It was just a matter of time, really, and I suppose that that time is NOW. Google has announced some details about its service regarding music online. Dubbed Google Music Onebox, the service basically allows users to stream music without additional effort. All that users would have to do is search for music on Google. Naturally, they had to partner up with music streaming services in order to make this possible.
Some music streaming services that have been named as Google’s partners in this venture are Lala, iLike, Pandora, Imeem, and Rhapsody. This is where widgets come into the picture – to manage the streaming of the music. You’d think that Google would have created a universal widget that will manage the streaming of the files regardless of the streaming service used, right? Well, you thought wrong.
This is actually one issue that people are already bringing up. From what I have been hearing, the widgets that will come up when you listen to a song will depend on the service providing the streaming. Even worse, they say that you will have no choice as to which widget will come up. Basically, you are at the mercy of whatever rules govern the service. I suppose that if you are not particular about the widgets, then Music Onebox should do well enough. The ability to stream music simply by doing a Google search is definitely buzz worthy. Still, I really hope that Google create its own widget – the one widget to rule them all. Now THAT would be cool.
Photo courtesy of Geek.com
Poker has become a huge thing in the recent years. Perhaps it is due to the immense exposure that it has enjoyed, thanks to celebrities playing poker and to poker players becoming celebrities themselves. I’d like to think, though, that poker is such an exciting and challenging game that this popularity couldn’t be helped – exposure or not.
In any case, it is quite common for people to create their own poker leagues these days. Bars hold their own tournaments even. If you have a poker league or tournament of your own, you might want to check out the widget from PokerDIY, which is a web site that connects poker players from all over the world. The people behind PokerDIY describe their baby as a “lovechild of the union between a social network for poker players and online poker league software.” Basically, through the web site, poker enthusiasts can find likeminded people and join existing home games or tourneys or invite others to join their home game or tourney. Of course, there are other tools available on the web site, such as forums and poker-related software.
This brings us to the poker widget that they are currently promoting. The widget basically allows a user to show off poker tournament statuses and scores on any web site and Facebook. Other information such as statistics can also be shown through the widget. The best thing about the widget is that it is FREE for use!
If you are already using PokerDIY, go ahead and grab the widget code. If you’re still looking for a good poker league management tool, go visit PokerDIY now and see how it can work for you.
Sports fanatics will certainly appreciate the convenience that widgets offer the freshest news about games and teams right on your TV. I know that this is perfect for those who cannot always watch what they want on TV. Perhaps you’ve even heard of them – Yahoo Sports Widgets and USA Today Sports Widgets.
I have not had the personal chance to compare both of these widgets but the review at CNET has quite convinced me to choose the former over the latter:
Both widgets open up to a window with a number of quick links, including headlines. Selecting one of these on both widgets brings up the first paragraph of the article. The Yahoo widget draws its content from the AP, and so these snippets of text tend to be pretty informative as the AP consistently puts their ledes at the top of their articles. The other widget, of course, uses USA Today for its content, which tends to have more literary or anecdotal starts. This means that, at times, the USA Today headlines are just a tease without providing the information that you’re really looking for.
Another convincing point is that Yahoo gets information from AP, and for some reason, I prefer AP’s information over USA Today – although that is not to say that one is superior to the other. The bottom line is that here are two excellent widgets which you can use – the choice is up to you!
This post is for web developers and other individuals who are interested in making use of their spare time and having fun while at it. Samsung has fast made a name for itself in the mobile phone arena, and has consistently provided users with great options. One of the things that mobile phone users look forward to is the release of new widgets, which make the phone experience all the more interesting and useful.
This year, Samsung is encouraging the creation of new widgets with Innovation Quest. Also known as SIQ or Samsung IQ, the event this year is focusing largely on the GT-i8910 home screen. The competition is being co-sponsored by The Symbian Foundation.
Those who will be joining the competition are in for an exciting event for sure. More than simply being participants and coming up with something new, contestants are going to be equipped with a lot of tools and resources, which the sponsors are providing. For example, a series of technical papers on widgets for mobile purposes is to be made available.
If you are worried that you are not an expert and you merely like to dabble with software development, you should rest easy. The event is meant for the expert as well as the novice.
At the end of the competition, the SIQ winner will take home around $25,000 and the potential income from the sales of the winning widget. Register at Samsung Mobile Innovator to join now. Deadline is 14 August, so it’s not too late!
Yahoo used to be THE thing when it came to the Internet. I remember more than a decade ago, when the Internet was only starting to become big, it was Yahoo that was on everyone’s lips. Today, however, Yahoo does not have that distinction anymore. The Internet, and technology in general, has evolved so rapidly and so many players are on the field now.
Yahoo is not giving up on its existence yet, though. In fact, even if it has a lot of competition, Yahoo is still a major factor to consider; and it continues to evolve and offer new things to users. One of the recent revelations on the Yahoo Blog is the fact that they are offering a host of new widgets and apps which will allow users to do a lot of things without having to leave the Inbox.
This has gotten a lot of attention and it seems to me – even if I have not personally tested all the widgets and apps – that this piece of news is being received favorably. Reuters actually featured this earlier this month. Some of the most notable widgets and apps mentioned were:
There’s a PayPal application that can integrate into a user’s Yahoo mail, as well as apps from personal finance service Mint.com and blogging tool WordPress which can be weaved into a person’s MyYahoo start page. Nearly 20 new widgets are now available for use in various Yahoo products, including a handful of apps for Internet enabled-TVs.
