Remember Google Wave? Well just because all the hype around Wave has almost died this does not necessarily mean that the project itself has died. A couple of months ago Google acquired Etherpad -a real-time collaborative text editor- and stated that the EtherPad team will continue its work on realtime collaboration by joining the Google Wave team. Until now, I had only seen a few changes in the Google Wave like some checkboxes, some keyboard shortcuts and a couple of permission-related changes. Today I noticed a major new feature added in Google Wave that is a few quick start templates.

It has been about 6 months since Google launched the anticipated real-time communication platform, Wave. Since then, people have been documenting and using this communication platform in many ways. If you are still looking for the right documentation about Wave, you should have a look at Gina Trapani’s Complete Guide to Google Wave which is one of the most complete guides I ‘ve seen around about Wave.

So, what are these quick start guides about? There are 6 ready-to-go templates that help you use and understand Google Wave even better. These include a blank wave, a discussion wave, a task tracking wave, a meeting wave, a document wave and last but not least, a brainstorm wave. Each one of them starts a corresponding new wave that already includes some data in it including some text/paragraph formatting and some times a Google Wave gadget.

Why don’t you just start a new wave.

I just got my invite for Lockerz, a fresh community where you can earn points, also known as Pointz (or “PTZ“), and trade them for gifts like a Macbook, an iPod and so on.

Lockerz is an invitation-only website created to connect members through commerce, content and social networking. Once invited, you’ll be able to watch exclusive video, buy great products, discover new music, play games, and connect with friends. You’ll be able to do this all in one place, AND you’ll get rewarded for just doing the things you love. When you watch a video, play a game, or even log in, you’ll earn Pointz (or “PTZ”) Lockerz own form of currency. Turn around and redeem your PTZ for incredible merchandise, unique experiences and exclusive deals and sales.

Personally, I have to say that I am impressed. And this is one of the very few times that I am impressed by such kind of service. Not only by the quality of this service but also by its, almost hidden, business model. And here are a few reasons why Lockerz impressed me:

• The name.

  It is quite quite memorable isn’t it? And cool, too.

• The logo.

  The logo design and the typography used is reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally good. It is smooth and stands out.

• The web interface.

  I just hate it when I see Web 2.0 startups in 2010 using awful user interface because it feels like going back where using HTML frames was cool. Well, be sure that Lockerz is definitely NOT one of those startups. Lockerz’s web interface is quite attractive.

• Everything else

  From Lockerz’s favicon to that Lockerz Ceramic Coffee Mug, this thing is a top-notch product and you should give it a try.

It is quite interesting that a video web service like this suddenly feels so attractive for business. Lockerz offers a very attractive business model that wouldn’t surprise me if one day I find out that there are users out there spending many-many-many hours watching videos online. Oh wait a minute. This is already happening. Plus now you get to win a free iPod. ;)

So, did you get your pointz today?

Engadget got some photos and videos on this new revolutionary-wanna-be product coming from Microsoft this time. Though this is still a concept show-off you have to admit that it is pretty cool. The User Experience/Interface is quite breath taking. I wonder if the final product will look like anything close to this. The sure thing is that Microsoft has taken a few things under serious consideration like the UI part in the last few years. Have you seen the latest Windows Mobile, oh I mean the Windows Phone 7 series?

[ via ]

It’s been a couple of weeks since Gowalla released a beta version for Android. Now it’s time for the first release which is available at the Android Market. Just go to ‘Market’ and search for ‘Gowalla’. Obviously this is a slightly better version than the beta one. (Note: I had to uninstall the beta version first because I kept getting an installation error ‘Package file was not signed correctly’)

On the other hand, Foursquare now has a new person leading the Android app development, Mark Wyszomierski. There are already some nice new features added to the latest foursquare app like adding friends, managing friend requests and global search.

What do you think? Who will eventually win? Foursquare or Gowalla?

[ photo via dkrobinson ]

Yes, this could be true. Although a Google-branded tablet is not even a rumor yet, Google engineers have been working on various concept User Interfaces for Google Chrome OS coming soon. Moreover, Chrome OS, will not only be available for netbooks, as we originally thought, but we will be able to use custom versions Chrome OS in various devices each having vastly different input methods, available screen space, and processing power.

While its primary focus is netbooks, Chrome OS could eventually scale to a wide variety of devices. Each would have vastly different input methods, available screen space, and processing power.

This is quite interesting, isn’t it?

Check out more Chrome OS concept designs for Tablets here.

Note to self: I think Google Wave, due to its nature (for the moment), fits best in a Tablet.

There is so little chance that you haven’t heard of the Apple Event that took place a couple of hours ago. But just in case here is a sum up of the event (in headlines):

• Steve Jobs showed up saying they want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary new product.
• There was a little talk about the success of the iPod and the iPhone over the last years with some historical and data reference. Plus, saying that Apple is a mobile devices company, that’s what we do.
• After wondering if there is room for a third category device in the middle of a laptop and/or a smartphone, Steve just said iPad.
• From that time and on it was all about applauding and embracing this new magical thing called the iPad.

