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Posts Tagged ‘clutter’

CheapTweet Wades Through the Sea of Tweet Deals

Whether a website sells off your email address or forces you to install some pop-up plagued toolbar just to get 10% off your next online purchase, searching for online coupons can involve treading in dangerous waters. Enter CheapTweet, which uses both algorithms and crowdsourcing to verify its content, and suddenly looking for the best deals online isn’t quite so scary.

The self-described “Twitter-based social deals search engine site” does precisely that – it finds tweets about deals and coupons through a custom search algorithm and then allows its users to upvote or downvote the deals on its site.

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Tweeting deals, if your wondering, can be big business. In 2009, Dell made more than $6.5 million through Twitter deals and CheapTweet probably sent a few of those customers their direction. The ad aggregator is actually celebrating its 5 millionth indexed deal with a roll-out of a refurbished website, which includes upgrades to its search engine, the voting mechanism, a redesign and and new feature, the “DealStream”.

CheapTweet allows its users to search for deals by category and keyword and will customize the stream of tweets according to their votes and Twitter conversations. They can also up and down vote tweets, like they’ve become accustomed to on sites like Reddit, Digg or Google Moderator. The “DealStream”, which contains a user’s customized results, can also be read as an RSS feed.

As CEO Hayes Davis points out in a press release, CheapTweet is poised to help distinguish the good from the bad as more and more companies prepare to monetize through Twitter.

“Online channels will only become more cluttered, as social networks start to monetize with ads,” said Davis. “CheapTweet’s service makes it easier for shoppers to sort through the clutter online and shop more effectively.”

We’ve not only heard a number of rumors and anonymous tips on what the Twitter ad platform will look like, but other companies like 140 Proof have begun to enter the market, bringing tweet-like ads to third party clients. This doesn’t even account for the vast number of small businesses taking advantage of the service to pass out Web-only deals and coupons.

With all of these ads, CheapTweet will help weed out the bad apples. Its users down vote nefarious tweets, the algorithm cuts out spam using a form of natural language processing and the multiple tweets about the same deal are combined to cut down on the noise.

We think that a service like CheapTweet has found a perfect niche and its the ideal service to recommend to your less technically-savvy relatives, as well as those just looking for a deal. Like we said, searching for online deals can put you in some dangerous waters and this service helps clear out some of the flotsam and jetsam.

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Apple Exec Phil Schiller Speaks On The App Store’s Sex Ban

It took them four days, but Apple is finally explaining its surprise decision to remove nearly all “sexy” content from the App Store. Once again, the morsels of information come from Apple SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, who spoke with the New York Times for an article published earlier this evening. None of it is too surprising, but Schiller’s unconvincing explanation as to why some applications like Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit app and Playboy will be allowed to remain on the store is sure to anger plenty of developers.

So why did Apple decide to pull these sexy apps?

“It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see”

Which makes sense given the broad appeal of the iPhone, but Apple should have seen this coming, and it implemented parental controls for a reason. And then Schiller goes on to pour salt into the wounds of recently spurned developers with his explanation as to why a select few sexy applications will remain on the App Store.

“When asked about the Sports Illustrated app, Mr. Schiller said Apple took the source and intent of an app into consideration. “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” he said.”

So apparently exposed cleavage in a Playboy application is less offensive to women and parents because it’s also being printed in a magazine, or something. The decision really isn’t all that surprising, either — there’s little risk of the Playboy application trying to sneak in some extreme nudity, and with only a handful of mainstream sexy apps there’s much less clutter. Still, such favoritism sets another bad precedent for the App Store, and Schiller’s explanation just feels lame.

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Vanity Apps: The Next Big Thing For the iPhone?

Thanks to the recent proliferation of do-it-yourself iPhone app services, the next big thing in Apple’s App Store might just be vanity apps. Take, for example, Appsfire’s Ouriel Ohayon, who just announced the launch of his own iPhone app. Ohayon used Odiogo Apps to create this personalized app. Odiogo, which mostly focuses on providing text-to-speech services for news sites and blogs, allows users to add RSS feeds, Twitter updates and photos from Flickr to its apps.

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Odiogo’s apps also feature the company’s text-to-speech services, offline access and advertising support. For now, though, potential users still have to contact the company’s sales department to get their own apps and the price of these customized apps isn’t clear.

More Clutter or a Great Opportunity?

As the barrier of entry for creating customized iPhone apps continues to fall, chances are that we will see more and more vanity apps in the App Store. On the one hand, this could clutter the store with relatively useless apps. On the other hand, it could also provide a new source of income for independent bloggers who could use the apps to sell more advertising inventory or even charge a small fee for the app itself. Even bloggers with a small fanbase could reap the benefits of having their own iPhone apps.

The question, however, is if users are actually interested in installing a single-purpose iPhone app that only gives them access to the content of one blogger. In the end, these apps are less flexible than a good mobile RSS reader.

Apps like this probably make more sense for large multi-author blogs that publish a lot of content every day. On the other hand, the idea of being able to point their friends to their iPhone apps will surely prove to be irresistible for many people.

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Yamaha turns up the bass, brings the noise with its YSP-5100 Digital Sound Projector

There are three ways to end speaker wire clutter: go wireless, get a soundbar, or shun the ways of the surrounds entirely. The former option isn’t for everyone, the latter simply won’t do, and so Yamaha keeps pumping out endless new installments of its Digital Sound Projector line. Latest is the YSP-5100, an update to the YSP-4100 that’s all of two and a half months old, so new that Yamaha didn’t even bother to do another studio shoot, just chopped in the same remote from the earlier press image. Natural, really, since the devices sport the same HD decoding abilities (like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD), the same suite of ins and outs, and the same 55W power rating. The only differences are a slightly greater width on the 5100 and what’s claimed to be “dramatically” evolved sound, richer bass and clearer highs — things you can’t really verify from a press release. No word on price, but they should be shipping before the year is through.

