Posts Tagged ‘Internet’

The Kindle Fire

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

This month in our new Go Technology column we take a close look at Amazon’s upcoming new product called the Kindle Fire. Set to release on November 15, 2011, the Kindle Fire is certainly about to set the digital and technology world on fire with 95,000 units already sold.

For a low price of just $200, buyers will get a great deal on a tablet that is going to change the way manufactures sell and market this wonderful little devices we call tablets. By the end of the year, researchers expect the Kindle Fire to sell over 3 million units!

So what is all of the excitement about? Kindle Fire will have 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines and books available. It will contain an Amazon App store similar to iTunes App store and also a web browser. But here is the magic of the Kindle Fire – Ultra Fast Web Browsing using Amazon’s Silk cloud computing. To store all of your purchases Amazon will provide free cloud storage and that’s not all…

Movies, magazines and children’s books come alive on a 7″ vibrant color touchscreen that delivers 16 million colors in high resolution. Kindle Fire uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology – similar technology to that used on the iPad – for an extra-wide viewing angle, perfect for sharing your screen with others. Kindle Fire features a state-of-the-art dual-core processor for fast, powerful performance. Stream music while browsing the web or read books while downloading videos. Stay in touch using a built-in email app that gets your webmail (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL etc.) into a single inbox. Import your messages and contact lists from other email accounts.

This just touches upon a few of the many features of the Kindle Fire. Not to even mention the 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback. Of course this is a wireless device, just like an iPod or iPad, so you can take it with you on the go to all of your favorite places.

The workmanship, design and easy of use earns the Kindle Fire a 5 Star review from Celtic Radio. This system is a real genius of innovation. An impressive compilation of technology, internet and music to give you many hours of enjoyment. Make sure to pre-order your Amazon Kindle if you want this exciting new product before Christmas. This just may be the hot product that everyone wants this Christmas!






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Open Graph Protocol

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

ikoni

When the web first appeared to the general public back in the early 1990′s, people where amazed with the amount of information available online. Some of us might remember the spider crawler, an early search engine that was run by AOL. With a few clicks of our mouse button, we were off and running on the super informational highway with Bill Clinton playing his saxophone in the background on CNN headline news!

The web at that time was defined by individually created web pages containing a wealth of scientific and general purpose data about anything and everything! To get listed in these early primitive search engines, you just needed to make sure you had a title to your webpage and perhaps a few keywords.

Zoom ahead 20 years and what has happened? There are now 20 billion webpages and 700 million websites. Consider that if you are starting a brand new website or updating an old one, you are probably going to start out at the bottom of that 700 million list.

So you say you want to Meta-tag your site and Search Engine Optimize it to hopefully get listed high in the Google search ranks? Forget it. The newest and best way to get listed in the search engines is through Facebook’s Open Graph Protocol. Leverage your already existing network of friends and websites to get recognized and listed higher in the search engines by providing Facebook with a few details of your website.

This will also allow your like buttons on your website to better interact with Facebook, providing the title, image, and description in a neatly formatted “Like” post on your profile for thousands to see. After all, who wants to see a long URL and a random image from your webpage? Think of Open Graph Protocol as a way to format your Facebook page like posts.

But wait, there is more. A funny thing happened when we at Celtic Radio formatted our pages to utilized Open Graph Protocol. Our search engine rankings dramatically increased over night. And that’s the beauty of Open Graph Protocol. By providing a few details on what a particular page represents, it seems that not only is Facebook watching, but the almighty search engines appear to be using this information to categorized and rank webpages.

Here is what Mark Zuckerberg has to say about Open Graph Protocol:

“Today the web exists mostly as a series of unstructured links between pages. This has been a powerful model, but it’s really just the start. The open graph puts people at the center of the web. It means that the web can become a set of personally and semantically meaningful connections between people and things.”

Implementing Open Graph Protocol is extremely easy given the following code example:

As you can see from the above example, there are only a few meta tags to the open graph protocol, but these important tags allow facebook (and search engines) to better understand your website. The image tag is a really powerful addition as it will allow for a thumb nail version (instead of a random image on your site) to appear on Facebook. And all roads lead back to Rome! That is exactly what Mark Zuckerberg is creating by Facebook Like buttons and the implementation of open graph protocol. By providing a simple way to categorized webpages to end users who run websites, by leveraging an already existing network of friends, family, colleagues and businesses – Zuck is indeed creating the roads that lead to Rome, or in our tech world – Facebook.

