Friday, December 31, 2010

You know what again :-)

A Happy New Year to all our customers and readers!

P.S. here are some last minute ideas for your drink

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Geo search

Our mashup Geo search has been updated. Local news illustrated by the local photos. Just click on the map for the place you are interested in.

You can provide the following optional parameters for the base URL:

lat - initial latitude for the map
lng - initial longitude
zml - zoom level

Also mashup supports language settings for the map. Parameter's name is - hl. For example:

http://geo.linkstore.ru?hl=ru
http://geo.linkstore.ru?hl=en etc.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Indoor positioning

The next big thing in LBS - indoor positioning. Swedish indoor positioning company Qubulus has launched a tool for developers called Gecko that paves the way to some interesting new types of apps. Check out it here.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

WAC on Android

WAC 1.0 - Supporting runtime for Android: Installation instructions and release notes - by Opera. Great news. Web development for phones is coming. And by the way, one of the first implementations for our Geo Messages was a widget.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Geo SMS

QR code

http://servletsuite.com/GeoSMS.apk

You can download an updated version of GeoSMS for Android application right from the above mentioned QR-code and link. Lets you share location info on mobile without the social networks.

/via Geo Messages

Sunday, December 26, 2010

YQL & Pipes

Good article - YQL: Using Web Content For Non-Programmers. A lot of mashups in our directory are actually powered by Yahoo tools. And yes, we are also worried about YQL future under Yahoo :(

Saturday, December 25, 2010

You know what :-)

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our customers and readers!

P.S. here are some last minute ideas for your dinner

Friday, December 24, 2010

Clean URL's

Forward servlet has been included into JSOS.

This servlet lets you implement clean url's in your web applications. Servlet is acting as a front controller to your JSP files. E.g. you can have an original request /servlet/foo/bar and serve it as /foo/bar.jsp etc. Servlet automatically forwards original requests to the appropriate JSP's processing depends on the path.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

JSOS 7.10

The largest collection of Java servlets and filters reaches ver. 7.10. You can download it right from Coldbeans site

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

SPDY

"As part of the Let's make the web faster initiative, we are experimenting with alternative protocols to help reduce the latency of web pages. One of these experiments is SPDY (pronounced "SPeeDY"), an application-layer protocol for transporting content over the web, designed specifically for minimal latency. In addition to a specification of the protocol, we have developed a SPDY-enabled Google Chrome browser and open-source web server. In lab tests, we have compared the performance of these applications over HTTP and SPDY, and have observed up to 64% reductions in page load times in SPDY." - SPDY: An experimental protocol for a faster web.

Google's idea for HTTP replacement. Interesting read. The bad things that we need replace not only servers but browsers also. If it is not Chrome :-)

Monday, December 20, 2010

Cloud API for Voice, SMS, Twitter, IM

Tropo – cloud telephony API in the base of Voxeo. Free for development. Worth to try it? Interesting – they do have a Twitter processing similar to our T411 service.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Facebook puzzle

Our mashup Puzzle for Facebook has been updated. Lets you create a puzzle with photo from profile.

For example, Mark Zuckerberg

Friday, December 17, 2010

Geo Messages

Our Geo messages project has been updated. Lets you share location info on the peer to peer basic as a signature to the standard messages (email, SMS).

It is obvious, that the question "where are you" is one of the most often asked during the communications. 600 billion text messages per year in the US ask "where are you?" – as per Location Business Summit 2010 data. A huge amount of mobile services is actually being built around this question so their main feature is user’s location exchange. In the most cases it is implemented as the ability for the mobile user (mobile phone owner) write down own location info in the some special place (special mobile application). But it means of course, that user must be registered in this service (download some special application). And even more important – everyone who needs this information must use the same service too.

Typically we have now two models for location sharing in services. At the first hand is passive location monitoring and future access to the accumulated data trough some API. It is Google Latitude for example.
Possible problems are privacy - some third party tool is constantly monitoring my location and what is more important – saves it on the some external server as well as the shorted life for handset’s battery.

Another popular model for location sharing is check-in procedure in the various forms. It could be an active (e.g. Foursquare), when user directly sets his/her current location or passive (e.g. Twitter) when location info could be added to the current message (status). But here we can see not only privacy issue - all my friends/followers can see my location but also a noise issue – my location info could be actually interested only for the physical friends. For the majority of followers my location info (e.g. Foursquare status in Twitter time line) is just a noise.

Our idea of the signed geo messages service (geo mail, geo sms) based on the adding user’s location info to the standard messages like SMS or email. Just as a signature. So with this service for telling somebody "where I am" it would be just enough to send him/her a message. And your partner does not need to use any additional service in order to get information about your location. He/she will simply read SMS or email.

It is obviously peer to peer sharing and does not require any social network. Our location signature has got a form of the link to some mobile map with the marker at the shared location. And what is important here – the map itself has no information about the sender and recipient. That information exists only in the message itself. The map (marker) has no information about the creator for example. That is all about privacy.

There are several implementations for this approach: mobile web mashups (HTML5), mobile web widgets, Java Card applets for legacy phones, JME midlet for mobile Java phones as well as solutions for web applications.

And this update introduces Android application: Geo SMS. See more details on Geo Messages page.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

LifeHack of the year

From email:

"This weekend we discovered that Gawker Media's servers were compromised,
resulting in a security breach at Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Gawker, Jezebel,
io9, Jalopnik, Kotaku, Deadspin, and Fleshbot. As a result, the user name
and password associated with your comment account were released on the
internet. If you're a commenter on any of our sites, you probably have
several questions."

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Newspaper in Twitter

Our mashup Newspaper in Twitter has been updated. It is Twitter search output wrapped in the newspaper style.

You can also provide initial parameters for your search. Mashup accepts the following parameters:

q - query string
lat - latitude for the local search
lng - longitude for the local search

For example:

Java newspaper

Munich, Germany

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Geo chat

QR code
Yet another mobile mashup - Geo chat. HTML5 mobile web application lets you chat with people nearby. Anonymously, you do not need any special account. Just a text chat with people near you (in the same café, in traffic jam etc.) Check out it from iPhone, Android, Samsung or Opera 10.1 mobile browser.

http://geochat.linkstore.ru

(it is a mobile site).

You can copy link right to your phone with QR-code above. Or use the following short URL http://bit.ly/gCbzm3.

There is the similar mobile mashup City chat - the dialogues there are connected to some place from Foursquare. Geo chat is almost the same but implemented for any geo place without the connection to some predefined place

Technically it is a web mashup that uses chat engine from Coldbeans.

