Awkward beauty

Yahoo’s interface for Livestand is fairly good-looking, but it isn’t necessarily the kind of visual appeal we’re used to seeing on the iPad. The interface is spare but not really simple, with some depth and animation effects that feel a little out-of-place on a device where grid views often prevail. Flipboard’s greeting screen, for example, works on a grid and offers less visual confusion in my opinion, whereas Livestand’s 3D effect can obscure tiles and just adds a step between you and access to content.

There’s also the problem of usability. The home page looks good and has the hallmarks of simplicity, but it’s actually quite tricky to figure out how to add content from the featured carousel to your library. That’s actually because you can’t do so without navigating first to the “explore all content” extended catalog. I assumed that there would be an option when I opened an individual app or magazine, or that I could drag and drop the square icons, but neither works.

Slick content formatting

The actual content of each applet, or “magazine,” you can subscribe to within Yahoo Livestand (all of which are free, by the way) is very nicely formatted. Yahoo has clearly paid a lot of attention to fonts and layout, and the ultimate effect is worthy of being used as a demo in college design courses. This is especially true for magazine content like Surfer‘s.

But the content formatting seems to come with a cost in terms of responsiveness. Delays while you wait for articles and subsections to load are common throughout the app, and though the spinning, glowing circle Yahoo has used to indicate a wait is visually impressive, you get really tired of seeing it after a while.

Multiuser design

Yahoo was smart to include the ability to register multiple user profiles in Livestand right from the beginning. You can add up to four users on a single device and sign in using either your Facebook or Yahoo credentials, or you can start using Livestand without any outside account. As Zite pointed out in a recent update, iPads are often multiuser devices, and the ability for up to four people to keep their content separate and jump in without an arduous sign-up process is nice.

Pretty but not deep

Livestand, unlike Flipboard, is not really a social news tool; it’s more about repackaging traditional sources of content in a way that feels more like newer delivery vehicles that draw from Facebook, Twitter and RSS. And that’s its biggest problem.

Yahoo’s concept of a self-contained virtual newsstand in the end doesn’t feel up to the challenge of delivering the future of news in the way that more-connected, more-personalized tools like Flipboard and Zite do. It looks good, but the superficial appeal is undermined by performance and usability issues, like the fact that it doesn’t work in portrait mode, for example. Some of the formatting and design decisions actually make me wish I could overlook its shortcomings and use it as my default news reading app on the iPad, but it just doesn’t have the brains to seal the deal.

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In Settings > Safari, you can choose your default search engine under “General,” between either Google (the one automatically chosen if you haven’t changed it), Yahoo or Bing. When you ask Siri simply to “Search for” something, it will use whichever search engine you have chosen in Settings.

But if you want to temporarily switch engines for just one search, all you need to do is ask Siri to check with a specific search service. For example, “Search Bing for Windows Phone 7.5″ will use Microsoft’s search portal to return results, even if you have Google selected as your default engine. It also keeps your default engine the same.

While you may not often have cause to take a brief vacation from your search engine of choice, this can come in handy if you’re comparing the order of results for a search term across services, or if you find one service better than another for specific types of searches, like images, places or directions.

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The story cites two people “with knowledge” of the auction, which is being run by two investment banks that Hulu hired to help negotiate a sale. That Apple could be considering Hulu isn’t exactly unique: Yahoo, Microsoft, AT&T and Google have also been linked to the Disney/News Corp./NBC Universal joint venture.

The plus for Apple taking over Hulu would be the addition of a lot more content to beef up its iTunes and Apple TV offerings and present an alternative to Netflix. Apple has long been said to be working on its own subscription video service, but that has yet to come to fruition.

A big acquisition like Hulu would also be one way to quiet those on Wall Street who are begging Apple to get more value out of the cash it’s keeping around.

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My (Too?) Many Monitors

First, you need some extra hardware. Obviously, you’ll need two extra monitors, in addition to the one built in to your computer, but that’s not all. You’ll also need to pick up a USB-to-video adapter. These come in many flavors. I’ve got a Sewell USB-to-DVI external video card ($79.95), but another good cheap option is the EVGA UV Plus+ ($69.99 for the UV16). Both options come with DVI-to-VGA adapters, so you can use either type of connection.

One of your monitors should be connected via your Mac’s video-out port (whether it be mini-DVI or Mini DisplayPort, depending on your machine’s age). You can get an adapter for that direct from Apple, or from third-party vendors. That’s the easy part.

