Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Beetailer Helps Online Retailers Set Up Shop On Facebook

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/20/beetailer-helps-online-retailers-set-up-shop-on-facebook/

With Facebook’s massive userbase of over 600 million consumers across the globe, retailers are actively flocking to the network. Especially considering the rise of the social e-commerce, the idea of a virtual shopping mall on Facebook makes sense.

Today, Y Combinator-backed Beetailer is launching its software application that allows online retailers to import their web store onto Facebook. Not only does Beetailer import products onto a designated Facebook page, but the startup also allows retailers to promote their store and access detailed analytics about how well the social storefront is performing.

Beetailer’s software connects with existing e-commerce platform, such as Magento and Shopify, and will import and sync online catalogs including, prices, images, sizes, colors and even whether products are in stock. The online storefront will populate on the retailer’s Facebook page and will essentially allow Facebook users to browse and add products to a shopping cart within the social network. When a user clicks to checkout and actually purchase the products, Beetailer will lead the user to the e-retailer’s website so the shopper will checkout via the retailer’s preferred payment process.

But in addition to accessing the social network’s vast userbase, retailers can also leverage Facebook’s social graph to engage consumers. Beetailer allows retailers to launch time-limited, Facebook-specific promotions, including prizes and discounts for fans who like, comment, and bring other friends to the store.

Additionally, Beetailer provides retailers with analytics to measure the results of each
promotion. Beetailer’s data will include traffic, demographic data, most visited products, most visited categories, number of checkout and more.

Currently, Beetailer, which was co-founded by Spanish engineers Laura Valverde, Miguel A. Martinez and Juan Gallego, has helped 900 online retailers (here’s an example) set up shop on Facebook for more than 434,000 products. There are a number of other players in the same space, including Payvment, which also helps retailers set up online storefront on Facebook.

But as shopping on the social network ramps up there is a need for a variety of offerings to help retailers leverage the power of Facebook.

CrunchBase Information

Information provided by CrunchBase

CamCard Captures and Transcribes Business Cards from iPhone and Android [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5783256/camcard-captures-and-saves-business-cards-to-your-contacts

iOS/Android: You go to a conference, you get about 40 business cards, and, well, maybe you remember to go through each and every one and add their details to your contacts. Or you fire up CamCard, snap a picture, and have its text quickly transcribed and entered into your contacts.

CamCard offers its own camera function to snap an image of a business card, preferably head-on in a decently-lit area. It rotates, flattens, and enhances that snapshot, then runs it through an optical character recognition process to extract the text and numbers on its face. After that, check the entries for name, number, email, and other details against the image close-ups (as seen above), and hit Save, then choose the account you want to save those details to.

CamCard Captures and Transcribes Business Cards from iPhone and Android CamCard can also read a business card from an image you've already captured, and it saves your card images to your storage. From the cards it's saved, CamCard also allows for quick look-up and calling, emailing, or LinkedIn browsing right from the app. If you have a host of cards to move through, or you just got a card that's a bit more important than the rest, CamCard looks like it could be really handy. I'll be using it to punch through a host of cards from South by Southwest.

CamCard is offered as a free "Lite" download, limited to saving 10 cards your first week, then 2 cards per week after that. Upgraded versions for iOS and Android offer unlimited cards and additional languages (in Western/European and Asian packages).

CamCard [Android Market]

Use ScraperWiki to Help Turn Web Pages Into Usable Data [Programming]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5783602/use-scraperwiki-to-help-turn-web-pages-into-usable-data

A scraper is a program written to take content off of a webpage or other data source and turn it into some kind of usable format, usually an RSS feed or by entering it directly into a database. Designing a scraper can be tricky as each site is different, ScraperWiki aims to fix this by creating a repository of these scripts with a goal to ease the pain of designing them.

An example use of a scraper: let's say a government entity releases daily information regarding finances, and you want to graph or otherwise track this data for personal or business use. Going to the website each day and entering the data manually is certainly one labor-intensive way to do it, but as with any good hacker will tell you - if you have to do anything more than once it is better to automate it.

ScraperWiki is a centralized location for these custom built scrapers. Instead of writing your own from scratch, you can search their database to see if a scraper has already been written for a source.

One of the functions of ScraperWiki is to support open government initiatives. The Big Clean is actually being held today with the goal of opening local government data with the help of scrapers and data processors.

Scrapers are categories by language - PHP, Python and Ruby - and the site is currently in beta.

