For memorial day weekend, before it becomes old news.
- Google Tasks API is released, finally! After all this time without any improvement, I wasn't hoping anymore to see GTasks become a useful Task management tool. Initially designed to be as simple as a piece of paper, it was definitely simple - too simple. Although it's still lacking key features, at least with an API, other developers can build on it.
- A few weeks ago at an event on Silicon Valley Trends, I briefly chatted with Yvan Castilloux from People Power, a startup creating a cool product to monitor the individual energy consumption of each electrical appliance in your office/home. It works by placing a chip in each appliance, which then sends the data to the clouds, where you access it via a website. It's more oriented B2B than B2C for now, but they want to reach end customers soon. I thought about it again when I read about "Android@Home, a framework that allows Android devices to communicate with home appliances and other devices," which was presented at Google I/O 2011. I don't know you, but I'd love to be able to monitor my energy consumption.
- Programming only when it's too ineffective to do it manually: a 23 min video of Manuel Rosso, CEO of Food on the Table, at Startup Lessons Learned 2010.
- I just discovered Storify, a really cool web app to make a story out of social media feeds. Or, put pieces of news together to make actual news.
- Verify: A web app to quickly test your design and interface with real users. UserTesting.com goes further by having users experience an interactive interface, as opposed to Verify which just shows images.
- It's everywhere in the tech news, Google releases the Chromebook in June, a netbook with Chrome OS: Google's very simple and fast OS entirely dedicated to web surfing. Don't want to buy a netbook to try out Chrome OS? No worries, you can geek around and install Chromium OS, its open-source version, on any notebook. Google develops an OS for PCs (Chrome OS) and an OS for mobiles (Android), yet the difference between the two industries is fading - when will Google unify the two?
- LetsLunch for networking during lunch. Ah, even lunch time is being productive now :)
