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Monthly Archives: November 2011
Google Fail – Again. Google Wave Came and Went, No One Cares
Dear Wavers,
More than a year ago, we announced that Google Wave would no longer be developed as a separate product. At the time, we committed to maintaining the site at least through to the end of 2010. Today, we are sharing the specific dates for ending this maintenance period and shutting down Wave. As of January 31, 2012, all waves will be read-only, and the Wave service will be turned off on April 30, 2012. You will be able to continue exporting individual waves using the existing PDF export feature until the Google Wave service is turned off. We encourage you to export any important data before April 30, 2012.
If you would like to continue using Wave, there are a number of open source projects, including Apache Wave. There is also an open source project called Walkaround that includes an experimental feature that lets you import all your Waves from Google. This feature will also work until the Wave service is turned off on April 30, 2012.
For more details, please see our help center.
Yours sincerely,
The Wave Team
© 2011 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043
GroupMe, Beluga and Fast Society for SXSW – Group Messaging
We???re getting closer to SXSWi, and the IntoMobile team will be bringing all the goodies to you as it happens from Austin, TX. During large events such as SXSW, it???s pretty important for us to be able to keep in touch with each other. On a typical workday, we correspond with each other and shoot the breeze in our own virtual chatroom. But when we???re out in the field reporting from CES, MWC and SXSW, things get a little more tricky. That???s where group messaging apps come in and really save the day.
We???ve selected some of our favorites below to give you an idea of the apps we use when we???re out covering an event. When text messaging and e-mails don???t cut it, group chat apps like Beluga and GroupMe really help keep things together, especially when three or more of us are coordinating on a story or keeping track of a hectic schedule.
Beluga
Beluga is a pretty solid group messaging app that allows you and other iPhone users to create ???pods,??? as they???re called, to share messages, locations and photos with each other. You can also name each pod and add a picture for them, too (e.g. I???ve named a few ???House Party??? and would use stills or posters from the movie). Beluga is a lot of fun and really convenient, and it support push notifications every time someone in your pod sends a message.
However, there may be a chance that Beluga changes things up in the near future. Recently, the service was acquired by Facebook, so you can only imagine the sorts of changes that will be taking place there. Perhaps it will be more integrated with the social networking service, and you???ll only be able to log in with your Facebook account. That means if you???re anti-Facebook or you???ve deleted or never created a Facebook account, Beluga might not work so well with you. Otherwise, it???s a simple-to-use and intuitive app that should take care of most of your messaging needs. The only other downside is that it???s available for the iPhone and Android only. The app is totally free, so if it sounds like your cup of tea, go download it now!
Fast Society
Fast Society seems to be the freshest of the bunch, and its design and style is definitely targeted for a younger audience. But that doesn???t mean it???s any less capable as a group messaging app. In it, you create ???teams??? to share messages, pictures and locations with. The cool part is you can stay within the app so that you don???t have to pay for text messaging ??? just like Beluga ??? or you can go to push SMS if you want.
Here???s a snippet of what Fast Society does:
Go back in time ??? remember that awesome night you shared with your best friends? Relive the fun times whenever you want with the new past team view!
Guest List ??? Not sure who to invite to your team? Share a public invite with your friends on Twitter or Facebook. You can accept or decline any RSVPs inside the app and control who gets in (and who gets rejected)!
Photo Sharing ??? Capture your experience with friends in a way words never could.
Shout Out ??? Shout, scream, let it out. Record a brief audio message that instantly is blasted out to your team. It???s like your own secret walkie-talkie!
For more details on Fast Society, check out their site here and watch the video. Fast Society is available for iPhone
and iPod touch users, and on the Android platform, too. And it???s free.
GroupMe
GroupMe is arguably the best of the bunch. The app is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry and has proved itself reliable when we needed it most. In addition to the ability to share messages, photos and locations like the other apps, GroupMe allows conference calling to your group, too. Sometimes messaging can take a while and all the info you need to share and receive can be knocked out in a single, brief phone call.
