Entries Tagged 'Media' ↓

Very recently, I was informed of a new service called Quamut.  Launched by Barnes and Noble, Quamut is a service that offers many guides to life - their slogan is “The go to how to”.  I was immediately interested, and even had the opportunity to receive a couple of guides to read from Barnes and Noble.  Quamut refers to one of their guides as a Quamut, but in our report, I’ll be calling it a guide to dissolve most of the confusion.  …yeah, it sounds a bit weird, but I think you’ll eventually get what I was trying to say.  If not, just ignore the statement and continue.

You might think that I exaggerate when I say that a Quamut serves as the guides of life - I do not.  Quamut has guides on pretty much everything, from songwriting to fly fishing.  I received guides on Home Plumbing, Basic Cooking, as well as Buying a Hybrid Car.  While I’m not an expert on either of these subjects, and thus, can not evaluate them from that perspective, I can tell you that I did learn a lot from all of these guides to-go.  These guides to-go cost USD$2.95, but Quamut offers guides for free over the Internet.  Furthermore, a different .pdf of a guide to-go is available for a free download daily, which serves as extra incentive to check out their site regularly.  In that sense, I think they did a top-notch job in making the site very attractive.

Very Easy on the Eyes

As I scanned my Quamut guide, I noticed that the important information popped out at me - which is because Quamut took care to highlight the most important vocabulary with bolded text or in a red colour.  Furthermore, the diagrams included were  very useful in helping me build an idea of what kind of information they were trying to convey.  Although I found the text to be a bit small for my taste, I guess that’s justifiable to save on the amount of material used - plus, I know that I would much rather carry around a zippy, thin folder of information as opposed to a lugging around a huge binder.

Strictly for Newbies Only

While I did find the guides to be good reading, I also took them to an expert - Jonathan, of APH Networks, for appraisal.  To be specific, he was interested in the guide on Buying a Hybrid Car.  He did report that while the guide was generally pretty accurate, the information seemed to be tilted towards persuading the reader to purchase a hybrid car, and on occasion didn’t show both sides of the story.  For example: many negative aspects of hybrids are not mentioned - such as the effects the nickel batteries have on the environment, or how the hybrid standards have been revised since the article was written, and in fact, the article overall looks more like a promotional article for hybrid vehicles.

From the perspective of a newbie, however, I found the Quamut guide to be very informative and comprehensive.  Because the errors were relatively minor, most of the information actually made perfect sense to me, although it did take me a while to absorb the whole thing - it’s actually quite a good amount of reading, in case you were wondering.

I guess the conclusion that we arrived at was that while Quamut guides are great for newbies, they should only be read by newbies and not by any experts - however, it’s not likely that experts will flock to read Quamut guides - if they’re so knowledgeable about a subject already, why would they read a guide for newbies (unless they wanted to teach, or were very modest)?

Final Conclusion

Quamut guides: if you want to learn something, they’re probably the best place to turn to.  Quamut’s guides are generally very accurate, although experts on certain subjects will be able to find a few errors scattered here and there.  The guides are available free, so I can’t see a reason not to - and if you end up loving them as much as I did, you’d probably be compelled to purchase .pdf’s of them for $2.95 or even the quality-printed guides that can be found at Barnes and Noble.

Thanks to Madison Dunn for informing me about Quamut, and taking the time and care to mail those Quamut guides!

I’ve always been a fan of album art - when Coverflow came out, I was dazzled.  When I finally got an iTunes account and could finally get album art, I was ecstatic.

Here’s a funky site for album art, and strictly that.  No artist biographies, no music, nothing but pure, unfiltered album art.  With people guessing that album art is a dying trend (I should hope not), you better come get ‘em while you can.

http://albumart.org/

After acquiring some information from Dailytech, I’ve learned that Sony BMG is developing an all-you-can-download buffet style subscription program.   The files will be DRM-free, possibly even after the subscription has canceled.  That’s the absolutely galling part - could someone march right in there for a month and download all the songs from the Sony BMG catalog, and then cancel and never pay another dime.  …Right?

Source: http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/7696_large_Rolf%20Schmidt-Holtz.jpg

I think that it’s definitely a shame we’ve underestimated CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz and the entire Sony team to such an extent.  If they ever plan to use such a service, I highly doubt that the downloads per month (or day) would be unlimited - perhaps they will adopt a similar pricing scheme as eMusic’s.  Basically, you pay a certain price for 25 downloads per month, a higher price for a higher number.  Not a bad idea, to be honest.

The only question is if this is going to be implemented into the MusicPass program.  And to this, I really have no idea - on one hand, MusicPass looked as though it was an alternative to just CDs, but now I think it’ll be easy to spread the branding to an online store.  I hope that they have success with this DRM-free idea, as it’s going to be the way of the future.  No strings attached.

No, I know how to spell I. I just thought it’d be more interesting if I wrote it up like this, haha. Anyway, lately I’ve been getting back into the whole Internet TV thing and found a nice competitor to Joost, called Miro. Apparently, it’s been considered the Firefox of Internet TV. That’s a huge name to live up to.

