It's all the rage: link shorteners to ensure that those useful URLs you're sharing don't take up too much precious character count while also giving you an inkling of what you're about to click on. Well, we've just launched youtu.be as a shortener for YouTube video links -- and nothing but YouTube links -- so you can rest assured that when you see a link with this URL, you are indeed about to click on a YouTube video. (Also, because the link contains the ID of the video you're going to see, developers can do interesting things like show you thumbnails, embed the video directly, or track how a video is spreading in real-time.)
To see this feature in action, use AutoShareto link up your YouTube account to social networks like Twitter and Google Reader. Then, whenever you favorite a video on YouTube, for example, that action will get syndicated out to your network, who will see this shortened edition of the video's URL.
To use youtu.be manually, simply take a URL like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCo-o_cHA34 and replace the"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" with "http://youtu.be/" to get: http://youtu.be/dCo-o_cHA34 Plug that shorter URL into a browser, and you'll see it redirects to that video.
Swype could completely change the way we type on touchscreen smartphones -- and potentially pose a real challenge to the iPhone.
Swype, invented by the creator of the T9 predictive typing system, offers a new input system for typing on touchscreen phones.
TechCrunch explains, "the way you type with Swype is you literally swipe your finger from one letter to the next as fast as you can."
The new "Swyping" system will debut with Verizon's new Samsung Omnia II smartphone.
The video below shows a smartphone typing smackdown: Swype vs. iPhone, side-by-side. (Spoiled alert: the Samsung Omnia II, with Swype, beats the iPhone hands down.)
You can have Evernote watch a folder, and automatically suck in any file saved there. [File/Import/File Import Wizard - it will watch the folder for you, but the first time it will import all files in that folder]
That basically gives me a "Copy to Evernote" and a "Print to Evernote" ability. If I download a photo from my phone, I just save it to that folder and it is absorbed into Evernote. If I'm working in a document, I print to PDF into that folder and voila, it is in Evernote.
Mostly I use this with my Neat Company scanner. I scan to PDF, placing the PDF file into the watched folder, and it goes right into Evernote. (other posts about Neat)
Update August 6, 2009: Lifehacker just had a great idea related to this. Create shortcut to this Evernote folder and place it in your SendTo folder. That way, in Windows Explorer you can select a file, right click and send it into Evernote.
More:
When you click on a tag, you can then control-click another tag and see notes that are tagged with both tags; their intersection.
Control - semicolon - inserts date & time into your current note - great for logging actions
At Google, our goal is to create the most comprehensive, relevant and fast search in the world. In the past few years, an entirely new type of data has emerged — real-time updates like those on Twitter have appeared not only as a way for people to communicate their thoughts and feelings, but also as an interesting source of data about what is happening right now in regard to a particular topic.
Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that
we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results.
We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.
Posted by Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience
Quite a bit ahead of schedule, Wolfram Alpha's iPhone app appeared in the iTunes App Store today. The app, which costs $49.99, gives users full access to Wolfram Alpha's capabilities and greatly improves on the speed and ergonomics of Wolfram Alpha's mobile site. The company is targeting this app at students and professionals and marketing it as a replacement for stand-alone graphing calculators, which is clearly reflected in the price.
Dual Keyboards
One of the most interesting feature of the app, besides the ability to quickly access all of the power that Wolfram Alpha now offers, is the fact that the company has found a way to make inputing queries very easy. Instead of a single keyboard at the bottom of the screen, the app actually displays two keyboards - one for numbers and symbols, and a regular QWERTY keyboard at the bottom of the screen. Given the nature of a typical query for Alpha, this makes perfect sense and we hope that others will follow Alpha's lead here.
A Web-Connected Graphing Calculator, But With Some Limitations
It's important to note that the app only works when a user is connected to the Internet. This could be a deal-breaker for some, but then, the app store already offers plenty of basic graphing calculators for those times when you don't have Internet access. Thanks to its vast database of chemical compounds, nutritional data, geographical information, financial data, and its ability to solve pretty much any math problem that a high school or college student will ever encounter, the app can do a lot more than any current graphing calculator can offer.
For some students, though, the problem could be that some teachers won't allow them to bring a full-blown Internet-capable device like the iPhone or an iPod touch into an exam. In addition, it's also important to note that the Wolfram Alpha doesn't offer the ability to write programs inside the app, though maybe somebody else will build an app that can do this based on Alpha's newly released API.
