Google Readies For the Tablet Invasion with eBook Technologies Acquisition

Posted by magician | Posted in Web | Posted on 25-01-2011

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Google finished off 2010 with the long-awaited launch of its e-book marketplace,”Google eBookstore”. Beyond Google’s already 6 million strong library of titles, itsdevice-agnostic approach was seen by many in the industry as a threat to other, more solidified players in the industry, such as Amazon and its Kindle e-reader. Now, it looks like Google may be working to further its support of multiple devices with the acquisition of eBook Technologies.

TechCrunch broke the story earlier today, saying that Google confirmed the acquisition. Google offer the following statement: “We are happy to welcome eBook Technologies’ team to Google. Together, we hope to deliver richer reading experiences on tablets, electronic readers and other portable devices.”

The statement echoes the one on the company’s homepage, which announces the acquisition and says that “Working together with Google will further our commitment to providing a first-class reading experience on emerging tablets, e-readers and other portable devices.”

Google supports a number of devices, from Android and iOS smartphones to any e-book reader that supports the Adobe e-book platform to any device with a Javascript-enabled browser. As the Consumer Electronics Show pointed out to everyone paying attention last week, though, there is an onslaught of tablets, superphones and other mobile devices on the horizon. Could this acquisition have to do with this explosion of devices? Or, as TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid suggests, could it have to do with the “distribution technology” referred to on the company’s site?

A key feature of the eBook platform and, a breakthrough for both avid readers and professional customers, is the ability to purchase and/or access reading materials anywhere and at any time. Instantaneous access to content is enabled through a built-in modem, USB, or Ethernet connection on the eBook device. Once connected to the ETI eBook Network via the Internet, customers can browse, select, access and optionally purchase eBook content from an eBookstore.

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Read It Later: Mobile Devices Help Time Shift The Real-Time Barrage of News

Posted by magician | Posted in Web | Posted on 25-01-2011

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The time we used to spend sitting on the train on our way to work in the morning, reading the trusty local rag, has changed. Now, we whip out the iPhone, Android or iPad and catch up on all the blogs and online articles we found but didn’t have time to read the day before. On the way home, we do the same for those bits we found at work.

According to Read It Later, the app that lets users tag content on their computer to be, well, read later, mobile devices are helping people avoid the constant barrage of information and relegate reading back to the most comfortable time slots and locations of the day.

“Printed media used to allow us to read in the places we found most comfortable,” the company writes on its blog. “Unfortunately, as news and media moves online, it moves us away from these places and into our desk chairs. Even worse, consuming content is no longer on our own schedule. The flood of content disrupts us all day as if we have a maniacal paperboy throwing new editions on our doorstep every 15 seconds.”

According to Read It Later, those users with iPhones and iPads are shifting their reading times back to the most comfortable times – during breakfast, the morning commute, the commute back home and the very end of the day. The first graph the company offers is when users encounter content, according to when they tag it in Read It Later.

The graph of computer users (that is, desktops – you remember those, right?) isn’t much different. It follows the same general arc. iPhone users, however, show the greatest difference.

There are obvious spikes at the times previously mentioned – breakfast, the commutes, and the end of the day. iPad users, on the other hand, are primarily a prime-time group.

Perhaps Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t so far off when he quipped that the iPad isn’t mobile?

Read It Later suggests that “When a reader is given a choice about how to consume their content, a major shift in behavior occurs. They no longer consume the majority of their content during the day, on their computer. Instead they shift that content to prime time and onto a device better suited for consumption.”

Fine. So, if you have a mobile device, you likely read content on a different schedule than if you don’t. What does this really mean? How does it affect the 24 hour news cycle? Although the focus has increasingly been put on real-time information and getting there first, could user behavior shift media back to a focus on quality rather than speed and quantity? I know that when I tag something in my Read It Later queue, it isn’t because it’s breaking – it’s because it sounds like an intelligent, in-depth piece that I want to take time to digest and it’s exactly that type of time-shifting of media consumption that, on a larger scale, could help assure the quality of online content.

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Open Source Media Framework Marketplace

Posted by magician | Posted in Web | Posted on 25-01-2011

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If you’re doing anything with video you’ve probably heard of the Open Source Media Framework (OSMF). It’s one of the cooler projects at Adobe and provides a component that can be customized and extended for whatever you want from video delivery.

OSMF includes a robust plug-in architecture that lets developers extend it and add features. The OSMF team has put together a marketplace for tutorials, white papers, and plug-ins for OSMF. It looks like it’s a great resource for all things OSMF and a bunch of the Flash media rockstars have already contributed content. The guys at Realeyes Media have put up an example plugin that lets you track analytics when using OSMF. Almer/Blank has a reference card that covers the important parts of OSMF. And Jodie O’Rourke has a getting started article for an introductory look at OSMF.

