in human evolution was written, the new “Homo digitalis” makes room for a new era, driven by technological and scientific development, filling it furthermore with an essence of life. All the main discoveries in the post Internet period were helped by it due to its capability of showing everyone, everything at anytime. For instance, the human genome was decrypted more easily and faster because of the possibility of changing information almost instantly between scientists situated all over the world.

It was the perfect situation that revealed to all people from all over the world that without communication and collaboration (which is the same as without Internet) the great discoveries would have remained still hidden. From this point of view the Internet is not only a discovery, it is a catalyst for changing and finding information or why not for a better life.

Daniel Pintilie

Freelancers Working From Home – Cures to Common Problems

Fixing this problem can be a bit challenging. First of all you have to try sticking to set hours. Close your office door when you’re done for the day and don’t allow yourself to go back in there. If you feel the need to work extra, allow yourself to do this on one scheduled day of the week – but not too often. Practicing this over time will have you feeling calmer about the whole situation, but especially in the beginning this can be tricky.
You’re «always» at Work

The previous point is about what you feel yourself about being in your work-environment during your spare time. This point is about what others feel. You could have people calling you after work hours or dropping by for work-related things, because you’re always there. If you have the required discipline to put all these things aside until your next day at work – great! If you don’t – you will feel as if you don’t have much private space.

By: Hilde Torbjornsen

If you’re a freelancer or have a small business, it’s very common to work out of your own home. Some bigger companies also offer this as a full or part-time solution for some of their workers. This type of work can be both a blessing and a curse in many ways. Here I’ve listed some of the most common problems you may run into, and some suggestions to how you can turn these into something you can live with.

Image credit: EHPhoto

When you think about working from home, many positive things come to mind. You can work wearing your pajamas and walk to work in less than a minute – regardless of season and weather. You can also set most of the rules yourself, schedule personal appointments and vacations to fit with your work, listen to music as loud as you want and be in an environment you feel comfortable with. What you should be prepared for though, are the things that aren’t as glamorous.

In this article you’ll get to know some of them, along with some suggestions on how to make them work for you and not against you. Continuar leyendo «Freelancers Working From Home – Cures to Common Problems»

LinkedIn Hires Shannon Stubo, Key Exec For IPO Run

LinkedIn has hired Shannon Stubo as their new Vice President Communications, CEO Jeff Weiner tells us.

Stubo, most recently at OpenTable, took that company through their IPO process. Prior to OpenTable Stubo spent seven years at eBay, eventually as vice president of corporate communications.

Companies usually stack their executive teams with people who’ve previously worked at public companies, and execs who’ve actually gone through the IPO process are particularly valued. Stubo will understand the nuances around complicated SEC rules around publicity in a pre-IPO company.

Of course Weiner says he hired Stubo for other reasons, and won’t comment on the company’s IPO plans. But it’s clear LinkedIn is looking to file for an IPO sometime in the next few financial quarters. Unless, of course, one of the big guys makes them an acquisition offer they can’t refuse.

This isn’t the first addition to the LinkedIn team that indicates that the company is looking to boost its experience of advising a company through an IPO. Earlier this year, LinkedIn brought on its first outside board member, Skip Battle, former Ask.com CEO and board member of Netflix, Expedia and OpenTable. While Weiner told us at the time that Battle’s experience advising consumer focused and enterprise companies made him an ideal choice, it’s clear that the seasoned exec’s role in helping lead a number of technology companies through a public offering may have been a factor as well.

by Michael Arrington

LinkedIn has hired Shannon Stubo as their new Vice President Communications, CEO Jeff Weiner tells us.

Stubo, most recently at OpenTable, took that company through their IPO process. Prior to OpenTable Stubo spent seven years at eBay, eventually as vice president of corporate communications.

Firefox Just Perfected Tabbed Browsing. It’s Like Apple’s Expose Plus Spaces For The Web

If you’re anything like me, at any given time you have a dozen to two dozen tabs open across multiple web browser windows. It’s great to have all these webpages open and ready to click on at any second, but it’s a nightmare to try and remember where each is with so many open. I shudder to think how much time I waste on this each day. Luckily, Mozilla is working on a solution.

