Om and Niall PodSessions

Widgets, gadgets, and modules are small pieces of content which provide up-to-date information about the topics you care about. Om and I are organizing the first ever widgets conference next week but I realized we've never really discussed widgets and their importance on our podcast.

Widgets are small pieces of content, usually marked up in either HTML or Flash, wrapped in a special widget platform descriptor or stand-alone embed, and added to a widget-enabled endpoint. Widget content can be distributed to Apple and Windows desktops, a mobile phone, MySpace, Windows Live, Google, and many other popular information destinations. Widget technology lets users customize their information experience anywhere and at anytime.

In this week's podcast Om and I talk about widget technology and why businesses should connect with the widget ecosystem. We discuss a few different types of widget endpoints, design implications of tiny content, and where we think widgets are headed in the near future.

This week's PodSession, Widgets and gadgets and modules...Oh my!, is 18 minutes in length, a 8 MB download.

Posted by Niall Kennedy at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Christmas is coming, and that means a new wave of digital music players will be waiting for eager ears. The portable music market will have a new entrant next month with Microsoft's launch of Zune, yet another attempt to shave some market share off the dominant iPod family. What do consumers want in a digital music player? Manufacturers have tried answering that question with a pile of features including radio tuners, line-in, replaceable batteries, wireless connectivity, and displays designed for one-line of text all the way up to a widescreen video.

Microsoft promotes social sharing in its upcoming player, and they're not alone. Over the past year we've seen significant uptake in music playlist sharing on sites such as Last.fm, MyStrands, iLike, and others. Software is taking an automated approach to music discovery, connecting your own habits with the recommendations and musical tastes of your friends.

What has changed in the music industry? Will Microsoft's new music player shift the market or will it be another yawn from the deep-pocketed software giant? Does the mobile phone stand a chance as a portable music player? What do we want out of a hardware device and recommendation systems?

Om and I discuss these issues and more in this week's PodSession, Music Players and Profilers. The podcast is 23 minutes in length, a 10.5 MB download.

Posted by Niall Kennedy at 10:27 AM | Permalink

Google's purchase of YouTube last week for $1.65 billion in stock dominated last week's tech news. That's a lot of money for the leading video hosting site with many copyright violations. In this PodSession Om and I pick our favorite companies we think big Internet players could purchase for less than the New York Yankees' $200 million payroll.

Om's picks for Yahoo!:

1. Photobucket photo hosting and sharing
2. Video hosting site Metacafe for their international audience.
3. License the Yahoo! Music API like crazy.

Niall's picks for Google:

1. The Coding Monkeys, creators of collaborative editing software SubEthaEdit and Plazes.
2. AdMob for mobile advertising.
3. Collaboration company Zimbra for Google Apps in the enterprise and strong Java and DHTML technologies.

This week's PodSession, Startup Buyer's Guide, is 23 minutes in length, a 11 MB download.

Posted by Niall Kennedy at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Over the last week Om had a chance to step back from the cutting edge and talk to his computer savvy friends about their favorite online applications and services. Once we step out of our Silicon Valley bubble, what is the real adoption rate of the new and useful technologies we use every day?

Technologies such as Zillow and Skype do not seem to be gaining traction with even somewhat technical mainstream users. Existing relationships are getting an upgrade, such as AOL for internet access and Verizon for cheap and unlimited calls. The key hurdle seems to be actually trying out and being exposed to these new technologies, usually through a knowledgeable friend, an advertisement, or a new experience at the mall. There's an interested audience out there, ready to use and leverage these new technologies, but they first need an introduction into the possibilities.

This week's PodSession, The 2.0 Reality Check, is 22 minutes in length, a 10 MB download.

Posted by Niall Kennedy at 6:24 PM | Permalink