The entire basis of Tareq Ismail’s argument was the difficulty of typing in long sentences on a mobile phone. “It’s simple: Graph Search for mobile would need to incorporate speech, which is a different beast altogether,” Tareq wrote. “Many of the examples given during the Graph Search keynote contained long sentences, which are not easy to type on a mobile device. Think of the example “My college friends who like roller blading that live in Palo Alto.” Search engines like Google get around this on mobile by offering autofill suggestions, but their suggestions come from billions of queries. For Facebook, since their search is based on hundreds of individual values like “fencing” or “college friends” specific to each user and not a group, autofill suggestions will often not be useful, or worse, will require a lot of tapping and swiping to drill down to the full request.”

I’m in a noisy Starbucks as I type this. I just pulled up the notes app on my iPhone and spoke the words from above, “My college friends who like roller blading that live in Palo Alto.” Guess what? That’s exactly what Siri returned in the text. Perfectly.

On modern smart phones, this is a non-issue. The ability to “incorporate speech” into an app is simply built in to the latest iPhones and iPads using the up-to-date iOS software. The images to the right show how it’s implemented, automatically, into the myFirstAm app we built for First American Title. There was no special coding required to make this possible.

Speech to text is also an integrated part of the Android operating system. In fact, it’s been possible for several years. The author also argues, “speech recognition doesn’t come cheap.” I just don’t get it. How much cheaper could free be? Ongoing improvements and investment in speech-to-text technology will be coming from the mobile OS side, not the app side.

I will agree with two of Tareq’s arguments, however. First he says, “Names are Facebook’s strength and speech recognition’s weakness.” No doubt… but I think this is a minor hurdle for Facebook to overcome in getting mobile adoption for their Facebook graph search, not a roadblock.

Second, he rightly states, “Facebook has over a billion users who collectively speak hundreds of different languages. Facebook has said they’re beginning their launch with English. How long until all billion users’ languages are supported for the desktop?” As an English speaking American with no discernable accent, speech to text is significantly better for me than most people. I realize this. And yet, I still don’t see this as a barrier to Facebook launching graph search on mobile. As iPhone and Android grow their ability to recognize and translte speech into text, in any language, all apps that take advantage of it will grow as well.

If Facebook’s graph search has value, people will find a way to use it on mobile. Its adoption, as well as other natural language search, won’t be slowed by speech-to-text. If it’s useful, it will get used, even if I have to type a long sentence.

The post Mobile Speech To Text Is A Hurdle, Not A Barrier appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

Yesterday I updated with great anticipation, hoping that the quality of the new video chat capabilities on the Skype app would live up to the quality of video I’ve experienced with Apple’s Facetime. To my delight, on a WiFi connection, Skype rocked.

Video chat over 3G is the difference.

What I was even happier to find, however, is that on a decent 3g connection, the experience was just as good. I video Skyped with Steve Zehngut in the parking lot of LA Fitness and with Dan Green right before I got on the treadmill. No question… Skype for iPhone trumps FaceTime video chat with ease. If you’re a Skype user, this is a no brainer.

Obviously, bandwidth will be an issue with any video service. So, I wanted to see how Skype behaved with a single bar. So, I dialed up Jay Thompson while at a stop light. The result? I got a pretty decent video, but the audio was horrid. Then the light changed.

What’s more dangerous than texting while driving? Skype video chatting while driving.

You have been warned.

The post What Is More Dangerous Than Texting While Driving? appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

My iPhone has become my main camera.

It’s not because the quality of the camera is so amazing, thought it’s certainly not bad. It’s because of the applications available to edit photos and create effects on the fly. I’m particularly fond of the analog camera simulation apps like Hipstamatic, PictureShow, Lo-Mob, Plastic Bullet and Infinicam. But I love AutoStitch, You Gotta See This! and Pro HDR as well. Each one, individually, has it’s place in my photo arsenal. And I post photos to my main photo blog, In The Viewfinder, almost exclusively using edited iPhone photos.

But one of my favorite things to do is use the apps in combination. And I may be doing it in ways the creators never envisioned, so I thought I’d share one of my favorite ways to combine apps. The photo to the right is a photo of a sunflower straight from the iPhone without having been processed through any app.

Infinicam + Pro HDR

For this example, I used two photos manipulated using Infinicam. I then combined those images in two different orders in Pro HDR. I have used this technique with exports from Plastic Bullet and PictureShow as the starting point as well.  Here’s a finished example from two different Plastic Bullet exports combined using Pro HDR – Rush Hour.

