Boxee on PC, MAC, Ubuntu To Get Fall Update

http://www.technobuffalo.com/home-entertainment/boxee-on-pc-mac-ubuntu-to-get-fall-update/

 | TechnoBuffalo

Finally — Boxee software users will be getting some love. It seemed for awhile there that all the attention was being showered on people who owned the actual Boxee Box hardware.

The online content streaming program offered an extremely novel and fresh interface back in 2007, when Boxee debuted. It allowed users to navigate and access their different streams and subscriptions via keyboard or remote control. At first available as a software download for Mac,PC and Linux users, the company eventually moved on to focus all of its attention on the D-linkBoxee Box (no doubt, to keep its stature as new competitors surfaced, like Google TV, Apple TVand Roku).

In his blog post, top Boxee boss Avner Ronan explains that the Box (which was rewritten on a totally new platform) needed extreme focus at first — which, admittedly, could have made software users feel a little left out. But now, the company will be picking the software-only version back up for development, and a new long-awaited update is scheduled for the fall. Says Ronan:

We are going to release an update for the downloadable version this fall, and hope to keep it more up to speed with the CE version going forward. We also hope to make the open source version of the downloadable version easier to use for people who want to build out their own versions of Boxee.

Unfortunately, Ronan also says that the downloadable software will lag behind the functionality in the Boxee Box version. Even so, long-time software fans should be thrilled about this.

Given what they've gone through with so little attention and the on-again, off-again Hulu access, this will be welcome news. Not as much as striking a deal so Hulu (or even Hulu Plus) will work reliably on there someday, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

For more info on the Boxee Box, hit up TechnoBuffalo's full review.

[via Boxee Team Blog]

Tags: boxee, boxee box, Boxee software, Home Entertainment, hulu, internet videos, streaming content

Adriana Lee

Adriana's fascination with tech started in childhood. After winning a Radio Shack TRS-80 in a raffle, her brother pushed her away from the proto-computer, taunting "Tech's not for girls. Go play with your Barbie." Yeah, right. She grew up to become a writer covering small business technology, as well as trending smartphones, tablets, apps and accessories. She has also written about cooking, fashion, pop culture, newsmakers and the arts, with clips appearing in Time Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other titles. All of this gives her a unique view on her two great passions, modern lifestyle and tech culture, plus some personal satisfaction — her brother now calls her whenever he has 

Android手机修改Hosts的方法

http://www.williamlong.info/blog/archives/814.html

-月光微博客

　　Android手机是和Google帐号紧密联系的，由于中国的操蛋情况，很多时候Google帐号无法登录，导致Android市场无法使用。

　　在电脑上我们通过修改Hosts方法可以解决Google帐号的登录问题，在Android手机上也可以使用这个方法。

　　具体操作过程是：

　　先通过各种方法让Android手机获取Root权限，之后运行Root Explorer管理器，进入可写状态，找到/system/etc/hosts的文件，将其权限修改为可写。

　　打开Terminal Emulator，输入su，进入root模式，输入 vi /system/etc/hosts 命令，按i进入编辑模式，之后将用户电脑上的hosts文件内容也输入进去。

　　Android虚拟终端下当vi在编辑模式时，按下"确定"键（Trackball），再按下虚拟键盘上的"1"，就可以退出编辑模式了（CTRL+[），这个时候使用：wq就可以保存退出了。

　　之后重启手机即可。

　　作者：williamlong

使用Google Analytics跟踪404页面

http://www.williamlong.info/archives/2699.html

-月光博客

　　404页面是当访问者输入了错误的地址或者访问了被删除的页面时，服务器返回的错误页面（404 HTTP 状态代码）。这个页面除了告诉访问者页面不存在以外，不提供任何有价值的信息。访问者可能就此离开网站。

　　了解404页面的信息非常有用，可以发现访问者要查找的内容和推介来源，有助于网站补充新的内容并修复有问题的链接。如何使用Google Analytics来追踪并显示404页面的情况？Google Analytics的官方博客介绍了一个简单的方法，使用Google Analytics可以跟踪网站的404页面错误。

　　1. 将网站的Google Analytics追踪代码添加到404 页面里。

　　2. 修改404页面的Google Analytics代码，将代码修改为一下形式：

<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "xxxxx-x";
urchinTracker("/404.html?page=" + _udl.pathname + _udl.search);
</script>

　　3. 在热门内容报告中即可查看/404.html页面的报告，里面的信息包括出现错误的URL地址，还会显示访问者上一个访问的页面（推介来源）。通过这些信息，可以及时检查相关页面，修改错误链接。

