Just saw this on Ajaxian - Google has released the AJAX Libaries API which allows developers to load the appropriate AJAX library or libraries directly from Google servers. This will be a great improvement as there is only one place you load the files from, rather than calling them from various different places as is the case so far.

There are basically two ways to load a library - directly or indirectly (using the AJAX Libraries API), as shown in the examples below:

<script language=”javascript” src=”http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.2.6/jquery.js”>
</script>

or

<script src=”http://www.google.com/jsapi”>
</script>
<script>
// Load jQuery
google.load(”jquery”, “1″);
</script>

Thus far, developers can access Prototype, JQuery, Scriptaculous, MooTools and Dojo, but other libraries will be included over time. The idea is to create a big repository of all the major AJAX libraries used in web development. Plenty more in depth information on Ajaxian and the official Google AJAX Library page.

I am working on a small project right now that actually relies on JQuery quite heavily, so I’ll give this a go. Given the power and reliability of Google’s infrastructure, I expect things to go quite smoothly.

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VIA has released the open source notebook project - the VIA OpenBook. It’s not a product you can buy at the local electronics dealer, but rather a unique approach to mobile computing. VIA has opened the architecture of its latest product design to the public, making CAD drawings available. Basically, if you’ve got the resources to manufacture the casing, and put together electronic components, you can build your own custom tailored open source notebook.

Some of the specifications are:

• Processor: 1.6GHz VIA C7®-M ULV Processor
• Chipset: VIA VX800 unified chipset
• Memory: DDR2 SO-DIMM up to 2GB
• HDD: 80GB Hard-Disk or above
• Screen: 8.9″ WVGA 1024X600 LED screen
• Graphics: VIA Chrome9 HC3 DX9 3D engine with shared system memory up to 256MB
• WiFi and Bluetooth
• webcam, and more…

Here’s the video in which Richard Brown (VIA Technologies) explains how the idea of an open source notebook came to be:

It would take a hell of an enthusiast engineer to put this together as an individual, but the project will allow small manufacturers to make some very interesting variations of the new notebook. I am guessing some pretty interesting products are about to hit the market, and for a low price as well. BTW, the new notebook can run Windows XP or Vista, and most (or all) Linux distributions.

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Just watched the videos showing how Microsoft’s latest, the Touch Wall, works in real conditions. I am very impressed with the whole thing, especially since it can be up and running for a few hundred dollars worth of hardware (and software naturally), although I doubt it will be available for so small an amount once officially released. Basically, the panel which is used as a projection area is scanned by small cameras found at the bottom of it facing upwards. Every time a user approaches the screen, they know it, and begin tracking movements and execute appropriate actions withing the interface.

Here’s a video featuring Bill Gates using the Touch Wall at their annual CEO Summit (you’ll need Silverlight to view this), and here’s another video of Michael Arrington who got a chance to test Touch Wall first hand. I’ll embed this video here, although it wouldn’t hurt to see the post on TechCrunch.

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Okay, this is going to be a very short post…

Just a few days after Google’s Friend Connect was announced, Facebook suspended its participation in it. Facebook explains that the way Friend Connect collects and distributes data doesn’t comply with its privacy guidelines and decided to bail out (for now anyway). Turns out, according to Venturebeat, that Google has no business relationship with Facebook and included FB data on its own.

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Google released Friend Connect, which is a neat way to add social networking to your site. Basically, it comes down to embedding some JavaScript into wherever you want the widgets to appear. The main thing however is that this tool allows webmasters to use it as a social promotion tool, having people comment on the content and spread it amongst their friends on the various networks that the Friend Connect communicates with - Facebook, Google Talk, Hi5, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Orkut. Basically users can log in through the widget with an existing Google, Yahoo, AIM, or OpenID account, but it also does data retrieval through APIs from Google, Facebook and MySpace.

Here’s a video presentation of what Friend Connect can do for a website that’s missing the social networking dimension:

Although Friend Connect couldn’t be easier to implement on a web site (simply cut and paste), there are things that can be viewed as limitations or issues - Friend Connect works from an iFrame on the page, so basically the webmaster has no control over the way it looks at all. There is thus far no way to mix the tool with other applications to create a more unique richer experience, basically you’re stuck with what you get … so far anyway. Then there are privacy/security issues - how do users from wherever access information that they may not have permission to access (we’re talking about social network profiles). Users will have to be given the option whether to expose sensitive information to other sites or not.

The goal was to allow sites without a social dimension to use the benefits of social networking, and this is definitely a great start. The ultimate goal is to allow people to connect from wherever they are with everyone else regardless of the social network they are on.

Here are a couple of good posts to see about this, giving an in depth look into Friend Connect:

Google Friend Connect (Google)
Google confirms Friend Connect (TechCrunch)
Google brings Friend Connect to the Masses (news.com)
Google Friend Connect tries to strangle the social (ReadWriteWeb)
How Google Friend Connect will affect SEO (BlogStorm.co.uk)

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StomperNet decided to open up again. Las year it was for 72 hours, this time there is no specific time frame. This video features the cases of several sites (one of which a newbie at the time), and a site that did quite well and raked in plenty of organic traffic from Google, and then was dropped from the Google index, causing its traffic to reduce by about 50%. The site pulled through, but not only that, it increased its revenue and client base as well. This was done through a unique approach to PPC advertising - by doing all the wrong things! Check it out, and BTW it’s about 53 minutes, so grab a coffee and concentrate (trust me, when the ball starts rolling you’ll have to make an effort to keep up):

Interesting stuff in there! For example, the OCI (Online Commercial Intention) tool developed by Microsoft was a great reminder. Also, a few nice pointers when doing PPC campaigns for your site, like the AdWords Triangulation Method (quite interesting).

I’m thinking of making a “Video of the Week” category, in which I’d post a video I thought was an interesting to watch for whatever practical reason (fun included). There have been a few in the past months that are worth mentioning. I don’t know, I’ll see how things go…

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Just looked at the new HTC Touch Diamond which has just been officially released. My first impression is that the device is a very pretty piece of hardware. The design is sleek and the interface seems to be a good implementation of something resembling the iPhone in many ways (including motion invoked portrait/landscape display change).

Comparison with iPhone is inevitable both because of the motion detection and the user interface itself, but these things are becoming the way of the future and are probably going to be included in future mobile devices, so enough with the iPhone praise.

The specs (on the HTC site) are alright, although pretty standard for a smartphone nowadays. My P1i has pretty much the same abilities (minus the design and screen implementation), although the W960 would be a much better comparison to the Touch Diamond. It has plenty of internal memory (256 MB ROM, 192 MB DDR SDRAM) and 4 GB of internal storage space. The screen is a TFT LCD flat VGA touch sensitive screen. It covers a broad range of connection speeds (HSDPA, WCDMA, GSM, GPRS, EDGE), and sports GPS/aGPS support. The camera is 3.2 Mpixels with auto focus. Connectivity wise it’s got WiFi, BT 2.0 (EDR), HTC ExtUSB (11-pin USB and jack all-in-one). It’s got Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional as the OS of choice.

Crave C|NET has a nice gallery of the HTC Touch Diamond, so check it out.

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