Dec 29
adminIT 2007, Apple, Ask, Facebook, Google Gears, iPhone
Source: PC World
Web apps that transcend the Web. PCs that redefine what a PC can do. And oh yeah, a certain cell phone you may have heard of. We pick 25 breakthroughs that you can get your hands on right now.
Make no mistake, the Web is taking over. Applications are moving to browsers en masse, and technology to take Web apps offline promises to smooth the road ahead. And let’s not forget breakthrough devices advancing the Web-anywhere world: Apple has redefined the phone, and One Laptop per Child‘s sub-$200 laptop is delivering Internet-style collaboration to kids in developing nations. But innovation isn’t all on the Web; the PC is evolving as well. Apple has reenvisioned backup, HP has created the first useful touch-screen PC, hybrid hard drives boost speed and battery life, and ultraportables have become even more useful. Chosen from the hundreds of products we reviewed in 2007, here are 25 that will change the way you work, communicate, and play this year–and beyond.
The List: Today’s Most Innovative Products
- Google Gears Story
- Apple iPhone Review | Prices
- One Laptop per Child XO Story
- Apple Time Machine (in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) Review | Prices
- Amazon Kindle Review
- NetGear Digital Entertainer HD EVA8000 Review | Prices
- HP TouchSmart PC Review | Prices
- AT&T Tilt Review
- Facebook API Story
- DeviceVM Splashtop Story
- Toshiba Portege R500 Story | Prices
- Data Robotics Drobo Review | Prices
- Hybrid Hard Drives
- Eye-Fi Card Review | Prices
- Panasonic TH-42PZ700U Review | Prices
- Yamaha Tenori-On Story
- Zoho Notebook Review
- Radiohead, In RainbowsStory
- IOGear Wireless USB Hub and Adapter Review | Prices
- Mint.com Review
- Microsoft Popfly Story
- Ask.com Story
- Sprint Airave Story
- eXpresso Review
- Kodak EasyShare All-in-One Printers Review | Prices
1. Google Gears
Innovation: Plug-in lets Web applications work offline.
Benefit: Tackles the single biggest hurdle to making Web apps truly convenient.
Imagine firing up only one application–a Web browser–for handling all of your daily computer tasks. It’s a nice dream, but it has one major problem: What do you do when you’re offline? Google Gears, a Windows application now in beta, solves this problem by allowing service designers to create versions that still work when your PC doesn’t have an Internet connection. Google Reader, Zoho Writer (which added offline editing via Gears in late 2007), and online task manager Remember the Milk already use it, and Google is working to add Gears to other applications in its stable. (If you’re thinking of ditching desktop software entirely, read one writer’s take in “Life Without Desktop Software.”)
2. Apple iPhone
Innovation: Gee-whiz touch-screen interface and spartan case dial up a mobile revolution.
Benefit:Mac OS-simple software offering slide-and-glide access to bright, colorful menus sets this cell phone apart from its rivals.
The $399 iPhone has taken some criticism for its shortcomings, mainly its lack of 3G connectivity, but you can’t deny that the sleek handset is innovative. Apple made navigating via a touch screen–sure to be a staple in future PDA phones and other small devices–intuitive and fun. iPhone’s Safari browser makes the handset a great mobile Web device (at least when you can get a Wi-Fi connection.) And, sure, many phones play music, but Cover Flow cranks the iPhone up to 11 as a music player. (See PC World’s iPhone Central for much more.)
Check the latest Apple iPhone prices
3. One Laptop per Child XO
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: $200 laptop does mesh networking, is sand- and waterproof, and works well in direct sunlight.
Benefit: What every child in the developing world needs; makes you ask, “When will my laptop be able to do that?”
Innovation isn’t always about being bigger, better, and faster. One Laptop per Child‘s Linux-powered XO laptop, with a 7.5-inch display–designed for children in poor countries–is one of the cheapest, most power-conscious, and sturdy notebooks on the planet. It also has features you might wish you had on your mainstream laptop. One clear standout: XO’s Wi-Fi allows it to function as a mesh-network node that can connect with other XOs, even when no Internet connection is available.
4. Time Machine, in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: Backs up changes hourly to an external drive behind the scenes, then lets you “go back in time” to restore data.
