Google Wave to open its doors
From tomorrow, Google will be opening the doors of Wave; Google's new communication & collaboration platform, to more than 100,000 lucky testers.
The preview invites will be sent to the following:
- Developers who have been active in the developer preview we started back in June
- The first users who signed up and offered to give feedback on wave.google.com
- Select customers of Google Apps
To springboard the testing, Google is asking each of the invitees to nominate people to also receive early invites, with the promise that they will (soon) open the doors to more users, once the platform is stable. Google is quick to point out that this constitutes a 'Preview' of Wave, and that the platform is not yet ready for production use.
From previous experience, early Google product previews tend to be relatively stable, and if the live demo of Wave back in May was anything to go by, then we're in for a real treat. We could indeed be looking at the shape of things to come.
For more information on the upcoming Wave preview, please check out the Original Google-Blog post.
Bootnote: If anyone can get me an invite to Wave, please drop me a message using the Contact page.
Review: The Snow Centre
More to prove that I can review more than technology, I thought I'd post a review about my recent experience and day-out to the indoor (real snow) ski-slope 'The Snow Centre'. My time there was all too brief, but it was enough to rekindle the joy of skiing. Having not skied for over a year and a half (having missed the 2008/2009 season), the prospect of getting back onto real snow was exciting.
iTunes 9 – iTunes Plus missing
Th
ose of you who use Apple iTunes, and purchase music from the iTunes Store will be aware of iTunes Plus - Apples higher-quality DRM-Free music format. In the past, iTunes Plus music has always been differentiated from the non-DRM-Free music by the use of a little '+' symbol on the track buy button, or with iTunes Plus being stated in the Album information.
With the release of iTunes 9, the iTunes Store has seen its most significant upgrade in recent history, with a new streamlined interface, and various new categories and features. However, this change has removed the 'iTunes Plus' differentiation from the track and album listings.
However, a while ago; Apple stated that they would have completed their move to the new DRM-Free format for their entire library by mid-year, with all existing and new songs being supplied in the new format. This can only be a sign that they've kept their promise.
For those who are still in possession of DRM-Protected (non iTunes Plus) music, the original store link for the upgrade page has been removed, but the page still exists here. (iTunes Required). I recommend that anyone still running DRM-Protected music formats upgrade ASAP.
Update: As of October 2010, I have discovered that the iTunes Plus upgrade link has reappeared in the Apple Store. The above link will still function. -Oct 2009
Twitter: tristanfindley
- Apple Media Event starting now. Watch live at www.apple.com . New iPods / Apple TV / iTunes features expected.
- Purchased a Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS II USM with 1.4x Extender. Fantastic Lens!
- Site upgrade from Wordpress 2.9.x to 3.0.1 completed Successfully. Site theme changed due to issues. More site updates to follow soon.
- Apple WWDC Kicks off today. Steve Jobs' Keynote at 1800-BST. New iPhone expected, as well as the new iPhone OS and more.
- Completed the server upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS to 10.04 LTS. All services are fully functional.
- Blog Post: Furry Mayhem http://goo.gl/fb/yQqaX
- Working on a new portfolio gallery. Hoping to have it up early this week. Keep an eye on www.tfindley.co.uk for updates.