As per similar "city-level" applications check out also City forums

Monday, December 13, 2010

Photo-search for Twitter

Our mashup Photos from Twitter has been updated. Lets you search photos from Twitter timeline.

You can set initial parameters for your search. For example the above-mentioned script lets you pass the following parameters:

lat - latitude for search area
lng - longitude for search area
q - query string

For example:

Photos from London

Salad

P.S. You can also see pictures right on the map with the following mashup: Photo-map

Sunday, December 12, 2010

QR code in French

Our QR code maker on some French site

P.S. the largest English collection is still QR code how to

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Amazon services for Android

"The AWS SDK for Android provides a library, code samples, and documentation for developers to build connected mobile applications using Amazon Web Services. Example applications developers can build with the AWS SDK for Android include:

A media application that uploads photos, videos, and more to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for world-wide distribution through Amazon CloudFront.

A social game that shares moves, high scores, and other data between devices using Amazon SimpleDB.

A messaging client that broadcasts messages between devices using Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) and Amazon Simple Notifications Service (Amazon SNS), without requiring any additional server infrastructure." - Amazon Web Services SDK for Android. Source code included - github.

Looks interesting. They (Amazon) also provide the similar component for iOS.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Mobilize your data

Our mashup QR code maker has been updated. It is probably the simplest way for getting your content to mobile web. Simply copy-paste any text and service will create for you:

- a mobile web page with this content (landing page)
- QR-код for the fast loading that page right into your mobile browser
- HTML for publishing this QR-code on your own site (blog etc)

And of course, you can simply print QR-code and stick to the some real object.

You can publish any text with this mashup. For example, in the simplest case you can just publish a link (URL). And QR code generation mashup will prepare for you a page for the mobile downloading.

Mobile pages created with service include social buttons (Facebook, Twitter, Emai). So the content on the mobile page could be simple published to Twitter and/or Facebook for example. From this point of view mashup’s functionality could be explained so: create QR-code for publishing to Twitter (Facebook).

P.S. you can see all QR-code related tools on the dedicated page: QR code how to

Thursday, December 09, 2010

GPS on Android HTC

Discovered a big problem with GPS on Android HTC (HTC Desire). Does not work.

Spent two days trying to understand why onLocationChanged could not get data ...

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

All about QR codes

Actually, we've developed a lot of tools for QR codes. For example, how to get any content and make it available for mobile phone, create, publish and load a mobile map for any location, create a mobile discussion forum for any physical object, create QR codes in Java servlets and JSP, add Facebook Like button for any object, create mobile ID card with your Facebook, share address and contact info, get address from Twitter and Foursquare and load it right to mobile etc. Now you can see all of them on the dedicated page: QR code how to

LeWeb 2010

LeWeb: LeWeb 2010. Paris, 2010



/via Geo Messages

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

City chat

QR code
Our mobile mashup- City chat. HTML5 mobile web application lets you talk with other visitors for the same place (café, office etc.). Lets you add on-demand chat service for any particular place. No registration required. Check it out from your iPhone, Android, etc.

http://citychat.linkstore.ru

(it is a mobile site).

You can copy link right to your mobile browser with the QR-code above. Or use the following short URL: http://bit.ly/a7aOKv

Techically it is a mobile web mashup that uses Foursquare, YQL and chat engine from Coldbeans.

As a similar "city" application see also City forums

Monday, December 06, 2010

Mongo DB online

"MongoDB lets you store and query data expressed as JSON documents. It offers conventional indexing, replication and lets you perform map-reduce jobs on database contents. You can get started from the comfort of your browser by heading over to the MongoDB web site and using the online "Try It Out" interface." - see details here.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Google interview

140 Google Interview Questions: "You need to check that your friend, Bob, has your correct phone number, but you cannot ask him directly. You must write a the question on a card which and give it to Eve who will take the card to Bob and return the answer to you. What must you write on the card, besides the question, to ensure Bob can encode the message so that Eve cannot read your phone number?" - check out more here

Saturday, December 04, 2010

Photo-map

Our mashup Photo map has been updated. It lets you see real time photos from Twitter on Google map

You can directly describe an area for photos. Base URL accepts the following parameters:
lat - latitude
lng - longitude
zml - zoom level
mrk - (1/0) - show or not a marker at the center of map

Friday, December 03, 2010

How to make presentations

"I have a short five-slide deck to share that provides a solid framework for understanding our business." - see details

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Geo search

Our mashup Geo Search has been updated. Google search for places illustrated by the local photo from Twitter. Just click on the map for place you are interested in.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Phone clip

The GoSmart Clip is an ingenious new smartphone holder for travelers who are always on the go - see here.

Redirection service

Redirection components for your Java web applications:

Redirect filter and Redirection taglib (for JSP and/or Coldfusion)

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Geo Messages

Our presentation on ICUMT 2010 congress: Geo Messages - a new approach for sharing location info in mobile networks.


You can see more publications and live applications on Geo Messages site.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Free HTML templates

Well, here is a showcase of websites that offer free web templates. Just in case you don’t know, a website template is a web design that allows you to build a website or a blog. Besides, website templates are easy to edit and customize. Don’t you agree it takes less time and efforts to replace the default content with a custom one than create a brand new design? - see more here. Top 20 Sites to Download Free Website Templates.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Access to iPhone's gyroscope from web

This week's release of iOS 4.2 for iPad and iPhone comes with some nice little features most people will not immediately become aware of as they're neither directly visible in the iOS UI nor are they mentioned in Apple's official release notes. You have to dig a little deeper to find them. One of them is a JavaScript API for the iPhone's gyroscope. Read on to see it in action and learn how to use it.Your iPhone has a number of sensors, some of which are rather essential for the phone's operation (such as the microphone). While the accelerometer and the gyroscope might not be the most essential sensors for a phone, they're certainly the most exciting ones. While accelerometer measures the acceleration you induce on the phone, the gyroscope gives a rather precise feedback on the orientation of the phone - see how to do that.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Clipboard for JSP

Copy taglib - create clipboard for your JSP pages. Tag Copy saves own body in the page (request, session, application) scope variable. So save data once and reuse them across your application.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Mobile forum

A new mobile sites generator. This mashup Mobile forum lets you create a mobile web page for the discussions (via Disqus API) and an appropriate QR-code for the quick access. Just place this code on any real (physical) object and you (your customers, visitors etc.) will get a forum for this object. Tested for HTML5 mobile browsers (iPhone, Android, Bada, Opera 10.1 etc.).

