living with technology and other stuff
ZapTXT is a web based service that allows you to set up RSS feeds to be sent to you phone via SMS. I just set up a filtered RSS feed from craigslist to notify me whenever a house that fits my requirements is listed. If it works then this could be a cool thing. I’ll update this post with the results.
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fileNice is a nice simple free php file browser. I think this is better then sharepoint, but so is a stick in the eye. Some cool features it includes
Thank you for creating such a great thing!
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Here’s what I found so far:
The founder Jeremy Allaire is smart guy. He was one of the creators of Cold Fusion. He also created Homesite which became part of the very successful Dreamweaver application produced by Macromedia.
What Brightcove is doing:
Creating an open standards based software application that will be used for finding and watching video streams off the internet and on your TV. The idea is to strike deals with companies like Tivo, Sony, Phillips, etc. to use this software on their systems. Another plan is to get it running on home media center systems like MS Media Center Edition or on OS X. This is a big challenge these companies are already producing their own products. They’re big difference from all the other web based video tools like this is that they want to get this off a computer screen and on to a TV screen.
What technology are they using:
The front end is an all web based Flash interface. All the video is played through flash using the On2 Flix software for encoding. So something a lot like Google video.
Quote from Brightcove:
“It’s our hope and intention for Brightcove to become an essential online service for building Internet TV businesses – with full choice and control for publishers over user experience, monetization and syndication.”
Why AOL:
This is huge for them. One of the big challenges they faced was getting advertiser dollars. Now they have the backing of AOL and if successful can integrate in to their ad network. I’m also guessing that this could solve their bandwidth problem if they every had one.
My take away:
Home media computers are on the rise but are still a very small market space. Apple, Microsoft and other very large well funded companies are trying to get in to this space. Brightcove wants to piggyback on that. They can be successful if they have good content, can find ways to make content providers money, and it’s easy to use. I’m not sure what their plan is in regards to quality programming. Without quality you end up with the same stuff that’s on google video: people crashing their cars, cats, babies, and more dumb people doing dumb stuff. I for one don’t want to watch that sort of crap.
Technology wise what they are doing is easy. At least from everything I’ve been able to find. It’s just been a matter of putting together all the said technologies in to one easy to repurpose package. I’m not sure what their storage solution is but I guess some very large SAN system.
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Infinium Labs is working hard to produce a product. It’s not the fabled Phantom game system either. It’s the best accessory to come out of the design and development process. The lapboard. Of course I’m a bit partial about this product since I helped design it. The whole time I was there working on the system it was the lapboard that excited me the most. I kept telling them to get it to market. I hope that it will become a reality.
What makes it so great? It’s a keyboard designed for use while sitting on your couch or chair in front of your TV. It’s configured for playing games with the keys you use most having higher prominence. I used a computer in front of a TV for a while. I had my Mac Mini hooked up and used a standard Apple wireless keyboard and mouse. Combined with a remote it was mostly usable. The big problem is that there isn’t anyplace to use my mouse.
The lapboard solves this problem by opening up and giving you a mousing surface under the keyboard.
Now the only problem with computing in the living is making an OS UI for the TV. Standard UIs are not TV friendly. However with new products like Front Row or Microsoft’s Media Center they are begining to tackle these issues. I think the Phantom lapboard would make the best Xbox 360 accessory.
The lapboard in the picture is an early prototype. A lot of design improvements and changes have happened since then. I couldn’t find any official pictures of the new design at this time.
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