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| Google Doodle Goes Architectural for Mies van der Rohe | |  Today's Google Doodle honors Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the most important figures of modern architecture. Mies van der Rohe was born on March 27, 1886 in Aachen, Germany, but he emigrated to the US in 1937, where he spent the rest of his life. He was known for simplicity of his designs; some of his most famous works include the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Martin Luther King library in Washington DC, the Seagram Building in NYC and the National Gallery in Berlin. Mies van der Rohe is also well-known for his aphorisms, frequently quoted in the context of design and architecture even today: "less is more" and "God is in the details". What do you think of Google's latest Doodle? Share your opinion in the comments. |
| Looking for Baseball Tickets? You Might Want to Avoid These Slow Sites | |  If you're in the market for Opening Day baseball tickets, you might want to avoid some of the biggest names in online ticket selling, according to research by one web optimization company. Joshua Bixby, a baseball fan and president of Vancouver-based Strangeloop Networks, tested transaction times for several online ticket vendors, including major players MLB.com, Ticketmaster and StubHub. He used the speed-tracking tool WebPageTest.org. Over multiple trials, he recorded the amount of time it took for sites to load, beginning from the site homepage all the way through the ticket-purchasing process. He didn't include the amount of time it took to navigate between links. But he did track the number of resources -- such as JavaScript, CSS files and images -- that each site required his browser to load. Here are Bixby's findings, ranked from fastest to slowest, provided exclusive to Mashable: CheapMLBtickets.com: 12.08 seconds average total loading time; 158 resources downloaded FindTicketsFast.com: 15.03 seconds; 121 resources StubHub.com: 23.52 seconds; 265 resources TicketsNow.com: 24.61 seconds; 319 resources Tickets.com: 28.12 seconds; 324 resources TicketNetwork.com: 31.72 seconds; 210 resources Ticketmaster.com: 39.67 seconds; 489 resources MLB.com: 43.37 seconds; 636 resources For comparison, Bixby ran a similar test on eBay, and found a loading time of 12.2 seconds with 168 resources, almost identical to CheapMLBtickets.com. He also tried MLB.com on an iPhone over a 3G network (46 seconds, ended in a error) and on an iPad over a wi-fi network (62 seconds). So why the big differences in transaction times? By and large, the sites with more resources to download were the ones with the longer delays. Bixby blames that on a "tug of war" between site performance and the desire to host advertising and other images. "So far the tug of war has been won by the marketers and the image-makers," he says. "What's happening is that performance is a key feature and it's kind of being neglected in some cases." Bixby says slower sites can improve performance -- and subsequently discourage customers abandoning transactions -- by streamlining pages to load fewer resources and by cutting the number of pages in the transaction process. As people continue to turn to mobile devices for shopping more frequently -- and still prefer to buy via mobile sites over apps -- transaction speed will only grow in importance. Have you abandoned an online purchase because of slow loading times? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Clicknique |
| New Online Timeline Tool Available For Everyone | | Monday, March 26, 2012 10:41 PM | Sonia Paul |
|  Following in the footsteps of Storify, a new free, open-source online timeline tool is innovating storytelling on the web. Timeline, created by Zach Wise, a multimedia journalist and journalism professor, was developed in partnership with the Knight News Innovation Lab at Northwestern University, where Wise teaches. The interactive tool allows users to generate timelines on the web by curating content from Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, Google Maps and SoundCloud. "The tools that already exist on the web are almost all either hard on the eyes or hard to use," said Wise. "Timeline is an open-source, JavaScript and HTML/HTML 5 based tool that creates elegant timelines." Audiences can see the "elegance" Wise is referring to with the examples the folks behind Timeline have created to illustrate its potential. A timeline on the life of Whitney Houston features several YouTube videos, for instance -- an ideal form of storytelling for a performer. Another timeline on the Republican presidential campaign not only features YouTube videos, but also Flickr photos from the primaries and quotations from news articles. With the timeline, a specific date, its description and any media (if any) associated with it fills the upper two-thirds of the browser. Meanwhile, the bottom third of the browser shows how that item fits in categorically within the larger subject of the timeline. So audiences can concentrate on one specific date and navigate to another specific date, all while still being able to see how these moments fit in within the larger timespan.