Benefit: Makes light work of the one task that every computer user should do and most people put off–and gives the function a pretty face, to boot.
Time Machine is the killer feature in Leopard. You’ll either love or hate this wild and wacky space-and-time user interface, but performing backups will never be the same. One question: Why doesn’t Windows Vista have anything this simple and useful? (For more information about the new Mac OS, read our Leopard review.)
Check the latest Mac OS X 10.5 prices
5. Amazon Kindle
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: Device takes the e-book to the next level with free EvDO connectivity.
Benefit: Tight integration with Amazon’s bookselling site; thoughtful design.
Electronic-book readers are not new, and Sony‘s experience with its Reader shows that sales are not guaranteed. But with its Kindle reader ($400), Amazon has brought the e-book into the connected age by including free EvDO wireless connectivity to the e-commerce giant. Did we mention the seamlessness of buying books with this always-on device? EvDO could be the magic that e-books have lacked.
6. NetGear Digital Entertainer HD EVA8000
Innovation: Only streaming-media device to play protected files in both iTunes and Windows Media formats. Also handles 1080p HD video and acts as a DVR.
Benefit: It makes life easier in a multiple-DRM world.
Netgear’s Internet media player, the NetGear Digital Entertainer HD EVA8000 ($400) busts through the DRM (digital rights management) wall, and even allows you to check your e-mail and watch YouTube videos on your television.
Check the latest NetGear Digital Entertainer HD EVA8000 prices
7. HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC
Innovation: The first all-in-one PC on the market to boast a touch-screen display.
Benefit: Does for the computer what the iPhone has done for mobile handsets.
HP‘s kitchen-friendly computer, the HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC ($1650), is beautifully designed, and its touch screen makes it suitable for use on a countertop as well as a desktop. HP also supplies a software interface, optimized for use with the touch screen, that ties into news, weather, and calendar details, among other daily-living information. The handy, customizable HP control panel lets you quickly access photos, launch a photo editor, and play back music, too.
Check the latest HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC prices
8. AT&T Tilt
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: Clever, unique hinge lets you slide the screen up at an angle.
Benefit: Well-positioned QWERTY keyboard results in what looks like a tiny notebook that you can use in your hands or rest on a table.
The tilting screen is the main innovation, but the Tilt (made by HTC under the name TyTN II, $400 with a two-year AT&T contract) is one of the most powerful phones available, period. Want a quick rundown of the specs? How about the Windows Mobile 6 operating system, a large screen, 3G wireless connectivity, GPS, a 3-megapixel camera, and the ability to talk to corporate BlackBerry servers? Top that, iPhone.
9. Facebook API
Innovation: Platform lets anyone with a good idea and some coding chops add real value to Facebook.
Benefit: Facebook taps developers’ creativity, in turn permitting Facebook users to customize their pages.
Sure, the killer app of Facebook has not been written yet–and many of the ones that exist now are kind of silly. But Facebook has been on a roll in more ways than one, having led to the creation of the Google-backed OpenSocial, which looks likely to result in open platforms’ becoming widespread. Common ground should spark lots of creativity, and it should keep the social networking and media buzz alive.
10. DeviceVM Splashtop
Innovation: Allows a PC to boot in a few seconds into a simple, secure interface with a Mozilla-based browser.
Benefit: Lets you save energy by keeping your PC powered off when you’re not using it.
DeviceVM’s Linux-based technology allows you to boot into its Internet-appliance-like platform in a few seconds, so you don’t have to spend minutes waiting for Windows to start up. If all you want to do is check your Web mail account or make a Skype call, for example, you’ll save both time and watt-hours. Though the technology is currently shipping as a feature only in the Asus P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi AP motherboard, it should be more widely available in desktops, laptops, and additional motherboards in 2008.
11. Toshiba Portege R500
Innovation: First ultraportable laptop to squeeze in an optical drive.
Benefit: You don’t have to give up much at all to go truly lightweight.
Thin takes on new meaning with the lightweight Portege R500 ($2000 for the R500-S5002). But you don’t have to sacrifice function for form with this laptop, which is equipped with an ultralow-voltage Intel processor. The stylish 2.4-pound ultraportable manages to include both a rewritable-DVD drive and a 12.1-inch LED-backlit display in its svelte, 0.77-inch-thick chassis. Enough said.