Now, connect your other monitor using the USB-to-video device you decided upon. To do this, first install DisplayLink’s Mac OS X drivers. The latest version (1.6 Beta 3 as of this writing) can be found here. Without these drivers, no USB video cards will work with a Mac.

Once you’ve installed the drivers, plug in your second external monitor using the USB video adapter. Your screen should go blue, then extend to your new monitor. Use Displays under System Preferences to make any necessary adjustments.

Note that using DisplayLink to operate a third display with your Mac isn’t perfect. Because of restrictions Apple imposes on OS access for third-party software, the DisplayLink drivers don’t support 3D acceleration or OpenGL, meaning that keynote presentations won’t work properly, and video will be choppy. But if you’re using that third display to house an extra browser window, or even for photo editing, it’s more than up to the task. Plus, you can add up to four additional monitors over USB using this method (though separate adapters would be required).

DisplayLink’s been around for a while, but I remember when I was first testing a multi-monitor solution, it took me longer than it should have to unearth this solution. Hopefully now you won’t have the same problem.

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A new patent application making the rounds suggests that Apple’s plans for iOS go beyond its Apple TV revamp, too, and extend to the desktop. The patent in question describes a modular iMac, with the ability to pivot down to a more touch-friendly angle and the power to switch between OS X and iOS, depending on your needs at any given computing session.

Obviously, Apple considers its forays into touch-enabled mobile computing a success and wants to translate that success to its traditional desk and laptop computing divisions. Anyone who’s used an iDevice and/or gotten used to multi-touch gestures using either a Mac notebook trackpad or the recently released Magic Trackpad peripheral will likely attest to the convenience and ease of use of Apple’s take on touch computing. But can the iOS model be successful on more traditional computers, and who will reap the benefits of such a change?

In some ways, of course, a unified iOS platform across all devices will be a boon to consumers. Presumably, apps purchased for one platform will be installable and usable on each of the others (with limitations and exceptions, as evidenced by the iPad and iPhone differences). So your money will go farther, and a more uniform experience means that even the most casual computer users will get the most out of their devices.

But the consumer isn’t the party that stands to gain the most from a move towards iOS. Apps are the key to Apple’s mobile operating system, and apps, as we’ve seen, present a sort of “walled garden” version of the Internet for safer, more controlled consumption of content. Apple’s policies regarding the policing of that walled garden are of debatable merit, but what isn’t in question is the advantage to content producers.

By segmenting, repackaging and reselling focused content bundles in the form of apps, Apple is making it possible for web content creators to charge users directly for their wares, instead of having to rely on the unpredictable revenue stream provided by advertising, which has by far been the dominant model to date. The widespread availability of free information on the web has been cited as responsible for the gradual decline of traditional media outlets, like print news.

iOS on more devices means more potential revenue sources for media providers and content creators, and could provide the boost that journalism is looking for. Ironically, it should help Google, too, since the relevance of its search capabilities depends upon the continued production of good and useful information sources, which apps could help fund in a big way going forward.

Of course, the upshot is that Apple gets to operate as the arbiter of taste and morality for all of the content that passes through its gates. Is it a small price to pay for the continued sustainability of media production, or a pill you’re ultimately unwilling to swallow?

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If you are new to chatting, the three major players in the market are AIM, Yahoo and Microsoft (what market are they not part of?). While AIM remains at the top of the mountain (offering great integration for MobileMe customers), rival Yahoo is making it harder for users to stay attached to AIM’s service. For those who aren’t completely satisfied with what AIM has to offer, Yahoo! Messenger is a great alternative or supplement and is a bit more robust, with support for adding users of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger service.

Yahoo has been vocal about its dedication to the iPhone platform, and its support is appreciated and apparent. Unlike AIM, Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone also supports sending/receiving photos via your built-in camera. It also exists as a free application, and isn’t cluttered with ads like AIM’s free counterpart. Several unique features of Yahoo! Messenger are also supported, including its popular “Buzz!” feature. In true iPhone style, you activate it by simply shaking your phone.

If you are someone who enjoys chatting with users who do not use either service, Yahoo! Messenger also features the ability to send messages to mobile users over SMS, saving iPhone users from SMS charges (similar to AIM).

Having used both AIM and Yahoo! Messenger on my iPhone, I’m a bit biased towards Yahoo’s offering. With better support for seamlessly moving between mobile and desktop use (actually forcing me to sign off my desktop), this keeps me from “losing” messages in one location, unlike AIM. During testing, I kept inadvertently leaving AIM “signed on” on my iPhone and messages were being routed there, instead of showing up in iChat, on which I was logged in as well.

