A Week for Geeks

There were a lot of stories that caught my eye this week.  I’ve already touched on the Facebook Fiasco.  But, there was a lot more changing in our ever shifting geek landscape.

Google Buzz

Led by preeminent techies like Leo LaPorte and Gina Trapani, the rats jumping the Facebook ship seem to be giving Google’s ill-started but currently excellent Buzz service new life.   Here is the buzz about Buzz.   Google Buzz Expands: Now on all Mobiles and ReBuzzing » TECH BOTTLE.   Now even the huge number of people clinging to their Blackberries can use Google Buzz on their mobile phones.   Welcome aboard.   What does the corporate world buzz about? Maybe now we’ll find out.   Google Buzz Adds Rebuzz Feature — But Don’t Call It That, That’s Lame.   Buzz-ers are no longer limited to “Like” and “Share”.   TechCrunch reports that now, we can re-share, too.   I’m not sure how this will work.   Getting multiple 140 character re-tweets is a lot less annoying than multiple unlimited reshares of articles.   I hope those I follow will be kind and use links to longer articles they wish to share.

Google Android

Is Android the Reason for Amazon’s Music Store Growth? | Android Phone Fans.   Apple’s love of music producer’s DRM bondage unlocked the door for Amazon. Android Phone Fans speculates that the proliferation of Android phones (replacing not just phones but iPods) has kicked that door down.   Ah, breathe the free air. Android 2.2 ‘Froyo’ Review: It’s Sweet.   Based on Gizmodo’s review of the latest iteration of Android, Froyo (frozen yogurt), Mr. Jobs better have some butt-kickin’ revelations about the new iPhone.   Otherwise, iPhone lovers like myself will be jumping ship faster than former iTunes shoppers can click on Amazon.

Google Latitude

Where Have I Been? Get Your Answer with the Google Location History Dashboard – Official Google Mobile Blog.   I once came upon one of my professors standing by his car in the faculty parking lot.   “Did you happen to notice whether I was coming or going?” he asked me.   Well, if that happens to me, I’ll be able to pull up Google Latitudes on my iPhone and check out my location history.   So can you, but first you have to turn the service on.   Do it now.   Before you forget.

Google Wave

Official Google Blog: Happy 1st birthday, Google Wave!.   Google Wave celebrated its one year anniversary on Friday.   This just days after opening the service up to everyone. It spent most of the year as an invitation only service.   I haven’t played with Wave much. It would have been fun to have a public Wave during the finale of Lost.

Google Analytics

Google Offers Choice to Opt Out of Web Analytics | Threat Level | Wired.com.    Sites all over the internet collect data like how you discovered their page (Bing or a link from another site or direct, etc.), what links you clicked on from that page, and so on.   If you don’t like big brother watching you, Google lets the paranoid among us opt out.

XBMC

Farewell XBOX | XBMC.   Siting hardware and legal concerns XBMC has announced that they are breaking up with their first boyfriend, the XBOX.   Yes, he did help her to become the media center beauty queen she is today, but sadly she has just outgrown him.   Besides, she suspects XBOX is fooling around with that other girl, Windows Media Center.

Apple TV

Next Apple TV to adopt iPhone OS, cloud storage, $99 price | TiPb.   Did the announcement at last week’s Google IO about Google TV spur Apple to finally do something with their long neglected Apple TV?   As ABC and Hulu inch closer to subscription based services, I’m wondering whether cable service is finally going to regain the momentum it is losing to internet TV.   Is Apple responding too late with what appears to be a streaming TV appliance?   The genius of Google TV is that it is adding value to both cable, OTA, and internet television.   I’m guessing they don’t really care how we watch as long as we watch!

Apple Versus Flash – Round 2

Time Warner, NBC Universal back Adobe’s Flash vs. Apple – NYPOST.com. As the prevailing HTML5 winds picked up my iPhone and my wife’s iPad, I adjusted my websites to include HTML5 video. More importantly, so did YouTube, Vimeo, blip.tv and a myriad of others.   Not everyone has bowed the knee before Apple in their abandonment of Adobe’s Flash.   Time Warner and NBC Universal are unconvinced and plan to continue their use of Flash.   I think they’re on the losing side, but it’s a free country (at least outside of Apple-ville) so good for them for marching to the beat of a different drum.

Dropbox

Experimental Build of Dropbox Introduces Selective Folder Syncing. Lifehacker reports that the Dropbox service I use to stay synced across platforms has an experimental build to introduce syncing folders selectively.   While this isn’t that important to the way I use the service, it will keep Dropbox competitive with some of the upstart services nipping at their heels.

Siriusly This is News

SIRIUS XM Android App Available Today | Android Phone Fans. If it weren’t for Margaritaville, I wouldn’t really care.   There are just too many free streaming music services that cater to my tastes.   But the Android users’ market is drawing attention and that is a good thing.

VLC and WebM

New VLC Version Supports WebM, H.264 Hardware Decoding. To celebrate Google making their WebM open, our favorite media player, VLC, has added it to VLC’s already impressive list of playable codecs.  NewTeeVee also reports that Miro can now be used to convert video to WebM.   I’m looking forward to using it as one of my HTML5 media containers.

Mobile TV for the Masses (of Blackberry Users)

Fox Mobile’s Bitbop Is a Hulu Competitor for Smartphones (Phone Scoop). No Hulu on our smartphones?   Who ya gonna call?   If you’re one of the scads of Blackberry users you just might be turning to Fox.   They have launched a mobile player that promises what Hulu says ain’t never gonna come from them.   But why Blackberry users?   Yes, that market is huge, but not exactly noted for being early adopters.   Love those corporate decision makers.

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