Similar applications from our directory:

Geo talk - discussions on the map
City forum - Places + discussions
Place card - Facebook like for the real objects
QR-code maker - mobilize your content with QR codes

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Geo chat

"Another geolocation enabled mashup from ColdTags Suite. Uses your location to find nearby Foursquare check-ins. Pick a location to chat with other City Chat user checked in there. Works with browsers that support the HTML5 Geolocation API (iPhone, Android, Bada, Opera Mobile 10.1)" - our City Chat mashup on Wapreview

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Geo fence

Wikipedia defines geo fence as a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area.

A geo-fence could be dynamically generated - as in a radius around a store or point location. Or a geo-fence can be a predefined set of boundaries, like school attendance zones or neighborhood boundaries. Custom-digitized geofences are also in use.

When the location-aware device of a location-based service (LBS) user enters or exits a geo-fence, the device receives a generated notification. This notification might contain information about the location of the device. The geofence notice might be sent to a mobile telephone or an email account.

A great example of Geo fencing application - Footprint feed

Monday, November 22, 2010

Social Media monitoring

Social Media monitoring, London, 2010



Here is the link

/via Geo Messages

Twitter Anywhere & jQuery

Yet another interesting collection of jQuery plugins. Check out for example plugin for Twitter Anywhere.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Telecom mashups

Build an online and telephony poll in 10 minutes using KooKoo and Wufoo - yet another good example of telecom mashups.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Thread local

Thread Local can be considered as a scope of access, like a request scope or session scope. It’s a thread scope. You can set any object in Thread Local and this object will be global and local to the specific thread which is accessing this object. - Threadlocal in Java examples

Friday, November 19, 2010

Geo-twit

Our mobile web-mashup (HTML5) Geo Twit has been updated. It lets you publish a link to your current location in Twitter timeline right from the phone (iPhone, Android, Samsung etc). In other words, without the changing your account settings (enabling location) you can simply publish once a link to your location. Some form of checkin for Twitter. Mobile site:

http://servletsuite.com/geotwit

You can use also the following short URL http://bit.ly/dCnvBj, or load it via the following QR-code:

QR code

/via Geo Messages

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

YQL on practice

The Yahoo! Query Language (YQL) provides a unified interface to multiple third-party web services, allowing you to search, add, update, and delete data through a simple, SQL-like syntax. Combine powerful XML processing tools in PHP with YQL and you can easily add data from online services to a web application quickly, efficiently, and without wading through pages of API documentation - how to use YQL.

This article describes YQL and PHP. Java web developers can use YQL taglib from Coldtags suite for the same task.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

City chat

QR code
Our new mobile mashup- city chat. HTML5 mobile web application lets you talk with other visitors for the same place (café, office etc.). Let you add on-demand chat service for any particular place. No registration required. Check it out from your iPhone, Android, etc.

http://citychat.linkstore.ru

(it is a mobile site).

You can copy link right to your mobile browser with the QR-code above. Or use the following short URL: http://bit.ly/a7aOKv

Techically it is a mobile web mashup that uses Foursquare, YQL and chat engine from Coldbeans.

As a similar "city" application see also City forums

Mobile Asia

Mobile Asia congress, Hong Kong, 2010



/via Geo Messages

Sunday, November 14, 2010

News source

A huge list of news sources: Scobleizer/tech-news-brands. It is a Twitter list. And here its view through Lists in Twitter mashup.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Mobile video

Our mashup Mobile video has been updated. It is a generator for mobile video sites. Lets you collect on the one mobile web page all the video from Youtube you are interested in. So as a result user will get mobile web page for using directly or as a part of own sites/portals. Mashup also presents a QR-code for loading that page directly into your mobile browser.

Here is an example: best goals



P.S. For other mobile development tools check put also mashups Mobile pages and QR code maker

Friday, November 12, 2010

Edit files in web applications

A couple of components let you add file editor to your web applications: Notepad servlet and Edit file taglib

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Like for real objects

Like button from Facebook could be placed on the mobile web pages too. And if this mobile page is devoted to some real business (place, location) than the word "Like" has got a very real sense – who from your real friends recommends this business.

Our new mashup Place card is an example for such kind service. This mashup lets you create a short mobile page with business description (text, address, contact phone and email) as well as an appropriate QR-code. This mobile page contains Facebook Like button. This QR-code could be placed on the real objects. So as soon as this page is scanned your visitor will see who from his/her friends in the social network likes (recommends) this business.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Big map

Our mashup Big Map has been updated. Full screen map with search box and places sharing for social networks.

You can also create links for your own web applications. Mashup accepts the following parameters:

a - initial address
lat - latitude
lng - longitude
zml - zoom level
mrk - show marker if this value is 1
hl - language

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

XML must die

The next version of Twitter API will support JSON only. SOAP is already killed by REST, now XML goes the same way.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Touch screens

The Touch Gesture Reference Guide is a unique set of resources for software designers and developers working on touch-based user interfaces - see it here

Sunday, November 07, 2010

XSL processing in JSP

XSL processing for your JSP (and/or Coldfusion) pages - XSL taglib.

Lets you apply the given XSL stylesheet to the given XML data and rendering the output to your JSP page.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

mod_pagespeed filters for Java servers

mod_pagespeed improves web page latency by changing the resources on that web page to implement web performance best practices. Each sort of change that mod_pagespeed makes is embodied in a filter. The filters are run in a pre-defined order, but can be enabled and disabled in the Apache configuration file. Here is the list of filters from Google.

Interesting, that many of the tasks could be solved for Java servers (e.g. Tomcat) with the help of controls from Coldbeans. Just a few of examples:

- Extend Cache - Public cache filter
- Collapse Whitespace and remove comments - Trim filter
- embed image via Data URI: Embed Image taglib

etc. Check out more at Coldbeans site

Currency format

Service utility for JSP developers: format currency

Share mobile files

QR code Our mashup - mobile files bookmark has been updated. Mobile site: http://mfile.linkstore.ru. You can load this link right to your phone with QR code above.

This application helps you share local files from your phone. Service lets you create bookmarks for files (e.g. media data) from your phone. File size – up 1 Mb. The goal is very simple - lets you quickly share local content: send pictures to friends, share music files etc.

For each local file service creates a separate mobile web page (bookmark) that lets readers download this file or share it with the own friends.

The usage is very simple, you do not need any registration. For sharing your local file go to mobile site http://mfile.linkstore.ru, type file name and upload the file itself. After that you can bookmark the mobile page created by the service or directly share your file - send link to it via email/sms or even let other people load it directly with QR code on your phone.

