Monday, September 6, 2010

11 new stories on The Next Web today

11 new stories on The Next Web today

Link to The Next Web

New look BBC iPlayer goes live

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 04:04 AM PDT

One of the UK’s best-loved websites, the BBC iPlayer has just launched its radically overhauled new look after a three-month beta period.

The new site offers a sleek new design, personalisation features and integration with Facebook and Twitter to make sharing programmes easier.

As we reported at the weekend, the BBC sees this new, more social iPlayer as a step towards a more social future for TV. Head over to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer to try it out now if you’re in the UK. An international version of the service is promised within a year.

A selection of ‘how to’ videos featuring “He gets everywhere these days, doesn’t he?” TV presenter Rufus Hound have been prepared to help users get to grips with the new site. Here he is discussing the social features.

Original title and link for this post: New look BBC iPlayer goes live

Audioboo launches “social voicemail”, with help from Stephen Fry

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 03:25 AM PDT

Audioboo, the ‘instant podcasting’ service for iPhone, Android and the web, is introducing an intriguing new feature today – the ability to leave anyone else on the service a voicemail message without having to know their phone number.

The new ‘Messages’ function allows you to either record an audio message or upload an audio file to send to any other Audioboo member privately. In practice it works like an audio version of direct messages on Twitter, albeit with the ability to attach an image and geotagged location to each message.

Stephen Fry, the much-loved actor, writer and tech geek, has recorded a message to welcome users to the new feature. An early adopter to Audioboo, we’re told that Fry donated the message as a gesture to show his love for the service.

Although messaging is intended as a feature for paid-up ‘pro’ members of the service, the pro option (which we got an exclusive look at recently) isn’t ready to launch yet, so private messaging is being rolled out to all users for the time being. Initially it will only work via Audioboo’s web interface. The iPhone and Android apps will be updated with support for messaging in the near future.

How will this be used? Audioboo CEO Mark Rock isn’t 100% sure yet but he’s hoping users will embrace it as a replacement for what he describes as the “outmoded” answerphone. “We’re quite excited by this but our users know best and time will tell if it’s really a feature that’s wanted or even needed”, he says. Audioboo suggests sending audio messages from a holiday, complete with a photo and location, or sending  a late night message to a loved one. You could even send a message to a stranger to say that you love their Audioboo podcasts.

The ability to send messages to any Audioboo member could be a gateway to spam of course, but preparing and uploading audio spam is a lot more effort than sending a text-based message. Still, Rock says “We are ready to amend (the service) if necessary. We’ll at least introduce blocking nuisance users sometime after launch along with anything else that users clamour for”.

Being able to leave an audio message for anyone, as long as they’re an Audioboo user, without knowing their phone number is an intriguing proposition and a useful addition to Audioboo’s featureset. If successful, it may be a good idea for the company to market it as a completely separate service from its core podcasting and corporate audio services.

Private messages are expected to be rolled out to all users today.

Original title and link for this post: Audioboo launches “social voicemail”, with help from Stephen Fry

Fake iPhone 5 Prototype leaves me wanting…

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 03:06 AM PDT


Image via HandyFlash.de

When I look at my iPad and iPhone 4 I can’t help but realize that one day we will regard them as dated and old. Imagine one day passing a garbage can and seeing a discarded iPad there. You will look at it, shrug, and move on. Just like you would do if you would see an old blue iMac or a Palmpilot. You just know it is going to happen.

So what about the iPhone 5? Just minutes before the keynote starts where Steve Jobs will announce it you will say to yourself ‘whatever he announces, I don’t need it. the iPhone 4 works fine for me’. The Steve Jobs shows you the iPhone 5 and right there you will realize your iPhone 4 is now ancient technology and there is no way in hell you can live on without the iPhone 5.

Am I right? Sure I am. We have all been there.

So, what do you expect from the iPhone 5? Just thinner? Even higher resolution screen? Stereo loudspeakers? 3D screen? What???

Original title and link for this post: Fake iPhone 5 Prototype leaves me wanting…

iPad Video Calls Coming Soon?

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 03:06 AM PDT

We are aware there could be changes to Apple’s line-up of iPad devices, there have been reports suggesting a new 9.7-inch iPad with a new ARM Cortex-A9-based processor with 512MB RAM and a second 7-inch iPad featuring a Cortex-A9 processor and an IPS panel could be coming next year.