Pro HDR is my favorite HDR app for the iPhone, and I use it a great deal in the way it was intended to be used. However, using the “Library HDR” option from the main menu of the app, you can force it to process any two photos of the same size. Your results will change based on which photo you choose as the “darker” image and which photo you choose as the “lighter” image. Example:

The results can change dramatically when you simply choose the alternate photo to begin the process.

There is no way to predict what the end result will be, but that’s the beauty of this process. I love the surprise of a beautifully random and unexpected combination. You may prefer the first result above. I preferred the second and published that photo to my photo blog. All of the original files can be seen at full size in this Flickr photo set -  Using Pro HDR To Create Interesting Effects.

Give this simple technique a shot on some of your photos and be sure to come back and put a link to your results in the comments. I’d love to see them.

The post Getting Creative With Pro HDR On The iPhone appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

In fact, I think the folks who built it are evil geniuses who probably sold their collective souls to the devil to be able to magically identify just about any song from a few seconds of sound sent streaming over the wireless internet while traveling at 70 miles per hour down the freeway, or even standing still.

But I don’t like their social sharing interface. Truth be told, I don’t like the social sharing interface for most apps. They too often force their thinly veiled sales pitches into the messages, either by brute force, not giving users the option to edit, or by hoping we’ll be too lazy to delete their suggested messages.

“Just used #SoundHound to find…” is a waste of precious Twitter characters in my opinion. That fact will be obvious to anyone who clicks on the link, since it will take them to a SoundHound song sample. And their brand message is not the message I want to send. If I’m sharing a song I’ve just heard on the radio, for example, I’m doing it because I like it, and want to lead others to it.

Give me more control. What I’d really like is for app creators to give me some options in the application preferences. In the example to the right, let me set my own default prefix for the song, artist and link. Let me choose my own #hashtag if I want. And let that be my new default message format. It would be a simple enough change to make and I, for one, would use SoundHound more often if I didn’t have to take the extra time to select and delete their advertising copy on every use.

Pandora makes a similar mistake with their web service. I’m assuming they’d both like people to use the sharing features or they wouldn’t put them there. If I could set my own default message, or get rid of theirs, at a minimum, I would probably play a larger role in leading people to their services. But I can’t, so I don’t. I gotta believe I’m not alone here.

Give me control. Give me a choice. I’ll share more. How about you?

The post More Control Equals More Sharing appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

I did tests using their new “automatic” modes first. On both apps, this mode selects the light and dark extremes of the dynamic range automatically, True HDR taking three photos and Pro HDR taking two photos. But I quickly realized the only way to get a true comparison was to use the exact same base images in manual mode. So, the two images below were used to produce the comparison shots I’m sharing here today.

True HDR

First I fed the two images above into the True HDR app. The app took 26.5 seconds to process the two images and returned the 2496 x 1856 pixel image you see below. Click on the image to view it at actual size.

Pro HDR

I then fed the base images into the Pro HDR iphone app. The app took just 8.4 seconds to process the two images and returned the 2590 x 1933 pixel image shown below. Click on the image to view it at actual size.

I’ll be sticking with the Pro HDR app.

In every test I performed, including the test shown above, the Pro HDR app produced better results than the True HDR app. This was true regardless of which process I chose, including the automated processes. There seemed to be no advantage at all to the three photos used in the automated process that True HDR uses compared to the two photo process used by Pro HDR.

In addition, the difference in the time it took to process each image was dramatic, and surprising. The True HDR app took three times longer to process it’s final images. It also returned an image almost 100 pixels narrower than the original photos and the Pro HDR app.

The ability to control brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and tint before saving out the final image gives the Pro HDR app an additional advantage. There is no ability to adjust photo settings in the True HDR. As a result, there is also no way to save various versions of a processed photo to see how one compares to another at full resolution.

Of course, your results may vary. I’d love to hear from other’s who’ve done comparisons of the Pro HDR and True HDR iPhone apps.

The post iPhone Apps: True HDR vs Pro HDR appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

And for the most part, the UI changes they’ve made in the upcoming iPhone software, iOS4, are major improvements. And since I use a lot of apps, the ability to group applications by type is one of my favorite new features. However, what I think is missing is the ability to select an application icon or category icon to represent the grouping when viewing an unopened folder. While there is a tremendous overall improvement in the speed with which I can find any specific app, the ability to quickly glance and understand photo content without having to read the folder names would be a huge help.

I’ll take this iOS4 UI over the old UI any day. I’m very happy. The video below will help explain why I could be just a little happier. And don’t we all just want to be a little happier?

