FreakZion

APPLE: The TV Pie is divided into slices, ..Hulu?, iTunes?

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:54:00 +0000

Comcast, Dish TV, Canal Satellite, DirectTV, , Cable Tvs all around the world,....what is the future of all these Tv Companies??. World is in continuous change and the revolution in the media and entertainment around the TV has new rules. The rules of interaction, the rules of choice, the rules of everywhere/Anywhere, contents related, comments, content scoring..., and so many more new rules to follow..

It is the a new ERA, not just the era of the TV but the tablet PC, the phone, any other screen device, and the TV cable cannot keep being as it is and that is when companies as Hulu, Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, etc are getting a great success, ..although hulu is still not profitable.

The big online companies as Amazon are getting strong into this business, GoogleTV (in my opinion the winner in 1 year from now), and Apple??. Is apple just going to stay with the actual AppleTV??. ..no Way!!

We all know how Apple has revolutionized everything they have done, from the mac, iPod to the iPad, and now is time for TV!!!. Long time ago, in september 2006 Apple launched AppleTV. A new concept, as usual for them, and this time for online movie streaming, ..more than 5 years ago!!. Yes Roku was created in 2002 but not until 2008 came with the product that we now know. Netflix starting in the streaming video seriously in 2008.., so again Apple was ahead in time. And what is Apple doing to compete with GoogleTV??

Google is in every field and of course GoogleTV is going to be a great revolution, but my friends, Apple has already a quite awesome video streaming player with best graphical interface ever, selling movies though iTunes but missing something. It misses a Hulu, a netflix, a amazon concept. Monthly subscription with many, many show and movies in the catalog.

That is the reason why Apple is biding for Hulu, ..at least that is one of the candidates (vudu is always in the point of view of Apple). Apple has already entered in the biding war for Hulu. The best of Hulu??. Its show catalog, ..something that Apple misses although counting with two and a half men in the catalog!! :)

Actually, apple just finished a test that shows how desirable a company as Hulu is for their business. The test was based in a 99 cent TV episode rentals using content from FOX and NBC. That test ended on Friday. the results?? lack of demand!!. Why pay 99 cents a Tv episode when you pay 7 dollars a months and watch the whole "Lost" show at Hulu???. Yes, true, with some commercials, but the whole 6 seasons!!!.

Actually, who want to pay more than 35 dollars to watch a whole season of two and a half men or desperate housewives??.

Why people is quitting cable TV??, ..not to pay 150 dollars??. Yeah, that is the reason, so don't come up with a budget of that amount to enjoy nice tv watching!!. The future?? A monthly subscription to watch shows, and just pay for special events and new movies. If in one year from now I am wrong i plewase ask everybody to insult me in this post!!!.

Is Apple Ready??, No it is not yet. As i said GoogleTv is going to win the best Assault, but the second assault within USA will be for Apple and in 3 years Apple will be the most profitable in the world...

I seem that i am a MAC people but let me tell you that i just bought a Roku instead of AppleTV. So call me realistic, ..in less than a year i will be using appleTV device though..

FIGURES: Steve Jobs Leave his position at APPLE CEO

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:36:00 +0000

Once upon a time we had a great personage, an intrepid person who changed the world, not because its IT knowledge, but because his IT Vision. His name, ..Steve Jobs, the guy that will always be related to a fruit, ..to an apple, but who revolutionize the IT world!!.

Many people may disagree if Androis is better than IOS, that Lion is better than windows 7, etc., etc., but nobody, and repeat, nobody can disagree about the idea that Steve Jobs was the inventor of windows before microsoft windows came to life, the mouse inventor, the actual way to interact with mobile phones, the tablet PC genius, ...and of course the best commercial person in the whole world!!. ....and in case that somebody my have missed it he is the genius behind the best 3D movies ever because he started Pixar studios when he bought the computer division of Lucasfilm.

I will never forget when i studied one year at University of Miami and could compare a 1984 mac agains a 1984 PC. It is like take a great highway (mac) instead of local road(PC)...

Why PC and wintel got to beat Mac??, ..yeah ,that happened, believe me. The reason is very, very simple: Compatibility and third party developments. Meanwhile all the software for MAC was very, very controlled by apple, ..windows "open platform" that could be installed in many PCs contribute many companies to make a lot of money and so for to make this OS very popular (money will unfortunately rule this world...:( ).

But Steve Jobs came back with the iPod!!!, a revolutionary way of listening to music, and the iTunes store!! (hmmm... the idea of stores where many developers, groups and companies could sell their product has been the success of Apple, among their patents and Jobs great ideas!!).

But nobody is immortal and forever young, ...a great song from alphaville, so today steve has announced that he will leave CEO position, he will passed the baton, to Tim Cook!!, Apple's former COO.

Will Tim o a great job at apple??. He is a pattionate person, an stoppable worker, who starts sending emails at alms 04:15 every morning and who has sunday night-s conference calls with his team to prepare the week.

He is a money saver, he is a healthy person with a strong spirit, a hard and strict boss..no doubt about that as well as Steve was. But he is missing one thing, one little thing. The dream spirit of jobs!!.

What will happen to Apple, ..a new ERA??. Still Steve will be as Chairman of Apple executive board so he will be taking care go the fruit..., ..but for how long???

