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!
Verizon has hit a gold mine with its Fios TV and the company is capitalizing on it. Currently, they have more than two hundred and fifty channels in their list of offerings, but they are not stopping there. Verizon has just added two more Web-connected services to the Fios TV.
Last week, Verizon offered their subscribers the chance to pick out anything they want from a wide array of Internet widgets. The best thing about these widgets is that they are for free! In order to make use of these widgets, users only need a Fios receiver or digital video recorder.
Rob Pegoraro of The Washington Post tried the new service for himself and has this to say:
The widgets build on software Verizon introduced four years ago for its own use; now, Verizon will provide approved widgets from other developers in a new Widget Bazaar. Verizon says about 40 of these are in development, but the only new ones showed off today were Twitter and Facebook applications. The former doesn’t let you sign into a Twitter account so you can’t easily bring up replies to your updates, while the latter allows access to more of Facebook’s standard features. Note that in each case, your input is limited to the standard remote control, with no provision for a wired or wireless keyboard.
He did raise a very interesting point. He mentioned that he has not been hearing from any TV Widget users. I realized that the same is true for me. I know countless people who use widgets on their computers but not on their TV. Anyone care to teach us a lesson?
Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have taken the world by storm. Even people who do not usually spend a lot of time online find themselves doing so because of these platforms. Businesses have also realized the potential of these platforms, and software developers are capitalizing on this. As such, we get to see all these new platforms advertising themselves as the “Facebook of business” or the “Twitter of business.”
WorkLight is a company which develops various social networking software, much like other software companies out there. However, unlike the “Facebook of business” companies, WorkLight takes on a slightly difference approach. Instead of creating whole new platforms and selling them as the “[place popular social networking platform here] of business,” WorkLight is bringing their widgets to the existing popular platforms.
WorkLight specializes in business applications which can be used for online banking, travel management, and other basic collaboration tasks. The good thing is that the applications can be published in various platforms such as Facebook, iGoogle, iPhone (yep!), and blogs. To date, WorkLight is working in collaboration with 17 consumer channels. This means that anyone who uses a widget that WorkLight has created can publish it easily to those channels.
The main advantage of this idea is that businesses need not spend a lot of money on developing widgets for different platforms. They only have to invest on a single application and then simply publish to the relevant platforms wherein the business may already have an established presence.
For more information on WorkLight, visit their web site here.
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?
Google fan boys probably know about this by now, but for those of us who may not have heard of it yet, Google has brought out a new first party widget that can be used with the Google Desktop. The widget basically allows you to see your Google Reader feeds without having to open up your browser.
Josh Lowensohn from CNET tells us all about it:
It puts Google Reader’s source list in your sidebar where you can peruse feeds you’re subscribed to and read individual stories in a small pop-up window that slides out across your screen.
The widget works both in Google Desktop’s dock and “popped out” on its own. Between the two, I prefer it off the dock since you can see more of the feeds and stories at once without having to change the height and width of your sidebar; something that can affect the look and feel of other widgets.
The widget is not without its faults, though:
One major drawback is that it can’t yet properly display HTML-formatted feeds, meaning some of your feeds will be left unreadable with images and page formatting stripped out. However, just like in Google Reader proper, you can simply click on the headline to hop to it on its original site.
I also found performance on this widget to be a tad sluggish. It doesn’t provide the instant feedback you get in the browser. For instance, clicking on my source list of feeds and seeing them appear took about two or three seconds. The same goes for any time you drill down to see any feed’s list of stories.
Still, I have to agree with Lowensohn that despite these flaws, having a widget from which you can easily access your RSS feeds is pretty convenient. I am off to download it now myself.
If you are like a lot of people I know, you have your own wireless router at home by now. While some people might not think it necessary to have one, once you have tried using your laptop wherever you are in the house, you will definitely be raring to get a wireless router of your own.
There are many wireless routers available in the market but a name stands out – D-Link. If you have any of the D-Link routers which are 802.11 n-capable, then you might want to get the freebie that the company has for you: the Network Monitor v2.0.
This widget works as an information center and delivers the data straight from your router. It works with Yahoo Widgets, Vista Gadgets, and even the Mac Dashboard. Unfortunately, it does not work with Google Desktop. Anyhow, the Network Monitor will tell you what model router you have, the version of that model, what firmware version you are running on, and your router’s up time.
The guys at PC Mag suggest running the widget on your desktop computer which is wired to the router or on a wireless computer. On a desktop wired computer, you will only get data for send and receive on the network and the Internet. You won’t get any info on the data sent and received on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz Wi-Fi connections.
Another note, if you have had your router for a while and you decide to download the widget, you might have to update the firmware of your router.
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!
Do you like poker? If you are like most people these days, you probably either play poker on a regular basis or you have just recently discovered this exciting card game. Thanks largely to reality TV shows that feature poker tournaments (think World Poker Tour) and the aggressive advertising campaign of online poker rooms, more and more people are finding a new hobby in this age old card game.
These days, it is much easier to find a venue to play a game of poker. If you have a lot of friends who have the same interest, you simply have to get several of them together and you can hold your own poker night at home. Alternatively, you can find card rooms in most cities. For a relatively cheap buy in, you can have a good night’s poker game. More so, you can simply stay at home and play poker online in the countless rooms offering this game. You can choose to play for fun without spending anything or use real money to win big.
Whichever way you like playing poker, you absolutely have to hone your skills in the game. Contrary to popular opinion, poker is not all about luck, but the player’s skill. And here is my gift to you today: a poker widget provided by Full Tilt Poker.
With this widget, you get poker tips delivered right to your desk top. And mind you, they are not simply any other kind of tip – they come from some of the best poker players in the world today.
More and more, technology is making things convenient and easy for us. One of the things that I like about new technology is the goal of integration. With each new wave of new technological developments, users get to gain access to various platforms without the need to change from one gadget to another, or one system to another. Here is a perfect example – a widget providing access to no less than Twitter and Facebook to FiOS users.
FiOS is Verizon’s service which allows users to have Internet, phone, and TV service in one go. There are different bundles available to suit anyone’s needs and preferences.
So is it really t hat cool to have this widget? Why should anyone be excited? First, I am assuming that you are into Twitter and Facebook as much as the next person. These days, I do not think I know anyone who is not very much involved in these two social networking sites. Different people may have different reasons for being hooked on Twitter and Facebook but the fact remains that there are so many users worldwide.
Now just imagine watching a TV show on FiOS. You will definitely be enjoying yourself if it’s your favorite show, but with the new widget, you can even find out what other people think about the same show! I can already imagine sports fans dishing out their opinions on the current game, play by play. Now you can see the huge potential of this widget!
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.
