Jeffrey Donenfeld

Category: New Products

Amazon iPhone App’s “Amazon Remembers” Feature Works
After installing Amazon’s new iPhone app, the first thing I tried was using the “Amazon Remembers” feature. The feature is supposed to allow users to snap pictures of stuff they need to remember – kind of like an ad-hoc scrap book or shopping list, and then have amazon keep the pics, to look through later. Additionally, Amazon performs some object recognition, and attempts to find the product in it’s catalog.

I took a picture of a tube of Zicam on my desk at work, and, lo and behold, 10 mintutes later Amazon emailed me a link to the Zicam product page – both as an iPhone link, and as a normal browser link. The direct link to the product page, coupled with Amazon 1-click buying proved to be the perfect combo – I hit “Buy it with 1-Click”, and just like that, a box of Zicam tubes is being shipped to me tomorrow. Success!

To shed some more light on how Amazon Remembers works – According to the blurb in the “What happens to my photos” screen in the iPhone App –
When you take a photo using Amazon remembers, it is saved for you in the following places:
- this application [sic]
- your Amazon.com homepage [sic]
- Your Lists (link available at the top right of any page on the Amazon.com site)
We also use a community of real people to research your photo and try to match it to a similar product on Amazon.com.

If we find a product similar to your photos within a day or two, the results will be associated with your photo. A numbered red circle will appear on the Remembers tab to let you know that a similar product is ready for you to view.

In addition, we’ll notify you by sending you an e-mail to the address on file for your Amazon.com account. If you would like to stop receiving these e-mails, you may turn off Amazon Remembers e-mail notification from Your Account in this application.
Amazon is apparently using a panel of real people to manually comb through the photos and assign product pages to them. Given how low-contrast my Zicam photo was, I’m not surprised that a real person had to take a look at the photo to figure out what it was. Perhaps this would be (or is.. no confirmation on that yet…) a great application of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform, which uses a form of crowdsourcing to grind through tasks only a human brain can handle. Amazon calls these tasks HITs – Human Intelligence Tasks.

Now if the Zicam would only make this cold go away…
2008-12-03
Google Chrome – First Impressions

After a relatively short "announce to launch" window, Google launched its new, open source web browser, Google Chrome. It was announced over the weekend, and a comic book-style introduction was published yesterday. Unfortunately, it’s only available for Windows just yet – us mac users will have to either wait a bit for Google Chrome for OS X, or give it the ole Boot Camp try and take the dive to load up windows.

Although real world performance and deployment is the ultimate test, I think Google’s idea of making each tab of the browser into is separate, isolated process is a good one. This should allow for more power to be devoted to more robust web apps, isolate bad code and bad webpages, and overall provide a more customized and customizable operating environment for each individual website – I know that during my day, I am often times simultaneously working with sites that use flash, java, ajax, silverlight, embedded media, active x, etc etc etc. Being able to keep each of these isolated to just the page where it’s needed seems like it would be a huge performance and stability boost. Additionally, I’m excited to hear that Google Chrome is built from the ground up to be much better at managing memory. Although Firefox, my current browser of choice, is super fast and relatively stable, after using it continuously for an entire day, it tends to start eating up massive amounts of memory. The precise memory management in Google Chrome will hopefully work well.

That’s all for now – tonight I’ll hopefully find some time to install it in Windows XP pro in bootcamp on my MBP, and give at a real test run.

Sites I plan to test with Google Chrome, for performance and stability –

Gmail.com – web app – made by Google, so it should run perfectly.

Jeffzilla.com – obviously

Meebo.com – another great web app

Hulu.com – streaming video

WordPress admin – non-Google web app which uses the Google Gears Framework

Potatoland.com – hosts some neat java applets, which create trippy graphics – visually intensive java applet processing

Lively.com – Google’s virtual world, fairly graphics intensive

Flickr.com Organizr – again, intense flash/java web app

Finally, elsewhere in the blogosphere… TechCrunch has some massive video action happening – but luckily if you’re using Chrome, it should be able to load up all those rich media YouTube flash windows with no problem!

Kara Swisher discusses the early comic book leak, and the ongoing re-ignition of the browser war.

Regarding process isolation, check this overview video on the Chrome Task Manager…

2008-09-02
WordPress App for iPhone

WordPress 1.0 for iPhone and iPod Touch was just released on iTunes. So far, it seems to be working well. I’m composing this post on my 8gb iPod touch. The installed app had no problem interfacing with the XML-rpc of my wordpress 2.6 blog backend. Additionally, it gives me full access to all of my old blog posts… A nice touch.

