JR R. › Comments

digging the new icon - Dobromir Hadzhiev

just downloaded now. Killer feature - Duncan Riley

Cool. Need to checkout this out when I get home. - Kevin Whalen

I liked the old one.. was getting used t it nicley.. could have asked us to give em feedback first lol.. :o/ - Rob Sellen :o)

I preferred the old one as well - Duncan Riley

And how hard would it be to just give the user the choice as to how it looks? - James D Kirk

It's just a case of getting used to it. I think. I didn't like it originally but it does grow on a person - Paul Sharrock from IM

I was quite disappointed about the change as well. - trextor

Ugh -- not a fan either. Much like with the stink I raised over the iGoogle shift a while back, I'm not sure why they can't give us an option here, as James said above. - JR R.

I was happy with the old one. Don't much like the new look even though it is a subtle change. Wish they would put a "change back to old view" like Yahoo does. - Jeff P. Henderson

I like it, except the line items need to go back to their smaller size. - Jordan Hofker

Just seems like change for change's sake. The look isn't an improvement on the previous style. It's too washed-out now. Bring back the colored background for the left column at least. - Rowan Hanna

some themes can be added just as what had been done with Gmail. - pestwave

Missing the old google reader. We had just gotten to know eachother well. We were vibing. - Ebm

I like the new GReader... nice and clean... - Aad 't Hart

I think it's neater. Is it faster or am I just a big enthousiast ? - Genaro Bardy from twhirl

I like the new look. - DGentry

My reader on the iPhone is messed up. The lines don't wrap. I tried clearing the cache but no luck. This happening to anyone else? - Brian Newman

I liked it at first, but that wore off quickly - Shey, Jamaican of FF

the overly bold text is grating to me... my whole left column is nearly all bold - Nathan Chase

yeah... be nice if we can have own themes like in gmail :o) - Rob Sellen :o)

iPhone version needs to be fixed but the new version looks great in my browser. Not sure what "soft and feminine" is supposed to mean. I just have more white. Same palette different combination. For the "tough guys" out there, request themes from Google. The optimization of real estate is something I have been wanting them to do for the longest time. Finally. My content is taking up more of the screen and my subscription list is now pushed all the way down anymore thanks to collapsing boxes. Good stuff. - Rolf Schewe

I'm really not sold on it yet. - Sarah Perez

Meh - Jauder Ho

Is it a rule that every time there's a change, the Web needs to complain? I liked the change, and it was subtle enough, I can't believe it would be worth mentioning, if somebody liked it marginally less. *shrug* - Scott of Two Countries

I LOVE the new look. - Will Higgins™

I preferred the old one as well - recent one not so fun, hopefully they will bring some kind of theming around as they did for gmail to get rid of this Interface. - Jayavasanthan J

If only for "Subscription->Show updated" feature alone, and I like the new layout a lot :) - Dani Radu

I like the change. Way better. - Rolf Schewe

wow - Duncan Riley

It's about 20% of the size it was in '94 I've noticed. - Dr. Apps from twhirl

InfoWorld (admittedly not as big as PC Magazine) made the switch to online-only a year or two ago, and now provides its content via RSS feeds which link to ad-laced online articles. Not sure how they're doing financially. Of course, such changes are almost expected in the tech world; it's more newsworthy when someone like the Christian Science Monitor does it. - Ontario Emperor

FYI all, post is now updated with official confirmation and detailed info from PC Magazine's editor-in-chief. - JR R.

Is it any faster than Firefox 3.1 beta with TraceMonkey enabled? I've been using that for a week and it FLIES! - Kevin C. Tofel

I don't need this. I really don't need this.... Why am I such a browser whore? - teh Dork Knight aka Kenny

Kevin, it's a tough call. It seemed like it may have been slightly faster to me, but I haven't seen any side-by-side speed test data. What did you think, Zee? - JR R.