I wish some people could be forever young..., and i include myself

News: Touchpad became a best seller, from cinderella to miss world

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:16:00 +0000

This would be the Touchpad Story who turned the HP to become as a bestseller as the apple gadget.....

The dream of the rich HP was to compete in the tablet world, and as HP felt that her new product should come to life to continue being number 1 hardware seller, she called her only tablet to her bedside and said, "Dear pad, be good and pious, and then the good God will always protect you, and I will look down on you from heaven and be near you."

Thereupon she blessed the pad and send it to every retail store. Every day the maiden went out to stand on the desk, and wept, and she remained pious and good. When mid summer came the Touchpad remained in the same place...

The TouchPad was not alone in the Desk, She had two sisters, ipad2 and galaxy tab 10.1, who were beautiful and fair of face, and expensive as the tochpad. Now began a bad time for the poor step-child. "Is the stupid goose to sit in the parlor with us," they said. "He who wants to eat bread must earn it. Out with the kitchen-wench." Customers passed by and although notice that touchpad were there, ...they size and the materials were not as nice as the sisters..

"Just look at the proud princess, how decked out she is," they cried, and laughed, and led her into the dark side of the desk. There she had to do hard work from morning till night, get up before daybreak to warmup, light the colors up, surf and run the marvelous webOS. Besides this, the sisters did her every imaginable injury . In the evening when she had worked till she was weary she had no where to go to, but had to sleep on the top of the shelf as the warehouse was packed of unsell touchpads. And as on that shelf she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her Cinderella.

It happened that the store owner was once going to the fair, and checked how the touchpad could be sold, ..at least one of them...

"Beautiful user experience and speed," is what he thought about the Ipad2, "open software, thin body, and precious future" saw on the Galaxy

"And you, Cinderella," what will i do with you???

"What about a disc out of the 100 bucks??"

So he still thought about the beauty of the iPad and the body and camera of the Galaxy, ..and for you Touchpad, ..now you are cheaper!!. Cinderella thanked him, went to her HP and settled the discount idea, and wept so much that the tears that fell down on made HP to reduce the price in all the touchpad, in all the retail stores.

It happened that the HP king gave orders for a festival which was to last three days (a weekend), and to which all the beautiful thick touch pads in the country were invited, in order that the customer could have a cheaper device (400 for 16gb and 500 for 32gb). When the two tablet-sisters heard that they too were to appear among cheepers tablets, they were worried but also delighted about the competition, called Cinderella and said, "better include more software in the webOS store, brush ur screen and be watching our better sped, for we are going to become the best sellers even in the king's palace."

Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because she too will go with them to the dance...

"You go, Cinderella, covered in dust and dirt as you are, and would go to the festival. You have no Skype or shazam, and yet would dance." As, however, Cinderella went on asking, the HP said at last, "I have ready the webOs store and the 3.0.2 SDK, ..if developers build more than 400000 as for iPad or 250000 as for android, ...then you may become the queen of the festival"

...poor cinderella, not a good multitasking OS and the new price could make her compete with her hots tablet sisters....

...HP couldn't compete with Apple and Samsung??, ..it was time for quitting??. ...Yes, that was the decision but not with a final surprise!!. The price was not reduce by 100 this time, ...but that was 100. No more dust, no more working to continuously show that the bulky plastic dress and the thicker figure could look sexy!!. Cinderella became cheap??, ..YES, but also became HOT???.

5 times less the price of the sisters. You could always install android in the TouchPad (you can do it in a nook (a cousin of the tablets), why not in touchpad??....., actually webOS is cool, nice user experience as the IOS!!. OK OK, not all the applications available for it, ...but why do you need 400000 apps???. Do you have space and time for all of them???

Yes Cinderella turned into the Pricenss, the supermodel go the Festival!!!. And "Colorin, Colorado, this story has ended!!"

TIPS: Buy an IMAC this week!!

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Wed, 04 May 2011 03:18:00 +0000

As said last week here we have the new Imacs!!. No changes on the outside, I repeat that Steve Jobs loves the actual design, although it is also true that the apple's guys are coming with a new design which will appear along the year, ..stay tuned after summer and closed to the end of the year. For Summer we have the Mac OS X Lion, and very, very soon iphone V (I know that MR Jobs says that there is no competition in Pads and mobile phones for Apple, ...but I just changed my samsung galaxy to a Galaxy II and believe me that i am just flipping out!!, ..better mobile phone at this moment, period, ..so Iphone V must appear in the ring right now and not another Iphone in a new colour, period again).

A lot of changes in the inside. 3x faster graphics, up to 1.7x faster processors, the sandy intel bridge and of course, the thunderbolt port (remember that is 12 times faster than with FireWire 800!!) (1 for the smallest in the family and 2 for the 27 inch one). ....

Your apps are smoother than ever and playing to call of duty and funny portal in the 27 inch screen it is just a must!!.

Also facetime with your collegues in the new HD Camara.

To check more about the new IMAC, as usual, check the apple site

Bright Ideas: Terminator??, Predator??, ..and without kinect

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 01:26:00 +0000

Let me share how good programming and clever ideas can achieve something as cool as this development, ....and without kinect technology!! :)

That recalls me about a project at University of digital imaging to seek for speed limits in the highways!!.