For version 2.0, I would love to see integrated, optional GPS location posting, comment moderation, and link creation – with URL copy/paste from Safari!

2008-07-22
Portable Photo Safe – Backup Those Giant Memory Cards

This Photo Safe II from Digital Foci sounds like nifty gadget..especially for traveling. I’d use it to backup pictures on my memory card, and not necessarily to offload the pictures…. ie not deleting memory cards after copying to the it. That way,the camera is lost or stolen while traveling, there’s still a backup of the pictures, and vise versa. I feel like very very quickly, the value of the photos your shooting far outpaces the value of the gear you’re using.. in many many situations.

Also, this could prevent you from having to do the “many smaller cards” scheme of data protection, and instead shoot with that whopper 32b card, and just back it up from time to time in the field.

Thoughts?

From Engadget –

Digital Foci didn’t go out of its way to drastically redesign the original Photo Safe, but we ‘spose that’s alright in the grand scheme of things. Essentially, the Photo Safe II picks up where its predecessor left off by including a multicard reader (now with 100% more MS Duo and miniSD support) which automatically transfers photos from your flash card onto the built-in 80GB / 160GB hard drive. The integrated display tells you at a glance how much space is remaining and how much battery life is left, though it won’t show your stored photos in slideshow (or any other) fashion. A touch steep at $139 (80GB) / $189 (160GB), but that’s convenience for you.

2008-07-18
WordPress Updates to 2.6

WordPress.org just released, ahead of schedule, the 2.6 version of WordPress – the backend that runs this blog. Some of the new features are much appreciated – live preview of themes, wordcount, post revision history, and a more robust image control box.

I just did the upgrade, which went smoothly, for the most part. The only hitch I encountered was re-activating plugins. After re-activation, the whole admin backend crashed and started giving code errors. To fix it, I had to re-name the plugins folder (thereby deactivating all), and go through one by one and re-activate plugins, and upgrade them to the latest version.

One of the coolest features in 2.6 is the new usage of Google Gears. Gears is an add on for IE and Firefox, which lets wordpress store core files locally on the computer, instead of needing to load them up from the web for every page. This significantly increases interface responsiveness, especially for new AJAX’y features.

I’m glad to see that Google Gears is starting to gain a little bit more traction. Before this, my only regular usage of gears was with Google Reader, which will let you cache rss feeds for offline viewing. I always use this feature, especially when flying – hop on the web in the airport terminal before I board my flight, sync up with the latest news in reader, piece through it all on the plane, and re-sync when I land.

2008-07-16
Who needs Instinctiv when you have real Pandora on your iPhone 3G?

Why make software for an increasingly dwindling market – the 1st generation (EDGE) iPhone. Instinctiv is a new company that’s making iPhone software that purports to predict what you want to listen to based on a number of factors, and the smartly shuffles your songs accordingly. But it only shuffles your own songs. Only the music you have on your phone at that moment. No network listening.

I can see how this would appeal to iPod Touch and 1st generation (slow EDGE) owners, but, since the 1st Gen iPhone is no longer on sale, that group is starting to dwindle. On the new iPhone 3g, with speedy fast 3G network connectivity, is Instinctiv really necessary? (Or, does it have a viable future?) Why not just listen to real, genuine Pandora radio, if that’s the experience you’re going for? Although it’s not out yet, I’m almost positive a real, native Pandora radio application will be released for the new iPhone 3G, which will (or, should…) use not only the iPhone’s wifi connection, but the 3G cell data connection as well.

Better yet – ever shared with a friend a Pandora station you’ve made? Cool to be able to listen to the same batch of songs, no? How about allowing iPhones running the Pandora radio application to synchronize their stations, so two iPhone listeners can listen to a synchronized Pandora station? Why not push this feature to the standard browser based web player too? It might get dicey for the music licensing, but would be cool nonetheless.

(Seen on TechCrunch)

2008-06-26
Google Launches Friend Connect

Google just announced, and will launch tomorrow, Friend Connect. Will this be another building block in the road to the ultimate ubiquitous social network? With any website being able to add a social networking component, and all of those components being able to network together via Open Social, we’re about to be one step closer to all being on the same social network, always. Additionally, OpenID integration will allow us to have just one login name/password to remember for everything. From the press release:

Visitors to any site using Google Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends, or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web, including Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more.