9to5mac have come across a very interesting screenshot, a blurry picture of what looks to show an iPad running a “Video Calls Debugging” service. This gives us the impression that a front-facing camera is also going to be among the improvements for the next range of iPads, bringing with it FaceTime calls.

Apple’s product iterations will almost certainly lead to additions like this, what do you think?

Original title and link for this post: iPad Video Calls Coming Soon?

New MeeGo User Interface Screens Emerge

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 02:16 AM PDT

We have been keeping up with the progress of Nokia’s and Intel’s collabortaive mobile operating system, bringing you screenshots of its first stable release to developers.

Over the weekend, new shots emerged of the MeeGo UI, showing us that the OS is continuing to be highly customizable, giving the user the option to completely change the way the UI looks and feels. MyNokiaBlog grabbed the screenshots, pointing out how the the 1.1 release of MeeGo has integrated a interactive lock screen, giving owners to check out any missed calls, text messages, emails.

The lock screen has two unlock mechanisms, one you have to drag the lock icon at the bottom into a designated square, the other you can drag it from the top downwards.

Multitasking has a cover-flow/carousel feel to it, allowing the user to scroll open application windows. Again, MeeGo is designed to allow users to specify different views and settings, giving users the option to choose a grid option which shows four open windows at a time:

MeeGo’s app menu is pretty standard but instead incorporates a 3×4 grid and a bottom launcher bar. Like iOS, users can scroll to different pages of apps but with MeeGo, the user can customize the experience by changing icon size, font, sound, haptics and feedback graphics to include a 4×5 grid if they wished:

By incorporating elements from both Nokia’s Maemo platform and Intel’s Moblin operating system, MeeGo will hopefully appeal to legacy users of Nokia handsets by offering new and innovative smartphone features and the ability to customise the mobile experience.

From what we can see here, MeeGo’s UI is slick and visually appealing, we just hope it hardware specifications can match those of HTC, Apple and Motorola.

Original title and link for this post: New MeeGo User Interface Screens Emerge

News Digital Media acquires Australian price comparison site GetPrice

Posted: 06 Sep 2010 12:01 AM PDT

News Digital Media, the digital division of News Limited, has acquired Australia's largest price comparison site, GetPrice, for an undisclosed amount.

The full acquisition was completed in several rounds over several years.

News Digital Media initially acquire a significant minority share in the company in October 2007 along with two further options, which it has now exercised. In July 2009 it increased its investment to 52.5 per and today's announcement sees News Digital Media acquire the remaining 47.5% it didn't own.

The chief executive officer of Getprice, Chris Hitchen, and his senior management team, including chief operating officer and company co-founder, Jared Oken, will remain with the business, though they have no equity position in the company:

"We have sold out completely, News now own 100%. We've elected to stay with the business because we're genuinely excited about what we can achieve in partnership with News." said Hitchen.

In providing some detail on the acquisition, News Digital Media CEO, Richard Freudenstein gave the following insight into the Australian online retail market:

 "Over the next four years the Australian online retailing market is predicted to grow by 50 per cent to $18 billion. With 57 per cent of online shoppers now visiting a comparison website before making a purchase decision, we see a very successful and highly profitable future for Getprice."

The outcome is an excellent result for Hitchen and Oken who founded Getprice in 2005. It's also good news for the local startup industry,  which will continue to have access to Hitchen as an investor and mentor:

"Running Getprice is still very much a full-time job but I will continue to be actively involved in the start-up community outside of that, largely through passive investments, provided there is no conflict with News. "

—

img src = The Punch

Original title and link for this post: News Digital Media acquires Australian price comparison site GetPrice

Question: What are 5 things we’d like to see Quora offer?

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 03:51 PM PDT

One of the most talked about websites to come out of beta in 2010 in Silicon Valley has been question and answer site Quora. Quora does a number of things correctly aimed at getting its users to both ask and answer questions, however, the still very new service still has some features and issues that we would like to see addressed to make it even better.

Faster interface

Quite often, we notice that the site hangs up on requests, and we’d like to see that addressed. This isn’t a major flaw, and one that can certainly be addressed with more resources, but Quora is noticeably slower than we’d like to see it. Perhaps it is fast enough for most – maybe we should ask a question about it…

Date stamps on questions

While there are date stamps on answers, it is a little frustrating to not see a date stamp on questions. We understand that Quora wants the question to stand the test of time or something (like Wikipedia in a way) but knowing how fresh the question is would probably entice more people to answer them.

