World news comes to mobile apps

Here’s a neat new app from NetworkGlobal Companies, a sort of mobile CNN. They produce online videos, but also allow independent news outlets all over the planet to upload news material. They will bring their NGB.tv news resource library to  iPhone and iPad — likely, other mobile gadgets will jump on as time goes by.

The latest NetworkGlobal News app is free. Users can download or stream recorded news, political information and, social topic videos. NGC claims to host millions of online streams monthly with in their library. They will increase that traffic once the mobile viewing application is established. To kick off the new app, NGC will produce an official live mobile video stream of a 2010 UN General Assembly.

The entrepreneur behind NGC is 25 year-old Gunnar Larson, CEO and company founder.

Auto backup can be a reality

The most annoying thing about safe computing is trying to backup your data and files regularly and simply. It’s usually a task that requires a programmer’s logic, a guru’s insight, and the patience of Job (not Steve Jobs, the biblical guy). I have found a solution that totally turns me on – I took a look at Clickfree Products elegantly simple external hard drive automatic backup system.

About Clickfree Backup

It can take hours to hunt through your hard drive and tell windows Backup, or most other backups, what files to copy and what to ignore. Clickfree’s hard drives, USB Flash drives, DVDs and cables have a built-in bonus. When you plug them into your computer, they auto-launch a backup utility intuitive enough to go look for several hundred common file types or extensions.

You, the overtaxed user, doesn’t have to load software, configure anything, install, follow a wizard, puzzle out a schedule or otherwise frustrate yourself.

The Up Side of Clickfree Backup

• The designs are sleek, durable, and attractive. I used the C2N Automatic Family Backup in white (also available in purple, red, blue). It has a nice modern profile and sits in a USB dock with a very small footprint.
• It’s as easy as playing a music CD. Plug C2N in to a power source or use the included USB power cord. Connect to your computer with included cable. Storage from a few gig to 500 gig.
• No user input required. When they say automatic, that’s exactly what they mean.
• Fast. Total backup accomplished in under ten minutes. You can backup, transfer, restore data or store images, music, other files.
• Controllable. You can set preferences to your taste.
• Simple restore.
• Reasonable price points.  Thumb drives from $9.99 and external drives from about $100 to $169, including dock.

Down Side of Clickfree

• Enclosed documentation and instructions are in a font so small as to be next to invisible.
• The units will not work automatically if connected through a USB hub, even if it’s a powered hub. That information is not clearly indicated in the documentation. It took me about half an hour to figure it out, and I was frustrated.
• Unit must be removed from the dock in order to be powered down, unless you disconnect the whole set up. A bit clunky.

Clikfree Bottom Line

This is a product we liked a lot. There are many gadgets claiming to be easy, simple, and effective, but this one is for real. To date, my storage brand of choice has been Sandisk, a great company, but I have to make room for Clickfree. The auto backup thing is a real time and energy saver, appealing to my low frustration levels.

Other good reads:

Review: ViewGuard privacy filter

HTML5 for everyday computing

Save your eyes, your secrets, and your display

Whether you’re retired and journaling on your computer or still working and longing for privacy at your office desk, ViewGuard is a product that might make your computing environment more secure. I had a chance to try out ViewGuard Anti-Glare Privacy Filter. My test results surprised me.

I work from home, so there aren’t lots of people around. Still, as a writer, I sometimes work on sensitive material that should remain private. I work in the middle of my living on a laptop. Or I work at my desktop in my non-private home office. Sometimes I’ve wondered if I should turn all the monitors to the wall, or just give up.

Trying the Intelligen ViewGuard Anti-Glare Privacy Filter

I installed the filter in about two minutes, using enclosed directions (printed in several languages). It’s a matter of carefully opening the glassine envelope and extracting the filter. I was careful not to slime it full of fingerprints, though an anti-static, non-abrasive cleaning cloth is enclosed. Laying the filer against the monitor screen, I applied four small, clear, self-adhesive tabs on the frame of my laptop display to hold the filter in place.

Next step, turn on the laptop and explore. The size was nearly perfect for my wide-screen. I could see the display from straight on, but people around me could not. From an acute angle, they saw portions of the screen, darkened. From an obtuse angle, the screen was as black as though it were turned off.  No casual onlooker could observe what I worked on.

