A Red Box promo code app debuts on Monday
For those of you iPhone fans who also use Red Box video rental, take note.
On Monday there will be a new iPhone app that serves up money-saving promo codes for rented flicks. Those codes should, if all goes well, earn people free rentals from Red Box, which is based in Bellevue, Wash.
It will be available through the iTunes store, we're told, and will cost 99 cents.
Developed by Neese Products, the Red Box app produces codes that can then be entered into the kiosk boxes wherever Red Box has a location.
Codes will be updated twice daily and also feature a ranking system to ensure the validity and usefulness of each promo offered.
The World Series, in time lapsed photography
New York freelance photographer Robert Caplin used three cameras and more than 5,000 shots to develop this one-night montage/time lapsed video of one of the games between the Yankees and the Phils.
World Series Time-Lapse by Robert Caplin from Robert Caplin on Vimeo.
Bing adds some improvements for the holiday season
You must try out Bing, MS's improved Web search site, at least two or three times this week.
This is not shilling on my part. I just want people to try out a few of the new features now part of the Bing search experience.
One is the option to find events in the community.
Simply type in Spokane events in the bar and you get a handy list of coming concerts, shows, whatever.
Bing offers more information on hospitals, displaying reviews, patient ratings and phone numbers, and allowing the user to search a hospital or medical center's Web page from Bing.
Type Spokane Hospitals in the search box. Click on each result. Bing will display reviews found across the Web. In the case of Spokane, reviews are only from Yelp, at this point.
Spokane is now has reviews of restaurants on Urbanspoon.com
Popular Seattle-based food mashup Urbanspoon.com launched two years ago with only three cities: Chicago, Seattle and New York.
Since then it's multiplied and now includes Spokane.
Yeah! http://www.urbanspoon.com/c/291/Spokane-restaurants.html
Urbanspoon provides a location for foodies to offer comments and reviews on places they've tried and foods they've enjoyed.
Nicely, it gives people a way to see and locate well-liked eateries, either on a mobile phone or on a PC or Mac.
The new twist: Urbanspoon just created a great iPhone app called Rez.
Good little list: Spokane area companies on Twitter
Developed during the recent Twitter meetup sponsored by LaunchPad INW.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rdjQqQGLWCvftQLWP9TRpKw
One notable thing lacking: Where are all the Post Falls, Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene companies on this list? Only CDA company is Coeur d'Alene Resort.
How many reviews of Windows 7 can you stomach?
We could run seven, or Seven Times Seven, reviews of Windows 7. But we'd rather stop before we get overrun ...
That doesn't mean there's no room for views from the street. By that, we mean: The SR in a week or so intends to run some online reviews of the new Windows operating system from readers and users, avoiding all the bloggers and specialists who say this or that.
So, to qualify for a review to appear in the SR, in roughly a week, send your review to:
toms@spokesman.com
Please limit your review to 1000 words maximum.
We reserve the right to edit reviews we will publish.
Include your name, valid e-mail address, and what you do and if you have any personal connection to either Microsoft or a tech company that provides or sells services to Microsoft.
'Cosmos,' Carl Sagan and John Boswell's YouTube video hit
Spokane Gonzaga Prep graduate John Boswell has been doing remixes and audio experiments for awhile.
Now living in Bellingham, Wash., Boswell has produced some curious and interesting sonic samples and mixes.
His recent YouTube video, "A Glorious Dawn," has become a runaway smash. It's on its way to a million views (and channeling Carl Sagan, billions some day). It's tallied more than 800,000 views as of Oct. 9.
Very impressive number of views for a 3:34 video posted in mid-September 2009.
The clever twist is Bos's autotuning of a number of narrated tracks from Sagan's big TV series "Cosmos."
We'll do a more detailed update on how this video has given Bos some well-deserved kudos, not to mention freely donated dollars, from appreciative listeners.
For information on autotuning, you might check this out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune
Another very nice Google data map, visualizing YouTube popularity
Very cool graphic on YouTube that shows the popularity of a given video, over time.
Along with that timeline, YouTube offers a world map that displays which countries are most interested in the video.
This is the accompanying history/summary for a recent video that shows off the new Microsoft Courier tablet.
Date Link Views
A Sep 23, 2009 www.pcworld.com 10,251
B Sep 23, 2009 navegante2.elmundo.es 8,796
C Sep 23, 2009 derstandard.at 7,815
D Sep 23, 2009 www.fastcompany.com 5,680
E Sep 22, 2009 first mobile device 18,367
F Sep 22, 2009 Other/Viral 17,465
G Sep 22, 2009 blogs.zdnet.com 8,211
H Sep 22, 2009 www.facebook.com 6,851
Online ad spending continues to fall
The shadows of the recession have not avoided the Internet.
While media advertising in general has slumped in the past 12 months (specifically with print and TV), online ad spending also fell, according to a recent study.
For the first six months of 2009, online spending fell 5.3%.
Here's the link (with paid account) at the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125475840604964955.html?mod=djemTECH
On further review, why bother with TrendsMap?
