Category Archives: Web/Tech

Google Glasses Expected This Year

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It appears that Google is planning on launching their real-time visual data display by the end of 2012. These glasses are expected to be run on an Android platform. There is expected to be a screen that sits close to the eye and will give date displays based on visual and audio data as well as geographical data gathered from a GPS.

The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to the Google employees. The glasses are not designed to be worn constantly — although Google expects some of the nerdiest users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed.

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Possible uses discussed are navigation systems that learn from the user as well as a front-facing camera. Of course, Google is not the only company hoping to market wearable devices, as Apple is rumored to be developing similar devices. Although the 2012 sale date from Google does indicate that they’ll be the first to hit the market with such a tool.

Introducing Mac OS X Mountain Lion

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Apple released Mountain Lion to developers today in an effort to “fully connecting the experience you have on the Mac with the world of the iPad and the iPhone” by making steps like removing iChat to focus on Twitter.

Instead, here’s iMessage, which will still let you IM your contacts (if you must). But what it really wants you to do is use Apple’s seamless texting replacement of the same name. Admittedly, the thought of being able to immediately text anyone with an iPhone for free from your desktop is so unbelievably cool, it can bring on an attack of the vapors.

Basically, it seems like Mountain Lion will be creating an iPad-like experience, doing things like dumping the bouncing icons for the notifications. There’s also fun partnerships (Airplay) and variations on things like the Notes app. No prices or released dates announced yet, but it definitely is a turn worth monitoring.
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Instagram Update

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Instagram users were treated to an update this weekend that will make the popular photo app even more fun for it’s 15 million users. The best part of the update was “LUX” which can lighten up a too-dark photo with one click. And it’s smart enough to not lighten the entire photo, just the areas it interprets as being too dark. The Instagram notifications also will now take you directly to the photo or comment mentioned, as opposed to taking you simply to the app itself. Finally, there’s another filter included in the update: Sierra.

Nothing revolutionary, but enough to excite avid users who may be itching for some new tools tweak their photos.

Nikon’s New 26.3 Megapixel Camera – The D800

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Nikon has officially announced the previously rumored 36.3 megapixel D800. The D800 will run about $3000 sans lens and will be available later next month. Nikon is also making the D800E which will evidently capture “finer detail” and will be available in April for $3300.

From the press release:

Today, imaging leader Nikon Inc. announced the highly anticipated D800 HD-SLR, engineered to provide extreme resolution, astounding image quality and valuable video features optimized for professional still and multimedia photographers and videographers. A camera with an unmatched balance of accuracy, functionality and image quality, the Nikon D800 realizes innovations such as a high resolution 36.3-megapixel FX-format CMOS sensor, a 91,000-pixel RGB Matrix Metering System, Advanced Scene Recognition System and many other intuitive features designed to create the preeminent device for the most demanding photo and video applications.

Engadget did a quick analysis of the D800 here and related it to some of the similar models Nikon has available now, like the D4 and the D700. “As you might expect, the D800 adopts many new features from the D4, while maintaining a smaller D700-like footprint.” They detail the comparisons in the write-up.

Global Twitter Restrictions

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Twitter changed the restrictions on some tweets in some countries yesterday. Before, the general policy was that a tweet would be removed on a global level by Twitter if a government requested that. Yesterday, however, the policy was adjusted.

Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.

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While this is – of course – running into criticism as it relates to free speech, many do think that Twitter chose the best option available to them.

Twitter would be banned outright in many countries if it did not agree to restrict Tweets, said Cynthia Wong of the Center for Technology & Democracy.

“The question is: What’s best for freedom of speech?” Wong said. “If Twitter was completely blocked from certain countries, is that really better? It looks like Twitter has done a good job in thinking through how to mitigate the human rights harm in complying with local law.”

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Considering how big of a role Twitter has played in past civic uprisings globally, it seems obvious they’re still try to be a tool for the people and a voice to those silenced when they can. We’ll see how well it plays out when it’s first put to use.