The post May I Suggest A Small Change To The iOS4 UI? appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

Building An Online Marketing Strategy by @garrons

10:43 am: “Consider using the Internet.”

10:46 am: “Before you blaze out of here with all of these tool ideas, take a step back and look at ‘the moment’ when new appointments are set. If you understand what drove that moment, you’re way ahead of the game.”

Garron is talking about three sites, for three different agents that are archetypes of conversation points. Each one represents each agent’s “moment” points.

1. Showing requests prospecting DB.

2. Sphere referral, direct inquiries, prospecting sign ups.

3. Sphere referral, IRL meetings.

10:57 am: @garrons is talking about blogs that are designed to support real life relationships, not Google. clairewidmark.com is not designed to attract search engines, it’s designed to support what Claire actually does each day to get to the moment.

10:59 am: “Realize when you find something interesting & ask, ‘how can I share that?”

11:00 am: Garron getting animated.

11:02 am: “I want my website to reflect me in a way I’m proud of. I want to be proud to share my site because it reflects who I am.”

11:06 am: “Take a look at your online presence. If it does not reflect YOU and how you connect with clients, you will not be as succesful in your online marketing efforts.”

11:08 am: “Utilize supportive tools. Understand your community & use tools that work.”

I want more on “the moment” concept from @garrons

Creating A Successful Real Estate Hub By @tyr

“Your real estate business comes from your ‘sphere’ and yet most tools are direct to consumer and doesn’t play to your existing skills.”

11:14 am: The agent business cycle.

11:17 am: “Tools fall into 3 areas, lead generation, client management & sphere building.”

11:18 am: Building your sphere: Facebook, Twitter, Blog

11:21 am: Keys to Facebook success: 1. Super easy. 2. Awesome referral marketing tool. 3. Focus on status updates.

11:23 am: 365 Things To Do In Vancouver, WA is a great example of a Facebook fan page that has impact in increasing sphere of influence. Created by @dalechumbley

11:25 am: Facebook tracks the “influence” and interaction on your fan page. The greater the level of interection, the more Facebook promotes the page.

11:27 am: “You need to have a solid hub for your social media activities, a place to lead people to.”

11:28 am: “A blog is just a series of emails to the world.”

11:29 am: Lead generation has to happen from your hub. The first step is having a hub you’re proud to show off.

11:30 am: “Your hub has to have dynamic content. The content must change!”

11:31 am: “Your hub must have home search.”

11:32 am: “You really need to be able to prospect against the database you create.”

11:33 am: CRM –> Conversion

CRM Keys

11:36 am: 1. Get them into the CRM! 2. Observe activity and track behavior. 3. Know when to ask for business, understand the trigger.

11:37 am: “Most important: make your blog the hub of your agent business cycle.”

11:52 am: Dale Chumbley & John Payson close the morning w/ a discussion of their strategies.

Afternoon Breakout Sessions

1:17 pm: mugtug.com <– had not heard of this one. @1000wattjoel is detailing apps that help you move to the cloud. This one is an online photo editor.

1:19 pm: blacktonic.com allows you to tell a story with your slides. Entirely web-based.

1:22 pm: Joel Burslem presents the cloud.

1:24 pm: notableapp.com is mostly designed for websites, but will work for any document or image to notate changes you’d like made to the document. Entirely browser-based.

1:30 pm: @1000wattjoel thinks mailchimp.com is the best email marketing site.

1:33 pm: squarespace.com is being discussed, but it’s “cool” features have been replicated in themes like Headway for WordPress. It has lost it’s luster for me.

1:36 pm: Note to self: take a look at kissinsights.com

Lifestyle Branding: Why It Matters by @bhgre_wendy

Shifting gears. Wendy will be focusing on strategy. Pointing out the differences between traditional and lifestyle branding. This is a shift away from commodity features to values and aspirations and vehicles for self expression.

1:47 pm: Wendy Forsythe

1:48 pm: “Informed consumers & pervasive technology = consumers in control.”

1:49 pm: There are 73 million echo boomers… the next generation of agents and consumers driving change.

1:51 pm: “The traditional business model of real estate is old fashioned & broken.”

1:53 pm: How do we fix the model?

1:55 pm: “RE brands were built on ego & status quo.This won’t work going forward.”

1:57 pm: “Leave the past behind.” The focus needs to move to value, quality, design, innovation and relationship. Relationship is the glue that holds it all together.