You might hear people of a technical background say this is completely evil and should not be supported, but the truth speaks for itself. Facebook is the new Google and it is just a matter of time before Facebook becomes the new defacto search engine for social networking and more!

My advice to all webmasters and musicians; implement Open Graph Protocol on your websites and reap the benefits. The nay Sayers will be left in the dust and their websites will be at the bottom of the barrel of 20 billion websites.

Read more about Open Graph Protocol and how to implement on the Open Graph Protocol website.

Open Graph Protocol

While Open Graph Protocol can be used on static HTML pages that do not change, the real power comes when you are running your website using a database and creating dynamically driven webpages! A few additions to your scripting code and you could implement Open Graph Protocal in 5 minutes. Just a word of warning that Open Graph Protocol does still seem to be in a state of development, so you might find the tags to function intermittently at times, but usually this will clear up in a few hours.

Understand that it takes Facebook a while, just like search engines, to crawl your webpage for the Open Graph Protocol Tags. Don’t fret though because you can speed up this process by using the Facebook Linter program to have your page quickly read and updated (wish Google had this feature). You can find the Linter program here.

Facebook Linter

If you have any questions or comments about Open Graph Protocol, we would be happy to answer them. Just remember that this type of project for your website is probably an intermediate level of web design, so if you find yourself struggling to understand the concept, just forward to the webmaster that runs your site.

Православни иконииконииконописikoniсвети георги

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iTouch

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

itouch_lgIn our last issue we talked about how to wirelessly stream music from your computer equipment to a remote speaker using the Shift Wireless speaker system. This month we take a look at a high end solution to streaming music remotely with the Apple iPod – commonly referred to as the iTouch. With a list price of $214.99 from Amazon.com, this little device is a bit pricey, but well worth every penny for the simply magnificent features built into this piece of technological heaven. 

Some of the key features include a slim rectangular shape with rounded edges, a glass touch screen, thousands of free apps to download from the App Store and built in wireless access to your home wireless router or any public access wireless router. One of the unique features of the iTouch (and the one that sold us), was its built in glass touch screen and navigation system. It is extremely easy to use and is the only mobile device whose onscreen keyboard actually works flawless each and every keystroke!

Now, let’s get to the number one reason why we are including the iTouch in our Go Wireless column – Live365! The most compelling reason to purchase an iTouch is the free Live365 application that is included in the Apple App Store. Simply search for Live365 in the App Store, install the application and a Live365 icon will appear on your iTouch desktop. Select the Live365 application with a touch of the finger, sign-in to your Live365 account and start streaming music directly to your iTouch including all 5 Celtic Radio channels. Go to your favorite hotspot bookstore, coffee shop or add a base station to your iTouch with speakers and you can bring your Celtic Radio music anywhere you go in your house, yard or beyond!

Some of the great features you can expect while using Live365 through the iTouch:

  • Listen to Live365 in your car.
  • Connects with your cell data plan or wi-fi.
  • Artist and track info with album artwork.
  • Unlimited presets synced to the website.
  • Multiple skins/themes. anywhere.
  • Celtic Radio in CD quality.

Music can be purchased directly through the iTouch using Apple’s iTunes music store and through the computer using the iTunes software. Music that you purchase on your computer through iTunes can be automatically transfered to the iTouch using a USB cable for easy on the go music anywhere you travel. Our one complaint with the iTunes store and software is that the majority of the music available for purchase is DRM protected which means it can only be played on your Apple product. We give Apple a big thumbs down on DRM protection which hinders consumer’s ability to transfer their music to other mobile devices or computers in their homes or office. Our suggestion is to use Amazon’s DRM free MP3 download service which in most cases appears to be less expensive then the iTunes.

Another great feature for you “Go Wireless” people is the ability to play full length digital movies on your iTouch. Movies can be obtain either through the iTunes store or converted using digital software. A number of recently released movies are also including a digital copy of the movie that is included with your DVD purchase. Simply add this digital copy to your iTunes, sync the iTouch up with your USB cable or docking station, and you got a full length movie to watch on the subway, by the pool or in the car!

The beauty of the iTouch is the all in one approach that Apple has taken. The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, Wi-Fi mobile platform and includes a web browser, email, you tube videos, stocks and thousands of free software from the Apple App store. We believe the iTouch will give the most demanding customer many years of enjoyment, and with a rich selection of features, we give Apple’s iTouch system a thumbs up for our Celtic Radio members. Now go Wireless!ikoni

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