...They know what your are watching (and when and where)...
Coming sometime soon?
TV-aware apps know what is being watched on TV and can “pop-up” extra content to enhance the viewing experience. For example they know if a person is watching from the real-time broadcast or watching from a show pre-recorded on a DVR. The apps are also aware of the current time and the viewer’s geographic location. That allows them to trigger a small notification at the bottom of the TV screen when relevant, informing the viewer that extra content is available if they want it. They can also be aware of what is being watched from Amazon on Demand or Netflix on Demand video stream. Pizza with your show?
They can provide ad spaces that broadcasters (or for interactive apps) at a premium rate, conduct a survey or prompt for a purchase transaction. This could make broadcasters more open and accepting of Internet TV. Makes Apple, Yahoo and Google TV efforts more mainstream and less objectionable to broadcasters, cable channels.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Google Voice Number Porting
..New features allows users to port existing number to VoIP service...
A new feature inserts Google between customer and carriers; could mature into a service that competes with Skype.
In a “test run” a select few users of Google Voice* can port their existing mobile number via the “change/port” option. People who do this will pay a $20 fee to Google for the service, on top of any contract termination charges they’re subject to from this current carrier. Then users will have to go back to a carrier and get another plan with a new number, and then add that number to their Google Voice account if you want the service to work with a mobile phone. It has however been reported that some people are just asking their carriers for a replacement phone number and keeping their existing contract until it expires. However as more carriers purvey Android phones, there’s a possibility they could work with Google on porting numbers. Texting in a timely manner with Google Voice is still problematic.
One nice feature of Google Voice is that it allows one to play or view transcripts of voicemails. Also one number for work, home, mobile with user-set rules. When someone calls that Google Voice number, it rings first at Google's servers, then quickly checked against any rules set by customer and sends call to specified number.
Sometime ago I set up Google Voice on my iTouch - so it only works in WiFi -- but the rules allow calls to go to other numbers I specify. I especially like being able to read my voice mails.
* free web-based platform for U.S. telephone service and texting.
A new feature inserts Google between customer and carriers; could mature into a service that competes with Skype.
In a “test run” a select few users of Google Voice* can port their existing mobile number via the “change/port” option. People who do this will pay a $20 fee to Google for the service, on top of any contract termination charges they’re subject to from this current carrier. Then users will have to go back to a carrier and get another plan with a new number, and then add that number to their Google Voice account if you want the service to work with a mobile phone. It has however been reported that some people are just asking their carriers for a replacement phone number and keeping their existing contract until it expires. However as more carriers purvey Android phones, there’s a possibility they could work with Google on porting numbers. Texting in a timely manner with Google Voice is still problematic.
One nice feature of Google Voice is that it allows one to play or view transcripts of voicemails. Also one number for work, home, mobile with user-set rules. When someone calls that Google Voice number, it rings first at Google's servers, then quickly checked against any rules set by customer and sends call to specified number.
Sometime ago I set up Google Voice on my iTouch - so it only works in WiFi -- but the rules allow calls to go to other numbers I specify. I especially like being able to read my voice mails.
* free web-based platform for U.S. telephone service and texting.
Social Micropayments
...Show how much you ”like” with a cash donation...
Flattr, Rewrd and Kachingle are all social micropayment startups that allow people to demonstrate how much they like a website or content by making a small donation to that site or content provider by pressing a donate button. Those who wish receive peer-to-peer donations, sign up for the service and place one or more donation buttons on the sites.
People who wish to donate place a certain amount of money in their donation accounts each month via a credit/debit transaction or Paypal. At the end of a month, that money is divided equally among the web sites or content providers that a person “liked” during that month. More recently, rather than equal apportionment, a user could decide to donate a specific amount ranging from 2 to 50 Euros to a site or specific content.
There is a Flattr app that enables smart phone users scan a QR code off-line. The code is tied to a Flattr account, making it convenient for users to submit and Flattr content via a mobile device.
Sites charge a percentage of each donation to cover costs; provides an opportunity for casual commerce -- to donate for "likes" while creating a small revenue stream for digital content providers.
In another version, PayPal offers support for micropayments to merchants for US to US, GB to GB, AU to AU, and EU to EU transactions for Business and Premier accounts. This feature is offered at a special rate of 5% + $0.05 per transaction. I've seen several Silicon Valley blogs with a "Donate" Button.
