Six Apart have posted some screenshots of the soon to be released TypePad blog tool.
More info on TypePad and the team behind it is available in my April 23 posting.
Don't let the clunky website stop you from trying out this simple and extremely good piece of back-up software (Palm OS 5). BackupMan is easy to use but still has more than enough scheduling options.
It's a matter of taste but I like it that BackupMan makes a complete backup every time I use it. And it's just $10 per license.
Here's the link to the "Wi-Fi supersite" I mentioned in some emails a while back. It's not as fantastic as the name implies but if you missed something 802.11-related recently, you'll probably find it here.
AOL might be launching blog tools as early as June. With AOL's recent focus on charging extra for services and tools my guess is that they will be offered as an add on.
The story on Dave "Scripting News" Winer's blog makes references to one Netscape/AOL source who claims that 400 people are involved in developing the new service. If that's true, then AOL are clearly overspending.
This one caught my attention.
"More importantly, the underlying technology minimizes the effect of dropped packets or other sundry problems that occur in Internet transmission"
In general I'm sceptical when it comes to "internet/Wi-Fi phones", mostly because the sound quality hasn't been acceptable. But after a recent sampling I think that the people at TeleSym might be on to something.
Interesting story on the rise and rise of Wi-Fi.
Swedish career magazine "Shortcut" features a good interview with Johan Stael von Holstein, co-founder of IconMedialab, in its latest issue. Personal and in part quite surprising, its a good read.
I'm guessing the story will be published online fairly soon. But if you can, get a copy of the magazine and experience what must be one of the best career magazines in Europe.
Using a cell phone to make payments is old news in several European countries (Finland, Estonia and Ireland to name a few). Basically, SMS or a simple phone call is used to charge the cost of soft drinks, parking etc to the phone bill.
The shall we say "less smooth" solution that Nokia and MasterCard are testing in Texas sounds very backwards. A special cover, a "SmartCover", has to be snapped on to your cell phone. Or you can buy a new handset wit the technology, PayPass, built in. You then "wave" or "tap" your phone in front of a regular card reader in the store.
If all this wasn't enough (do you really want a bulkier phone?) "participating merchants are able to send advertisements to consumers' SmartCover phones using a short-messaging service". Don't like it? Well, you can "opt out of receiving the advertisements after 30 days".
Why would I want to snap an extra cover on my phone? And if I did, why should I have to accept advertising?
The concept (paying for services and items via cell phone) is good. This implementation is not.
The reserachers at Palo Alto Reserach Center, i.e. PARC, want to help you view maps on small screens.
MIT Technology Review explain the technology, called Halo, like this:
"As a person navigates a map on a handheld computer, the software causes arcs representing selected offscreen locations to appear on the edge of the screen, as if the locations were surrounded by circles large enough that a portion of the arc just reached onto the screen. The user can sense how far away an offscreen location is by the curve and translucence of its arc, which indicates the size of the full circle and thus the distance to its center."
In other words, it's a bit like the navigation aids we've been using in games ("Syndicate", "Driver" etc) for years but applied to real life!
TapWave looks set to be the latest addition to the Palm OS licensee family. The company, founded by two former Palm Inc employees, will put the OS in a mobile gaming device, code-named Helix. The device is also rumoured to include an organizer and offer PC syncronization.
This space is really heating up. Nokia's n-gage also occupies the "gaming device that's good for business too" space.
As of today there is no word on wether the Helix will feature some form of "wireless" capabilities but it's a safe bet that it will. TapWave are throwing a party tonight, my guess is we'll know more tomorrow.
It's nice to see a major tech company making a deal with a WISP other than T-Mobile. Sometimes I get the impression that everyone is on "the T". A quick poll among friends and colleagues confirmed this, with 7 out of 8 having signed up with T-Mobile. (Yes, I use T-Mobile too.)
This is a fun read! William Gibson on blogging.
"It's hard to say whether it actually is brevity when it involves a hyperlink. If what you're presenting is a customised node, then the node is the message and you don't want a lengthy node!"
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