　　英文原文：Tip: Tracking 404 Pages

Android拍照和图片处理类应用盘点

http://www.williamlong.info/archives/2695.html

-月光博客

智能手机上的照相和图片处理程序越来越多，要不是光学元件大小限制，现在的智能手机大有取代家庭卡片相机的可能，毕竟手机可以拍照、编辑、分享一条龙搞定，又是随身携带。

　　上期介绍了iPhone众多拍照摄影集锦，Android做为Google旗下一款十分出色的移动平台，由于完全开放，其应用商店里优秀的拍照摄影应用数量也得到很大提升。这里就总结和推荐几个不错的的Android拍照和图像处理类app应用。

　　大众照相类

　　camera360——国产程序中最强大的一款android照相程序

　　feature：从高级到低级的拍照效果都有，能同时保存原照和效果照。2.0版本加入直接分享到微博并随机添加相框的功能，十分人性化，不过美化方面还需改进。

　　good：不同色彩效果模式、大头贴模式、趣味模式、移轴移色模式…功能相当丰富，各种效果 满足日常所需…

　　bad：功能太杂，而且需要事先选择相应效果再拍照，不过现在版本已经可以在拍摄完后进行小幅的色彩效果改变。不支持导入手机内的图片配置效果。

　　LittlePhoto——低调而华丽

　　feature：可重叠多种色彩特效，有绘画、文字、马赛克模糊等工具。

　　good：各种色彩特效很好看，各种工具方便拍照之后直接进行编辑，用不着其他的编辑程序了。支持从手机中调入其他图片进行编辑。

　　bad：不能预先对焦。界面简单得有点略显简陋，效果分类有点杂乱。文字绘画等工具还是不及PicSay好看。

　　Vignette——Android经典照相程序

　　feature：10种实用的模式，喜欢X2 double模式 可以照2张图片然后重叠曝光在一起。可以调节不同的色彩效果、长宽比例和边框。同一张照片可以保存多个效果。

　　good：效果和边框的整体水平都感觉较高，多重画面的拍摄模式很方便。用户体验较好，各方面功能全面。

　　bad：右上角那个红叉，实在是太小，还好可以用返回键替代。

　　Pudding Camera——韩国的一款界面很漂亮的照相程序

　　feature：模拟各种实体相机的特效，用户根据自己喜好选择不同的相机以及与其搭配的胶卷，个个都是经典lomo相机。这种模拟实体效果的虚拟应用的确很酷。

　　good：很有趣的用户体验，让人体验到玩lomo的乐趣。效果也比较纯正。

　　bad：没有闪光灯。对不同分辨率的兼容性很让人头痛。只能在拍摄前选择效果。拍摄后没有预览图？

　　小众特色拍照类

　　Action Snap——多格画面捕捉

　　feature：设置好间隔时间、图片效果，按下快门，自动连拍并组合在一张图片里。 动作效果、动态情景一键轻松捕捉。目前有4种图片组合方式和3种图片效果。

　　Fast Burst——高速连拍，不错过任何精彩瞬间

　　feature：按住快门键不放，能够连续以最高800×480分辨率 最多连续拍摄14张照片。松开快门后会有一段等待处理的时间。手机摄像头应用于动态效果拍摄始终还是不够理想，但毕竟有些关键时刻这功能还是能起到巨大作用的。

　　Pro HDR——高动态范围成像

　　feature：按下快门后保持手机不动，程序会自动分析场景的亮度，然后拍摄两张不同曝光度的图片，最后合并在一起可手动调整出满意效果。

　　高动态范围成像在某些特定情况下还是很有作用的，比如拍摄电脑时 对准屏幕曝光 周围会一片漆黑，对环境曝光 屏幕又会过亮，HDR就会让屏幕和周围环境都给正常曝光出来。还有常遇到的大太阳天气 也是同样道理应用。

　　图片编辑类

　　Photoshake——iPhone经典移植 多格图片组合和编辑

　　feature：用户体验和界面设计都比较优秀的一款图片处理程序，也难怪成为经典。可以处理单张图片也可把多张图片组合到一起，添加各种边框底纹等。能够添加文字框、部分剪贴画等。各种效果都很漂亮。

