Mick Darling's posterousAll my blogging in one spot. (mostly)Amazon Glacier Archives Your Important Data for a Penny per GB per Month [Backup]
Chances are you or your organization have gigabytes (if not terabytes) of valuable data—whether they're photos or videos or archived projects—that you want to keep for a long time. Amazon Glacier is a new service providing this archival storage—for just a penny per GB a month. More »
IRISNotes 2 is like a cheap version of Livescribe minus the special paper
Companies have been trying for years to make it easy for users to write on a standard notepad and capture that text in a digital format. I.R.I.S., a company that specializes in optical character recognition software, is back at it again with its new IRISNotes 2 lineup of digital pens. The battery-powered pens capture text and drawings using a receiver clipped to a sheet of standard paper. The receiver records the motions of your hand as you write and uses OCR technology to convert the handwriting into electronic text. Each pen can store up to 100 pages of text and can download the data to your computer or iOS device. The IRISNotes system is similar to the LiveScribe smartpens, but is less expensive and lets you use your own paper. The IRISNotes pens are available now in two different models. The $99 Express 2 uses standard batteries and includes an aluminum carrying case. The Executive 2 costs $149 and has rechargeable batteries, an executive design and a 30-pin cable to connect to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Executive 2 owners can also use the IRISNotes app to mock up a photo taken with their iOS device and share that image on Facebook or Flickr. [Via Engadget]
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Just in Time for Back-to-School, I.R.I.S. Digitizes Writing with IRISNotes 2
Intelligent digital pens that transform handwritten notes into editable text
Delray Beach, Fla. - August 21, 2012 - I.R.I.S., a leading innovator in optical character recognition (OCR)software, is excited to announce the availability of their IRISNotes 2 lineup, digital pens that capture handwritten notes and convert them into edible text on a computer. >
"Our IRISNotes 2 lineup saves time by eliminating the countless hours it takes to transcribe notes," said Jean-Marc Fontaine, Director of Sales and Operations, Americas at I.R.I.S. "IRISNotes 2 are the perfect solutions for students taking notes, businessmen transcribing meeting minutes, designers quickly sketching a new concept and more." As simple as putting pen to paper, the IRISNotes 2 captures notes and drawings anytime, anywhere without a computer. Using a battery-powered pen and receiver clipped to the top of a standard sheet of paper, hand movements are tracked and recorded. No special paper needed! The receiver stores up to 100 pages of text, downloads the information to a computer and then I.R.I.S' Optical Character Recognition application converts handwriting into electronic text that can be sent to Word, Outlook, Notepad, etc. It's available in two different versions: Express and Executive. The IRISNotes Express 2 is a battery powered pen that comes with 4 replacement batteries and aluminum carrying case. The IRISNotes Executive 2 has an executive style finish and comes with rechargeable battery, leather carrying pouch and 30-pin connector to share notes directly to your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. With IRISNotes Executive 2, users can write and draw on photos taken with their iOS device and can be shared immediately on Facebook or Flicker. The IRISNotes 2 Express and IRISNotes 2 Executive are now available for $99 and $149 respectively at www.irislink.com/usa. IRISNotes 2 is like a cheap version of Livescribe minus the special paper originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Updated TV Guide app includes celebrity watchlists and guest-curated channels![]() Last night the TV Guide app for iOS was updated to include a few new features, plus a few bugfixes and performance tweaks. I spoke to TVGuide.com's GM Christy Tanner about the update and learned a few interesting stats about the service itself. If you're already a fan of the app, this is a great update. If you haven't used TV Guide on your iPhone or iPad yet, now's a great time to try it. Here at TUAW we've absorbed a lot of rumors about the "next Apple TV," but the most salient points about this rumored product swirl around a better user experience when it comes to finding what you want to watch. Take The Office, a popular show on NBC for years, as one example. You might catch reruns on any number of channels, but also a stored catalog on Netflix or Hulu. These listings change all the time (certain shows disappear from Netflix based on contracts, for example). How do you keep track? TV Guide not only shows you what's playing on TV, but also what is available across a number of other services, including streaming sites like Hulu. In fact, the app will launch Hulu if that's where you find what you want to watch -- an extremely helpful feature.