On the desktop level you can see a service Mobile page. See for example its description here

Friday, November 05, 2010

Get titles for remote pages

How to get title for any HTML page? You can do that on server side with Title taglib or on client side (via Ajax requests) with Title servlet.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

iPhone tools

"Below we've listed 13 different tools that let you create your own iPhone applications, none of which require knowledge of Objective C, the programming language used to build apps for the iPhone OS" - see details here.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Secret places

Google Places API. With all the usage restrictions it is better to drop any idea about its deployment :-)
Foursquare is a way better. Mashups like Places and Forumsquare use Foursquare API.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Geoint 2010

Geospatial: GeoInt 2010. New Orlean, 2010



/via Geo Messages

Twitter places

Our mashup Location from Twitter has been updated. Lets you get location info form any geo-coded twit, create QR code for mobile map with this location and copy that map right to your phone. So you can simply save this location (map) in your mobile bookmarks. Alternatively you can publish it on your site/blog.

For using this mashup just provide an URL for any geo-coded twit or use a bookmarklet. In case of bookmarklet usage just open a twit and select Location from Twitter bookmarklet from your bookmarks.

Mobile maps provided by Geo Messages

Monday, November 01, 2010

Web 2.0 companies

"Digg’s collapse has become a cautionary tale for so-called Web 2.0 companies in Silicon Valley, even the current crop of superstars, like Facebook and Twitter. The basic problem is that these new-media companies don’t really have customers; they have audiences. Starting a company like Digg is less like building a traditional tech company (think Apple or HP) and more like launching a TV show. And perhaps, like TV shows, these companies are ephemeral in nature. People flock in for a while, then get bored and move on." - a great article from Newsweek.

XML bean

Transform your data collection into XML: XML bean taglib

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Browser-VAS apps

"Openwave's Integra web service sits in the data stream between the end user and the 3rd party web apps. It evaluates the relevance rules defined by the app against user data supplied by the network such as the user's unique id, location, rate plan and roaming status. The user data is not shared with the apps and user must ot-in to the program and can define which sites the toolbar appears on.

The service is designed to be cross platform and cross browser but initially will only support the HTC Epic and EVO.

Browser-VAS will go live on the Sprint network in the first half of 2011. The Eclipse plug-in and a sandbox testing environment will be available soon to developers who register at success.openwave.com/developer-app.html" - an interesting idea. A new for of mobile marketplace. /via Wapreview blog

Saturday, October 30, 2010

How much is a share on Facebook or Twitter worth?

How much is a social media share worth? The study by Eventbrite found that, on average, every time an event was shared that resulted in $1.78 in ticket sales. Drilling down into this number shows how valuable different types of share are:

1. Facebook: $2.52.
2. Email: $2.34.
3. LinkedIn: $0.90.
4. Twitter: $0.43.

from here. So for that site (service) Facebook is the best. But here is another issue, that tops Twitter: 7 times better than Facebook (but it is about click through)

P.S. you can see links from social networks (Facebook, Twitter) for any site with Social Links mashup.

Friday, October 29, 2010

City forum

QR code
City forums.
Mashup combines places from Foursquare and cloud forums from Disqus. Just a place to discuss city places. It is HTML5, so the whole application works on the mobile phone too (iPhone, Android)

http://cforum.linkstore.ru

(it is a mobile site).

You can copy this link right to your mobile browser with QR-code above. Alternatively you can use the following short URL: http://bit.ly/aFCbjF

P.S. btw, you can see tips from Foursquare with our Geo browser mashup.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

About mobile services

"The service, which costs $2 a message, was set up to allow sports fans to ''get a unique insight into the life of your favourite player … without any media filter'', its creators say on its website." - an interesting model for mobile service :-)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Tweet vs. Tweet

Hot or not, $MSFT vs. $GOOG, euro vs. USD, Chelsea vs. MU etc. - all this in our updated mashup Tweet versus Tweet.

In the latest version you can directly pass search terms to URL. Parameters are: t1 and t2.

E.g. $MSFT vs. $GOOG:

http://tvt.linkstore.ru?t1=$MSFT&t2=$GOOG

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Facebook directory

Our mashup for Facebook - Social Graph Directory has been updated. Lets you present public info from the social graph in the simple tabular form: where my friends are working, where do they live etc.

For example, you can easily find contacts within some company – present your Facebook circle like Linkedin directory etc.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Mobile ID card

Our mashup Mobile Facebook ID card has been updated. It lets you create mobile identification card with your Facebook ID. This mashup lets you create mobile web page with QR code that presents your name and photo from Facebook. You can present (show) this QR code (mobile page) on the some check-in point, QR code could be scanned right from your phone and your ID could be checked. You can see screenshots for the process here: how to confirm your identity with Facebook.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Geo links

Our Geo Messages approach got API too. Here is a new custom tag for your JSP (and/or Coldfusion) applications: Geo Link. It lets you create smart maps (Big Mobile Map) for your web applications (desktop and mobile)

50 Powerful Time-Savers For Web Designers

"There are tools that make our lives much easier. In this post, you’ll find an overview of useful and handy tools that can help you increase your productivity and improve your workflow. Some tools are more general, the others are more technical" - a great collection of tools.

Trends in Location

An interesting review from Mashable: 5 Important New Trends in Location. And great to see peer to peer location is growing. Way to go Geo Messages

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Live checkins

Our mashup Checkins has been updated. Lets you see real-time checkins from Twitter with geo-coding turned on. In other words it will show only geo-coded twits.

Friday, October 22, 2010

SMS URI and Android

Bad news, but SMS URI implementation for Android is completely broken (Desire, Android 2.1, Android 2.2). Really not a good news for mobile web developers. No words from Google when and why.

Another bad news related Android web development is onClick event. We can confirm this thread. Really Javascript onClick event practically does not work. The main approach for dynamic content generation in Ajax applications by the way ...

Client side text rotator

Client side rotated text. E.g. Javascript news ticker, news scroller etc. for your JSP (and/or Coldfusion) pages.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Where are you now - 2

'The query 'Where are you now?' is the most commonly sent SMS message, texted over 600 billion times per year in the US.

A new webapp called Where are you now? (WAYN) from Dmitry Namiot (Geo Mail, Geo SMS, Mobile Share) automates the asking and answering of that question.' - our mashup WAYN on Wapreview portal.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Geo-browser

Our ForumSquare mashup has been updated. It is some kind of city-forums. Tips from Foursquare mashed up with cloud forums (from Disqus):


You can move map (walk in) from one tip to another.