RSS feeds

Especially as Quora already has a (rather detailed) email notification system set up for following people, topics and questions, it’s a bit surprising that the service hasn’t added the ability to follow an RSS feed of any of those activity streams. Of course, an even better way to do that would be with an…

API

Quora will really be an extremely interesting platform to build on when and if the service releases one or more APIs. To get extremely meta on this request, you can check out the Quora question “Is Quora planning an API?” that has an answer by co-founder Charlie Cheever. We know that our own Boris would probably love a Quora API. With the absence of developer APIs, however, the final request is even more pressing…

Mobile apps

Quora does have a mobile version of its website (which isn’t half bad frankly), but still, if the service isn’t going to offer third-party developers the opportunity to build stand-alone mobile apps or integrate the Q&A stream into existing services/apps, then we’d really like to see Quora itself come out with apps on the major mobile platforms. However, as Quora really does seem focused on enhancing its website for the foreseeable future (not to surprising really, considering the founders came from Facebook), we might have to wait quite some time before this happens, if at all.

So those are our top 5 requests, how about you? Please let us/Quora know in the comments!

Original title and link for this post: Question: What are 5 things we’d like to see Quora offer?

You Know Who Likes WikiLeaks? Fidel Castro.

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 01:18 PM PDT

An editorial yesterday in the LA Times called “Fidel Castro, Internet Junkie” says the 84-year-old Cuban reads 200 to 300 online articles a day, and “is fascinated by WikiLeaks”.

The LA Times article is based on an lengthy interview Castro did with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, where he reportedly said that the Internet, “has put an end to secrets…. We are seeing a high level of investigative journalism, as the New York Times calls it, that is within reach of the whole world.” He also said that the Internet is, “the most powerful weapon that has existed.”

Castro, however, isn’t just an Internet consumer – he’s also apparently a prolific blogger (one of about only 300 in Cuba according to the LA Times). So now you know.

(Note: Isolated Cuba does not have a fiber-optic connection to the rest of the world, and must rely on old underwater telephone lines and for satellite-based broadband to connect to the Internet. The LA Times editorial says that estimates put Cuba’s Internet penetration of between 2.6% -13% of the population depending on whether its based on international (the 2.6%) or Cuban government statistics (the 13%). Either way, Cuba has by far the lowest percentage of Internet users of any nation in the Western Hemisphere. Those that do have access face censorship and restriction as well.)

Original title and link for this post: You Know Who Likes WikiLeaks? Fidel Castro.

iTunes Ping and Game Center, Apple’s answer to Windows Phone 7

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 10:28 AM PDT

At Apple's music event they introduced Ping – a social network for music that lets you follow users/artists and comment on their activities. The other important announcement Apple made was about Game Center going live soon.

Over the past few days it has been interesting to follow the event's coverage because you know who has both these services ready and live for their mobile platform? Not Android, take another wild guess, not Palm either… It’s Microsoft.

Zune Social lets you create your own circle of friends and share your music preferences with the web at large, and it has been around for quite a while. Then there’s Xbox LIVE. Neither offerings from Microsoft have been considered as reason for iTunes Ping or Game Center.

Apple did not create a Facebook meets Twitter meets iTunes since it was a magical way to make people buy music, they wanted to make sure Microsoft did not claim a social one-up. Game Center did not come out solely because iOS is the best selling portable gaming platform. Apple realized that users enjoy competing with their friends and score themselves, Microsoft had this as another potential USP with Xbox LIVE for Windows Phone 7.

The wide-spread existing Xbox LIVE community and the Zune Social user base Microsoft has is significant to their mobile strategy, Apple decided to do something about it.  GigaOm calls Ping the future of social commerce, well with all due respect, this future has been around for quite some time.

In Apple's favor, the collective wisdom of the Internet seems to have avoided mentioning Windows Phone 7 as the catalyst for Apple's new services. I say Windows Phone 7 was the primary reason why Apple launched them. While Jason Calacanis might be right in saying Jobs created Twitter and Facebook in his spare time, the motivation wasn't to "eat Zuck for breakfast". It was to ensure that Apple had a reply to Windows Phone 7's strengths.

Jobs might not openly accept it but introduction of iTunes Ping and Game Center clearly imply that Apple considers Windows Phone 7 as competition. Microsoft, you’re back in the game.

