11 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- Is Internet Explorer 9′s HTML5 compliance a mirage?
- A 3 minute film shows what it’s like to live in New York City
- Who’s pooping on Twitter? Find out here.
- Melbourne’s 3D mapping Tron Legacy skateboard ramp
- 280daily: 280 characters to sum up your day
- Kinect, Google TV, iPad, my desktop and Android: what’s winning in my living room
- Want to really appreciate tech? Get out of Silicon Valley.
- How to record quick, easy screencast videos with Mac OSX
- The iSupr8 app is like Instagram for iPhone video
- How to sync the Zune HD with a Mac
- How to record and share audio on the go
- Energy: you can’t destroy it, but you can certainly waste it.
| Is Internet Explorer 9′s HTML5 compliance a mirage? Posted: 15 Jan 2011 03:22 PM PST
You would be wrong to think so, sadly. We recently wrote a story called “Internet Explorer 9 just beat everyone in HTML5 compliance,” which gave rise to a number of, shall we say, sharp comments. We stuck to the data that we had picked up from a big test of all the major browsers, a test that showed IE9 ahead of the competition in regards to handling HTML5. We felt that our reporting was fair. Our view on the matter is changing slightly however, following a very interesting post we recently read on DeviantArt. For reference, the post is entitled “IE9 Tries to Implement HTML5 – Hilarity Ensues. What Can Be Done About 3 Gotchas in IE9 Beta.” That should give you an idea of what the post is about. To quote:
The problems that the writer points out, dealing with globalCompositeOperation, Canvas Resizing, and Limited Shadow Offset, are perhaps only of interest to developers, but the overall gist of the post has a broad potential impact: IE9 is the future browser for most of the world, and so if its HTML5 compliance is not correct, the standard will not run properly for most people. Now, it could be that IE9 is still ‘beta’ enough that the problems that DeviantArt ran into are already corrected in an unreleased version, or will be corrected before launch, but we are not sure. We have reached out to Microsoft for comment on the matter. Will HTML5 compliance on IE9 be complete, or a mere hack-job that Microsoft touts to assuage a portion of its critics? What do you think? |
| A 3 minute film shows what it’s like to live in New York City Posted: 15 Jan 2011 02:48 PM PST If you’re a resident of New York City like our own Courtney Boyd Myers, you may receive the often-asked question, “what’s it like to live in New York City.” Conversely, if you’ve never been to NYC and simply desire to know what the city’s various ports of call appear like throughout the day, a great short film from Josh Owens of Mindrelic, NYC – Mindrelic Timelapse, is a fascinating glimpse of life in NYC. Have you been to NYC? Do you think the film accurately captures the essence of life there? NYC – Mindrelic Timelapse from Mindrelic on Vimeo. |
| Who’s pooping on Twitter? Find out here. Posted: 15 Jan 2011 12:01 PM PST
Today I stumbled upon Wonder-Tonic‘s “Who’s Pooping on Twitter” website, which is literally a constantly refreshing (okay, actually not so refreshing) feed of tweets involving pooping, crapping, shitting, dumping, etc. Check it out for yourself here.
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| Melbourne’s 3D mapping Tron Legacy skateboard ramp Posted: 15 Jan 2011 11:46 AM PST Australian based interactive design team ENESS built a very cool futuristic skateboard ramp for the Premiere of Tron Legacy in Melbourne, Australia, and a few Aussie skaters got to live out their boy dreams of participating in the real life skateboard computer game. The ramp’s custom software captures 3d mapping of the skateboard ramp and real-time tracking of the skateboarders. Each rider is equipped with an iPod Touch with apps to measure air time and trigger effects, while infrared lights and cameras are used to track the skaters' positions. Super rad, bro.
The making of a Light Session- Tron Premiere- ENESS from ENESS on Vimeo. |
| 280daily: 280 characters to sum up your day Posted: 15 Jan 2011 11:05 AM PST
The sign-up is simple. Drop your email address and a password and you’re ready to go once you confirm the address. Once inside, you can set preferences like your time zone, whether or not (and when) you’d like to be sent reminder emails, what happens when you login and more. The simple, clean design does a great job at not distracting you from writing your daily entry, and you can go back to summarize days in the past if you wish to.