It's also important to remember that Alpha isn't as easy to use as Google. Alpha, and, by extension, the app, can be rather strict about how you structure a query, for example. If you don't capitalize a chemical formula, the app won't know what to do with these symbols. While Google has virtually no learning curve, Alpha works best if you invest some time into exploring the intricacies of how to structure queries. To help you along the way, the app features a demo video, lots of example queries, and an FAQ section.
Native App Offers a Bit More Than the Web Service, But Is That Enough to Justify the High Price?
In its press materials, the Wolfram Alpha team stresses that the app offers a number of features that the web app can't currently offer. The app can now make assumptions based on your location, for example. Wolfram also has added quite a few features that make using the app easier than using the web service. You can easily bookmark queries and the app keeps a running list of recent searches available as well. In addition, you can easily email queries or share them on Twitter.
Is $50 Too Much?
At $49.99, there can be no doubt that Wolfram Research is pricing the app at the higher end of the spectrum. A spokesperson for Wolfram Alpha told us that the company wants to target the app at "serious users, and is priced as such." The team is clearly aware that this price could be controversial, especially given that the mobile web site offers a similar interface, though without the ergonomic benefits of the native app. In addition, Wolfram tells us that the team wants to use this price to make a statement about the "non-trivial nature" of Wolfram Alpha's capabilities.
While the company plans to offer regular discounts and sales, we can't help but wonder if the price isn't a bit too high. At $9.99 or even $19.99, the app would be more of an impulse buy, while now, even though it obviously offers more features than a user would ever expect from a high-priced hardware graphing calculator which would generally retail for more than $100.
Verdict
Wolfram Alpha launched to so much hype that a backlash was inevitable when it finally launched. As Schoeller Porter, the product manager for the iPhone app, notes, the company is also launching this app "as an opportunity to highlight how far the system has come since launch." Indeed, the Wolfram Alpha team continues to add new data sources and new ways to query them, making the service more useful with every new dataset it adds.
The high price will probably keep quite a few potential users from downloading the app, however. While we understand the company's rational behind this high price, users generally consider a $10 app to be a 'premium' product. $49.99 is a hefty price for this app, especially considering that the majority of features is available through the web service. If you are a student or engineer who really needs these features, though, the app is worth a look, but we recommend you try the web service and see how it works for the kinds of queries you would enter before you spend $50, especially given that the company will surely offer discounts or bring the base price down at some point.
NEW YORK — Verizon Wireless said Tuesday it will put substantial resources into developing and selling phones that use Google's Android software.
Verizon Wireless had already said it would sell Android phones, but the announcement suggests that the carrier is positioning these smart-phones as a main means of competing with Apple's iPhone, which is exclusive to AT&T in the U.S.
Verizon Wireless and Google said they plan to "codevelop" Android-based devices that will be pre-loaded with their applications. They will be made by major manufacturers, they said.
The carrier now expects to sell the first Android phones in a few weeks, it said. It has already said it will be a carrier for a new smart-phone from Motorola, which is releasing several new devices based on Android software as a part of its turnaround effort.
The announcement adds to the momentum behind Android, which is seeing significant interest from carriers and manufacturers. Sales of the few existing Android phones have been small compared to the iPhone's, however.
Rival carrier T-Mobile USA came out with the first phone based on Google's operating system last year. It recently announced that it will carry Android phones from Samsung Electronics and Motorola. Sprint Nextel is also set to release an Android phone.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications of New York and Vodafone Group of Britain.
The updated post editor will bring a more stable, compatible, and predictable posting experience to Blogger. Improvements have been made to many different components, and we'll continue to update it over the coming months and years. Here's an overview of some of the improvements:
Paste any long link into the big box at top and click Shorten. Better yet, Sign Up and you can get a complete history, real-time stats, and saved preferences.
What's the point in buying a new iPhone if it looks exactly like the old one? Because once you start using it, the speed of the iPhone 3GS will amaze you.
There's a reason why Apple called this the iPhone 3GS for Speed and not the 3GC for "compass" or 3GV for "video recording." Speed is the central upgrade here, and probably is the single biggest reason you would upgrade to a 3GS from a 3G. And if you're coming in as a virgin iPhone user, there's definitely no question: The 3GS is worth an extra $100.
