The Latest from TechCrunch |  |
- Live Dispatch From The iPad Line At SF’s Flagship Apple Store
- Hands-on with the Apple iPad: Groundbreaking Or Not, It’s Still Amazing
- Square Turns Your iPad Into A Cash Register
- New York Times Hikes Kindle Subscription Price 43%; Now $20 A Month
- The Unauthorized TechCrunch iPad Review
- SGN’s Intergalactic Capture The Flag
- MusicShake Brings Their No-Talent-Necessary Music Creation Tool To The iPhone
- Rugged Camera Round-Up: The Round-Up
- 4INFO Tells FTC: Approve The Google/AdMob Deal
- Facebook Buys Up Divvyshot To Make Facebook Photos Even Better
- Digg Launches Native Android App
- Google Launches iPad-Optimized Gmail Web App
- The Best iPad Apps At Launch
- Seven More iPad Alternatives
- Google Acquires Online Video Hosting Platform Episodic
- Its Social Product Graph Growing, GDGT Ups The Focus On CMMNTS
- Google Might Sometimes Serve Malware, But At Least They Are Honest About It
| Live Dispatch From The iPad Line At SF’s Flagship Apple Store Posted: 03 Apr 2010 07:58 AM PDT
Top image by kylekirchhoff      
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| Hands-on with the Apple iPad: Groundbreaking Or Not, It’s Still Amazing Posted: 03 Apr 2010 07:56 AM PDT  I just grabbed my iPad, dock, and case and I'm ready to start living in the 21st Century. Say what you want, but the iPad is clearly a new way forward in terms of user interaction and portability. In fact, I regret that I don't have a long haul flight to test this thing out on because this device may be the elusive missing link between full-bore laptop and underpowered netbook for which we've all been searching. On the whole, the iPad is nothing revolutionary: if you know iPhone, you'll know this thing. But Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, the office suite that isn't Office, is amazing on the iPad and iBooks are already a big hit around our house. Thankfully, Apple includes an A.A. Milne Pooh book for the kiddies.
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| Square Turns Your iPad Into A Cash Register Posted: 03 Apr 2010 07:18 AM PDT
As a general-purpose tablet, the iPad can be many things to many people: an ebook reader, a wireless TV, a touchscreen videogame console. But to store owners and business people it can also be a cash register, with the right app, of course. Jack Dorsey’s Square, which is already available for the iPhone, now has an iPad app as well (iTunes link). Square comes with a peripheral credit card swiper that lets any store or business person take credit card (or cash) payments on iPhones, and now, iPads. It takes finger signatures on the touchscreen, generates email or SMS receipts, calculates sales tax, and comes with an online accounting dashboard to keep track of sales. (You can watch our video of how the iPhone app works). The iPad version is going to be appealing to many merchants because of the bigger screen and because it just looks more professional—more like some of the custom point-of-sale tablets you already see at some retailers today. But an iPad is probably much cheaper than some of those custom hardware systems, and Square’s payments software on the backend will keep getting better. Square can add new features without swapping the hardware. So while the iPad will mostly be a consumer device, it opens up some interesting new opportunities for businesses as well. Read our full list of the best iPad apps at launch here.      