I've been using the Intel optimized Minefield builds on my Mac almost exclusively for months. It is quite fast. I recently switched to Firefox 3.1 beta, and enabled Tracemonkey, to try it out, and see if it was any faster. It feels just as fast, if not a hair faster. Now, once we get an Intel optimized build of Minefield with Tracemonkey in it, I'll have the best of both worlds. :-) - Josh Bancroft

JR R.: how sad is that "slightly faster" is enough for me to take the plunge? ;) Thx! - Kevin C. Tofel

Hey, I was intrigued enough to give it a go, too. :-) I'm still running both it and the regular version, though...not ready to commit to a 100% switch just yet. - JR R.

what about RAM consumption? Every browser I tried so far on my Mac (Leopard) is fast enough, the problem comes with memory. Opera and Webkit are the best from this standpoint. - Luca Filigheddu

Vishwas, I 100% agree. Not in any way knocking Gmail -- I'm a very happy user of it myself. - JR R.

I don't use local email at all anymore. I use Gmail as my pop3 client. However, I do have my own domains, so if Gmail went down I can easily revert to webmail on my server. That's the back up. - Ian May

same here... my domain email is hosted through gmail... love it. - Drew Lucas

Ian -- likewise. I have a good half-dozen or more aliases that point to a single Gmail account. It's a great system for that sort of setup. - JR R.

yeah I'd love a Verizon option. - Jaemi Kehoe

What is the service fee? Do they soak you for $720 a year like Apple does? - Indio Apache from twhirl

Indio, $25 or $35 a month for data + a T-Mobile voice plan. Looks like those start at about $30-$40 a month. So yeah, all put together, the service fees will be roughly comparable...same ballpark, anyway. - JR R.

OK, voting time. Will it ever be able to kill the iphone? Or catch it? I say no, not unless it gets on something more than tmobile. If that happens it might have a chance. - william_randolph

Definitely needs a carrier other than TMobile - Jaemi Kehoe

The HW looks too cludgy to me. I don't get that technolust I got when I saw the iPhone. - Jason Carreira

This has the same problem the iPhone has, which imo is the biggest problem any new phone has: being tied to a single carrier. Hardware companies need to stop doing this...they'd sell more phones. How many other people would have an iPhone now if anyone could get it on their carrier, and how many sales of G1 will be lost because ppl don't want or have TMo? We need to stop soaking people for data, too, while we're at it. - abacab

abacab - all the other major phone carriers are expected to be selling other Android phones starting early next year. It may not be a G1, but it'll be something with very similar features. The awesome thing about Android is that it's NOT tied to one single hardware manu. - Internet's Tad

I know, but if I wanted this phone, now, I'd have to switch to T-Mobile. When a cooler Android-based phone comes out, it'll be locked to [insert carrier here] and still basically useless until I switch carriers. That's what I don't like, the ridiculous lock-in. - abacab

Great post Duncan, but the final question should not be how it compares to the iPhone. I posted some thoughts on my blog http://is.gd/30ZS - Jorge Escobar

My dad loves his Hotmail. Won't switch to gmail for anything. - Kate

HA! Ya I got the email about the "new & improved" Hotmail and had to laugh. - Duarte from twhirl

I remember having a Hotmail account back in college. The memories! - morgan

i still have my hotmail account, its tied to my xbox, its the only reason i still have it. - Simon Wicks

I have a number of clients who prefer it and frankly it is a good service. The domains.live.com system lets you use it for white label email and the outlook connector does (usually) a good job of hooking it to outlook (for free). With storage at 6GB its not a bad deal. - Soulhuntre from twhirl

JR...brilliant headline :-) - Duncan Riley

Many libraries have signs posted in their public computers area to hotmail.com to get an e-mail account I have noticed. As far as people I contact, I only have one hotmail contact. He migrated away from Yahoo! Mail, although I'm not quite sure why. - Jake (aka Jawee)

Duncan, thanks. That's the sentiment that jumped out at me immediately after reading the original press release. :-) - JR R.

