Living in a digital world

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The cloud, free software and other bits and pieces

Photoshop express screenshot

Apologies for my recent posting laziness. One of the hazards of running a work related blog, is work getting in the way. Damn.

To make up for my shoddiness here are a few sites (some new, some not so new) that I think point to the way the web is developing at the moment.

CLOUD COMPUTING

First off – the cloud, the mesh, the whatever. The cloud refers to accessing computing services over the web rather than from your desktop – see definition here. In other words applications live ‘out there in the cloud’ rather than inside your machine. For a while now I’ve been using google docs (for word processing, presentations and spreadsheets). The following google docs video gives a good explanation for why you might find cloud computing useful: 

But there are many more interesting examples of cloud applications starting to appear. A month or so ago Adobe made Photoshop Express freely available as a cloud app. The app allows users to tweak, store and place images on flickr, facebook, etc. It’s not anywhere near as advanced as the full version (obviously), but it does point to the way users can expect to access more services away from their desktop. And it’s free.

As is box.net a free online storage and collaboration application. I use it to (along with flickr for photo’s) to keep my hard drive free of unnecessary data and as a security back-up in case my home computer gets stolen.

Another tool that I find useful is LogMeIn – this cloud app allows you to access your home computer from anywhere in the world. So far it feels secure. It also allows you to create a vpn (virtual private network) which is able to connect multiple computers. And like box.net it can act as storage backup – except LogMeIn can do this automatically.

FREE STUFF

Although not a cloud app, AVG is well worth downloading (if you’re running Windows or Linux). It’s free anti-virus software. Like lots of free software it does encourage you to upgrade (and pay) for a more advanced solution. 

NICHE SOCIAL NETWORKING

For the past year or so lots of brands have tried to exploit the opportunities offered by social network, but only a few have been brave enough to launch their own niche networks. Courvoisier have their future 500 network for today’s most thrusting and select business stars. And earlier this year the Financial Times announced the thrillingly named FT Media and Technology Executive Membership Forum  - a £2,000 a year subscription based network designed to enable senior executives to ‘maintain contact with peers and luminaries operating within the digital, new media, mobile and telecoms sectors.’ Phew – and pricey too.

More exciting is quark’s social network hooking up designers and allowing them to share their portfolios online. Ilovedesign is the site.

VIDEO

Y!Live screenshote

Video services seem to be all the rage at the moment. Youtube are due to launch a live video streaming product soon, for a while now kyte have been allowing users to create their own tv channel streaming content live (and rather badly) from their mobiles. But for me, the most exciting video project (and no doubt youtube will nix this when they launch their service) is Y!Live an experimental release from Yahoo. The site takes live video from your webcam and simply streams it to the world – bingo, your own personal tv channel.

I can see huge opportunities for brands here. Especially in the fundraising space. Imagine a regular stream from your favourite charity in the developing world, where field workers report in each day to chat about their projects and introduce the local people they’re working with. Supporters of the charity would have a instant view of how their money is having an impact, and the charity has a new, low budget media channel – they also incidentally have an instant video conferencing ability allowing dozens of people in many different locations to see what they’re up to.

 

May 19, 2008 Posted by | Uncategorized | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Flash 10 Player Beta Released

Flash 10 presentation

It’s that time again. The beta release of a new Flash player. Showing off all the fantastic things that we can produce for our clients 3 years out after good market saturation of the plugin. It might sound cynical, but in fact, it’s more me being pissed at myself for not coming up with the right idea, for the right brand, with the right early-adopter audience. Most of the time that’s what it takes to do something using a a new Flash plug in.

Either way, there are some new features including 3D support and more realtime rendering of images, video, and text.

Check it out and get inspired. Concept ideas that are using these new features and make the idea so undeniable that it has to be done. Then the plugin upgrade becomes a non-issue.

Keep in mind that you need to uninstalll you old plugin with the Flash Player Un-installer.

Then go here and check it.

Ltr.

Chad

May 16, 2008 Posted by | interactive | , , , , | Leave a Comment

   

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