Emerging Tech

Where are the Desktop App Stores? Adobe? Apple? MS?

Earlier today I posted about the NYT Reader desktop app and the shift that I (and others) perceive away from browsers and towards the “app” model that Apple pioneered. Enabled by business-model-friendliness, advanced IDE’s and low-cost coding, and (potentially) superior user experiences, there’s a lot to be said for apps as a desktop paradigm.
Which begs… »

Death of the ‘Net is at hand; or - “Web 3.0″ isn’t in your browser

EDIT: When your done reading this, you should read the follow-up post “Where are the desktop App Stores?”
This article on the NYT’s Adobe Air newspaper reader I think highlights a trend that iTunes started: pulling applications and content back out of the browser. It makes sense:

Apps can provide a better user experience than generalist browsers.
Apps… »

Microsoft’s Kumo is in my referrer logs

http://kumo.com/search?q=how%20many%20users%20on%20twitter&form=QBRE
Apparently Kumo is up and running and being tested. The domain is blank for me,… »

Chaordix: The Rise and Fall of Cambrian House

I’m sure this has been written about elsewhere, but I was saddened today, upon revisiting Cambrian House, to see that the experiment is over. Cambrian House began as an internet crowd sourcing platform where communities could form around ideas submitted by anyone, with execution moderated by Cambrian House, and profit sharing for all.
Out of the… »

Another Tag Silo - Twitter Hashtags

A few days ago, I riffed on how the failure of user-powered tagging was what was driving the need for a semantic web - that jumbled, discontiguous tagging implementations had created a plethora of tag city-states who’s inability to talk on a “national” level had reduced the tagging movement to a curiosity.
Today, another entrant in… »

The Phone Rings for Thee: Google to announce Monday?

The WSJ is reporting that Google is set to announce its GPhone plans Monday (Nov. 5), announcing partnerships with T-Mob and Sprint initially. God willing, that will push bloody Facebook and OpenSocial off of TechMeme for a few days.
So - what does a GPhone mean to me?
Familiar Business Model: I’m assuming that the GPhone will… »

Miro vs. Joost: The Doctorow Doctrine

Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing’s slayer of DRM, writes this morning about open source Joost-killer “Miro.”
Miro has done extensive outreach to indie creators, has no privacy-invading tracking of your viewing habits, delivers HD video, and is built on free software and open standards. [from BB]
Download the free software, pick the channels you want (over 2,500 of… »

Google’s OpenSocial: tough questions outstanding

Let’s start by summarizing Google’s “OpenSocial” API: its a Microsoft strategy. OpenSocial is targeting developers with the hope that a plethora of must-have OpenSocial apps/widgets/services will drive adoption of the member social networks.
I have some questions…

Will OpenSocial get adoption in the developer community? The OpenSocial union depends on developers wanting to develop apps across the… »

Vudu is doomed

I just read this early review of Vudu’s $400 set top box, the purchase of which allows you to pay for movie rentals.
From a marred user experience (minute long start up times? HDCP funged-up HDMI ports?), to typically ham-fisted DRM schemes ($20 movies playable only on your Vudu box), to expensive and confusing pricing (buy… »

7 Definitions of Web 3.0

A few weeks ago, Google’s Eric Schmidt managed to sound like both a n00b and a tasteless PR hack in the same 2 minutes, while trying to define “Web 3.0.” I wanted to try and round up some useful things about “Web 3.0″ that Schmidt could have said. So - to that end, here are… »