Yahoo! Messenger for iPhone is a free download on the App Store. Check it out and let us know what you think!

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I admit I was surprisingly impressed with Yahoo for iPhone when it first came out, and an update within the last week brought even more improvements, but I’m not sure the app is so spectacular that Yahoo should pour all its effort into it at the expense of other platforms. But that’s what it’s thinking, apparently. The search company announced early this week that it would, in fact, be giving up ongoing efforts to develop a single smartphone app for BlackBerry (RIMM), Windows Mobile (MSFT), and Android (GOOG), and instead focus its efforts on the iPhone version and its mobile-formatted web site at this time.

So, for the time being at least, Yahoo is all about the iPhone, which is a tremendous credit to the platform. In a statement about the decision to discontinue the development of its smartphone app, the company stated that it would still consider working on specific apps for other platforms, as long as it made financial sense to do so. Yahoo’s Adam Taggart, head of product marketing for mobile, is quoted as saying “When you have finite resources, you want to say, ‘Where can I give the biggest bang for the buck?’” regarding the company’s decision to target the iPhone platform for the time being.

BlackBerry users may be in luck, because Yahoo appears to be pursuing possible development of a brand-new platform-specific app for distribution through BlackBerry App World, which is poised to be the next most profitable app distribution platform, and the possibility of a completely separate Android version appearing somewhere down the line still exists, too. Still, for now, Yahoo told smartphone beta testers via email where its current interest lies, in no uncertain words:

For the time being, we will be focusing our efforts on the newly launched Yahoo Mobile experience for browsers (available at new.m.yahoo.com) and for the iPhone (available via the Apple App Store).

This signals a significant milestone for the iPhone, as it becomes the “safe bet” in the mobile smartphone application market it helped pioneer (though many will recall HotSyncing programs to their Palm devices not too long ago). Yahoo’s not the only company with less capital on hand to spend on development, and if you’re strapped for cash, why take on a significantly higher degree of risk by coming out with an app for an unproven platform when the iPhone has already been so succesful? Even for independent developers, the unspoken message is clear: With the iPhone, you stand to make money. With anyone else, who knows?

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Initially the two actually appear to have very little in common. Yahoo is more of a fully featured portal than Google’s search-focused application. To begin with, when the app launches, you get a screen with a search bar at the top, but also a list of feature stories from Yahoo.com, including summaries, and pictures, when available. There’s also a list of popular search topics, which depressingly included “ShamWow” when I was writing this up. Depending on what your goal is, this might be more or less useful than Google’s straightforward search bar/search history home page.

Continuing the trend of acting as a more broadly focused news and information application, Y! News is the next available menu item in the app’s navigation bar. There’s a featured story, and then a number of others broken down by category. It’s a fairly nice feature, and it uses your phone’s location to determine what kind of regional and national content should be shown. The content is well formatted for easy reading using the built-in article viewer, too.

The “My Interests” page is also pretty handy. You can add various types of feeds here, including weather, stock alerts, RSS feeds, and more. Basically, it allows you to build your own iGoogle-type all-in-one home page. It could actually replace a standalone RSS reader.

“Connect” offers a full-service social media aggregator, with integration for popular web mail services (Gmail and Windows Live Hotmail included, and Yahoo Mail of course), and Yahoo Calendar. All of the major social media networks are supported, including Facebook and Twitter. Once you’ve added your accounts, you can view updates from all your networks in the “Social Pulse” stream. In all cases, social network contact images can be used for your own Yahoo address book contacts.

There’s more, like direct in-app access to Yahoo Messenger, but you can check that stuff out on your own. Suffice it to say, Yahoo is trying something different with their mobile app, rather than competing directly with Google. If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution that doesn’t necessarily go in-depth in any one particular area, this might be a good solution. In theory, it clears four or five apps off your home screen, and I’m always a fan of decreasing app clutter.

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The search engine that had a strong claim on the web long before upstart Google came along may be down, but they aren’t out. They’re planning a massive undertaking, a cross-platform release of a mobile suite of applications that, at least according to them, could revolutionize the way you use the web from your mobile device.