I filter yahoo.com and hotmail.com mails straight to the spam box. The best you will get from them is some lolcat joke, and that's on a good day. - Allan Jenkins

http://www.email-marketing-rep... - Karim

I know people who still have a hotmail address. - Mike Hussein Cohen

If you sign up for Live services you get a hotmail/live mail account. - Sprague D

I still have a hotmail addy but its used as a dumping ground, I post anything that maybe important but I really don't want to see. Like when I signed up for a starbucks gift card I used my hotmail addy because I didn't care to be e-mailed any announcements from starbucks. - Colide81 (James)

Nothing says "competent professional" like a hotmail.com address. works best if you have a username like "kewl_sk8r8235" to go with it too. :D - william_randolph

Oh Lisa, you and your crazy stories. Hotmail still exists. Beer kills brain cells. Now let's go back to that... building...thingie... where our beds and TV... is. - Eric P

What's up, Zach? I'm with you on AdBlock -- once you get used to that, you can't go back. Weave, Mozilla's equivalent of the old Browser Sync, is another must-have for me, and Session Manager is a close third (though Chrome does offer built-in functions comparable to that one). BugMeNot and PDF Download are high up there for me, too. - JR R.

I've been using Chrome all day and like it's liteness but seems lacking in something, just not sure what...except the Firefox plugins. - David Ward

UWS (University of Western Sydney) graduate, grew up in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. It's terrible that I should know, but I automatically IMDB nearly everything I watch now out of habit :-) - Duncan Riley

(Duncan: "I automatically IMDB nearly everything"), not just the hot blondes then :) - David O'Halloran

I do the same thing. If only someone would write an IMDB App for the iPhone! - Niall Connellan

You mean "knockwurst girl"?? I know what you mean, but Chuck's a very light and fun to watch TV show also. - João Almeida

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Duncan Riley

I just couldn't get into Chuck, even with the hot Aussie. Now Poppy Montgomery is another story :) - AJ Kohn

Chuck is underrated. Very clever show. - Mark Trapp

chuck is amazing - the show "gets" techies - here's my review from the first show - http://www.centernetworks.com/nbc-rev... - Allen Stern

The gumleaf mafia is strong. I see chick in Fringe is also Australian as well. We must be exporting blonds at the moment :-) - Duncan Riley

Gumleaf mafia: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story... Wow, Rachel Griffiths, Emile de Ravine and Portia de Rossi. - AJ Kohn

And what's-his-name on house - Cyndy

Cyndy: Uh, Jesse something or other. - AJ Kohn

Jesse Spence. Perhaps the only REAL Australian accent on American TV - Duncan Riley

You mean that guy on the lunch meat commerical and the Outback commercials aren't real???? ;) - Cyndy

And a good name to boot! - Jesse Stay from twhirl

Cyndy, I've not seen those commercials, but I can say with complete certainty that the Outback Steakhouse DOESN'T serve Australian food :-) - Duncan Riley

But it's a BLOOMIN' onion. We don't say Bloomin' so it MUST be Australian, right? - Cyndy

If Chuck is clever, then they've cleverly hidden that fact in the advertising for it - Jason Carreira

chuck is a great show. - Tony Kanzia

Same here... but instead pulled an all-nighter and watched all 13 episodes in season 1. Just in time for season 2 to start in a few weeks - Jonathan Wong

a favorite in our house too - mike "glemak" dunn

not sure which episode, but the "we wont touch Linux, we're Mac people, we're artists" was a hoot - Duncan Riley

Have you ever felt a kinetic watch? Those things are heavy: imagine what the phone would weigh... - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

If only they made computers like this. So many more geeks would be getting off their couches and/or out of their basements. Including me! - Eric Geller

Eric, let's be honest, though -- someone would just find a way to generate the motion with a USB-powered gadget...and we'd all sit happily still, eating potato chips and typing away. :) - JR R.

Cyndy, this is highly scientific stuff. We average Internet folk can't possibly comprehend the depths of it. :) - JR R.