TIPS: Do not buy an IMAC this week

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:33:00 +0000

..Yes just don't buy an IMAC this week!!, and I don't say it just because I don't like Imacs, or Apples, or Steve Jobs, or because Sony Vaios is paying me for this, or because I work for Adobe, ...I just ask you to wait for next week's Wednesday/Thursday when the new Imac is appearing on the Apple Store closest to you.

What the new Imac brings??. For sure the Thunderbold Ports, the new Intel Sandy Bridge processors, better Graphics, ..and I have heard a thinner screen which I personally do not belive because Steve Jobs just loves the IMAC design and is very proud about it, as well as Macbook Air and Ipad 2.

What if you buy an IMAC online these days??. Well, we all know how good Apple take care of their clients so most surely they will return to you with a new Imac, ..actually Apple just keep stocked previous version gadgets for replacements and just put in the market the new versions.

One week goes fast...

Mobile Programming FrameWorks: Rhodes

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 04:38:00 +0000

Since my last posts are populated with references about mobile programming APPs, what the future brings and how the paradigm Browser Apps Vs OS Apps is changing a lot, I have been asked what Mobile programming frameworks are out there. There are already more some, as you can imagine, but still the market is wide opened for new releases and new opportunities for Frameworks.

The most intuitive and as the same time powerfull, although is more oriented to "Web Based Apps" is Rhodes, also called Rhomobile. ..and please let me be specific, I said "more oriented to Web Based Apps" which doesn't mean you can build any kind of App because supports geolocation (GPS), PIM contacts and camera, and more

It is based in the approach "Build once, deliver in different Systems" and using techniques as HTML5 and Javascript, ...lenguages and markup languague that almost anybody knows. What is underneath Rhodes?? ..Ruby, Ruby and even more Ruby!!. Of course you can also use Ruby in your programming.

They claim that the develoment of a new APP takes 1/5 of building it nativily with another programming languages and as an example they talk about Wikipedia c-based Iphone App, ...when they found out about Rhodes, they re-wrote it using Rhodes framework minimizing the lines of code to 1/5 of the original C-based Development.

As usual a video worths more than thousand words:

And also take a quick peek at these tutorials.

Time to continue hard work!!

HTML5: Maqetta, Visual authoring of HTML5

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:12:00 +0000

Dojo and IBM, IBM and Dojo, ...I have mentioned many times the "love" that IBM feels about Dojo (will Dojo be bought by IBM??, IBM and Dojo working together, etc) and now IBM comes with Maquetta!!. It has been shown during Impact 2011 IBM Conference and I must admit is a great tool for bussiness software development environment, ..and moreover if you integrate it with powerfull Portal Server by IBM.

But, hey, what does all has to do with DOJO?. Hmmmm, maybe that is the new project from Dojo Foundation!! :). Remember that IBM is part of DF as well as SUN, Google, Tibco, Orange..., ..although the real two lovers for Dojo are IBM and Google (google is everywhere, ..everywhere).

And now, What is Maqetta??. Ok, let me use the definition from Dojo Foundation "Maqetta is an open source project that provides WYSIWYG visual authoring of HTML5 user interfaces. The Maqetta application itself is authored in HTML, and therefore runs in the browser without requiring additional plugins or downloads". I have tried a bit last two days and it makes just life easier, ..always that you think in a "components within apps" way. Maybe for a little portal is not that usefull but it is the best solution for a big company!!.

Which are Maquetta features??:

A WYSIWYG visual page editor for drawing out user interfaces
Drag/drop mobile UI authoring within an exact-dimension device silhouette, such as the silhouette of an iPhone
Simultaneous editing in either design or source views
Deep support for CSS styling (the application includes a full CSS parser/modeler)
A mechanism for organizing a UI prototype into a series of "application states" (aka "screens" or "panels") which allows a UI designer to define interactivity without programming
A web-based review and commenting feature where the author can submit a live UI mockup for review by his team members
A "wireframing" feature that allows UI designers to create UI proposals that have a hand-drawn look
A theme editor for customizing the visual styling of a collection of widgets
export options that allow for smooth hand-off of the UI mockups into leading developer tools such as Eclipse.
Maqetta's code base has a toolkit-independent architecture that allows for plugging in arbitrary widget libraries and CSS themes.

Maqetta works on any HTML5 compatible browser and so it works also in mobile devicesm, you know.. iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry.

I have to admit that I am pretty excited with Maqetta going finally life, although is still in Preview Version, because we now have an OpenSource solution fighter in the war between Microsoft Silverlight and Macromedia Flash/Flex.

Sooooo Jquery...., run, Forrest, run!!.

This weekend has been awesome for myself but unfortunalty not for everybody, ..such is the case of Norio Ohga who has passed aways this past saturday at the age of 81. He has been king of Sony Reign since 1994 and thanks to him Sony changed from an analog electronic company to what it is right now, a Multimedia Holding. If tha playstation exists is because him.

Mobile: Build your Own Android App

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 03:15:00 +0000

I still remember those years when a single person could manage to be a site webmaster or the application developer, ...those marvellous times i must say. Now the software management involves a big team to build a robust application, ..the engineer, the designer, the architect, the ...., ...OMG, it seems we are in the middle of a building construction!!.

