Mozilla's Raindrop - The Calm Before The Storm?

Calling all web professionals! Mozilla wants your world-class thinking, for free of course. But seriously Mozilla Labs just released a prototype application that might have some real merit – sorting your digital communications. View the clip below, and while a bit low-tech in the Prezi, Keynote and PowerPoint ridden world, it does take you through the basics of what their attempting to create. As outlined it does make a case for the need to sort and refine all our communications outlets, such as email and Twitter.

Raindrop UX Design and Demo from Mozilla Messaging on Vimeo.

"Get Involved

Mozilla Labs is a virtual lab where people come together online to create, experiment and play with Web innovations for the public benefit. The Raindrop exploration is still in its infancy and just getting started.

All of the source code underlying the Raindrop exploration & prototype is being released as open source software under the the MPL.

There are many ways to join the team and get involved:

• Ask questions and contribute ideas at our GetSatisfaction community.

• Upload a mock-up or design to the Raindrop Design group on Flickr.

• Pull the source code and start hacking.

• Join us in our chat room.

We’ll also be using the #raindrop hashtag on twitter.  Our community page has more details about these and other ways to connect.

– Andy Chung, Bryan Clark, Dan Mosedale, David Ascher, Mark Hammond, and James Burke on behalf of the Raindrop development team"

"Google Audio" Is Plugging In This Wednesday

It's not like I didn't see it before but it seems that Microsoft isn't the only one using Apple as their R&D department. Google seems to be on their own "embrace and extend" model to scoop up the small firms that have reasonably good thinking and see how they can all fit together. I'm not sure however that this is the best idea for Google. I'd think silent partner would be a better return, but then they wouldn't get their pretty logo on it.

They web as we know it, this week, is breaking into more and more of a finite medium. People seek out a specific interests, and then within that a sub-interest and within that they usually plant a seed as the expert deep within that chosen niche. Smart web offerings aren't coming in as the 'all for one' model anymore because frankly, companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple simply have too much fiscal control.

Back Google Audio, it seems a little strange to me that Google would enter this extremely over saturated market but who am I to say what a multi-billion dollar conglomerate should do – I mean they never call ; ) But Google

"Google will announce a new playable-music search service next Wednesday, creating a special box in search results with links to songs to stream and download, multiple sources familiar with the situation told Wired.com. The service — likely called Google Audio — will be powered in part with streaming music from LaLa and recommendations from iLike, the sources said."

Mouse Wood

It's the little things in life that I get the most excited about. When my daughter says a new word, when my wife laughs (with me - not at me) and when Apple recreates something as basic, yet needed as the mouse. Enter the "Magic Mouse." Released today, with a new iMac, Mac Mini and MacBook respectively. This mouse, at least on the surface having not actually tried one, is yet another shift in taking something commonplace and pushing it even further.

Of course it's wireless and beautiful. However, the power comes from advanced "gestures" allowing the user to combine track-pad functionality and a standard mouse usability.

"When you use gestures, it’s as if you’re touching what’s on your screen. For instance, swiping through web pages in Safari gives you the feeling of flicking through pages in a magazine. And scrolling with Magic Mouse isn’t your everyday scrolling. It supports momentum scrolling (similar to iPhone and iPod touch), where the scrolling speed is dictated by how fast or slowly you perform the gesture."