Check the latest Toshiba Portege R500 prices
12. Data Robotics Drobo
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: High-end, redundant storage for the masses.
Benefit: USB 2.0 storage appliance delivers RAID 5 benefits without mind-numbing complexity.
“Redundant array storage” and “sexy” don’t normally go hand-in-hand. But Data Robotics’ unique Drobo ($500) offers high-end storage features in a sleek design with software that doesn’t require a master’s degree in IT to figure out. Drobo uses storage virtualization algorithms to provide many of the benefits of RAID 5, but is relatively easy to set up: Just place the drives into the case, plug in the USB cable, install the software, and you’re off.
Check the latest Data Robotics Drobo prices
13. Hybrid Hard Drives
Innovation: First hard drives with a built-in NAND flash memory cache.
Benefit: Power savings and performance boost for laptops.
Samsung and Seagate each have shipped new hard drives that combine traditional hard-disk media with a flash cache to improve both reliability and performance. Our tests of the Samsung Spinpoint MH80 and the Seagate Momentus 5400 PSD ($250 and $190, respectively) showed that the 256MB NAND flash cache provides some clear benefits–particularly in power saving and read speed.
Check the latest Seagate Momentus 5400 PSD prices
14. Eye-Fi Card
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: Allows digital cameras to upload wirelessly to photo-sharing sites or your PC.
Benefit: Wi-Fi-enabled SD Card bridges digital photography’s wireless divide.
The Eye-Fi Card ($100) does what few digital cameras have done, and what no digital camera has done well: enable wireless uploading to a photo-sharing site. Pop the 2GB SD Card into your camera and fire off a few shots, and the Wi-Fi-enabled card transmits the images to your preferred site–and, if you like, to your PC. The setup is simple, the device imposes no limitations on the image size, and the uploads happen.
Check the latest Eye-Fi Card prices
15. Panasonic TH-42PZ700U
Innovation: Packs full 1080p high-definition resolution into today’s most popular size for flat-screen televisions, 42 inches.
Benefit: Stellar image quality.
Though 1080p LCD sets quickly became commonplace in 2007, showing 1080 vertical lines on a plasma TV this small remained technically difficult. Panasonic‘s efforts paid off: In our tests the TH-42Z700U ($1800) earned stellar image-quality marks. With high-definition content from Blu-Ray and HD DVD sources, the picture is phenomenal; and because it’s a plasma, even standard-definition programs look pretty good.
Check the latest Panasonic TH-42PZ700U prices
16. Yamaha Tenori-On
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: Inspired and intuitive handheld instrument redefines music-making.
Benefit: Nothing else even comes close to Japanese media artist Toshio Iwai’s digital instrument.
While the Tenori-On is likely to appeal to a fairly specialized audience, the device screams innovation. Consisting of a 16-by-16 grid of LED-illuminated buttons that a user touches to manipulate sound in a variety of intuitive and eye-catching ways, the Tenori-On–designed by the creator of the cult-hit Nintendo DS music game Electroplankton–is like nothing you’ve ever seen (head to the Tenori-On clip on YouTube for a product demonstration video). It has 256 built-in sounds, and an integrated SD Card slot lets you copy original samples from your computer. You can also use its MIDI-out port to connect with your PC’s music software or your other hardware instruments. Currently it is sold only in Great Britain, but anybody willing to pay £599 (about $1200) can order one from dolphinmusic.co.uk.
17. Zoho Notebook
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: Web-only app stores just about any kind of content and allows you to share it with anyone.
Benefit: More full-featured than competing online tools.
AdventNet‘s Zoho tools include everything from wiki software to customer relations management and project management applications, many of them free. Zoho Notebook (free, in public beta) continues the winning streak. You can enter text, graphics, audio, video, and embedded content from other sites onto your notebook’s pages–or use the page as a single word processing document or spreadsheet. Put together everything on a certain subject, and you’re ready to share your work with online compatriots.
18. ‘In Rainbows’ by Radiohead
Innovation: Band allows its fans to pay whatever amount they want for this new album, starting at zilch.
