Improvements to the impressive DimDim

The message above arrived on Tuesday 23rd February from those great guys at DimDim who are constantly developing their product into I believe one of the premier online meeting spaces offered to professionals globally. I have long been impressed with not only their product but also in their drive to improve what is offered. Do take a look and perhaps try out a free DimDim training session, it is the ideal way to see how well the system works in your browser with 'no downloads'.

Below you can see a logged in view which shows the 'Big Red Button' with which you can start a meeting.
I am also a fan of the use of social media to spread the URL of your meeting space.

Don't just take my word for it..... do give DimDim a try, I think that you will enjoy the experience and also will instantly have ideas regarding how you can make use of it in your organisation.

No, I do not have any connection with DimDim I just rate it highly :-)

Blaise Aguera y Arcas and augmented reality mapping.... Wow!!!

For those who can remember the amazing TED video of Blaise Aguera y Arcas demonstrating Photosynth in 2007 where using Microsoft Livelabs projects he showed how you could render objects using photographic views of that object taken from different angles would not be surprised to find that in February 2010 the magician of the digital age is back this time to show us the power of augmented reality in mapping.

Watch and be truly amazed as we see the next stage of Photosynth as Blaise demonstrates the ability to overlay images over a 'streetview', in this case showing a scene with shots taken at different times of day.... but the truly magical experience is when we see live video overlay inside a 'streetview' scene which is itself from inside a building. This is truly the future where we will be able to render inside a map using user generated content both still and video to enhance our view of the digital world. There are obviously privacy and other issues that will have to be dealt with however the ability to view the world and places in this way is truly in the world of Web 3.0 or even Web 4.0 - I feel Web 4.0 will be our ability to actually place ourselves within this scene using whole body systems such as Pravan Mistry's Sixth Sense.... I can't wait!!!

BUZZ......off!

Oh dear! It would appear that Google released BUZZ without thoroughly testing it was reported today by the BBC Technology News resulting in security and privacy issues for users of the new social networking tool which operates within Google services such as GMail, Maps etc.

Google has admitted to BBC News that testing of its controversial social network Buzz was insufficient.

The firm has had to make a series of changes to the service after a ferocious backlash from users concerned about intrusions of privacy.

Buzz was launched on 9 February. The service, which is integrated with Gmail, allows users to post status updates, share content and read and comment on friends' posts.

One problem that immediately caused concern was Google's decision to automatically give users a ready-made circle of friends based on the people they most frequently e-mailed.Unless users changed settings in their profile, this list could automatically be made public, allowing anyone to see who a user corresponded with most frequently.

Mr Jackson told BBC News that the decision to create these automatic lists was borne out of the idea that Google "wanted to provide a great user experience straight out of the box".

But privacy experts immediately pointed out this could cause problems for journalists, businesses or even people having an illicit affair.

Evgeny Morozov, a Belarus-born researcher and blogger who looks at the political implications of the internet, also raised concerns.

"If I were working for the Iranian or the Chinese government, I would immediately dispatch my internet geek squads to check on Google Buzz accounts for political activists and see if they have any connections that were previously unknown to the government," he wrote.

As a result of complaints, Google said Buzz would now only suggest people who a user might want to be friends with.

The company has also announced steps to make it easier to disable Buzz altogether and to ensure that people's accounts do not automatically connect with online Picasa photo albums and items that people may store in their Google Reader accounts.

The changes were in part thrashed out at a company-wide meeting on 12 February at Google headquarters.

"We realize that we didn't get things quite right - we're working extremely hard to fix this," said Mr Jackson.

He said that "transparency and control" were "top priorities" and that users would "continue to see improvements".

Asked if the Google founders - Larry Page and Sergey Brin - or any of the executive team would issue an apology for breaching their user's trust, a Google spokesperson said: "Google has apologised - we're very sorry for the concern we caused."

Google Chrome Extensions :-)

At last, and I am not so sure how many days ( or possibly weeks) ago the new extensions for Google Chrome appeared but now they are here and ready to roll don't forget to give them a try. Unlike Firefox they do not appear to cause additional headers but fit in the the right of the address bar on the browser and either open as a pop out - as bit.ly does in the screenshot below, or as new tabs in the case of something like CoolIris ( which if you haven't used yet you absolutely should)...... Go get your extensions..... now!

Google Buzz new today

Google has announced on Tuesday that it is immediately rolling out Google Buzz, a location-aware social networking tool highly integrated with its Gmail client, Google Maps and a new Android app.

It was announced on the Google Blog today:
'Today, we're launching Google Buzz, a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there's nothing to set up — you're automatically following the people you email and chat with the most.'

'We focused on making the sharing experience really rich by integrating photos, videos, and links. No more fuzzy little pictures: Buzz makes it easy to quickly flip through photos and experience them the way they were meant to be seen: big and full-resolution. And videos play inline so you can watch them without opening a new window.

You can choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a small group of friends each time you post. And you can connect other sites you use, today there's Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, and Twitter, so your friends can keep up with what you're doing around the web — all in one place.

To make sure you don't miss out on the best part of sharing, Buzz sends responses to your posts straight to your inbox. Unlike static email messages, buzz messages in your inbox are live conversations where comments appear in real time. '

Once again Google wait and then enter the arena - I do like the way they are continually attempting to build in real time interaction into their applications.

I am looking forward to Buzz coming to my HTC G phone - an update for Google maps 5 minutes ago does include the new app, I am now awaiting the GMail update!

Bulbdial Clock

My love of timepieces ( blog post 16 01 2010) has been sparked again today in the 'Play Section of WIRED for March 2010 on page 058( see below) where lies the amazing looking Bulbdial Clock from the Evil Mad Scientists.

The clock using LED technology is an object of beauty as you can see below thanks to Oskay they are also being offered in kit form so that you can make one for yourself..... yay

All I can say is that...... I want one!!!!! See one in action below:

OLED transparent screens..... WOW!!!

You can keep your Apple locked iPad Mr Jobs the future is OLED......

Above is the transparent OLED screen of the Samsung laptop shown as a concept at CES 2010 it now appears that this device may be on sale before the end of 2010 ( T3 article 06 02 2010). Now this device really could be a mould breaker, I agree with the article that this object certainly is desirable.... move over Mr iPad, as the OLED device not only looks 'truly cool' and highly desirable, it also heralds the use of OLED technology for things such as Satellite Navigation devices built into things such as windscreens ....... Combine this with Augmented Reality ( as seen with Sixth Sense MIT )and all I can say is WOW!!!

Just the thought of having this kind of technology built into surfaces taking the computer out of the box and beginning to develop a truly interactive UI just has to be the way forward ...... seeing these I am transported back to when I was a boy in the late 1960's looking at the fantastical devices in my coveted Look and Learn magazines.