Best of all, perhaps especially for those of you going to SXSW soon, is that the app has been updated to include new features and fixes just in time for the huge event. One feature is that GroupMe will determine whether you have a good or bad data connection, and switch to SMS for messaging if it does get bad ??? something that SXSW attendees can attest to.
GroupMe is free, just like the other apps, but perhaps the biggest incentive to choose this over the others is that it supports multiple platforms. On the other hand, since they???re all free, might as well grab them all! Just in case.
via intomobile.com
8-foot-tall Lego Man washes up on Florida beach, held in custody – latimes.com
The Lego Man’s arrival in America was like something out of a 3-year-old’s dream.
The 8-foot-tall, 100-pound fiberglass statue that resembles the little plastic guys that come in a Lego set was discovered bobbing gently in ankle-deep surf at the Siesta Key Beach in Florida, just before dawn on Tuesday.
The front of his shirt was emblazoned with a grammatically incorrect message: “NO REAL THAN YOU ARE.” The name “Ego Leonard” was written on the back of his shirt.
Initially, some wondered if the Lego Man was a publicity stunt put on by Legoland, which recently opened a new theme park in Orlando.
But a spokeswoman for the company said that Legoland takes no credit for the stunt and is not behind it. “I wish we could say we did it, it was a brilliant guerrilla PR stunt,” said Julie Estrada, the spokeswoman. A more likely explanation is that it’s all part of an anonymous Dutch artist’s experiment.
Google “Ego Leonard,” and you’ll find he has his own website, written in Dutch with some English translation.
“I am here to discover and learn about your world and thoughts,” he writes. “Show me all the beautiful things that are there to admire and experience in your world. Let???s become friends, share your story with me, take me with you on a journey through beautiful meadows, words, sounds and gestures.”
The website also includes photos and links to videos of the Lego Man’s adventures around the world including an August 2007 YouTube video of the Lego Man washing up on the shores of Zandvoort, in the Netherlands.
In October 2008, he showed up on the shores of Brighton, England, according to the BBC.
For now the Lego Man’s journey has landed him in the Sarasota County Sheriff’s office. “Mr. Leonard is being kept in a secure environment until his owner comes forward,” the sheriff’s office writes in a statement.
If nobody comes to claim him, he will be given to Jeff Hindman, the man who originally spotted Ego Leonard on Tuesday morning.
Hindman told reporters that if he does get custody of the Lego Man, he’ll probably sell him on Ebay.
In the meantime, the Herald-Tribune reports that Ego Leonard sent the paper an email that explained he had crossed from one world to the other and was looking for some hospitality.
???In case people want to take me on new adventures, just that you know, I have been invited to stay here for 90 days, everybody is welcome to show me all the beautiful surroundings while I am here,??? he wrote.
Former MySpace CEO Launches Startup Incubator and Studio
Former MySpace CEO Mike Jones is heading back to the startup world with the launch of a new startup incubator, accelerator and studio.
Science, based out of Santa Monica, Calif., is more like Betaworks and Bill Gross???s Idealab than it is Y Combinator or Techstars. Science focuses on three key areas: developing and incubating new business ideas, advising early stage startups and helping ???Web 1.0??? companies reinvent themselves for the present.
???We want to be involved in a small set of businesses that we run through the entire gauntlet and get them to success,??? Jones tells Mashable.
Jones says he thinks of Science as a platform for the startups that it creates or works with. Science will provide the operational assets, distribution channels and basic resources so that the entrepreneurs can focus on ???improving area expertise.??? Instead of just kicking the businesses out once they???ve reached a certain size though, Jones envisions Science being involved in some way through the entire business cycle. And like Idealab, most of the business ideas will be generated internally.
What is Science???s secret sauce? What will make it a competitive force in the startup world? Beyond its creator???s experience as MySpace CEO, SVP of AOL and founder of Userplane, Jones says he believes that Science???s greatest value proposition will be its ability to scale businesses. Science has developed a ???unique process??? for building successful digital companies.
