memolio: print photo albums can be cool too

Launched only a few months ago, memolio is a service that offers the ability to order personalized portable and durable photo albums. According to the website, it works like this:

Upload 24 images
One at a time or select multiple images simultaneously. It's super easy!

Personalize
Choose theme color, image position and add album description. 

Preview online
Like what you see? Save it, share it & order it!

The interface is very sleek and easy to use. Besides uploading the pictures from your computer, you can also import them from Flicker or Picasa. There are also comunity features where public albums can be browsed, rated and purchased.

Each album costs €14.99 and the shipping is free to anywhere in the world. Very reasonable price for a creative and memorable gift.

Check memolio here.

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Zune HD: browse the web as you would on ... your iPhone [Cnet]

CNET's MP3 Insider just released a very positive review talking about the new Zune HD. I picked the part that talks about the web browsing experience:

Speaking of Wi-Fi, the Zune's new Web browser smokes. Not since first using the iPhone have I been this impressed with a mobile Web browser. There's no branding on the browser, but I was told it was cooked up by Microsoft's Internet Explorer team (makes sense). Page load was snappy, and pinching and reorienting pages work just like the iPhone and iPod Touch. You also get a fast onscreen keyboard with a nice little magnifier effect with each keystroke. The only bad news on the browser is that there's no support for Flash audio and video content. So Pandora and YouTube are out, but I was able to get onto Facebook and Twitter.

As a second reference, this is what Microsoft say in their website about the web browser:

Surf the web anytime, anywhere you have a Wi-Fi connection. Enjoy your favorite websites with a full-featured web browser including tap-to-zoom technology, built-in accelerometer, and touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.

Doesn't it sound exactly like the experience on the iPhone? My feeling is that Apple's device is so ahead of the game that when some competitor is able to match it somehow, reviewers tend to over-react. I haven't used the device yet, so I might be totally wrong.

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FastPencil: Ever wanted to write a book? Here is your chance.

FastPencil is an online application that turns the process of writing and publishing a book as easy as it could be.

Think about is as a Google Docs for writers, where you get the collaboration and editing tools, but customized to the book writing experience. For example, if you decide to write a novel, the tool offers the templates for the book structure (prologue, chapters, etc..) and the interface is also adapted to it's purpose, with only the basic editing capabilities and the ability to see the actual format of the final book.

If you don't want to start your book from scratch, FastPencil offers the hability to import any blog (with full content, including comments), and use it as your initial draft.

The greatest thing about FastPencil, though, is it's ability to distribute the books, creating a marketplace for amateur writers. According to their website:

FastPencil gives you distribution flexibility that is unmatched in the publishing industry. Your books can be distributed in printed or electronic formats via Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and shortly, through the FastPencil Marketplace. You can even sell or give them away as eBook, Kindle, or PDF files. The choice is yours.

FastPencil is offered as a free product including unlimited space for text and images. However, if you want additional features (like personal consultant, editorial services, custom book design and ISBN), you can buy the Silver or Gold packages, starting from USD $399.

If you decide to create a print version of the book, FastPencil negotiates volume discounts on printing costs, that can go up to 30% (+500 books).

Create your free account here.

NYT Skimmer brings the paper browsing experience to the web

It's been a while that I'm trying to completely quit reading newspapers' and magazines' physical versions. However, there is something about the browsing experience we get from these media that is hard to replicate online.

For magazines, I find Zinio a very good attempt to solve this problem. It is not perfect, since it also replicates some of the "old school" magazine model, with weekly or monthly paid subscriptions. However, you really feel like you are turning pages and browsing the whole page.

For Newspaper, the NYT amd WSJ readers for the iPhone were a great first step. However, the need to browse many news on a larger pages were missing. Until now.

Skimmer is an online application offered by the NYT that provide a "paper-like" experience from your web browser. The image above shows it running on Jolicloud (the OS I run in my eee PC), but it can be run on any desktop or laptop.

According to their editors:

... our focus was on the fundamentals of the experience. It is empowering to spread so much information out on a table, so we spread as many stories as we can fit into the space of your screen. It is easier and more relaxing to scan a surface of information than flip through a stack, so information is laid out in a rigid two-dimensional grid. The sections do not flip into place; instead, they slide up and down. If you want to imagine the whole of the content as a giant uncut scroll of paper, don’t let us stop you.

They also comment on the commands built into the web app:

We’re also geeks, so there are plenty of keyboard commands for the efficiency lovers. The space bar takes you down a section, and shift-space brings you back up. Arrow keys do the same. You can navigate sections by holding down the “s” key (s for section), typing the number that appears, and releasing the “s” key. Same goes for articles, but with the “a” key (a for article). If you need a reminder, just click the “?” in the upper right corner.

