This week’s Friday Flick is one with quite a bit of high-tech innovation. Corning created a video, (A Day Made of Glass… Made possible by Corning.) in February, 2011 highlighting “Corning’s vision for the future with specialty glass at the heart of it.”. A year later, Corning breaks down the technology used in the first video. Enjoy and share your thoughts in the comments below!
Watch and share “A Day Made of Glass 2,” Corning’s expanded vision for the future of glass technologies. This video continues the story of how highly engineered glass, with companion technologies, will help shape our world. - http://bit.ly/xITx1H
BONUS
Learn more about the technology behind these innovations with glass with an expanded, unpacked version of A Day Made of Glass 2.
In the latest episode of New Stuff, join your host Lee Yount as he welcomes a panel of guests to discuss all things new in the fast-paced world of technology. Mary-Margaret, Alan, Matt, Donnie and Lee tackle the recent, controversial issues of SOPA and lead into discussing the quirks of mobile app developing. Tune in as Lee educates and converses with his tech savvy co-hosts to bring you the latest in developing technology, including information about iTunes University. Find out what’s going on with the Kindle Fire and the iPad, and the trendy, new website Pinterest that’s taking the Internet by storm. All of these things and more will feed your inner techie and it’s all on the newest episode of New Stuff!
Two bills before Congress, known as the P rotect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, are meant to stop online piracy but would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American businesses. Experts agree that there are better ways to shut down pirate websites than asking US companies to censor the Web. Join the groundswell of experts, organizations and people from all parts of America united in their opposition to SOP A and PIPA. Tell Congress not to censor the Web and not to cripple our innovation economy.
Taking a Stand
Today, January 18, 2012 several companies are speaking out against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in an attempt to get the attention of the US Congress to not pass this bill. Essentially, this bill would allow the US Federal Government to shut down entire sites because of even a single piece of copyrighted content posted on the site by a user. This would basically be the end of large social sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Wikipedia, and many more.
Have a busy new years eve planned this year? Here are some ways that you can watch the NYC ball drop without having to be in front of a TV.
Follow the ball on Twitter
The folks that are managing the Times Square Ball Twitter account (@timessquareball) are really doing a great job humanizing this big sparkling ball. Here is an example of a recent tweet:
I’ve got to spend the rest of the night memorizing my moves. Tomorrow is#NYE2012. See you there! — Times Square Ball (@timessquareball) December 31, 2011
Like the Ball on Facebook
Along with several resources of how to “connect” with the Times Square Ball, you can view up-to-date status updates, photos, and more on the official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TimesSquareBall
Watch the Livestream Feed
If you are not going to be in front of a TV, but want to watch the ball drop the same way you have for so many years, you’re in luck! The Times Square Alliance will be using Livestream to stream live video of Times Square and the ball drop. Here is the Livestream channel: http://www.livestream.com/2012
There’s an App for That!
That’s right, the big shiny ball at the “crossroads of the world” has an app (or 2). There are native apps for Apple iOS and Android devices, here are the links:
Find all the information that you would ever want to know about the NYC New Years Ball. You can also find photos of previous balls and the history of why the NYC ball has become so popular! Here is a link to the official website: http://timessquareball.net/
Here is to a prosperous and uplifting 2012! Do something different, smile more, create more, push the envelope more! Cheers!
Spotify is an online music service offering users the ability to stream more than 15 million tracks on demand using Spotify’s unique technology. Spotify provides instant access to whatever music you want, whenever and wherever you want it, through a simple, clean and quick to use platform via an ad-supported, free-to-the-user service and a paid subscription service…legally.
What’s Cool?
Over 15 Million songs at your finger tips for unlimited listening and sharing.
Multi-platform: Listen to music on Spotify on your computer (free) or your mobile device (paid subscription)
Playlists: Create and share with your friends. Access them from anywhere.
Share your favorite music via social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
Premium Spotify
The added advantages of paying for Spotify Premium just might be great enough to drop $9.99/month for the following features:
No Ads!
Playing songs on my iPhone and iPad
Downloading songs to my mobile devices for when I might be in a place that I do not have an internet connection
Exclusive content: Being able to hear new albums before they are released
Higher quality music, up to 320kbps
Service Plans
Here is an abbreviated rundown of the different Spotify service plans. Click on the graphic for more information about the different plans.