　　good：多张图片的组合效果方便而且好看。

　　bad：图片的色彩特效较少。适合配合有丰富色彩特效的照相程序处理图片。

　　PicSay——经典手机图片处理应用程序

　　feature：导入图片变换各种色彩效果，添加文字、剪贴画、涂鸦、马赛克模糊…

　　good：丰富的剪贴画、文字框等内容。各种图片处理工具。

　　bad：色彩特效较多，但整体水平一般。

　　其他影像处理相关

　　图片查看类：

　　JustPictures!——按照更新时间显示相册，可连接多种网络相册，能够把搜藏的多张图片设置为的桌面壁纸 并定时更换。

　　快图浏览——小小的200+k程序，却可以有非常流畅的浏览图片能力，比起那默认的3D图库程序的龟速真是好太多了。

　　画图类：

　　SketchBook Mobile——触摸屏设备的经典画图程序，非此莫属。

　　视频拍摄类：

　　微拍——国产的一款实时拍摄视频并上传的程序，能直接分享到微博。

　　现在手机应用程序发展日新月异，能贴上photography标签的程序也不计其数，有些很鸡肋，有些却能让人很意外，玩法也越来越多，这些是单反相机无法做到的，有了这些有趣而强大的拍照摄影应用，才使得智能手机的硬件发挥到了极致。

　　来源：读者投稿，原文链接。

The Startup Genome Project Examines the Science of Startups

http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2011/05/the-startup-genome-project-exa.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

By Audrey Watters / May 28, 2011 12:50 PM

Earlier this year, the Startup Genome Project launched a survey aiming to to investigate "the science of startups." Much like the Human Genome Project's attempts to crack the human genetic code, the Startup Genome Project hoped to be able to uncover the "innovation code" that drives the success of Silicon Valley technology startups.

"Despite the supreme economic importance of scalable startups, we still don't understand the patterns of successful creation," say the project organizers. "More than 90% of startups fail, due predominantly to self-destruction rather than competition. For the less than 10% of startups that do succeed, most encounter a handful of near death experiences along the way."

Through the survey, the Startup Genome Project hoped to be able to have some "hard data" to uncover why some succeed and why some don't. And now the results are in with a 67-page reportbased on the responses and profiles of over 650 startups. The report examines what's worked - and what hasn't worked - for these particular companies.

Lessons Learned from the Startup Genome Project

Some of the lessons gleaned from the survey seem quite obvious: Founders that have helpful mentors and learn from other startup thought leaders raise 7 times more money and have 3.5 times better user growth, for example.

And some of the findings confirm what are commonly held beliefs, such as the drawbacks of being a single person founder. Solo founders take 3.6 times as long to reach scale stage as do founding teams of 2 and they are 2.3 times less likely to pivot.

But many of the findings offer some pretty intriguing insights into other beliefs, such as the importance of being able to pivot. For example, startups that pivot once or twice raise 2.5 times more money and have 3.6 better growth than startups that pivot more than 2 times or that never pivot.

There are plenty of lessons to be learned with the data from the survey - even if it's just nuggets like startups need 2-3 times longer to validate their market than most founders expect. There are important details here about why startups fail - not working at the project full-time, for example, not having a technical co-founder, or not having the right team composition for the type of startup.

Types of Startups

The report breaks down these startup types into the following:

The Automizer (Type 1) Common characteristics: self-service customer acquisition, consumer focused, product centric, fast execution, often automize a manual process.

The Social Transformer (Type 1N) Common characteristics: self service customer acquisition, critical mass, runaway user growth, winner take all markets, complex ux, network effects, typically create new ways for people to interact.

The Integrator (Type 2) Common characteristics: lead generation with inside sales reps, high certainty, product centric, early monetization, SME focused, smaller markets, often take innovations from consumer Internet and rebuild it for smaller enterprises.

The Challenger (Type 3) Common characteristics: enterprise sales, high customer dependency, complex & rigid markets, repeatable sales process.

Along with the release of the data from the Startup Genome Report, the authors are releasing abenchmark test that will help give entrepreneurs a sense of which personality type they fall into, and then based on the data from the Startup Genome Project, advice on what to focus on.

谷歌英文写作助手

http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ime/english/
 - Google

即开即用，全面好用的英文建议

谷歌英文写作助手提供拼写纠错，单词及短语的补全，同义词推荐，中英翻译等。并即时提供权威海量的词义、词性、例句等信息。让您写英文更快更好。

5 Tips to Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com//article.php/3933791

— eCommerce-Guide.com

By Pam Baker

May 17, 2011

It's no secret that mobile commerce is booming and expected to grow rapidly for the foreseeable future. But that means a small business will miss out on sales it needs to prosper unless it has a presence on smartphones of every brand and on every carrier. That's a tall order for the little guy on a tiny budget. Building a phone app, for example, can cost thousands of dollars -- and that's for just one brand of phone. Not to worry, there are ways to "go mobile" on a shoestring.