Benefits of ViewGuard Anti-Glare Filter

• Total privacy for your computing.
• Overhead or peripheral glare is reduced or eliminated, and the manufacturer claims reduction of UV damage.
• Medical personnel, sales people, government employees, or anyone who works with sensitive data can work securely. Personal correspondence or writings remain personal.
• Protects display against scratches, permanent finger marks, and other damage.
• Prices start at under $15.
• Variety of sizes means no cutting or adjusting necessary. It’s kind of plug and play.

Drawbacks or the downside of ViewGuard

• Reduces image contrast. Quick fix may be to increase your display’s brightness.
• Fingerprints pretty easily.
• Sticky tabs have to be glued (self adhesive) to your computer display’s frame. Unclear whether removing them will cause a problem.
• Scratches if in contact with rough surfaces, but is easily replaced and cost-effective.
• Size is not perfect fit. A tiny line of unprotected display appeared at the top of the screen, and felt awkward.

Bottom line – ViewGuard

I’m not a government employee, nor am I subject to HIPPA regulations when I work most of the time. Still, I am enjoying a more secure sense of privacy as I work with my laptop. I’m seriously considering purchasing another ViewGuard privacy filter for my desktop monitor, and am looking forward to seeing the company develop a filter for outdoor computing. This Intelligen product is useful, easy to work with, affordable, and practical.

Lots of digital savvy grands like their smart phones, but some baby boomers have pared down t he amount of connectivity they have. For those who like the information superhighway but want to keep it under control, there’s a new gadget called WikiReader. The tiny, capable, fascinating digital reader, the WikiReader, might be worth a look.

I had the chance to try one out.

WikiReader’s Good Points

1. The unit is quite small, like the size of a deck of cards, maybe, but square with rounded corners. Comfortable to use.
2. It has a pretty good display, with fair resolution, that can be seen indoors and outdoors.
3. Comes loaded with content – and the content can be free or upgraded to a pay subscription. The free is more than adequate, the pay version is fun, adding languages, dictionaries and other perks.
4. There are parental, or grandparental, controls.
5. Very simple. You select, read, review your history, or get random pages with one touch selection. I like the random stuff. Being a pretty random person, it suited me. I’m a Stumbleupon addict, so this felt good. Click and it brought me something to read I had never seen before.
6. Price point is as low as under $100.

WikiReader Weaknesses

• It’s a one-trick pony. Good for bringing your current events and encyclopedia type info.
• Not rechargeable. It runs, the maker says, for up to one year on two included triple A batteries, but nonetheless, it needs disposable or rechargeable batteries. Not very green, right?
• Fatiguing for long reading sessions. If the big-guy electronic readers are suffering a lag in popularity, this gadget may never get off the ground.

WikiReader Bottom Line

WikiReader is not exactly new. It’s been around a year or two, but has not taken off the way it’s backers would have liked. The team is now marketing heavily to us, the baby boomers who embrace tech and gadgets. Not a bad move since we tend to be pretty mobile and travel a lot. This gadget can slip into purse, pocket, briefcase, or suitcase and give you an edge in pulling info when you travel.

It’s a fun toy and a novelty that will set you in the early adapter echelon. For a few bucks, it’s probably worth the buy if you really like to keep up.

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Interesting things are happening at YouTube, now owned by Google. The cloud, cloud computing, is trying to be a big deal though it’s seems to start and stop. But this could be a shot in the cloud. Google says YouTube’s new editing tool allows users to manipulate video online, FREE.

Apparently there’s no complicated software download and a very shallow learning curve. You can be up and running, editing your video clips in the cloud to your heart’s content. YouTube Video Editor has a vast library of borrowable tracks to enhance your work and add some fun. You’ll need to register a free account to use the tools – all it wants is your name and email address.

Take a look, give it a try, and see if you can create your own cool portfolio of videos online. If that appeals, don’t forget to take a look at Animoto, as well.

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Display the World Wide Web with HTML5

If you follow tech news, you’ve heard a bucketful about the virtual war between Apple and Adobe (makers of FLASH) over web design. Apple supports adopting HTML5 and Adobe still says FLASH is the thang. What’s it all about? Money and sales, of course, but here are some facts about how HTML5 may relate to your Internet experience in the near future.

Definitions HTML5 and FLASH

HTML is hyper text markup language, a fancy way of describing the coding tags web designers have used since the dark ages of webpages to make plain old text look fancy. HTML causes a browser to display specific or general colors, fonts, text styles, images, links, and everything else that goes into making webpages cool. HTML is part of the web page, a container for design elements.