Facebook + Spotify =
Facebook and Spotify announced a collaboration recently to allow over 800 Million Facebook users to share their favorite music with their friends. Here is a short video about this collaboration:
Conclusion
I am an advocate for Spotify. I think that their model is exactly what the music industry needs. Daniel Ek, Founder of Spotify was quoted in a CNN interview saying ”What Spotify is saying is, ownership (of music) is great, but access is the future,” Ek said. “The main reason people want to pay for Spotify is really portability. People are saying, ‘I want to have my music with me.’ ” The model of “give it to them free” has gained popularity in the past few years, so much so that I think it is almost expected. Companies that realize their revenue should not be focused on the end user, but with the content providers or ad creators, are companies that will make a lot of money while providing an outstanding customer experience.
iTunes Match is quite possibly one of the best moves that Apple has made in the music realm. It is also one of the best uses of Apple’s new iCloud service. If you are unfamiliar with iTunes Match, here is a quick summary of what it is:
iTunes Match is a feature of iTunes in the Cloud that allows you to access your entire personal music library from any computer with iTunes 10.5.1 or later installed or any iOS 5.0.1 or later device with an active Internet connection. iTunes Match requires an annual subscribtion of $24.99 a year. Your subscription will automatically renew at the end of your subscription. Once you have subscribed to iTunes Match and matched or uploaded your eligible music, you will be able to access your music in iCloud directly from within your iTunes Music library, or the Music Player app on your iOS 5 device.
Also, if you are wondering about the specifics about iTunes Match, here ya’ go:
iTunes Match is limited to 25,000 songs.
iTunes Store purchases made with the same Apple ID being used for iTunes Match do not count towards the 25,000 song limit.
Unmatched content will be uploaded as is; upload time varies depending on the amounts uploaded and local network speeds.
Song files over 200 MB will not be uploaded to iCloud.
Songs containing DRM (Digital Rights Management) will not be matched or uploaded to iCloud unless your computer is authorized for playback of that content.
Songs purchased outside of the United States iTunes Store containing DRM (Digital Rights Management) will not be matched or uploaded to iCloud.
Songs encoded in ALAC, WAV, or AIFF will be transcoded to a separate temporary AAC 256 kbps file locally, prior to uploading to iCloud. The original files will remain untouched.
Songs encoded as AAC or MP3 with a bitrate lower than 96 kbps will not be matched or uploaded to iCloud.
Recorded: October 28, 2011
It’s the all-Apple edition of “New Stuff”, where this month’s panel talks about the new iPhone 4S, the new iCloud strategy, and the life and death of Apple founder Steve Jobs. The panel also speculates whether residing so close to the North Carolina Apple Data Center gives them any special “insight” into Mac rumors.
Show host Lee Yount (www.catawbacounty.gov) brings together a group of fellow “MESH-Heads” for this month’s episode, including MESH founders Mary-Margaret Baker and Alan Jackson (both from Jackson Group Interactive, www.jginteractive.com) and “Free Range Chicken Thinking” experts Houston Harris and Ryan Carroll (with Pixelspace,www.pixelspace.com).
On October 5th, 2011 Steve Jobs passed away after a battle with cancer. Steve was an inspiration to many and changed the way we thought about technology, and life in general. He will be missed.
Today will be another page in the history books for Apple Inc.. At 10:am PST Apple will hold an event where Tim Cook will announce the next version of the Apple iPhone 5 (or 4S depending on the rumors). In honor of this event, I found this interactive infographic created by Thinglink that shows you where the history of the iPhone. Rollover the infographic below to see more information about each section. Enjoy!
This past Friday I had the opportunity to host the first episode of “New Stuff” on TheMESH.tv.
The MESH is a new media online network, designed to produce and deliver unique content to computers, mobile phones, iPods, iPads, and any other device connected to the Internet. Just like a traditional television network, The MESH has a series of programs and “shows” on a variety of topics… the difference is you can watch or listen to what you want, when you want, and where you want.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012 AT 10:57PM