Beyond the writing, there’s not a lot to the site. You can go back to view other entries, or you can choose to export what you’ve written. This exporting is what sets 280daily apart from other daily journals that we’ve reviewed. For exporting, you’re given a couple of options. You can either choose to print your dailies, or you can opt to have them saved to PDF format for you to use as you see fit. According to the site, the coming soon feature is that you’ll be able to have your entries printed into a bound book and then sent via post to your door.
The advantage that I immediately see to 280daily over OhLife is in the character restriction. With being bound to the limit of 280 characters, it challenges you to be pithy and only highlight what really mattered from your day. The other factor that I really love about 280daily is that it’s highly optimized for mobile. Viewing the page from your iPhone, Android device or just about any modern, mobile browser is a joy. Entries are easy to do with a 280 character limit, and I think that should make for more consistent journaling, at least on my part. Give it a shot, let us know what you think. We’d love to see the ability to add a photo, otherwise, we’re impressed. While there’s still something to be said about holding a quality pen and Moleskine notebook, 280daily is a great, electronic alternative. |
| Kinect, Google TV, iPad, my desktop and Android: what’s winning in my living room Posted: 15 Jan 2011 10:32 AM PST
Both the Xbox with Kinect and the Google TV are recent additions (since obviously they just came out) – the other devices I’ve all had about half a year or less. So I’m going to take a completely unscientific look at what is winning in my (admittedly over-connected) living room. If Apple wants to send me an Apple TV for review, I’ll review it, but right now, I just don’t see much appeal, other than the low ($99) price tag (or the even lower $59 price of the Roku). To start, I’d like to make a disclaimer: I’m not going to get into the cord-cutting debate here – let’s just stick with what you can get online (with a Netflix subscription). However, I will mention the devices that allow you to connect to your cable and set-top box, which for some of you should be a selling point. So here’s how I’m using each of these: Xbox + KinectI bought my first Xbox a few weeks ago because of the Kinect. After watching all of those cool hacks, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the thing – I even almost just skipped the Xbox completely to just buy the sensor. However, I got a bundle, and I’m not too disappointed with that choice, because the games are really fun, and the new Xbox interface is pretty great – especially the Kinect Hub, which lets you navigate with just your hands. Also, the Netflix app on the Xbox is the best I’ve seen from a device, letting you basically surf the entire Netflix Watch Instantly library from your couch (however, it’s tied to the Xbox Live Gold plan, which is $50 a year). I’ll say this: if you don’t own a Kinect yet – believe all the hype, this thing is for real. The major complaint that I have with it at this point is that the Xbox doesn’t allow you to control the entire experience with just the Kinect, but I have a suspicion that won’t last long – I expect Microsoft to make that a priority for a future update. Also, as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at CES last week, Microsoft will someday port the Kinect to control Windows, which would be – in a word – awesome. So with the Xbox + Kinect (plus a Gold membership) I could get: a revolutionary device that allows me to at least partly control my experience; a great Netflix app (and ESPN app); a solidly built interface/machine that doesn’t feel like it will ever crash on me (more on that in a moment). What I/you can’t get is integration with our existing cable/satellite service and/or Hulu/other web video content. That brings us to the Google TV. Logitech Revue Google TVI was very excited to get and try out Google TV – in concept, Google TV is the correct approach in my opinion. However, as many others have already pointed out, the promise has not yet met the reality of what it should be. First of all – especially when compared to the Kinect and the iPad – holding a full keyboard to control your TV is even worst then you might first think. I know that Logitech has a smaller controller as well, and frankly I really wish it had been included with the Revue, because that keyboard is pretty unnecessary. Not that text input isn’t important to Internet video – it certainly is – but it’s not always important and that’s the problem with the Revue’s keyboard – you can’t just pick it up when you want to type something in, you always have to be holding it to control your Google TV (Kevin Bacon shows exactly how awkward it looks in this commercial). I actually have a theory on how this came about: Logitech and/or Google must have tested this thing hooked up to a computer monitor while sitting at a desk. That said, thankfully both Google and Logitech have released Android apps that control the experience, both of which are much more user friendly. As far as the software goes, it’s certainly a bit buggy, though I personally didn’t get as confused as some reviewers did about the somewhat similar navigation titles (though I agree that many people probably will). The apps are ok (the latest version of the Netflix app – while still not as good as the Xbox one – is a vast improvement over what was originally shipped with the device). Then of course, there is the current content problem, which – especially if you don’t have cable/satellite to add content – kind of makes the current Google TV a glorified YouTube/Netflix player (and the Vimeo app is pretty fun too). That’s certainly not Google’s vision, but sadly, that’s kind of where it is right now. If it wasn’t for the new Netflix app, I would have moved my Google TV out of my living room and into my bedroom to hook it up to a 23″ computer monitor. With the new app however, I let my Xbox Gold trial expire and now I use my Google TV for Netflix, with the hope that Hulu and all those other ridiculous restrictions are lifted soon. Windows 7 (or Mac OS if that’s the way you roll)Apple especially has made a big deal about how it thinks that no one wants to hook their computers up to their TVs – that’s just malarkey, especially now that we know exactly how all those TV networks view things like Google TV. Plain and simple, a computer with a browser is right now the best way to get all of the video on the Web. Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo and well – all video, including HD – will play on a fast computer. With HDMI out, you can get full HD on your living room TV – the only problem is how to control your computer from afar. Yes, you can do it with a wireless keyboard and mouse, but that’s not really any better than the Revue keyboard. You can do like I do and just open up Hulu and Netflix tabs and then just bring the mouse to the couch, but even then you need a flat surface to use the mouse, and often it’s hard to see the pointer from twelve feet away, which is part of Apple and Google’s point. However, none of these dedicated boxes give you all of the free content of the Internet, and that just isn’t acceptable. iPad & Android phoneI watch a fair amount of video on my iPad, including Netflix, CNN, Reuters, and other news. I also usually have my iPad within reach when I’m watching the big screen (to check on Twitter, check into GetGlue, and get other notifications), so my iPad is certainly central to my “living room experience”. Even without another Apple device in the house, the iPad, however, does not seem disconnected to my couch-surfing experience. That is in great part to how seamlessly Netflix works between devices, starting off where you leave off on a show or movie, regardless of what device you were previously watching it on. I’ll often start a show on my Google TV or on my desktop and then grab the iPad and watch the remainder on my iPad in a different part of the house. Of course, Netflix has yet to show up on Android, so sadly, the same can’t be said for the my Android phone. In all honestly, the 3.2 inch screen on my phone just isn’t all that great for watching video, and other than using the Logitech app to control my Google TV, I don’t use the phone as a home entertainment device. Perhaps if I didn’t have an iPad and had a larger screen on the phone (and there was a Netflix app…) I would use the phone, but that’s not the situation I’m in. If you are one of the millions of users of the iPhone/iPod Touch, however, I can certainly see you using your phone for more entertainment purposes, but Android just isn’t really there yet in my opinion. And the winner is…Well, the real winner here should be obvious: it’s Netflix. Regardless of what device I’m using, I judge it on how well it works with Netflix – it is 90%+ of how I spend watching things online, and without good Netflix integration, a TV-connected device is pretty much useless to me. However, this article wasn’t about Netflix (this one was, if you’re interested) – it is about devices, and the winner there is… well, that depends. If I had cable/satellite TV already – I’d say that Google TV was the winner. If I was ok with paying $50 a year for Xbox Gold – I’d say that the Xbox + Kinect was the winner. If I didn’t have a large TV – I’d say my desktop was the winner. As far as the one device that does it all (Netflix, Hulu Plus, Youtube, gaming, the entire Internet…minus Flash) – I’d say the iPad was the winner. But there can only be one, right? All things considered right now, in my living room, the Xbox + Kinect is winning as far as overall enjoyment goes, but that pesky Xbox Gold membership fee is making me us Google TV to get Netflix and other web content. If, however, Microsoft dropped the requirement to have an Xbox Gold membership to use the Netflix, ESPN and Twitter apps (among others) then the clear winner in my living room would be the Xbox. The Kinect is a truly revolutionary step in home entertainment, and as soon as Microsoft brings Bing/Internet Explorer into the Xbox and takes down that $50 a year fee for apps that shouldn’t cost anything, then the Xbox will stand alone in my living room. Until then, I’m going to have a big jumble of gadgets, wires and screens to deal with. |
| Want to really appreciate tech? Get out of Silicon Valley. Posted: 15 Jan 2011 09:21 AM PST
Here at TNW, we see the scenario quite often. While we might get (quite literally) hundreds of pitches for new apps and ideas every few days, the vast majority of them are very Valley-focused and directed toward early adopters. The obvious advantage of that is that it’s easy to get attention from the adopters, but the disadvantage is that it’s equally as easy to be nothing more than a passing memory after a very short time. Now don’t get me wrong — there’s no place more exciting than Silicon Valley if you’re building technology. If that weren’t the case, then we certainly wouldn’t have relocated an English woman to Soma in order to keep a camera on the pulse of tech. But judging by what we see in our inboxes, what we hear in phone calls and the face to face meetings we have, the best work is done by those who have taken a few steps back to appreciate tech for what it is. It’s also worth noting that we’re a very long way off from anywhere becoming the “next” Silicon Valley. While the eastern coast of the US (and New York in particular) has an amazing, thriving industry scene, it’s simply not what the Valley is and won’t be for some time to come. The same can be said for the Boulder, Colorado scene, as well as the upcoming industry in the Southeastern US. Absolutely nothing compares to the Valley for making things happen. What’s almost constantly impressive about tech that comes from elsewhere in the world is that it tends to solve real problems. We see more things that make us pause and thing “hey, I’d use that” coming from Europe all the time. The same can be said for Australia, Israel and many areas of South America. Instead of constantly focusing on things that we already have, we tend to see more direction toward the things we never realized that we wanted.