Hopefully Mobile devices has made possible again that dream, the dream of programmers building quick and fun applications that are used by tons of final users or customers!!. At the same time, thanks to how the apps and the developing techniques has standarized, Non Experts Programmers build Apps!! ....something very similar to easy visual basic applications in Windows but much more powerfull. What the heck am i Talking about??. The crazy guys from google came up with a great fun idea called the APP Inventor!!.

What can you do with that tool?. Many, many,interesting stuff. For example programm in a visual way examples like these:

Placing shortcuts in your mobile phone to call any of your friends. Ff course with the picture of ur pal.
Click on a locator icon in your desktop which will prompt you to type a name from your current location and will remember it for you. Then just use google map to check your favourites locations.
Everytime you receive a text message, depending on the title or the sender, you can send a message back preformatted.
Check the time or weather in your x favorites cities in the world.

and all this without almost no coding at all. How??. check the video:

And this little tutorial:

Hey, of course if you want to do a neat, elegant and more sophisticated application for Android, then you must get your hands on the android's SDK

What's next??. Will be able to program not even using our hand, just with our brain, thoughts or vision??, ..getting there, getting there: IPMS show world first OLED microdisplay based Eyetracking HMD at SID-2011

Have a nice thursday!!.

Mobile: The Forum Solution

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:29:00 +0000

Is sometime going to start the good weather in Boston again??. That is the main question of today but the second question is:

If Sepelka, that is me, said yesterday that web browsers are going to be overtaken by Apps, what about all the interesting Disussion Forums that are on the web??. People will remain using web browsers to access to them, ..or not??

Hmmm, sure!!. First of all web browsers are there and will be there forever because is the way to access to tons of informations, sites, etc. But It is also sure that if a Forum is as standard "Concept" as a Blog, ..why not use an APP to read Posts from different topics in different Forums??. An App is fast, help you minimize the data downloaded and most of all is FUN!!.

One of the best solution in the market is Tapatalk.

It is a mobile solution for online comminities and specially design for discussion forums and its success is based on 2 main reasons.

OS Compatibility. It works for:

Android
Iphone
WebOS
Windows Phone 7
BlackBerry

Forum Systems which are supported:

phpBB 3.0.x+
vBulletin 3.6.x+
xenForo 1.0.x+
Invision Power Board 3.x+
Simple Machine Forum 1.1.11+

Even you can create you own development to integrate your forum tech with Tapatalk thanks to the API, ..or to build your own Tapatalk if you wish!!.

So the possibilities offered by Tapatalk are really huge and very intuitive to use. For example to add forums to you mobile favourite gadget just use the browser which comes with Tapatalk and select any of the 10000+ forums. Save them to favourite and you will access to them as fast as with one click.

Want to check the latest posts??. No problem, no matter from which forums they may come from your list of favourites, they are all.

Want to know which post has you read already??. The same as any web discussion forum, you will know if you just went over it or not.

...and remember "you just get the posts to your APP!!!", so forget about downloading commercial banners of heavy data from the source disccusion Forum site :)

....A song reminding that Today is the beginning of the new weather, ...or at least that is my wish!!

JS FrameWorks: Jquery for Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:40:00 +0000

Hey guys. I cannot say I am back and actually i am busier than ever, even giving a try to my younger dream, ..play the electric guitar and here i write by my Fender Stratocaster, such a good guitar for an apprentice as me, ..but faith is the last thing to lose :)

We all know that the PC platform, as we use to know it, has a short life in future and all these "new" devices as Pads, Smartphones, Smart TVS, and in general any gadget with the "Smart" word on it are changing the way we live, ..more than we can or could ever think they would. Of course the javascript frameworks are aware of this.

A good example of course is Jquery, which is about to release the official version 3 in some weeks. It works in any of these Browsers/OS:

Apple iOS (3.1-4.2): tested on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
Android (1.6-2.3): all devices, tested on the HTC Incredible, Motorola Droid, Google G1 and Nook Color
Blackberry 6: tested on Torch and Style
Palm WebOS (1.4): tested on Pre, Pixi
Opera Mobile (10.1): Android
Opera Mini (5.02): iOS, Android
Firefox Mobile (beta): Android

...by the way Opera mini has my thumb up as browser for slow connections!!.

What are the features of JQuery for Mobile??. Well as the state in their webpage:

Built on jQuery core for familiar and consistent jQuery syntax and minimal learning curve
Compatible with all major mobile platforms - iOS, Android, Blackberry, Palm WebOS, Nokia/Symbian, Windows Mobile, bada, MeeGo with baseline support for all devices that understand HTML
Lightweight size (12k compressed for all mobile functionality) and minimal image dependencies for speed.
HTML5 Markup-driven configuration of pages and behavior for fast development and minimal required scripting.
Progressive enhancement approach brings core content and functionality to all mobile, tablet and desktop platforms and a rich, installed application-like experience on newer mobile platforms.
Automatic initialization by using HTML5 data-role attributes in the HTML markup to act as the trigger to automatically initialize all jQuery Mobile widgets found on a page.
Accessibility features such as WAI-ARIA are also included to ensure that the pages work for screen readers (e.g. VoiceOver in iOS) and other assistive technologies.
New events streamline the process of supporting touch, mouse, and cursor focus-based user input methods with a simple API.
New plugins enhance native controls with touch-optimized, themable controls.
Powerful theming framework and ThemeRoller application make highly-branded experiences easy to build.

