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Posts Tagged ‘Vote’

Put yourself in the picture with PixyMe

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

Do you remember the personalized movies that had been showing up in your email a while back? The one that sticks in my mind was a ‘get out the vote‘ video the Obama campaign sent out a month before the presidential election. The story told by the video was that Obama lost by just one vote and it was you, whoever you are. You name was smoothly integrated into about a dozen places in the narrative. It was a real attention getter.

PixyMe (US $1.99) brings a static version of this technology to your iPhone or iPod touch. This beautifully designed and rendered app lets you incorporate any name or short phrase seamlessly into an eCard or postcard, appearing as though it were part of the photograph. The resulting personalized photo can be either emailed, sent to Facebook, saved in your photo album, or sent as a high-quality physical postcard to any address in the world. It works remarkably well, as you can see from the picture on the right and the gallery below.

It’s unfortunate that this app has the all too common problem of dropping you into the fray with scant instructions. That would be okay for a simple one-trick-pony, but this app is fairly complex and has functions that need explanation. There is an info screen at the end of all the options, but all it gives you are the raw basics and a link to get to the PixyMe site. What you probably don’t know is that on the site is a great introduction and all the information you need to get started quickly in a video tour. You can view it at the end of this post. I feel that this video should be incorporated into the app or directly linked to rather than dropping you at the site. That’s my only complaint. The rest of the app is a delight.Do you remember the personalized movies that had been showing up in your email a while back? The one that sticks in my mind was a ‘get out the vote‘ video the Obama campaign sent out a month before the presidential election. The story told by the video was that Obama lost by just one vote and it was you, whoever you are. You name was smoothly integrated into about a dozen places in the narrative. It was a real attention getter.

PixyMe (US $1.99) brings a static version of this technology to your iPhone or iPod touch. This beautifully designed and rendered app lets you incorporate any name or short phrase seamlessly into an eCard or postcard, appearing as though it were part of the photograph. The resulting personalized photo can be either emailed, sent to Facebook, saved in your photo album, or sent as a high-quality physical postcard to any address in the world. It works remarkably well, as you can see from the picture on the right and the gallery below.

It’s unfortunate that this app has the all too common problem of dropping you into the fray with scant instructions. That would be okay for a simple one-trick-pony, but this app is fairly complex and has functions that need explanation. There is an info screen at the end of all the options, but all it gives you are the raw basics and a link to get to the PixyMe site. What you probably don’t know is that on the site is a great introduction and all the information you need to get started quickly in a video tour. You can view it at the end of this post. I feel that this video should be incorporated into the app or directly linked to rather than dropping you at the site. That’s my only complaint. The rest of the app is a delight.

TUAWPut yourself in the picture with PixyMe originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vote for the 2009 Engadget Awards!

The nominations are in, the picks have been sorted, and now it’s time for you, the reader, to help us judge the best in tech from 2009! We’ve put together a long, long list of the top selections below — all we ask is that you cast your vote for the gadgets nearest and dearest to your hearts.

Votes will be tallied until Monday February 20th, 11:59PM EDT. You can vote in this post — the nominees are after the break. After we’ve checked for abuse (just say no!) we’ll publish the results alongside our own Editors’ Choice picks the following week. May the best gadgets win!

Continue reading Vote for the 2009 Engadget Awards!

Vote for the 2009 Engadget Awards! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Will you be getting an iPad?

Filed under: Hardware, Odds and ends, Surveys and Polls, Apple

Okay guys and gals,

After (in some cases) years of speculation, the Apple tablet iPad is finally here. What we want to know is, based on what you’ve seen of it so far, will you be getting one? Is it everything you’ve always dreamed of? Or were you disappointed by what you saw?

Vote in the poll then hash out your thoughts in the comments!

View Poll

TUAWWill you be getting an iPad? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have Questions For Obama? YouTube’s Got You Covered

On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama will deliver his State of the Union speech, which will be broadcast live on YouTube’s CitizenTube channel as well as on The White House’s brand new iPhone app.

Google is stepping up its game, as it will also give YouTube users the opportunity to ask Obama some follow-up questions in video or text.

On Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET, during the live broadcast of the State of the Union on Citizentube, YouTube will be opening up a special Moderator series for citizens to submit their questions.

Evidently, President Obama will not be answering those questions live: the days following the speech, users will be able to submit additional questions and vote on their favorites.

Next week, although Google still has to communicate the exact timing, the top-voted questions will be asked to the president in a YouTube interview from the White House, which will also be broadcast live on Citizentube.

Read more on the YouTube blog and the White House blog.

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Reminder: nominate your favorite gadgets in the 2009 Engadget Awards!

We know it’s a really busy week, but we wanted to take a moment and remind all of you that there’s still time left to nominate your favorite gadgets of last year for the 2009 Engadget Awards!

For your voting (and nominating) pleasure, we present the sixth annual Engadget Awards! The premise is simple: 2009 may have slipped through our fingers, but all the memories of gadgets-past are still with us (some in a more favorable light than others). Here’s your chance to sound off on what you loved in 2009, and tell us what you’re psyched about for 2010.

