I played around with Google Buzz today… I won’t regurgitate everything that is already being said out there, but I will post a link to a good conversation about the service e that unfolded (on GBuzz) after Steve Rubel (@steverubel) posted his initial reaction. And if you care to, check out what people are saying on Twitter now.
Archive for the ‘technology’ category
One Billion iPhone App downloads. That's one for every seven people in the world.
April 22nd, 2009No joke. The world population is 6,706,993,152 according to a July 2008 estimate. So the iPhone App store hitting one billion downloads is pretty significant, especially considering the fact that the it has only been a little more than two years since the iPhone was first introduced and less than a year since the iPhone 3G and the App Store were launched.
So in the spirit of celebrating one of the material possessions that have changed my life by putting everything at, quite literally, the palm of my hand, thus changing many of “my ways” – from the way I wake up to the way I entertain myself – I thought I would put together a list of favorite applications. The respondents include my roommates, fellow Twitterers and yours truly. I’ll try to break this list down before that counter on the Apple home page hits the billion mark. It’s moving so fast I’m afraid I won’t make it! (Currently at 996,139,962 downloads)
Will online video make us just like The Jetsons?
February 25th, 2009Remember The Jetsons? Yeah you do. I won’t prolong this then…
I wish I had taken bets back in the day to try to guess which of the futuristic gadgets featured on the show would make it in the real world first.
To be honest, my money would have been on the housekeeper robots.
However, yesterday I caught a tweet about 12seconds.tv, which is basically a video version of Twitter. Brilliant concept. Today I read a post on Mashable about YouTube adding social networking capabilities. Right on. And minutes before I posted this I learned about Fliggo.
So I was wrong on my Jetsons prediction. And I should have known better. There was no way that cleaning one’s dwelling could ever be more important than communicating with family, friends, peers… people.
It’s not Big Brother, It’s Google Latitude
February 5th, 2009
Today was Google’s.
Everywhere I turned, the one thing I kept hearing people talking about was the new Google Latitude feature on mobile Google maps and iGoogle gadgets. The service is available in 27 countries and allows users to let others know where in the world they are located. If you choose to opt-in (because that would be the only way Google could ever get away with this) you can use Latitude to find friends and communicate with them via SMS, Google Talk or simply by dialing their phone number.
The feedback, per usual, is both positive and negative. Some were delighted with the news because it shows just how increasingly accessible and open our world is becoming, and others shivered at the thought of being exposed and having their privacy put in jeopardy.
A widespread flu virus
January 19th, 2009
My ears finally popped yesterday and I can officially say that I have gotten over the worst case of the flu I’ve had to deal with in six years. For a while all I could hear was myself chewing. I have a new-found sympathy for fishes living in fish bowls.
There is a saying in Spanish about healthy minds leading to healthy bodies (I’m sure it’s true for other languages), however, I’ve confirmed that there is nothing the mind will do if the body doesn’t feel like cooperating and I can think of other instances where that is true.
A friend introduced me to Larry Lessing (not in person, just his work) who is an advocate of less anal copyright laws that stifle creativity. You can think of copyright laws as the flu virus that is standing between new content, products and services that have the potential of BEING once the original ideas that will drive them cease to be afflicted.
More iPhone romance
January 19th, 2009
My friend told me about this because she new I posted about the same topic earlier.
A friend was at a club and was approached by the proud owner of an iPhone who asked her what her favorite flower was and disappeared after she answered “lilies”. He returned moments later with a sketch of a lily he drew using an application I think might be Sketchinz but I’m not completely sure.
These were his words, “Here is a lily, let me get your e-mail and I’ll send it to you.”
He got her… letters? I guess you can’t say “digits” anymore. Those days are starting to be long gone.
The other day I read on a blog (couldn’t find it again) how someone had proposed using Twitter.
A pick-up game of tic-tac-toe
November 30th, 2008
The new pick-up line
The Friday after Thanksgiving a few friends and I went to Mantus Lounge, a very posh club in Dallas that, regretfully, people seem to frequent more for its poshness than for the DJ/owner’s unmatched (according to me at least) ability to mix songs seamlessly and almost effortlessly.
It was while scoping out the dance floor that I witnessed one way in which new media and technology have changed ways in which people interact with each other, even face-to-face.
In an act of either cleverness or cheesyness (you be the judge) somebody placed his iPhone in front of my friend displaying a game of tic-tac-toe where he had made the first move and it was now up to my friend to decide whether or not to continue playing. The novelty of this compelled my friend to participate and see the game through to the end. Later, the guy confessed that he had let her win as well – clearly the man left nothing to chance.