That declaration may be weird to most of us since we usually look for features, and not specs, when we're evaluating phones—and iPhone 3GS doesn't blow us out in the feature department. Instead, it's like getting a bigger TV or a faster car. Your old machine works just fine, but once you've tried the new one for a week, you'll never want to go back, even if it costs you a little extra.
Like we said, from the outside the 3GS is exactly the same as the 3G. It's slightly heavier and has glossy text on the back, but if Steve Jobs whipped one out in public before it was announced, you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
By holding the 3GS next to the 3G, you'll notice that the screen is slightly more reflective because of the new fingerprint resistant oleophobic coating. It even has a little bit of a rainbow effect if you reflect a monitor with it. Surprisingly, the coating actually works in preventing a good deal of fingerprints and face grease, and it allows the phone to still be smooth and usable even if there are fingerprints on the surface.
The shot above illustrates the fact. The two phones may look similar in how much finger and face grease are on the screen, but the iPhone 3GS is still usable and doesn't have the problem of "sticking" in certain areas that are slightly greasier. It's also easier to clean just by wiping on your shirt. The glass treatment won't eliminate smudging from your bodily secretions altogether, but it's a very useful improvement for something you're touching all the time.
The 3GS display is ever-so-slightly warmer than the 3G's, having a yellow/orangish tint when viewed side by side. If you remember, the 3G's screen was also warmer than the 2G's. It's not distracting in any way, and the warm screen is slightly easier on your eyes even if the brightness is bumped up high.
The video really shows how fast the iPhone 3GS is. Safari, Email, Camera all load noticeably faster than on the iPhone 3G (both running 3.0 software). Even booting the phone takes about half the time. Apps with long load times, like Sims 3, Oregon Trail or Metal Gear Touch all show how much faster you get up and running on the new device. Seriously, everything is faster. It's exactly the same experience as switching from a two- or three-year-old computer to something brand new. Your apps all look the same, but they load and run much more smoothly. Even if you're doing the same things on both machines, the new machine is that much better to work on.
What does this speed increase mean for future iPhone apps and games? With the iPhone 3GS running on a 600MHz CPU with 256MB RAM (up from 400MHz and 128MB), there's a much higher performance ceiling for apps to hit. The OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics standard that's now supported paves the way for an impressive visual boost. Hubert (a former Nvidia developer) from Ubergizmo says it's somewhere along the lines of going from Half Life 1 to Half Life 2, which is essentially going up a console generation. Gamers should pay attention.
Like we said before, the iPhone 3G will still run most of the games for the near future. That 40 million unit potential market of iPhone/iPod Touch devices is too big to just ignore and put out an app just for 3GS phones, so your old phone will still be able to keep up. But developers are like alcoholics. If you put more system resources in front of them, they can't help but use all of it just because they can. Also, they drink a lot.
Apple hates to emphasize specs in products like the iPhone 3GS, but even they couldn't resist bragging about the speed boost. That S is there for a reason.
The 3GS also has a 3-megapixel camera, adding auto focus and video recording. You even get an interface that lets you tap on a section of the screen that you want to focus on and the phone will automatically adjust the focus to that point in space.
By tapping on the screen and activating the auto-everything—not just auto focus but improved auto exposure and auto white balance—you're gaining the ability to control more of what your shots look like. It's most obvious in macro shots where the subject is only a few inches away (above). Those two photos were shot from the exact same distance in the exact same lighting. You can also see in the gallery below that the 3GS is slightly better in low-light conditions (something the 3G was no good at), as well as having better overall auto white balance.
I wouldn't say it's a mindblowing revolutionary step for the iPhone camera, but it's definitely more than just shoving in more megapixels and leaving it at that.
The video quality, on the other hand, is pretty good for a cellphone. Apple claims up to 30 frames per second, and as this video of an HD recording of SNL shows, it comes pretty damn close. Even if it's not quite 30FPS at all times, the video is smooth as hell. Recording still isn't great in low light since it's a physical limitation of cameras in general, but at least it's fluid. The tap-to-focus (and re-expose) feature also carries over to video, which you can use to "aim" your camera at a part of the scene.
You'll also want to use the quick trimming feature before you upload your videos directly to YouTube to cut out the excess at the front and back of your clips. The quick trim is just like trimming a clip in iMovie, with the yellow draggable borders. Apple says that the 3G doesn't have video because the old processor isn't capable of handling it, and after taking the 30FPS videos on the 3GS, we can believe that they didn't want to settle for just 15FPS videos.