I know. I'm just upset that big ole sasquatch ate mah lunch! - Cyndy

Bigfoot ate mah lunch is the new meme, begin. - Jason Carreira

@Duncan Riley (duncanriley): And they say we Georgians can't fabricate evidence or fight off Russians. Pfeh. - Alexander Williams from NoiseRiver

@Cindy, yea that was funny! - Alejandro

Big foot is not a mystery when compared with twitter listening to Amanda Chapel. my next twitter account will be deleted because of big foot! - Noah David Simon

@NoahTheBigFoot LMAO - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Bigfoot is my friend: http://www.mattb4rd.com/eloi - Mattb4rd

Roger, even if Duncan split it, you wouldn't be able to block just one of the RSS feeds. It is an all or none deal with FriendFeed right now. - Justin Korn

if he splits the RSS then he will need seperate tabs / pages for each of his catogries.. and that takes more adminwork on his side. Has any tried add "thsi blog has multiple authors" and then try to use hide feature on FF for a specific author ? Does FF hide all entries from the author or from the site or by authoer ? - Peter Dawson

Don't you first have to invent the odorless bum? -

@Justin you know I was thinking about that but for some reason it didn't click when I started writing.. Thanks for making me look silly ;) @Peter thats a good idea actually since Duncan doesn't write those articles. Could be a good way to go. Justin your thoughts? :)))) - Roger Kondrat

@Roger and Justin, just to point out: Both Duncan and I write both tech and odd news stories, so you might run into some trouble with that. Not sure if there's any other viable solution to filter your stream or not, but there is no dedicated odd news writer to filter out necessarily....we both cross back and forth between the two categories. - JR R.

Jason, I was just talking general mantras in that section you quoted -- not personal philosophies. But which story from a few days ago came to mind? - JR R.

@JR The "Thomas Hawk" vs. SFMOMA story - Jason Carreira

It's possible - however unlikely - that the driver didn't even notice the guy. It's not like he's manually snapping pictures as he goes along. The unit automatically takes panoramic photos and the guy driving it just keeps on moving. - Nathaniel Payne

@Jason -- gotcha...that was actually Duncan's post, not mine. Still, curious to hear your take on the whole thing. Personally, I think *most* people tend to lean more toward the human side of things and insert some level of involvement, even if they're on a journalistic mission. It's hard to separate yourself as a person -- whether the act in question is stepping in to help, showing a level of emotion, or whatever else. All of us are human, after all. Or most of us, anyway. :) - JR R.

Oh, I agree in this case that if they driver saw the guy (and I agree with Nathaniel that he may not have) then he should have seen if he needed help. In the TH case, though, TH has a habit of making himself the story to try to become the martyr of photography. - Jason Carreira

FriendFeed really needs to do something about multi-author blogs and by-lines... Everything from The Inquistr comes in under Duncan Riley's account.... - Jason Carreira

FriendFeed has a way to handle multi-author blogs. Perhaps Duncan just screwed it up? :) - Patrick Lightbody

Jason -- agreed...they're two interesting contrasts. In this case, I'd love to hear from the Google driver -- though I can't imagine that we will. I think things get trickier in more gray situations as far as journalistic involvement. Say, for example, you're a photojournalist and you're shooting video of someone's possessions being washed away by floodwater. Do you get the shot, or do you help them get their stuff back? - JR R.

Those types of scenarios always make for great newsroom discussions...largely because there's really not necessarily a "right" answer in every instance. - JR R.