2:00 pm: “C-Level Life – Complete Consumer Control” What does today’s consumer want? Simplicity, speed, scrutiny, customization, innovation, freedom, entertainment, collaboration, transparency.

2:01 pm: “Brand interaction is a dialogue -requires integrity, authenticity, performance.”

2:07 pm: “One of the mistakes we make in building our brand is being to generic.”

2:15 pm: @bhgre_wendy is using @tboard & @locoheather’s blogs to illustrate community focus.

2:17 pm: Recommendations: 1. Focus your branding on neighborhoods and communities. 2. Focus your branding on lifestyle.

Traditional branding is out. Lifestyle branding is in.

Why Your Name Matters Most – @barryhurd

“We’re all Big Foot to people searching for us online.” They’ve never seen us, all they can learn about us must be pieced together from what they find online. What will they find?

2:42 pm: “48% of searches on Google are based on names.”

2:45 pm: “If I know people are searching for me, I may as well manage my appearance.”

2:51 pm: Barry Hurd

2:55 pm: Interesting ideas about putting ads for yourself on searches for your name. I’ve never looked at the ads associated with my name results on Google.

2:57 pm: “One reason why tweeting matters: it occupies search results quickly.”

2:58 pm: Video matters for the same reasons, especially on YouTube.

3:03 pm: Showing Webmynd’s Firefox plugin to move Google ads out of the way to get quick snapshots of someone your searching for information on.

3:07 pm: www.SocialMention.com allows the export of search results to an RSS feed and excel spreadsheet.

3:09 pm: Note to self: take a look at addictomatic.com

Barry’s presentation is available at slideshare.net/123socialmedia

Implementation Without Procrastination, Frustration or Complication by @darinpersinger

Darin is discussing the fears that keep us from making a choice and moving forward. Began his discussion with the MIT Door Study on fear of loss.

3:30 pm: Darin Persinger

3:34 pm: Encouraging action –> “You’re already ready.”

3:36 pm: rescuetime.com monitors how much time you spend on web sites and shuts them off to you if you’ve exceeded preset limits.

3:37 pm: Identify and focus: “What is the one thing that I will start doing tomorrow morning.”

3:38 pm: Motivation: “Is this something I really want to do?”

3:39 pm: Focus: eliminate, delegate, don’t complicha

3:45 pm: Implement: hesitation is a productivity killer. “Just do it.”

The Future Of The Real Estate Brokerage

4:19 pm: Great conversation:

The post Buzzre Live Blog appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

What this app does is generate a “trending topics” list from JUST the people you follow on Twitter. You can sort for words or hashtags by timeframe. If you find a tweet you want to respond to or retweet, you can do that right from that app as well. This is all Friend Trend does. That’s it. And I like it.

I like it because it’s another tool that allows me quickly focus on what might be signal and ignore whatever I’m considering to be “noise” at the moment. As you can see from the screen shot to the right, it presents me with a list of the top trending words or hashtags. When I click on the individual listing, I see all of the tweets using that word or hashtag. Nice. You can see more screen shots below.

Where does it fall short?

Well, first of all, tools like this will likely fall short for you at some point based on the limitations of the Twitter API. Unless your storing the data off to your own server for analysis, you’ll be limited to what Twitter will feed the apps. You won’t be able to look back very far in time either. Friend Trend has that same limitation. Also, Friend Trend doesn’t give you the option to see the trends within one of your Twitter lists. I follow many lists that contain people that I don’t follow. If you’d like to see how that works,  that filtering feature can be found in Cadmus. Connect your twitter account to Cadmus and it will analyze it and spit back the triends for your friends and your lists. Be prepared for a wait, however. That kind of data crunching takes some time.

Friend Trend is a free app, with this one limitation. In the free app, trends 2-5 are invisible until you pay $0.99 to unlock them. Download it and give it a try. You can decide for yourself whether 2-5 are worth the buck.

The post Signal VS Noise – Friend Trend appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

7:08 pm: Let’s try this again.

7:48 pm: I put a few streams of Brandon Dove talking about BuddyPress at www.qik.com/respres

7:50 pm: A good BuddyPress site to look at as an example is www.rideoregonride.com

7:55 pm: Niraj is demoing ScreenSteps, which can be found at www.bluemangolearning.com/screensteps

7:59 pm: ScreenSteps uses XML-RPC to post ScreenSteps documents directly to a blog post on your WordPress blog.

8:05 pm: ScreenSteps uses a manual/lesson/step metaphor. Ablog post will be a single lesson.

