thebaldgeek

Is this enough to swade Gary to cross over from the dark side and into the light?
Can it be the trigger that causes him to actually see the light for the first time and leave the dark walled garden of Apple and walk in clarity and freedom in the Android world?

I’m being very silly and a little nasty, but just could not resist…..

http://betanews.com/2014/12/19/how-to-monitor-your-home-using-an-android-wear-smartwatch/

Anyone using an Android powered smartwatch no longer needs to worry about actually having to pick up their smartphone in order to see what’s going on back home, or in the office while they’re gone.

Now they can do it through the smartwatch.

What am I talking about? The Android app IP Cam Viewer of course, an application that lets users remotely access their video camera, digital video recorder, network recorder and webcam, now supports Android Wear.

In a nutshell, the new app allows you to view streaming video on an Android smartwatch.
Its pretty cool. Somewhat pointless, but cool.

You need to have the app on your phone, remember, the watch is tethered to the phone, so the phone has to be an Android and it has to run the app to connect to the IP camera, it then streams the video over Bluetooth to the watch.

And yes, its a battery hog, no, you can’t see it outside in the sunshine (wait, there is an outside with sun?), but its cool that if you need it, there is an Android way of doing it.

(All jokes aside, once the Apple watch launches next year, it will be available on that watch in no time I’m sure).

Wrote this post back in mid November, but figure that none of my readers need this sort of info on the day. Let me know in the comments if you would prefer this sort of blog to happen at the time it comes to hand.

This is (just one of the many) reasons why I don’t like Apple stuff much.
When any company pulls this sort of thing…. Its a low blow….

http://www.eoshd.com/2014/11/apple-kill-third-party-ssd-support-yosemite/

Today after attempting to upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite (officially, via the App Store) without any warning whatsoever the drive would no longer boot at all. It didn’t even get as far as fully installing Yosemite. I was very lucky in the end not to lose any data and it was purely by chance that I was able to boot it again, by swapping to USB 3.0 instead of Thunderbolt.

The problem is down to Apple having introduced a new “security feature” in Yosemite. Only kext drivers for official Apple SSDs are supported. Built in drives that Apple themselves use in your Macbook Pro Retina and some iMacs will upgrade just fine to Yosemite but if you have installed a third party SSD or more commonly are running off an external one, you’re out of luck.

Yuck. That probably totally wrecked a few projects, perhaps even some very lives of editors.

Love their hardware. I own a Mac Pro Tower computer. It runs Windows. Planning on dual booting it with Linux one day (so there Gary!).
Its a well built PC. Just not a fan of being locked into an ecosystem that can change the rules like that on you over night.

I had not heard of a ‘strapline’ before this.

http://webdesignfromscratch.com/usability/essential-guide-straplines/

Huh? What’s a Strapline?
Oh, that’s easy. A strapline (or tagline) is the single line of text that you often see directly underneath a website’s logo.

You ask your trusted friend (search engine) where to find something you want.
You click a link, and you’re immediately dropped in a website… probably one you’ve never visited before.
And you need to decide if you’re likely to find what you want there, or whether you should click your heels together three times and go back to Kansas.
And what clues do website visitors look for to answer that question? They’ll look at any imagery and headlines, and they’ll look at the SIGNAGE.

A strapline is the bit of text under the main banner of a web site.
You need a solid descriptor that people can quickly read when they land on your website that describes what they are going to find on your site.

Why did I find this interesting?
Because in my mind, it sort of meshed with what I have been saying about IoT data. You need to put it in context.
A website is big data. Lots of different pages, photos etc, but what does it all relate to? How is it all connected?
The strapline should tell you. It should quickly put the whole site into context for the consumer of that data.

The thing about any global signage is that it’s there on every page. So, if your strapline’s job is to tell the visitor the site’s purpose, it should summarise that in a way that meets two criteria…

First, it should be true for every page.
And it should be neat and concise.

I’m off to update mine, but will leave you with this thought….

What’s the strapline of your life?

This one has my interest, but not my time – yet.

https://google.github.io/physical-web/

The Physical Web is an approach to unleash the core superpower of the web: interaction on demand. People should be able to walk up to any smart device – a vending machine, a poster, a toy, a bus stop, a rental car – and not have to download an app first. Everything should be just a tap away.

Yup, you read that right, just walk up to ‘anything’ and interact with it right then and there from your mobile device.

The number of smart devices is going to explode, and the assumption that each new device will require its own application just isn’t realistic. We need a system that lets anyone interact with any device at any time. The Physical Web isn’t about replacing native apps: it’s about enabling interaction when native apps just aren’t practical.

So they are talking about having a small app somehow ‘appear’ on your mobile as and when you need it and then disappear once its clear you no longer need it for that physical device or location.

I’m all over this as I am so totally over having a phone full of apps.
Every single ‘thing’ I mess with has its own app, there is no app that works with a group of devices. This is why I love what I have done with my house and groov – more on this at another time.

The Physical Web is not shipping yet nor is it a Google product. This is an early-stage experimental project and we’re developing it out in the open as we do all things related to the web. This should only be of interest to developers looking to test out this feature and provide us feedback.

This is why I am excited, but not jumping in just yet. It’s a work in progress, it’s in a state of flux. I am going to wait till it matures a little more and then we will see about how it can be mashed up and interfaced with.

Sounds like its worth the wait.
I can wait.