???There???s art in creation and science in scaling,??? Jones says, explaining the company???s name.
Science has a lot of money to get its startup ideas off the ground. The hybrid studio/accelerator/incubator has raised $10 million in funding from Social+Capital, Tomorrow Ventures, Rustic Canyon, White Star Capital and angel investors Jean-Marie Messier (formerly Vivendi), Philippe Camus (Alcatel-Lucent), Jonathan Miller (AOL, Velocity) and Dennis Phelps (Institutional Venture Partners).
via mashable.com
New App Lets You Order At The Bar???Code ?? lalawag
???
at 10:36am Nov 19, 2011
Grabbing takeout this weekend? You may want to download the new app from LA-based Paperlinks first.
The Order Takeout app, which was announced earlier this week, reads QR codes on participating takeout menus and allows smartphone-enabled diners to order by simply tapping links on their phones.
In a press release, Paperlinks CEO Hamilton Chen said he believes the new app fulfills a vital need for busy diners.
???We see ordering by smartphone touchscreens as the way of the future,??? Chen said. ???Who wants to call in to a noisy restaurant and be put on hold, and risk a miscommunicated order when you can have control over your order with a native app experience instead? With Order Takeout, we aim to give restaurants a simple process for their to-go menus, so they can offer an effortless ordering experience to their customers that allows them to customize their meal and pay all in one step. The printed takeout menu is still a useful tool, and now, it can serve as a visual and physical trigger for a mobile commerce ordering process.???
From specifying unique order instructions to tipping and paying via Paypal, Order Takeout lets restaurant patrons can easily get their lunch to go on-the-go, according to Pink Pepper Thai Restaurant owner Tony Boon.
???The Paperlinks Order Takeout feature saves us a ton of time, helps with order accuracy, and allows us to collect payment upfront and reach our customers where they are every day ??? on their mobile phones,??? Boon said. ???Paired with the custom designer QR code, the whole package makes our full menu accessible to the busy lunch crowd and gives us a head start on their orders. We???re going to pass out takeout menus no matter what; now we???ve made them digitally interactive.???
About the Author: Mollie Vandor
Mollie Vandor is currently a Product Manager at Betterworks. Prior to that, she helped launch mobile and desktop websites for Food Network, Epicurious and various other clients as part of the Cooking.com Product Management team. She also helped launch user generated content startup Ranker.com in 2008, and served as the site’s Product Manager from 2008 to 2011. In her spare time, she contributes to various tech, food and media blogs, including Mashable and Food Network Humor.Mollie is also a social media junkie, to the point where some sort of Twitter twelve step program may soon be in order. As an LA native and a veteran of the LA startup scene, she’s also passionate about tech innovation and the LA tech scene in particular. And, she is particularly proud of the work she’s done through Girls in Tech and various other organizations to bring more attention, awareness and opportunities to women in the industry. Likes: cooking, eating, reading, hiking, good movies, bad TV, killer Scrabble games, long walks on the beach (seriously).Dislikes: when Twitter goes down, raw onions, bad grammar, disorganization, getting stuck in traffic.You can reach Mollie @mollierosev.
via lalawag.com
NYPD Occupying Liberty Square; Demands Unclear | OccupyWallSt.org
Posted 5 hours ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 6:51 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
New York, NY ??? The NYPD have been occupying Liberty Square since 1:00am Tuesday morning, with the brand new occupation now set to enter its second day in just a few short hours. But will anyone listen to them when their message is so incoherent?
“What are their demands?” asked social historian Patrick Bruner. “They have not articulated any platform. How do they expect to be taken seriously?”
Critics of the new occupation allege that meddling billionaire Michael Bloomberg is behind the movement. Others question the new occupiers’ militant posture, concerned about the potential effects on the neighborhood.
“I suppose they have a right to express themselves,” said local resident Han Shan. “But I’d prefer it if instead they occupied the space with the power of their arguments.”
ABOVE: a rogue NYPD affinity group occupying the NY Stock Exchange
via occupywallst.org
Desdemona Bandini 