The application does a great job in solving the browsing experience. They included nice transitions and the pages load very fast. However, when you click on an article, you get the  "web-like" long text strips that makes the in-screen reading somewhat boring. I'd like to see, as a next version, a way to provide the unstructured reading paths that mix texts, images and some callouts, another aspect that makes the off-line experience a pleasant one.

Skimmer is free and the only popular browser it won't run is IE6. Well, if your are reading this blog, you probably don't use IE6, so you'll likely be able to try it now.

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Mintpad: pocket-size internet tablet from Korea

Mintpad is cool little device that is much more than an internet pad. According to MP3 Insider:

The Mintpass Mintpad is a cute, little, portable media player by way of Korea, offering loads of features in a space about as large as a Post-It pad. Behind its responsive 2.8-inch touch-screen display you'll find extensive file support (MP3, FLAC, WAV, WMA, OGG, DivX, XviD, MPEG-4, WMV), a Wi-Fi-enabled Internet browser (with Flash support), photo viewer, microSD memory expansion, voice recording, a beautiful vector-based drawing program (cooler than it sounds, folks)--plus, there's 1.3 megapixel camera on the back that can record video or stills.

As stated above, the Internet browser supports flash and seems to do a reasonable job through its zooming capabilities given the screen size. All iputs are done through a keyboard that is reportedly very easy to use.

The Mintpad is available only in Korea for now and it sells for ~150 USD.

Read cnet's hands-on review here or get more details about it from Pocketables.

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Mobile applications and its connection to cloud computing [cnet News]

An interesting study by ABI Research, and reported by cnet News, highlights the importance of cloud services to mobile applications. According to the study:

... limited processing power, battery life, and data storage will limit mobile application growth in the mass market, even among smartphones like Apple's iPhone.

ABI Research senior analyst Mark Beccue says:

Cloud computing will bring unprecedented sophistication to mobile applications. To mention just a few examples, [...] personal users will gain from remote access apps allowing them to monitor home security systems, PCs or DVRs, and from social networking mashups that let them share photos and video or incorporate their phone address books and calendars.

No major news or revealing trends, but another confirmation of this important trend in computing.

Read cnet's article here.

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EtherPad: online word processor that focus on "real" realtime collaboration

As Online Office suites get more popular, some new smaller companies are specializing in specific attributes to differentiate themselves and find their positioning in the market. That's the case of EtherPad, developed by AppJet - a software company based in San Francisco.

EtherPad is an online application that removes all the clutter and focus on just one thing: Realtime collaboration. You might be thinking: doesn't Google Docs offer that already? The EtherPad team has an answer to that:

No. Google Docs is a suite of products that do many things, from word processing to spreadsheets to document management. One thing that Google Docs does not do is real-time collaborative text editing. We think this is an important use case, so we built EtherPad with real-time collaboration as the focus.

For example, with Google Docs it takes about 5 to 15 seconds for a change to make its way from your keyboard to other people's screens. Imagine if whiteboards or telephones had this kind of delay! In contrast, the EtherPad infrastructure is built to carry your every keystroke at the speed of light, limited only by the time it takes electrons to travel over a wire (such as an "ethernet" cable).

EtherPad has a simple but effective interface, using colors to differentiate each user on the text body. Some of the use cases they provide include: meeting notes, meetings, teleconferencing, drafting and editing prose, program as a team and engineering phone interviews.

The Free Edition lets you create public pads on etherpad.com with no user accounts and minimal security. If you want to use it seriously, the SaaS Professional Edition is free for up to 3 users, and costs USD $8/user/month. There is also the Private Network Edition for USD $99/user, in case you want the software to run in your own servers.

Try EtherPad here.

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ViewSonic VOT130/132: thinking about buying a Mac Mini? Think again.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nSg8j6QN34&hl=en&fs=1&]

Available only in Taiwan for now, these new nettops from ViewSonic offer very robust specs on a cool and slim design. According to Review2:

the Viewsonic VOT130 innovatively equips with Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor and NVIDIA Geforce 9300M graphics. It configures up to 3GB of RAM, up to 250GB of hard drive, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, a DVI-I connector, six USB ports and a HDMI port.

Prices in Taiwan are USD $331 (130) and USD $514 (132). Watch the video above from Netbooknews for a hands-on review.

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Choosy for Mac OS: why have just one default browser?

Introduction to Choosy from Choosy on Vimeo.

 

Choosy is an application that allows you to chose the right browser for each site or web application. According to their self-description:

Forget the default browser, Choosy opens links in therightbrowser. When you click on a link Choosy will do the right thing, whether that's something simple (like using whatever browser is already running) or something complex (like prompting you to pick a browser, but only when you hold down the shift key and click on a link to google.com).

Choosy costs USD $12,00 but you can try it before you buy. Download Choosy here.

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