I would thought that Miro’s installer came in quite a decent, acceptable size at 24.5mb. I’ve heard rumours of it being bloatware, but I figure that Miro 1.2 has stepped up the game a bit. Installation on my Vista machine was a breeze, and within five minutes of the whole process I was ready to go.

Why I tried Miro

Lately, I’ve been finding Joost very unresponsive and sluggish. To be honest, this is the case with many pieces of software out there - however, this is absolutely unacceptable when it comes to watching media, when I transform from the logical-minded blogger into the irrational, emotional, human being just enjoying a good video.

Miro works very differently in comparison to Joost - where Joost streams videos (and there might lie the problem), Miro downloads them - and even though I’ll admit it takes a while longer to download, it’s much more responsive overall and thus I can admire and appreciate that. Plus, an added goodie - some clips that are downloaded are already in .mp4 format and so can be put on my iPod Video (Glassy) for additional viewing.

Also, Miro acts as a medium for playing clips that can be found on huge video networks such as Youtube and Veoh. The quality isn’t that great, but there’s definitely a lot more material available. Ahh, so many clips to choose from.

Does it Work?

It sure does - pretty darn smoothly, in fact. I was able to download a few of their HD clips from their servers in less than half a minute, which is a great, fast time. Not as fast as real TV, but a hell of a lot faster than Joost was for me. Also, thanks to my widescreen format, the videos fit pretty nicely onto the screen - but shucks, not on the iPod’s.

There’s a huge variety of stuff available - from the tech-savvy channels to discovery. The content is interesting if the subject floats your boat, and they’re all pretty good quality.

The other movie clips you decide to download from Youtube and Veoh take an amazingly long time though - for their small sizes, they’re very sluggish (around 30.1kb/s). I’m definitely not impressed, but this can’t be helped by Miro because they have nothing to do with such a speed - they’re just the mediums, after all.

At the moment, I haven’t gone through Channels yet, but I’ll be adding that to the article soon enough.

Another interesting aspect of Miro - you can upload your own channel on there! Now I’m not sure if CutEdge is going to have its own RSS video feed on Miro anytime soon, but for all you aspiring directors and/or producers, this is a great opportunity for all of you.

Conclusion

Miro - if you’ve got more than 3Mbps connection, I’ll definitely recommend you get it. However, if you’re on the lower end of the spectrum, I suggest that you leave your computer on at night to download some of this stuff. If you haven’t got cable television (or digital cable) or just want high-quality videos to download to your computer or iPod for viewing, give Miro a try!

Visit:

http://www.getmiro.com/

http://www.getmiro.com/create/

The social networking landscape is growing bleak. With Facebook and Myspace dominating the market, developers hoping to break into this potential gold mine are forced to do it with a new approach. An example of a successful new concept being implemented into the internet would be Ning, a portal where users can create their own social networks. Recently, I came into contact with a new social network called ZLoop, and you’re just going to have to keep reading to see what sets it apart from the rest of those darned social networks. Trust me, it’s definitely interesting.

A week ago, ZLoop evangelist Mr. Brett Meyers contacted me and made me aware of a new up and coming social network, called ZLoop. ZLoop’s main feature that sets it apart from all the other social networks is called a Loop, which is essentially a group or community of people. Membership is purely invitational, which sort of limits the amount of undesirable spam users. Through the Loop, you can transfer files, hold discussions, and potentially meet new people within your Loop. Now that I’m done conveying the main idea of ZLoop to you, I want to move on to issues that you will perhaps have encountered.

Another Facebook?

After talking to a few friends about ZLoop, I was asked what the difference was between ZLoop and Facebook. I actually posed such a question to Meyers through our pre-ZLoop question/answer session. Let’s not beat around the bush - they’re both extremely similar:

• Facebook and ZLoop both use a single GUI in order to keep order and adaptability. Otherwise, a well-intentioned “theme is self-expression” mantra would end up leading to the cluttered, messy, and very disorienting space we call MySpace.
• Facebook and ZLoop are both used to replicate real life relationships - it is a Facebook faux-pas to add friends online that you don’t know in real life, and the same goes for ZLoop. In fact, I think it’s somewhat impossible to add friends that you have no connection with through ZLoop, because you won’t be able to find them.

