Origin of iPods
You are currently browsing the cyborg category.
Chrome OS X Goes Beta
Google Chrome for Mac (and Linux) has finally reached its official beta release! But as the downloads begin, there are a few features missing from the beta release. Here’s what got left out:
- Bookmarks Manager
- App Mode
- Task Manager
- Google Gears Support (in favor of HTML5)
- Bookmark Sync
- Multi-Touch Gestures
- Full extension support
These features will be blended in as the beta updates arrive and the “stable” release comes out in January 2010. And how do you like Google’s new minimalist (fade-in toolbar) search page? I love it… nothing but the wide open search.
(via TechCrunch)
Thumbs Down
Since the introduction of the “Like” button on Facebook’s news feed theres been a growing user base who demand the addition of an equal but opposite “Dislike” button. Recently, Thomas Moquet and David Djian developed a Firefox add-on aptly named Facebook Dislike that adds such functionality. Though, the dislikes you post can only be seen by yourself and others using the add-on.
Personally, I’m no fan of the thumbs-down in any online forum. But the “Like” button on Facebook is a unique case in user interaction. In most other forums that provide a thumbs up/down (i.e. YouTube) or plus/minus (i.e. IntenseDebate) option, the tool is used for rating or ranking in one way or another. On YouTube, the thumbs on a user’s comment are used by others to demonstrate the general audience’s opinion versus the individual’s opinion. The comments are not sorted by this rating but it does act as a compass of general opinion as other viewers read through the comments. On IntenseDebate comment threads, other readers can assign a + or – value to each comment and the comments with more positive feedback can float to the top and the negative sink to the bottom. This automatically moves the general consensus to priority level, the top of the barrel, where most first time visitors will read it first, then move into the disenting opinions as they scroll down.
Facebook’s Like button is a different game altogether. The Like button is used in place of a written comment instead of rating or ranking a comment. The like represents liking the post itself instead of liking the comments, as the tool is used in other incarnations. Thus, I agree with Facebook that a Dislike button would open a box of negativity that is best left closed.
Not only is the Like button a different use of the tool, but it exists in an entirely different context… a context of friends. People you (depending on who you are) actually know and care about. This hits much closer to home than a thumbs down on YouTube or minus on IntenseDebate by people from anywhere in the world who’s opinion you can generally blow off. If you, as a friend, dislike another friend’s post then you at least owe them an explanation of your dislike… so leave a comment. Better yet, give them a call or SAY IT TO THEIR FACE if you truly care.
Personally, I don’t support any negative assignment tools like the thumbs down on YouTube or minus on IntenseDebate because they’re completely unnecessary. By including a positive feedback assignment to rank or rate comments or posts, the same functionality is retained. Posts with positive feedback can still be viewed as general consensus and can even float to the top of a thread versus those with no feedback.
Not only is the negative feedback detrimental to the poster but it compromises the dialogue as a whole by essentially giving users two ways to control a conversation, positive and negative. This is less important on Facebook where ranking is not part of the game, but on YouTube and most importantly in IntenseDebate threads where the forum is ranked by rating, this is a critical flaw. Forum trolls and other negativity mongers can use the positive assignment to float their comments to the top and use the negative assignment to push other commenters to the bottom. Not a big deal when it comes to one user, but when multiplied (since trolls run in packs), this has the power to sway a conversation in one direction and disintegrate the dialogue. By removing the negative assignment tool, you cut their power in half and reestablish more credibility to the thread.
In Facebook’s case, the dislike option would only demoralize the poster. A negative comment can be debated or deleted but likes (and dislikes) are there to stay. Though 2,000,000 users disagree with me, I still believe that if you can’t say something nice, it’s best to say nothing at all.
Droid Doesn’t
Perhaps you’ve seen these intentionally obnoxious ads promoting the recent release of Motorola’s Google Android 2.o powered Droid smartphone?
Well they forgot to mention that Droid will ship with only 256MB of internal memory. No biggie in the old days where that memory was mainly filled with random low-res pics of high school friends behaving badly. Now it’s a different story, the App Age is upon us and those apps needs a bounty of memory to grow. Not to mention if you want to load MP3s onto your phone or photos from the 5MP camera as well. So all those lovely Android apps will have only 256MB (or less) to live in… that’s far less than the average flash-drive.
