Ajax Girl

Google has plugged the Google Web ToolKit demonstrating an iPhone specific version of Google Reader.

The iPhone Reader combines the Google AJAX Feed API with a user interface geared for use on the iPhone.

Google’s Research Actualization Engineer Bob Vawter said that the primary take-away from this project is to say ” The Google Web Toolkit can be used to create applications that, in the same code base, work well on an iPhone and a traditional desktop browser.”

We haven’t reviewed the Google Reader for iPhone before (not to be confused with the Web Toolkit Version) so I gave it a spin. It’s not the most stunning iPhone specific site I’ve used so far (Facebook holds that honor for me) but it does work, and work well. I heavily use tags in Reader to categorize content; unfortunately the only way to quickly go back and forward between tags is by scrolling to the bottom of each post then tapping on a small link, as opposed to a more usable button that is always present. Reader for iPhone also doesn’t discriminate based on tags with content and without, so a tag list includes every tag you’ve ever used in Reader, meaning you have to scroll past them to return to the navigation options. I shouldn’t complain too much however, being able to access this data on an iPhone is still light years ahead of my previous Nokia experience. Here’s hoping Google has future improvements planned for it.

See also our coverage of Netvibes for the iPhone here.

(via Steve Rubel on Twitter)

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/161785336/

Yahoo Podcasts, a comprehensive podcasting search, directory and listening service that launched in October 2005, is closing at the end of October, a fraction past its second birthday.

There is no official word from Yahoo as to why the site is shutting, aside from a message at the top of Yahoo Podcasts that reads “Yahoo! apologizes deeply, but we will be closing down the Podcasts site on Oct. 31, 2007.”

Other podcast directories have struggled as a medium that years ago held so much promise was surpassed by the rise of video. Odeo was acquired from investors, then sold off, then acquired another podcast directory called FireAnt; and more recently the podcast provider/ directory Podshow is rumored to be closing a third round of funding this week as they run short of money.

Yahoo Podcasts joins the ever growing Yahoo graveyard along with Yahoo Bill Pay (announced in July for Sep/ Oct shutdown) and the hat trick of closures in May of Yahoo Auctions, WebJay and Yahoo Photos. Yahoo Podcasts joins the TechCrunch Deadpool.

(via)

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/161772185/

Docstoc, a startup aiming to be the YouTube for professional documents, is giving away 1,000 invitations to its private beta to TechCrunch readers.

Redeem your invitation by going here and entering “TC40″ into the “invitation ID” field. The first 1,000 readers to do so will get in; dawdlers will need to request an invitation using the form on Docstoc’s homepage.

CEO Jason Nazar says that there are currently thousands of free legal and business documents on the site. The company recently raised a round of financing and presented at the TechCrunch40 conference during Session 4: Crowd Sourcing.

Check out a four-minute-long tutorial of Docstoc below.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/161667104/

We get lots of email from people who want to our take on this or that or why we do things one way instead of another way.

We thought instead of answering these emails on a one-on-one basis we’d answer them right here so more people can participate in the discussion.

So, we’re looking for interesting questions to answer here at Signal vs. Noise. Got one? Then send it to us at svn@37signals.com (make sure the subject line reads “Ask 37signals”). We’ll cherry pick the most interesting ones and answer them here. Fire away!

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/619-ask-37signals

This is a bit of a “if a tree falls in the woods…” question, but I think it’s interesting nonetheless.

Innovation is defined by creation, but I wonder if it’s possible to be innovative by standing still.

If everyone else is doing something new, and you are sticking with what you’ve got, are you being innovative? Can you be innovative by not changing a thing?

For example, Kottke has a piece on the return of the housecall. The doctor even says “I’m a new kind of physician.” Is that innovative? Housecalls used to be the norm, and now here’s a doctor that’s doing it again. Sounds innovative to me in today’s context, but is it actually innovative? Or is it just a return to something that works?

Now, this doctor is bringing some innovation in the form of video and instant messaging, but if a doctor has been doing housecalls for 30 years, and everyone else was requiring an office visit, and then housecalls are back in vogue, is that 30-year-housecall doctor innovative?

I know this doctor example isn’t a perfect example, but hopefully it’s a good baseline for discussion.

So what do you think?

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/617-can-you-be-innovative-by-standing-still

MSN Video just upgraded its video search page. It sports a new user interface that lets you search videos and watch them at the same time on a split screen. Search happens on the left, with search results popping up as thumbnail images.  Video consumption happens on the right, in a bigger window. The way people watch video on the Web is evolving fast, and Microsoft is trying to keep up with the times. Video search engine blinkx, for instance, already lets you watch videos in its search results page, as well as create a playlist by dragging and dropping the videos you want to see. Still, it’s nice to see Microsoft follow up on some of these ideas. The notion (borrowed from regular text search) that people want to toggle back and forth between video search and watching the actual videos is going to go away soon enough.

