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Richard
Don not adjust your screens - The Irish Times - Fri, Sep 24, 2010 - http://www.irishtimes.com/newspap...
good discussion about "second screen" - Richard
Richard
Will the iPad be the missing link between Net-connected items in your home, e.g. your next fridge, and the Web? http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Jim, Dan, Well the iPhone may be used for these purposes too, but as a larger device the iPad has more utility. The iPhone is a bit too pokey to be used as the connector device envisaged, whereas a laptop is a bit too bulky. The iPad is in-between and so it may be just right. And re "Does the author really think that people going to the fridge are going to lug a large tablet when they need both hands free?" -> er, no. As I wrote in the scenario, the iPad would be placed on the kitchen bench or somewhere. Before (anonymously) accusing the post of being "thoughtless," why not read the words first. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Why The iPad May Save The Internet Fridge - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Jim, Dan, Well the iPhone may be used for these purposes too, but as a larger device the iPad has more utility. The iPhone is a bit too pokey to be used as the connector device envisaged, whereas a laptop is a bit too bulky. The iPad is in-between and so it may be just right. And re "Does the author really think that people going to the fridge are going to lug a large tablet when they need both hands free?" -> er, no. As I wrote in the scenario, the iPad would be placed on the kitchen bench or somewhere. Before (anonymously) accusing the post of being "thoughtless," why not read the words first. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Research Report on Chinese Internet of Things Industry, 2010-2012 (January 4, 2010) | MarketPublishers.com - http://marketpublishers.com/report...
"Chinese Internet of things still stays in the concept introduction stage while the market development is limited in its branches such as RFID, sensor and MEMS, etc. There is a long way to go to realize the collaborative cooperation of these technologies to form a gigantic Internet of things. Chinese Internet of things industry will only enter the high-speed development stage after 3-5 years. " - Richard
Richard
If subscribing to content is the answer, as Reuters thinks it is, then Google will become less relevant in the future. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Michael, to your point (comment #6): "Google constantly weights it’s search algorithms to demerit crap sites." It does, but note that I've never claimed that Demand Media is spam or garbage content. It's always above board and usually 'good enough' from quality perspective. So to be fair, Google has no real reason to penalize it. My point is more that there are other, much better sources of content for most of the topics DM covers - and the danger is that those are getting harder and harder to discover due to the sheer quantity of content DM and others pump out. This has always been an issue, ever since blogs started to compete with each other on quantity. But now it's *much* more of a problem, due to the scale DM and its ilk operate at. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Content Farms: Why Media, Blogs & Google Should Be Worried - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Michael, to your point (comment #6): "Google constantly weights it’s search algorithms to demerit crap sites." It does, but note that I've never claimed that Demand Media is spam or garbage content. It's always above board and usually 'good enough' from quality perspective. So to be fair, Google has no real reason to penalize it. My point is more that there are other, much better sources of content for most of the topics DM covers - and the danger is that those are getting harder and harder to discover due to the sheer quantity of content DM and others pump out. This has always been an issue, ever since blogs started to compete with each other on quantity. But now it's *much* more of a problem, due to the scale DM and its ilk operate at. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Fedex expects sensor products to be "mainstreaming over time as people become used to interacting with shipments." http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Chris, thanks for your kind words, much appreciated! - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: FedEx Joins the Internet of Things With SenseAware - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Chris, thanks for your kind words, much appreciated! - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Frederic
Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2009 - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Jo, believe me nobody is more frustrated than I that some of the best consumer apps are US-only (I'm based in NZ, but the rest of the RWW team is in US). I am lucky enough to have a Google Voice a/c, although my usage is restricted by not being in the US. Hulu I'd love to get, although frankly NZ's broadband wouldn't cope anyway. When it comes down to it though, these apps are good enough to make the list despite their limited accessibility. We can only hope they go international soon... - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2009 - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Jo, believe me nobody is more frustrated than I that some of the best consumer apps are US-only (I'm based in NZ, but the rest of the RWW team is in US). I am lucky enough to have a Google Voice a/c, although my usage is restricted by not being in the US. Hulu I'd love to get, although frankly NZ's broadband wouldn't cope anyway. When it comes