Researchers tout self-repairing multi-core processors

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/18/researchers-tout-self-repairing-multi-core-processors/

The race for ever-tinier computer chips is on, and barring physical limitations, doesn't seem to be slowing anytime soon -- but with chips, as with humans, the smaller they get, the more fragile they become. A team of researchers called CRISP (Cutting edge Reconfigurable ICs for Stream Processing) is working to create a self-repairing multi-core processor that would allow on-chip components to keep on shrinking, while combating concerns over accelerated degradation. Basically, the team's conceptualized a chip that allows for 100 percent functionality, even with faulty components. With multiple cores sharing tasks, and a run-time resource manager doling out those tasks, the chip can continue to degrade without ever compromising its intended functions -- a process CRISP calls graceful degradation. Once one core fails, the on-chip manager assigns its task to another core, continuing on in this fashion for the complete lifetime of the chip. Of course the technology is still in its infancy, but if CRISP's chips comes to fruition, we could see virtually indestructible processors that make 14nm look bulky by comparison.

Researchers tout self-repairing multi-core processors originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Geek.com | source

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Samsung's Central Station wireless monitor appears in Europe as SyncMaster C27A750

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/19/samsungs-central-station-wireless-monitor-appears-in-europe-as/

Back when we first laid eyes on Samsung's Central Station, we were excited by its wireless docking capabilities, and now it looks like the company's ready to let the monitor loose on European soil, albeit with a decidedly less American moniker. The SyncMaster C27A750, a 27-inch affair, uses Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology via a USB dongle to connect to your laptop. It touts a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and sports HDMI, VGA, and USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. The new SyncMaster will hit Europe by the end of April for about €600, but we've yet to hear anything about Central Station's ETA -- very sneaky, Samsung... very sneaky.

Samsung's Central Station wireless monitor appears in Europe as SyncMaster C27A750 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 10:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

SlashGear | source

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Samsung | Email this | Comments

Nanoparticle inks print 3D antennas 'orders of magnitude' better than your boring 2D antenna

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/20/nanoparticle-inks-print-3d-antennas-orders-of-magnitude-better/

Nanoparticle inks print 3D antennas 'orders of magnitude' better than your boring 2D antenna

If you want better cellphone reception it's time to go small or go home, with researchers at the University of Illinois coming up with a nanoscale printing technique that allows for the creation of so-called 3D antennas. Of course, unless you're hunting for signal in Flatland all antennas are to some degree three-dimensional, but these suckers are printed using nanoparticle silver ink onto a curved substrate, as shown up yonder. The resulting components "exhibit performance metrics that are an order of magnitude better than those realized by monopole antenna designs." In fact these creations are said to approach the Chu-Harrington Limit of theoretical performance in an antenna. Most important? They look pretty darned cool. Shame they'll likely find themselves tucked away inside of a device's chassis -- whenever they actually go into production.

Continue reading Nanoparticle inks print 3D antennas 'orders of magnitude' better than your boring 2D antenna

Nanoparticle inks print 3D antennas 'orders of magnitude' better than your boring 2D antenna originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Mar 2011 01:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily Tech ! ;| source

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University of Illinois | Email this | Comments

Friday, March 18, 2011

#RutgersCMD - consistent theme from presentations is a focus on content and cadence of dissemination - right on!

#RutgersCMD - relationships can be created starting with one tweet; can you provide enough value to sustain them?

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Whoa! Your New iPad Will Stick To Your Fridge [Ipad2]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5782954/whoa-your-new-ipad-will-stick-to-your-fridge

Provided your new iPad is attached to its magnetical Smart Cover, it'll cling on to your refrigerator like a spider monkey to a tree branch. Or like something magnetic to something metal. It's true! That's my iPad sticking to my fridge this very morning. It seems like it's all being held up by the magnets on the flap of the Smart Cover, and I must say it feels surprisingly secure—I could definitely use it as a reference while cooking (read: doing FaceTime with my Mom while she tells me how to cook) without being too worried about slippage. Disclaimer: don't do this at home, because maybe your refrigerator isn't as magnet-friendly as mine, or maybe you're clumsy, or I don't really know, just know that I'm in no way responsible if you break your iPad trying to use it as a giant refrigerator magnet. [9to5Mac]

Samsung shows off 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV prototype

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/17/samsung-shows-off-55-inch-glasses-free-3d-tv-prototype/

Samsung hasn't exactly been as big on glasses-free 3D TVs as some other manufacturers in recent years, but it's now showing one off at the FPD China trade show -- or a prototype of one, anyway. According to Tech-On!, the 55-inch display is able to accomodate nine different viewpoints for glass-free 3D viewing, and it can be switched into a 2D mode at any time, which works by changing the optical refraction index of an LCD panel that sits on top of the main LCD that's actually used to display images. Right now, the prototype is also relying on a direct-lit CCFL backlight, although Samsung notes that would likely be replaced with an LED backlight before it actually hits the market -- something that's still a good three years away.