Is there a bias, on our part? Maybe so. As a self-proclaimed International blog, The Next Web does tend to keep our eyes out for things that come from other parts of the world. But maybe that’s exactly what’s needed by the Valley, as well. We hear talk about bubbles that arise from the Valley. From what I see, the main bubble is the one that surrounds it, categorizing as useless anything that doesn’t exist within it. Don’t get me wrong, dear friends of San Francisco, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and beyond — I still love the work that you do. I just think that maybe it’s time to take a trip to a flyover state for a while. Talk to the folks who are shopping at Target and see what would make their lives easier. Ask them if they’d really use your “paradigm-shifting loyalty and check-in application” that you’re trying to hard to perfect. But please, don’t stop doing what you’re doing. Just look at it from a distance and find an appreciation that you might not otherwise have seen. We love technology and we love to see it grow. Without you, that wouldn’t happen and it’s not a future that any of us are willing to accept. |
| How to record quick, easy screencast videos with Mac OSX Posted: 15 Jan 2011 08:54 AM PST It’s useful to know how to record screencasts. These videos of what’s displayed on your computer screen, with an audio commentary if you choose, are a good way of easily sharing a problem you’re having or something you’re working on – or helping others by showing them how to do something with their computer in an easy-to-follow-way. Although there are plenty of apps available for recording screencasts, the most recent version of Mac OSX, Snow Leopard, has everything you need to get recording without paying a penny more. In case this option’s passed you by, here’s how to do it: First, open QuickTime Player. This app comes bundled with OSX Snow Leopard and the fastest way to find it is via a Spotlight search. Once QuickTime Player is open, click ‘File’ and select ‘New Screen Recording’.
This black Screen Recording window will open. Click the small arrow on the right-hand side of the window to select what microphone you want to use. If you’d prefer a silent video, select ‘None’. You can also choose between ‘High’ and ‘Medium’ quality (strangely, there’s no ‘Low’ option). If you’re recording a long piece, Medium will give you a more manageable file size. However, High is a better option, especially if it’s only a short video, as you’ll capture the details of the screen more clearly. Finally, you get to decide where your finished video will be saved.
If you’re going to be recording your voice, speak and you’ll see the volume level meter rise and fall. It’s best to keep the volume slider fully to the left unless you want to be distracted by audio feedback as you record. When you’re ready to start recording, click the red record button.
At this point, the Screen Recording window will disappear and you can start doing whatever you want share. Everything you do on-screen is recorded, including mouse pointer movements. When you’re ready to end the recording, you have two options. Either click the ‘Stop’ button that you’ll find in the OSX Menu bar at the top of the screen. Alternatively, you can press the Cmd, Ctrl and Esc keys together.
