Social Network Through Mobile

Social Network is a famous issue/site in current technology world. It is a best way to create linkages among individuals. Having accounts and adding friends in it is not a tedious task. Most of the social networks have interesting ideas in different ways. Users can happily and easily integrate the interfaces and add their preferred features. Currently, huge number of people is using it through computers. How if social network is implemented through mobile? Will the number of users increase?

MyBlogLog came out with an excellent idea in it. It started at eTech and SXSW to use Bluetooth technology to find surrounding people at a particular moment. It is a simple way to identify people. User requires installing Java applet and relating the Bluetooth ID to the user’s MyBlogLog ID. As a return, user will be able to see all the other MyBlogLog members within a range of destination. It claims that the range could be 30 feet.

Source:http://www.techcrunch.com/page/2/

The interface shows two parts in a page. First is “People Around You” which means displaying those people are being somewhere in the range. Second is “People Encountered Most” which shows people in a closer range at a particular moment.

Source:http://www.techcrunch.com/page/2/

In my perception, I believe it is most suitable idea for office staff, travelers, and business people. They meet various types of people with different interest, culture, and habit in their daily life. Isn’t it important to keep in touch with them? So, they can easily add them in MyBlogLog in order to keep in touch instead of getting their contact information which may disappear or change anytime.

As a user of current computer social network, I think I may use it once I move into career life. So, what about you?

Powerset or Google?

Powerset is going to launch soon. Yes, it is a new type of search engine where it understands natural language searches. It will let the users to search by using natural language without eliminating some words as in current search engines.

Google dominates the current computer world’s search engine. However, users are required to use important keywords and leave everything else out while using it. According to Michael Arrington, he has learned to change his language when using current search engine. He leaves all the words apart from keywords. As day passes, he realised that it has overflowed into his personal communication.

However, users do not need to worry about keywords in Powerset. I found a screen shot of Powerset’s search engine result in Michael Arrington’s post. The interface is looking simple, but the results are accurate. At this moment, Powerset will only query Wikipedia and Freebase. However, the matches of the results are exactly what the search was.

The first thing that came across my mind while looking at that screen shot was Google search engine. So what I did was, I typed the exact sentence that used in Powerset to search in Google search engine and compare the result. I realised that the results in Google are not as accurate as Powerset.

Powerset search result
Source:http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/11/first-public-view-of-powerset-results/

Google search result

So, what is going to happen next? Powerset or Google?

As a current Google user, I think I may move to Powerset when come to text searching. The main reason is, I don’t need to worry about keywords in it and I can see the results easily. However, Google still takes place for other type of searches such as image search.

So, what about you? Can Google still lead as number one in search engine?

TagCow

How to store tons of digital photos appropriately? Yes, that’s the major problem for everyone. Storing in a common folder is easier. However, difficulty occurs when one wants to store them in a specific folder. For example, picking all the flowers photos from a folder which consists of huge number of other photos. Definitely it can be done, but it is a tedious and time consuming job.

Recently a good service called TagCow launched to solve the problem. It has an ability to identify the photos with the descriptive keywords. The keywords could be anything, such as rain, mummy, home, etc. It identifies the pictures and tags them based on the descriptive. Isn’t it making our life so much earlier?

Source: http://www.tagcow.com/home

Users can easily sign in with TagCow, and upload the digital photos. At that point, those photos will be sent to TagCow “tag factory”, where all the descriptive tags will be added. Once done, it will be published in user’s TagCow site based on the descriptive attributes. However, the service is also integrates with another photo storing service called Flickr. User can easily setup a template for tagging people and connect their Flickr account into TagCow account. In this way, TagCow’s “tag factory” will be able to get all the photos from user’s Flickr album and add the descriptive tags. Then, everyone can easily search the photos based on the descriptive tags on Flickr site itself.

The major doubt that existed among the public was “How TagCow works? Is it automated or done by human?” I think that is not necessary, unless if we want to work on the similar service. In my point of view, it will be a great idea if TagCow extends the service by having “desktop application”. In this way users can easily download the application and sort their photos in the hard drive. So, it can be a useful application for online and offline storage.

iTunes in Rock Band and Guitar Hero

Have you ever heard about games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero? Yes, those are famous video games. How if the players get an option to choose and listen to their preferred songs while playing? Absolutely gamers will love it. iTunes have been brought up into those games which is an excellent choice for the gamers.

It allows the gamers to buy musical tracks in it. They can simply browse the available songs by artist, by album, or by song title. The detail of each track such as the name of the CD that taken from, and information about the song will be available as well. Gamers can download the track to listen while playing by paying one or two dollars. However, there is a preview function where they can hear the songs before downloading it. I think in this way, they will try all the new songs which they may not be familiar. It is also allow them to export the downloaded tracks onto their mp3 players.

The interface for selecting the track is very simple and easy. It looks like a page where one is doing online shopping for music.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080322-rock-band-opens-built-in-music-store-eyes-itunes.html

According to the survey, the sales figure for Guitar Hero 3 has been increased after updating the software with music.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071121-your-song-in-guitar-hero-equals-a-big-jump-in-digital-sales.html

Based on Ars Technica’s information, Guitar Hero is a billion-dollar franchise whereas Rock Band is selling in large amount as well. Personally, I think it is a very good and big business model. They can easily earn money through satisfying their consumers by providing songs for them to choose and listen while playing. The number of gamers can be increased easily as well as publicising new singers and songs by having online music store in the games.

What do you think? As a gamer, will you buy it?

Nike + Apple

For the first time in the history, two technology driven companies have combined together. They are Nike and Apple. People may ask, what is the relationship between the both companies to have partnership since they are completely from two different areas? However, after eighteen months in the making, Nike and Apple managed to come out with a great product called Nike + iPod Sport Kit.

Nike + iPod Sport Kit

It is a small mechanism which is required to insert under the line of the shoe via a sensor. It looks like a sim card, and a small receiver will be attached to the iPod Nano. As the user runs, the sensor records all the details such as distance, time, pace, and calories burned. Then all the recorded data will be displayed on the iPod Nano. It works something like the nav system in a car which communicates the details.

How to use Nike+iPod Sport Kit

User can set a workout such as how far and how long in the iPod Nano, and then choose a playlist to hear while working out. When the user is going to work out, the screen of the iPod will look as below:

The Nike + iPod Sport Kit is available for $29 in all the Apple Stores for certain days and in Nike footwear shops. It is also available in Amazon.com and ebay.com. However, personally I think Apple should sell this product virtually whereas Nike uses traditional market. In this way, it makes customers choice easier rather than buying through Amazon or ebay.