Yahoo Mobile (not Go. Forget Go ever existed.) will drop simultaneously for mobile web browsers, as a dedicated iPhone app, and as a dedicated app for other smartphones as well (which will be far easier now that everyone is launching an App Store clone). They aren’t being too clear about the specifics, but it’s basically shaping up to be a mobile web portal, which sort of is, and sort of isn’t like Google Mobile. Yahoo Mobile will integrate Mail, Messenger, News and Calendar, although it’s not made explicitly clear whether those will just be available as links to web-based content or integrated into an iPhone app. They also talk about Opera mobile being integrated into the package, but whether or not that particular piece of the puzzle makes its way onto the iPhone is another story.

This will be Yahoo!’s first major foray into the arena of the iPhone (if you don’t count the curious oneConnect social network application), and it will pit them head-to-head against their dominant rival Google. If I’m at all an accurate judge, I’d say Google is reserving fear for when something actually materializes, and even then, I don’t think Yahoo! can offer up anything to seriously challenge their dominance of the iPhone platform. Somehow getting Opera onto Apple devices would be a coup, but if it happened, it would just pave the way for Chrome Mobile, which would probably end up as another “W” in the Google column. Is it just me, or does anyone else sort of feel like Yahoo! should just throw in the towel at this point?

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“I’m not looking for the best players, I’m looking for the right ones.”

The above line, from the Disney movie Miracle, is delivered by the coach of the USA hockey team when an assistant coach questions some of his choices for the final roster. It seems very apt when looking at Apple’s hire of Mark Papermaster. 

Sometimes I’m surprised at the what the Apple blogging community considers newsworthy. Maybe “slow news days” really do exist, because it’s otherwise hard to understand why anything would be made of the fact that Mark Papermaster was not initially Apple’s “first choice” when looking for Tony Fadell’s replacement. 

Big deal. 

Have none of those writing this stuff ever been involved in an employe search? Heck, this doesn’t even just apply to the executive level for which Apple was searching. 

Frequently, the mythical “first choice” (FC) can’t be considered in the first place. You know, as in “The ideal person would be Ima Navailable, but she just got promoted at Megacorp and will never leave”. 

More importantly, however, is that the FC is initially defined based on idealistic goals of getting the “perfect” candidate, which almost never occurs. In Apple’s case, they made it very clear that attitude and managerial leadership would trump specific technical abilities. 

To be sure, the candidate must have technical abilities, but if they are in some other discipline that at least provides an indication they could be applied to newer duties, then that may suffice. After all, Apple undoubtedly feels the team can help guide the technical aspects and bring them along, whereas management cannot be taught. (Yes, I’m sure it’ll anger the many management and leadership seminar providers to no end when I say this: Leadership cannot be taught. You either have it or you don’t.)

In short, Apple feels they can likely turn an individual from being technical in one capacity to being technical in another, whereas they know they cannot make someone who lacks the right managerial skills into the kind of leader they require. Apple is wise in this regard. 

Another critical factor to consider is that the mythical FC candidate can (and frequently does) drop in the “rankings” during the interview process. Your number one guy may not interview so well or look like a good fit. Meanwhile, even if #1 does interview well, someone further down the list does even better and appears a better overall choice, moving into the coveted FC slot. 

In the end, of course, Mr. Papermaster was Apple’s “first choice”, because unless you do it badly — and I don’t think Apple does — the FC is ultimately the one to which you offer the job.

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Today, Davaid Wantanabe announced that Yahoo has acquired the rights to his popular Inquisitor for Safari.

Congrats to David, and a big “what the heck?” to Yahoo. I honestly can’t imagine what Yahoo would want with a plugin for Safari.

It has long been a Safari-only plugin so with the acquisition of it on Yahoo’s end, I’m curious how it will expand. David has said he will not be joining Yahoo as an employee, but he will continue to be the lead developer of the Safari version.

Along with the acquisition announcement, version 3.1 of the plugin was released that “improves performance, simplifies the process for switching search providers, and removes affiliate links from the program”. In lieu of the acquisition, it’s obviously not a surprise that Yahoo is now the default search provider (though you can easily change that in the preferences).

Anyone care to venture as to what Yahoo might do with Inquisitor or how it will benefit them?

[Via Daring Fireball]

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I started looking around for a new pair of earbuds and found the selection to be a tad overwhelming but I eventually found a pair I really love. Hopefully this little “showdown” will help you with some comparison shopping when you’re in the market for a new pair of earbuds.