...Which are the competitors??. well my friends the rules changes, and jquery needs to adapt.

I just make a question, that may sound really strange coming from a web browsers lover but it is time to face the truth. Who needs a browser when you can dowload apps that run on any android or IOS system??. Do you connect to google maps in the browser on ur mobile or you just use the Google Maps APP?, what about Facebook?....hmmm. If you really give a think to this, you will understand why Samsung, Sony, Amazon, Blackberry etc, etc are trying to give a bite to the APP store from Apple and Maket for Android.

Somethings hasn't changed though as recommending you a song before I leave: Creep

HTML: Kaltura, Video Player Skins for HTML5

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:49:00 +0000

...After posting the last articles about the easiness of include a video on your site with the new <video> tag i was asked: "hey, but the look&feel is so elemental!!, it is not like the player in youtube or someother I have seen before. This tag is really cr...!!". Well, yeah, youtube video player "kick ass", but how much has it cost??. I am not going to say an amount but more than your first thought.

You must think at the video tag to the place where the movie is being playing!!, ..the rest can be achive with different layers, with javascripts frameworks, with style CSS.

Let's have Kaltura's HTML5 Media Library as an Example. The guys for Kaltura has done a video player that is going to work in any browser and also in the IPAD, so whether you're using flash, h264, ogg-theora, or WebM -- Kaltura's library will make sure it is played on all browsers with the same UI.

Here is the example of the different "skins" that you can do thanks to style CSS changes.

You can get your hands on it

Back to Future, Video with html5

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:39:00 +0000

For those who thought i was leaving my blog away i need to say one thing: I am back in town!!. Many changes around, tons of work, as well as tons of fun. Well, there are things that do not change as for example answering questions of my followers and friends. Last one I heard was about how to implement videos with HTML5.

Well, first of all bare in mind that your videos should be converted to H.264 or OGG Theora. Which one of these codecs may you choose from?. In my opinion to both because Safari won’t support Ogg Theora and Firefox won’t support H.264, ..and you want your videos to be played in any PC as well as MAC or famous Ipad, don't you?. Here you have a few converters which might help you with that task:

Ok, now that you have your file converter you are ready to play it as simple as using the new video tag in HTML5

Attribute	Value	Description
autoplay	autoplay	If present, then the video will start playing as soon as it is ready
controls	controls	If present, controls will be displayed, such as a play button.
height	pixels	Sets the height of the video player
loop	loop	If present, the media file will start over again, every time it is finished.
preload	preload	If present, the video will be loaded at page load, and ready to run. Ignored if "autoplay" is present.
src	url	The URL of the video to play
width	pixels	Sets the width of the video player

..As simple as adding this:

<video src="http://archiv.avc-cvut.cz/AVC/mirrors/orange/ogg_theora/Elephants_Dream_HD-q7-aq7.ogg"controls="controls" width="500" height="300">
your browser does not support the video tag
</video>

your browser does not support the video tag

HTML 5 VS Flash, ...a fair combat??

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:02:00 +0000

Sometime ago i wrote an article about canvas vs flash although why just comparing one of the best welcoming elements from HTML 5 with Flash, why not the whole HTML 5???. ...well, we must admit canvas is the best "visual" or "cool" stuff in HTML5 and flash is cool and visual but HTML5 has many more interesting things!!!, ...which doesn't mean that is going to beat Flash.

In my last post i talked about the fabolous IPAD and yes we all know that it doesn't support Flash. Why??, ..well many reasons that you may check into Steve Jobs words about it. Interesting phrases within those words:

HTML 5 is open, while Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. I think Steve has forgotten Apple's pastime, ..is MAC an open platform?, ..and how was Apple in the past??, ..can I install software that do not come from Apple Store into Ipad?? ..hmmmm, He is Totally right about that phrase but in my opinion not the best person to complain about that and actually he trys to explain his phrase in next paragrahs ;)

Reliability, security and performance. Again i must admit it, he is somehow true, ..but to give some positive points to Adobe I admit that many times my borwser has got stuck by AJAX and javascript apps (more coding possibilities means more errors from bad coders!!). Performance of Flash is better than HTML5 still and about videos, HTML5 video is so many years behind what flash can do today and that is a fact, ....but HTML5 will win for sure, it is just a question of time because many opensource coders are working on that!!.

Battery life. Again he is right!!, ..woow, no wonder he has had success in life. But again Adobe is working hard on and flash 10.1 comes with hardware acceleration!!, although still not working in Linux although getting into MAC OS X ;). How is this hardware acceleration working??. I encourage you to read this.

How many flash applications are Touchable??. IPAD use touch HTML5 capabilities...., ..and seems to work very good, doesn't it??

Why Apple doesn't like flash??. when they were in love many, many years ago???

...i have the answer but I will leave it for a close future ;)

Again my thought is the same, Flash is sexier than HTML5, ...but let's wait one or two years..., this remains me the battle between Windows and Linux.