8:16 pm: ScreenSteps also allows you to update the blog post from the ScreenSteps desktop application. So changes can be made to all docs and the post with one edit session from the desktop app.

8:28 pm: This ends the live blog app/plugin demo.

8:42 pm: Sorry, one more thing: magicfields.org is rockin’! Some concern was expressed about WP 3.0 compatibility.

11:20 am: Testing a new feature. Again, pay no attention to me.

11:34 am: And again.

11:43 am: Testing a few new features to our live blog app… in the wild.

6:57 am: “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

Testing A Header

11:40 am: Oh, that was nice.

11:45 am: Will be testing new WP livebloghgng features at #rebcphx including new hinternal headlines.

This Is How Internal Headlines Look

11:46 am: Uses H2 tags… Will be configurable in release.

6:43 pm: Testing from iPhone OS 4.0 Beta

Doing Some Testing – 4/26/2010

2:07 pm: We’re refining the UI, so I’m just testing.

2:17 pm: Non-tweet test.

Looks like all is well.

10:22 am: Photo test.

4:46 pm: Testing new features.

2:14 pm: OC Wordcamp tomorrow. #wcoc (just testing Live Blog update)

2:19 pm: OC Wordcamp tomorrow! #wcoc (just testing Live Blog functions)

The post OC WordPress Live Blog appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

8:01 am: Gahlord is going to be focusing on how to improve your social media efforts using web analytic tools. Find him at meetwith.me/thoughtfaucet

8:04 am: @Gahlord is trying to jumpstart his geek brain. Scary thought. #retso

8:08 am: “I like to measure things because it helps me discover more about how things work” – @Gahlord

8:11 am: Analytics help us understand what we can and can’t control and how we respond and make decisions in the wake of those things we can’t control.

8:13 am: Analytics OODA Loop via Jonathan Boyd: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act @Gahlord #retso

8:18 am: “You can generate satisfaction without ever converting.”

8:19 am: “In social media there are two audiences – cheerleaders and customers.” – both have value.

8:22 am: Another objective of analytics is to get repeatable results. Amen.

8:26 am: “I think you should all wake up and say,’I don’t care how many Twitter followers I have.’” @Gahlord #retso

8:32 am: “Campaign tagging” – when you share a link to your site, it will give your more information about where that link came from and why. What are they responding to? Are they responding to a topic, or at a specific time?

8:32 am: “Is your audience awake?” analytics help you know for sure.

8:36 am: A poor man’s reputation management is Google alerts.

8:39 am: It’s important to orient based on channel, by action, by use, by human. “Learn to indentify who is influential.”

8:41 am: “You can develop a clear approach for aligning your social media plan with your business goals.”

8:42 am: Getting people to your website is never a final goal.

8:43 am: Free tool: Google Website Optimizer

8:44 am: Great session.

7:07 pm: Let’s test this live blog app.

The post Gahlord Dewald, Social Media Improvement Via Web Analytics – A Live Blog appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

6:15 am: I’ll be using a Live Blog app all day today to post updates from #harsmp.

7:12 am: Todd Carpenter – @tcar is up first… talking about “Brand You”

7:18 am: Todd is doing an excellent job of using transparency in the way it should be used. Illustrations of the various “names” people have called him on the Internet, both good and bad.

7:21 am: “How are people branding you?” – @tcar #harsmp analyzing social media will tell you.

7:21 am: Google alerts and vanity searches are reactive, not proactive.

7:22 am: “Dont tell me your a big deal. Be a big deal.” – @tcar #harsmp

7:25 am: Todd is really highlighting the fact that actions speak louder than words. His illustrations, although just words, are very visual. Like the way he’s managing his presentation. It’s true to HIS brand.

7:29 am: Yelp.com – @tcar is extolling the potential virtue of Yelp for REALTORS. I agree. #harsmp

7:32 am: He said “Yelp Strategery” for the Texas crowd.

7:33 am: “Think about how you can help other local businesses.” – @tcar #harsmp

7:34 am: “I’m kind of a big deal.” – @tcar #harsmp (excellent presentation)

7:51 am: Up next: Paul Chaney @pchaney “The Digital Handshake” focused on Facebook and Twitter.

8:01 am: What should you do about it? Paul says, “Start a conversation.”

8:03 am: “In social media, the mindset is more important than the toolset.” – @pchaney #harsmp (truth)

8:07 am: “Information has to be findable and shareable.” – @pchaney #harsmp

8:09 am: Paul is preaching today. He’s really “on” this morning. Enjoying it.

