280 Slides
These days, developers are trying to move desktop applications to the web, and today, I tried a website that allows me to create presentations on the web. 280slides.com has just climbed onboard the train, to offer users a way to create slideshows, instead of purchasing Microsoft’s PowerPoint or Apple’s Keynote desktop products. After hearing about the site on the net@night podcast, I decided to test drive their public beta product just launched in mid June 2008 to find out what the hoopla was about. Read the rest of this entry »
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A N I M O T O
At long last! A few months back, I listened to Net at Night, one of my favorite podcasts, and Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur introduced Animoto to me. When I first saw the word “Animoto” I had no idea what this software was - could it be some sort of animation or comic strip tool? It sounded Japanese - but I don’t understand Japanese!
Little did I realize that it was software that I had been waiting two years for.
Show’s Over…
At long last, this post is a bit late due to some other priorities I had in the past two weeks. The party has long been over! That is, another year of SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) bites the dust, and what do we have to show for it? After four keynotes including one fiasco, countless sessions, parties galore, who knows how many twitters, and the Web Awards, there is one thing stands clear. The Internet continues to promote innovative ideas in the area of social networking applications, blogs and vlogs, interactive games, etc. Here’s the lowdown.
SXSW Descends Upon Austin
Today, SXSW (South by Southwest) descends upon Austin, TX for its 21st year. Many people in Austin know SXSW as a huge music and film festival, but did you know it’s also a major technology festival as well? Starting in 1994, SXSW started featuring a multimedia track as part of its festivities, and it has morphed into a wildly successful conference/festival on new media, web design, usability, blogging, gaming, and new technology business models.
Twitter Tools
In my last Twitter post, I talked about how to set yourself up with Twitter using the Twitter website. This is where you can create, view, and reply to tweets. It is the only place where you can manage your Twitter preferences and your list of friends. However, there are a host of third party offerings that offer you other avenues to create, view and reply to tweets.
Here are the basic approaches for third party access to Twitter.
Tweet This
I just started using Twitter only recently to find out whether this tool might be of interest and use to me.
First of all, what exactly is Twitter? According to Wikipedia, Twitter is a microblog / social network in one. Tweets, as it sounds, are small bursts of information - no more than 140 characters. So, think of a Tweet as a mini posting on a mini blog, or like instant messaging to a bunch of people at once.
So now you know what Twitter is. Some of you have seen tweets on blogs. But, you’re still asking yourself questions like, why would I want to use Twitter? I already have a blog (or website), so do I really need something like Twitter? Or, I don’t have a blog and I don’t use instant messenger, why would I want to use Twitter? None of my friends use Twitter - who uses it anyways? I know that I was asking many of these same questions only a month ago. Here’s what I learned.
WordPress Beginnings
I have been looking around for quite some time for the perfect blogging tool to use for this review site. I used several blogging tools, but either the theme choices were limited or the functionality I was looking for was not readily available. Then, a few months ago, a favorite podcaster of mine, Leo LaPorte, mentioned that he was moving his blog to WordPress. I remember hearing about WordPress but knew nothing about the product.
So, with time on my hands, I decided to investigate further. I soon learned that WordPress is exactly what I was looking for in a blogging tool.
Book Review - The Macintosh iLife ‘08 ,by Jim Heid
The Macintosh iLife ‘08″ book, authored by Jim Heid and published by Peachpit Press, is an excellent resource to learn not only the basics of the iLife ‘08 suite of applications, but it also provides some very good tips and tricks as well.
Feel the Motion
If you’ve ever used the iPhoto’s slideshow feature, you know it allows you to create quick movies from photos, with wonderful Ken Burns effects. But, after the using Ken Burns effect for 2 years to create interest in my photos, even that had become “so old hat.” I really needed some new software to spice up and animate my photos! That’s when I stumbled upon PulpMotion.
Music to my Ears
When my iPod Mini’s battery died for the second time in October 2007, I thought maybe it was time to consider a new iPod. My iPod Mini had served me faithfully for several years now, but I thought it was time to look at the new iPod lineup along with the previous lineup still in the stores. Where better to go than the local Apple Store. And, there they were…the flashy new iPods of today.