Flattr, Rewrd and Kachingle are all social micropayment startups that allow people to demonstrate how much they like a website or content by making a small donation to that site or content provider by pressing a donate button. Those who wish receive peer-to-peer donations, sign up for the service and place one or more donation buttons on the sites.
People who wish to donate place a certain amount of money in their donation accounts each month via a credit/debit transaction or Paypal. At the end of a month, that money is divided equally among the web sites or content providers that a person “liked” during that month. More recently, rather than equal apportionment, a user could decide to donate a specific amount ranging from 2 to 50 Euros to a site or specific content.
There is a Flattr app that enables smart phone users scan a QR code off-line. The code is tied to a Flattr account, making it convenient for users to submit and Flattr content via a mobile device.
Sites charge a percentage of each donation to cover costs; provides an opportunity for casual commerce -- to donate for "likes" while creating a small revenue stream for digital content providers.
In another version, PayPal offers support for micropayments to merchants for US to US, GB to GB, AU to AU, and EU to EU transactions for Business and Premier accounts. This feature is offered at a special rate of 5% + $0.05 per transaction. I've seen several Silicon Valley blogs with a "Donate" Button.
Elastic Beanstalk
...Amazon Web Services creates new offering -- Platform-as-a-Service...
There is a renewed interest in Platform-as-a-Service since Salesforce.com acquired Heroku and Red Hat acquired Makara, and several startups have acquired significant funding.
Adding to its Elastic Compute Cloud ( EC2 resizable compute capacity) and Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon Web Services is now offering developers a platform out of a box, to simplify the deployment of apps to its core EC2/S3 services.
Developers can provision and manage their AWS app with the Elastic Beanstalk which automatically handling deployment issues such as capacity planning, load balancing, scaling, and monitoring the health of applications.
Initially targeted at Java developers but Amazon said it will support other programming languages in the future (in public beta Jan. 2011).
Now AWS becomes even easier for developers to build powerful and highly scalable Web applications and encourages wider use of AWS EC2/S3 cloud infrastructure.
There is a renewed interest in Platform-as-a-Service since Salesforce.com acquired Heroku and Red Hat acquired Makara, and several startups have acquired significant funding.
Adding to its Elastic Compute Cloud ( EC2 resizable compute capacity) and Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon Web Services is now offering developers a platform out of a box, to simplify the deployment of apps to its core EC2/S3 services.
Developers can provision and manage their AWS app with the Elastic Beanstalk which automatically handling deployment issues such as capacity planning, load balancing, scaling, and monitoring the health of applications.
Initially targeted at Java developers but Amazon said it will support other programming languages in the future (in public beta Jan. 2011).
Now AWS becomes even easier for developers to build powerful and highly scalable Web applications and encourages wider use of AWS EC2/S3 cloud infrastructure.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Qwiki
...Qwiki - rich, multimedia narrative search results...a hint of things to come...
Qwiki is a Flipboard-meets-Wikipedia “search engine”. A Qwiki search pulls up a Wikipedia-like page with a "rich media narrative" of videos, photos, and audio clips relating to the topic. Users can contribute content to a Qwiki entry or embed them on another site or share them via a social network. Presented as an interactive video, Qwikis are created on the fly from web sources.
Bankrolled by one of the founders of Facebook, Qwiki’s ultimate success will be based on how much information it can collect/encompass. The site is visually attractive and the on-the-fly audio and visual presentations hints of things to come.
As an alpha user, they send me an interesting topical link each day. And as soon as I stop with this blog stuff I'm going to add some photos of Berlin including one particular image I took at the Hauptbahnhof in January 2010 of a very large poster hanging in the station commemorating the what I believe is the 20th anniversary of the Solidarity-led Polish revolution (1989) (photo also post here). You may have to be "of a certain age" to immediately get the meaning of it -I am of that age, and as I stopped to look at it (actually it stopped me, I was on my way to some place for a meeting)it took me a while to understand - it's very creative - . This post certainly became tangential to its original purpose.
Qwiki is a Flipboard-meets-Wikipedia “search engine”. A Qwiki search pulls up a Wikipedia-like page with a "rich media narrative" of videos, photos, and audio clips relating to the topic. Users can contribute content to a Qwiki entry or embed them on another site or share them via a social network. Presented as an interactive video, Qwikis are created on the fly from web sources.
Bankrolled by one of the founders of Facebook, Qwiki’s ultimate success will be based on how much information it can collect/encompass. The site is visually attractive and the on-the-fly audio and visual presentations hints of things to come.