A new feature called Tab Candy is in the works. It’s still early in testing mode, as Mozilla’s Aza Raskin points out on his blog today, but it looks to be exactly what I need.

Be sure to watch the video below for a full overview — from the looks of it, it seems as if Tab Candy is sort of like Apple’s Expose feature mixed with their Spaces feature, both of which are baked into OS X. For those who don’t use a Mac, basically these features allow you to zoom out and get a bird’s-eye-view of all your windows (or tabs, in this case) that are open — and you can also arrange open windows (or again, tabs, in this case) in certain spaces so they’re clumped together. This allows you to more easily find what you’re looking for with so many tabs open.

: Image via Wikipedia

A new feature called Tab Candy is in the works. It’s still early in testing mode, as Mozilla’s Aza Raskin points out on his blog today, but it looks to be exactly what I need.

Building Rich Internet Applications with Frameworks

JavaScript libraries, ICEfaces, Adobe Flash 4, Microsoft Silverlight, and now, HTML5 have been competing for web dominance as the world wide web is thrown into a new era — an era dominated by rich internet applications (RIA for short).

The purpose of this article is to define what RIAs are, explain why the web has been moving towards RIAs, explore the different RIA frameworks that exist today, give an overview of the pros and cons for each framework, and discuss how these new technologies might coexist in the future.

by Eric Rowell

Continuar leyendo «Building Rich Internet Applications with Frameworks»

Vida y Estilo Se recupera la publicidad global y en EE.UU.

El negocio publicitario global está tomando velocidad según un nuevo pronóstico que mejora las expectativas para el mundo. El gasto global podría crecer 3,5% para fin de año, lo cual mejora las expectativas con respecto a abril, que anunciaban 2,2%.

ZenithOptimedia, los autores del nuevo pronóstico, afirma que la recuperación del mercado publicitario todavía no alcanza la fuerza de ciclos anteriores. En Estados Unidos, la región que ZenithOptimedia actualizó más, llos cálculos anteriores sobre recuperación declinarían 1,5% este año . el nuevo pronóstico ronda el 1m3%.
El crecimiento proyectado de Norteamérica sigue el más pequeño de todas las regiones. ZenithOptimedia calcula una recuperación de 2,2% este año en Europa occidental, 5,8% in the Asia Pacific region, 10.6% in the Asia Pacific region excluding Japan, 7% in Central and Eastern Europe, 7% in Latin America and 6.9% in Africa, the Middle East and the rest of the world. Continuar leyendo «Vida y Estilo Se recupera la publicidad global y en EE.UU.»

Wal-Mart proyecta etiquetado electrónico de ropa

A partir del próximo mes Wal-Mart proyecta implementar un sistema de etiquetas identificadoras para rastrear, po ejemplo, pares de vaqueros o ropa interior. Es el primer paso de un sistema de mejoramiento en el control de inventario. Es otra aplicación de la tecnología por radiofrecuencia, o RFID.

Las “tarjetas inteligentes” sobre prendas de vestir se leen con escáners manuales. De esa forma los empleados podrán saber rápidamente qué talles de vaqueros están faltando y acelerar la reposición. Si da buen resultado, las etiquetas de radiofrecuencia se aplicarán a más productos en todos los puntos de venta Wal-Mart.
Hasta ahora, la cadena – y los demàs minoristas – usaban tarjetas RFID pero sólo para escanear a la distancia y rastrear los pallets de mercadería que viajan a través de la cadena de suministro.

A partir del próximo mes Wal-Mart proyecta implementar un sistema de etiquetas identificadoras para rastrear, po ejemplo, pares de vaqueros o ropa interior. Es el primer paso de un sistema de mejoramiento en el control de inventario. Es otra aplicación de la tecnología por radiofrecuencia, o RFID.