TweetDeck:
Easily one of the most popular tools for Twitter, period, TweetDeck will help you organize feeds, find focus, even schedule tweets and manage multiple accounts.
Well,
that was quick. Right after yesterday's surprising announcement,
Sony flew its yet-to-be-released NEX-VG10 camcorder into London just in time for
today's showcase event. Naturally, we had to get our hands on this shiny baby,
and boy we were impressed. In case you missed the news, this snazzy device is
the world's first consumer HandyCam with interchangeable lens, meaning you can
share E-mount lenses with your young NEX DSLRs, or take advantage of
the abundant A-mount lenses with the help of an adapter (which will cost you
extra, mind you). Likewise, there are also hot and cold shoe mounts on the mic
shaft to cater your current camera accessories. Read on for our thoughts on the
rest of the camcorder -- we've put together a little sample clip for you at the
end as well.
There
isn't much to complain about with this $2,000 (and, sadly, possibly £2,000 for
the Brits) piece of kit in terms of appearance and ergonomics. We like being
able to hold it by either the seemingly solid body (using the strap) or the mic
shaft, and both ways provided comfortable grip without much fatigue due to the
light weight (even with the bundled lens). We were also able to quickly master
the jog-dial control next to the 3-inch screen, but for this price, we expected
a touchscreen interface as well to make life easier. As for the bundled F3.5-6.3
18-200mm lens, we found that zooming required a bit more effort than we liked,
so thankfully there's auto focus mode -- just like any ordinary camcorder -- to
save us from further wrist work with the focus ring. We must also point out that
unlike the Olympus PEN,
this Sony camcorder didn't pick up any mechanical noise from its lens auto
focussing; otherwise, this kit totally wouldn't deserve such price tag.
Of
course, what we really care about is the picture and sound quality. All is
revealed in our sample reel below (remember to enable HD playback mode), but in
brief: stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio
sensitivity (notice how the mic was able to pick up conversations from afar; you
can also enable just the front mics to minimise background noise). You may
notice some shakiness while we were adjusting the lens -- we'll blame it on our
lack of practice from the little hands-on time we had. Regardless, the NEX-VG10
certainly lived up to our expectation, and we look forward to hear what the
filming hobbyists think of this prosumer-level camcorder when it comes out in
September.
Update: commenter
aim120 dropped us a link to Sony's own sample clip. Enjoy!
Stay connected, even when you are “hands-busy”
Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon NaturallySpeaking that allows you easily to speak and see your text or email messages on your iPad™, iPhone™ or iPod touch™ instantly. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard.
With Dragon Dictation, you can text or email your friends, update your Facebook status, send notes and reminders to yourself, or tweet to the world, all using your voice.
Google and Twitter have launched a service to allow people in Egypt to send Twitter messages
by leaving a voicemail on a specific number after the last internet service
provider in the country saw its access cut off late on Monday
create a blog without a blog.
Is there something you want to get off your chest, but there is no way you are going to create a blog just for that, and a tweet would never convey what you need conveyed? Well, if that is ever the case a visit to Freedom Share is in order. This site will enable you to have texts typed and posted without needing to create any kind of account, or even authenticate who you are via Facebook or Google. The site is free and open to just any person who wants to use it, and we are also talking about a site that can be used by people who know nothing about coding.
In the industry right now – as we see
in the Social Media for Learning report
research data – there is considerable use of social media tools in instruction
delivery efforts. But there’s less evidence that people are using the tools to
support social learning. Often, people use social media tools as another means
of delivering content. For example:
Publishing the training department
newsletter on a blog
uto-scheduling tweets about class
assignments from a Twitter account that does not otherwise engage with the
learners or ask them to engage with each other
Hosting a software application development
course, in tutorial format, on a wiki
By contrast, using social media to
support and extend social learning invites learners to contribute, engage, and
participate with one another online. For instance, when:
Setting up a wiki for those in a new-hire
induction program to work together to edit a FAQs page for use by the next
group coming to the program
Having managers-in-training use a
microblogging tool for a leadership book-club discussion
Helping to support and participating in a
community of the organization’s customer service reps, to give them a place to
share war stories and strategies for dealing with challenges
So just using the online tools to
deliver content doesn’t support “social learning;” that happens when you use
the tools to invite interaction from and between the learners. It’s about
social, not media, and it’s about shared learning, not just pushing content.
New social media tools now enable social learning to happen on a much larger scale. But this doesn't mean that social learning is something we suddenly need to "do," as if it hadn't existed before or that we need to attempt to "implement." Rather, those involved in eLearning should work to ensure our designs home in on and support areas where social learning is already naturally occurring in the learner's workflow and leverage new tools where that makes sense. (Workflow questions: Where and when are workers asking for help from one another? Where do they need performance support?)
GroupTweet turns a standard Twitter account into a group communication hub where members can post updates to everyone in the group using direct messages. When the group account receives a direct message from a group member, GroupTweet converts it into a tweet that all followers can see.
Named Apple's iPad App of the Year and one of TIME's top 50 innovations of 2010, Flipboard is a fast, beautiful way to flip through the news, photos, videos, and updates your friends are sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Flickr, and Instagram. See your social media in a magazine layout that is easy to scan and fun to read.
Share articles and photos, comment on posts, and like or favorite anything. Customize your Flipboard with sections created from your favorite news, people, blogs, and topics.
Reviews:- "Flipboard is a fantastic iPad app that makes everything you read on the Web better than it is by itself. I can't recommend it highly enough." Macworld- "Flipboard offers iPad users an entirely original alternative to browsing the Web for news; its magazine-style layouts and breathtaking use of photos and white space show the way forward for digital media." PCMag.com- "Flipping for Flipboard: The brilliant iPad app that has changed the way I read the news." SLATE- "Flipboard begins to imagine an entirely new way of accessing the social Web." New York Times- "Stop. Put down this computer, go pick up your iPad and come back here. Now go get this app: Flipboard. Why? It's pretty awesome." Wired.com- "I am thoroughly impressed from our first run with Flipboard. It is simply gorgeous and a pleasure to browse." Mashable - "Flipboard turns Facebook updates, tweets into digital magazine" USA Today
What if I could link my e-portfolio to Flipboard? And even view others' e-portfolios for a given topic on my Flipboard - all automagically arranged to look like a glossy magazine? How would that inspire our teachers to update their e-portfolios accordingly?
Kartini Ishak on 24 Aug 12I use this for my desktop to view multiple feeds at one-go.