Read more on Techcrunch, and watch Google’s Campfire One tonight.

2008-05-12
3G iPhone and the Sad State of “Broadband”

Recently at the Beet.TV Executive Summit in Washington, Wall Street Journal writer Walt Mossberg spoke on the convergence of computer and TV entertainment, internet bandwidth, and the importance regulation/deregulation from the top.

I’m with Walt on this. The critical step for converging TV and computer content/entertainment, and allowing us to take the next step in rich content delivery, communication, and integration is bandwidth. Insuring that access to network bandwidth does not become more metered, restricted and taxed, and that it becomes increasingly more plentiful and open is critical.

Also in this talk, Walt foreshadows the release of the 3G iPhone in the next 60 days – I’ll be the first in line when it does come out! As for bandwidth and 3G – I think that when the 3G iPhone does launch, AT&T seriously needs to get their act together with the 3G data network throughput – having all those users able to browse the web, directly download/stream media, and use other data intensive applications (iChat AV?) is going to put a serious strain on the network.

Here’s the video of Walt Mossberg speaking on Beet.TV about broadband speed, rich media, and the iPhone.

2008-04-05
WordPress 2.5 First Impressions
It’s finally out, and I’m running on it – WordPress 2.5. This is first major overhaul to the WordPress blog software in recent memory, and so far it looks great. I’m liking the more simplified interface, and it seems snappier too. For the complete rundown, take a look at the official WordPress blog post.

Some first impressions:
- The new write tab is good – cleaner visual style, and the “add media” links are nifty for quickly getting stuff up, novices, etc.
- Editable permalink right at the top of the Write Post tab is great for tuning – both for SEO and usability.
- Timed publish option welcomed.
- I’m not as enthusiastic about having the categories list under the post. My categories list is somewhat long, and scrolling vertically in a horizontally oriented box is a pain. Put the long list back in its vertical box on the sidebar.
- Tagger is good, but I wish the input box was longer.
- Media Library browser is good and much more accessible – although iIm a little confused why they put a post count for individual media items.
- Theme chooser is still missing a theme preview function.
- One-click upgrades for plugins – finally! With plugins being updated so frequently, this is a huge help. Even nicer would be a “check and update all plugins” button.
- Post via Email support is still flimsy. Yes, it works if you set it up correctly. However to invoke WordPress to check the designated email account, the user still has to manually visit the special mail page in a browser, set up a more techy cron job, or install a cron plugin. If WordPress is going to offer a post via email feature, I think they should do it right and build in a lightweight cron functionality. It could be as simple as a “check this email account every hour/week/month for new email posts” checkbox next to the settings.
- New pre-made URL structure option is great.
- I’d like to see selectable “skins” for the admin interface. Ideally, in the write tab, to make the write box highlighted, with perhaps a toggle-able grey mask over the rest, to allow for easier focus on writing.
So far, I’m happy with WordPress 2.5. It’s updated look is pleasing, and the new functionality is welcomed.
2008-03-31
Optimus Maximus Lives!

Great new Engadget video of Art Lebedev’s Optimus Maximus OLED Keyboard… It looks great, even though it’s still using beta software and firmware. I was going to say that I’d like to see this kind of keyboard on laptops (my Macbook Pro, for example).. but now I think that the self-lit OLED displays on each key would be a huge drain on the battery. However.. eInk displays, like what’s used on the Amazon Kindle would be great for a laptop keys… eInk only uses power to refresh, so it would have power requirements. Something to think about.. it would cool, if it were pulled off correctly – both the feel and aesthetic of my MBP’s aluminum, concave, backlit keys are pretty spot-on right now.

2008-02-23
Design Situation – Apt in Box & Bungies Shelves

Apartment in a Box

A whole (small) apartment’s worth of furniture – crammed into a box transportable by two people. Sounds perfect for NYC. The box includes desk, bookshelves, chairs, even a full sized bed, all packed in there. I think the designers, Marcel Krings and Sebastian Mühlhäuser from Casulo have definitely one-upped and destroyed the “Ikea Flat Pack” with this one. Check it out over at treehuger, or go direct to the video.