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| New York Times Hikes Kindle Subscription Price 43%; Now $20 A Month Posted: 02 Apr 2010 06:12 PM PDT
This is almost certainly in anticipation of the iPad launch tomorrow — Amazon just announced the release of its own Kindle for iPad app, which will be competing with Apple’s iBooks. And we’ll probably see the NYT’s iPad subscription at the same $19.99 rate. For comparison’s sake, earlier today the Wall Street Journal announced that their iPad subscription fee would be $17.29 per month. Here’s the email Amazon is sending out:
     
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| The Unauthorized TechCrunch iPad Review Posted: 02 Apr 2010 05:39 PM PDT
Scores of developers have had iPad’s for weeks now. They’ve had to sign non-disclosure agreements, and have the iPad locked in a separate room that random employees couldn’t access. And even that wasn’t enough. The iPads are literally chained to the desk with steel cable and a lock. Apple comes by the office with a suitcase, installs the iPad in a bolted case, chains it to the desk and locks it there. And they they do occasional surprise visits just to make sure it’s still there. What’s more, Apple has told developers that they are monitoring the location of the device as well. We tried (oh how we tried) to find a way to break into a company that had one and just steal the whole desk that it was chained to to bring it back here and wait for Apple or the police or whoever to show up. It would have made an excellent April Fools joke. But CEO Heather vetoed the idea. But one thing I have had the chance to do is test iPads at developers who’ve been willing to bend the rules a little. Well, actually, a lot. This is exactly what Apple didn’t want – bloggers and other outsiders to get access to and play with the devices. But play I did. I’ve surfed the net on the iPad. I’ve played games on the iPad. And I’ve done email on the iPad. Yes, those iPads were chained to desks and in a bolted on steel case. And even so, the experience was stunning. It’s a nearly flawless device. And the iPad beats even my most optimistic expectations. This is a new category of device. But it also will replace laptops for many people. It does basic computer stuff, like email and web surfing, very well. Applications load quickly and are very responsive – think iPhone 3GS with a 50% speed boost. That’s what surprised me the most. The iPad isn’t just for couch computing when you want to look something up on Wikipedia or send a quick email. It’s a perfectly usable business device. And the form factor just happens to work far better for cramped places like airplanes than a normal laptop. I doubt I’ll ever open a laptop on a plane again after tomorrow. I am easily able to type 50 words per minute on the large virtual keyboard. A physical keyboard is a nice add on when I’m in my office or hotel room, but it works just fine without it, too. The iPad will put significant pressure on laptop sales, particularly second device laptops. And it will also have a devastating effect on single-use devices like the Kindle, unless the price of those devices drops substantially. I will quite happily read books on the iPad, and the battery really does last for up to ten hours. And then there are the apps. Some of the iPads best uses are yet to be imagined. This is certainly an amazing game device and productivity tool. And I’ll happily consume massive amounts of music and video content on the iPad. Third party apps, and there are a ton of them coming, will make this even more useful. I suspect I’ll rarely be away from this device. In fact it will make my phone far less important for non-calling uses. I may not have the iPad in my pocket with my phone, but it will certainly be in my bag over my shoulder. With a 3G data plan I’ll use it to read the news, look up movie times and reviews, send instant messages and emails, and lots of other things that I do with my phone. I’m not so sure I need to have the latest and greatest phone device any more, knowing that there’s an iPad within reach. I’d pay $1,000 for a chained to the desk iPad. The fact that tomorrow I’ll get the one I pre-ordered for just $500, chain free, makes me very happy indeed.      
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| SGN’s Intergalactic Capture The Flag Posted: 02 Apr 2010 02:29 PM PDT
Mobile gaming publisher SGN’s new iPad EXO-Planet app is specifically designed to exploit the iPad’s new capabilities. While some game developers are merely converting the iPhone apps to the iPad format, the multi-player EXO-Planet is trying to elevate the shooter game experience by giving the player access to eight camera angles with a single spin of the finger. “The key breakthrough is that in first-person shooter games, the view is limited, which will make you dizzy on small platforms, but Exo-Planet has eight cameras running in real time,” says SGN Founder and Executive Chairman, Shervin Pishevar. It’s unclear whether EXO-Planet will match the success of previous SGN iPhone games, like Skies of Glory, iBowl, SGN Golf and F.A.S.T., but it presents the coolest version of Capture The Flag hands down. Screen shots below. The first phase of the game takes place in a futuristic training ground for elite forces. Players leap and zoom across the zero-gravity futuristic space, outfitted in “Juggernaut EXO-suits”— hefty metal space suits. In the training phase the objective is to capture the other player’s (or team’s) flag. As the press release explains: “Players compete in three-minute matches or can win the game by being the first team to capture three flags from the opponents.” As you play, you will accrue currency called Scrip that can be used to improve your suit or buy new weapons. The eight-camera-perspective creates a very seamless viewing experience. In addition, if you are trying to look past your fighter, the character will briefly appear transparent to maximize your line of vision. Pishevar says SGN will use some of these visual tricks in upcoming iPad games, but he declined to share specifics. The controls are also pretty intuitive. Your right hand controls the camera angles, zoom, and your shooting device. Your left hand controls your movement; drag your finger the direction you want to move and tap to jump. The app, which can be a one player, one-on-one, or two-on-two (using 3G/WiFi connectivity), is currently available on iTunes for a one-time charge of $6.99. Read our full list of the best iPad apps at launch here. Screenshots:
     
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| MusicShake Brings Their No-Talent-Necessary Music Creation Tool To The iPhone Posted: 02 Apr 2010 02:21 PM PDT
We’ve all been there. The latest Black Eyed Peas garbage is looping on the radio for the thirty seven thousandth time this week, and you think to yourself: “I could do this. I could make this song. I could be rich!” So you run home, grab the demo of the most complicated music suite you can find mentions of on the forums, and sit down to create your masterpiece. Thirty seconds later, you’ve got eighty nine windows staring back at you. There’s some crazy virtual piano thing just sitting there not making any noise when you hit the keys, and you’ve flipped so many random, mysteriously labeled switches that you’re confident the application will never, ever work again. You give up on your music career until the next time boredom strikes whilst Will.I.Am tries desperately to convince you that tonight will be a good night. That’s where MusicShake, a TechCrunch40 alumnus, comes into play. They’ve been trying to bring simplified music creation to the masses — and now, they’ve just found their way onto the iPhone.      