After thinking the idea out further, it's obvious that the people behind Twitter have a better idea on how to generate a nice full-featured app that shows the exact location of people using the micro-blog service.
TrendsMap (mentioned in the preceding post) uses the IP-related locations of users based on how they described their locales when signing up. As people know, that's not fully reliable and exact.
A recent Twitter developers' blog note, cited in
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2009/tc20090823_834450.htm shows that Twitter will help others use an API that is specific to a device like an iPhone or a Blackberry.
With that tool exact maps of geolocation will become far more complete and exact. And ultimately, as common as maps are at most online information-directory sites.
The exact description at Twitter Blog:
http://blog.twitter.com/2009/08/location-location-location.html
A map-tracking tool for Twitter hounds
Trendsmap is a site that visually maps out common focal points in the Twitterverse.
It gives a Google map view of one's area or region dotted with dozens or (in Spokane's case, just a few) names and topics being moved about by tweeters.
It's not yet all that smooth. It's beta. I like the idea; hope someone shapes it forward. Too many rough edges.
I know other apps do similar things. The effort by Trendsmap is to identify growing areas of discussion and then show it mapfully. A side breakout panel shows the actually sources of the tweets and their postings.
Score: C. Should improve over time
Warner agrees to share its music videos on YouTube -- is Loony Tunes the right word for this?
Word comes today that Warner Music Group Corp. has formalized a settlement with Google, who manages YouTube, to permit copy protected music-video back on the popular video site.
The content in question are hundreds of Warner music videos that were pulled during a nine-month licensing dispute.
The agreement, announced Tuesday, gives Warner Music the right to sell ads running alongside its videos and keep the bulk of the revenue.
That could address one of the music company's biggest complaints about YouTube: that the ads that currently run on the site do not generate sufficient revenue for Warner.
Warner withdrew permission for YouTube to use its videos in December, when the two sides failed to reach a licensing agreement.
I like this: 77 pages, about Windows 7
Speaking of Windows 7, we were alerted, via @rspruijt on Twitter, to this very complete (77-page) guide to Windows 7.
It's at the ActiveWin site, http://tinyurl.com/mbaqyp.
Area businesses looking for a good deal on Windows 7
Story appearing in Sept. 24 online version of www.spokesman.com
Businesses and organizations in Spokane and North Idaho say they’re thinking about buying the new Windows 7 operating system. But for most the talk is phrased cautiously, with “at some point” and “once we finally get there,” indicating interest to buy, but not soon.
Nearly all area schools, nonprofit organizations, companies and government offices rely on software from Redmond-based Microsoft Corp. to manage business tasks, organize data and deliver e-mail.
With Windows 7 rolling out in less than a month, most area IT managers say they’re inclined to buy the new system eventually, unlike the tepid reaction that greeted Windows Vista in 2007.
Update on Ratemycop.com: Spokane's finest mostly not even mentioned
Update 5:46: p.m. Sept. 24: Looking back on previous stories, Brad Thoma notably testified in the 1998 conviction of a 72-year-old black grandmother in the East Central area, accused of selling crack cocaine. Thanks, Spokane cops, for busting Bad Granny.
A Sept. 24, 2009 Spokesman-Review story about Spokane police officer Brad Thoma charged with DUI reminded me of RateMyCop.com, a Web site started in 2007 that allows users to rate their local police.
Thoma is fairly well known in Spokane. When covering the courts, I frequently saw him testifying in criminal trials. Many were for drug busts. He had a close relationship, as I recall, with the department's informants and knew his way around the Spokane drug crime community.
Notably, RateMyCop doesn't have a vast set of ratings on Spokane police. Out of 170 officers listed on the site, only 5 have negative ratings.
One former Spokane officer who scored negative ratings: our notorious gun-waving former cop Jay Olsen.
Thoma has no rating, yet, on Ratemycop.com.
The Spokane County Sheriff's Department has more than 217 officers listed on the site. We didn't see more than a handful of negative comments on the department there.
Meanwhile, back at RateMyCop: One user in Florida who put an officer's phone number and address on the site still faces a possible one year jail term.
Though he's beaten back one legal attack, that resident, Robert Brayshaw, is now filing claims in federal court saying he's protected in his state on First Amendment grounds.
Netflix hands out $1 million prize. Likes the idea and starts a new contest
The movie rental company Netflix (which has a distribution center nearby us, by the airport) formally announced it's awarding a cool million to a team that met a 2006 challenge: make recommendation software that would improve the ability to predict movies customers would like.
Today the Silicon Valley based film distribution firm said it's starting a second contest.
The new contest will challenge team contestants with demographic and behavioral data; they'll have to profile individuals’ “taste profiles,” the company said.
Again,the goal is a better way to encourage and predict user preferences and entertainment choices, the company said.
Tweetdeck makes a lot of sense, in terms of Twitter security
A lot of Web security companies are calling for increased caution when clicking on short URLs served up in tweets.
Nasty miscreants are more than able to slyly redirect people off a tweet to a site that can load bad scripts or other noxious malware. It's a threat noticed by companies and developers, including the creators of Tweetdeck, the popular Twitter client.