In the latest version you can also copy any location you are interested in right to your mobile phone (via QR-code). Just click on the phone-icon near the POI name. QR-code lets you load a mobile map (from Geo Messages project) right to your mobile browser. You can simply bookmark it there for example.

See also our previous posts about ForumSquare.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Open Software in Mobile

Open Software in Mobile: Osimworld. London, 2010



/via Geo Messages

Mobile maps

Our mashup Mobile maps has been updated. Full screen map for mobiles (iPhone, Android - any HTML5 browser) lets you share location info as a signature for the standard messages.

You can load it right to your mobile browser with this QR code too:



You can use this mashup as is or embed it into your own applications. It helps you show some information for mobile users. This mashup accepts the following parameters for own URL:

t - text for POI
lat - POI's latitude
lng - POI's longitude
email - default email address
phone - default phone for SMS
lang - language for the map

instead of (lat, lng) pair you can use another parameter

a - address for your POI

For example, UK Prime Minister

P.S. it is HTML5 web application, so the same will work in your desktop browser too, except SMS sharing of course.

/via Geo Messages

Monday, October 18, 2010

Bookmark for locations

Our mashup Location bookmark has been updated. It lets you create two things:

1) QR code for mobile map associated with the given address
2) HTML for putting that QR code on your site

So with this tool you can place on your own site (blog etc.) – e.g. somewhere in Contacts or About pages QR code for any given address (e.g. address of your company, office etc.). And any visitor of your site will be able simply to scan this code and load that map right into own phone. So they (visitors) do not need to write/print/remember your address/driving directions anymore. He/she can just load an appropriate mobile map right from your site. Loaded map could be simply bookmarked on the phone (loaded map is just URL).
And driving directions as well as many other interesting things will come automatically with the mobile map (we are using Geo Messages).

Of course, QR code created with this mashup could be placed anywhere. E.g. add it to some article in your blog, print and place it on the wall etc. Also QR – code is just a view that simplify loading of some mobile-friendly URL with map. Actually mashups creates at the first hand that URL and after that creates QR-code for it. So you can publish in your blog a mobile-friendly URL too. Your mobile readers will be able to open that URL directly.

P.S. similar projects:

QR map - lets you create QR code right from the map. This mashup also can create a link to mobile friendly map (iPhone, Android).
Mecard - lets you create QR code for loading address data (contact info) right from your site
Location from Twitter - lets you copy address info from Twitter (via QR-code again)
Tips - lets you copy address data right from social recommendations (Foursquare).

Sunday, October 17, 2010

URL validation

Does this site exist? How to check this from your JSP (and/or Coldfusion) code - JSON HEAD servlet. A proxy for your Ajax requests lets you bypass sandbox restrictions.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

jQuery mobile

Alpha version jQuery mobile is ready

JSOS 7.0

Coldbeans Software announced the next milestone in JSOS (servlets office suite) development. JSOS reaches the version 7.00. This largest collection of Java servlets and filters provides 143+ "out of the box" components ready for building web-pages. One of the biggest parts is the rich set of filters. Package includes such components as XML and WML transcoding, access restriction, traffic restriction, caching, profiling etc. All components are configurable, so you may incorporate them into your own design frameset. Components from JSOS do support mobile web, so the same set of components can be used for wireless users too. At this moment JSOS provides a largest set of servlets and filters over the Net. Check out the latest version of Java Servlets Office Suite here: http://www.servletsuite.com

Friday, October 15, 2010

Geo Messages

Our Geo Messages project has been updated again.

Rather than let social network monitor your location (Google Latitude) or share your location info within some social circle (Foursquare check-in etc.) Geo Messages approach lets you share location data on the peer to peer basic. You can share your location info just as a signature to the standard messaging (email, SMS). And what is important – shared location data (map) does not contain your identity. Your ID (name, phone) is in your email (SMS) only. The shared map does not reveal anything about the author.

By the same principles you can also share location info with your Twitter and/or Facebook friends. The latest update includes Where are you now mashup too. It lets you request location info by email.

Forum Oxford

Forum Oxford: ForumOxford: Mobile Apps and Technologies Conference 2010. Oxford, 2010



/via Geo Messages

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Twitter is better than Facebook

Among social networking sites, Facebook is by far the most preferred service for sharing, making up more than 78% of usage. Yet other sites are gaining: Twitter maintains 5% of referrals, and MySpace, surprisingly, comes in at second with 14.5% share.

but

Yet Twitter has become the most effective tool for click-throughs. Twitter yielded a whopping average of 19.04 clicks, whereas Facebook only produced 2.87 clicks.

7 times better. - from here.

And yes, the open structure of Twitter graph lets easily implement some tools for links extracting. E.g. Links from Twitter or Lists from Twitter Both mashups let you find interesting links in Twitter.

News ticker on JSP

Javascript news ticker, news scroller etc. right from your JSP (and/or Coldfusion) pages - Client side rotator taglib

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Where are you now?

It is the most popular question in the mobile messaging. 600 billion per yer - more than impressive digit. For servicing such kind of requests we offer Geo Messages approach. It introduces a new way for sharing location info data in mobile networks. This approach could be used as a base for many mobile services. You can find many of them on Geo Messages page. Let us describe a yet another service.

We have a simple application Geo Mail. It lets users send mobile email with location info in the signature. It is mobile web application (HTML5), you do not need to install any code. It is enough to know service URL only (e.g. keep it in the bookmarks).

But what about the following use case? You need to know somebody else location but he/she has not this URL (unaware about that service). A very simple solution – let us send him/her a link to Geo Mail. So as soon as our message is received our target party will be able to respond with location info via email. Of course if he/she decided to do that. So by this way we are also solving privacy issues – it is completely up to target party respond or to not to location info request.

It is exactly what our new mashup Where are you now is doing.