With over 1.5 million users for TV Guide, Tanner and the team decided to add some actual content to the app, and two new features will be fun for people who simply don't know what to watch. First up are guest-curated channels. A selection of videos from weekly guest curators. Friend of the blog and host of What's Trending, Shira Lazar, is up first. Second there are celebrity Watchlist videos, where famous folks share what they are watching. The folks at TVGuide.com who made the app feel that it is appropriate for those of us who watch hours of TV, and those who cut the cable and only watch on-demand items once in a while. I think with the variety of discovery options available, the app launching and improved performance, that the TV Guide app is worth a look. Updated TV Guide app includes celebrity watchlists and guest-curated channels originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Would You Pay $1,000 Per Month for a Private Jet Subscription?You arrive at the airport two hours early, check your bag, get through security, take out your laptop and liquids -- the process can be nightmarish and stressful. It's time for a major (good) shakeup in the travel industry. Could a startup called Surf Air be the ticket? Founded by Eyerly brothers Wade and Dave, Surf Air offers subscription-based air travel on private planes. "We're trying to provide access to private planes to folks who otherwise wouldn’t have had it," Wade says. No extra fees, no security nightmares, and you are flying on a private jet. All this for a monthly subscription fee of about $1,000 for four flights per mont… More About: air travel, private air travel, subscription, trending, valleygirltv Typing.io Is a Typing Practice Webapp for Programmers [Webapps]
Programming language is difficult to wrap your mind around at the beginning. You need to train your muscle memory to insert all types of different characters after typing lines. Typing.io is a tool for just that. More »
Two moves that tell you everything you need to know about Twitter’s futureWe’ve been writing a lot lately about the transformation that Twitter is going through — one that has seen it shift from being a kind of real-time information utility to being a global media entity, and how that has led the company to restrict access to its API, in order to control as much of the content flowing through its network as possible. But nothing sums this transition, and the picture it paints of Twitter’s future, better than two recent events: in the first, the company abruptly yanked Tumblr’s ability to connect to Twitter’s friend-finder API, and in the second it bragged about how positive its recent partnership with NBC was around the Summer Olympics. Welcome to the new Twitter world order. The Tumblr news didn’t come as that much of a surprise to anyone that has been following recent events, since Twitter has already cut off other apps such as Instagram. In fact, Matt Buchanan at Buzzfeed wrote a post on Wednesday about how the blog network could be the next target for Twitter and within a matter of hours Tumblr lost the ability to connect to Twitter. In the case of Instagram, Twitter’s removal of those connection rights — which allowed users to find and connect with any Twitter followers who also use the photo-sharing app — seemed as though it might have been driven in part by a desire to play hardball with Instagram’s new owner, Facebook. But Tumblr isn’t owned by a competitor: if anything, the blog network has been a close partner of Twitter’s, up to and including building in support for the newly introduced “Twitter cards” that show expanded information about tweets. Twitter cut Tumblr off even though it is a partnerDespite those ties, Twitter decided to shut off Tumblr’s ability to show users their Twitter friends, a decision that even one Twitter engineer apparently doesn’t agree with. And Tumblr was clearly disappointed by the move, saying in a statement delivered to a number of blogs:
The key to the move, and to the similar action taken against Instagram, is contained in the only comment that Twitter has so far made publicly about either decision — after cutting off access to the friend-finder ability on Instagram, the company said simply that: “We understand that there’s great value associated with Twitter’s follow graph data, and we can confirm that it is no longer available within Instagram.” Twitter pointed to this statement after the Tumblr decision as well, saying it had nothing to add. As designer and developer Dustin Curtis of Svbtle described in a post about Twitter’s recent behavior, a huge amount of Twitter’s value to both users and external services is tied up in its follower graph — that is, the index of all a user’s friends and connections, which in turn are a direct representation of their interests. That “interest graph” is what gives Twitter any power it might have to target advertising, to customize search results, to promote tweets, and all the other things it is trying to do in order to monetize its platform and justify its market value. Unlike Facebook, where users are normally connected with their friends via other means, that interest graph represents all the power that Twitter has over a user. So it’s not surprising the company would want to control that feature as closely as possible, and even turn it into a monetization strategy (it’s not clear whether Twitter asked Tumblr to pay for access or whether it was just removed). The only question now is whether apps like Flipboard — which also had close ties to Twitter, until CEO Mike McCue left the board of directors — will suffer the same fate. The future is driving eyeballs to television programsAs it cuts off the third-party developers (and in some cases users) who helped generate much of its success, signs of where Twitter is headed are also abundant: they can be seen in the deals that the company has signed with corporate partners such as NBC, which led to an official Twitter hub where curated information about the Olympics appeared — and also caused a significant amount of controversy when the company suspended the account of a journalist who was critical of NBC. In a comment about the partnership, Twitter’s vice-president for media, Chloe Sladden, said:
In other words, despite the critical protests of users who popularized the hashtag #NBCfail — because of the TV network’s decision to post tweets about events that weren’t going to be broadcast in the U.S. for hours — and despite the fact that the NBC deal forced Twitter to geo-block anyone outside the U.S. from seeing anything on its official hub, the company was more than happy with the relationship because it drove lots of people to watch television. As media relationships become a bigger part of Twitter’s future, which they will almost certainly do, that kind of argument is going to define the company’s vision of success. The only question that remains is whether enough users want Twitter to become that kind of media entity, with all the controls and restrictions and advertising messages that come with it. It’s possible that — as some have argued — the third-party developers who are complaining about their treatment by the company are no longer relevant, and that those users who have been supporting alternatives like App.net are simply misguided. Or Twitter may have miscalculated badly, and sealed its fate as yet another media entity scrambling to promote its ads to a declining user base, just as MySpace did. Post and thumbnail images courtesy of Flickr user Rosaura Ochoa Being a CEO Is a Brutal and Lonely Job, But It Doesn’t Have To Be
As many of my friend CEOs would attest to, being a CEO is a brutally hard and very lonely job! Add family, personal relationships, and other responsibilities to the mix and you understand why CEOs yet to cross 3-0 mark are already developing gray hair. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I have spent a decade and a half being part of these tag teams with several CEOs. I love this role because my protective “I will fix it” personality allows me to be their consigliere and chief of staff. I know my counterparts feel no differently, so I really speak here from our collective experience. The CEOs who have matured, understand how powerful their partnership with their second in command can be. This role has many titles like COO, VP of Operations, President, Managing Director, or co-founder. Whatever the title, the essence of this role is being the multiplier and enhancer in the leadership team. Two years ago I wrote an article “What To Look For In a Chief Right Hand Person“. This article is the next iteration of what I shared with you then. So what does it take to turn this business relationship into a powerful tag team? It takes personality fit. We often like to hire people like ourselves, when in reality we should be looking for someone different. We have to find someone who will compliment and magnify our strengths. Two pure visionaries will not get along, two executors will butt heads, two data geeks will overanalyze, two product people will fight over features, two technologists will squabble over platform choices, two disciplinarians will kill creativity, two pragmatists will limit risk-taking, etc. etc. etc. Many great leadership tag teams fall apart because of this misfit. We should be looking for something that could be described as Yin to our Yang. And yes, I absolutely don’t buy the “in a professional relationship personality should not matter” statement. This is something people who have no real world experience being part of a successful leadership team say. It takes complete vision alignment. Since the accountability of the CEO to the shareholders can result in Chief “Ultimately Will Get His/Her Head Chopped if Things Go Wrong” Officer, the direction of the ship and final calls always go to the CEO. You have to be able to have a relationship where you can question your CEO’s judgment, data, logic, etc., with the right context of helping him/her make better decisions, but in the end you genuinely need to respect the calls he/she makes. If you can’t do this, you need to move on. It takes an unprecedented level of trust. Even the best delegators have a hard time relegating control. But you can’t scale if you can’t let go and trust others to multiply your impact. Vision alignment coupled with trust is what makes this truly possible and effective. My counterparts and myself have several tests to see how strong the trust bonds are in our tag teams, but the ultimate test is how effective we are in helping lead our companies and taking care of our employees and customers. In my best tag team relationships, I had to spend very little time syncing with my chief. I knew the calls my CEOs would’ve made in almost any situation. I knew when I was the multiplier. Bottom line: these are all AND not OR conditions. All conditions must be met/worked-out or this tag team will not live up to its full potential. Unfortunately, no amount of personality, skill testing, reference checking, track record matching, etc., will help ensure a 100% fit. It can get you 51% there, but the rest can only be discovered by working together. It is huge risk for both parties and should not be rushed into. Sling Digital takes the Moneyball approach to Twitter advertisingTargeting an audience on Twitter when you have a lot of money isn’t so hard. Just buy a lot of the obvious keywords related to the audience you’re trying to engage and wait for the advertising results. But what if you don’t want to — or can’t — spend a lot of money? That’s the hole that Sling Digital is trying to fill with a new product that is being framed as the Moneyball for Twitter ads. Moneyball, if you don’t recall, is the approach popularized by the low-budget Oakland Athletics, which bought players cheaply in order to obtain wins. Sling Digital’s Audience Intelligence tool works by monitoring Twitter users’ conversations and breaking down who they are interested in, what affiliations they have, and what sites they visit and share from. The goal is not to buy keywords but to use a lot of data to buy audiences cheaply. From the information it gathers, Sling can figure out cost-effective keywords to buy that allow an advertiser to find the right audience but at a much lower price than buying a traditional keyword. For example, if a beer company wanted to target soccer fans, it could buy the words “soccer” or “football” for a promoted tweet, but that would be expensive. But if it uses Sling to listen to the millions of conversations a particular set of users is having, it can find out that buying a particular name of a footballer or a soccer club could have just the same effect, because that’s what people are chatting about on Twitter.