What Tweetdeck does that's smart: Click on a URL in a message and it opens a window with both the short link and the full link.
That way you can stop and review the link you're seeing, which the short URL is sending you to.
That's not a totally surefire way to keep you safe. But it's a good start.
Hats off to the Tweetdeckers....
Three worthwhile sites to find interesting, longer journalism
We used to do a "Mixed Nuts" review. It found or highlighted worthwhile sites. In that vein...
a few sites that expect your longer attention....
http://hourlypress.com and its media-focused subsection at newsaboutnews.hourlypress.com.
There's a second site that highlights extended stories: http://givemesomethingtoread.com
And Google itself thinks it can find lengthier, worthier pieces. It does so through Google Spotlight. http://news.google.com/news/section?pz=1&topic=ir
Very quietly --- too quietly, we think --- Cyan is working on online version of Magiquest
Magiquest is a role-playing game/environment created by some clever tech companies. You can view some of the details at Magiquest.com.
It turns out that our friends at Cyan Worlds have been working on the online version of Magiquest.
The quick summary was noted in the September issue of Wired magazine. Here's a link to a blog summary: http://www.guildofmessengers.com/content/cyan-working-online-version-creative-kingdoms-magiquest
The full Wired link is right here http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/17-09/pl_games
We asked Cyan CEO Rand Miller to elaborate on the partnership. For now Rand declines, saying he'd need approval from the Magiquest people.
More to come?
The SEO challenge has met its match: Meet Sandpoint's Clickshops and its link mastery
Copyright, The Spokesman-Review
Photo by Kathy Plonka
By Tom Sowa toms@spokesman.com
A small, relatively unknown Sandpoint company has turned itself into a thriving Web retailer, developing a successful formula that puts its name atop Google search results when people look for products like safes, computer desks, garage cabinets and massage chairs.
The twist is that Sandpoint-based ClickShops doesn’t make anything it sells. It simply scores high search-engine rankings and uses its sophisticated Web tactics to sell other companies’ stuff on its own Web site.
Launched in 2005 by brothers Richard (in photo above) and Doug Marks, ClickShops runs about 30 Web sites for products ranging from computer desks and massage chairs to garage cabinets, outdoor furniture and gun safes.
Guess what: Another post, another site that does Twitter search
Yes, this is getting monotonous.
Deluged as I am by all sorts of posts and messages about Twitter, I have resorted to making it my job to dissect every new site that purports to be the uber-search service for Twitter.
The new contender is straight from Redmond: BingTweets.com.
Not a very nice name, but still, it builds on the Bing brand.
Check it at www.bingtweets.com and compare results with other like sites.
First impression: It does an unusual thing after inserting a search term. On the left side frame pops up a rolling history of that term, from most distant in time to most recent. Odd, but I like that.
AppScout has a take on bingtweets here.
Three more Twitter search sites worth examining
The only reason I'm posting a summary of another blogger's review of Twitter search sites is I'm lazy. That's right... L A Z Y and would rather someone else spend hours and hours (OK, several minutes) trying out the assorted search services prowling through Twitter traffic.
Rafe Needleman, who blogs at CNET and elsewhere, is the appropriately named guy who tried out a bevy of Twitter search scoopers.
His review is here http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10272370-2.html?tag=nl.e703 and he makes the case that three of the sites he's tried are a cut above the others.
And they are (followed by, first, Rafe's comments, then my own):
CrowdEye tries to pry into the Twitter stream
A Seattle startup, CrowdEye.com, is in beta stage and wants people to test its Twitter search option.
So far, less than fully impressive.
The founders are former Microsoft employees, including the company's former head of search engineering.
But to the point: so far CrowdEye doesn't let one dive very deep or far back.
Best I can tell, the search now offers the past three days.
And even then, I don't like the results.
Go to Search.Twitter.com and plunk in "spokane weather." On Thursday June 18 you'll get 20 results.
But on CrowdEye, you get two results ONLY if you search for Spokane weather WITHOUT QUOTES. And neither of those two is found in the listed results from the Twitter search page.
Gotta be something odd going on. Anyone at CrowdEye want to explain when we'll get more choice and why some results look funky?
On the other hand, some features, such as a listing of regularly posted links tied to keywords, looks very promising.
Inside the new iPhone 3G S
RapidRepair, a Michigan tech service firm, will post a fully detailed summary and pictorial essay on the inside guts of the new iPhone.
It will be posted at the company's site early Friday, June 18
The images and commentary will later be followed by a do-it-yourself iPhone repair guide, to be posted at the site within a week.
Need to know who was the first person to tweet about Spokane? Find it here...
Really bored? You can even dive back into the early days of Twitter, now that another company, TweetScan, has developed a Twitter historical search feature.
TweetScan is not related to Twitter.com.
To learn about or sign up for the historical search, go to http://tweetscan.com/main.php
The service is not free, costing $20 per year.
You can't blame TweetScan for trying to make money off Twitter.
The service says it searches back to Nov. 1, 2007. That means the search database goes back through more than 220 million tweets.
Tom Sowa is staff writer for The Spokesman-Review, covering technology for the business desk.