RSS mashup: Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! product results

A new RSS mashup site acts as a meta search engine reaching into Amazon, Google, eBay, Yahoo!, Flickr, YouTube, and Technorati. You cannot mash all the search results into one feed, but you can merge Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo! Shopping into a single product feed, which is damn convenient. The site is weak on design, but it works. Used to be called Longtail, but (according to a posted explanation) that term has been trademarked by its popularizer, Chris Anderson. The mashup site is now called BaeBo, and is operated by Fancis Shanahan. (BaeBo is the language spoken in the Solomon islands ... perhaps it has other meanings, too.)

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Ubuntu up and running on Pandora

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

All kinds of exciting things are happening in the Pandora universe, and now one enterprising individual has succeeded in getting Ubuntu 7.04 up and running on his development model. Things move pretty slowly, and no luck yet with Firefox, but the thrilling video does catch him playing with GIMP and the Xfce desktop environment. See for yourself after the break.

[Thanks, Stern]

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GBTV #0379 (small) | GeekBrief.TV

Kaleidescape released two new movie players. The 1080p upscales stand definition DVDs to deliver a viewing experience that rivals Blu-ray. Information about the Kaleidescape court case is here and a review of the player is here.

The Aztech WL850MS HD Media Streamer uses wireless N to stream 1080p video wirelessly over your home network.

The Cuisipro Ice Cream Scoop & Stack produces 3.75 oz., perfectly cylindrical scoops.

Rogers Wireless may match AT&T pricing for the iPhone, including the data plan.

Popgadget has a tip for skipping voice mail greatings when you call mobile phones.

XBMC is a cross-platform media center application that works on OSX, Windows, Linux and Xbox. It's my favorite application for the Mac that I've come across this year. Thanks to everyone who recommended it. Read more

First Look: Briefcase for iPhone

Filed under: Software, Beta Beat, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Briefcase is the latest in a flood of apps for the iPhone that let you transfer files to and from a PC or Mac, then view them on the iPhone. After using a beta for several weeks, my personal opinion is that Briefcase is the easiest of the bunch to use. So far, it's also the only app of this type to allow Wi-Fi file transfer between iPhones.

Several competing applications require running special software on the host computer, Briefcase doesn't. Mac users just turn on File Sharing in System Preferences and make sure that the iPhone and Mac are on the same Wi-Fi network. A list of machines appears on the iPhone, you tap on one to connect, and once the user of the computer allows you to have access, you can browse the directories of the machine you're connected to. WIndows and Linux machines simply need to support remote login via SSH. You can also make remote connections to machines if you know the IP address and SSH port number.

When Briefcase arrives in the App Store soon, it will cost US$4.99. A free version, Briefcase Lite, just lacks the ability to zap files to other iPhones. We'll write a full review soon. Until then, enjoy the gallery.

Gallery: FirstLookBriefcase

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A Look At The New Google Moderator

Recently Google unveiled Moderator. Moderator is a tool that allows you to crowdsource questions and suggestions. To put things in perspective, Google Moderator was developed as an internal tool to see what questions a majority of people wanted to ask during a talk and then ask the top questions to the presenter. However, it found more [...]

Recently Google unveiled Moderator. Moderator is a tool that allows you to crowdsource questions and suggestions.

To put things in perspective, Google Moderator was developed as an internal tool to see what questions a majority of people wanted to ask during a talk and then ask the top questions to the presenter. However, it found more uses and now it has been opened to the masses via the app engine.

So lets take this new tool for a spin, shall we ?

The primary use for Moderator is to crowdsource questions or suggestions. Let’s say we would like all of our readers to let us know if they want us to cover a particular app or recommend a solution to a particular need or problem. Google Moderator is ideal for such things. Here’s how we would go about it.

Create a new series

A series is like the top level heading under which you would like to group all the questions. I put in MakeUseOf since most of the questions and suggestions would be MakeUseOf related.

Create a topic

Topics are the next lower level in the hierarchy to series. Topics would be used to keep the things tidy. Like there is a featured series “Ask a World Leader” over at Moderator in which people submit questions they will like to ask famous personalities. So to keep things tidy, each personality becomes a topic. So now if you want to ask Barack Obama a new question you would go to the respective topic and put in a question.

For our MakeUseOf series I put in a Article Requests topic, where you can submit your article requests or thumbs up/ thumbs down other readers’ suggestions/requests. Periodically we will pick the one that is on the top.

Now let people vote and ask questions

Others can now vote on the questions that have been submitted in the topic. People can give a positive vote (which is essentially a thumbs up) or a negative vote (thumbs down). Depending on the positive to negative count of the various questions, the most popular question will eventually rise to the top. If a question has 100 total votes of which 50 are positive and 50 are negative, it will be ranked lower than a question with 90 total votes, of which 85 are positive and only 5 are negative.

Some things I missed:

(1) First off, is it just me or do the names: series, topics, questions sound confusing to you as well? Do they convey what you should put into what? See here ‘Suggest an android application’ becomes the series, ‘the genres’ become the topics and ironically the ‘actual ideas’ have to be termed as ‘questions’. It works, but it’s not so intuitive to the first timer considering that the masses will use it for different purposes and not only for picking up questions to ask in a tech talk. I actually ended up putting the question in the series name and it was only afterwards that I figured what is what. Either that or may be I just needed some sleep. What you say?