down to it though, these apps are good enough to make the list despite their limited accessibility. We can only hope they go international soon... - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Totally Virtual: How ReadWriteWeb Operates - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Dan that's a good question! We have a US dollar a/c in NZ and use the SWIFT international banking system. The latter has been an ongoing pain point, simply because of inconsistent user experience. e.g. some banks (or bank staff) know what it is and how to process things, others don't. Also there are intermediary banks that take a cut for no good reason. The fees are relatively high. Overall though, it works and we can pay people in US dollars from NZ. Companie can pay us the same way or via checks. We also use Paypal at times, although personally I find their fees to be extortionalty high. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Paypal's fees are based on convenience and likelihood of regular usage. They spend a lot maintaining their ease of use and basically forked over their first born to do what they do. It's not extortion at all - you pay for convenience. Look at a bottle of coke in a vending machine vs. a 2 liter in the grocery store. Convenience costs more. - mjc from iPhone
Richard
Just posted a video presentation about how ReadWriteWeb is run and the Internet tools we use. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Dan that's a good question! We have a US dollar a/c in NZ and use the SWIFT international banking system. The latter has been an ongoing pain point, simply because of inconsistent user experience. e.g. some banks (or bank staff) know what it is and how to process things, others don't. Also there are intermediary banks that take a cut for no good reason. The fees are relatively high. Overall though, it works and we can pay people in US dollars from NZ. Companie can pay us the same way or via checks. We also use Paypal at times, although personally I find their fees to be extortionalty high. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Top Internet Trends of 2000-2009: Democratization of News Media - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Bryce, I agree that's an issue. Nevertheless, in terms of their popularity, traffic and brand name - I think they're right up there with some newspapers as a news source. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
The Dirty Little Secret About the "Wisdom of the Crowds" - There is No Crowd http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Muhammad, do you think Digg complies with those 4 points in the book? 1. Diversity of opinion [ummmm] 2. Independence [hmmmm] 3. Decentralization [maybe] 4. Aggregation [check, except it aggregates just a handful of sites, like Ars Technica and a few other ones popular with digg's power users] - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Great points Muhammad. That would indeed be interesting, if Digg hid the submitter name! - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: The Dirty Little Secret About the "Wisdom of the Crowds" - There is No Crowd - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Great points Muhammad. That would indeed be interesting, if Digg hid the submitter name! - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: The Dirty Little Secret About the "Wisdom of the Crowds" - There is No Crowd - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Muhammad, do you think Digg complies with those 4 points in the book? 1. Diversity of opinion [ummmm] 2. Independence [hmmmm] 3. Decentralization [maybe] 4. Aggregation [check, except it aggregates just a handful of sites, like Ars Technica and a few other ones popular with digg's power users] - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Twine Traffic Falls - New Version Coming, But it's Make or Break Time http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Greg re "why this has not been covered by any of the major IT news outlets, whereas they have spoken to length about the ascension of the company." I think that's simply because they dropped off everybody's radar for a while, however a site like RWW picks up a lot of news from other blogs - hence I found out about it via you. Happens a lot in the tech blog world anyway. Re the stats, my reading is that Compete stats dropped 85% odd due to Google indexing issue. So I *think* what Twine is saying is that they dropped 20-25% in actual PV (which they monitor) but they're attributing the rest to Google issues. I haven't seen Twine's official stats, but I'm not sure I really need to. The bottom line is that they're struggling even with 20-25% dip, so version 2 is 'put up or shut up' in product market terms. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Twine Traffic Falls - New Version Coming, But it's Make or Break Time - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Greg re "why this has not been covered by any of the major IT news outlets, whereas they have spoken to length about the ascension of the company." I think that's simply because they dropped off everybody's radar for a while, however a site like RWW picks up a lot of news from other blogs - hence I found out about it via you. Happens a lot in the tech blog world anyway. Re the stats, my reading is that Compete stats dropped 85% odd due to Google indexing issue. So I *think* what Twine is saying is that they dropped 20-25% in actual PV (which they monitor) but they're attributing the rest to Google issues. I haven't seen Twine's official stats, but I'm not sure I really need to. The bottom line is that they're struggling even with 20-25% dip, so version 2 is 'put up or shut up' in product market terms. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Forget the iTunes LP, Apps are the New Album http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Great post Sarah and I agree that mobile apps are an innovative re-working of the LP format. However we shouldn't forget that an album is an artistic package too and so for that reason I'd hate to see the concept of an album of songs disappear. I generally like what Apple is trying to do to keep the album format going, but needs more lateral thinking too - ref what you've written about apps. Excellent stuff. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Forget the iTunes LP, Apps are the New Album - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Great post Sarah and I agree that mobile apps are an innovative re-working of the LP format. However we shouldn't forget that an album is an artistic package too and so for that reason I'd hate to see the concept of an album of songs disappear. I generally like what Apple is trying to do to keep the album format going, but needs more lateral thinking too - ref what you've written about apps. Excellent stuff. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: The Real-Time Web http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
anon said: "The web has always been real-time, or as close to it as technology would allow." I disagree. With products like Twitter and Friendfeed, we've seen a new class of content producing and aggregation products - and they produce more, smaller and *faster* bits of content than previously. Plus look at the changes Google and Facebook, for example, have gone through this year - which I illustrated in this post. As for Google Wave, that hasn't been released yet. Pete good point re Twitscoop. Would love to know of more products like that, that make use of real-time web data. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Top 5 Web Trends of 2009: The Real-Time Web - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
anon said: "The web has always been real-time, or as close to it as technology would allow." I disagree. With products like Twitter and Friendfeed, we've seen a new class of content producing and aggregation products - and they produce more, smaller and *faster* bits of content than previously. Plus look at the changes Google and Facebook, for example, have gone through this year - which I illustrated in this post. As for Google Wave, that hasn't been released yet. Pete good point re Twitscoop. Would love to know of more products like that, that make use of real-time web data. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Gmail Ads Within Email Thread - Is This New? http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive... (screenshot included)
Ah yes it was probably web clips. However, note that this was placed at the bottom of the email thread, not the top. This help page states that web clips (including sponsored links) should only display at the top of the page: http://mail.google.com/support... "Web Clips show you news headlines, blog posts, RSS and Atom feeds, and relevant sponsored links, right at the top of your inbox." Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot showing messages above. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Gmail Ads Within Email Thread - Is This New? - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Ah yes it was probably web clips. However, note that this was placed at the bottom of the email thread, not the top. This help page states that web clips (including sponsored links) should only display at the top of the page: http://mail.google.com/support... "Web Clips show you news headlines, blog posts, RSS and Atom feeds, and relevant sponsored links, right at the top of your inbox." Unfortunately I didn't take a screenshot showing messages above. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
doing interesting RFID things - Richard
Richard
Hong Kong's Octopus Card: Utility Outweighs Privacy Concerns http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Thanks for all the comments, many noting that cards can be purchased anonymously. I did note that in my post, but perhaps didn't give it enough emphasis. But even if they're anonymous, I assume they have a unique identifier in the RFID chip? That would track your usage habits, and that data alone is worth something to companies and organizations. Interested to hear more thoughts on the privacy issue though... - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: Hong Kong's Octopus Card: Utility Outweighs Privacy Concerns - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Thanks for all the comments, many noting that cards can be purchased anonymously. I did note that in my post, but perhaps didn't give it enough emphasis. But even if they're anonymous, I assume they have a unique identifier in the RFID chip? That would track your usage habits, and that data alone is worth something to companies and organizations. Interested to hear more thoughts on the privacy issue though... - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Comment on: The Cutting Edge of Smart Cards: Japan's Suica Card - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Tom, Octopus is next on my list :-) - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
The Cutting Edge of Smart Cards: Japan's Suica Card http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Tom, Octopus is next on my list :-) - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
Richard
Oyster Card: 10 Million + RFID Chips in London http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Andy thanks for that info, I've added that to the post. Michael, Paul, thanks for commenting - I will follow up on those recommendations. - Richard from FriendFeed MT Plugin
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