Original title and link for this post: iTunes Ping and Game Center, Apple’s answer to Windows Phone 7

Angry Birds: How one little game signals the rise of Android apps.

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 08:59 AM PDT

Without a doubt, one of the most awaited titles for Android was a simple game. That game, of course, was Angry Birds.In fact, for the past 3 months, it has been one of the search terms that has brought the most notable traffic to our Apps channel here on TNW.

Then, a few days ago, it finally happened. The free beta of Angry Birds came to the Android Market (though apparently only for those running Android 2.2).

Over the past few days, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time playing the beta…for you know…testing purposes. While the game is great fun, of course, what it signals is considerably more important than what it is.

Since the launch of the Android Market, one of the major complaints has been in the lack of quality of Android applications. They’re, put simply, not nearly as polished as what we see on the Apple platform or even the offerings that we saw for WebOS. By and large, the Android platform has been left severely wanting for quality, useful applications that also looked good. For the most part, you were able to select 1 or 2 of those qualifiers, but rarely did you get all three.

A couple of months ago, however, I stumbled onto Homerun Battle 3D by Com2uS. It was the first time that I had seen an Android game that not only delivered on the strengths of the platform, but did so in a really great-looking wrapper. That was my first spark of hope, but I knew that it would take something much larger than Homerun Battle 3D in order to change the tide.

While there are a wealth of reasons as to why development for the Android hasn’t picked up speed, they’re simply not worth going into here. The point, more specifically, is that Rovio has now shown that it can be done, and done by a title that has held the #1 most downloaded spot around the world for quite some time.

I’m going to head out onto a limb and say that the Android Market will, quite soon, start seeing more titles that rival those available on the App Store. Rovio has shown that it can be done, and in doing so has raised the bar for other developers.

Original title and link for this post: Angry Birds: How one little game signals the rise of Android apps.

The dirty truth about Infographics!

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 07:02 AM PDT

I never knew this, now I understand why there are always so many interesting infographics like this one:

Original title and link for this post: The dirty truth about Infographics!

The New iTunes 10 icon: sucks or rocks?

Posted: 05 Sep 2010 04:28 AM PDT

iTunes 10 iconJust in case you’ve missed it: Apple released iTunes 10 last week and it has a new icon. In theory that wouldn’t be worth blogging about but as these things go there has been a major uprising among iTunes users who think the new logo is dumb, ugly, misplaced or simply boring.

Some people want the iTunes 9 Logo back.
Other people are finding out ways to do that.

iTunes 9 iconTo be honest I never liked the old logo and was excited to hear Steve Jobs announce the new one. I also completely agreed with him that the whole CD metaphor is misplaced. Very soon CDs will be as current as VHS tapes.

YouTube icon iPadBut wait. Doesn’t that go for the YouTube icon too? That television set is older than Steve Jobs himself, right? Besides that I welcome a new icon.

But why keep the note? iTunes is as much about music as it is about CDs. I hardly use iTunes for music. I need it to sync my iPad and iPhone. To buy, download and watch movies and series. And I use it to find Apps to use on my iDevices. So, a better name would have been iMovies, iStore, iSync, iApps or iConnected. Or any other name with a ‘i’ in front of it.

iTunes? That’s just one of the things that this app does, and I don’t use it that much.

Following that logic the note doesn’t make sense either. Why not just use the App store icon? Or just show a large ‘i’ on a blue dot? Why the note?

These are, of course, all senseless ramblings on a Sunday afternoon. Apple decides what Apple decides and all we can do is get used to it or… well, there is no alternative really.

So, to help you get used to the new icon here are some sources for entertainment:

Follow the hilarious thoughts (and insults) of the new iTunes 10 icon on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/itunes10icon

Follow the dying words of the iTunes 9 icon:
http://twitter.com/itunes9icon

Want your old iTunes 9 icon back? Here is a simple tutorial on how to do it:
http://www.macstories.net/mac/want-itunes-9-look-back-theres-a-mod-for-that/

A very nice alternative design that brings the iTunes icon in line with the iPad and iPhone version:
http://ryanrjames.com/itunes/

Want more alternatives to the iTunes 10 icon? Here are 10 beautiful alternatives:
http://www.macstories.net/mac/10-beautiful-itunes-10-replacement-icons/

And last but not least, a nice cartoon to put this whole discussion in perspective (Click for a bigger image):

Original title and link for this post: The New iTunes 10 icon: sucks or rocks?

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