FLASH is Adobe’s add-in program that causes web browsers to interpret video, animation, special effects, and interactivity. It was invented by Macromedia, a property of Adobe who makes Photoshop and other imaging software.

Like all things digital, HTML (and FLASH) goes through various iterations of itself as the powers-that-be adopt changes and improvements. The coming generation, being fiddled with now but not in wide use, is HTML5. Because the two platforms overlap in functionality, there’s an ongoing debate about which is better, HTML5 or FLASH, for cell phones, computers, etc. Apple’s Steve Jobs (CEO) is a master of calling attention to his company and so, has made it his hobby to bash FLASH and Adobe. This has no impact on us, as people.

The 10 facts about HTML5

I’ve been writing HTML code since, I don’t know, like 1998? and I like it. It’s easy to write, easy to use, and it’s an open-source platform. That means no one owns or controls HTML. So here’s how HTML5 will impact your coming experience.

1. Any designer, including you or me for our home pages, can do stuff like liquid particles without much learning curve.
2. Web users won’t have to download new versions of HTML5 like we do FLASH. Designers have to keep up on new tags. You just browse.
3. It won’t cost you anything to use it, write it, read it.
4. FLASH may have serious security issues. It’s doubtful that would ever be the case with HTML as a platform
5. HTML should be transparent to users (you and me) and has the potential to be read in any browser or adopted by any cell phone manufacturer.
6. Because it’s open source, it’s development as a platform will gain from contributions of some of the world’s brightest developers. No one has to hire them. The developers just contribute. We win.
7. Browsers will be backwards compatible – meaning old browsers will ignore new HTML5 tags they don’t understand and still provide you a usable website experience.
8. Embedding video in web pages will be easier and standardized so you can add video to your blog or page, play it on any browser, and enjoy more of it.
9. It may become possible for us to have web applications that run offline even if you do not have an active Internet connection running.
10. There will probably be lots more gadgets or mini-apps on the Web, just like those found for cell phones now, that you’ll be able to download and play with. Many will be free.

HTML5 vs Flash

At the end of this story is a simple fact. Right now, HTML5 isn’t doing much for you, but behind the scenes it’s maturing like a toddler in a growth spurt. Right now, browsers mostly don’t know what to do with it. Developers for Microsoft’s IE, the most ubiquitous web browser, need a swift kick in the template to get them moving on adopting HTML5 as current reality.

Safari is onboard, others are partially onboard.

FLASH is FLASH and it’s insecure, and can cause display problems.  Adobe seriously needs to tighten up FLASH and make it safer and more stable.

The future isn’t here yet, but HTML5 will be in it, and really, I can’t wait. In all likelihood, you and I will never make a webpage with FLASH, it’s too complicated. I can write HTML all day long and enjoy the process, and so could you if you picked up one reference book. I think HTML will be fun for designers and for users.

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Magic U.S. money - high tech changes

In 2011 you might be lucky enough to carry one of the most sophisticated currencies in circulation. The U.S. will, according to CBS News, change the one hundred dollar bill to do some virtual legerdemain. The casual observer may think her eyes are playing tricks on her as a liberty bell disappears from the face of the bill.

A CBS News report says:

Benjamin Franklin is still on the $100 bill, also known as C-note, but he has been joined by a disappearing Liberty Bell in an inkwell and a bright blue security ribbon composed of thousands of tiny lenses that magnify objects in mysterious ways. Move the bill and the objects move in a different direction.

Little liberty bells will change shape and appear to move. Various icons will color shift. Symbols will appear and disappear. Was this all about designers having a great time showing off their latest magic tricks?

It sounds pretty slick to us. The idea is to make sure counterfeiters are strongly challenged if they try to replicate that bill. Is it foolproof? Maybe not, after all, anything someone can think up, someone else can hack. But it’s an interesting use of technology. The question is, we suppose, is it an effective use of money, even hundred dollar bills, when our economy is still struggling and the U.S. budget groans with the staggering weight of Federal debt?

Guess it doesn’t matter. It’s a done deal. Do you think it’s a prudent move? After all, the hundred is nearly the only bill that hasn’t been duded up in the last ten years. the other is the single and it won’t be changing. Talk to us – what do you think about all this?