APPLE: Ringing the bell!!, the Ipad is here

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:50:00 +0000

Last saturday I woke up, with a little hangover to be sincere, but just a little one, and decided that it could be a good idea to go and check the new Gadget from Apple, ..the big brother of the Itouch and in middle way to a Mac, and soon with 3G connection as an Iphone, ...hmmmm, what a mix!!. Weather was perfectly sunny in Boston and comfortable for a t-shirt, a perfect day for Ipad.

Apple Store by that time, around 13:20, was not so crowded as I thought, most surely people were fighting to get their dreamed gadget earlier, like at 09:00??, ..yeap that sould be.

I entered the store and of course it took me a time to take my hands on one of them, waited behind an old couple because if i get to be behind a techy maybe at night the ipad could have been freed for me!!. First thing to do, turn it horizontally and vertically, the screen centered to fit the whole space with a cool flipping effect. Hmmm, I remembered one game about a car, soo let's test its motion sensor...

The motion was captured brushing perfection, a pity the game was not very fun and playable, although many cool things may soon appear for a good use of that feature. Let's put our hands, or much better, our fingers on the screen...wooooow, the quick response is really amazing!!, I was expecting the same sensation as iphone and itouch but I was overwhelmed by that speed. Getting to the Picture gallery and suring among the Photos was just incredible, ..not only by some of the pics of a pretty young girl in there, :), but because it is pretty fun, easy, well organized, with differents presentation effects and of course zoom in and out as easy as using the two fingers...

Hmmm, time to surf, ..which page should I visit?? hmmmm

It has a perfect size to surf the web, the perfect screen to read the news, as having a newspaper in your hand (actually some newspaper are difficult to read, being huge and the pages get separated easily!!!), ..my thoguht in that moment was...Bye, bye "paper" newspapers and welcome online suscriptions!!. In just a year most people will be reading and watching the news in the subway, in starbucks, on a bench in the park... and yes on the toilet!! with either ipad and microsoft courier. Steve Jobs made the miracle again??

Ok, time to go to the library, ...hmmmm, which book to choose??, Yes, again, the perfect device to read books and, hey, hold on!! let me select some music to here meanwhile reading, just in the same device!!. If you don't make up any night, do not worry, you will take the ipad to bed with you :). Of course use the finger on the screen to turn the page.

Watching movies in the ipad, ..well maybe is a good idea for keeping kids quiet while having a long drive, or to watch short videos but for sure better to watch anything in a 50" screen, so if your main porpouse of the device is to use it as a TV or monitor, just forget about this.

Perfect with the music, i can imagine setting the ipad on a big speakers and having as the perfect jukebox, even with videoclips...

About working with ipad, ..still needs sometime for being the solution and for sure buy a keyborad to achieve that task, but again a bigger monitor will be your answer.

In conclusion, ....usefull, very usefull, sexy and fun!!. I will wait for 3G though to be always connected wherever i am so i can download books, music, surfing the net, getting rss news, etc., etc. As I said before, ..brushing perfection.

CANVAS: Canvas vs Flash

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:58:00 +0000

As you all know canvas is a new HTML element which can be used to draw graphics using scripting (usually JavaScript) and not only draw graphs but also make photo compositions or do animations. An example of these animations can be this fun demo that normal mapping and phong shading in JavaScript using Canvas and where your mouse cursor becomes the torch or light source that dynamically lights up a 3D object!!. Also new 3D Javascript have appeared as for example Copperlicht.

Canvas is getting more and more popular and more than one voice are saying "Is Canvas going to replace Flash??". My answer is no, Flash is much more than Canvas and flex is getting as a great framework!!. But at any case here are a comparison between Canvas VS Flash. Canvas/JavaScript is better than Flash

The most obvious is the deliverable size: Smaller code base and the compiled SWF file clocks in at 111k compared to the minified Canvas version at just 25k!
Flash do not work good in all platforms, for example Linux.
No need to Compile.
Inspectable/debuggable via browser.
Better cursor handling and the is no need to focus to receive keyboard events.

Where Canvas/JavaScript is worse than Flash:

Have to handle clipping and redraw manually (SVG does better here too)
Font support is not embedded.
Access to DB is better managed by Flash.
No built-in multiline text wrap.
No HTML fragment rendering.

And what about Apple??, ..if the Ipad is not supporting flash, ..would that be a better chance for Canvas to gain more territory to Flash/Flex??. Let's wait a year and we will see!!. Flash is sexier than Canvas, ..but as soon as summer gets here and freckles appear in Canvas Face then i will stay with Canvas, ..I just love Freckles!!.

JS Frameworks: Javascript Frameworks speed Comparison

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:41:00 +0000

It is being said a lot in the web about which is the fastest JS framework and although JQuery have been working a lot in this issue in latest versions, without no doubt Dojo is still the fastest JS Framework and Mootools and Jquery continue running for second place!!. Take a look at this comparisons:

Freakzion

Dojo
Jquery or Mootools??
Prototype

SlickSpeed

Dojo
Jquery
Mootools
Prototype
Yui

TaskSpeed

Qooxdo
Dojo
Mootools
YUI
Jquery
Prototype

Qooxdoo appears the faster in one comparison although unfortunatly when getting into more complex operations it gets sloooooower

Of course at any case this may not your best concern, at least not the only issue, to choose a Javascript Framework!!. One very important factor to me is how sexy and attractive the API is as well as the flexibility to build everything with the behaviour i expect to!!. Other factors as

A great community supporting the solution who will help evolving it as well as providing quick troubleshooting and many best practices.
Documentation. Not only a good API Documentation but alsoWikis, Blogs, Forums.
Great Developers!! behind the JS library Core!!.
A mature solutions, ....no fixes every single moment!!.
Extensions, Components, Widgets, plugins ...call it as you desire but we all know how aswesome is to get a list of apps to integrate directly into our project easily!!

