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Internet

Dropbox App Coming Soon to Android Phones

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Among the cloud storage services I’ve tried, I stuck with Dropbox for its superb storage solution. I used Dropbox to synchronize my files from my online, desktop and iPhone applications and pretty soon I might get another interface – for my Android-powered Google Nexus One phone.

Yes, you read it right. If you have a Dropbox account, you will soon be able to access your files from your Android phone as Dropbox is about to launch its new Android app pretty soon. And will the upcoming Dropbox app for Android offer us Android phone owners?

The new Dropbox iPhone app will let you:

Access your Dropbox on the go – view all the contents of your Dropbox account, including music and movie streaming right on your Android phone.

Make edits to your files and sync them back to Dropbox – Changes you make to your files using the Android app will be automatically synced to your Dropbox account/

Download files for offline viewing – Have all your files accessible anytime, anywhere by adding them to your “Favorites.’

Upload files and sync them to your Dropbox – Use your Android phone’s powerful camera to take snapshots, shoot video and then upload them from your Android phones to your Dropbox account to make them accessible. You can also send an email containing the links to your files to your friends quickly and easily.

Share links to files in your Dropbox –  That practically include any  files in your computer.

No words yet on the exact date that this Android app will be available, although the Dropbox blog mentioned something like in the next few months.

TV is Not Dead! Americans are Still Using it Together with Internet and Mobile Phones

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Here’s a rather surprising findings by Nielsen which debunks the myth that TV is on its way to extinction in favor of the Internet and mobile phones. According to Nielsen’s report, Americans have in fact increased their overall media usage and media multitasking activities by using TV simultaneously as they connect to the Internet and use their mobile phones.

The Nielsen report called “Three Screen Report” tracks consumption across TV, Internet and mobile phones.  The report showed that in the last quarter of 2009, TV consumption and Internet use combined have reached three and a half hours monthly. This is a 35% growth from the third quarter of 2009.  In addition, 60% of  TV viewers are watching TV while using the Internet at the same time.

Nielsen Company media product leader Matt O’Grady says that using the Internet while watching TV have given TV viewers a unique on-screen and off-screen relation with TV programming.

“The initial fear was that Internet and mobile video and entertainment would slowly cannibalize traditional TV viewing, but the steady trend of increased TV viewership alongside expanded simultaneous usage argues something quite different,” said O’Grady.

The study also found that on the average, Americans watched 35 hours of TV per week and two hours of timeshifted TV via DVR. This is attributed to the fact that DVR provides them with added convenience. At the same time the growth of HD programming and flatscreen TVs have also contributed  the renewed interest with watching TV programs. The availability of more channels and choices due to digital delivery be it via cable or satellite are also contributing factors.

Other findings of the study include – increase in online video consumption as well as increase in the active mobile video users courtesy of the booming smartphone market.

ChaCha Adds Social Dimension to its Q&A Service

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I’m not really sure whether you have heard or at the most used ChaCha.com, a question and answer service that provides quick, accurate answers to millions of question everyday.  Regardless, you might be interested to know that the online Q&A service  is adding some social aspects to its service by launching the new ChaCha.me social platform.

The ChaCha.me platform allows you to build a profile. But once your profile is up, practically all those who’ve created their own profiles as well can start asking you various questions.  Likewise, you are free to ask questions to them too.  It’s like building a social network based on the Q&A format.

To kick off its launch, ChaCha.me is featuring David Guetta who recently won a Grammy Award and currently has two songs on the Billboard Top 50. Guetta will be among the first celebrities who will be featured on ChaCha.me. Once on the featured page, fans can ask questions and hopefully get answers from celebrities.

In addition, ChaCha.me will soon be making its way on mobile platforms, specifically on iPhone and Droid handsets. An SMS functionality is also being planned.

ChaCha’s CEO Steve Jones has this to say about the launch of ChaCha.me:

“One of the most fundamentally appealing qualities of social sites like Twitter and Facebook is the notion that people care about what celebrities and friends are doing and sharing. ChaCha.me provides this forum for users, but also takes it to the next level with intimate Q&A interaction. These ChaCha.me answers may flow into ChaCha’s broad database so that those who are asking for answers from ChaCha will receive, in effect, certified answers directly. For example, ChaCha will now be able to return certain answers about David Guetta, directly from David himself,” said Mr. Jones.