8:16 am: There’s a business profit benefit to creating a viral conversation. But you have to be willing to work the way the web works today. Staying entrenched in old marketing styles, to the exclusion of conversation media, is a mistake.

8:17 am: “Listen. Engage. Measure.” – @pchaney #harsmp

8:21 am: “Twitter is kind of the new email”

8:24 am: “BLOG = Better Listings On Google.”

8:28 am: “If this is JUST about ROI for you. You’re missing the point.” – @pchaney #harsmp

8:30 am: Paul’s tears at the end of his presentation over the human element of social media were real. Quite a touching moment. “it really is a matter of the heart.”

8:31 am: Paul’s presentation is at slideshare.net/pchaney

8:41 am: Up next: Ines Hegedus-Garcia from miamism.com talking about “Blogging On Steroids.”

9:03 am: “You need a plan.” – @Ines #harsmp re: blogging

9:07 am: Your blog should be a direct reflection of who you are and how you speak. If you’re casual, be casual. If you’re formal, be formal.

9:11 am: Pay attention to your demographics. Who have you sold to in the past? Are they similar? Can you identify a “type” that you can blog directly to?

9:14 am: “I try things on my blog for at least six months. If they aren’t converting, I stop.” – @Ines #harsmp

9:17 am: “The top right corner of your blog is you’re most valuable space. Make good use of it. Don’t waste it.”

9:30 am: “Marketing reports are universally the most clicked on posts.”

9:33 am: Wow. @Ines just mentioned twext.me #harsmp

9:38 am: I’m up next, so I won’t be live blogging it.

10:48 am: Max Pigman @maxpigman is up next talking about mobile technology.

10:56 am: “Mobile data will eclipse voice by 2011″ – @maxpigman #harsmp

11:00 am: “even if you don’t want or own an iPhone you need to know what your site looks like when viewed from an iPhone or iPod Touch. It represents 65% of mobile traffic”

11:06 am: The document camera @maxpigman uses to show his iPhone sceens rocks hard! #harsmp

11:15 am: Max does a great job of demoing the apps he recommends for the iPhone. Demoing Red Laser now.

11:18 am: Crowd is laughing at Max’s demo of an app that let’s you text and walk and see where you’re going.

11:21 am: .@maxhigman is demoing the Top Producer iPhone app. #harsmp

11:26 am: “they just developed a 2 TB SD card” – that’s a lot of photos

11:31 am: Glad he’s demoing how to use Windows on a Mac. The compatability myth needs to be busted.

11:32 am: Ines and I are talking about Flickr next.

12:27 pm: Ginger Wilcox @gingerw from smminstitute.com is up next to talk about video.

12:39 pm: “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes in your first videos. Everyone does” – @gingerw #harsmp

12:44 pm: Ginger is showing off her MANY video camera she uses. She may have a camera buying addiction.

12:49 pm: Make sure viewers can rate your “YouTube videos or they won’t be found and add text to them so Google can index them.”

12:51 pm: “Publish regularly, publish to more than one location, be human, listen” – good advice.

12:56 pm: I kinda liked the “tv show” feel of the video Ginger show of her property listing. Perhaps she’ll come link to it in the comments.

1:00 pm: “Take videos of local business owners talking about why their business is unique and what they love about their community.”

The post HAR Digital Media Spring Training – A Live Blog Experiment appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

Here are a few of the reports:

• CNET
  Cisco launches iphone security app
• NetworkWorld
  Cisco’s free iPhone app grabs security feeds
• TechCrunch
  Cisco Lets You Access Network Security Information On The Go Via iPhone App
• CNNMoney
  Global Security Information Now On-the-Go With Cisco iPhone Application

“The app is designed for professionals and security geeks, not the average consumer,” Weir said in the CNET article above.  And there’s no doubt about that. The average consumer may not even understand some of the terminology used in the application, let alone why this app might be important. Network managers, however, will have easy access to  information about malware sigs, threat mitigation bulletins,  ways to see if sites are compromised, links to podcasts and videos, and can create personalized alerts to show security threats that could impact their network. Instant access to accurate information should make the job of dealing with the constant attack on networks a bit easier to manage.

An update to the app the provides additional features is already in progress.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/4

The post Cisco SIO To Go iPhone App Reviews Are Coming In appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

The Cisco Security Intelligence Operation.

The Cisco SIO provides a visual look at security and threat statuses on a global basis. And she announced that the Cisco SIO To Go iPhone application is coming soon. Zeek Interactive is proud to have been chosen by Cisco to build this iPhone app.

