New Stuff I Saw at Gnomedex
August 13th, 2007, 7 Comments »
There have been a lot of lists on this site lately. That’s not really a considered choice. I guess I’m a little short on time and have a lot of easily itemized stuff to talk about. In any case, here’s another one. Nothing really blew my mind this year, but these are a few sites and technologies that piqued my interest:
- Seeqpod - “Playable search”. As far as I can tell, it’s a search engine that finds rich media files and enables you to play them directly from the results page. Here’s a sample search for Sufjan Stevens. I’ve only tried it briefly, but it works as advertised.
- Minekey - A content recommendations widget. I haven’t tried it yet, so I’ve really got no opinion on this one. Mind you, this sounds like a solution in search of a problem. Finding stuff to read isn’t something I struggle with.
- Palm Foleo - A “mobile companion for your smart phone”, which sounds like I can rent one by calling a number in the back of the local arts weekly. In essence, it’s a kind of micro-laptop that’s halfway between a standard laptop and an iPhone. In fact, here’s a photo that shows their relative size. It’s incredibly light at 2.5 pounds, and has only solid state memory (no hard drive). I’d imagine it as an ideal device to take on a longterm trip where you wanted to blog, store photos, send email and so forth, but didn’t want something as big or expensive as a laptop. Of course, it’s yet another piece of tech with a misspelled name, but that phenomenon is so common it’s hardly worth complaining. Here are some comments and a video on the device from Matthew Miller.
- PolarRose - “Discover who’s in any photo”. They’re in private beta at the moment. They were a Gnomedex sponsor, but I somehow managed to slip through their net of beta invitations.
- LapWorks Laptop Desk 2.0 - It’s a sophisticated, folding chunk of plastic that’s supposed to improve the ergonomics of using a laptop on your lap or on a desk. I’m just trying it now for the first time, and it appears to work as advertised. I’ve got it configured so that the laptop slopes towards me, with the front of the keyboard part lower than the back.