We’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts — we want to make the best tech, but have them be intuitive. It’s the combination of these two things that have let us make the iPad.

iPad’s main features inlcude:

• 9.7-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
• 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
• Wi-Fi + 3G model
• 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
• Built-in speakers
• Microphone

You may find out more about the iPad here. However, as you may have noticed, there a few missing features.

If you ask me, I was getting ready to catch up with the event along with gdgt’s and engadget’s live coverage. I was ready to listen to whatever Steve was ready to say. I mean, we were all ready for the best tablet pc ever, right? Well, the first impression of the iPad was like “hmmm.. it’s not bad”. Not that I don’t think this is an exceptional mobile device. Maybe I was overwhelmed by all the buzz going on about the Apple Tablet. I was waiting for something truly innovative and outstanding.

The User Interface was awesome, as usual in all Apple products. Could be better though. The whole idea of downloading the same apps you download for your iPhone was a bit surprising and also a good way to endorse the power of the iPhone App Store. Everything else seemed to be quite elegant.

Anyhow, Apple’s iPad has definitely killed the netbook market and we are about to witness, as I have said before, a change in personal computing in the years to come shifting the Personal Computer (P.C.) towards the mobile devices.

Don’t forget to check out this real-time look at twitter mentions of terms related to Apple’s product launch earlier today.

I didn’t have the chance to get my hands on the new Nokia N900 for time being so I was experimenting with Firefox for mobile with its download-for-desktop version. Until a few days ago I was only able to download and play with the latest alpha version, which didn’t surprise me that much, but lately Firefox released a beta version so I thought I should give it a try. Well, the beta version is much more prettier and far more reliable than its predecessor. Except for the new polished user interface there are a few other things that actually make you smile. First and foremost the new super swipe-left-or-right navigation menu rocks.

It is a totally cool new feature and it is really-really-really fast accessible. You just swipe right to get a quick view of your browser’s tabs, or just swipe left to access some hidden buttons like the back and forth buttons, preferences and the bookmark button. I have to say that I ‘ve been using Android for a couple of years (incl. emulators and real phones) but I didn’t have that fast access to the browser’s tabs or settings and the same goes for the iPhone’s Safari browser. Although both platforms provide a quite fast access to the browser’s tabs and/or settings, none of them was as fast as the new mobile Firefox. I like this new approach of mobile browsing experience and I could probably get used to it very soon.

Furthermore, there is a zoom-when-tap-a-textfield feature where the browser zooms in the tapped input field so that you can easier check what you type (keep in mind that this very first version of Firefox for mobile is available for phones with a 800×480 pixel resolution screens which makes things a little bit crowded when it comes down to the 3.5 inch screen). And of course there is the all-time-classic double-tap-zooming.

Lastly, there couldn’t be a mobile Firefox without having mobile add-ons! There are currenlty 40 or so available add-ons. I ‘ve already tried the Mozilla Mobile Add-ons Challenge award winner, TwitterBar by Christopher Finke. Have you?

It turns out that the countdown that google.com showed every time you pressed the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button over the last few weeks, which was ticking down the seconds, suddenly when the year was 2010 it turned into an explosive Happy New Year message floating over Google’s homepage!

And a couple of hours later Google’s special new year’s Doodle for 2010 showed up.

2009 has been an amazing year for Google, including many UI changes inside Google products, new programming languages, a lot of Android madness and last not but not least a true Google-branded bleeding-edge device coming up in a few days. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Google in 2010.

Happy New Year to all! :)

I got my Brizzly invitation last night. When you first activate your account you will be asked to link your Twitter account. After that you can explore every aspect of this new service. In short you may say Brizzly is Twitter enhanced. It has everything Twitter has like Search, Trends and Saved Searches and extends by including a few more amazing features that make Brizzly stand out, like:

• inline display of video, images, and maps
• trending topics with context
• multiple account support
• photo upload
• groups
• muting
• drafts

Apart from that, Brizzly’s user interface is also as simple as Twitter’s giving you the option to choose between Standard (which looks like almost exactly like Twitter’s UI) and Wide view. There are also a few other minor things that you may be familiar with such as typing ‘j’ and ‘k’ to scroll tweets up and down.

Warning: After joining Brizzly, there is a chance you may never have to login via twitter.com again. :P

Here is an introduction to Brizzly, the new social media reader from Thing Labs. Enjoy!

[ photo via respres ]

Last night Google decided to change some UI elements in its homepage. This time buttons changed, getting bigger and more squared. They also got a new style class -correct me if I am wrong but I don’t recall that class- for their buttons named “lsb” (i wonder if lsb means something). Moreover the text field above the search buttons got bigger. However these changes take place only with Firefox under Mac OS. Safari and Chrome don’t seem to be affected by these changes.