(2) Since the main focus is people, letting others know that you have created a new series and would like to know their suggestions would be helpful. So I greatly missed a share this link. Right now you have to go back to the series and copy paste the link from the address bar.

(3) No email notifications or RSS feeds at the moment. I think it would be nice if people could subscribe to the topics, or if the owner could get notifications of important events like a new top question, or a new event.

Go ahead, check out Google Moderator, see how you like it, how you would like to MakeUseOf it and then let us know in the comments. Oh, and by the way, there really is a MakeUseOf series over there at Moderator. So go ahead check it out as well and contribute.

(By) Varun Kashyap - Programmer, Blogger and Tech enthusiast, who blogs about tips, tricks, tutorials, latest on the web on his TechCrazy Blog

New subscriber? Get your freebies at MakeUseOf Downloads. Enjoy!

Tags:crowdsourcing, Google, google moderator, Q&A websites

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WordPress 2

After rumors met silence from the WordPress.org site, an official announcement has finally been posted: WordPress 2.0 has been released. I haven't yet tested it (though I trust WordPress, I wouldn't dare upgrade before backing up my databases and WP folders), but I haven't seen (substantial) reports of migration problems. WordPress 2 is named "Duke," and documented upgrades include a WYSIWYG entry-writing interface (it's about time!) and inline image uploading (it's asbout time!). There is also some kind of Ajaxy-sounding drag-and-drop of interface elements. WordPress has done amazingly well to date, thanks largely to its (relative) ease of installation and operationsl quickness--both selling points when compared to Movable Type, in particular. The program's geekiness, while appealing to many users, probably holds it back from more widespread use. The new WP2 features make it sound ready to rock in a bigger arena. Here is the announcement and download page.

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Spreadsheet iPhone app supports text, dates, formulas

Spreadsheet iPhone app supports text, dates, formulas
Softalk has released Spreadsheet, an app that allows for the creation of spreadsheets on the iPhone. The program uses a standard grid, where users can add text, numeric, or date data into the cells. Users can scroll through the grids or zoom in on particular areas. Supported functions are grouped into six categories including Date/time, General, Math, Statistical, String, and Trigonometry....

MacBreak 08: Automator Life Poster

Leo and Automator guru Sal Soghoian show you how to use Automator and iPhoto to create a poster-sized collection of your photos. Read more

Macvide releases standalone Flash Player 1.7 for Mac

Macvide today announced Flash Player 1.7,the latest version of its standalone Flash utility for Mac OS X. The application allows users to play Flash content while offline, including games or videos. All Flash formats are supported, including SWF and FLV files. Content can be dowloaded from sites such as YouTube to be played anytime. Manual time line control is provided while watching videos....

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Forums: RAM configurations, application questions

Forum roundup: Recently MacNN forum goers have reported more occurrences of Safari crashing since the new 2.1 software upgrade. One member is looking for a way to stream eyetv online so it can be watched, via a web based service, away from home. A question about the new version of VLC player is discussed in this thread. A debate about the best RAM configuration for a MacBook is the topic of thi...

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GBTV #0346 (small) | GeekBrief.TV

GBTV #0346 (small) | GeekBrief.TV
I start Brief 346 with a public apology for the most embarrassing thing I've ever done in my life. Then we introduced the alpha phase of an idea to bring an open source element to Geek Brief.

It looks like there could be a problem with Psystar, the company that says it's selling Mac clones. Gizmodo is on it and they're doing a great job. They have their readers on the ground tracking down whether or not Psystar is the real deal or not.

Joe Finnigan brought us our first open source story about a Web application called iubo. It's a U.K. startup that enables users to organize personal and public information in a single place that you can search. It's like a private search engine you can use to search the details from your life.

's Baggers is a restaurant that was opened last year in German. It doesn't have waiters. Food is delivered to diners via roller-coaster like tracks. Footage is from the BBC, and I heard about the restaurant listening to The World on NPR.

Lindsay Plumley, a huge Friend of the Brief, submitted a story about the gigantic 1080p displays that will hang above the field in the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. Lindsay's blog is borrowedlinks.blogspot.com.

We end the episode with the craziest robot footage I've ever seen. The song is Drive Away by Matthew Ebel.

PocketMac for iPhone syncs Entourage, Meeting Maker

PocketMac for iPhone syncs Entourage, Meeting Maker
Information Appliance Associates has released its latest mobile sync product, PocketMac for iPhone. The app is capable of syncing Entourage, Meeting Maker, and Lotus Notes information. Users select which particular categories they would like synced, instead of being forced to transfer all information. If 411 is used to get phone numbers text messaged to the phone, that information can be added to ...

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MacBreak 87: Studio: Audio Keyframes
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MacBreak 147: NAB: Mogul

MacBreak 147: NAB: Mogul
Alex stops by Imagineer Systems to check out their new product Mogul.

