Micro-(Video)Blogging from an iPhone

Just discovered a new way of blogging from the iPhone. I normally use Blogger to post text and photos from my iPhone to the blog. Well the next step forward is to create video blogs or vblogs via your mobile device. Check out 12seconds still in beta but an interesting way of recording and uploading snippets of video to a blog site. This is similar to Twitter but encourages you to use video or in the case your phone does not record video then lets you upload 3 photos together with an audio sample. You have to be quick you have only 12 seconds. I tried on the iPhone last night and it worked very nicely.

Speech to Text and Text to Speech

Just downloaded and tried out vlingo that allows you to carry out web searches, pinpoint a map location, dial a number, and most usefully update your social network - all voice controlled on my iPhone. Lets face it keyboards on mobile phones have been moving quickly from real physical keys (think Blackberry) to virtual keyboords (think iPhone and new Storm Blackberry). The next step is surely to make them vanish entirely. What can replace them? Well until Emotiv (see earlier blog) make thought control an everyday appliance, then speech to text is the next stage of the revolution. On a similar topic, all articles on the always readable MIT Technology Review are now available via iTunes as MP3s. They use a company called AudioDizer to turn text into listenable audio files and although these are obviously bots with cute voices - they did not put me off listening to a few of the articles on the go. I listen to over 40 Podcasts a week in my car so this sounds like a great idea. What if we did it for all our (regular news) Intranet articles by default and loaded them to an internal iTunes server so people could subscribe to them? Or if we made all training files available in written or audio formats - the learner can choose whatever suits their lifestyle. This opens up some interesting and exciting learning possibilities.

Augmented-reality for your phone

The amount of applications for the iPhone and Googles Android continue to grow and impress. Latest ground-breaking product comes from a company in Austria called Mobilizy who just launched wikitude. Its a travel guide like no other. You just point your Google phone at a landmark and the screen fills with linked in pop-ups from Wikipedia that give useful information on the landmark's description, stories, dates, etc. As they point out on their website: The truly compelling feature is the augmented reality cam view, users may hold the phone’s camera against a spectacular mountain range and see the names and heights displayed as overlay mapped with the mountains in the camera. Users may look out of an airplane window to see what is down there. Users may walk through a city like Seville, Spain, holding the phone’s camera against a building and Wikitude tells what it is. I think that is an amazing teaching tool. Ideas for use that come to mind lab training, campus and building walk-throughs, getting new hires onboarded quickly, etc.

Pocket Projector - Wow Your Audience

I love this new gadget and very nearly forked out some hard earned cash on a wintery Saturday before I came to my senses. Its a tiny pocket beamer that allows you to show Powerpoint presentations, photos, movies, whatever you wish - up to a 42 inch image on any surface. No more carry around bulky beamers and worrying if the bulb will go just when you launch into that great sales presentation to your boss. It comes with a stand and SD card slot, and can connect to PCs or even to your mobile phone. A really nice touch is that it runs an LED light source so last much much longer than the standard beamer bulbs. The company is called Aiptek. The handy tool is called Pocketcinema and costs approx. USD 300. In the next 12 months I can see this becoming essential kit for any instructor or presenter who is regularly on the road and wants to travel light. The cool factor is high and you may get people turning up at your presentation just to view your amazing projector. Its already on my Christmas list.

Google Voice Search

Tried out Google's latest offering over the weekend. An application for the iPhone that allows you to speak search terms and view the results online. It took a while to recognize my Irish accent (no surprise there) but came through with some good search returns. Looks like the days of Repetitive strain injury (RSI) are numbered.

Who are the hottest movers and shakers to watch?

Its a question I get asked a lot - with so many bloggers and websites out there flooding us with information on the latest and greatest developments in technology and business, who are the chosen few who you should keep an eye on? Take a look at this list of bloggers (besides this brilliant blog, of course): techcrunch list of top bloggers. No surprise to see Robert Scoble and sites like Engadget, Silicon Alley Insider, and The Register - and Techcrunch appearing. Forbes also have a much short list. The usual suspects make an appearance including Slashdot, Gizmodo, and Boingboing - all worth a visit to get a view on the hotest news around business technology. Finally, go to Technology Review which is run by MIT for a fascinating view into all sorts of brilliant innovative advances that will stimulate your thinking. The site is based on the oldest technology magazine in the world (est. 1899) Technology Review.

Video Podcasts - Your 5-Minute Info Digest

Just as we launch our brand new video podcasting channel at our company, I've just read an interesting article about the new US president elect "The YouTube Presidency" and how Obama will turn his weekly presidential address into a 4-minute YouTube video. Even the Whitehouse website is changing with the times by getting their messages out to a wider web-savvy audience with RSS feeds, podcasts and videos of press briefings. Speaking of videos and changing times, Skype is under pressure from Google who launched a new plugin to their mail application. Google has integrated voice and video chat into its Google Mail web application. I haven't tried it yet but with their rich customer base this can only help in cementing Google's position as a one-stop-shop for the internet generation. If you combine all Googles applications (so far free of charge), you start to wonder if there is any hope left for truely desk-bound applications.