Josh Bancroft's TinyScreenfuls.com » Linky

Josh’s Lifelog for 2009-01-07

Josh Bancroft — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:00:59 +0000

Last minute Intel tweetup notice: I’m watching the Apple MacWorld keynote at the big TV in the JF1 living room. Come join me! #
@mikearmstrong99 I’m not sure if the forthcoming dual core Atom chip will make its way into netbooks. More power hungry, aimed at nettops. in reply to mikearmstrong99 #
Don’t think I’ll do a liveblog of the keynote this time. I need to reboot my blogging for the new year. #
I will likely be tweeting a lot of breathless Apple fanboy stuff for the next hour or so. You’ve been warned. #
@harrisja They don’t stream the video of the keynotes. There’s not enough bandwidth in the world to make it work well. in reply to harrisja #
Yay face detection in iPhoto 09. Just like Riya could do 3 or 4 years ago! Still quite useful. #
Hahaha the MacRumorsLive feed totally got hacked. #
Video stabilization in iMovie 09 could be really, really useful if it works well. #
@jmoriarty You’re right. Apple’s Yammer stream would be fascinating to watch during these things. in reply to jmoriarty #
iWork 09 is a yawn, but the “Keynote Remote” iPhone/iPod Touch app seems really cool. #
Mac Box Set – Leopard, iLife, and iWork for $169. But why? Who, besides Tiger users, would buy that? Unless they’re opening up to all hw… #
iWork.com looks like just an online document exchange. More like SharePoint than Google Docs. You can upload, view, download, but not edit. #
Wow. The new 17″ MBP really does have a non-user-replaceable battery. Lithium Polymer, 40% bigger, claim 8 hours. Interesting. #
By the end of this quarter, ALL 10 million songs in iTunes will be available DRM free. w00t! #
Heh. Tony Bennett ends the Apple keynote in SF. Take that, show in Las Vegas! #
There was some pretty hilarious/unfortunate ad placement from Gawker on live.gizmodo.com during the Apple keynote: http://tinyurl.com/7d4nej #
Reading @clint’s “super in-depth hands-on + first impressions of iPhoto ’09: http://ping.fm/u8L2A #mwsf” #
@MCP85 Good question. If you’re SQL DB can eat RSS/XML, then probably yes. Each panel is just an RSS feed. I can give an OPML of all of them in reply to MCP85 #
iTunes “upgrade all your songs to DRM free” feature is based on purchase history. You can get back song files you’ve lost/deleted. #
iTunes has never let you re-download a song after purchased. This seems to be a (one time?) way replace lost songs http://tinyurl.com/9le9z9 #
@davidhoenig Intel discount on Clearwire WiMAX looks pretty good, but I wish it didn’t require a 2 year contract. A friend has it, it rocks. in reply to davidhoenig #
I think I’ve fallen in love with the new 17″ MacBook Pro. All those inches! Pixels! Gigabytes and gigahertz and battery hours! #
Finally getting around to upgrading my multitude of sites to WordPress 2.7. Me = slacker. #
Just grabbed the 2.0 update to the Pandora iPhone app. Some nice improvements, access to a lot more artist and song info I think. Go get it. #

☍ Let Google Reader Automatically Translate Feeds Into Your Language

Josh Bancroft — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:38:22 +0000

Official Google Reader Blog: Is Your Web Truly World-Wide?

Ever wanted to subscribe to a feed in a language other than one you understand, and have Google automatically machine translate it into your language? Now you can.

Of course, machine translation is usually terrible. I worked in software localization for a few years, where I learned first hand just how far out the idea of usable machine translation is. But hey, it’s better than nothing, and is a nice option for that Chinese or Russian blog you REALLY wish you could read.

I tried this out on the feeds for the Intel Software Network blog in Chinese and Russian, and it seems to work pretty well (as well as Google Translate ever does). Pretty slick.

☍ iPhone 2.2 Update Brings Street View, OTA Podcast Downloads

Josh Bancroft — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:42:08 +0000

New IPhone 2.2: The iPhone OS 2.2 Rumor Round Up

OK, so we all knew that the iPhone 2.2 update was bringing Google Maps Street View and walking directions (about time, too). But Gizmodo says it will also include over-the-air podcast downloads. First I’ve heard of this, but a welcome feature that people like me and Dave Winer have been clamoring for from the beginning.

And it suddenly makes a lot more sense why Apple rejected the “Podcaster” app (which downloads over the air, too) for “duplicating iTunes functionality”. At the time, we scratched our heads, because the iPhone had no such capability.

☍ Google Earth Comes to the iPhone

Josh Bancroft — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:45:01 +0000

Oh, sweet! Can’t wait for this one. I’ve played around with Earthscape, but it’s just not quite the same.

Google Earth Comes to the iPhone – iPhone Atlas

the iPhone version replciates much of the desktop application’s core experience, downloading imagery from Google’s servers as the perspective shifts and dotting the map with landmarks, photos, and other information

Update: It’s out, and it’s amazing. The autotilt function is very cool. I’ll never use Earthscape again.

See more on the Official Google Blog and the Google Lat-Long Blog. Get it from the iTunes App Store.

From Google:

With Google Earth for iPhone, you can:
Tilt your iPhone to adjust your view to see mountainous terrain

View the Panoramio layer and browse the millions of geo-located photos from around the world
View geo-located Wikipedia articles
Use the ‘Location’ feature to fly to your current location
Search for cities, places and business around the globe with Google Local Search

Here’s a nice video walkthrough:

☍ Interview with Jon Ramvi of the Ubuntu Eee Project

Josh Bancroft — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:07:47 +0000

Intel Software Network Blogs » World of Netbooks: Interview with Jon Ramvi of the Ubuntu Eee Project

An email interview I just posted at my place of employment, Intel Software Network, with Jon Ramvi, organizer of the Ubuntu Eee project – the best Linux distribution for the Eee PC netbook that I’ve used so far (and I’ve tried many).

☍ New MacBook and MacBook Pro arrive at Amazon

Josh Bancroft — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:40:37 +0000

If for some reason you don’t want to order one from Apple, the new 13″ MacBook and 15″ MacBook Pro (the aluminum unibody and glass models) have arrived at Amazon. Those are affiliate links, so if you end up buying from them, I get a small percentage from Amazon that will go towards a cool project I’m working on that will be revealed soon. Much obliged.

☍ The World of Netbooks – an Introduction

Josh Bancroft — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:27:26 +0000

Intel Software Network Blogs » The World of Netbooks – an Introduction: “”

I just posted the first of a series of articles on netbooks, OS choices, and more over at Intel Software Network, my place of employement. If you’re interested in these things, you might want to subscribe to the feed to get the future posts.

☍ I Want This on a T-Shirt

Josh Bancroft — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:59:08 +0000

Keep Calm: Broadcasting will resume presently – Boing Boing Gadgets

☍ The New MacBook Video

Josh Bancroft — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:33:30 +0000

Apple – The new MacBook – Video

The video shown during the Apple notebook event this morning. Go watch it.

☍ Which MacBook are you?

Josh Bancroft — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:42:14 +0000

Apple – Mac – Which MacBook are you?

Apple’s updated “which one is right for you?” page for the new MacBook and MacBook Pro. Lots of pretty pictures.