Digg Supports Twitter @Anywhere and Other OpenID Standards

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In the “socially-induced” tech world that we are living in, the old adage that “no man is an island” doesn’t hold true anymore. No matter how geek and anti-social you are, now is the right time foresake all habits, get out into the open, connect and socialize. Even for the pioneers of web 2.0 applications and tools this is now an SOP. If you want to stay cool and relevant to the social world – open up to other online sites even if they use to be your rival.

Such is the case with Digg.  Digg is struggling to stay relevant. After all, it used to be one of the pillars of the web 2.0 phenomenon. It won’t definitely not yield to competition easily. So the Digg folks are rolling out a couple of integration features with popular online services.

First, Digg will definitely support Twitter @anywhere framework which was just announced a couple of days ago. It’s Facebook Connect integration was pretty successful, giving Digg increased in user engagement and a registration increase of around 20-30%.

And after surveying around 14 thousand of its users, Digg is now ready to roll out some more integration with other third party site based on survey responses. So, aside from Facebook Connect, soon you will be able to log in to Digg using your Google, Yahoo, and Twitter accounts. These three plus Facebook are the ones identified by Digg users which they want to use when logging in to Digg.

In addition, Digg will continue to support OpenID accounts. So if a third party site is supporting OpenID accounts, you can use them also for logging in to Digg.

Twitter Wants to be @anywhere

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Twitter just announced its latest strategy at possibly conquering the web – Twitter @anywhere.  The Twitter blog describes this simply as a new set of frameworks that will add the Twitter experience anywhere on the web.  In other words, Twitter will soon be rolling out a framework that will let you do your Twitter activities where ever you maybe on the web – minus the need to visit Twitter.com.

Twitter @Anywhere aims to bring all the features of Twitter that we have all grown to love and some even hate – read tweets from friends, celebrities, companies, media outlets, fictional characters and more, follow any account and be followed by any account and interact with the whole Twitter community. Again without leaving what you are currently doing on the web.

And how does Twitter plans to implement this? Not through APIs. It’s too complicated for simple folks like us but rather a more simpler method – through Javascript.

The Twitter blog also stated that once Twitter @Anywhere is ready for launch, there will be more participating sites including Amazon, Adage, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, eBay, Meebo, NYT, Yahoo and YouTube. Yup, those are the sites that have become part of our daily online fare.

Soon, you’d be able to follow your favorite NYT journalist directly from her byline or tweet a video right from where you are in YouTube. Or if you’re a Yahoo fan, you can discover new people to follow on Twitter while getting your daily news fix from Yahoo.

Sounds promising? Actually it is. If only Twitter gave some examples on how this is going to implemented. But then, patience is a virtue dear readers.  We can count on the Twitter folks to roll this out the soonest time possible.

Big Changes Are About to Happen with Digg

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Do you still use Digg for bookmarking and sharing these bookmarks? Do you still maintain a Digg page? If you do, well expect to see some big changes in Digg in the coming weeks. These changes were announced by Digg CEO Jay Adelson during the Digg’s annual SXSW party.  Some of the changes that you should expect include – streamlined submission process, new personalized homepage, unlimited amount of topic pages, new commenting system and better curation tools.

Read Write Web got the full details of these changes. You may check out their coverage or read the summary below.

Personalized homepage – The new Digg personalized homepage will be populated by popular stories among your friends in relation to the topic that interest you.  This will become your default Digg homepage and not the generic Digg main page anymore. So, once this new feature kicks in, it is imperative that you sign in with Digg.

De-emphasizing the Power of Submitters – The new Digg will now put more premium on who votes for stories rather than who submit them. It will also put more emphasis on third-party services like Twitter and Facebook by allowing auto-submission of stories from these services.

More Twitter and Third-Party Integration – The Digg folks finally realized that to stay relevant in this “social integrated” market, they have to establish a relationship with other sites. So, more integration with Twitter as well as other social sites will be established in the coming weeks.

A Whole New Platform – Digg has stripped down its old infrastructure and completely rebuild a new platform. Possible directions will be more advertising and monetization option for Digg traffic, and the old Digg effect will no longer apply.

All these changes will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Digg is also testing beta testers and you can sign up here.