Sling is primarily focused on helping customers advertise on Twitter. But it can also help them buy display ads on other sites using the same model. So if an advertiser wants to reach a sports audience, it could pay a lot to hit ESPN.com. Or it could use Sling to buy cheaper ads on smaller sites that users are currently visiting and sharing articles from. The system works on a rolling basis, looking at the last two weeks of tweets and conversations, but it can be narrowed to look at a narrower time frame. Saif Ajani, the founder of Visibli, the Toronto company behind Sling Digital, said services like bit.ly already show what links are being shared. And tools like Radian6 analyze and monitor social media conversations. But, he says, there’s still a need for a tool that pulls it all together and uses the collective data to help guide advertising decisions. Visibli, which was originally founded in 2009, has raised $365,000 from Extreme Venture Partners and angel investors including LocalResponse founder Nihal Mehta. The service reminds me a little of SocialFlow, a New York–based company that helps advertisers time their update and ads to hit users when they are most receptive to a message. LocalResponse also analyzes tweets and social updates to let advertisers act on real-time consumer intent. All of these companies spend a lot of time understanding users’ conversations to optimize engagement with them. It takes a lot of work and smart algorithms to understand what people are saying and how it can be used to target ads and updates. But if done well, it can be a big opportunity as more advertisers look to tap social as a way to reach consumers. Make Your Own Cotton Candy Machine for Less Than $50 [Video]
Cotton candy machines can be expensive, but this DIY version from the folks at Make will set you back about $50, is completely reusable, and uses parts you can easily get from the hardware store. if you don't have them lying around. More »
Super PAC app for iPhone is like Shazam for political adsThe free Super PAC app has just been released for the iPhone and it gives you a look behind the curtain to see who is funding the political ads that are blanketing the airwaves and the internet, and gives you some places to check the 'facts' that the ads claim. In a way it is like the Shazam app that identifies a music track when you let your phone hear a sample of a song. You hold the app up to a speaker to catch the audio from a TV ad, and using speech recognition technology, the ad is identified, and you'll learn how much the Political Action Committee behind it has spent, and you can get references to various fact-checking groups that can tell you how accurate the claims are. You can also vote your feelings on the ad, saying you love it, that's it's fair, fishy or a fail. Radio ads aren't supported yet. I tried the app on several political ads I found on YouTube. In each case, the add was identified, and the group behind it was named. Don't expect the app to make decisions about the literal truth of an ad, it simply refers you to fact-check organizations and articles about the ad, and they may have their own political agendas. Still, enough information was given on both sides for me to make my own decision about the honesty of the claims being made. I couldn't find any political agenda or bias in the app, it seemed to collect information from partisan and non-partisan sources. The app comes from Glassy Media, an outgrowth of the MIT Media Lab, and the aim is to bring increased transparency to the political process. The app works only on presidential ads. Other candidates and issues aren't supported. If you've been wondering who is behind the ads you are seeing, there is now an app for that. Give it a try.
Super PAC app for iPhone is like Shazam for political ads originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. |
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