While Timeline is similar to Storify in that it allows users to aggregate media on the web, it differs in its operation. With Storify, users can drag and drop content into a post. With Timeline, users can either embed the code onto their website using JSON, or -- if they don't want to mess with any coding -- they can fill in a ready-made Timeline template on Google Docs. The project is currently hosted on GitHub, and users can find specific directions on how to both embed the code and use the Google Doc template there, too. Future plans for the project include support of more media type, as well as iPhone compatibility, B.C. time support and better seconds and milliseconds support. What do you think of this new timeline tool? Do you think you'll use it for any projects? Let us know in the comments. |
| Black SMS Lets You Send Secret Messages on Your iPhone [VIDEO] | | Monday, March 26, 2012 7:51 PM | Emily Price |
|  A new iPhone app, Black SMS, attempts to keep your private SMS conversations undercover, by literally covering them in a black shroud until you're ready to read them. Everyone has their secrets. Whether you're trying to plan a surprise birthday party for a friend or a rendezvous with your secret lover, sending or receiving a text message can sometimes make a conversation public that you wish had stayed private. The $.99 app sends what appears to be blacked-out messages using Apple's iMessage. When you receive a black SMS you then copy the message from your Messages folder, and then paste it into the Black SMS app to reveal what it actually says. Much like the invisible ink of the past, reading a message will also require a decoder in the form of a password, so if someone gets ahold of your phone and figures out the Black SMS message app, he or she still will need to know the password in order to read the secret tweets. Check out the video above to see how the app works. While the app could certainly come in handy for situations where you want to keep conversations under wraps, it is also likely to draw attention to the fact you're having secret conversations in the first place. An inquisitive friend (or girlfriend) is probably likely to question why you're getting blacked out messages, potentially drawing more attention to the messages than they might have received already. Let us know your thoughts on the app in the comments. Thumbnail photo courtesy of iStockphoto, leminuit? |
| Google I/O 2012 Registration Announced | | Monday, March 26, 2012 7:22 PM | Keith Kaplan |
|  Every year developers from all around the world gather for the Google IO conference. Google has announced it's celebrating by releasing a Rube Goldberg-inspired Chrome Experiment. This is Google's fifth IO conference. It will be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center June 27-29. At the event attendees learn about the tech world's latest web, mobile and social innovations, as well as get a chance to meet the minds behind Google products, like Android, Chrome and Google+. Google has announced that registration for this event opens tomorrow, March 27 at 7 a.m. PDT. Registration costs $900 or $300, whether you're a general attendee or an academic. Last year's event was so popular that tickets sold out in 59 minutes. The Input/Output Chrome Experiment uses HTML 5, which allows you to create a "machine" that transports a small particle from one side of the screen to the other. The application gives you a toolbox of various levers and gadgets to customize your Chrome Experiment. Various developers have created their own machines, which they posted on Google+ today. Google even says your machine could be featured at the Google I/O conference. The Mashable team created its own Chrome Experiment as seen below (click on the image to see the Chrome Experiment in action).
We also collected some of our favorite Google-inspired Chrome Experiments. What cool designs have you created? Post a link to your design in the comments below. |
| Make a Flashy HTML5 Website Without Coding or Plug-Ins | | Monday, March 26, 2012 7:14 PM | Joann Pan |
|  Feast your eyes on the future of the Internet -- beautiful websites built with HTML5. The newest version of HTML effectively catapults words and graphics into another dimension without plug-ins or the annoying lag time. Wix.com is making sure everyone -- not just developers and fancy web designers -- can get in on the action. HTML5 is the updated version of the online code used to build websites. The newer version of this code allows websites to integrate multimedia -- videos, pictures, graphics and words (that not stagnate) -- into its mainframe. CSS3 is the markup language that programmers can lay on top of the HTML to make websites even more visually appealing (think: accessories to make websites extra fancy). Recent examples of the magic of HTML5 include two interactive music experiences. Arcade Fire's The Wilderness Downtown and OK Go x Pilobulos' All Is Not Lost. Both were built with the Google Chrome team to showcase the advanced web technologies allowing people to see a new virtual world. Wix.com says there's no need to be a world-class web designer to use HTML5. The company unveiled a free HTML5 website builder with plenty of easy-to-use templates on Monday. The six-year-old company already has over 20 million free and premium users building flash websites using the myriad of DIY templates. "With the HTML5 launch Wix users will have an even greater freedom to create ultra-modern and user-friendly websites that best cater to their needs," Omer Shai, VP of marketing at Wix, told Mashable. SEE ALSO: 4 Tips to Keep Your Website Ahead of the Curve in 2012 Wix built the new series of templates for people with small businesses, designers, photographers and corporations that want to take their web presence to the next level. There's absolutely no need for code. Individuals can simply drag and drop different