Yamaha turns up the bass, brings the noise with its YSP-5100 Digital Sound Projector originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Maps Improves The Ability To See Where The Streets Have No Name

Since its inception, Google Maps has always rolling out little tweaks and new features that are useful. But today comes the first large-scale overhaul of the look and feel of the service in quite a while. But you may not even notice it.

The reason is that almost all of the changes are very subtle. And unless you spend hours looking at Google Maps everyday, you probably aren’t going to realize when a road outline has been toned down, for example. But looking at the side-by-side images, it’s clear to see that the new look is much nice. Gone is much of the clutter cause by darkened street outlines.

In Google’s own words, from their post:

Today’s changes are intended to keep the same information-rich map while making it easier to pick out the information that is most useful.  The changes affect both the ‘Map’ and ‘Hybrid’ styles, and include numerous refinements to color, density, typography, and road styling worldwide. For example, in map view, local and arterial roads have been narrowed at medium zooms to improve legibility, and the overall colours have been optimized to be easier on the eye and conflict less with other things (such as traffic, transit lines and search results) that we overlay onto the map.  Hybrid roads have gained a crisp outline to make them easier to follow, and the overall look is now closer to an augmented satellite view instead of a simple overlay.

Again, subtle, but much better. (Click on the images below to see more clearly.)

And just for the hell of it, I’ll embed one of the best music videos ever made.

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Brightkite About To Go 2.0…And Asynchronous (Screenshots)

Brightkite has been one of the major players in the location-based social networking game for a while now. Originally a TechStars startup, the company was bought in April by Limbo, with the goal of merging the two location services. Since that time however, Brightkite has been flying a bit under the radar as a fresh crop of location-based services have popped up including the new early-adopter favorite, Foursquare. But now Brightkite looks ready to strike back at the competition with Brightkite 2.0.

It’s not entirely clear when Brightkite 2.0 will launch, but indications are that it will be soon. Users have been receiving notices about it. We’ve obtained a whole bunch of screenshots purported to be of the new version. We’ve reached out to the company to verify these, but they definitely look legitimate.

So what’s new? The first thing you’ll notice is that the whole look and feel of the site has been revamped. Gone is a lot of the clutter that distracts from the main location feed. This has been replaced by a revamped top toolbar, and a new bottom toolbar (think: Facebook).

Filters are a key part of Brightkite now. Rather than having three different main streams (Me & My Friends, Around Me, Universe), there is now one with a few different filters. There are also new filters to sort through people using the service by factors like location, sex, and age.

Checking-in has been simplified, as has adding a new place. And Brightkite 2.0 promises simplified privacy settings so you can more easily set where to send you updates (to the public, or just your friends — to Twitter and/or Facebook).

Also new is the ability to “like” other people’s updates. Obviously, this is similar to the functionality found on FriendFeed and Facebook.

But the biggest change to Brightkite is that it is going asynchronous. That is to say, rather than forcing you to accept a friend request to enable other people to see you updates, those people can now simply follow you without any confirmation needed, like on Twitter. They will become your “Fans” while people you also follow back are your “Friends”.

This is an interesting move since Brightkite is a location-based service, and privacy remains the main issue for why all services, like Facebook, don’t switch to this model.

Below, find more screenshots.

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More Ads Are Coming to Google Maps

Soon, you may start seeing company logos dotting the landscape on Google Maps. While Google has experimented with different types of ads in Google Maps on and off over the years, it now looks like Google is going to make another push to monetize Google Maps. While the details about this project are still quite hazy, it seems like Google plans to launch this program in at least the US and Australia in the new few weeks.

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A Google spokeswoman told the Sidney Morning Herald today that “one area in which we are looking to experiment is showing some easily recognizable brands and logos on the map to help people more easily find what they are looking for, but this is still in experimental form and we don’t have any further details to share right now."

Currently, as far as we can tell, the only market where Google already offers these ads is Japan, where logos for companies like 7-Eleven and McDonald’s appear on the maps. Kit Eaton from Fast Company wonders if the new ads will be contextual and generated based on user input. Judging from the ads that appear on the maps in Japan, these logos will appear on the map, no matter what the user is looking for. At least on the maps in Japan, these logos are very small and don’t get in the user’s way – though they definitely add more clutter to the maps.

Microsoft’s Bing Maps already offers a slightly more sophisticated advertising package, where the certain sponsored listing are highlighted with a business’ logo when a user performs a relevant search.

Just yesterday, Google also launched a new layout for the Place Pages on Google Maps that show details about a business such as opening hours, images, and reviews.

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FBI Adds Facebook, YouTube, Twitter Profiles. MySpace Completely Dissed

The FBI is willing to do just about anything when it comes to tracking down bad guys. They did the widgets thing last year. And today they announced that they’ve “set up shop in several social media websites.”

They’ve now got profiles on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube profiles are highlighted. They even have billboards up in Second Life. But nothing is mentioned about MySpace. Except that you can add FBI widgets to “social media websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Blogger.”

Given all the attention the Attorneys General have given MySpace over the years you’d think it would be the first place they’d stake out and infiltrate. But as of now, they’ve got no official presence there. At least, none that they’ll admit to. A search on MySpace, after you work through the ridiculous advertising clutter, shows nothing.

Probably the only thing MySpace hates more than getting too much government attention is this – getting completely ignored while fast growing competitors get all the attention.

Update: From Jonathan Cox at the FBI – “We have a widget that works on MySpace, but nothing formal yet. Its a long vetting process and I have so many government rules to follow it would make your head spin. This is just the beginning though. I’ll keep you posted as things progress. Thanks.”

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