"Small businesses don't need to build an app or create a whole new mobile website," said Pamela Springer, president and CEO of Manta, an online community for promoting and connecting small business. "They just need to be sure their website is easily viewable on a mobile device. That means modifying your site for optimal display on a mobile device."

Knowing what and how much to modify is every bit as important as knowing how to do it.

"Don't try and boil the ocean initially," advised Nicole Carrier, program director at IBM Web Experience. "Focus on those services or pages that customers will most likely want to access from their mobile device." For example, she said a small retail store might want to have the first iteration of its mobile website contain directions to the store, contact information and the store's hours.

Map out your intended modifications before you start tinkering with your website. Begin by identifying which pages of your website are likely to be of most interest to mobile users, but also make sure they can access your full website too. "Add a link on your mobile site to get to the full version of the site, for those smartphone users that want access to all of your content -- even those pages that might not be optimized for their device," said Carrier.

When you're ready to get started, follow the tips outlined below.

5 Mobile-friendly Website Tips

1. Use mobile plugins

If your website contains a Content Management System (CMS), such as Drupal or WordPress, you'll want to take a look at the plugins that are available for mobile editions. Plugins optimize your website for mobile viewing and are often the easiest options to use. Many are free, but some charge a premium.

"We have two go-to plugins for optimizing a WordPress website for mobile. Mobile from PluginBuddy, a premium plugin that starts at $45, is one. The support you receive for your $45 investment is stellar to say the least," said Jarrod "Jay" Skeggs, partner at StudioD.tv. "WPtouch, a free plugin, is another. We have had good experience with it in the past."

Other plugins include WordPress Mobile Pack and Wordpress Mobile Edition. But look around and weigh them all against your actual modification plans to determine which is right for your business.

2. Consider DIY mobile website builders

"There are a number of sites that offer mobile website building services -- often at no cost," said Drew Barton, president and founder of Southern Web Group, a web design firm. "For example, Mobify has a free option. The service is widely used by some of the world's leading publications."

Indeed, there are several options in this category including MoFuse, Wapple,Wirenode, Mobeezo and MobiSiteGalore.

The dotMobi mobile website tool, Instant Mobilizer, is arguably the best known and is even incorporated on several leading website hosting services such as GoDaddy.com. However, dotmobi websites do not actually need third-party hosting.

"GoMobi websites are hosted 'in the cloud' by DotMobi, so SMBs don't pay extra for hosting or have to worry about other technology aspects," said Trey Harvin, CEO of DotMobi. "Since a GoMobi website works on all mobile handsets, it ensures a business is available on the complete range of mobiles available, not just iPhones and Androids."

3. Avoid using Flash

"Get rid of Flash. Period, end of story," said Kate McGinley, vice president of operations at McGinley Media Limited, a mobil app and website development firm. "It's often not supported, and when it does, it takes too long to load, and you lose viewer interest." Unfortunately, many regular websites do include Flash. Be extra careful to find it and eliminate it on the pages you want to be mobile friendly.

4. Keep the 'Fat Finger' in mind

Nothing detracts from a mobile experience more than a frustrated consumer unable to navigate a mobile site and click on hyperlinked text, warned Diane Buzzeo, CEO of Ability Commerce. Given the small size of a mobile screen, make text links larger for a mobile website. Similarly, make it easy for people browsing a phone to call you. "Phone numbers normally displayed in text can be enhanced with code to call upon touch," she said. "Using TapToCall for customer service lines and other numbers is easy to integrate and a good alternative to advanced coding."

5. Find good website models

Look at sites that have well-built mobile versions and how they contrast with their traditional desktop site. Amazon, Newegg and CNN are a few examples where you can draw inspiration and best practices. "You'll find that they have removed animation and hover text, Web features that don't transfer over to mobile devices well," explained Buzzeo. "Take a cue from the leader in the industry and then test based on your own customer demographics."

Testing is important in order to see your mobile website as your customers do. Testing on actual devices can be difficult, especially if you don't already own all the devices you need to test. However, online testing sites are typically not as good as testing on the real device.

Try asking friends and customers to try your site on their device and offer feedback. This will dramatically reduce your testing cost, but it will also provide you with valuable insight into what your actual customers prefer to see on your new mobile-friendly website.

Pam Baker has written for numerous leading publications including, Institutional Investor magazine, CIO.com, NetworkWorld, ComputerWorld, IT World, Linux World, Internet News, E-Commerce Times, LinuxInsider, CIO Today Magazine, NPTech News (nonprofits), MedTech Journal, I Six Sigma magazine, Computer Sweden, the NY Times, and Knight-Ridder/McClatchy newspapers.

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