website features and type in words where needed. HTML5 features will optimize integrating video, open up font/typography options, make galleries more optimal for viewing and introduce an element of interactivity. Best of all, HTML5-based websites are supposed by most new devices. This all means the web experience will be faster, cleaner and make galleries and videos more fluid. Social media and search optimization are also improved features of these new templates. "HTML5 provides new technological capabilities and solutions for products that don't support Flash," Shai said. "The majority of browsers support HTML5 now and it's market share is growing very quickly, the popularity of mobile web browsing is on a constant rise and HTML5 is compatible across the web." With Wix's HTML5 builder individuals can build small business web pages (see here) and personal portfolios (like this one). Have you considered exploring HTML5 options for your business or personal portfolio? Tell us in the comment what you think about these new templates. |
| This New App Essay Requires Your Attention To Read | | Monday, March 26, 2012 6:45 PM | Emily Price |
|  The internet is a pretty interesting place, but as we become more and more absorbed in it, it's also a place that can change how we interact with others, and how much attention we give the world around us. A new app by writer Robin Sloan attempts to -- in a way -- break through our now limited attention spans, by requiring your focused attention to get its message. "I'm a huge fan of the web -- I basically live in my browser, with 26 tabs open at any given time -- but I've become more and more conscious of the price we're paying in terms of attention and focus." Sloan told Mashable. "So I wanted to write about that, and also make something that 'fought back' against those pressures and sort of insisted on a certain kind of attention." Called Fish, Sloan's app is an interactive essay that require you to tap the screen to read through it. Sloan worked out some of the basic ideas for the essay in a text editor, but then created the app and the essay side-by-side. Each page of the app essay contains just a sentence or a few words, and tapping on the screen advances you along. "Everything we experience on the web, we experience inside a tab, inside a browser, on a laptop screen, surrounded by a dozen other things. So what happens? You flit from Facebook to Twitter, you click a lot of links, they all line up next to each other, you give up on a few and get absorbed in some others.ad infinitum," says Sloan. "Slowly you close the tabs you're done with and the ones you know you'll never get to, and you never go back. All in all, I don't think that's a very fulfilling way to read or watch anything, especially considering the caliber of stuff that's out there available to us today." The entire essay takes about 15 minutes to read in total, the equivalent of a short commute or lunch break, and like its construction deals with how we look at things and declare "like" or "love" on the web. Various pages in the app have a built-in tweet button where you can share particularly memorable lines from the essay with friends on Twitter. On the last page of the essay, Sloan also gives readers the opportunity to contact him directly on Twitter with thoughts on the essay. "In those tweets, people tend to say 'thanks,' and to say that they've been feeling some of the same things themselves. It's nice to get that sense of shared recognition-for reader and writer alike," says Sloan. "Text is, it turns out, still a pretty powerful technology." |
| Did Apple Tell the New iPad's Battery Meter to Lie on Purpose? | | Monday, March 26, 2012 6:02 PM | Pete Pachal |
|  The new iPad is a huge hit for Apple, to the tune of 3 million devices sold in the first weekend alone. And it's no wonder -- the device is a big upgrade from previous models, quadrupling the resolution of the tablet's screen to an ultra-sharp "retina" display. However, the new model has brought with it a spate of minor issues, one of which is slowly rising to the status of "scandal." First there was the trouble with older smart covers not working properly on the new iPad. Then came news that the iPad gets much hotter than previous models, possibly uncomfortably so. Both issues were more or less dismissed as minor inconveniences, with the heat problem questionable from the get-go. However, there's yet another complication: the iPad's battery meter is inaccurate. After a display expert discovered the iPad continues to charge the battery even after the screen says it's at 100%. Further testing showed that the misleading indicator could cost users as much as 1.2 hours of run time. This problem is different from its predecessors because it's so clear-cut. Whereas another Apple gadget fracas -- the iPhone 4 "antennagate" affair -- was difficult to quantify in terms of actual lost calls, in this case the cost is right there in black and white: Your iPad gets an hour less run time if you unplug as soon as the meter hits full. Apple so far hasn't made any statement on the matter, but it should, because there may be a very good reason the battery meter on the iPad is a fibber. The lithium-ion batteries that are used in almost every piece of electronics today have a limited lifespan. Even if you don't ever use it, if you put a battery on a shelf somewhere and try to charge it up a few years later, it won't work. The battery will be permanently dead. Most of us experience this with our cellphones. If you own a phone for more than a year (and most people do), you've probably noticed that its battery doesn't quite have the same all-day oomph that it used to. A number of factors can accelerate battery degradation, one of them being how often it's kept fully charged. The table below from Battery University shows how much faster fully charged batteries degrade at various