Once you stop recording, your screencast will open up in new window, allowing you to watch back and check all is well. Assuming that you’re happy, the video, recorded in .mov format, is ready to be uploaded to the Internet, edited in iMovie or whatever you choose. Pro-tip: zooming inWhile sceencasting is quick and easy with QuickTime, it doesn’t offer any advanced features such as highlight effects and multiple recording formats which more advanced solutions like ScreenFlow do. However, one things it’s easy to do is zoom into your screen to highlight particular elements of the screen thanks to an accessibility feature built right into OSX. Just zoom in to your screen using by pressing ‘Ctrl’ on your keyboard while dragging two fingers over your trackpad or Magic Mouse, or by scrolling up and down with the ball on top of other mice. If that doesn’t work, make sure ‘Zoom’ is activated by selecting ‘System Preferences’ from the Apple menu and selecting ‘Universal Access’. Happy screencasting! Here’s the kind of result you can expect. |
| The iSupr8 app is like Instagram for iPhone video Posted: 15 Jan 2011 08:39 AM PST
The following video was shot using the app on 4 different continents from December 31st, 2010 to January 6th, 2011 to promote its release. Buy it here in the iTunes store ($1.99). While it says its compatible with the 3G and 3GS, a few users reported bug issues, while users with the iPhone 4 did not.notcot |
| How to sync the Zune HD with a Mac Posted: 15 Jan 2011 07:59 AM PST
While there is no Zune media player software suite for Mac, Microsoft did write a quick and dirty program called “Windows Phone 7 Connector For Mac” that lets users sync media from a Mac to a Windows Phone 7 device. Since the Windows Phone 7 uses the Zune software to sync up to a Windows PC, it became evident to one forum user “nate8nate” on the Zuneboards message board that after a simple console command, Windows Phone 7 Connector For Mac can be used to sync up a Zune HD with a Mac.
The little hack works like this: 1. Download the Windows Phone 7 Connector
4. Push [Enter] N.B. It only seems to work with the Zune HD. By the way, TNW writer Alex Wilhem is a really big fan of the Zune.Geeky-Gadgets, Wikinoticia (Image Credit) |
| How to record and share audio on the go Posted: 15 Jan 2011 06:59 AM PST In the interview that accompanied its recent investment in audio sharing platform SoundCloud last week, Fred Wilson of VC firm Union Square stated that "The web should not be mute". This underlined the fact that until recently audio has yet to really find its place on the Internet in the way that other media such as video has and that this should really be remedied – especially since it's a highly familiar and, thanks to mobile apps, portable means of sharing messages, thoughts and ideas. Whilst its is likely to be the most mature, SoundCloud isn't the only audio sharing platform to emerge in recent times and so I though it might be an idea to take a look at other platforms that are paving the way in what is starting to referred to as "social audio" at the moment. AudioBoo
The basic service is free and appears to have already attracted a good number of users, including Stephen Fry and BBC London, which means than in addition to sharing your own recordings you’ll have a good range of other peoples to listen to too. Thounds
In addition to this, having realised that no such thing already exists, they have also created a Facebook app called YUIO – a simple sequencer and sampler, which allows you to record short sounds (or just use the default beats) to create boom box tunes to share. Tinyvox
According to its developers, Android, Blackberry and Symbian versions of the app are planned and will follow after additional features to the iOS app have been added. Tinyvox is currently available from the iOS app store for free or a £2.39 Pro version without adverts, an improved interface and full access to new features as they are introduced. And finally, a cool piece of kit for recording on the move… iRig Mic
Its creators IK Multimedia, who brought us the original iRig guitar interface and Amplitube software, have made sure its compatible with all of the apps above as well as all the other audio tools available for iOS mobile products. The iRig Microphone is available soon for around £49.99 and I’m sure will be a valuable tool for podcasters, musicians and social audio enthusiasts alike. |
| Energy: you can’t destroy it, but you can certainly waste it. Posted: 15 Jan 2011 04:55 AM PST Watch the video to see a simple illustration of the physics behind dynamic braking. Keep in mind an object’s force is measured in newtons, using the equation force = Mass x Acceleration. |
We’ve all been guilty of over-sharing our thoughts and actions in 140-character messages, no matter how banal or benign they may be. But there’s a certain phrase, “TMI” that prohibits even the crappiest of tweeters from sharing their bowel movements. Or so I thought…
We’ve 
It should come as no surprise to any of our regular readers that Microsoft, Google and Apple are in a fight to be the platform of choice for our living rooms. Well, I just happen to have all three in my living room right now in the form of the following devices: Xbox with Kinect; the Logitech Revue Google TV; an iPad; a Windows 7 computer and an Android phone (and a Chrome OS notebook, but that doesn’t really do multimedia so well, so I’m not going to count that). At the center off all of this a 40″ LCD 1080p TV with three HDMI inputs.
The iSupr8 app, 
Do you own a Zune but use a Mac? Must be rough.
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