tech, news, productivity, views and stuff
BBC reports on the continued growth of Facebook.
The world’s largest social networking site just got bigger with the announcement it has 300 million active monthly users from around the globe.
Facebook also revealed that it had started making money ahead of schedule.
Read more.
BBC reports
Software giant Microsoft has introduced “visual search” to its Bing search engine to try to further set itself apart from market-leader Google.
and in other news…
Google has unveiled a service called Fast Flip to let users consume news more quickly and to boost the flagging fortunes of the news industry.
The product is designed to mirror the way readers flick through magazines and newspapers.
Now you don’t need to read the news online anymore, you can just look at the pictures!
One of the nice features of Snow Leopard is the 512 pixel wide icons – can you still call it an icon.
Cult of Mac has a wonderful gallery of said icons with Leander Kahney’s commentary on the detail Apple has in these icons is almost art in itself.
All the icons for folders and apps in Snow Leopard are now drawn in glorious 512 x 512 pixels. It’s a step toward making the operating system resolution independent, and perhaps also to make Snow Leopard a touchscreen friendly OS.
But it’s also obviously done just for the art of it. These icons are real beauties. They are full of great details and little surprises. One icon contains the words to a song, visible only if you blow it up to its full size.
Music videos are once more available to YouTube viewers in the UK after the streaming site reached an agreement with songwriters’ group PRS for Music.
In March, YouTube blocked thousands of music videos to UK users, after failing to reach agreement over fees.
Read more.
Apple will (as is usual at this time of year now) be making an announcement on the 9th September 2009, which is 090909 not that I think that is significant, but it is the date in question!
Anyhow the event is called It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.
Generally at this time of year Apple announce new iPods, for example back in 2007 they announced the iPod touch.
So what can we expect to see? Well the rumours indicate that we will see new iPods with cameras including not just the touch, but all the nano and the classic.
Will we see a Tablet, hmm, I hope so, but I am not expecting too.
I have now installed my copy of Snow Leopard. I have installed it onto an external LaCie Poulton 1TB Firewire drive for my iMac.
My current OS is Leopard 10.5 and that is also installed on a (different) LaCie Poulton 1TB Firewire drive. I am using external drives as the internal drive on the iMac was a little too small for me at 250GB – when did 250GB become too small?
So far everything seems okay and Snow Leopard appears a little snappier than 10.5.
My main concern is that EyeTV 2 is not compatible and so I will need to go out and buy EyeTV 3 which means that is not such a cheap upgrade as I would hope.
Adobe CS4 should work fine, and I already have iLife 09 and iWork 09, so no worries there.
Over the next week or so I will be installing various apps to check they work before moving over my data.
The advantage of not upgrading is that I can always fall back on my previous installation if it really doesn’t work out.
Well having set up one of my new LaCie Poulton 1TB Firewire drives I am installing OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 onto it.
The external drive needed to be formatted for the OS X operating system and the partition map set up to allow me to install the OS onto it. All relatively simple with Disk Utility.
Then I set it to install, said it would take 47 minutes, wonder if those are real minutes or Apple minutes?
I ordered my copy of Snow Leopard earlier this week and was pleased to receive it on day of release at about 7.3oam this morning!
I am intending to install it on a different external drive to the one I currently run Leopard 10.5 on as a fresh install and then install my applications as and when required.
I prefer to do it this way as I don’t have to worry about crowding the drive with unused applications or filling the memory with “helper” applications for apps I don’t run.
Of course the main downside is that none of my preferences are there, so I have to “add” them all back in again.
Following on from the success of the Hood 2.0 Workshop at ALT-C last year, at this years ALT-C I shall be running another workshop, Hood 2.1 – it’s still a Web 2.0 World out there.
Background
Web 2.0 is exciting and innovative, with new services appearing almost daily. These services can incorporate social networking, video and audio production, sharing, collaboration and user-created content. Some will be useful for providing information and entertainment, some will allow us to create innovative learning activities.
This stimulating and interactive workshop will explore new Web 2.0 services that can be used to solve some of the issues facing learners.
Ideas to be explored
During the workshop participants will be shown different learning scenarios and activities that utilise a range of new and exciting Web 2.0 services.
It is expected that the workshop will utilise the newest and most exciting Web 2.0 services out there, but could include: the use of Audioboo.fm for fieldwork; using Jing to create learning resources and web reviews; and using ipadio to allow learners to create a series of work-based podcasts.
Participants will discuss and debate the Web 2.0 service and the scenarios in small groups, covering how they could be utilised within their own institutions.
The groups will also discuss how the pedagogy needs to drive the scenarios and not the technology, and address how Web 2.0 can empower learners to take responsibility for their own learning. Each group will provide feedback through either a blog entry, an audio podcast or a video presentation. These will then be made available online to allow further comment and discussion beyond the workshop, and also allow other conference delegates to participate.
Intended outcomes
The participants will have a greater understanding of the innovative role of Web 2.0 to support.They will have considered how Web 2.0 can be used to redesign the pedagogy, the curriculum, and assessment methods to secure a substantial positive impact on learning.
The participants will have presented the results of their discussion to other participants and to other delegates through the use of a variety of learning technologies and Web 2.0 services. This will allow them to understand which services are innovations of true value, rather than mere fads.