Benefit: Approach calls the bluff of illegal downloaders, who say they’re happy to pay artists but not music studios.
The recording industry is desperate for new ideas about how to sell music. Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want approach may not work for all acts–and the band has remained mum on reports that 62 percent of early downloaders paid nothing for the group’s new album–but the strategy certainly does one thing that most music companies seem loath to do: It respects fans. And all of the voluntary fees go directly to Radiohead, not to a publisher.
19. IOGear Wireless USB Hub and Adapter
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: USB-speed connections without cable spaghetti.
Benefit: Presents none of the flakiness and proprietary technology that hobbled previous wireless USB products.
IOGear’s hub and adapter are based on an industry standard that should soon be built into laptops and other devices. Setting up IOGear’s Wireless USB Hub and Adapter ($160) was tricky, but once we had everything arranged, our data flew, thanks to its streaming, HD-capable, 250-megabits-per-second throughput. Wireless USB will become more versatile once it’s built into devices.
Check the latest IOGear Wireless USB Hub and Adapter prices
20. Mint.com
Innovation: Web site aggregates your financial account transaction data, alerting you to any unusual activity or to a rapidly dwindling balance.
Benefit: Takes most of the work out of keeping on top of your money.
Signing up for Mint requires a leap of faith–you must give the site the numbers and passwords for your bank and credit card accounts. But once you do, it acts as your personal-finance lackey. Mint downloads your latest transactions for all accounts and does its best to categorize them. You decide when you want to receive an alert, such as for when a bill is due, a big purchase appears on your credit card, or you just got a nice, fat deposit.
21. Microsoft Popfly
Innovation: Lets you use Microsoft’s Silverlight platform to create Web mashups.
Benefit: Though Popfly is still in early beta, its operation is clearer and its display is more attractive than that of the similar Yahoo Pipes tool.
If you ever played with Legos as a kid, then you should be able to assemble a Web mashup in Microsoft’s Popfly. No coding know-how needed–using Popfly is as simple as choosing content sources (such as pictures, video, or news feeds from various online sources) and connecting them to a display model (such as a video player, a dynamic box for text, or a game of whack-a-mole that pops up pictures, for instance). Voilà, you have your mashup. You can embed the resulting creation in a blog entry or Web page, or just share its URL so others can admire your work.
22. Sprint Airave
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: Delivers cheap, unlimited Internet-based calling at home through any Sprint CDMA handset.
Benefit: You can use your cell phone (and all of the contacts you have stored in it) as a universal phone, with better reception, while at home.
T-Mobile was first to enhance at-home cell calling with the debut of its Hotspot @ Home service, but that offering requires use of one of the company’s few dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular handsets. Sprint’s device, made by Samsung ($50 with Sprint service), creates a mini cell tower in your home to which your phone can roam. As a result, you can enjoy more convenience and even bigger savings than what you get from VoIP providers such as Vonage.
23. Ask.com
Innovation: Melds comprehensive search results more coherently than competing universal searches do.
Benefit: Proves that not every site needs to mimic Google, and that a venerable search engine company can do cool new stuff.
Ask.com, a compete redesign of the former Ask Jeeves site, asks very little but gives a lot via its thoughtfully designed interface, including search suggestions as you type. With one query you can retrieve traditional search results as well as news, images, blogs, video, and more. Once you’ve searched, you can filter the results with useful suggestions to home in on just what you were looking for. The site is visually minimalist, but you can skin it for a new look. If privacy is a concern, AskEraser wipes away private data that search engines typically store.
24. eXpresso
Innovation: Allows Excel users to share their spreadsheets, online or off.
Benefit: Melds the best of traditional office software and Web-based services.
eXpresso ($80 per seat per year) adds a new twist to Web applications, offering both Web-based sharing in a standard format and tight integration with the most familiar spreadsheet application, Microsoft’s Excel. Users can share spreadsheets in real time using eXpresso’s service, which also allows you to restrict some users’ access to certain segments of a master spreadsheet. In a nutshell, eXpresso is delivering today what Microsoft has promised that its Office suite will do in the future.