Elastico Bookshelf

Pretty nifty – Designer Arianna Vivenzio took two fat metal pegs and a fat rubber band, strung them up on the wall, and created an awesome, minimalist bookshelf. You can put stuff on top of it, or part the two sides of the rubber band and sandwich stuff in between.. perfect for holding a book and some other stuff. I wonder how much it holds before it starts sagging?

2008-02-22
Facebook apps on any website! RIP OpenSocial?

Quick update.. I just learned via Tech Crunch that facebook has opened up a brand new client library, that makes it possible to embed ajax-nifty facebook applications on any website! Plus, there’s no local server-side code needed, so users can simply paste embed code into their site – much like embedding a simple YouTube Video. No other setup required.
So, will this hamper the adoption of Google’s OpenSocial? Why would I want to use an Open Social app with (currently) limited reach, when I can simply embed on my myspace profile an app from facebook that all of my friends already use?

Finally, as Adam pointed out last week, social networking on mobile devices is just heating up. In lieu of full-on facebook on my phone, what if I could custom create one-off widgets for my mobile phone (eyeing the iPhone here) out of Facebook applications? (Read on Tech Crunch)

2008-01-28
Squishy Pig Lokulokus invade America!

It’s finally arrived, shipped fresh from the Tai Po Post Office, Hong Kong. The squishy pig “Lokulokus”. I read about these and saw a youtube video of them a few weeks ago on a japanese blog, at the time they weren’t available in the states. Now, thanks to our buddies over at Deal Extreme, they’re available for order, and are shipped direct from Hong Kong.

These jelly, squishy, diesel fuel smelling pigs squish almost completely flat when you hurl them at the floor, and then slowly rise back up.

Check the squishy pig video, shot by Kristen with Adams nifty Flip Video Camcorder.

Update*****DO NOT throw your squishy pig up on the ceiling. He will stay.

A gold squishy pig on the ceiling.

2008-01-23
Macbook Air – Why it rocks

Yes, I’ve heard all the nay-sayers out there, ripping on the new, glorious Macbook Air. You’re saying that it has no user replacable battery, no firewire, no optical drive, is too flimsy, yadda yadda.

Yeah well, that’s not the purpose of the Macbook Air. You want to do intense mobile HD video editing? Ok, that’s exactly what the Macbook Pro is great at! Do-everything-ok basic work computer? That’s the Macbook. The Macbook Air is sleek, thin, lightweight, and powerful. It cut’s out all unnecessary bulk, to offer a platform you can easily travel around with to perform basic work tasks. I ask myself, how often, when I travel, do I REALLY need a dvd burner, firewire 800 ports, etc? Not often. Yes, I understand some people work in industries where they need that – Go get a Pro. The bulk of my work is surfing the web, working with MS Office, chatting, video conferencing, and listening to music. The Air seems perfect for this.

Regarding the non user replacable battery. Meh… I only have one battery for my 15″ Macbook Pro, and I’ve rarely been in a situation where I’ve needed to go for more than 4.5 hours using my computer, away from a plug. Charge up in the airport, hack out some work on the flight, re-charge when you get to your hotel room that night. Perfect.

And what about movies/music etc? No optical drive? I haven’t watched a movie directly off a dvd in years! Pretty much all of my on-laptop computer watching comes in the form of watching mpeg movie file backups of the dvd’s I own. No messing with shuffling disks around, and when I want to watch a movie, I just load it up instantly from my external HDD. And if I’m going on a trip, I’ll just move a few movies over the the internal HDD before the trip. Also, with the iTunes store now offering both movie purchases and rentals, in HD nonetheless, who needs to lug around an optical media drive everywhere? (yes, I know optical media is not dead, and I’m a huge supporter of the Blu-ray camp, but that’s another discussion…)

For networking, the Air supports 802.11 A, B, G, and N. N wireless is fast. In fact, I believe its speed definitely faster than any internet connection I will ever be on, and most likely faster than most LAN’s i’ll be on. No, it’s not gigabit ethernet, but really, when am I using all that speed? Especially on a portable. For streaming video off of my wirelessly connected Time Capsule, it’s perfect.

Finally, no, it’s not going to be flimsy. Full disclosure, I haven’t handled one myself, yet. However knowing Apple’s historically excellent and solid build quality, I’m sure this thing will be solid. From the pictures, it looks like it has a solid edge bevel, akin to the iPod Touch’s edge… and a metal casing similar to the iPod classic. The hinge will be rock solid, and just like my apple keyboard, although it’s extremely thin, I don’t think you’ll be able to bend it easily.