Curt Franklin, the online community manager for Interop, described the app in his Interop keynote review this morning. He said, “This will let security officers see the threats and responses so they can understand what’s happening and what Cisco is doing in response. The idea is that this will allow the staff in the companies to formulate their own response and rules to keep their network safe. From my point of view, this is a very neat concept, and not dissimilar to services that have been available on SEIM consoles for a while. The really new piece of this is its availability anywhere — a theme that’s starting to play out for all of this morning’s keynote addresses.”

The Cisco SIO To Go iPhone app will be free when approved. And while we’re very excited about the first version, we’re even more excited about the additional functionality of the update which will be submitted shortly.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/4

UPDATE: The Cisco SIO To Go App is now available via iTunes. App Store Link

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It’s not overstuffed with features, and it doesn’t need to be. The Adobe programmers nailed the use of the iPhones touch screen and simplified the tools by making the entire screen act as your effect slider. If you’ve ever tried to grab the small slider bar on some apps, you’ll know why that’s a benefit. Here’s a sample result.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Jeff Turner: Out & About

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I’ve changed my thoughts on a Google Voice app for the iPhone.

Thanks to Jason Berman, I was alerted to the GV Mobile app for my jailbroken iPhone. It was available via Cydia, so of course I gave it a whirl. I liked it. But I realized something.

I’ve had an icon on my homescreen to take me to http://www.google.com/voice from day one of the Google Voice launch.  (see illustration below) It works. I can search my address book, place calls, listen to messages, etc. In short, I can do anything I really need to do, right there on my little ol’ iPhone.

What struck me about the GV Mobile app was that the main reason it felt better than going  to a mobile version of their website, aside from being able to dial and access my phones address book, was the UI. That’t it. It was pretty and the buttons were bigger and easier to use, but it didn’t give me the ability to do a whole lot more than I couldn’t already do.

So, Google, I have a suggestion for you. Just bypass the iTunes App Store. When you sense I’m coming from an iPhone, why don’t you simply give me a better, more iPhone-friendly version of your site. You did a great job on the iPhone layout  for Google Calendar recently. That made me happy. Just do the same thing for Voice and I’ll be happy again. I’m sure others will be too.

I’m not sure how Michael Arrington will react though.

The post Hey, Google Voice, Forget Apple And Just Give Me A Better Mobile Experience. appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

Enter AutoStitch for iPhone.

AutoStitch appears to be based on the same core technology as my favorite desktop stitching application, Calico. It was almost two years ago to the day that I found a Mac application using the AutoStitch technology and AutoStitch for iPhone is a great way to celebrate that anniversary.

Unlike either Panorama or Pano, you can simply point Autostitch to photos you’ve already taken and it will automatically analyze the images to create the best panorama possible from them. This DRAMATICALLY reduces the time it takes to capture a panoramic image. There is no need to worry about accurate alignment. For the sample image below, I took 15 photos in quick succession. I only almost no care in making sure there was consistent overlap. Those photos were automatically saved to my iPhone photo album.

After launching Autostitch, you simply select the photos you want it to stitch together. AutoStitch has a “tutorial” on their site, but it’s not needed. Point it at your photos and let it rip. AutoStitch analyzed the photos and created a panorama from the images in short order.

Here are some screen captures from the process:

Here is the resulting image. (Click to view larger)

And here is the cropped version. (Click to enlarge)

It just doesn’t get any simpler than this. And don’t worry that your panoramic image doesn’t look very clear on your iPhone. When you get it to your computer you’ll find a nice surprise. As the AutoStich FAQ explains, “The iPhone Photos app limits the resolution at which it displays images. As it limits display resolution to a maximum in each image dimension, the display resolution can seem particularly low for long and narrow images.”

I’m going to have some fun with this app!

UPDATE: Here is a sample AutoStitch for iPhone photo set on Flickr. To demonstrate ease of use, took the 14 photos in 48 seconds.

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I’ve tried every Twitter application on the iPhone, including the favorites Twinkle, Twitterific, and Twittelator. I’ve even tried Tweetsville, TwitterFon and GPSTwit and fired off photos with Twitfire. But in the end, I always ended up coming back to Hahlo, a web-based Twitter client built specifically for the iPhone.

