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Piclens Update

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I've written about PicLens, (here and here) the immersive image technology (a browser extension) that allows you to bring up full screen images to your browser from popular web sites such as Flickr, Google Images, and Yahoo, in addition to providing a plugin that brings the same technology to your blogs. I use it sometimes as a presentation platform. I have exported to Flickr a couple of standard presentations about my school that I am sometimes asked to give, and have arranged them as sets. I have them ready for just in time type presentations and utilize the PicLens interface to "present."

Today the New York Times has an a article about Piclens. The recent update to the browser extension now provides a more immersive interface...

The software does away with the browser frame and gives the user the effect of flying through a three-dimensional space that feels like an unending hallway of images. In the future, the Cooliris designers plan to make it possible to browse text and video as well.

I am really impressed with the 3D effects. It is quite a different experience walking through a Flickr photostream using this tool. Below is a short screencast demonstration using the PicLens plugin for Firefox. (Note to Safari 3.0 users... there seems to be an issue and from their web site they are working on it...)

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Kindle Update

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Kindle Screen Shots...

I have been using my Kindle, Amazon.com's e-book and document reading device, for a few months and I thought I would post an update on the experience. I have to say I am very happy with the device. Yes, it is kind of ugly looking, Amazon does not win any design awards for the look of this thing, and yes there are some design elements that I would like to see changed in an updated version, but if you look at what it was designed to do, make it easy to access and read books and documents. I have to say it does that job better than I anticipated.

For those of you not familiar with the Kindle, the e-book reader employes a screen technology called e-ink. (To learn how it works, you can visit the E-Ink web site for an article and also a video demonstration. ) Each time a page is "turned" an electronic charge is sent to the "paper" and the image (a page, drawing, photo...) is arranged and displayed. Because the device only draws power to change a page, it has very good battery life. Also the E-Ink display is easy on the eyes. It is not backlight and is readable in bright sunlight.

Basically the Kindle is a wireless device that is connected to Sprint's EVDO network. You can access the Kindle store and purchase books anytime and they are instantly sent to the device and appear in about a minute. You can also send documents of your own to a user unique email address and have documents converted to Kindle format and sent to your device (for a fee of 10ยข) or to your regular email as an attachment where the file can be transfered via USB. Formats that can be converted include plain text, Word format and PDF.

Amazon has developed a whole web site devoted to helping you find and purchase Kindle periodicals and books. A unique aspect of Amazon's marketing of the Kindle is the employment of EVDO wireless technology to make the purchase and loading of books, periodicals and your own documents very easy. In addition you can download sample chapters to your Kindle to try before you buy. I am finding myself taking a look at many books and reading the sample chapters. Learning about books that in the past I might of just glanced at at the book store. Being able to download and read the sample chapter helps me determine if I want to purchase the book. Having the content available on a small, lightweight portable device allows me to take my Kindle with me providing me the opportunity to access reading material anywhere I go.

I also find myself putting other types of content on my Kindle. For example I use the convert document feature quite a bit. As I find articles that I wish to read (longer pieces such a magazine articles, and educational journal articles) I display them on my computer in a Print Friendly version (most sites have this feature) and choose to print them to PDF. Once the article is a PDF file I then email it to my unique Kindle address and within a few minutes the article appears on my Kindle. I also have converted several school district documents such as admin handbooks and such and have those available on my Kindle. The Kindle has a search feature that makes it easy to find particular passages or sections. Also from time to time I receive PDF versions of articles that I need to read before an upcoming admin meeting. I just forward the message with the file attachments and they appear on my Kindle.

The Kindle also has a very basic web browser. I can access web pages and content such as Google Reader and also sites such as Dave Winer's NYTimes News River (see graphic) which is a web page that displays a constant stream (via RSS) of articles posted to the New York Times web site. While navigating the web is a bit clunky on the Kindle, having that option of a web browser. Recently a few easter eggs have been discovered in the Kindle. One allows you to also use the EVDO modem with Google's My Location service to find your current location. I tried this on the train last week while traveling from Seattle to Portland and it worked well.