JQUERY: New version 1.4.2, ..speeding UP!!

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:06:00 +0000

A new version is here!!, download it at Jquery homepage or as usual you can upgrade your projects just linking at google code with google.load("jquery", "1.4.2");.

Among the updates included in this new version I must mention the new methods .delegate() and .undelegate() which complements the already existing .live() and .die(). At any case if you want to know all the new stuff related to the API just sneak out at Query API Reference.

What I really like about this new version, ....speeeeeeeed!!. This results will comeup soon at TaskSpeed. It is 3 times faster than Jquery more used version (v1.3.2).

These are the elements that most significant changes in speed have be aplied to, that is the elements which have been more optimized in this new version:

.bind() and .unbind() functions
.empty(), .remove() and .html() Proccess
Inserting of a simple node in the document.
$("body") call.

SEO: Improve your Speed with WebPageTest

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:16:00 +0000

...2 days ago I posted about the factor to better your SEO strategy, Page Load Speed, and how google is going to add it to its pagerank algorithm, ...so let's get our website fast!!. WebPageTest can help you in this task with tips as:

Cached Elements. Turn your dynamic pages into static pages thanks to cache!!.
The use of a CDN (Cache Delivery Network). ...A system of computers containing copies of data, placed at various points in a network so as to maximize bandwidth for access to the data from clients throughout the network.
Use CSS and JS. Unify your styles and functions in external files, ..and do not forget to minimize your js files.
Compress your images and text.
etc., etc....

The test will be conducted from the location specified and you will be provided a waterfall of your page load performance as well as a comparison against an optimization checklist.

How to use it??, ..as I always say an Image is worth better than 1000 words, in this case a video by David Artz.

SEO: You better boost your website load time!!..

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:31:00 +0000

Recently I have been asked if search engines take into consideration the speed load of a page, and that remained me about something I read some months ago.

Google is going to add a new factor into its famous algorithm, this new ranking factor has to do with how fast a site or page loads!!. You may think "Ohhhh, shxt, my website is on a slow service provider!!". Well, time for a change, either to look for a faster provider or for your provider to improve its infraestructure and communications.

Is speed that relevant for a search criteria relevance??. Google’s co-founders want searching to be real fast, an they say "as if you are flipping through a magazine", and that is why they want to include load speed into the Algorithm. Actually Google is thinking in more important issues:

Adworks will index page faster if the load speed is better, which will turn into more pages indexed...
Who is building a superfast broad-band access??....

But who better than Google's SEO expert Matt to explain us about this new Factor??

At any case, in my opinion, this is a great news for internet consumers and surfers, because many providers will speed up its communications!!, ..run forrest run!!!

NEWS: Picnik Adquired by Google

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:11:00 +0000

Everytime we have used picasa at our desktop, we have had the ability to manipulate, edit your pics, crop them, resize them..., but why do we need to download picassa at our PC when google likes to have everything on the cloud???, even within its new operating system...

That is probably why Google has adquired Picnik!!, ...hmmm, I bet my house on that :)

Google has announced that no changes will be aplied in short term to picnik, but most surely we will see a new picassaweb called just picasa and picnik totally integrated with it!!. Actually Picnik is more powerfull that picasa in image, pics manipulation.

Picnik is the third company bought by google this year, after Aardvark and reMail...., It is obvious there crisis period is over, although i may ask ..has Google ever be in a crisis??, ...even when Microsoft is kicking up and hard with bing streetview, ot "touchable" windows 7??.

SOCIAL NETWORKING: Opensocial by Google

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:28:00 +0000

Do you like to use apps at facebook??, have you ever though about programming a widget or app similar to those??, ..what about if you could program a widget which can be used not only in facebook but also in Linkedin, Friendster, XING, Sonico??, do you realize the commercial power behind these widgets? ....hmmmm, if all your answers are a "YES" then that means you want to use OpenSocial.

What is Opensocial??. Well google uses some sentences to define it:

"OpenSocial enables apps, containers, and other clients to collaborate and move the social web forward."
"OpenSocial helps these sites share their social data with the web. Applications that use the OpenSocial APIs can be embedded within a social network itself, or access a site's social data from anywhere on the web."

But translated to our "freak" language, I could say that Opensocial is a API, or set of APIs, to build social applications across multiple Social Networks, or other Websites, which can be shared and interact with existing online communities and with the ability to access a social network’s friends and update feeds.

For example, imagine that you have a surf clothing store and build a social widget which will send the coolest surf pictures uploaded for any subscribed user to the rest of subscribers, obviously with the logo of your enterprise on all the pics, and send a "wanna join" message to subscriber's friends in Facebook. Do you get an image of the commercial possibilities of this widget???.

Now imagine subscriber's friends at:

Hi5
MySpace
Linkedin
XING
Orkut
QuePasa
FanBox
.........
.........

