One of the most common question I get is what are we doing with operating systems other than Windows. Most people know that the AIM core platform that my team writes is cross platform, in other words it works on Mac, Linux, and Windows Mobile operating system, and of course Windows. Even better from a cross-platform point-of-view are the Web AIM APIs, which will work everywhere.
With this in mind here are two Apple related releases to check out. The first one, TinyBuddy, is not new, but definitely a helpful little application for iPhone and iPodTouch to send quick IMs to people without incurring the SMS charges. The latest TinyBuddy version 3.20, has the following improvements:
- Better performance for large buddy lists.
- One less prompt on sign-in and first IM sent.
- Better status message display (previously it did not show status messages, just away messages).
- Better information if you are signed off because Mobile Safari suspended the page for too long (happens if you switch to another application or web page).
- Uses Dojo 1.0 for the JavaScript toolkit.
You can check out TinyBuddy here: http://x.aim.com/ty/
Last week there was an article written by John Fronckowiak, about how he built a Mac OS X Dashboard Widget for AIM Fight. Using the AIM Fight interface John built a very slick widget that not only allows you to easily fight other SNs but also shows fighting history. Check it out here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/justforfun/aimfight.html
admin AIM Fight, Mac, Open AIM AIM Fight, Mac, Open AIM
I received my Hulu.com invitation a couple of days ago and I thought I would share my initial thoughts on the technology, content and usability. First lets review what Hulu is. Hulu is a web site that is a joint venture between NBC and Fox where they distribute free ad supported video content that they own.
- Technology – Hulu is using Flash as the video player and as a result works great on Windows in Firefox or IE, and on a Mac in Safari. The player is widescreen format and the player can be popped out or made to be full screen. To use the site, I had to log in, and enter in basic profile information. This enables the ability to save viewing history and to add videos to a playlist. Both of these lists can be viewed as an RSS feed.
- Content – I was really skeptical of what was going to be offered, but was really surprised by what I found. Not only was there The Office and Family Guy, but I also found shows like Arrested Development and even Hill Street Blues. The real disappointment is that only some episodes are up on the site. Maybe they will add missing seasons or episodes at a later date, but until then, there are other sources online to find this content.
- Usability – Another pleasant surprise was how easy the player is to use, but also what features the player has. There is a simple one click info button that pops up show information including description and original air date. In addition there is a simple button to help you embed the video in a webpage.
So the unknown quotient is the advertising. The player looks like it shows when the ad break would occur, yet I saw ads get injected at other times as well. In my opinion Hulu will play well with the mainstream crowd, but as is usually the case advance users will want to take the content with them and that means finding that content via other sources.
admin Uncategorized Hulu
