February 15, 2008 at 6:21 am
Overlay.tv is a new social web application that allows you to mark up any web video with overlays. We got involved with the company a few months ago, and worked with them to build their video player and editor.
The coolest feature of Overlay.tv is that you may edit any web video in place using the Overlay.tv Bookmarklet. If I am browsing Youtube or Facebook, and I come across a video I want to tweak, I just click the bookmarklet and the Overlay.tv Video editor will appear allowing me to create content on top of the video.
Overlays are pretty fun to make. You can choose from a wide variety of animation types, overlay objects and interactive overlay objects to try and build your own pop-up video type experience.
Overlays are not just about silly fun though, the platform allows you to add real products as overlays and get paid money for generating click through traffic to big e-commerce sites. The Overlay.tv Bookmarklet allows you to capture product information from real product pages anywhere on the web, and then use these products in your overlays on video. This type of thing could be cool for marking up video podcasts.
When you create an Overlay on any video, it is saved to your Overlay.tv profile. You have access to embedding tools, as well as a Facebook application that will allow you to post these marked up videos anywhere.
February 13, 2008 at 10:52 am
The GSMA Mobile World Congress Conference is currently taking place in Barcelona. The event showcases the best of the world of mobile communications. We have been working with Adobe Flash Lite 3 since it was released in public beta, and a few of our clients are currently demoing some of these creations at the Adobe booth at the event:
Finetune for Flash Lite 3
Finally, Finetune running on a phone!! You can load your profile and play your playlists, as well as load artist radio stations based on search. This app users RTMP streaming just like all of the other Finetune players.
Mightyverse
[ Mightyverse Flash Lite 3 Video Demo ]
Mightyverse is an up and coming social inventory for video language translations. The Flash Lite 3 app we have been developing with them allows you to search for phrases in your native language and view translations in any other language. This is not their only mobile app, they have it running on the iPhone as well as an Ajax app. Their service is very cool, and while they have not yet launched publicly, they are accepting applicants for an upcoming public beta.
I am really excited about the progress the Flash Lite player has made in version 3. I have been told that a lot of people on the show floor have been amazed at the fact that Flash Lite now allows you to build real applications. The future looks bright for the Flash Player on mobile. Perhaps this year we may see the breakout that Adobe has been predicting for years.
January 30, 2008 at 6:37 am
I have come across a great mailing list presented by the IxDA that is really worth monitoring and getting involved in. This mailing list is focused on interaction design discussion, has many valuable contributing members, and has so much great content in it’s archive.
One thread caught my eye the other day, and certainly deserves a little attention here on InsideRIA, as I am sure that many RIA developers have faced the question posed many times.
Read The Rest…
January 26, 2008 at 11:31 am
This is part 2 of 2 in my coverage of Jakob Neilson’s recent Alertbox column entitled “Web 2.0 Can Be Dangerous”. Part 1 was called: “There’s a Forklift in my Toolbox”.
Jakob Neilson spends a lot of time in his Alertbox column, making the point that “rich interfaces” should really be reserved for “actual applications” and not “websites”. Very much like the Flash 99% Bad article, I am sure the following pull quote has the potential to create just as much confusion and misconception out there amongst people that are non-technical, but make the big decisions:
“Such interfaces can work well, especially for actual applications that offer true functionality and thus require a full GUI. But if you’re just designing a website, the more advanced UIs often confuse users more than they help. Why? Because users engage less with websites than with apps.”
Read The Rest …
January 22, 2008 at 7:44 am
Gabor Vida and I have begun blogging on a new Rich Internet Application community site called InsideRIA. The site’s vision is to be a central destination for designers, developers, strategists, and pundits to come together and aggregate knowledge that bridge communities across technological lines. There will be coverage of the Flash Platform, AJAX, Silverlight and WPF, and all other important technologies involved in this movement, but hopefully discussion will emerge that rises above implementation, and focuses on best practices, standards, and patterns.
Gab and I have already contributed a few articles:
Hello World
Without The Why We are Powerless
The RIA Elevator Speech
There’s a Forklift in my Toolbox!
January 22, 2008 at 6:42 am
Reading and responding to Alertbox columns by Jakob Nielson is potentially one of the most favorite pastimes of experience design pundits. Flash 99% Bad was one that drew a massive amount of response in the year 2000, and pretty much turned him into public enemy number one in the Flash XD community. I have come to realize that while he makes some radical claims that go against the grain, he often has very valid points in between the lines.
Read The Rest…
January 20, 2008 at 6:45 am
Almost everyone in the tech industry is familiar with the concept of an “Elevator Speech”. You meet someone for the first time, they ask you what you do, and your job is to very quickly explain it. Who knows, it may be a potential client you’re talking to, so you have to make sure what you say is precise, exciting, and positions you as an expert in their eyes.
Read The Rest…
January 15, 2008 at 6:49 am
Welcome to InsideRIA! I am very excited to be part of this great new resource for people trying to learn about making digital experiences better for everyone! Before I let you know what I intend to contribute here, I’d like to tell you a little bit about my background:
Read The Rest…
January 15, 2008 at 6:45 am
It seems that introductions are in order - I am Gabor Vida and I am honored to be part of InsideRIA.
Read The Rest…
January 7, 2008 at 9:49 am
Finetune’s Circle of Engagement keeps on growing. Today at CES, Digeo Inc. announced that their Moxi Set-Top box will include a variety of applications from 3rd parties. One of those services is Finetune!
Getting access to your music via your home theater is a very common use case for most people, and a touch point that many of the online music services do not tend focus on.
Our first venture into this territory was with the Finetune Wii player, accessible via the Internet channel on the Wii. The Moxi Finetune Player is built for Hi-Def resolutions, and it takes input from the Moxi remote control.
