Archive for: api
Since Twitter’s inception, the main profile page hasn’t really changed. Conversely, other aspects of the popular micro-blogging site like the login page have. On top of physical looks, numerous actual features have been added, with the more recent (and prominent) one being geo-tagging.
A new posting on Dribble by Twitter’s lead designer, Doug Bowman, shows what is a fairly revamped UI — and a nice one at that I will add. It has that typical Mac-like styling I think. You know, the muted colors, matte finish, and rounded, soft on the eyes corners free from harsh jagged edges. I think it looks awesome.
Any official announcements as to a global rollout are no closer to us than Pluto is to being reclassified as a planet. *sigh* Don’t fret. It gives us something to look forward to.
Along with the revamped UI, Twitter is also hard at work upping the feature set. It’s no secret that they are challenging 3rd party Twitter app developers as the founders want Twitter.com to be the defacto standard, doing away with the need for individual desktop clients. Anyway you look at it, a great web portal is universal and carries over to any platform or OS unlike dedicated apps.
Needless to say, the next 12-18 months for Twitter will be some of the most interesting yet for the company and end users alike — 3rd party developers, perhaps not so much.
What are your thoughts on the new direction the styling and the company overall is going?
Switched > AlleyInsider > Mashable
Being a BlackBerry user is both rewarding and painful. One one hand, you have one of the best platforms for messaging — whatever type it is — and rock solid stability. However, on the other hand you have a platform that let’s face it, in the consumer age is falling behind faster and faster with each passing day. Just look at the BlackBerry browser — it’s a joke. RIM might as well not even include it for consumer oriented BlackBerries because it’s so slow, renders for crap, and is all around terrible. The BlackBerry platform as a whole needs some dramatic revelation.
And that is precisely why Skyfire for BlackBerry is no more. *Gasps!* Yes, that browser that was shown off a couple months back was quite a looker even in it’s beta stage. It easily beat the pants off the stock BB browser and was promising enough from early previews to even unseat Opera Mini and Bolt. But again, that may not ever be.
According to the Skyfire team, because of the unrefined and frankly, outdated BlackBerry platform when compared to more modern mobile OS’s such as Android, Windows Phone 7, and the iPhone, the BlackBerry is lacking. The biggest culprit as highlighted by the Skyfire team is the inconsistence, scattered nature of BlackBerry API’s and the downright laughable Java machine that is present.
With all of this new found time on their hands, what will the Skyfire team do to pass the team? Work on their Android port of course! Good news for Android users, not so much for Berry users. Looks like the only saving grace BlackBerry aficionados have now is waiting for RIM to rollout that webkit-based browser they’ve been so feverishly busy on.
Any of the aforementioned geeks and/or camps care to weigh in?
IntoMobile > Skyfire
- November 20, 2009 1:28 pm
Just when you thought YouTube was becoming this all knowing all loving *now HD* online video giant, they go and pull some stupid crap like revoking the rights of countless 3rd party hardware and service partners by making their API’s off limits. Specifically, the new YouTube ToS prohibit anyone from using YouTube API’s if they are “created for use on television set top boxes, television game consoles, or video screens packaged and marketed as television sets”. Wow, asshole move there isn’t it? There are a ton of 3rd parties who use YouTube’s API’s and will therefore be hurt by this newfound douchery.
Mind you, not all 3rd parties are being excluded from using the API as there are a few exceptions. So far the “few exceptions” appear to be the likes of Sony’s Playstation 3, Nintendo’s Wii, TiVo, Panasonic, Samsung, and several other licensed partners are safe. So in the end it’s all about the money again. Unfortunately that leaves many start ups and innovative services such as the now YouTube-less “Popcorn Hour” (YouTube denial pictured above) out of luck and less one highly sought after feature.
So we have to ask, is this something related to a Google-based decision, or is it because of they’re new buddy buddy relationship with the various assholes in suits big recording labels?
Engadget
One of my biggest complaints with BlackBerries, and the main reason I’ve moved on to the iPhone and soon Android is the fact that the OS feels old. Sure there are tons of themes to pretty it up, but at the end of the day even the leaked 5.0 beta is essentially the same 4.1 OS from years before. RIM is taking baby steps in the right direction however with their release of an official BlackBerry widget SDK. The widgets will pull from several languages including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Also included in this new release are widget API’s that will be able to tie into other native BlackBerry applications making the widgets even more useful. In order to take advantage of BB widgets when they do become available you’ll need a BlackBerry running OS 5.0+ as well as a browser that supports Gears, SQLite and the BlackBerry Widget APIs.
Even though I knock the BlackBerry for being the old guy in a room full of young hippies, I am excited to see how these widgets will be used and ultimately how they will look, and blend in with the rest of the BB environment. Excited?
PhoneScoop > RIM
Image Source
With all of the publicity surrounding Apple, the iPhone, Google, and the rejection of the Google Voice app from the App Store, one can understand why other platforms such as Android and BlackBerry are tooting their horns happily crying out regarding their support for the Apple shunned service. Naturally, those who are trying to catch up to the success that has rained down on Apple and the iPhone (pretty much everyone), have begun talking up the fact that Google Voice will work flawlessly on their platforms. Palm, being the fact they needs some major boosts in the popularity and monetary departments are joining in and announcing that they plan on having full and deep Google Voice integration on the Pre and future devices. The only catch….? Google isn’t even working on a full fledged Pre version of Google Voice at this point and time.