Something worth noting here. I’m not a professional sound engineer and in no way claim to be some sort of professional in that area. I like music and more importantly I like listening to my music with the best sound quality possible. This review is meant to help the “average” user find a pair of earbuds. If you’re a pro sound engineer, chances are you don’t need this article. :)

The Tests

In an effort to keep the playing field as level as possible there were a few common tests I do.

Comfort/Fit Test: I wore each earbud for approximately 30 minutes while running (a common situation when earbuds would be used).

Bass Response/Sound Clarity/Noise Reduction Tests: I put each earbud through a run of the following 4 songs:

• Fort Minor – In Stereo
• Idiot Pilot – Retina and the Sky
• Chevelle – Antisaint
• Telefon Tel Aviv – Fahrenheit Fair Enough

JLab JBuds

I knew up front that JLab JBuds were on “economy” side of the scale when I started using them. Unfortunately they never really moved out of that categorization.

At only $19.95, they are certainly the most affordable option by a long shot, but at the sake of low pricing JLab seems to have sacrificed quality as well.

When listening to everything form hip-hop to rock, the sound was just plain muddy. The range of response was small and they just didn’t sound good. On top of that, they were quite uncomfortable and had a strong tendency of not staying in my ears well (regardless of what size “bud” I used).

V-Moda Vibe

I had seen the V-Moda Vibe earbuds in a slew of commercials and they were being pushed pretty hard at my local Apple store so I was anxious to give these a try.

These were fairly comfortable though they were almost so pill-like that I felt like they’d just get stuck in my ear canal.

While the bass response wasn’t quite up to par of what V-Moda claimed, the sound clarity on these was great. For the hip-hip tunes, I wasn’t that impressed but on electronic, pop, and rock they were really quite enjoyable.

The downfall of these, atleast for me, is price. At about $100 they just seem overpriced. They are certainly marketed for their “style” and it just seems like a large portion of the $100 goes towards the hip-factor…something I don’t find that useful and certainly don’t think is worth paying for.

Sennheiser CX55

Sennheiser has been in the audio business for over 60 years and in that time have come close to perfecting the art of delivering sound.

One of their newest sets of earbuds is the CX55 model.

These were definitely some of the most comfortable earbuds I’ve ever worn. They were extremely light and I at times it was easy to forget they were even in my ears.

The sound quality was great and bass response was solid. The only thing against these are noise reduction. Outside sound made it’s way in fairly easily so if you’re listening to music on something like a crowded bus or in the subway, it could be noticeable.

In terms of value, these have the most bang-for-buck. At around $80 these are still quite affordable and deliver superior quality at such a low price point.

Etymotic ER-4

Wow. I’m impressed. The Etymotic ER-4′s are some of the best earbuds I’ve ever used.

The base response and sound clarity are top of the line in terms of consumer earbuds. I really can’t say enough good things about the sound quality. But what really does it for me is the noise reduction. When you have these earbuds in, the outside world is practically silent thanks to their 3-flange eartips that give an extremely solid seal on the sound.

One thing I really like about Etymotic as a company is that they genuinely want to educate their buyers on sound and how to get the best sound quality out of their products.

The ER-4 comes with an entire “kit”, of sorts, with a plethora of different foam and rubber eartips as well as replacement filters for the earbuds.

At $300 they are definitely the most expensive set in the lineup, but if you’ve got the money to pick these up, I highly suggest them as they are one of the highest quality consumer earbuds on the market.

Comparison Chart

The ratings below are on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best and 1 being the worst.

Disclosure: The items covered in this review were provided by their respective vendors.

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Unfortunately, as with most web applications, when you’re disconnected from the internet (whether traveling or just having trouble finding a connection), it becomes unusable for obvious reasons.

Enter PackRat.

PackRat is a desktop client for Backpack that lets you use your Backpack data, as well as create new data, without ever visiting your Backpack page. You then can do a simple sync to keep everything together on both the website and the application.

You can do just about everything in PackRat as you can on your Backpack page. I actually prefer the desktop client to the web client. Everything just seems more straight forward and it’s one less tab I have to keep open in Safari.

The interface seems a bit rough around the edges, but that hasn’t had any noticeable effect on performance. A lot of things that tend to make the Backpack pages feel cluttered have been removed in PackRat so you really are shown just the tools needed to do the job.

PackRat is a great tool and certainly worth checking out if you’re a Backpack user. You can try it out (with a 5 page limit) right now. It costs around $25 for the full version. The price is arguably a tad steep for a program that just piggybacks off a real app…but I definitely think the program is still worth checking out to get a feel for if it’s right for you.

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