It is mobile web application (HTML5) that lets you send a request for location info to any user with know email address. Short URL for access is:

http://bit.ly/cy6ndx

You can also use the following QR-code for loading:



Check it out with your iPhone, Android or Samsung

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

WebTechCon

WebTechCon conference. Mainz, 2010



/via Geo Messages

Social reading

Our mashup Social links has been updated. Lets you see links from social networks (Facebook, Twitter) for any site. The usage is:

http://social.linkstore.ru?your_site

For example:

http://social.linkstore.ru?dzone.com
http://social.linkstore.ru?ajaxian.com

P.S. You can use also an appropriate bookmarklet from our collection. It lets you get such information in one click only.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Lists in Twitter

Our mashup Lists from Twitter has been updated. Lets you extract popular links from Twitter lists. Just set a name for the list (twitter_name/list_name) on the mashup’s page or directly provide it as a parameter:

http://tlist.linkstore.ru?u=some_list

For example:

abava/mobile
Scobleizer/geolocation

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Wordbank development challenges

Right for mashups developers - Worldbank development challenge

Wedding in Twitter

Users @k and @c got married. Hash-tag for the process is #101010kcc

Localization

From Twitter: Today is 10/10/10 NOT 10/10/10 you stupid Americans. :-)

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Speed dating for mobile app developers

"US operator AT&T is poised to announce the opening of three new offices focused on mobile apps development. In an interview with Bloomberg, AT&T’s CTO John Donovan said the operator will open new facilities in Palo Alto, California, Tel Aviv in Israel and Plano, Texas, that will work with software firms to develop mobile apps that it can offer on its network.

Donovan said he plans to use the new offices to meet with as many as 400 software firms a year to hear 8-to-10 minute pitches - a process he calls "speed dating." If it likes an idea, AT&T will then work with the developer to bring the application to market and host it on its network." - from here

/via Geo Messages

Friday, October 08, 2010

Facebook profile viewer

Facebook provides a functionality called "profile preview", allowing users to see how their own profile appears to any other user. It can be accessed using the following URL:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=wall&viewas=viewer_id

For example, your profile from Mark Zuckerberg's view:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=wall&viewas=4

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Ad rotator

Advertising support solution for JSP (and/or Coldfusion) - Ad rotator taglib. Lets you display banners (images) on your site.

And for rotating text (code chunks) you can use Text rotate taglib.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Image processing in JSP

A couple of updated components for images processing right in JSP:

Image info taglib. Lets you get size for any image stored on your server
Image taglib - lets you crop and convert images

CTIA Fall 2010

CTIA conference. SF,CA 2010




/via Geo Messages

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

GPS wireless 2010

A new conference: GPS Wireless 2010. SF,CA 2010




/via Geo Messages

European search

And what is this search site Eurip about? As per log on Coldbeans site it sends several times more customers than Yahoo for example.

Test mobile applications

It could be interesting - Vodafone offers free testing for mobile applications on the real devices:

"Vodafone offers you 100% free access to the Vodafone Private Handset Cloud. This innovative service, powered by Perfecto Mobile's mobile application testing solutions, allows you to test your widgets, applications & content on REAL live Vodafone devices. The Vodafone Private Handset Cloud significantly evolved during recent months, to include new handsets and many exciting features that can really make life a whole lot easier for all you developers out there. The Vodafone Handset Cloud lets you test and monitor your apps on multiple devices, in various geographies and thus significantly shorten your application's approval process, testing costs and time to market- without ever needing to constantly buy new devices! With the launch of the new Vodafone Developers website we thought it could be a good opportunity to invite all of you - existing and new developers - to check out (for free!) the service and see how it can help you."

Monday, October 04, 2010

Buzz from Twitter

Our mashup Buzz from Twitter has been updated. Let you see buzz words from any Twitter timeline. In other words you can see topics marked by the friends of any particular user in Twitter. A good way to pickup current trending stuff from users you are interested in.

You do not need to be authorized in Twitter for getting this info. Actually you do not need to own a Twitter account even.

Future of web apps conference

Future of web apps. London 2010 04.10 - 06.10




/via Geo Messages

Digg button

For your JSP (and/or Coldfusion pages): Digg button. An updated custom taglib from Coldtags suite lets you add Digg button to your pages.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Freely Available Textbooks on Machine Learning

A good (and free!) collection of books devoted to Machine Learning.

See also similar resources here.

Directory of mashups

Our directory of mashups has ben updated. See it here.

Random things

Random elements for your JSP (and/or Coldfusion) pages. What could be randomized (to make more dynamic pages, for personalization, for discrete simulation etc.):

How to get Random value and random sequence

How to include text (code) with the given probability

How to get random color

How to iterate over the random subset of any collection

How to get random element from any collection

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Links from Twitter

Our mashup Links from Twitter has been updated. Lets you see links published in Twritter by the friends of any user. E.g. check out what Twitter’s CEO is reading (or, at least, is seeing) etc. Sometimes it could be a good source of information for you. Read Twitter through somebody else view.

Actually you do not need to login/share password etc. for this mashup. You can read links even without your own account in Twitter. And of course, if you are in Twitter you can read your own timeline via this mashup too.

Friday, October 01, 2010

About Geo SMS

We are definitely on the right track with our Geo Message project. Got a clone recently - see ReadWriteWeb article. Here is an original implementation, mentioned in our blog - Geo SMS service

Btw, follow out new hash in Twitter: #geomsg

P.S. see here more about GeoSMS

QR-code API for Java

Open source library that provides barcode API (including QR code) for Java. A huge list of supported formats: UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, EAN-13, Code 39, Code 93, Code 128, QR Code, ITF, Codabar, RSS-14, Data Matrix. Here you can find programming examples.

/via QR code generator

P.S. for web applications you can use a simple component from Coldtags suite: Barcode taglib

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Social links

Our mashup Social links has been updated. Lets you see links from social networks (Facebook, Twitter) for any site.

For example:

http://social.linkstore.ru?dzone.com
http://social.linkstore.ru?digg.com

P.S. You can use also an appropriate bookmarklet from our collection. It lets you get such information in one click only.

Mobilize

A new event for our monitoring: - Mobilize 2010. September 30, 2010 / Mission Bay Conference Center, San Francisco, CA




/via Geo Messages

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Facebook puzzle

A puzzle from Facebook image profile: Restore the facebooker. Just set user ID, name or any Facebook related URL and get a puzzle created from user's profile.

By default shows a puzzle of Facebook creator. You can directly set Facebook ID (name) in your request. For example:

http://linkstore.ru/fbpuzzle?u=zuck

Time killer for Facebook fans.

About mobile services

Here is a public list in Twitter about mobile services. You can get also hot links from there via our Twitter lists mashup.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Retweets

Our mashup Retweets from Twitter has been updated. Lets you see retweeted statuses (messages) from any timeline. It is a good way to discover the interesting topics from Twitter.

Location-Based Metrics

How to use checkins data for business analysis. Hyper-Local Traffic Measurement & Analysis

Monday, September 27, 2010

W3G Conf

W3G conference - LBS business.