This year we’ve got 24 categories up for grabs, with 48 total awards to be decided. All finalists for Engadget Awards are reader-nominated, and the editors of Engadget will then select the best of those nominations (usually somewhere between 4-6 devices or technologies) as finalists.

There are two awards per category, Reader’s Choice (voted on by you!), and Editors’ Choice (selected by us). The vote will take place in a few weeks once the nominees are picked, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter.

You can find all the info and nominees on a landing page we’ve built this year which should make it easier to get all your selections in (and vote once we’ve picked the finalists). Just click right here.

You’ve got until 11:59PM ET on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 to get your entries in. Now, go nominate, or use the handy list after the break!

Continue reading Reminder: nominate your favorite gadgets in the 2009 Engadget Awards!

Filed under: Announcements

Reminder: nominate your favorite gadgets in the 2009 Engadget Awards! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crapgadget: ‘no rhyme or reason’ edition

Amazingly, these waves of Crapgadgets tend to showcase some sort of mini-trend. Oftentimes it’s a certain fondness for USB overkill, while other times it just feels like gaudy is the new black. This go ’round, however, we’re looking at a veritable cornucopia of lameness. Eager to drop a Jackson to enjoy one of the most non-ergonomic wooden mice to ever see the light of day? Now you can. There’s also the common issue of not being able to see text in a book while in pure darkness, but rather than just flipping a light switch or changing time zones to locate the sun, there’s a wearable necklace to do the trick. Believe it or not, the list just keeps on getting better, with a machine gun-styled USB drive, heart-shaped telephone and a USB scent flower rounding things out. Dive into dumpster below if you dare, and drop your vote for the worst of the worst in the poll below.

Read – USB bamboo mouse
Read – Wearable hands-free light
Read – Machine gun USB drive
Read – USB guitar speaker
Read – Heart-shaped telephone
Read – USB scent flower
Read – Steering wheel Bluetooth mount

Crapgadget: ‘no rhyme or reason’ edition originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppStoreHQ Taps Into Twitter For iPhone App Recommendations

Plenty of ink has been spilled detailing how wildly succesful Apple’s App Store has been, which now counts well over 100,000 applications. However, this huge number of apps presents a challenge: it’s hard to actually find interesting new apps when there are so many to choose from. Apple does its best to highlight quality applications in the store, and it offers a Genius feature, but that often leaves something to be desired. AppStoreHQ is a site that’s looking to help make app recommendations using a new source of data: Twitter. The site generates recommendations based on who is tweeting about iPhone apps, and can generate recommendations for you based on your own tweets.

The site looks at Twitter’s public stream, checking tweets for links back to the App Store. Every time someone links to an app, they treat that as a vote from that user. When you visit the site’s homepage, you can browse through the apps that are currently the hottest on Twitter or on the web (the latter is determined by apps with the most blog post mentions). Or, if you want personalised recommendations, you can tweet about an app or two that you enjoy. The one catch is that you have to include one of a few keywords like “iPhone” or “AppStoreHQ” in your tweet, otherwise the system won’t catch it. The service only resolves links with these keywords, because it would take a prohibitive amount of processing power to follow every short URL and Link to see if they’re linking to an iPhone app.

Once you’ve tweeted about a few apps, the system will make customized suggestions based on what other similar users have tweeted about. Obviously the more apps you tweet about, the better the recommendations become (which is also a good way for the service to grow virally). The system also takes into account a few other sources of data, including any apps you’ve Favorited on AppStoreHQ and which apps you’ve actually clicked through while browsing the site.

CEO Chris DeVore says that while the service could develop a sentiment engine to ensure that apps being linked to in tweets are actually being shared with a positive comment, it’s actually very rare for people to tweet a link to an app they don’t like, so they don’t do this processing.

I like the idea of using tweets for app recommendations — writing a tweet isn’t as involved as writing a blog post so the site will probably be able to get more data to analyze, and it will also be able to surface hot new apps quickly.  That said, the algorithm will also likely have to put up with lots of spam from Twitter. And  I think the AppStoreHQ layout could use some work, as its menu system seems clunky and bland.

AppStoreHQ has actually been around for a while, offering recommendations based on app links in blog posts.  It also has a search engine for iPhone apps that it has white-labeled and is currently integrated in a number of other popular iPhone app news and community sites.

We’ve covered many other App Store recommendation services, including Chorus, Appolicious, AppsFire, and Appsaurus.

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Steve Jobs up for Time’s ‘Person of the Year’

Filed under: Other Events, Steve Jobs, Apple

Time magazine has revealed its final seven candidates for Person of the Year, and one Mr. Steven P. Jobs has made the list. Though the editors of Time have already chosen the winner (to be announced on The Today Show on Wednesday morning), MSNBC.com wants to know who us average folk would vote for.

At the risk of our audience being slightly biased, I’m going to release the same poll here. So vote below, and don’t feel bad if you don’t think Steve should get it. He’s already won another little award this year.

TUAWSteve Jobs up for Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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