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Tooling around the web I found some fascinating tidbits about Nintendo. My quest began when I browsed the editorial calendar from one of the publications I write for. It said Nintendo, the company, was founded in 1889. It’s been around almost a century and a quarter. Digital trivia I needed to know more about, and I was surprised by what I learned.

Nintendo (the word, says the company website, means something like “Leave luck to heaven” in Japanese) originally made card games. Later, according to Wikipedia, they dabbled in being a taxi company, a TV Network, an instant rice maker, and what is carefully described as a “love hotel.”

Now, they’re mega-players in one of Japan’s busiest industries, electronic gaming. They own the Seattle Mariners baseball team and are worth almost $100 billion.

Before Nintendo wowed the world with two guys, Mario and Luigi, they owned Japanese distribution rights to a video game system most baby boomers will remember, Magnavox Odyssey, often considered the world’s first home video game system. Odyssey was first demonstrated in May, 1973 (again, according to Wikipedia). I recall clearly playing Light Tennis until my eyes went glassy and I had to pee so badly it felt like my teeth were floating.

The first NES game system debuted in the U.S. in 1985 – accompanied by Super Mario Brothers, still a hands-down favorite among serious game enthusiasts. If you think back, you’ll recall that it came with the light gun and Duck Hunt, too, an amazing feat of electronic wizardry for its time.

From manufacturing cards to swamping the electronic home game industry with the innovative Wii system in 2007, Nintendo has come a long way. They’re winding up to pitch a 3D handheld DS game this year, and keep tossing out new ideas all the time like a program to integrate DS game decks into school curricula.

Leave luck to heaven might well be the company motto. Skill and business sense seem to be where it’s at for this firm that employs about 4,000 people in more than half a dozen countries. You go, Mario.

Read more:

Nintendo for baby boomers

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Edit your videos FREE

DIY videos good and cheap

Animoto.com is an online do-it-yourself video production program so easy your grandchildren could absolutely create their own videos. It’s effortless and affordable. We found it fun and quick enough that the shortest attention span can hold out during the production process.

For free trial use go to the site and clicked on the get started link. We found seven options to make shorts, full-length, unbranded video and four kinds of greeting cards. We got an immediate nudge for upgrading to a paid subscription, but hey, they’re in business to make money. Once you buy a membership – you can begin creating videos. We chose the All Access level and decided to make an unbranded, short video.

We found we could turn photos or clips into a 30 second video the one featured above, with storytelling text. The site is straight forward and easy-to-use. We uploaded still images from our computer to the site. You can use your own images, select from Animoto’s stock library or retrieve from another website like Flickr, Facebook, Picassa. You’re responsible for monitoring copyrights on your own. In other words – use only material you have rights to.

Once we uploaded, the amount of time required was governed by length and resolution of the videos or stills. Animoto allows 8-15 elements (clips or images) in shorts. We chose four still images, typed a little text  and clicked. Animoto took us to background music selection, the  we gave the video a title and short description. Our video processed, analyzed and rendered, letting us know what it was doing each step of the way, for about 60 seconds. Then Animoto began actual production, showing us in color animation what it was doing. I was interested in following the progress over one and a half minutes it took to complete the video.

When finished, Animoto loaded the do-it-yourself video into the page and emailed me a copy. I didn’t have to keep the browser open. You can go do something else, or start another video in the meantime. The end result was attractive, high quality video in less than ten minutes. This process is slick and appealing. You can produce videos for your social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – or email them to friends and family. They would be suitable for showing customers your entrepreneurial products, or for sending a video resume to employer prospects.

An enterprising person could buy the pro-quality level and start a business producing wedding or family videos for profit. Animoto has been around for about three and a half years and began as a consumer level product. It has expanded to serve photo professionals and will increase its capabilities this year. Bottom line – we couldn’t find anything to complain about. The prices are justifiable, the quality outstanding, the process simple and fast. We recommend you give it a try. My partner, not easily impressed, said, “This is actually totally cool.”

Price points:

Pro account $249 annual subscription – produce unlimited length, unbranded, commercially licensed high res videos. Three months for $99.

All access: $30 per year. Unlimited full length greetings and videos for the price of an evening at the movies. Finished product has the Animoto brand name on it with music video style credits on it indicating your name as producer. It’s like watching real music videos and there are awesome embellishments available. Animoto will provide a downloadable MP4 file for $5 or a DVD for $20. If you can’t find a use for this product, you’re not a photo enthusiast.

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