/via Geo Messages

For Facebook mashups

A custom JSP taglib lets you deal with Facebook ID and profiles - Facebook ID taglib.

And ID servlet simply lets you obtain unique ID from your own server via JSON or JSONP.

Comments in the code

// drunk, fix later

from here

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Coldtags suite ver. 4.0

Coldtags suite ver. 4.0 is ready. This suite contains 400+ custom JSP tags for the most common tasks faced by JSP (and/or Coldfusion) developers. See here this largest collection of JEE web controls.

Web business for 48 hours

Launch48 organizes interactive and innovative events for people from a range of professional backgrounds. The event help participants to create successful online businesses using the web or mobile.

Here is London, Sep 2010.




/via Geo Messages

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Cell ID

Custom JSP tags library for mobile developers. Lets you obtain geo coordinates for the given Cell ID. Cell ID is the unique number of a GSM cell for a given operator. Any phone is always connected to some cell, and by knowing this number, you know the Cell, and by knowing the position of the cell, you know where your phone is. There are some accuracy issues, as the cell can cover from several hundreds of meters to several kilometers, but this could be a very good starting point to locate the phone. Tag lets you obtain location data via Ericsson labs mobile location API - Mobile location taglib.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Client ID

A new component in our Coldtags suite - Client ID taglib. Lets you assign an unique ID for the each client. E.g. in your mobile web applications set an unique flag for the each client.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Dialogues in Twitter

Our mashup Dialogues in Twitter has been updated. Lets you restore the chain of tweets related to the given status (message). The use cases are obvious. You are reading some tweet with the question and also interested in the answers. Or, vice versa, you are reading some answer and need to restore the dialog from the beginning.

For the beginning just set a full URL for the tweet (or simply set status ID). For statuses published as reply to another tweet, mashup will restore the dialogue. Also mashup will lookup reactions to the given tweet. In other words it will try to restore the dialogue in the both directions.

You can also simplify your actions and deploy an appropriate bookmarklet (Dialogues in Twitter) from our collection. In this case on the opened web page with the status (message from Twitter) just select a previously saved bookmark.

JavaOne 2010

JavaOne 2010 - the first one without Sun by the way.




/via Geo Messages

Geo Location conference

Geo Location conference SMWGeo (CA, US).




/via Geo Messages

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Cloud phone

A good collection of cloud telephony service providers. They have the following things in common:
1.They provide a web based API using which users can call telephony applications like dial, get dtmf, record audio, play audio etc.
2.They take care of hardware setup and phone number provisioning so that you can worry only about your application.
3.Most of them have a pay for what you use policy so the initial setup costs are negligent. From here.

Cloud USB

CloudUSB - a USB key containing your operating environment and your data + a protected folder so nobody can access you data, even if you lost the key + a backup program which keeps a copy of your data on an online disk, with double password protection. Geat idea!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Links from Twitter

Our mashup Links from Twitter has been updated. Added filtering (e.g. clear geo statuses), improved pictures processing.

Mashup lets you set a name for Twitter account and get all the links from his/her friends. All the links published in the given Twitter’s circle. You do not need to authorize, you do not need to have a twitter account even.

You can provide a name for Twitter account in question just on the mashup’s page or pass it as a parameter:

http://tlink.linkstore.ru?u=name_from_Twitter

For example, all the links for @t411 circle:

http://tlink.linkstore.ru?u=t411

Java hosting

There is definitely something going wrong at dailyrazor.com hosting we are currently on. This month we are experiencing 24 hours breaks in the service. Are they dying? Btw, recommendations for the good/reliable Java hosting are welcome.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Who is that follower

Our mashup Twitter info has been updated. It lets you pickup from the social graph other resources, associated with the given twitter account. It is a dead simple way to discover who is your new follower and who you to follow to in Twitter.

In particularly, now you can pickup also the performance metrics, account age and other stat info.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

All Twitter lists

Our mashup Lists in Twitter has been updated. Lets you collect the keywords (discussed topics) and top links from any Twitter list.

Friday, September 17, 2010

All your sessions

How to get all your HTTP sessions? How to iterate over existing sessions and see attributes? See Sessions Administration in JSOS

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Social links

Facebook offers for web sites a plugin that shows the popular links (by Facebook’s crowd) from that site. So site owner can place that plugin right on the site and visitors will see what is popular.

Let us reverse the task. Suppose we have some URL (it is not our site) and decide to discover what was marked as popular from that site. It is what our mashup Social links is about. How to use it:

http://social.linkstore.ru?url_in_question

In the current version mashup shows links from Twitter and Facebook. For example:

http://social.linkstore.ru?dzone.com
http://social.linkstore.ru?digg.com

P.S. You can use also an appropriate bookmarklet from our collection. It lets you get such information in one click only.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Bookmarklets

Our collection of bookmarklets has been updated. In particular, check out for example a new bookmarklet for our Social Links mashup.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Coldtags Places

"Crowd-sourced location sharing service that uses Foursquare as a POI database. Locates you using the HTML5 Geolocation API of your iPhone, Opera Mobile 10.1 or Android browser and presents a list of nearby locations where Fourquare users have historically checked in. Click a location to see a menu allowing you to share your location (name of the place and a short link to a Google Map) by email, SMS or as a Facebook or Twitter status" - our mashup Places on wapreview.com

Monday, September 13, 2010

Digeus optimizer

A new useful suite from Digeus: System Optimizer. It is a pack of applications (Disk Space Analyzer, Duplicate Files Finder, Junk Files Cleaner, Memory Cleaner etc. - a really huge list) provides the smartest way to solve computer problems and protect your valuable data. Sure, many of the applications exist in the free forms, but the well assembled pack of working utilities worth own money. It is definitely easy to use.

Disclosure. We are used Digeus products in the past and using them now (see our post about Registry Cleaner)

Linkedin from Facebook

Our new web application for Facebook - Social Graph Directory. Lets you present public info from the social graph in the simple tabular form: where my friends are working, where do they live etc.

For example, you can easily find contacts within some company – present your Facebook circle like Linkedin directory etc.

P.S. and Facebook API is really fast. Impressed.

Location business summit 2010




/via Geo Messages

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Directory of mashups

Our mashups directory has been updated. Check out for example our lates Facebook mashup - Social Graph Directory and HTML5 Places from Geo Messages

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Location based small business deals

"Most checkin apps are designed so that small businesses can set up specials or rewards for checkin activity. Few, however, can truly verify that an application user is exactly where they say they are. For the small business owner to truly benefit from offering checkin rewards, verification is critical." - from here.