25. Kodak EasyShare All-In-One Printers
Photograph: Marc Simon
Innovation: The printers are slightly more expensive, but their ink is priced more like the no-name stuff advertised around the Web.
Benefit: You can print cheaply without worrying that the cartridge will burst all over your printer.
Kodak’s midlevel EasyShare printers (from $150) may be a bit pricier at first. But when you combine one with the company’s paper-and-ink packs, you can print photos for as little as 10 cents each (according to Kodak)–about half the industry average. The printer’s pigment-ink system uses one black-ink cartridge and one five-ink tank; replacing them with non-photo-specific inks directly from Kodak costs just $10 and $15, respectively. We think most people will appreciate the benefit of having one source for affordable, reliable replacement ink cartridges.
Check the latest Kodak EasyShare All-In-One Printers prices
Dec 29
adminsoftware 软件 app, mozilla, startup
Songbird is a desktop media player mashed-up with the Web. Songbird is committed to playing the music you want, from the sites you want, on the devices you want, challenging the conventions of discovery, purchase, consumption and organization of music on the Internet.
Songbird is a player and a platform. Like Firefox, Songbird is an open source, Open Web project built on the Mozilla platform. Songbird provides a public playground for Web media mash-ups by providing developers with both desktop and Web APIs, developer resources and fostering Open Web media standards, to wit, an Open Media Web.
Features:
Play Anything
MP3, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WMA, and more. Can you teach Songbird to sing?
Pick Feathers
Choose from the two included themes: Rubberducky or Dove. You can even make one yourself.
Control the Flow
Play, Pause, Previous, Next, Volume, Mute, Seek, Three Repeat Modes, and Shuffle.
Multi-Task
Quickly switch between tasks using the buttons to the right of the dashboard display.
Organize Your Library
Filter your collection by Genre, Artist, Album, and Song or Search-As-You-Type.
Scan Your Computer for Music
Songbird will find your music and add it to your collection for you.
Super Slim Mini-Mode
Use the mini-mode for basic controls while keeping Songbird out of the way.
Multi-Language Support
Songbird comes in 39 languages. Be a localizer and see Songbird in your language!
Build Custom Mixes
Drag-and-drop songs from the Library or another playlist to create your own custom mixes.
Make Smart Mixes
Criteria-based playlists that are always up-to-date with your current collection.
Dynamic Mixes
Get mixes from the Internet and stay up-to-date with the latest updates, downloads, and casts.
Play In Place
Songbird plays MP3s without leaving the page.
Play the Web
Play web pages as playlists and view any web page as a playlist.
Set Music Watch Folders
Tell Songbird to watch a folder for new music and it will automatically add new tracks to your collection
Integrated Web Search
Search the web from the context of your collection or tell Songbird to search on the currently playing track.
Cross-Platform
Runs on Mac OS X, Linux and Windows.
Songbird Extensions
Coming soon! Have an idea for an extension?
CD Import and Burn
Coming soon!
Partner Features
XUL Rules
Build deeply integrated web stores into Songbird with Mozilla XUL.
Songbird JS API
Create, populate and play a playlist and much more from your Web site.