However, this is where the differences lie:

• What kind of relationships do each focus upon?
  • Facebook suggests you join a network during the sign-up process. However, that can be completely negligible and you will probably still be able to find your friends. Thus, I’ve concluded that Facebook focuses on one-on-one relationships. Sure, there’s the network - but you don’t do anything with the people in it. Sure, there are groups - you join what you believe in, but you have no real connection with the other people in the group asides from the shared beliefs - which hasn’t kept members from becoming awfully hostile.
  • ZLoop on the other hand, rallies the network together. It is more of a community-based network instead of an individual-based one, as you are required to join a Loop in order to join ZLoop, and thus you already start off in a Loop. Even though there still could be people you don’t know, the discussions are moderated carefully by the administrators as well as members - as members are given the power to report a post. It’s much more like a forum, but it’s got a lot more functionality (ie. again with the file-sharing, event-planning, etc.).
• Privacy
  • Facebook allows you to see practically anybody’s profile in your network - as long as they don’t have privacy set up. I can’t tell you how the thought of some complete stranger reading about my hobbies and interests disturbs me - I don’t know why, it just doesn’t seem right.
  • ZLoop’s relationships are much different. There is no public wall. In fact, the relationship is very similar to a Loop with just two people in it - that way, nobody can see the conversations the two of you held, or the files you transferred, etcetera.

Hopefully, that clears up the confusion about ZLoop being another Facebook. They’re completely different, asides from having a few common, but minor traits that made Facebook famous.

Copy-Ning?

I’m embarassed to admit it, but I somehow got the impression that ZLoop and Ning were very similar. In terms of nature, they might be quite alike, as they draw communities together - but again, Ning is a networking site to meet new people with, whereas ZLoop replicates real-life relationships and takes it to an online dimension. ‘Nuff said.

Back That Loop Idea

If the Loop idea is still a bit fuzzy to you, I’m hoping this next segment will be able to clear things up a bit. To re-iterate, a Loop is a community where you replicate your online relationships. For example, you work for Company A, which has just created a Loop. Company A sells aPods, and you’re a junior designer. You join the new Company A Loop after hearing it announced at work, and then your buddy Joe tells you that he created a Loop just for Company A’s junior designers. You end up joining that Loop too. Your father tells you a few days after that he, too, has created a Loop - this time, for the family. So now, you’re in three Loops - and will probably end up in a bunch more.

Let’s stick with the Company A Loop:

• Thanks to Company A’s encouragement, everybody from Company A joins the Loop. The CEO sees that it’s time for the annual barbecue - he can:
  • Hold a conversation asking what everyone thinks of the proposed location and date.
  • Upload a .pdf file, which is an invitation showing the location and date.
  • Create an Event showing the same thing.
  • After the barbecue, display the photos on the Loop.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg - something similar could happen with the family, or with those junior designers. The Loop makes everything so much easier - it’s all in one universal location, not laid out through different forums and groups, and event-listings. And - dig this, you can join as many Loops as you want!

Privacy Protection

I’m really pleased with how far ZLoop went to protect user privacy. With all the buzz about Facebook profiles being scoped by potential employers, I figure they’d be darned if they didn’t do something about it - especially for such a social network that could end up so corporate-oriented. And so, ZLoop created their identity manager:

• Essentially, you start off with two identities: Professional and Social.
  • Your Professional identity allows you to choose what you want people that you maintain professional relationships with to see - not those embarassing photos, but your more serious side.
  • Your Social identity is the exact opposite, and lets people in on your real side.
• That’s not all - you can create more identities to serve different purposes - don’t want your company or your family to see that embarassing picture that you only want your graduating class Loop to see? Create a new Identity, and make the picture the avatar.

I’ve also already mentioned about how ZLoop doesn’t let any third-party view your profile or conversations with others, whether it be a curious friend or a scary stalker. Relationships in this case are a Loop between two people, basically. Simple enough to understand - you can hold conversations, transfer files, and do everything else you can in a Loop with that individual.

The Future

With the growing popularity of widgets, ZLoop has began development of their own widgets, called Portlets. Examples of Portlets would be the Conversation Portlet and Event Portlet that we have already spoken of. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. With the growing popularity of ZLoop comes the development of more Portlets to suit the needs of its users.

Conclusion

I’ve started a CutEdge Loop which I’d love for you all to join by visiting this URL here. By doing this, you’re not only joining the CutEdge Loop and showing your support, but also gaining access to possibly the newest revolution out there. You can then also create your own Loops, and invite family members and friends and co-workers on board.

Although I’m not sure if this CutEdge Loop idea would work - as we don’t have any real-life relationships to maintain, I have a feeling that we’ll still turn out to be a strong community - something like a set of forums, but also as a way to get new people to meet and share their ideas and opinions through conversations. I hope to be a major participant through ZLoop, if enough people join (my expectations are low, so please sign-up).

Thus wraps up my somewhat comprehensive view into ZLoop. Hopefully, I didn’t bore you half to death - I looked through my previous draft, and ended up cutting half of the material out, but still found this to be a relatively long article. I hope you do give ZLoop a try, even if not through the CutEdge Loop, which is a great way to gain access to ZLoop. Also, pardon the lack of images - there aren’t any Loops I’m part of to show you - yet. And remember - ZLoop is unique, not just another pretty Facebook or Ning.

If you want more information on ZLoop, they’ve got a great Help/FAQ page to help the non-users get started and educated.

Visit:

http://zloop.com/

http://zloop.com/help_index/

https://www.zloop.com/portal/Login.html?loopkey=cutedge&keypassword=cutedge