So all in all, I am pretty happy with my Kindle. I look forward to the next generation of this, and other ebook devices. It will be interesting to watch this product space develop over time.

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Photo Dropper

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Photo Dropper is a Wordpress plugin that allows you to easily search for and place Creative Commons licensed photos from Flickr in your weblog posts. The Plugin provides a search field within the post interface that allows you to search via key words. It provides the option of placing a small, medium or large images in your post and automatically includes the attribution.

The setup options allow you to automatically exclude images that are not commercially usable and also allows you to sort your search returns based on "interestingness."

This is something I plan to add to our school weblogs that are powered by Wordpress.

Note: Please see Paul Left's comment below regarding validation...
Creative Commons License photo credit: christopherdale

Via Read Write Web

Library of Congress Posts Image Catalog to Flickr

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My Friend Flickr: A Match Made in Photo Heaven:
Yesterday the Library of Congress announced that they are releasing close to 3000 photos from their collection to a new Flickr page. The images are such that there are no known copyright restrictions. This is just a drop in the bucket when you consider that they have close to 14 million photographs and other visual materials in their collection, but this is pretty exciting non the less. They are also allowing users to add notes and comments to the images. The image map belows show the associated data that is posted for each image.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179047660/in/set-72157603671370361

At the Vermont state fair, Rutland (LOC) on Flickr - Photo Sharing! via kwout

Playing With Audio Content on My Phone

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While experimenting with various audio sources that I can access on my iPhone, I came across an interesting site from NPR for mobile phone users. ( http://m.opb.npr.org )They have created a site optimized for viewing on a mobile phone with links to NPR radio reports that you access by dialing a phone number. Instead of streaming the story to you as you would expect via a web page connection, this interface presents you with a link to a phone number that you dial to hear the story over a phone connection. This is basically the lowest common denominator approach and is geared to more basic mobile phones and not things like the iPhone (well at least not if Apple and Adobe every get Flash working on the iPhone) or Windows Mobile devices. Below are some screen shots.

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Snap 094714-2The iPhone and the iPod Touch both will both play streaming MPEG content through the Safari web browser and many radio web sites have content in this format. For those of you interested in accessing NPR content on the iPhone or Touch via MPEG streaming you do have some options. Many NPR affiliate stations do broadcast audio streams in MPEG format which is what is needed for the iPhone and the Touch. iRadio, from Conceited Software is an application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows you to access thousands of web based radio stations. (note, your iPhone/Touch needs to be jail-broken in order to load applications...) The interface is a bit unwieldily, but it does allow you to access a large number of radio streams. I wish that iTunes on the iPhone/Touch would do this.

The BBC has optimized their podcasts for the iPhone/Touch. This article from the BBC web site, BBC Podcasts on the iPhone and iPod Touch (beta), outlines what is available. These are MP3 files that stream nicely on a wi-fi network, but don't work very well on EDGE. When you visit the BBC Podcast page ( http://bbc.co.uk/podcasts ) through an iPhone or iPod Touch you are automatically directed to a page optimized for display through Safari on these devices. Screen shots below...

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Google Maps: My Location and Navizon

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Google Maps with My Location for mobile devices allows you to approximate your location even if your phone does not have GPS capabilities. It utilizes information from your cell phone and proximity to cell phone towers to approximate your location. It works with most mobile phones and will allow you to search for places based on your current location.The video below explains how it works...

It currently is not available on the Google Maps application that comes with the iPhone but Google support indicated that is will be available soon. For iPhone users who have unlocked their phones, a similar tool from Navizon is available for download. It basically does the same thing.

For example this morning I took my daughter to an appointment. I had to wait around so wanted to grab a cup of coffee. I launched the Navizon application and it found my approximate location (within about 2 blocks....) and then I searched for "Coffee" and found a shop within just a few blocks. From my limited experience it works well in areas with a high concentration of cell phone towers. As this kind of thing gets better, the need to have a power draining GPS unit on a mobile phone will diminish.

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