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| Rugged Camera Round-Up: The Round-Up Posted: 02 Apr 2010 02:00 PM PDT
Which, if any, is worth your hard-earned scratch? Spoiler alert: I prefer the Casio. But here’s a quick rundown of their pros and cons if you’re not convinced.      
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| 4INFO Tells FTC: Approve The Google/AdMob Deal Posted: 02 Apr 2010 01:05 PM PDT
The FTC is looking very hard at the deal, and some consumer groups have lobbied the FTC to block it. Despite the fact that Apple acquired AdMob’s closest rival, Quattro Wireless. But at least one of AdMob’s competitors, 4INFO, is supporting the deal (see our recent interview with 4INFO CEO Zaw Thet here). In a letter to the FTC, Thet says “I have no concerns about my ability to compete effectively after the transaction closes,” and “this is such a rapidly growing and evolving industry that I have no concers about Google and AdMob dominating the space.” I’ll say this – somebody just earned a ton of credit with Google. The letter is below:
     
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| Facebook Buys Up Divvyshot To Make Facebook Photos Even Better Posted: 02 Apr 2010 12:46 PM PDT
Facebook just bought up Divvyshot, a Y Combinator-backed startup that launched last March. Divvyshot was in the midst of raising an angel round when Facebook swept in with a better offer. The amount of the acquisition is not being disclosed, but it was likely small. Buying Divvyshot is a talent acquisition for Facebook. Founder Sam Odio and the two other Divvyshot team members will be joining Facebook and working on Facebook Photos, which is the largest photo-sharing service in the world. Divvyshot is a group-sharing photo site which takes a slightly different approach than other photo sites. Most photo sites think of the photos as tied to the camera. Odio designed Divvyshot so that photos are tied to places, people, and events. So instead of 50 different shots of the same event, 50 people can all share the same photo. Facebook Photos works on a similar principle, if in a more ad-hoc fashion. People upload photos and tag the people in them. When you get tagged in someone else’s photo, it gets shared with you. If the Divvyshot acquisition is any indication, there will be many more ways to automatically share photos through Facebook in the future. Divvyshot itself will be shut down. The site has 40,000 active, but loyal, users. Instead, Odio and his team will take what they learned at Divvyshot and apply it to the much larger canvas of Facebook Photos. Existing Divvyshot users will be able to continue to use the site, but no new accounts will be able to be created, and its iPhone app will be taken off of iTunes. Currently, Divvyshot albums can be edited by multiple users, and can be set as private (only allowing designated friends to upload photos) or public, which lets anyone upload their photos to the album. All photos are presented at a fairly high resolution on the site, and are also available at their original quality for download (you can also download entire albums at a time as .zip files). Divvyshot has deep integration with photo services including Flickr, Facebook and Twitter so you can upload all your photos from these sites. The site recently launched an iPhone app that lets users upload and monitor event activity in real-time and contains much of the core functionality as the web application.      
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| Digg Launches Native Android App Posted: 02 Apr 2010 12:17 PM PDT
Using the app is pretty straightforward: tapping on a story opens it in the Android’s native web browser, with the handy additions of a Digg toolbar at the top and thumbs up/down buttons at the bottom. To the right of each story is an arrow that lets you view comments left by other Digg users. Unfortunately, you can’t yet leave comments from the Android app (nor can you from the iPhone app), but Digg expects this to change with the next release of its API.