That's not FriendFeed... that's Duncan. You can set up your feeds as mutli-author blogs and then pull by name, which is why only my content comes up from The Standard instead of everything. - Cyndy

I think they missed the boat not going with TipJoy, they could have the same functionality (well almost, Topjoy still needs the abillity to draw cash out instead of Amazon certificates) and drive traffic as well. TipJoy's use of donations as a social bookmarking vote is simple and brilliant. - David Knight

Think all the celebrity stuff is too noisy! - Roberto Bonini

I'd like to hope that people there will be equally generous -- maybe I'm underestimating people's willingness to pay for what could be free. Even so, it strikes me as a case where the site is potentially pulling in cash from the added traffic/ads/etc -- and the person who actually generated the content is getting none of that, instead receiving only what random donations visitors may or may not have chosen to give. Seems a bit unbalanced to me. - JR R.

Im going to install it on my site. Will be interesting to see. I know the answer though. - loren feldman

Loren, I'd be curious to hear what you find. Just to clarify, I'm in no way proposing that the tip system in and of itself is a negative -- just that on a major web publication, in the absence of any other compensation, it sets a dangerous precedent that could spread quickly. When fast food chains see that people will work at McDonald's for minimum wage, most tend to match that rate rather than offer anything more. - JR R.

I agree JR its fine for Mom and Pop operations,or supporting artists, but on a "major" site it just looks cheap. - loren feldman

Oh not again. Holy 2001, Batman. Didn't anyone learn from Amazon Honor System? Does this mean we can expect 20 new "social economy tipping" profiles that I need to generate and maintain to accommodate the explosion of tip oriented content that will fill my browser? If so, no thanks. Just put a nice note as your sticky article saying that you fund via ad impressions and would appreciate me turning off my ad block filters for this site. I'll just click your banner ads. - Jay Cuthrell

no one will pay. It's a ploy from Salon so that they don't have to pay these people a decent sum. It's cheapskate and shoddies the Salon brand imo - DC Crowley

+1 Jason - Cyndy

+2 Jason - AJ Kohn

Jason wins. - Candace

From Hitwise: "The following table lists 20 of the top Web 2.0 properties based on share of US Internet visits." Presumably Facebook would rank higher in a worldwide study. Also of interest: "Visits to these Web 2 sites account for more than 1 in every 10 US Internet visits - at 10.1% of all US Internet visits in July 2008." So even these sites are but a small portion of the total Internet activity, which suggests that FriendFeed is a very very very small community. - Ontario Emperor

Ontario, good catch -- just responded to you in the Disqus post comment section as well. - JR R.

And how many of these are you actively using? I am only actively using about 3-4 of them: FB, YouTube, Wiki and IMEEN. - Winston Teo

@ontario Agreed. Considering the fact that we often see more discussions about FB than MySpace, which I loosely equate that to the popularity of the two services and their usage. - Winston Teo

Winston... yeah, I'm right around 3-4 too, as far as ones I use with any real regularity (YouTube, Wikipedia, Myspace for me). Some of it is surprising. There were a few on the list that I've barely heard mentioned anywhere before this -- yet they still topped services like Digg for U.S. visits. - JR R.

Interesting format Duncan, unusual approach and I already like this one. - Svetlana Gladkova

Interesting - Charlie Anzman

Charlie: I played with the service yesterday after I got an announcement from them myself. It is an interesting service but it has a number of potential threats unless they figure out a solid approach to monetizing the applications. - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

Svetlana, good to hear from you. They do seem to have a pretty specific plan in place, from what I gathered -- with the upcoming on-hold ads and the "premium" pay-based options (voicemail, private text messaging). Seems like they're just waiting till usage picks up to start putting those things in place. I was also told they're looking at eventually offering a subscription option that'd let you skip the on-hold ads. - JR R.

Thanks a lot for the clarification JR, appreciate it. The thing is that after I looked at it myself yesterday I decided that they only aimed to be acquired by Craigslist since it makes sense as an integrated part of Craigslist than as an independent application. But it will be interesting to see if they can accumulate substantial user base on their own anyway and how they will handle monetization. - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

It'll be an interesting one to watch -- I could definitely see it going either way. You're right, though, the option would seem to make a lot of sense as an integrated part of Craigslist. I'll be curious to see if the Facebook/other social network apps see as much success as that one does. - JR R.