I think it’s a cool way to expose a bunch of developer-related content. If you’re knowledgeable about OSMF, definitely think about contributing some content. And if you’re just wanting to show video, take a look at some of the plug-ins and documents that make it easy. And everyone should check out the StageVideo Plugin for using StageVideo with OSMF.

View full post on Digital Backcountry – Ryan Stewart’s Flash Platform Blog

Microsoft Releases New Tools to Simplify ASP.NET Development

Posted by magician | Posted in Web | Posted on 24-01-2011

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Today at CodeMash Microsoft announced a few new resources for ASP.NET developers: ASP.NET MVC3, IIS Express 7.5, NuGet,Orchard 1.0, SQL Server Compact Edition 4, WebMatrix.


Screenshot of the Orchard Project CMS management console. Looks a bit like WordPress doesn’t it?

ASP.NET MVC3 – The latest version of the MVC for ASP.NET. It includes a new view-engine option called “Razor,” better tools for working with JavaScript and HTML5 and several other improvements.

IIS Express 7.5 – A developer focused version of IIS that does not require admin rights to run and debug code from Visual Studio.

NuGet – An open source package manager designed to make it easier for ASP.NET developers to find, install, and use open source libraries for projects.

Orchard 1.0 – The Orchard Project is Microsoft-sponsored project dedicated to creating open source applications and reusable components in .NET. Orchard 1.0, a .NET based CMS, is its first project.

SQL Server Compact Edition 4 – A simple version of SQL Server for developers. It doesn’t even require installation to work.

WebMatrix – A starter-kit for ASP.NET developers. It includes: IIS Express, ASP.NET and SQL Server Compact. It also includes many open source code templates and an integrated SEO tool.

Many new programmers today begin by learning languages like PHP, Ruby and Python. It seems that Microsoft is trying to make it easy for beginners to start using ASP.NET instead. WebMatrix helps guide developers through the very basics, starting with CSS and working its way up to ASP.NET and SQL.

The Orchard Project’s CMS is a successor to the ill-fated Oxite CMS.ZDNet’s tk wrote the following when Orchard was announced:

As one reader (thanks, @karlseguin) noted, Oxite was anything but a big hit with developers, including many of those in Microsoft’s own .Net community. There have been many complaints about Oxite, from the development process, to the scope of the project, to the quality of the code and the way Microsoft explained the concept/product. Perhaps that’s one reason why Microsoft is starting over with a new codename and claiming this is not a Microsoft project.

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How to Choose a Good SEO Company?

Posted by magician | Posted in Web | Posted on 22-01-2011

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To make your website visible to everyone to the world that too on the first pages you would need SEO techniques. Seo play an important role to bring traffic as well as advertising particular web site to reach people. Extreme care should be taken to implement seo technique. In order to implement the SEO techniques you would require a good SEO company or an expert, here are seven important tips and guideline that would help you to choose the right company for your SEO project.

First you need to do a detail analyze what you need; analyzing the condition is the basic and important to start the Seo technique. Proper analyze make half success to our seo implementation. After analyze the requirement then you should try to focus on what you are looking for, it is very important that you know which area would you like to work on and improve. This would help you to evaluate the suggestions presented by the SEO Company and negotiate if required. You can search for the right company by searching on the most popular list or you could even ask your friends, employees, even you can search in popular search engine like Google, yahoo to identify which is best seo company currently in market because there are many Search Engine Optimization Agency that are not listed may also be good.

After that you must check for their experience and ask them to produce their last project and the ranking that they earned for it. If the SEO Company provides you some excuse for their last work then you must be sure that they are trying to cheat you. There are many companies that would show a web page that has no links to the previous page or any other page. The ranking provided by the Google can also be modified and showed differently. Do not trust these types of companies. You must keep in touch with the SEO companies; the best possible way is through the e-mails. It would be good, if you could speak to them on the phone or even better if you could arrange a personal or formal meeting with them. One such Search Engine Optimization Agency is internetmarketinginc.com. they are pioneer in this field.

Once you have selected a SEO company then you must see that they must agree to your terms and conditions or if they want to negotiate. Make sure that you follow p their work on regular basis and ask for samples at various completion stages. Most of the companies would not commence their work until they sign a legal document with you. But they would surely respond to your e-mails asking for their point of view on the problem and how do they think to solve it. Selecting a SEO company is very difficult and it is not wrong to use some references if available, it would help you to have better communication with the Search Engine Optimization Agency. You would have to work for a good SEO company with reasonable price.

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