temperatures. "It's actually better not to charge the battery fully," says Isidor Buchmann, CEO of Cadex Electronics, a manufacturer of battery testing equipment. "If you never fully charged your iPad, the run time would be a little bit less, but you'll keep the battery longer." As the table also shows, another big factor that can cut down the lifetime of a battery is heat. If you keep a gadget fully charged in a hot environment, its battery will most likely live fast and die hard. Now, some studies have demonstrated that the new iPad runs noticeably hotter than the previous model, even if it's not uncomfortably warm. "The worst combination is fully charged at elevated temperature," says Buchmann. "It's almost like food. It spoils more quickly at elevated temperature. A full charge promotes more corrosion." SEE ALSO: New iPad Teardown: 'It's Really Just a Giant Battery' After discovering the extra heat and knowing how charge can affect battery lifespan, it's possible that Apple purposefully designed its battery meter to tell a little white lie about its charge in the interest of extending the lifetime of the tablet. After all, it still technically gives 10 hours of use at 90%, and it's the rare user that really needs that full 10-hour lifetime outside of a long flight. However, Buchmann doesn't think Apple told the iPad battery to lie. He believes Apple just did its best in creating the iPad's battery meter, but simply got the measurement wrong since the techniques involved are notoriously inaccurate. "How do you measure a battery's state of charge?" he asks. "Anyone knowledgeable about batteries knows there is no way. It's just a very rough estimate. If Apple could do it better, they would." I'm not sure if I share Buchmann's theory, however. After all, if an independent researcher can figure out if the iPad is still charging past 100% with relatively simple tests, certainly the most valuable company in the world could do the same. Still, whether is was by design or just a random quirk, the truth-challenged battery indicator on the new iPad could end up being a blessing for users who hope to keep using their tablets until 2015 and beyond. If it is random, though, then expect an update soon -- a battery that inadvertently encourages responsible use would deal a blow to something Apple and every other electronics manufacturer continually relies on: planned obsolescence. What's your take on the iPad battery controversy? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alengo |
| 6 Must-Have Apps for the Samsung Galaxy Note | | Monday, March 26, 2012 5:00 PM | Rob Lammle |
|  The Samsung Galaxy Note is one of the most polarizing smartphones on the market today. Some say the big 5.3-inch screen is too bulky, while others like the fact they don't have to squint to read their email anymore. Critics think the S Pen stylus is a misguided throwback to PDAs, but fans tout the tool's precision and functionality. If you're already a convert, or if you need a little more convincing, here are six apps that no Note user should be without. Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, blogeee.net |
| 'Life of George' Is an iPhone Game That Uses Real Legos [PICS] | | Monday, March 26, 2012 4:24 PM | Emily Price |
|  You've probably played a game on an iPhone and you've probably built something using Legos. But have you done both simultaneously? Lego has expanded into the world of mobile gaming with its game Life of George, that has you build Lego structures using real-world blocks. The game is the first fully-integrated digital-to-physical game from Lego, and follows the exploits of George, "a software developer by day and adventurer by night" through his travels to places like Hawaii and New York. In each location, George takes some snapshots of things you find there and fills up his virtual scrapbook. Game play involves you building the things George wants pictures of, and then taking pictures of your creations with your iPhone or iPod touch. Each thing you build is timed, and you're assigned a score for your creation based on accuracy and speed. The game was released in October, and recently walked away with an award at SXSWi in the Amusement category, and made its way to our San Francisco Mashable office for a test drive. How it works Tapping on a blank square in George's scrapbook brings up an object for you to build. Once you're shown the object, a timer starts counting down how long you have to finish building the palm tree, taxi cab, or hulu girl. Things you build are placed on a special mat once you're done. The mat works as a green screen of sorts, with dots and color so that the app knows you've created the right object with the right blocks. The game scores you based on the amount of time you spend building as well as the accuracy of your creation. Harder than it looks At first glance, you may think Life of George is a game for children, but the game is actually designed for players aged 14 and up. While nothing you build in the game is terribly complex, when you add in the timed element into the game play building some of George's requests can be pretty challenging. The game has both a novice and an expert mode. We were able to build everything within the allotted time, but were never fast enough to earn more than three stars for any of our creations. With a little practice we could probably up our star score, but getting a five star rating would definitely be a challenge. The block and board portion of Life of George is available now from Lego stores and online for $29.99, and the accompanying app is available for free for the iPhone and iPod touch. You can also follow George's exploits and get hints on upcoming game additions on his Facebook page. What do you think about a mobile game that also has real-world elements? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. |
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