     
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| Google Launches iPad-Optimized Gmail Web App Posted: 02 Apr 2010 11:58 AM PDT
Of course, the iPad comes with a built-in native Mail application, but the Gmail web app offers a few advantages, as it allows you to use Gmail features like starring, labels, and (perhaps most importantly) threaded conversations. Google launched a similar web app for the iPhone last year. We haven’t gotten to try out the app for ourselves yet, but it will be interesting to see how responsive it is. In general, I’ve found the iPhone web app for Gmail to be good, but not great — it’s never matched the responsiveness I get on the native Gmail app Android (perhaps the iPad’s speedy processor will make up for this). Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely we’ll be seeing a native Gmail app launch on the iPad given the ongoing conflict between Google and Apple. As part of its post, Google highlighted some of the native applications it has that are included on the iPad — Apple is using Google as the default search provider (though there have been rumors that may change to Bing), Google powers the Maps application, and there’s also a native YouTube app. If you’re looking for more applications for your iPad, be sure to check out our List of our favorite iPad apps.      
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| Posted: 02 Apr 2010 11:09 AM PDT
In preparation for the launch of the iPad tomorrow, iPad Apps are live in iTunes and we’re sorting through the best ones as fast as we can. But with more than 2,000 iPad apps in the App Store, the choices are already daunting. To help you find the best apps at launch, we’ve put together the definitive list below. It includes all the iPad apps reviewed on TechCrunch, as well as other promising ones we have not gotten to yet. If you have a favorite you think should go on this list, tell us why in comments. Here is our list, which we will keep updating through the launch of the iPad: iBooks
Apple’s answer to the Amazon Kindle, iBooks turns the iPad into an electronic book reader with 60,000 books at launch to choose from (the app is free, the e-books are not). Although the Kindle has many more titles (450,000), iBooks lets you flip through virtual pages with your fingers on a color screen. The built-in search and dictionary will come in handy. The font size and brightness can be adjusted. Pages can be bookmarked or highlighted. Books can be read vertically in a full-page view or horizontally in a two-page view like a regular open book. The book store is part of the app and looks like iTunes for books, with best-seller and most-popular lists. Every time you buy a book, it downloads directly to your iPad. Price: App is free; Each book typically varies from $9.99 to $14.99, many are free. (iTunes link) Kindle for iPad
Not to be outdone by Apple’s iBooks app, Amazon released its own Kindle app for the iPad which nearly matches the iBook app feature for feature: Full-color touchscreen app, animated page-turning, adjustable font size and brightness (plus you can change the background color), portrait or landscape mode, and the ability to buy books right from the app. Of course, Amazon has a lot more books to choose from (450,000 vs. 60,000). (Search and dictionary functions are “coming soon.” It also includes Amazon’s Whispersync technology, which lets you pick up where you left off on your regular Kindle, your iPhone Kindle App, Blackberry, Mac, or PC. And the Kindle store includes all the regular customer reviews you can find on Amazon’s site. Let the digital book battle begin. Price: Free, books priced individually (iTunes link) Tap Tap Radiation
From our post: “The new game is similar to the series of iPhone games in many ways — you still tap on-screen buttons in time to the music. But some key changes were made to optimize gameplay for the iPad. For one, most people will be playing the game with their iPads lying flat on a table or on their lap (as opposed to held at an angle with one hand like an iPhone). Because gamers will have both hands free, Radiation's gameplay is more involved, prompting gamers to rhythmically tap these glowing blobs as they dance across the iPad's entire screen. Multiple people will also be able to play simultaneously on the same device.” Price: Free (iTunes link) Netflix
Price: Free (iTunes link) Loopt Pulse
From our post: “The iPad may be better suited for planning events around location, rather than actively participating in location. With Loopt Pulse, you load up the main screen to see where you are and everything that's going on around you. On the left side of the screen you get a list of places, and on the right, you can see each of those places on a map and more details about them. “These featured places appear because a lot of Loopt users liked the place, or are currently there. Or maybe the place has positive reviews in the local paper. You can also sort by events and friends. On the friends tab, you only see places that your Facebook friends like (you connect via Facebook Connect). But Loopt also wanted to take advantage of the iPad's big, beautiful screen, so they also built a new feature that allows you to browse local places by pictures.” Price: Free (iTunes link) TweetDeck for iPad