Timeline Rolls Out To All Facebook Accounts

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Facebook has announced that they will be rolling out the Timeline profile format to all users in the next few weeks. Facebook is offering the same 7-day “trial” period to the users that get the Timeline rollout so that they can go back and edit their Facebook histories before the Timeline profile is revealed on their public account. That “trial” period has been given to all users that have opted in early to the new profile display in the last few months. This gives a user 7 days to hide old statuses and links and pictures they don’t necessarily want easily found in your past Facebook use.

Of course, if Facebook has not rolled this out automatically to a user’s account, they can still get it by going here and clicking “Get Timeline.” They’ll get the same 7-day grace period to edit the Facebook past before that format is used permanently. Either way, every user will be using the Timeline format eventually, adding a bit more consistency to the social platform that has been pretty divided in the recent months.

Best Time Of Day For Sharing Content

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We’ve all seen our twitter stream fill up with links to the same article and we all wish it was an article we had written. While content should be king in terms of quality getting shared, the article may have better luck passing through the statuses and tweets if it’s introduced during the right time of day. Or on the right day of the week.

This article at Social Fresh highlights just those ideas. If you want an article to have a great chance of being based down the digital line of social media, when should you publish it? When should you share it? And it doesn’t look like the data matches up for all times of content goals. If you want the best days for sharing, you need Thursdays and Wednesdays. However, if you’re looking for the best days for pageviews? Mondays and Tuesdays. But if you decide what day is best for you, what about time of day?

27% of all content shares occur between 8am and 12pm EST.

There is a spike at 9am and 10am and then a decline the rest of the day. There are also smaller but significant spikes in sharing at 2pm and 9pm EST. We like to share content in the morning as we catch up with news. We circle back and do the same after lunch as well as after dinner in the late evening.

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Of course, this information is useless if you don’t generate content worth sharing. But if you think you have the content that you need, this article proves there’s plenty of information out that suggests to you the best time to share that content to maximize publicity.

Social Growth Trends Towards Interests Instead Of People

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While all reports indicate that social networking is the main pull of all internet traffic lately, comScore seems to indicate even more specific trends.

It seems that the social networking sites that encourage growth around interests instead of personal relationships are the fastest growing in the industry. The two seeing these shocking levels of growth are Tumblr and Pinterest. While social sites like Twitter and Facebook tend to build relationships around people, Tumblr and Pinterest build relationships around interests. You follow Tumblr blogs about the shows you watch, or the movies you love. You follow Pinterest boards about food or crafts or fashion. On Twitter and Facebook you follow people. And it looks like popularity trends recognize the difference.

The blogging platform gained nearly three million new unique visitors, growing 18% from 15.9 million to 18.8 million uniques. Meanwhile, the online pin-it site boomed by nearly 55%, from 4.85 million to 7.51 million uniques.

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Tips For Using Pinterest

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Now that Pinterest has the attention of people other than fashionistas, foodies, and crafters, there are tips and tricks rolling around the web for new users of the site. Mashable has the best round-up teaching some of the ins and outs of the platform. However, I’m not sure how “cutting edge” the tips are. They basically make up a “How To Use Pinterest” assortment of tips, nothing too new to anyone using Pinterest for longer than a few weeks. I would append one of their tips, however. They recommend looking at a users assortment of boards and just following the ones that appeal to you. I would suggest, if the majority of them interest you, following the user as a whole. That way if they set up new boards you will see those pins as well. If pins pop up on your feed you aren’t into, then just go unfollow that board itself.

Now, if the user only has a handful of boards that appeal to you? Then do it how Mashable suggests. Save you time in the long run.

Is Instagram Ruler Of The Mobile Social Network?

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This article analyzes Instagram as a strictly mobile social network and compares it to the other similar network: Foursquare. “Instagram and Foursquare both fit this bill well and they were both created as mobile apps first, not websites with a mobile app added later.” While people on the go may interact on Facebook more using their mobile devices, Instagram was created ONLY as a mobile network, without a real web-based counterpart. Facebook, on the other hand, was established as a web-based network first, with the mobile app becoming the main tool.

But the comparison is still important. Instagram announced at Le Web that they have passed 14 million users and well on their way to 15 million users. Foursquare announced previously that they currently have 15 million users.

Instagram is growing at 2 million new users a month, Foursquare at .866 million a month. Instagram will likely surpass Foursquare’s user numbers in January, if they have not already.

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