Data hogs will also be happy about the increased 7.2Mbps data speeds the 3GS can achieve. We used the Speedtest app in the App Store and over multiple days and multiple times (early, mid-day and late at night), clocked the 3GS at an average of 1568Kbps, whereas the 3G only measured 1165Kbps. Their uploads were relatively equal, at 226Kbps (3GS) and 209Kbps (3G), but there was a noticeable difference in latency with the 3GS pulling ahead at 174ms to the 3G's 231ms. Although on average the 3GS scored about 50% higher than the 3G, occasionally, in individual runs, it could have ranged anywhere from twice as fast to about the same speeds.
The speed boost for downloads is interesting, seeing as AT&T hasn't even begun to really roll out their 7.2 HSPA in very many places yet. Since we're testing this before the actual 3GS release date, we'll see how much loads of 3GS users will impact overall speeds, and we'll see how fast the 3GS speeds increase once AT&T has the infrastructure to support it.
If you're talking practical use scenarios right now, the increased network speeds and the increased processing speeds help to cut down wait times for both the email and Safari and whatever other app you use that grabs a bunch of data often. Even if you're on Wi-Fi, the fact that there's a faster processor on board mean that you're going to be done faster than on the 3G.
The compass app, along with the magnetometer, is great at pointing you somewhere in the general direction of North. It also doesn't matter which way you're holding the phone—either parallel or perpendicular to the ground—the arrow and numbers will still more or less give you a sense of where you're facing.
As a bonus, if you hit the "find me" button in Google Maps a second time after it's located your GPS position, it'll re-orient your map to reflect the way you're facing. It would have been extremely useful when I was on foot, lost in San Francisco trying catch the last train, not knowing which way was which since the street signs are so small and the blocks are so large. If I had this, I wouldn't have to have gone a block in the wrong direction just to figure out I should have been heading the other way.
The compass may not sound like a great feature, but apps like Layar, an augmented reality browser, are now capable of running on the 3GS with the help of the magnetometer and GPS.
Nike+ support is something that I've been looking forward to for a long time—so much so that I even bought an iPod Touch 2G to use it. Well, it's here, and it works. The app is exactly like the one on the 2G Touch, and enables you all the running features you're accustomed to using on any other Nike+ device. What's nice about using your phone when running is that you always have your phone with you, and if you have a stereo Bluetooth headset, you'll be able to listen to music, run and answer a call if need be.
Voice control actually works. As long as you know the right commands, like "call" for calling someone on your contact list and "dial" if you want to dial a number. The accuracy is quite high, and the app can recognize what you're saying as long as there's not too much background noise. It's also fairly smart. If you say "call Mike" and you have multiple Mikes in your list, the iPhone will say the names of all your Mikes and ask you to be more specific.
The song control works, but gets confused occasionally because bands have weird names that aren't exactly English—they just share the same letters. The iPhone kept confusing "Phoenix" with "INXS" or "DMX", for example, but managed to actually get commands like "pause music", "who is this song by", "previous track" "what song is playing?", "shuffle" and "play more like this" correct. And if you're worried about figuring out what to say to control your phone, just activate the Voice Control function and watch the screen; eventually the command you want will come floating by in the background.
What's also surprising about the 3GS is that you wouldn't expect battery life to be improved, but it is. Apple's figures that measured improvement over the 3G in every category except 3G calling were more or less what we found in our own testing, which means you should be able to last the entire day on one charge with no problems. Plus, since the phone is faster, you'll probably spend less time looking up directions or getting to a restaurant's web page—which also saves battery.
The iPhone 3GS is not an insignificant step forward in the iPhone family. The Nike+ support, magnetometer (compass), video recording, voice command, better camera, better battery life and faster data network are all improvements nobody would call a step backwards. But the biggest day-to-day improvement over the 3G is undoubtedly the increased processing speed, which is why Apple called this phone the 3GS (with the S standing for super fast) in order to designate that it's basically the 3G, but better.
3G users have the unfortunate question of asking themselves whether or not they want to spend the $399/$499 to upgrade to the 3GS right now. If you're eligible to upgrade in July, August or September, AT&T's letting you do so at the full subsidized $199/$299 price. If not, you'll have to wait until your 18 months are up. It's definitely a better phone, but AT&T's plan of making early adopters wait another six months from now until they can get the standard $199/$299 price is frustrating, since we'll already be halfway into the iPhone 3GS lifecycle. And by then, it'll be worth waiting until June 2010 for a true revolutionary jump in iPhone design, instead of just an evolutionary improvement on the 3G.