TweetDeck’s iPad offering is very similar to its popular desktop stream reader. You can split up your Twitter and Facebook streams into different columns, and swipe across to see more or up and down to read through them. You can compose Tweets using the iPad’s touchscreen keyboard. One new feature is a map showing all the geo-tagged Tweets from the people you follow. It looks gorgeous. Watch the demo video. Price: Free (iTunes link) Captain’s Log
This may just be the best app in the iTunes store. It turns your iPad into a Captain’s Log from Star Trek. You can add your own notes, or use it to post updates to both Twitter and Facebook. This app may not have all the bells and whistles you’ll find in TweetDeck, but it will make you feel like a Starship captain. It’s so retro, yet so futuristic. Price: $0.99 (iTunes link) SGN’s EXO-Planet
From our post: “While some game developers are merely converting the iPhone apps to the iPad format, the multi-player EXO-Planet is trying to elevate the shooter game experience by giving the player access to eight camera angles with a single spin of the finger. The first phase of the game takes place in a futuristic training ground for elite forces. Players leap and zoom across the zero-gravity futuristic space, outfitted in "Juggernaut EXO-suits"— hefty metal space suits. In the training phase the objective is to capture the other player's (or team's) flag. The eight-camera-perspective creates a very seamless viewing experience. In addition, if you are trying to look past your fighter, the character will briefly appear transparent to maximize your line of vision.” PriceL $6.99 (iTunes link) Pandora Radio
From our post: “Version 3.0 of Pandora is a Universal app, meaning it includes builds for the iPhone and iPad. The iPad version takes advantage of the large 9.7 inch screen of the device. Rather than having to switch views to see things such as your stations, they can reside on the left hand side of the screen as your album artwork and artist information is on the right hand side. Artist information is a particular area of emphasis with this new app. The top player looks similar to iTunes now, with play and pause buttons, as well as thumbs up and thumbs down buttons. There is also an easy-to-access search box along the top.” Price: Free (iTunes link) Epicurious Recipes And Shopping Lists
From our post: “The app, which is similar in features to its sister iPhone app, is essentially a tabbed digital cookbook which allows you to access 27,000 recipes from both Gourmet and Bon Appetit. You can browse recipe collections, search via keyword, and filter your searches by what's in your fridge, seasonal foods, holidays and more. You can add any recipe to your favorites box to save it as well as email recipes to yourself and others. “You can also add ingredients from your saved recipes to shopping lists and check off items as you buy them. . . . The nature of the iPad may breathe new life into cooking and recipe apps. While reading recipes on the iPhone and other mobile devices while cooking can be tough; the iPad's large screen simulates a digital cookbook.” Price: Free (iTunes link) NYT’s Editor’s Choice
From our post: “The iPad application offers a selection of news, opinion and feature articles chosen by Times editors that can be downloaded automatically to the tablet device. It delivers two pages of content with the top eight to ten articles in latest news, business, technology, opinion and feature sections with accompanying videos and photo slideshows.” Price: Free for now, but a paid app is coming (iTunes link) The Wall Street Journal
A limited version of the paper with all of its free articles. Subscribers get the full paper. The iPad app mimics the look of the paper edition, and also includes market data, videos, and photo slideshows. Subscribers get to download a week’s worth of articles for later reading. Price: Free, with paid upgrade (iTunes link) eBay for the iPad
From our post: “eBay is launching an iPad app that aims to engage the user by putting the image at the center of the design, using oversized thumbnails and bleeding image close-ups to the edges of the device. The iPad's touch screen functionality augments the traditional eBay search by letting users dash through several search pages with a few swipes of the finger. There's also a price histogram at the bottom of the page that will let you narrow your search to a certain price range— the histogram also includes a volume chart so you can see how the goods are concentrated along the price scale. It seems to be a vast improvement from the website and the iPhone app, in terms of feel and design.” Price: Free (iTunes link) Gilt for iPad
From our post: Gilt Groupe's sales on luxury goods on its properties, including Gilt, Gilt Fuse, and Gilt Man, can all be accessed directly from the app. The app allows you to receive real-time sale alerts, check upcoming sales and receive an instant Gilt membership when you download the app. The app's shopping cart, that is always visible, allows members to quickly touch and drag desired items into their cart. Price: Free (iTunes link) Aurora Feint 3
