Posted by on under development efforts, facebook, new features, launch, bugs, email addresses | 
An update to our
recent post on Facebook Connect: Facebook is pushing partners hard to be prepared for an official November 30 launch. 24 of 26 announced
launch partners have yet to integrate Facebook Connect. We've spoken with a number of them. All say they are still planning to integrate the product eventually, but complain of bugs and other issues and wasted development efforts to date. Some, afraid of policy changes that will make Facebook Connect less interesting, also say they're waiting to see the final product before launching. A number of new features are being added. One, called FriendLink, allows a site using Facebook Connect to pass email addresses to Facebook and get friend recommendations back. This allows sites to make connections between users that they may not know about yet (but that Facebook already knows about). It's a key feature that is attracting a number of partners, we've heard.
Tagi: development efforts, facebook, new features, launch, bugs, email addresses
Posted by on under copenhagen denmark, interactive line, techcrunch, milli, slew, infusion, 5 million, new features |
Issuu just
announced it has raised $5 million in a Series B investment from
Sunstone Capital, which had already provided Series A funding to the amount of $1.25 million in early 2007. The Copenhagen, Denmark-based startup has also added a slew of new features to its existing product and launched a premium version for professional publishers. When we first came across Issuu, which turns uploaded documents into interactive online publications for free, we said it was one of the first service of its kind that
didn't suck. In addition to the funding announcement, the company is also releasing a major product update.
Tagi: copenhagen denmark, interactive line, techcrunch, milli, slew, infusion, 5 million, new features
Posted by on under copenhagen denmark, interactive line, techcrunch, milli, slew, infusion, 5 million, new features |
Issuu just
announced it has raised $5 million in a Series B investment from
Sunstone Capital, which had already provided Series A funding to the amount of $1.25 million in early 2007. The Copenhagen, Denmark-based startup has also added a slew of new features to its existing product and launched a premium version for professional publishers. When we first came across Issuu, which turns uploaded documents into interactive online publications for free, we said it was one of the first service of its kind that
didn't suck. In addition to the funding announcement, the company is also releasing a major product update.
Tagi: copenhagen denmark, interactive line, techcrunch, milli, slew, infusion, 5 million, new features
Posted by on under interface ideas, laptop owners, impressive job, hp touchsmart pc, beta stage, transparent window, giant screen, netbook, screen space, lts, start menu, system tray, taskbar, keynote, peek, new features, gadgets, laptops, sidebar, demo |
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
Microsoft's
Windows 7 announcement earlier today was followed up by an extensive demo of the new features during the PDC keynote, and since then even more info about the new OS has flooded out, so we thought we'd try to wrap up some of the more important bits here for you. Microsoft seems to have done an impressive job at this early pre-beta stage, folding in next-gen interface ideas like multitouch into the same OS that apparently runs fine on a 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM, but we'll see how development goes -- there's still a ways to go. Some notes:
- Obviously, the big news is the new taskbar, which forgoes text for icons and has new "jump lists" of app controls and options you can access with a right-click. You can select playlists in Media Player, for example. Super cool: when you scrub over the icons, all the other app windows go transparent so you can "peek" at the windows you're pointing at.
- Gadgets now appear on the desktop -- the sidebar has been killed. That makes more sense for all those laptop owners out there with limited screen space, and you can still see gadgets anytime by peeking at the desktop, rendering all other windows transparent.
- Window resizing and management now happens semi-automatically: dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it, pulling it down restores; dragging a window to the edges auto-resizes it to 50% for quick tiling. Nifty.
- The system tray now only displays what you explicitly say it should -- everything else is hidden, and the controls have been streamlined.
- User Account Control settings are now much more fine-grained -- you can set them by app and by level of access.
- They demoed multitouch features on an HP TouchSmart PC -- it was pretty cool, although the usual nagging "what is this good for / that'll get old fast" concerns weren't really addressed. The Start menu gets 25 percent bigger when using touch to make it easier to handle, and apps will all get scroll support automatically. There's also a giant on-screen predictive keyboard. Again -- could be amazing, but we won't know until it's out in the wild.
- We've always known Microsoft intends Windows 7 to run on netbooks, and we got a small taste during the PDC keynote: Windows SVP Steve Sinofsky held up his "personal" laptop running Windows 7, an unnamed 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM that looked a lot like an Eee PC, and said that it still had about half its memory free after boot. (We're guessing it was running a VIA Nano, since most Atoms run at 1.6GHz.)
- At the other end of the scale, Windows 7 supports machines with up to 256 CPUs.
- Multiple-monitor management is much-improved, as is setting up projectors -- it's a hotkey away. Remote Desktop now works with multiple monitors as well.
- Media Center has been tweaked as well -- it looks a lot more like the Zune interface. There's also a new Mini Guide when watching video, and a new Music Wall album artwork screensaver that kicks in when you're playing music.
- Devs got a pre-beta today; a "pretty good" feature complete beta is due early next year. No word at all on when it'll be released to market apart from that "three years from Vista" date we've known forever.
That's just the good bits -- hit the read links for piles of more info and screenshots, and we'll keep our eyes out for anything else interesting. Exciting times!
Read - Keynote videos on the PDC site
Read - Technologizer Windows 7 hands-on
Read - Ars Technica Windows 7 interface walkthrough
Read - Laptop Windows 7 hands-on
Read - Windows 7 Media Center revealed
Windows 7 details galore: interface tweaks, netbook builds, Media Center enhancements originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tagi: interface ideas, laptop owners, impressive job, hp touchsmart pc, beta stage, transparent window, giant screen, netbook, screen space, lts, start menu, system tray, taskbar, keynote, peek, new features, gadgets, laptops, sidebar, demo
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![This Guy Loves Apostrophes Almost As Much As He Loves Jesus [PIC]](http://thumbs.reddit.com/t3_79w2v.png "This Guy Loves Apostrophes Almost As Much As He Loves Jesus [PIC]")