I am all for this, though I have one question: how is the speed of the interface?
Language is one of the main barriers that we have to face on a daily basis. The Internet has brought countries and cultures together, and still we do have our language differences. While I will never stop marveling at the complexities of language, I find it difficult to communicate sometimes, and I am sure that you have similar experiences.
Here is some good news for those who use Google Friend Connect: the widget now has a language feature, which allows users to post and comment using their own language. Information Week has this story:
The revised comments gadget allows Web site visitors to post and read comments in their own language through Google’s automatic translation technology.
“With this gadget, visitors from all over the world can leave messages in their native tongue, and other viewers will be able to instantly translate these comments into the language of their choice,” Google Friend Connect product manager Mussie Shore said in a blog post.
The benefit for Web site owners and visitors is obvious: greater community engagement. The downside—of gadgets in general—is ceding more page real estate to a third party. While Google may be a welcome houseguest on many home pages, the presence of its software takes up room that might otherwise be used for unique content. It also raises questions about whether Google and other gadget makers are privy to too much information about what goes on at the Web sites they’re enhancing.
Now we can interact more with people who do not really speak English! My only concern? I hope their translator is accurate!
One of the main goals of widgets is to make various platforms accessible to users. Widgets bring together these platforms, making it much easier to share information with other people. And this is exactly what PlayXpert had in mind when they came up with the idea of the PlayXpert Twitter Widget.
CNET reports:
Combining two of the most addictive things about the online universe—Twitter and World of Warcraft—seems like a good way to bring productivity in the Western world to a screeching halt.
If that happens, you can blame PlayXpert, a maker of various in-game widgets for PC gamers. The company today announced the PlayXpert Twitter Widget, adding Twitter functionality to the existing PlayXpert software, which works with WoW and other online PC games.
In-game widget engines such as PlayXpert (which bills itself as an “in-game operating system”) run alongside PC games, offering voice chat, Web browsing, and other tools for players, without the need to quit or ATL+TAB out of the game to launch another app (popular examples include Xfire and Steam).
“A screeching halt” is but an understatement, I think. Having personal experience with both Twitter and World of Warcraft, I am pretty sure that a large number of people will get hooked even more. And you know what the best thing about this new widget is? You can download it for free – along with other widgets – at PlayXpert’s web site.
I can now see critics (of spending too much time playing games) shaking their heads right now.
Do you feel like joining a contest? You might want to hear about the latest thing going on at Library Things, which is actually a widget contest. They recently released a group of new widgets, which I think are actually pretty cool. The widgets were released with predefined styles but the possibility of modifying them was also included. Given this, they are conducting a contest. Here are the rules:
• Submit your widgets to this Talk thread (http://www.librarything.com/topic/61668)
• Widgets can be of any type—as simple, complex, staid or way-out as you like. You can use your own CSS or JavaScript, but you certainly don’t have to.
• You can submit up to five widgets, but post only one message. Edit if you need to.
• If you want, share where you put the widget, or where you plan to.
• Go ahead and name your widgets, comment on what you were trying to do.
• Post the “Share with other LibraryThing members” link (e.g., this). Posting the script won’t work.
And what will you get for your efforts? If you win the people behind Library Things will choose your widget to be part of the standard set. Five members will also win memberships, which can be transferrable. There are other prizes at stake, so if I were you, I’d visit the blog and figure out what you need to do.
Oh, by the way, I think that you know that you need to know how to work around those codes, right?
In this time of economic uncertainty, more and more people are once again returning to an old habit. That is, the use of coupons to make savings. In the old days, people would regularly buy the newspaper (especially the Sunday edition) so that they can spend a considerable amount of time clipping those coupons which will end up making them savings. Actually, let me correct myself – I think that a lot of people still do this today.
Of course, for those who spend a lot of time online, there is another kind of coupon for them – the electronic version. With this new widget from Fabulous Savings, you can keep track of the most updated coupons even more easily. This widget can be downloaded for free, giving you the latest coupons that you can use when shopping. One good thing about the coupons that you can find from this widget is that they are not limited to food items or grocery items only. You can actually find coupons for most anything under the sun!
Michael Yack, the founder of Fabulous Savings, shares that “this widget is a great resource for all consumers. We wanted to make information easy and valuable. That’s why we decided to offer our National Retailer coupons through our inaugural widget and let everyone save money.”
What stores are participating? There are a lot but here are some of the most popular ones: Target, Macy’s, Best Buy, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart. I don’t know about you, but I am going to find this widget now.
When the Samsung Omnia came out, it was touted as one of the iPod killers. At that time, I was pretty skeptical. After all, it is very hard to overcome the hype that Apple products always come with. Months down the road, it seems that the Omnia is living up to the expectations of its fans.
For those of you who have a Samsung Omnia, one of the things that you might have noticed missing is the capability for lotsa widgets. I can imagine how frustrating this could be. I may not have a Samsung Omnia but I do know how cool widgets for mobile phones are and as cool as an Omnia can be, it just doesn’t live up to its potential if it does not have widgets.
So here’s the good news – Samsung has recently released a new ROM, which includes new widgets. The ROM was only released on the 11th of March and is still in the beta version. From what I hear, some of the widgets that are already active include a stocks widget, a news widget, a weather widget, and a Google and Yahoo search widget. There is also a section for “more widgets,” but unfortunately, it is not functional as of yet. And that is why perhaps some people are waiting for the more stable version of the ROM to come out before downloading it. If I had the Omnia, though, I would download the beta version and find out for myself.