Dec 28
adminIT 2007, Google
来源：GSeeker
这是炒冷饭。去年我就说过了，我个人不喜欢看或做“年度总结”，因为通常里面包含的新信息都极有限。但为了纪念即将逝去的一年，适当炒一下还是可以接 受的，不然会显得另类。为此，我粗略总结一下2007年的Google（谷歌）。请放心，这个列表将会很短，每月只精选一个最热门的消息（纯主观）。
一月：谷歌为ICP牌照而”造壳”？
尽管你会感到意外，但事实上，牌照问题才是谷歌进入中国后一度面临的最大问题。这个问题使谷歌的声势在06年底落入最低谷，名不正言不顺。经过长达一年半的努力，谷歌最终才于今年7月解决了这个心头大患。在牌照出来之前，谷歌做所有事都只能尽可能低调，并且承受着巨大的压力，这些压力来自竞争对手，也来自用户。牌照出来之后，谷歌下半年开始活跃。
二月：Google Apps已整合Docs & Spreadsheets推出收费版
Google Apps是Google的一个新的尝试，Google为了增强Apps的吸引力不惜花重金收购像Postini这样的安全企业。一直都声称要寻找广告以外 的收入来源的Google，希望Apps能成为进军企业，制造新利润的产品。事实上，Apps的确大受欢迎。按Google的说法，Apps已拥有了数百 万用户。但事实上，能制造利润的只是极小部分（有消息说是数千）使用Apps收费版的企业用户，其余的免费用户只能起品牌宣传之效；来自Apps的收入很 少，这一点从Google的2007年季度财报里也可看得到，因为广告收入仍占了Google总收入的99%以上。
三月：谷歌悄悄推出网址站—”网站导航”
当中国用户对谷歌的本地化寄以厚望的时候，谷歌发布了一系列令不少人意外的本地化产品，其中以网站导航最有代表。之所以会意外，是因为Google给了用 户太多惊喜，但谷歌本地化瞄准的只是初级互联网用户，因此之前习惯追随Google的中国用户对谷歌的表现极其失望。事实上，谷歌并未过多理会这种失望， 相反，在整个2007年，谷歌所发布的中国本地化产品仍以初级用户为主要对象。令人无奈的是，在中国这正是正确的做法：先占市场，再谈创意。
四月：为什么我们对谷歌失望？
如果说没有创意会令中国用户失望，那么谷歌拼音输入法的”抄袭风波”则令谷歌一度丢尽了Google的脸。不管谷歌与搜狐之间的纠纷是否是有意而为的炒 作，这场闹剧都已经足以入选中国互联网2007年十大焦点之一。结果？当然是”双赢”。谷歌赚得了宣传效果（管它是不是正面的），而搜狗输入法也得到了更 多人的认可，尽管事件最后搜狐以提出诉讼这种愚蠢的方式砸了自己的脚而不了了之。这同时也给是谷歌中国公关的一次深刻的教训：在中国，永远不要逃避用户的 质疑；要抢先机。不知该高兴还是悲哀，后来事实证明，谷歌的公关手段一下子就彻底本地化了，比想像中快得多。
五月：Searchology：Google宣布启动通用搜索模式
整合（通用）搜索模式是Google这两年来在搜索方面作出的最大改变。它以丰富用户体验为目标，用算法自动将不同类型的搜索结果整合在同一搜索结果界 面。这个模式至今仍在试验及进行中。谷歌中国搜索网站也一直以其为标准，逐步统一搜索结果界面。这种模式不仅改变了用户的搜索习惯，同时也对搜索引擎优化 行业产生了巨大的冲击。自Google整合搜索模式宣布后，主要的搜索引擎纷纷跟进，各自推出了自己的新版搜索。
六月：彻底进化！Google Docs & Spreadsheets重大升级
Google在线办公套件最重要的一次升级，从之后的流量统计看，这次升级令Google在线办公套件成为了市场的领先者。Google Docs是Google对抗微软的重要产品，同时也是Google在用户数据存储方面的一次大胆的尝试。基于不断改进的Google Docs，Google Apps对企业更有说服力，可惜当前Google Docs还远不够完美，依然是不时被微软嘲笑。
七月：统治互联网的开始？Google拟46亿美元竞购无线频谱
通过这次竞购，Google已完全显示出了抢占移动互联网市场的巨大野心。伴随着Google Phone（Android）的各种谣言及事实，2007毫无疑问是Google全力进军移动领域的年度。真正的拍卖明年1月下旬才开始，但Google 通过抢先表示参与拍卖的意向，成功地吸引了所有媒体对Google移动项目的关注，到Android平台发布的时候，Google已造就了巨大的轰动。
八月：谷歌社区产品的背后：个性化搜索的基础？
谷歌走天涯。这也是谷歌对于本地化方向的明确答复：我们不仅买流量，我们还要做社区。用谷歌官方的话来说，就是通过天涯社区产品，为改进中文搜索提供重要 条件。从市场角度来看，这也是抢占用户、宣传谷歌搜索品牌的大好机会。只可惜至今还没看到成效，也不见谷歌在天涯上的进一步行动。更不要提什么与百度知道 竞争了。
九月：神秘视频揭示Google Reader重大秘密：中文版本周发布？！
这个视频揭示了很多与Google Reader有关的秘密，包括中文版的发布在内。它同时也曝光了Google一些社会化方面的计划，包括Mocha-Mocha在内。如果你想对2008 年的Google产品做些所谓的预测，特别在针对Google社会化产品的，不妨以这段视频里提到的内容为参考。个人认为，Google Reader是Google最重要的产品之一，尽管Google可能并不是这样想。
十月：黑色星期四？YouTube、Google博客搜索…
尽管在整个十月份里，Google的很多重要产品都有重大改进，包括YouTube的反盗版技术及AdSense广告单元的推出、以Google Maps为代表的Google产品体系社会化开始、Gmail容量增长提速等等，以及Google股价创历史新高间接令老员工纷纷离开，但我相信所有中国 用户都无法忘记那个星期四。突然间，很重要的东西消失了，而你却完全无能为力。那种感觉非常的可怕，Yee说得对，互联网的确是一点安全感也没有，特别是中国互联网。
十一月：Google手机计划正式发布：没有Google Phone，只有Android
传得沸扬无比的Google Phone终于浮出水面，而Google从平台出发也显示了它过人的野心。Android将会是Google直接从基层抢占移动互联网市场的开始，并且会 成为Google在2008及将来的重心之一。不过千万别忘了，Google的目光始终放在广告上，只不过这一次换成了移动广告而已。
十二月：Knol：Google版的维基百科？
Knol将会是Google在内容方面的一个转折点，象征着Google开始产生内容。尽管当前我们有的大多数只是基于那张截图及官方描述的一些猜测，但 再过一年左右，它的影响力应该就会显示出来。这意味着以后你通过Google的搜索引擎不仅可找到有用的第三方资料，还可找到由Google直接提供的内 容。这是Google的一个巨大的角色转变。
