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J-M-Williams

TweetPhoto Shoots to Take Out TwitPic and ScoresMay 6 2009

TwitPic has always been the go to application for sharing photos on twitter but a new service, TweetPhoto, aims to changes that.  If you’ve ever used TwitPic you know it does what it aims to do, share photos, which is nice but I’ve always felt wanting for more.   The feature set is downright sparse compared to TweetPhoto and you’ll see the difference right off the bat.  In addition to signing in with your Twitter user name there are photo and meta-data filters, photo favorites, friends photos, customizable widgets, expansive API and a seamless integration into Twitter and Facebook Connect.  In fact it not only is probably the most complete way to share photos on Twitter, you can share them on Facebook just as easily.  TwitPic has a over a year head start on TweetPhoto but if nothing else I’m sure we’ll start to see more capabilities from both and the user wins either way.

TweetPhoto greatly improves the user experience for those people who share photos on Twitter through the service. The capabilities include:

• Upload photos via mobile phone and the

Would a Big Screen Kindle Save The Newspaper?May 4 2009

When I was a kid I always assumed that the newspaper format would change.  I figured we’d be reading from a tablet but that we would receive our daily newspaper via cd rom.  I also thought we’d be in flying cars and our tv would be a hollogram.  I was also 11.  Does that mean those things won’t happen, no but it also shows how slow we are to change.  We drive cars today that get less gas mileage than they did ten years ago.  Our televisions are basically the same as they were 50 years ago.  And our newspapers are the same as they were 400 years ago.  We as a society are better at developing new technologies than updating old ones.   Where is our e-ink newsprint?  It’s not going to happen but Amazon want’s to use a new technology to replace an old one.

Nothing has been announced officially but word is that Amazon will release a bigger screen Kindle to better support newspapers and magazines, two areas that have been hit hard in print.  E-readers have yet to revolutionize the way people read books and it has yet to steer consumers from brick and mortar stores but there has been growth.   About a half a million people bought a kindle last year, and while that’s not enough to start a mass exodus of advertisers from print, it is expected to show the growth to tempt them.  Kindle users are in the right age range 25-45 and have the disposable income that ad execs covet.  Is that enough to supplant newspapers?  Probably not.  Radio, television, and the internet all were supposed to be the death of newsprint and so far newspapers and magazines have survived.  Your big city newspaper will do fine as long as they manage to adapt like they have in the past.  Readership will be down but as long as they change thier expectations of what makes a successful newspaper and stay profitable, the 11 year old in me will have to wait a little while longer for the future I dreamed about.  With the trouble automakers are having I might never get my flying car.

The New Friendfeed… Is It All That Different?April 30 2009

Way back in ‘07′, the infancy of micro-blogging, I was not only an early adopter of  Twitter but of Pownce.  Like Twitter, it allowed users to tell their friends or followers what they were doing with as little prose as possible.  I actually preferred the latter because of not only the ability to share links, images, and music, but the ability to create events.  Pownce  (who was created by  Kevin Rose, Leah Culver, and Daniel Burka) was acquired by Six Apart and subsequently shut down two weeks later.  I, along with many other former Pownce users, were looking for another place to call home that offered more than Twitter but not as involved as Facebook so we drifted to Friendfeed.   I enjoyed the conversational aspect but it didn’t seem to have the sticking ability of Twitter or Facebook, not to mention it was a harbor for early adopters and not much else.  Friendfeed’s new push for a simpler interface is a step in the right direction but is it enough?

At first glance it may seem like Friendfeed has taken a page out of Twitter’s design playbook, but actually has more in common with Facebook and my beloved Pownce (R.I.P).  The ability to share more than text and expanding your thought to something more robust than 140 characters has always been there but now everything has been streamlined.  You will recognize the standard input box and river of messages below  from every other micro-blogging site you’ve ever used but it now it is in real time.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 AvailableApril 29 2009

Mozilla has released the newest beta of Firefox 3.5… 

Please note: Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes many new features as well as improvements to performance, web compatibility, and speed. We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before installing this beta.

Firefox 3.5 (formerly known as Firefox 3.1) Beta 4 is now available for download. This milestone is focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3.5. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3.5 can be followed at the Firefox 3.5 Planning Center, as well as in

Zoho Goes MobileApril 28 2009

Zoho today released mobile versions of many of their web office applications and it’s easy to see why some refuse to use anything else. 

Zoho Mail, Calendar, Writer, Sheet, Show & Creator are now available for the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices (Palm support is in the works).  Zoho has many features not found anywhere else like group sharing across multiple apps and multiple log in options.  You can log in with your Google or Yahoo IDs, along with a unique Zoho login.  Go to http://mobile.zoho.com (or http://m.zoho.com) on your mobile device and check it out.  Leave your impressions in the comments.