As an alpha user, they send me an interesting topical link each day. And as soon as I stop with this blog stuff I'm going to add some photos of Berlin including one particular image I took at the Hauptbahnhof in January 2010 of a very large poster hanging in the station commemorating the what I believe is the 20th anniversary of the Solidarity-led Polish revolution (1989) (photo also post here). You may have to be "of a certain age" to immediately get the meaning of it -I am of that age, and as I stopped to look at it (actually it stopped me, I was on my way to some place for a meeting)it took me a while to understand - it's very creative - . This post certainly became tangential to its original purpose.
QR - Quick Response Codes
...Leveraging social media and technology for marketing...
I just reprinted my business card and put a QR (Quick Response) code on it for my personal website. At a Silicon Valley networking event a few weeks ago, during the obligatory biz card exchange ritual, someone asked me what it was and another person commented that they are all the rage on biz cards now.
I first started noticing QR codes in the wild on some food item labels I was buying from the
local grocery store -they were so tiny, less than a half inch square and even smaller, one could hardly notice them. Now I am used to seeing them in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and maybe, if I recall correctly, the Economist. I also recall very careful written instructions in the advert on what to do with it :) ah - a way to bridge the printed media world with the digital.
Quick Response or QR codes are beginning to appear in major print publications, on storefronts and buildings, on posters attached to kiosks and bus stops, on food item labels and clothing tags. Much of this is due to the proliferation of smart phones, apps that can read QR codes and act upon them and people who recognize and use them. In print, businesses are using them to send people to web sites, their social media site, or directly to specific apps.
It is said that in 2009 Google has sent thousands of decals free to US businesses with instructions on how to create QR Codes, place them store fronts to enable them to be found on the the Place Page on Google where people find reviews, find an offer, place a star for future reference or create a favorite place for others to see on Google Maps. – all on their mobile phones. But I can't remember ever seeing one.
I went to Kaywa, one of several online sites to generate my web site's QR code. These sites can create a QR code for a URL, text, phone number or SMS(and give you both the image and the permalink for the QR code and apps that can read them are easily found in your phone's app store. Then using an app on my iphone, I tested it by reading it from my laptop display and from my paper biz card. It worked! But it did take a while for the the app to acknowledge "I got it." Maybe too long for me to make use of it while I am out in the wild. But I am looking forward to innovative and creative ways of using them in the future.
...As one German-speaking person proclaimed “QR-Code - 2011 - Jahr des 2D Barcode Marketing”...
I just reprinted my business card and put a QR (Quick Response) code on it for my personal website. At a Silicon Valley networking event a few weeks ago, during the obligatory biz card exchange ritual, someone asked me what it was and another person commented that they are all the rage on biz cards now.
I first started noticing QR codes in the wild on some food item labels I was buying from the
local grocery store -they were so tiny, less than a half inch square and even smaller, one could hardly notice them. Now I am used to seeing them in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and maybe, if I recall correctly, the Economist. I also recall very careful written instructions in the advert on what to do with it :) ah - a way to bridge the printed media world with the digital.
Quick Response or QR codes are beginning to appear in major print publications, on storefronts and buildings, on posters attached to kiosks and bus stops, on food item labels and clothing tags. Much of this is due to the proliferation of smart phones, apps that can read QR codes and act upon them and people who recognize and use them. In print, businesses are using them to send people to web sites, their social media site, or directly to specific apps.
It is said that in 2009 Google has sent thousands of decals free to US businesses with instructions on how to create QR Codes, place them store fronts to enable them to be found on the the Place Page on Google where people find reviews, find an offer, place a star for future reference or create a favorite place for others to see on Google Maps. – all on their mobile phones. But I can't remember ever seeing one.
I went to Kaywa, one of several online sites to generate my web site's QR code. These sites can create a QR code for a URL, text, phone number or SMS(and give you both the image and the permalink for the QR code and apps that can read them are easily found in your phone's app store. Then using an app on my iphone, I tested it by reading it from my laptop display and from my paper biz card. It worked! But it did take a while for the the app to acknowledge "I got it." Maybe too long for me to make use of it while I am out in the wild. But I am looking forward to innovative and creative ways of using them in the future.
...As one German-speaking person proclaimed “QR-Code - 2011 - Jahr des 2D Barcode Marketing”...
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