And much more Containers, which is the name used by google to define any social network or webiste. And yes, the code is the same!!!, just change the container ;).

Web Marketing no longer is limited to your corporate site, Internet is no longer static, is no longer just html, or just emails, ...internet is dinamic, updated with million of messages every second, and your bussiness may be in those messages, you bussiness should go "social"!!, and Opensocial will be a must to build this kind of widgets.

Opensocial is now in version v0.9, so as you can imagine is in early stages, but a nice API is already ready to be used. Actually check out the "world of apps" which already use openSocial. Will your app join this world soon????

TOOLS: Colorzilla

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:54:00 +0000

It is totally clear that this tool will help developers with something realted with colours..., for sure!!. Do you need to choose a color from a palette??, do you need to copy a color from any other place in any homepage??, do you need a Color Picker similar to ones that can be found in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro???. All this and more can be found within this handy tool.

It also allows to zoom into a homepage by 1000%!!. Strange tool but not if you want some colours in a picture!!, ..isn't it??. :)

It even analyzes all the colour in the DOM of the homepage!!. what else??

History and Favorites palettes
Page Pan option allows to quickly pan the page without using the scroll bars
Displays element information like tag name, class, id, size, relative mouse position etc.
Outline elements under the cursor
Multi-platform - works on MS Windows, Linux and MacOSX.
Manipulate colors by their Red/Green/Blue or Hue/Saturations/Value components.
....................
....................

And much, much more!!!

CANVAS: CopperLicht , the 3D javascript engine

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:50:00 +0000

HTML5 came to stay with us bringing little things as sections, articles, footer, header, dialog..., but big fantastic things as the Canvas which is used to to render graphics on the fly, such graphs, games....

Many, many projects are already using the canvas element as Raphael but the future will bring many online games which by now can only be run over flash technology.

One of the first 3D engines to appear is CopperLicht!!. If you like to work with 3D Studio, LightWave, 3D Builder, etc., you will be able to "post" your designs to the web an be accessed online because CopperLicht supports many 3D formats as 3ds, .obj, .x, .lwo, .b3d, .csm, .dae, .dmf, .oct, .irrmesh, .ms3d, .my3D, .mesh, .lmts, .bsp, .md2, .stl. and more!!.

Just before the idea of slow performance going though your mind, CopperLicht will turn all your 3D designs to small binaries file that will turn down the amount of time needed to download them!!, ..compressing them could be also a good idea ;)

Wanting to know how ot use it, Ambiera is already providing a whole bunch of tutorials after free subscribing!!.

And the jewel of the queen is the 3D Map editor, CopperCube, ..just amazing!!!.

The 3D features which brings:

Lots of precreated materials and shaders.
Fast, precalculated lightmap support.
Billboards.
Skyboxes.
Extensible 3D rendering based on a hierarchical scene graph.
Transparent objects: Automatic correct item ordering when rendering transparent 3d objects.
Paths and Splines.
Animation and Action system.
Texture animation.
Optimized, reusable 3d math classes (vectors, matrices, plance etc), all with collision test functionality.
Automatic redraw reducing (optional): Instead of redrawing the whole 3d scene every frame which can be slow on old computers, CopperLicht is able only to redraw when it is absolutely necessary, for example when the 3d scene changed or the camera moved. This is very useful to reduce CPU load.
Picking and simple click detection: Simply add a JavaScript callback function to any scene node which gets called when your scene node is being clicked. (See AnimatorOnClick for details)
(IiP:) Skeletal character animation
(IiP:) Particle systems
(IiP: ) Fog
(IiP:) Parallax Mapping

Go on, and get your hands on CopperLicht, and if not convince yet, just check the demos, ..and remember what is needed to run WebGL!!

And yes....it's freeeeeeeeeeeeeee

TOOLS: Browsercam, test you developments at any browser and OS

noreply@blogger.com (sepelka) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:08:00 +0000

Everytime the compatibility of code between browsers is getting bigger and so less problems, ...javascript frameworks help keeping compatibility working and that is just incredibily helpfull, but also some new operating System and devices has come to our live in the last years, ...android, symbian, iphone, htc, nokia...and our sites need in most case need to work in most of them. Having install opera, chrome, firefox, Safari, Explorer in your computer can be achieved with no hasstle, ..but what about installing diferent versions of those borwsers and different OS combinations??? hmmmm, not an easty taks.

What is the solution to our problem??. The Browser Compatibility Testing Tools, and here we have one. Browsercam.

BrowserCam is a paid service that lets you test multiple URLs in a huge number of browsers, which of course you would be able to test before paying a cent. It provides all these possibilities:

Internet Explorer
Mozill
Firefox
Safari
Konqueror
Opera
Netscape
AOL
Camino
Chrome

and OS Systems as:

Linux
Mac OS
Windows 98, vista, 7......

Not bad, ehhhh?, ..and also different browser versions, ..for example with explorer you can test for 4 , 5 , 5.2 , 5.5 , 6 , 6.02, 7 , 8!! .

And waht about devices??. no problem, blackberry (cruve, storm, pearl, 7100g...), Iphone, Android, windows mobile...

How does it work??, easy!!, enter your URL(s), browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions, and other capture details in our Screen Capture Wizard and BrowserCam creates screen captures!!. Check it out!!