Twitter: The First One’s Free…
By Dave Peterson | May 24, 2008
It’s Saturday morning and Twitter is down HARD. Not even a “Something is technically wrong” page or other notice of that ilk. Even Down For Everyone or Just Me (great service if you’ve never used it) is unable to even render a decision. It just returns a 502 error. For those of us who’ve become more than a little addicted to our Twitter fix, it’s a strange hardship to suddenly not know what our Twitter friends are up to. Whether that should really bother us, I’ll leave to wiser heads. What I’m here to discuss is a notion that’s been floated by Jason Calacanis and others: a Twitter Pro account with much better up time. Calacanis suggests a $20 a month charge. Others have suggested $1 a week. I’d pay either of those rates to have Twitter up and running when I want it. What about you? Is Twitter cool up until the point you have to pay for it, or is it a service like Internet or telephone worth paying for if that means greater dependability?
For their part, the folks at Twitter have said that it’s not an issue that money would solve. But it’s hard to believe that the added revenue couldn’t buy more servers and developers and result in a studier system.
Topics: Web | 2 Comments »
Watching the Skies with FlightAware.com
By Dave Peterson | May 16, 2008
Ever wanted to have an air traffic controller’s view of your local airport (without the sense of lives riding on your every move)? Then FlightAware.com might be just the thing for you. It’s a flight tracker that goes way beyond the basics of arrivals, departures, and where a single plane is in its flight path.
Here’s a detail of a view showing traffic around San Francisco International:
Flights shown in blue are arriving or departing at KSFO, flights in green are passing through the area. The data blocks next to some planes display airline, flight number, aircraft type, altitude, whether the plane is rising or descending, air speed, and the departing and arriving airports. For example, the block just below the KSFO label depicts Southwest Airlines Flight 1978, a Boeing 737-300, at 8,400 feet and rising, doing 96 knots. It’s leaving San Francisco International bound for Los Angeles International. Not all flights on the screen display data blocks at all times for readability reasons; a future enhancement promises a zoom feature that will allow enough separation between planes on the map for each one to have data.
For aviation enthusiasts, it’s certainly interesting to watch traffic around a given airport, but that’s just the beginning of the ways FlightAware’s data can be viewed. The flight tracker can search by flight or tail number, airline, airport, or aircraft type. Search by Boeing 737 to see the sky choked with the world’s best-selling airliner.
The major limitation of the system is that its data comes from the US Federal Aviation Administration. That means it works great for flights confined within the domestic United States, but when aircraft leave FAA tracking, they fall off the map. But for flights beginning and ending within the United States, and for a detailed look at traffic surrounding US airports, is an exceptionally interesting and useful site.
Topics: Web | No Comments »
Automatic Geotagging with New Eye-Fi Card
By Dave Peterson | May 12, 2008
Today, Electronista reported that Eye-Fi, maker of the Eye-Fi wireless SD card, has announced two new cards that broaden the appeal of the technology in a couple of directions. For those who may have missed the stir caused by Eye-Fi last year, the premise of the product is that it will automatically upload your photos to your computer and/or to the photo sharing web site of your choice wirelessly. No need for a cable, nor conscious action by the user. It’s a great product that I’ve enjoyed using for the last few months; the only caveats are that it must be on its home network (the one you set it up on) and it’s advisable to set your receiving site’s privacy levels so that all uploaded photos are viewable only by you until marked otherwise.
The new cards bracket the abilities of the original. On the low end is the Eye-Fi Home, which does not have direct-to-web upload capabilities, but will wirelessly move photos from the camera to your computer. For many, particularly those who don’t use an online photo-sharing site, this will be a welcome downgrade, with fewer privacy concerns and a $20 price drop.
On the high end of the existing card, is the Eye-Fi Explore, which uses the same Skyhook radio triangulation technology available as a GPS alternative in current iPhones and iPod Touch software. The location system enables automatic geotagging (which allows photo sharing sites to place a point on a map indicating where the picture was taken). It also improves on the original cards network compatibility, allowing one year of free uploads to the web and the user’s computer through hotspots operated by Wayport (providers of Wi-Fi at McDonald’s, Hertz, and numerous airport and hotel locations). The Eye-Fi Explore will be priced at 129.99, $30 over the cost of the original card, which is being renamed Eye-Fi Share. All three cards have a 2 GB capacity.
With the introduction of these two new cards, Eye-Fi becomes an even more intriguing product from a company obviously interested in steadily increasing the features of an already excellent product.
Topics: Gadgets | No Comments »
iPhone Rumblings and Hopes
By Dave Peterson | May 10, 2008
It’s a pretty good guess that the next version of the iPhone will be landing soon (“soon” being the next month or so). I’ve always had the feeling that a major revision would happen about a year after the introduction (June 29, 2007). That was the time frame I took into consideration when I bought an iPhone in January. I knew the new one would be coming mid-year and I knew I’d likely be buying it. Now speculation is going wild, fueled by the fact that US and UK Apple sites are reporting both the 8 GB and 16 GB versions as “Currently Unavailable”. AT&T, the exclusive service provider for the iPhone, has marked out a month-long period beginning May 15 as a no-vacation zone for its store employees in support of a new promotion. Whether it’s coming in a couple of weeks or a month, it’s just over the horizon, so I thought I’d return to the subject with my short list of hopes and expectations.
Must Haves:
- 3G – It would be a nasty shock to everyone if the new iPhone doesn’t run on the faster network that most feel it should have launched on a year ago.
- Expanded Storage – With a 32 GB version of the iPod Touch already on the market, it seems pretty safe to assume the new iPhone will be offered at that capacity. I would buy a 64 GB model, but I’m not holding my breath for that.
Nice to Have:
- True GPS - The location system currently used by the iPhone, triangulating off radio signal sources, is okay, but not always as accurate as I’d like, and it doesn’t automatically update as you move. It was an interim solution, but I hope that period is almost over. The absence of GPS wouldn’t be a deal killer for me, but it’s inclusion would mean I could leave my Nokia N810, which I’m carrying now primarily for the GPS, at home.
- Video-Capable Camera – I want to be able to use my phone with Qik, and the first step in that direction is to give the iPhone a video camera. Again, I could live without this, but its inclusion would serve to narrow the gap with other smart phones.
I love the iPhone, but I recognize that it lacks a number of features its competitors have. What makes up for that lack for me is the Safari web browser, which delivers an amazingly computer-like web experience to the phone. I use my phone more for web browsing than anything else, including voice calls. What the iPhone promises is the best convergence device on the market. The fusion of a true iPod, true GPS, 3G phone, video/still camera, and web access to applications like Google Docs moves us closer and closer to carrying a single device in our pockets rather than several.
Topics: Phones | 3 Comments »