RSS mashup: Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! product results

A new RSS mashup site acts as a meta search engine reaching into Amazon, Google, eBay, Yahoo!, Flickr, YouTube, and Technorati. You cannot mash all the search results into one feed, but you can merge Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo! Shopping into a single product feed, which is damn convenient. The site is weak on design, but it works. Used to be called Longtail, but (according to a posted explanation) that term has been trademarked by its popularizer, Chris Anderson. The mashup site is now called BaeBo, and is operated by Fancis Shanahan. (BaeBo is the language spoken in the Solomon islands ... perhaps it has other meanings, too.)

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GBTV #423 (small) | CEDIA Expo #7

CEDIA Update #7 is full length today. Toshiba's XDE DVD Players are another option to Blu-ray. They're working on upconversion like we've never seen.

I've been learning a lot about how Hz effects your TV viewing experience. Philips announced their new Aurea II 100Hz Displays at IFA last week and Sharp announced their Aquos 120Hz Displays.

You can save money on domain name registrations and renewals from GoDaddy.com with discount codes GB1, GB2 and GB3. For an explanation of each code, click here. Read more

Amazon confirms T-Mobile G1 music store

Amazon today preceded the launch of the T-Mobile G1 by announcing its rumored online music store for the new Android phone, putting the device in close competition with the iPhone. The service gives owners of T-Mobile's imminent smartphone access to the full, unprotected MP3 catalog of Amazon's store and thus lets customers copy tracks back to a computer or another device, including iPods, Macs a...

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MacBreak 84: Minute: Saft

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Merlin shows us how to bookmark sets of tabs in Safari with Saft.

Sony's VAIO VGC-JS190J all-in-one PC gets reviewed

Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs

After spending a bit of time with Sony's new all-in-one desktop lineup at CEDIA 2008, it was easy to recognize that some serious thought went into the design. CNET was able to corral one of the lower-end JS units, the VAIO VGC-JS190J to be specific, and took the time to determine whether the innards were as delightful as the exterior. Overall, critics found that it was the "best deal" going on an all-in-one desktop with an inbuilt Blu-ray drive, and amazingly, they found it "relatively free of software clutter." Furthermore, they yearned for more screen space than just 20-inches when watching those BD flicks, but outside of that, they found that "no other all-in-one, including Apple's iMac, could do as much, as fast, for the same price." Sounds like a winner, no?

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MacBreak 33: The Distracted Mac

Merlin Mann is back to show you how to free your Mac from visual clutter. Read more

VMWare offers free training videos on YouTube

Filed under: Found Footage

VMWare has started publishing short, but informative YouTube videos demonstrating various tasks in the new version of Fusion for the Mac. One of the videos (shown above, YouTube link here) shows how to install Windows XP in a new virtual machine in Fusion 2.0.

If you don't want to watch low-quality YouTube videos, you can send an email to downloadrequest@vmware.com. An auto responder will return a message with links to download the high-quality versions of the videos.


Thanks, Jason!

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Sony adds video podcast support to PSP

Sony adds video podcast support to PSP
The Sony PSP is definitely moving way beyond video games these days. Then again, I suppose there are number of people thinking that it had to happen thanks to the Apple iPod’s success. Video podcast support is coming to the PlayStation Portable (PSP) thanks to a firmware update Sony Computer Entertainment has published. The update takes [...]

The Sony PSP is definitely moving way beyond video games these days. Then again, I suppose there are number of people thinking that it had to happen thanks to the Apple iPod’s success.

Video podcast support is coming to the PlayStation Portable (PSP) thanks to a firmware update Sony Computer Entertainment has published.

The update takes the PSP firmware to version 2.8. It allows the PSP to receive video clips through RSS (really simple syndication) feeds from blogs and other websites. Sony first added RSS and podcast support in November 2005 and expanded it in April this year.

Additionally the firmware update adds compatibility for the “.3gp” audio format used by some mobile phones, and greater access to content stored on Memory Stick memory cards…. Source: MacWorld

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T-Mobile's CTO on G1 unlocking and tethering -- plus a few details you might have missed

T-Mobile's CTO on G1 unlocking and tethering -- plus a few details you might have missed

Filed under: Cellphones

While there was a flurry (actually, a full on snowstorm) of news today about the G1, there's a few bits of info you might not have heard, largely because no one is reporting them. We had a chance to speak with T-Mobile CTO Cole Brodman after the event today, and he had some illuminating -- and frankly refreshing -- takes on some of our more pressing questions. When asked about what T-Mobile's reaction would be to users creating tethering or unlocking apps for the phone, he was surprisingly even-keeled, noting that while the company didn't encourage the practice, they wouldn't lock down the OS or update the software to break those applications. Our impression was that as long as their use was relegated to a small percentage of owners, T-Mobile likely wouldn't take action, though he did voice concerns over tethering apps and their effect on the network, with a clearly guarded eye to letting users have free reign. More interestingly, buyers would be able to have access to a "contract free" G1 (with a price point of $399), and could unlock the device with T-Mobile's blessing after 90 days. Brodman also said that the company's policy of unlocking phones for customers in good standing wouldn't change for this phone.

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