Along with the Ajaxy, new look, Microsoft is introducing a new video ad-serving system based on how long someone is watching videos on its site, instead of on how many videos he or she sees. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s idea of embracing a less intrusive ad model is, according to it press release, to show viewers ads “no more than once every three minutes during their viewing session.”

Gee, thanks.  So that means if you watch videos that are three minutes or longer, you could be shown one ad per clip. How is that an improvement over what viewers on MSN and other ad-supported video sites must endure today? Even on TV, they have the decency not to bombard you that often.

I am not sure a time-based approach is the way to go. From a consumer’s point of view, I can tolerate about one 10-second ad per every three or four videos. And if I’m watching a longer video (anything longer than five minutes), the instant the video is interrupted by an ad, I’m probably going to click away. Watching video on a laptop, where you are used to controlling the situation and clicking away to other sites incessantly, puts you in a different mindset than watching on TV. That’s why newer types of ads, such as click-able ad overlays or ad bugs that crawl across the screen, are more promising. Give consumers more control over what types of ads they see and when they seem and, guess what? They may actually watch more ads. The old-TV model of interrupting the viewer experience is something the Web video industry needs to leave behind.  (Easier said than done, I know.  But someone with the heft of an MSN needs to just do it and show advertisers that there is a better way).

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/161635869/

It is amazing how much chatter we have about wanting to know when the darn DOM is ready, and finding the right place to start doing your work. We just posted about IEContentLoaded and already Stuart Langridge has taken that and the other approaches and come up with this 7 liner (if you aren’t using a library that already does it for you):

John Resig is taking jQuery in a different direction though:

I have another technique that I posted to the list a while back, that I’ll be switching jQuery to. If you attempt to insert into the document.body before the document is fully loaded, an exception is thrown. I take advantage of that to determine when the document is fully loaded. I like that particular technique better because it actually tells you when you can manipulate the DOM - as opposed to this scroll thing which may, or may not, correspond to the document being loaded.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/161588330/more-fun-with-domcontentloaded

In other blogging news, the Huffington Post has raised another $5 million (bringing the total raised to $10 million), from existing investors Softbank Capital, Greycroft Partners, and former AOL COO Bob Pittman. That should help the HuffPost (ranked the No. 5 most-linked-to-blog by Technorati) pay its 43 employees and expand even further. Rafat Ali has the details.

Anyone know where that puts the pre-money valuation on the company now?  Please send me an email or enlighten us in comments.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/161569470/

EchoStar’s $380 million purchase of Sling Media once again raises the question of whether a consumer TV-device company can exist as a standalone entity. History has not been kind to such companies trying to break out from the startup field. Akimbo anyone? TiVo has also certainly seen its share of ups and downs (mostly downs). Even the attempts of larger tech companies at combining TVs and computers, such as the Apple TV or Microsoft’s various efforts over the years, haven’t fared any better at gaining massive consumer acceptance. The consumer-electronics giants and cable companies simply dominate this market. Given that reality, selling to EchoStar may have been Sling Media’s best option.

Although the company does not disclose exact figures, a Sling Media spokesperson says the startup has sold “hundreds of thousands” of Slingboxes over the past couple years. So that could be anywhere between 200,000 Slingbox users (which would bring the purchase price to $1,900 per user) and 900,000 (which would come to a purchase price of $422 per user).  (Ed. note: I fixed my initial bad math).

Still, that is not the math EchoStar used to justify the purchase. Because EchoStar, which was already a minority investor in the startup, did not buy Sling Media for its puny number of existing customers. It bought Sling Media for its place-shifting technology, which allows people to watch whatever is on their TV from a remote location on their laptop. EchoStar can now integrate that technology into its set-top boxes and has a better chance than Sling Media did to get the number of Slingbox users up well past a million. Another reason behind the deal may be to combine Sling Media with EchoStar’s other technology assets (set-top boxes, satellites), and split off the resulting, strengthened TV-technology group as a separate business, while dressing up its TV subscription service for a sale to AT&T. If that happens, then an independent EchoStar TV technology business would be free to sell place-shifting set-top boxes to rivals as well.

Just as the DVR did not take off until DirecTV and EchoStar started pushing the technology to their own customers, I would expect the same thing to happen with Slingboxes. But instead of EchoStar trying to design an inferior version of a Slingbox and push that on its TV subscribers, as it’s done with DVRs, at least this time it is starting out with the best technology up-front.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/161555555/

Justin Meyer and Brian Moschel created an application, Traffik, that “lists events from Google Calendar and shows the locations of those events in a map. Traffik shows only events with locations.”

Where it differs from the usual calendar » maps mashup is that you can login, and the application can read private calendar data, and can even create new events.

When you play with the example you can see how the permissions flow works in practice:

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ajaxian/~3/161537417/traffik-using-the-cross-domain-read-write-api