But hey, you can expand it with a memory card right? RIGHT?! No. Android doesn’t allow apps to be installed on external memory slots.
Droid launched exclusively on the Verizon network this past Friday and so far the buzz is that it’s selling fast. Other reports are praising the fast processing speed and Google’s Android 2.0 platform. Will it rival the iPhone like they hope? I doubt it, but Droid and other Android phones like T-Mobile’s myTouch are taking hold in the domain outside of iPhone’s (read AT&T’s) reach.
Droid, like myTouch and Palm Pre, aren’t necessarily aimed at toppling the iPhone as the ad above might suggest. Instead they’re more concerned with offering the customers who are already on their networks (Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint respectively) something resembling the functionality of an iPhone and make Apple’s crack rock look a little less tempting. iPhone wasn’t just a battle of technology, it was a carefully selected pawn in the battle of networks. AT&T chose correctly and with Apple they created a sharp device that acted as a magnet to draw other network’s customers into the AT&T fold. I don’t foresee anyone canceling contracts and dropping iPhones to pick up a Droid, or Pre for that matter, at least… not yet.
Chrom E. Yum | Chrome Debuts On OS X
For all the Mac users out there who have been curiously peeping over PC shoulders to catch a glimpse of Google’s Chrome web browser in action, well you can peep no more! Google has finally allowed Chrome to take it’s first baby-steps on OS X with the release of the official Chrome Developer Preview. If you haven’t been aware or were too risk averse to try out the nightly builds of Chromium (the developer name for Chrome) now’s the time to get your feet wet and see what all the hype is about. Personally I think it’s a gorgeous, functional browser and it’s far faster than Mozilla’s Firefox. The comparison is less drastic when Apple’s own Safari is brought into the picture, which is to be expected since they are both WebKit based browsers.
Chrome for Mac keeps the tabs-on-top UI design present on the Windows version but differs with it’s attention to details to make it blend with OS X like a chameleon. For instance the default theme is in grey-scale instead of blue and there is a subtle highlight under the pointer when hovering over a tab for better legibility. The tabs also “tear-off” to open as a new window and glide past each other during reordering showing Chrome’s developers incorporation of zippy animation that is now synonymous with OS X.
The key advantage Firefox still holds over Chrome (and Safari) is the massive library of add-ons that makes Firefox your handy dandy pocket knife for the web, there’s an add-on for nearly everything. But Chrome already has themes and is on the way with extensions and a handful are already available for the Windows version. Chrome’s excellent handling of AJAX heavy websites, like Facebook or the NYTimes Article Skimmer, completes my trifecta of web browsers. Firefox is still my go-to for research and website development and Safari is the golden god of streaming media sites like Netflix, Hulu and Youtube.
Now that Google is finally wading into the Mac pond, will you make the switch?
Tweet Your Senator
BarackObama.com has just launched its latest social media initiative, Tweet Your Senator to convey public support for health care reform to Congress. Hmmm, could this be the first step into the future of lobbying?
The Search At San Jose
Ephemera; An IBM promotional filmstrip which examines the development of the first hard disk storage unit between 1952 and 1956. ca 1956-1957.
Cue ominous music…
“Playing Whack-A-Mole With Data”
Responses have been overwhelmingly negative to the news that The Pirate Bay will soon be sold to Global Gaming Factory. But what if there is a method to the apparent Pirate Bay madness — one that, as Peter Sunde has hinted, could actually be good for the P2P community?
J.J. King over on TorrentFreak.com wrote a comprehensive article about the death of The Pirate Bay and how it will impact all the pirates out there…
RunPee
Ever need to ‘take a break’ in the middle of a movie but have no idea what you’re about to miss? Well RunPee.com‘s got your back! They list (mainstream) movies currently playing in theaters and mark out good moments to squeeze down the aisle and escape. They even have a iPhone app if you need it on the go.
(via DownloadSquad)