Why? Simplicity and the ability to separate “replies” from “direct messages.” I wish it were more complicated than that. It’s not. I don’t want my direct messages mixed in with my replies and I certainly don’t want them mixed into my friend stream, indicated only by color. I want to choose easily whether to reply in public or private and I want to be certain that choice is honored. Hahlo did all of that for me. Tweetsville does it as well, but doesn’t allow me to access replies on the main screen. And… the one feature that was missing from Hahlo, was the ability to retweet, to easily repost something interesting.

Tweetie gives me all of that and more.

It is has now replaced Hahlo on my main iPhone toolbar. Tweetie allows me to set up multiple Twitter accounts, as you can see below. That’s helpful. My only “complaint” is that they’ve gone overboard on the text bubbles. I’d like to see more tweets on screen at one time and the graphics are taking up too much space.

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That said, the fact that “Tweets,” “Replies,” and “Messages” are easily accessef from the main menu was the first clue that I was going to like this app. And when I choose to reply, the option buttons are large and easy to hit accurately. I can’t tell you how frustrating the small icons on most of the iPhone apps are to hit accurately.

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The ability to copy and paste links was an unexpected bonus! When you access a link in a tweet, it opens inside the Tweetie browser.

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The icon on the lower left then gives you the ability to either open the link in Safari or “post the link,” which copies a shortened URL into a new tweet. Sweet.

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Ahh, but there’s more. Easy access to Twitter Search features and trends. And a quick way to search for tweets directed at me, but not directly at me, via the “Search @ResPres” button.

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In addition, Tweetie allows me to save drafts and easily follow and favorite right from the app. Simply put, this is finally a Twitter iPhone App I can recommend. Now, if only Twitter would take the limits off the API. The reason I keep resorting to Search.Twitter.com, even on the iPhone, is this:

But I know it’s not Tweetie’s fault. So, my first click is on Tweetie now. If that fails, then my saved Twitter Search icons are my fallback plan.

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You’ll be hard pressed to find a bigger Apple advocate than me. I know they’re out there, but they don’t get out much. So, when I dog Apple, you can bet I feel strongly about it.

In a conversation with Teresa Boardman, a Realtor® from St Paul, Minnesota, she stated very strongly, “unless the iPhone will let me access the internet via my computer, like my phone does, I’m never going to switch.” I know this is anecdotal, but when she said it my brain said, “She’s right. The iPhone should enable this.” At the time, only days after the iPhone launch, I figured someone would write an app and that would be that. And someone did.

Apparently that is not that. Apple and AT&T continue to march toward taking more and more control over the applications and services that are allowed on the iPhone. Some of that control is certainly necessary to prevent malware and other “bad stuff” from happening. But preventing truly beneficial apps from making their way onto the iPhone, while allowing dozens of ridiculous “tip calculators” to thrive, is further indication that Apple still doesn’t want to understand the needs of the business user.

It’s not like they couldn’t make money from it. I, for example, would gladly pay a bit more on the data plan to not have to have tote around the wireless card for my laptop. I can’t be alone.

My bet is that this controlling trend will continue. And that should further the Jailbreaking movement. But with iPhone production ramped to 800,000 units per week, the number of users who will opt out as a result of these shortcomings won’t even amount to a speed bump in their sales chart.

This makes no sense to me. But hey, what do I know, I think having a Flash plugin for Safari on the iPhone is a good idea too. Clearly I’m wrong.

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Mobile post sent by ResPres using Utterz. Replies. mp3

The post Evernote iPhone App Fills A Gap appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

This just pisses me off. That's all I have to say about that.  

The post No Flash For The iPhone appeared first on Zeek Interactive.

But I’ve said from the beginning that the fact it does not support an Adobe Flash plug-in is a bad decision. And it was clearly a conscious decision by Steve and his crew. Now, after a visit to a local Starbucks this evening, I can only conclude that it’s also an insane decision.

I’ve been wanting to see how Starbucks was executing their Hear Music/iTunes campaign, so I decided to just sit outside a local Starbucks for a second and log into my T-Mobile account to see it for myself.

It’s been a while since I spent any time at a Starbucks, so the screen that popped up when I fired up Safari on my iPhone was new. And it gave me options to browse around without logging into my T-Mobile account. Very cool. But right there on the front page, taking up the largest amount of real estate, was a large Hear Music/iTunes square. So I clicked on it.

The image above is the screen I received. Are you kidding me? Apple initiates a major deal with Starbucks and Hear Music, then coordinates it with the launch of the new iTunes WiFi Store and one of the first things they hit you with is a reminder of how lame it is that the iPhone doesn’t support Flash?

Come on, Steve, work out the deal with Adobe, put aside your world domination plans for a bit and let’s get this insanity behind us.

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