Archive for November, 2010

WolframAlpha custom query widgets

November 11th, 2010

Create custom widgets based on your search

WolframAlpha.com has recently released the beta of their ‘WolframAlpha Widgets‘.

This is a pretty unique service that allows you to create a custom widget based solely upon your WolframAlpha search query. There are already over 2700 widgets created and available in the Widget Gallery. I would definitely suggest searching the gallery before you go through the process of creating your own widget. Someone may have done the work for you.

Steps necessary to create your widget.

thumb keyboard rearranges keys for thumbs

November 8th, 2010

thumb keyboard concept is great

XDA member appelflap has created a new Android touchscreen keyboard that is tailored for thumbs. I know most of you already use your thumbs for most of your smartphone keyboard input, so this is a natural progression of ergonomics.

Read the thumb keyboard thread over at XDA forums to find out user reactions and the developer’s comments. You can also grab the thumb keyboard .apk from the forum to try out thumb keyboard for yourself.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/154289/Thumb%20Keyboard.apk

Kik for mobile only works when others have it as well

November 6th, 2010

Kik IM app for mobile is hot!

I have seen some refer to kik as a cross-platform IM app for Android, iPhone & Blackberry and this is true. It does work on devices from these three manufacturers. However, you can only IM your contacts, provided they are also using kik. There is no sending a message to someone on MSM, Yahoo, gTalk etc…

kik is experiencing explosive growth!

Zero to a Million in 15 Days

What an incredible couple of weeks. We re-launched Kik Messenger 15 days ago with 0 users, and at 12:43 PM EST today, we signed up our 1,000,000th user. We didn’t expect this. We didn’t ask for it. But we couldn’t be happier or more excited.

We are humbled and honored that so many people around the world have embraced Kik. For that, we can only say thank you to all our users. Every hour, 25,000 more people are discovering that Kik’s blazing fast, reliable and inexpensive data messaging is light years ahead of slow, unreliable, and expensive SMS messaging.

kik plans to add more features.

We have an aggressive plan to roll out new features, while always making sure to maintain Kik’s original simplicity and elegance. This will come in three releases. Let’s call them Perfect Daisy, 1,000 Words, and Sneaky Rhino.

Perfect Daisy: an incredibly simple, yet perfect flower. We think Kik Messenger is pretty close to the mark, but there’s always room for improvement. So we will further optimize battery usage, simplify user registration and fix a few minor bugs (which you probably never even noticed). We’ll also add a block feature, which will allow users to block contacts from their Kik address list.

1,000 Words: a picture is worth – well, you know! We will take Kik, and add profile pictures and picture messaging. This will let Kiksters customize their profile on Kik, and expand the meaning of connecting in real time. Not only can you instantly share what you are feeling, but now you will also be able to instantly share what you are seeing. Very cool.

Sneaky Rhino: for this, you will just have to wait and see. How would you feel if you turned around, and there was a rhino 10 feet away? We think you’ll get the same feeling when you get this release. It will take Kik, and using an incredibly powerful technology we have developed over the last 16 months, wirelessly connect your smartphone to any PC or TV. This is where Kik will expand from being just an app, to a whole new, all encompassing social platform – with music too. We can’t share more than that, but when you see it, we think you’ll agree.

Get kik

iTunes App Store
Android App Market
Blackberry App World

8pen keyboard. Would you use this?

November 1st, 2010

Touchscreen Keyboard solution.

8pen represents a completely different approach to keyboarding on a touchscreen interface. After watching the video, I’m not sure it would be as easy to use as indicated.

Info from the 8pen site:

The 8pen allows for the replacement of the conventional keyboard on all devices capable of detecting gestures, in particular mobile phones with touch screens, modern remote controls or game controllers. Its advantage lies mainly in the fact that it is possible to input text faster than using conventional layouts on small devices, while at the same time mimicking human hand-writing. Moreover, the simplicity of the gestures involved greatly reduces the problem of mistyping that frequently occurs with the classical layout due to the lack of space. For the same reason, it is possible to write without viewing, as only the central region is needed as a reference for starting and ending a movement.

Apparently 8pen will be available for Android 2.2 tomorrow. Is this Nov,2 2010 then?

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