It's important to note that the app only works when a user is connected to the Internet. This could be a deal-breaker for some, but then, the app store already offers 
While the company plans to offer regular discounts and sales, we can't help but wonder if the price isn't a bit too high. At $9.99 or even $19.99, the app would be more of an impulse buy, while now, even though it obviously offers more features than a user would ever expect from a high-priced hardware graphing calculator which would generally retail for more than $100. 
![[howitworks.png]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5QUgkBO1H8zvIiI00x9Lr-DXAXI_hBSlrXsSJvEOlz9vJDT_cUe98yiABBSBzpyjEL9zGisTPPdd5t6Phtr93kH3gKjqc5hKvCDv5E00e1-MypC7SmFoZiyEzE3YGTslhoo89hQ/s1600/howitworks.png)
![[antinonsnapbacketarianism_exhA.png]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1nUOdgYUT-sgODDiCXV2Yeb6O1B_0twGiIP0Au5huqyeFqgSMbtFihEzzvKSGql430ESOmOVIZEgcmzt3lCBWm38FhXjs2xOvR30DcXwxPGxf3OmXsgOATltPg4eE7hCoLKVI/s1600/antinonsnapbacketarianism_exhA.png)
Like we said, from the outside the 3GS is exactly the same as the 3G. It's slightly heavier and has glossy text on the back, but if Steve Jobs whipped one out in public before it was announced, you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.
The shot above illustrates the fact. The two phones may look similar in how much finger and face grease are on the screen, but the iPhone 3GS is still usable and doesn't have the problem of "sticking" in certain areas that are slightly greasier. It's also easier to clean just by wiping on your shirt. The glass treatment won't eliminate smudging from your bodily secretions altogether, but it's a very useful improvement for something you're touching all the time.
The 3GS display is ever-so-slightly warmer than the 3G's, having a yellow/orangish tint when viewed side by side. If you remember, the 3G's screen was 
The video really shows how fast the iPhone 3GS is. Safari, Email, Camera all load noticeably faster than on the iPhone 3G (both running 3.0 software). Even booting the phone takes about half the time. Apps with long load times, like Sims 3, Oregon Trail or Metal Gear Touch all show how much faster you get up and running on the new device. Seriously, everything is faster. It's exactly the same experience as switching from a two- or three-year-old computer to something brand new. Your apps all look the same, but they load and run much more smoothly. Even if you're doing the same things on both machines, the new machine is that much better to work on.
By tapping on the screen and activating the auto-everything—not just auto focus but improved auto exposure and auto white balance—you're gaining the ability to control more of what your shots look like. It's most obvious in macro shots where the subject is only a few inches away (above). Those two photos were shot from the exact same distance in the exact same lighting. You can also see in the gallery below that the 3GS is slightly better in low-light conditions (something the 3G was no good at), as well as having better overall auto white balance.
The video quality, on the other hand, is pretty good for a cellphone. Apple claims up to 30 frames per second, and as this video of an HD recording of SNL shows, it comes pretty damn close. Even if it's not quite 30FPS at all times, the video is smooth as hell. Recording still isn't great in low light since it's a physical limitation of cameras in general, but at least it's fluid. The tap-to-focus (and re-expose) feature also carries over to video, which you can use to "aim" your camera at a part of the scene.
The compass app, along with the magnetometer, is great at pointing you somewhere in the general direction of North. It also doesn't matter which way you're holding the phone—either parallel or perpendicular to the ground—the arrow and numbers will still more or less give you a sense of where you're facing.
Voice control actually works. As long as you know the right commands, like "call" for calling someone on your contact list and "dial" if you want to dial a number. The accuracy is quite high, and the app can recognize what you're saying as long as there's not too much background noise. It's also fairly smart. If you say "call Mike" and you have multiple Mikes in your list, the iPhone will say the names of all your Mikes and ask you to be more specific.
The iPhone 3GS is not an insignificant step forward in the iPhone family. The Nike+ support, magnetometer (compass), video recording, voice command, better camera, better battery life and faster data network are all improvements nobody would call a step backwards. But the biggest day-to-day improvement over the 3G is undoubtedly the increased processing speed, which is why Apple called this phone the 3GS (with the S standing for super fast) in order to designate that it's basically the 3G, but better.