So, there’s my take on it. It will be a great computer for road warriors, commuters, or trendsters who want a powerful, capable, but minimal computer for home/lifestyle.. perfect to sit on the couch with at night and check email and chat, perfect to catch up on the latest new music on Beatport, or tv shows on Hulu.Time will only tell how well it’s picked up, but I’ll surely be down at the apple store asap, to give it a quick handle.

2008-01-17
Macworld Keynote Speech – Initial Impressions
His Steveness just got done delivering the long awaited Macworld San Fransisco Keynote speech…Check out the liveblog of the speech over at Engadget, Gizmodo, and Macrumors. (yes, all at the same time)

Some impressions:
- Time Capsule – I really didn’t expect this, but am glad they did.. sounds like a great integration of storage and wireless access. I’ve had my own mega super ultra backup/hard drive issues before, including frantic service calls to Drivesavers for physical recovery etc. Now that I’m on leopard with my Macbook Pro, I’m more or less backed up all the time.. but its still a pain having to plug in my hard drives ever time. I have a 1tb backup drive, and then two other 300gb and 500gb storage drives. So i have time machine configured to backup my mac’s hard drive, and both my 300gb and 500gb drives, all to the 1tb backup drive. So having this 1tb wirelessly accessible sounds perfect. My one hope is that, like the “old” airport extreme, this new “Time Capsule” still comes with an available USB port, so I can plug in an additional hard drive (most likely my 500gb music drive).. That way I’ll be able to work away from my desk, and still have access to both my music storage hdd, and my time machine hdd. Finally, psyched to upgrade to the N wireless… I’m currently using a Linksys WRT54G, which is good with dd-wrt on it, but having the faster N access, especially for wireless backup, is key.
- iPhone upgrades – The webclips will be handy for getting to custom apps such as Google Reader etc, and it’s great to hear multiple recipient SMS is now available… but it doesnt matter! I don’t have an iPhone! I’m still going to hold out on getting one until they release the 3G iPhone… the improved network speed, and most likely larger storage and other upgrades will add significantly. In any case, the initial version, and all subsequent versions and software upgrades of the iPhone are worlds better than my crappy Blackberry Curve 8300.. the hardware on it is good, but the software is absolutely worthless. But that’s for another rant…
- Movie Rentals – Especially since they are offering them in HD, and for direct download to the Apple TV.. this is great to hear. My only big hope is that you’ll be able to sync movies you downloaded direct to your Apple TV back to your mac. Also, what about time machine running on your Apple TV, syncing back to your Time Capsule? Sounds fun to me…
- Macbook Air – This is long awaited for a ton of people. This product will help capture yet another segment of the market for Apple, and help pull in the “mobile professional” crowd. I think that the combination of the Macbook Air, along with Microsoft Office 2008 will really make Apple a more viable contender in the corporate world. Holy shit! Its thin! Only .76 inches thick.. and it looks like it has the same kind of edge styling as the iPod Touch.. amazing. Sounds perfect, wish I had the budget/need for one. Also, they are finally offering SSD drives, as an option… this technology is super cool, and allows for faster drives, better reliability, and power savings.. my next laptop will def have an SSD. Finally, it’s a smart move to offer the external optical drive for $99, but the best part is the software for sharing an optical drive across a network. Good thinking, as that will be a great counterpoint for retail employees when people say “but it doesn’t have an optical drive! wahh!!”
- Overall– Good products, and I’m especially psyched about the time capsule..I might actually get that one. However there were a few big holes here, which I’m still waiting to be filled. First, no 3G iPhone.. but that wasn’t really expected yet. Second, only 64gb ssd for the Macbook Air. Yes, I know they are expensive, even at 64gb, but it would be good to have the option of a bigger drive. We’re all sitting around in my office fixed on the live-blogging, and as soon as Steve announced the 64gb ssd, one of my office mates said “what? that’s way too small! If I get one of these, it needs much bigger… at least 128!” Anyway, hopefully as prices drop on ssd’s, they’ll start offering larger ones.
There you have it, Macworld’s Keynote 2008. Some amazing products, some mysteriously left out. But you know I’ll be the first one to rush out to the apple store as soon as these things are on display.. And let’s hope these new products drive Apple’s (AAPL) stock price back up…
2008-01-15