Dec 28
adminnetwork 网络 bookmark, firefox, search
The thing I like best about Firefox is that just when you think you know everything there is to know about the browser, something new comes along and surprises you. The following top 5 tips work on Firefox 2.x (I’ll update the list if there are new ones):
1. Quick search – without going to a search engine first.
Are you reading a website and you subsequently discover a word or phrase that you want to put into a search engine?
Just highlight the word or phrase with your mouse’s left-click button. Then right click the text and choose “Search Google/Yahoo/etc. for …”, or drag the highlighted text into the address bar in the browser. Without pressing “enter”, Firefox will bring Google/Yahoo/etc. search results to you.
2. Delete visited URL’s
When you drop down the box underneath the address bar, you can see your recent browsing history. But what if you want to remove one URL from that list?
Just drop down the URL box, highlight the URL you want to zap then press the “delete” button on your keyboard. The URL will then be removed from the list.
3. Navigate to browser tabs using the keyboard
Instead of using the mouse to click on a tab, why not use the keyboard instead? Pressing CTRL + TAB or CTRL+SHIFT+TAB together will bounce you from tab to tab, starting from the first/last opened tab and working its way along, so this is not a recommended way. It’s better to go to a specifc tab straight away, CTRL + 2 will take you directly to the second tab from the left. CTRL + 5 will take you to the fifth tab from the left.
4. Keyword your bookmarks!
A neat bookmark-related feature of Firefox is its ability to assign keywords to bookmarks. For example, you might assign the keyword howto to your www.myhow-to.com bookmark.
It’s a simple process. Click on the Bookmarks menu, right-click on a bookmark, and select Properties. In the Keyword field, enter the word of your choice. You can now use that word in place of the site’s full URL in the address bar, and you’ll be taken right to the page you saved. Just remember to assign a unique keyword to every bookmark.
5. Grab files off webpages, even protected webpages
Have you ever wanted a picture, file or video off a webpage but you can’t, because it’s been protected? Just right-click on the page, choose “View Page Info” then the “media” tab. Find the file you’re looking for from the list and click on “save”. (note : this doesn’t work for everything but I have still had a pretty high success rate nonetheless).
RSS
Fanpop
Some people subscribe to over tens of feeds, and they may generate 5,000 posts per day. If you subscribe to multiple RSS feeds, you’re probably overwhelmed by the amount of posts like I am. FeedHub reduces the number of posts to those that are most relevant to your interests.