From our post: “Aurora Feint is getting into the iPad game today with the launch of release of Aurora Feint 3, a free-to-play massively multi-player social gaming app based around virtual goods. Unsurprisingly, the game leverages OpenFeint X, which allows game developers to create Zynga-like free-to-play games including microtransactions and virtual goods. While the game is free to play, its main revenue source will be from microtransactions within its app. With the success of Zynga and PlayFish on Facebook, Aurora Feint wants to help grab a piece of the gaming pie, and wants to help create Farmville -like games on mobile devices.” Price: Free, with microtransactions (iTunes link) Red Fish
From our post: “Red Fish is based on a popular French kid's learning Website called Poisson Rouge. FreshPlanet licensed the game and developed a version specifically for the iPad to start. There is no iPhone version. Red Fish teaches kids between 3 and 7 to count, read, spell, and even compose music all using the iPad's engaging touchscreen. The app is free and comes with 12 different activities, but to unlock the rest (there are 50 total) will cost $9.99.” Price: Free, with $9.99 upgrade (iTunes link) ABC Player
ABC’s free episode player for the iPad streams ad-supported videos from the network’s roster of shows. You can watch full length episodes of select shows from the network including Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, and Modern Family. You can also browse through shows and episodes, pause an episode, watch it later and see your viewing history. The videos stream into a player that takes up the top half of the screen, while letting you browse other episodes along the bottom. (Presumably, there is a full-screen option as well). Price: Free (iTunes link) Kayak Flights
Kayak is one of the more useful travel search engines on the web, and its iPad app brings the same functionality to the tablet device. The app lets you compare prices for flights from Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire and airline sites. Plus the app will save your search history, map your searches, and allows you to book directly from the app. Price: Free (iTunes link) NPR
NPR’s iPad app is similar to its iPhone app, in that it features links to NPR programs and over 1,000 member-station streams, allowing you to browse news stories and listen to programs at the same time. The NPR website has been modified for the iPad to support HTML5 and includes an audio player at the bottom of the screen so you can listen to media easily. Price: Free (iTunes link) Scrabble
Scrabble’s iPad app features a more animated and entertaining vesion of its iPhone app, letting you connect with friends on Facebook and play up to 25 Scrabble games at once. And as you are playing, the app’s Teacher Feature will let you see what the best word choice was from your previous turn. Price: $9.99 (iTunes link) Yahoo Entertainment
Yahoo Entertainment is an interactive TV guide that streams in video from different Yahoo properties and partners (News, Sports, etc.) Price: Free (iTunes link) Gmail For iPad
     
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| Posted: 02 Apr 2010 11:07 AM PDT  We ran through the seven mainstream iPad alternatives a few weeks ago. You should know the list anyway. They include the usual suspects of the ModBook, Notion Ink Adam, HP Slate and Dell Streak along with a few others. But there are a bunch more portables either currently available or coming out real soon that could also have made that list. Consider the following seven computers alternatives to the standard iPad alternatives.
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| Google Acquires Online Video Hosting Platform Episodic Posted: 02 Apr 2010 10:15 AM PDT
Episodic’s publishing suite lets users manage and measure video content, and use the platform’s monetization services which enable ad insertion and credit card transactions for both live and on-demand video streaming. The suite itself is made up of five functional areas, including the ability to create video libraries, customer metadata fields, and the ability to encode. The player itself works on both the web and mobile browsers. Currently, Episodic is formatted for the iPhone only but Android, Blackberry and Symbian device support are coming soon. Interestingly, Episodic also offers an ad server that is interoperable with all major ad serving platforms, letting users insert ads into videos via a fairly simple process. Like YouTube, Episodic also offers an analytics engine that gives publishers real-time metrics and reporting around audience engagement, viewer performance, network quality and the quality of the overall viewing experience. And the platform offers users the ability to syndicate videos to other destinations like Hulu, iTunes and Amazon. With Episodic, content producers can also build custom branded iPhone applications around their media. Google has been on quite a buying spree this year, acquiring online photo editor Picnik, Microsoft Office collaboration tool DocVerse, iPhone email app reMail, and social search startup Aardvark in 2010.