It is exactly what our Mobile ID card for Facebook is about!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Bookmarks taglibs

Custom JSP taglib lets you tag resources right from your JSP (and/or Coldfusion pages: Del.icio taglib.

And Bookmark taglib lets you create links for bookmarking.

Over the Air 2010




/via Geo Messages

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

State of services

Due to huge problems with disks sub-systems in our hosting provider, most of our mashups (hosted on linkstore.ru) are down at this moment. We apologize and hope to restore services soon.

Geo Mail

Our mashup Geo Mail has been updated. It is a mobile web application (HTML5), lets you add a digital signature (link) with your location info to email messages on your mobile platform. It works on any mobile platform with HTML5 support: iPhone, Android, Samsung etc.

You can load and bookmark mobile URL with the following short link: http://bit.ly/a52Ta1 or with the QR-code below:
Geo Mail QR code

P.S. btw, there is a useful trick with mobile email. You can send email message not only to some person, but to service too. For example, Facebook lets you update status info by email (see http://www.facebook.com/mobile regarding service email for your account). If you send status mail via Geo Mail mashup than you can share your location info with your Facebook social graph. Yet another implementation for Places.

/via Geo Messages service

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Annotated links

Our mashup Annotated links has been updated. Lets you pack together some link (collection of links) and your comment in the form of post-it note. Mashup creates a short URL that you can publish on your site (blog) or share it via email, Twitter, Facebook.

Mashup also provides a simple REST API, so you can create your commented links programmatically.

You can use mashup directly or via an appropriate bookmarklet from our collection.

Monday, September 06, 2010

Geo Post

Many modern blog platforms (most of them actually) let you publish data by email. You can just send an email to some service address and platform transforms it into a new post. For example, in Posterous you can send data to post@your_blog.posterours.com, in Friendfeed it is share@friendfeed.com, in Blogger you can set address in Settings->Email&Mobile tab, Facebook can update status by email too (see http://www.facebook.com/mobile/) etc.

Mashup Geo Post helps you add location info to such emails. All you need is set an email address for update and get back a customized version of Mobile map mashup, that lets you send email updates to the provided address. Simply save short URL provided by GeoPost mashup in your mobile browser bookmarks or load it via generated QR code.

And just because Mobile map lets you share location info via SMS too (e.g. on Android platform), GeoPost lets you set also a predefined phone number for SMS. All in all – it is a configuration tool for Geo Messages.

P.S. and check out here all our mashups

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Google Places vs. Facebook places

"Two services break from each other – and in a non-trivial way – is in their respective distribution strategies. Google relies on Search. Facebook relies on Social." - from here.

P.S. and Geo Messages are all about peer to peer. Telecom way vs. Internet approach.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Most People Still Decline to Be Located

"Just 4 percent of Americans have tried location-based services, and 1 percent use them weekly, according to Forrester Research. Eighty percent of those who have tried them are men, and 70 percent are between 19 and 35." - NYT about LBS

Friday, September 03, 2010

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Directory of mashups

Our mashups directory has been updated. Check out for example our first Facebook mashup - Mobile ID card and HTML5 Places

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Places

Twitter Places, Facebook Places, Google Places etc. Everybody is implementing Places service nowadays. So we simply could not be out of that movement. They left no choice for us. It is much easier to implement it rather than explain why not. So with the help of Foursquare, YQL and Geo Messages we build the following mobile mashup:

QR code
http://places.linkstore.ru (it is a mobile link).
Also you can use QR code above for loading that URL.


It works on any mobile phone with HTML5 browser (iPhone, Android, Samsung etc.). Lets you share your location info via Email, SMS, Twitter and Facebook. Service does not require any authorization and does not reveal your private data

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Cache for JSP

A very useful component for JSP (and/or Coldfusion) developers - Cache taglib. Lets you cache JSP fragments and reuse them later as static code.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Twitter info

"Twitter Pumps Up Follower Email Notifications Further With Social Graph Juice. Remember back in the day when Twitter follower email notifications basically only told you a person’s username? Yeah, those were pretty useless. Luckily, we’re far beyond that. And a new addition today makes these notifications more useful than ever.

Over time, Twitter has added things like profile pictures, stats (number of tweets, following/followers), and most recently, list stats and bios. But a new addition allows you to see just how many people you follow also follow the person requesting you. And it shows you how many people the user follows that you also follow." - from TC.

It is really better than it was, but I still think that our Twitter info mashup can give you much more information about new followers.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Location and privacy

Sharing location makes the virtual world real. And it's this reality that creates concerns about location over-sharing," states Nick Bicanic, CEO of echoecho mobile, "Facebook Places promises your location will be known to all of your friends in an instant but fails to address any of the security concerns that come with that responsibility."

echoecho allows people to ask and answer the question "Where are you?" with one click. That's it. No over-sharing. No tracking. No stalking. No battery drain. Just simple, fast, useful and secure location sharing. - from here

That is exactly what we wrote before. And it is exactly what our Geo Message approach is about

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Page speed and load times

"Page speed and load times are the foundation for a positive user experience on the web. Let’s face it, if your page fails to load in time, all the effort put towards information architecture, content strategy and interaction design will be for naught" - collection of tools

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Business Intelligence From Twitter Text

The rise of Twitter has made large quantities of text available in multiple languages. As a result, text processing, text analysis and other natural language processing techniques have become a staple in business intelligence. Eight Books To Get You Started!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Crowdsourcing

Five businesses that look to the crowds for content. Crowdsourced business names, a news site where readers pick the stories, decision advice via social networks, crowdcasting tools for radio, and a TV show where viewers decide what happens next. See it here.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Monday, August 23, 2010

Mobile ID card for Facebook

Mobile mashup Facebook ID card lets you create mobile identification card with your Facebook ID. This mashup lets you create mobile web page with QR code that presents your name and photo from Facebook. You can present (show) this QR code (mobile page) on the some check-in point, QR code could be scanned right from your phone and your ID could be checked. How does it work?

1. Go to http://linkstore.ru/fbcard/



2. Login with your Facebook ID



3. Your card is ready. You will get a short URL for it. You can directly type that URL in your mobile browser or scan via QR code



4. Bookmark that URL in your mobile browser

5. Now at some check-point just open that URL and show your QR code. It could be scanned right from your phone (scanner here is just another phone with QR code reader for example)



6. Check-point staff will see your card on the own phone



How this application could be used:

- physical check-in
- events registration
- mobile tickets
- loyalty cards