Samsung shows off 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tech-On! | Email this | Comments

Tesla Model S will support third-party apps and text-to-voice, red lights will never be the same

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/17/tesla-model-s-will-support-third-party-apps-and-text-to-voice-r/

Now that pretty much every gizmo from your smartphone to TV has apps available for it, what's the next logical frontier? Of course, your car! Yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told Cleantech Forum attendees in San Francisco that the upcoming Model S would indeed come with support for third-party applications to run on that monster 17-inch infotainment console. We're happy to see the company encouraging developers to put that Tegra chip to good use, though we can't help but worry about the myriad distractions that could come along with it. Of course, we're still in the dark about what OS is powering the whole shebang, but we're sure there will be a port of Angry Birds before you can come to a complete stop.

Tesla Model S will support third-party apps and text-to-voice, red lights will never be the same originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

SlashGear | source

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VentureBeat | Email this | Comments

Lynx augmented reality stunt drops scantly clad angels on terrestrial travelers (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/17/lynx-augmented-reality-stunt-drops-scantly-clad-angels-on-terres/

It isn't exactly a spring chicken, nor is it particularly new to the advertising game -- Best Buy utilized the stuff back in 2009 to push electronics -- but a new ad campaign from manly body spray purveyor Lynx (Axe in the US) is making augmented reality nearly unavoidable. Created by BBH, a global ad agency, the video below shows travelers at London's Victoria train station staring up at a giant screen to find themselves greeted by a skimpily attired fallen angel. The stunt, launched on March 6, drew a lot of attention from passersby, and in more than one instance elicited some pretty, well, bold behavior. Up until now, augmented reality has mostly been a play thing of the geek set -- even previous advertisements enlisting such tactics required a decent amount of work from the audience -- but if these fallen angels are any sign, we could all be traversing a more unreal world very soon.

[Thanks, Ben]

Continue reading Lynx augmented reality stunt drops scantly clad angels on terrestrial travelers (video)

Lynx augmented reality stunt drops scantly clad angels on terrestrial travelers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, March 14, 2011

Four Out of Five of Toddlers Use the Internet [Factoid]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5781878/four-out-of-five-of-toddlers-use-the-internet

Four Out of Five of Toddlers Use the Internet Apparently 80% of children age five and under are active internet users, according to a recent study. So that's where all those illiterate YouTube comments come from! Snark aside, there's nothing inherently wrong with kids that young being online, so long as what they're watching is heavily supervised. And given the motor abilities of your basic pre-schooler, I'm guessing they're not typing in too many URLs on their own. [Mashable]

Google VP lays down mobile stats, boasts 150 million Maps users

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/google-vp-lays-down-mobile-stats-boasts-150-million-maps-users/

Care for a cup of Google data, anyone? At SXSW, the vice president of location services, Marissa Mayer, stated some interesting facts about the state of all things mobile at the Goog. Most notably, the company provides its map service to 150 million users. Just to give you an idea of how many peeps that is -- it's about half the number of individuals in America. Crazy, we know. What's more, Mayer claimed that Google Maps guided users 12 billion miles per year and that its latest build of the app saves people an average of two days worth of travel time each year. Another bit worth noting is how the company feels about Google Maps for iPhone. "We like being the default provider, but we'd like to get some of these updates out to a broader audience. That's still a debate / question we're considering." Updates? An actual Google Maps application that works as a GPS on an iPhone? Wake us up when iOS 5 is previewed, or we can just keep dreaming.

Google VP lays down mobile stats, boasts 150 million Maps users originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BGR | Email this | Comments

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/berkeley-lab-scientists-create-nanocrystal-hydrogen-storage-matr/

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries

If you could run your celly on hydrogen you'd have power for days and days -- but, you'd also need to lug around a high-pressure tank to store the stuff. That's no fun, and that's why we're still using Li-ion batteries and the like. But, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory look to have found a way to possibly ditch the tank, creating a gas-barrier polymer matrix out of polymethyl methacrylate, allowing the H2 gas in but keeping oxygen and everything else out. That matrix contains magnesium nanocrystals that react with the hydrogen to form MgH2, enabling safe, (relatively) low-pressure storage. The H2 can then be released again and the magnesium nanocrystals are freed to bond with another batch of H2 when refilled. It sounds a little like the Cella Energy hydrogen storage solution, but a bit more promising if we're honest. Now for the long, painful wait for this to come to production.

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PhysOrg | source

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Nature Materials | Email this | Comments

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