integrations

According to a report at The Next Web, Apple's iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads, account for at least 39 percent of the photo traffic on Twitter. Photo search engine Skylines has constructed a breakdown of the various platforms and clients that post photos to Twitter, showing that despite iOS 5's relatively young lifespan it is already the seventh-largest Twitter client.

Combining the 5 percent of photos that come directly from iOS 5 with statistics from Twitter for iPhone at 21 percent, and Instagram (an iPhone-only photo sharing app) at 13 percent, the 39 percent figure is reached. … Read more

After upgrading to iOS 5 on my iPhone 4, I noticed that my Twitter app was not behaving up to snuff. My troubleshooting investigation led to some interesting realizations about how Twitter is integrated in iOS 5.

Twitter's role in Apple's latest mobile operating system is a bit different from other apps. The issue I was having was that the Mentions tab in my Twitter app was not updating. I knew from reading my account feed that some of my Twitter followers were sending me tweets, but I was not getting notified and they were not appearing in … Read more

Is Apple working on its own Internet-connected TV? According to The Washington Post, which is reviewing an advanced copy of the authorized biography of former CEO Steve Jobs, Apple has been working on such a device.

Tidbits from the biography written by Walter Isaacson have been trickling out the past couple of days before the book's debut on Monday. These latest cited passages describe how Jobs hoped to change the TV industry in much the same way he transformed the computing, music, and telecommunications industries.

The Washington Post article quoted Isaacson's book:

"He very much wanted to … Read more

Social learning startup Grockit has raised an additional $7 million in venture funding to expand its online test-preparation services.

Although not related to the funding, Grockit also recently launched a new service called Grockit Answers that can turn any YouTube video into a Q&A session. (Here's a company-supplied example on the credit crisis.)

Grockit's tools draw on social networking and online gaming to personalize learning outside of the classroom--ideally, to help students conquer their academic weaknesses and ace test preparation. The company's tag line is "Test Prep Made Fun." Grockit claims one million … Read more

Among the many new features in iOS 5 for Apple's mobile devices, one seemingly small addition will make sharing your life in fewer than 140 characters much easier.

Integrated Twitter features are now an option in most of the main iOS apps, and on first use, you'll see just how easy it is to send tweets from your browser, photo app, YouTube, Contacts, or Maps. iOS 5 doesn't come standard with a complete Twitter experience that lets you browse tweets as well, but during your first setup you'll find a handy button for downloading Twitter's … Read more

At the end of the 1960s it looked like transistors had completely replaced vacuum tubes for hi-fis, musicians' amplifiers, recording gear, etc., but then a handful of American high-end companies began designing new tube components. Audio Research was in the vanguard of the movement, and is still crafting electronics coveted by audiophiles across the globe. During my recent visit to the Audio Research factory in Plymouth, Minn., I spent some quality time listening to its least expensive integrated amplifier, the VSi60.

As high-end amplifiers go, the VSi60 isn't very big--it measures 14 inches by 8 inches by 16 inches--and … Read more

Whether you listen to music from the cloud, MP3s, CDs, LPs, cassettes, or 8-track tapes, it's always in stereo. So while multichannel SACD, DVD-A, or music-only Blu-ray discs trickle out, only a very small handful of recently recorded music is available in multichannel sound. If there was any real demand we would have surely seen an uptick in the number of surround releases, but that's not happening. Stereo rules the music world, which is why high-quality hi-fis aren't going out of fashion. Onkyo's new A-9070 integrated amplifier and C-7070 CD player are both sound investments.

The … Read more

I recently bought a NAD 3020 integrated amplifier on eBay for $66. The little amp was a smash hit in 1980 and instantly put NAD on the map. While the amp made its reputation as a giant killer, it's not very big--just 16 by 3.75 by 10 inches. And the look is bare-bones basic. The sound is something else again; as soon as I fired it up I remembered why budget-minded audiophiles bought more than a half million 3020s in about three years, making it the best-selling integrated amp of all time.

It was rated at just 20 … Read more

The rapid rise of cloud computing and near-ubiquity of software-as-a-service (SaaS) has breathed new life into the integration space, or so says Gaurav Dhillon, chairman and CEO of SnapLogic.

SnapLogic is a cloud integration company making a name for itself with technology that can "containerize" data, making it easier to move in and around disparate cloud and on-premise applications and data sources.

I caught up with Dhillon--perhaps best known as CEO and co-founder of publicly traded data integration pioneer Informatica in the early 1990s--after his cameo at Structure 2011 in San Francisco last month. I wanted to get … Read more