Video via Vimeo
A new species of bookmark has infiltrated my browser’s bookmarks bar. What was formerly an area exclusively filled with links to websites is now being slowly overtaken by action buttons for saving websites. You’ve got your Instapaper, your Read Later, your Readability, your “Pin It” button for Pinterest, send to Kindle, send to Evernote, and on and on. It was time to pick one “save for later” service, and this week I’ve decided: It’s Pocket.
Formerly called “Read it Later”, my new service recently made a wise name change and redesign. It’s simple tool: Pocket lets you save web articles, images, and videos to one central holding location that you can access from Android, iOS, your browser, even a Kindle. It’s like a really well organized, easy to use Dropbox for stuff you want to read later. Aside from the browser, you can send stuff to Pocket via email or from a long list of participating apps. Using the internet just got a whole lot easier.
Video via YouTube
For all the advancements we see in computer hardware technology year over year, our input devices don’t exactly seem to follow Moore’s Law. Can we do better than the keyboard? Will the mouse or trackpad ever be obsolete? If you haven’t already, go ahead and click play on that video above.
Impressive, no? Leap doesn’t eliminate the need for computer inputs—afterall, it is itself a computer input. But it does eliminate the need for inputs you have to touch, something we’ve been promised since Minority Report, but haven’t fully realized with Wii or Kinect. With technology that’s “200 times more accurate than anything else on the market”, and weighing in at just $70 (preorder), Leap may just live up to its name.
In late January, Twitter acquired Summify, a social media curation service I’d come to rely on. I was heartbroken, and made preparations for a future without Summify as it shut down and folded into the Twitterplex. But, six months later, there’s new hope.
First of all, Twitter has announced a weekly email digest, which will deliver relevant tweets straight to your inbox. The content will include popular tweets from your connections, as well as those seen by your connections from people you may not follow. Hey, kind of like Summify! Maybe we can still get back together! Actually, Summify isn’t even gone. I’m still getting twice-daily messages from my ex, and their website’s still active, as of today. It’s just like old times, but I don’t expect this to last long, now that Twitter’s fully in the mix.
It got off to a rocky start, but the public trading of Facebook stock eventually hit its stride, with the price settling on a surprising $38.17 at the close of trading. Naturally, I turned to the only social network you’d trust for news about Facebook: Twitter. Here’s a sampling from the lead-up to the opening bell.
Image via WIRED
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that most of us value the maps function of our smartphones as much or more so than the ability to make and receive phone calls. That’s what makes this piece of news from Gadget Lab (via 9to5Mac) so interesting: apparently Apple’s going to ditch Google as their official map supplier with the release of iOS 6. Face it Apple fans, Google Maps is much better on Android. Turn-by-turn directions. Offline capability. Even access to Google Mobile Labs features still in beta. It’s high time Apple gave the maps app an overhaul.
Head over to Gadget Lab to learn all about what Apple’s got in store for the new maps.
via fred-wilson:
in five years, i bet there will be a lot of red from astoria to red hook. the next big growth sector for tech is the other side of the east river
Do you agree with Fred Wilson? Will NYC’s startup scene move to the other side of the east river?
image via engadget
Advertisers have been doing it since, like, forever. Paying for their message to appear more prominently in order to get more attention. They pay Google for prominence in search, they pay Twitter for trending topics and tweets, and they pay Facebook for targeted ads and sponsored stories. Now you can pay for online attention too, with Facebook’s “highlight” feature.
Still in testing with select users, Facebook highlight gives users the opportunity to throw in a couple extra bucks with their status update in order to ensure that it appears in more friends’ feeds. Currently you can only get that if your status update is made more relevant with likes and comments. First, a question: will a post by someone who greased Zuckerberg’s palms be identified like Google ads are? Second, a prediction: a suspicious increase in the amount of “sharenting” posts in our feeds.
Would you pay Facebook to feature your status? Tell us below or @WIREDInsider.
Video via YouTube
Typing on a tablet is the worst. Be it an iPad or a Galaxy, tapping on a piece of glass feels awkward because it’s non-tactile, and because the digital keyboard’s about the size of an external one, you can never decide whether to type on it like an actual keyboard, or use two fingers. Copying and pasting is an even clumsier endeavor, as you try to manipulate the cursor only to have your tablet respond as if your fingers were the size of bratwursts.
Take heart though, because a visionary named Daniel Hooper may have at least solved the pesky copy and paste issue. In a demo video posted last week, Hooper demonstrates how using tricks like two-finger gestures and the shift modifier can make copy/paste a snap on an iPad. He even pre-composed a note so users could submit the feature to Apple en masse. Way to go, internet!
Image via Jambox
Recently on Smarter Upstarter, we covered one of the most important elements of a successful startup: coffee. This week we look at another element: beats. While most of the music being played in a startup office consists of the turntable.fm Coding Soundtrack piped through Beats headphones, sometimes you need to step away from the keyboard and get loose with a dance party.
You’re no doubt aware that something called a Jambox exists. It’s, like, an external speaker for your phone or something, right? That’s what I thought too. It’s actually a lot more than that. Jambox is a wireless external speaker that will connect to any bluetooth device, even two at a time, to deliver ultra premium audio. There’s a computer inside of it, so it can be updated. It’s even got a built-in mic, so you can do phone or Skype calls with an actual conference speaker. The new BigJamBox would look great in your conference room.
What jams do you listen to at work? Tell us below!
New Belgium employee-owners work in shifts to brew to life world-class beers. Those efforts are rewarded daily with a shared end-of-shift beer. We’re passing that welcomed occasion onto consumers in this lightly-hopped Shift Pale Lager. From work to play, from bottle to can, from bold and heavy to refreshing and sessionable; Shift salutes the shift in occasion, package and beer. So, go ahead and get your Shift beer, you’ve earned it!