     
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| Its Social Product Graph Growing, GDGT Ups The Focus On CMMNTS Posted: 02 Apr 2010 10:00 AM PDT
The core of gdgt, the gadget database site started last summer by former Engadget leaders Peter Rojas and Ryan Block, is its community. And online, perhaps the most important aspect of community is discussion. A new update to the service puts the focus squarely on just that. Previously, on the homepage, you would see a list of the most discussed products and companies, general discussions happening, support discussions, and then tips, trick, and hacks discussions. There was a minimal ability to sort these areas, or you could jump to a specific area, but it wasn’t so obvious how you do that. More importantly, participating was a few clicks away. With the newly revamped homepage, participation is front and center. There’s a new, large comment box to entice you to ask a question, get support, or just say something in general. Since discussions on gdgt revolve around products, this new comment box has a field above the comment area to enter the name of the gadget you’re talking about. And there is also the ability to tag discussions to specific companies as well. Both products and company names are placed in this tag box and you can enter multiples of each which should help further fuel discussions. When you start typing in this field, gdgt combs its database to autocomplete the product or company that you’re likely talking about. These are then added to the comment area as tags (some completely with nifty favicons). Those who want to get really social can also tweet out their comment or post it to Facebook. Once one of these comments is submitted, it then resides on the page for the product or company it was tagged to, as well as your main profile stream. Those looking for answers or just more information about products and companies will notice cleaned-up threads with quicker ways to reply. There is also a new bright green button to allow you to easily follow a thread and get updates even when you’re not on the page (these come into your profile) or even on gdgt itself (via email alerts, which you can customize). You can also “like” or “dislike” individual messages in a thread. Online forums have long been a popular way for users passionate about particular things to interact with one another. This update to Gdgt attempts to better organize those conversations, keeping them highly targeted, while at the same time keeping the site’s focus broad across the whole range of gadgets and companies in the space. I asked Block for his thoughts about this update as compared to something like Quora, the hot question service with an even hotter $86 million valuation. Block notes that he uses Quora, and likes it, but sees more value in getting an answer rather than asking a question. He thinks Quora works well right now because it’s still so small, as they scale, it could be hard to maintain the relevancy. Block believes gdgt can because of the unique social graph they’ve created: users are connected through a product graph. Block also says that he’s very interested in the social reputation elements that services like Foursquare have been making popular. “We’re looking closely at that,” he notes. Since gdgt launched last July, Block says they’ve “blown past” their initial internal estimates. Impressively, he says that the site is growing faster than Engadget was when it started. He wouldn’t give any specific numbers in terms of users but did say that it’s in the hundreds of thousands of registered users now. That’s a pretty large product graph. And now they have an easier way to communicate with one another.
     
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| Google Might Sometimes Serve Malware, But At Least They Are Honest About It Posted: 02 Apr 2010 09:42 AM PDT
While Yahoo apparently doesn’t really care that there’s a chance you might get served malware through ads (aka ‘malvertising’) delivered by Right Media YieldManager, search rival Google is at least being honest about it. For the past two years, Google has been operating an experimental service called Safe Browsing, which is basically a diagnostic tool that checks for malware on all the websites in its enormous index. And that list of websites includes Google.com, which was apparently listed for suspicious activity 2 times over the past 90 days. This isn’t an error, like the one that occurred in January last year, when Google flagged the entire Internet as malware. Yahoo actually served up malware too during that period, according to Google even 3 times as much. Most of the other sites I tested, including TechCrunch.com and Bing.com, showed no recent history of suspicious activity. That means the tool isn’t 100% accurate or simply doesn’t analyze every single thing that is on a Website, because we had an issue with malvertising last month, as reported by Cnet. I’m not entirely sure, but I assume that Safe Browsing checks Google.com for pages linked to from contextual ads served when users run a search query. Of the 190,520 pages the tool analyzed over the past 90 days, 11 apparently resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time suspicious content was found on Google.com was on March 24. Google has recently set up a website called Anti-Malvertising.com which is entirely dedicated to educating Internet users, ad network operators and publishers about the problem. (Hat tip to S. Gray)      
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