app

Flickr trends highlighted via Google-based app

What do you do when you can use the Internet to data-mine a collection of billions of photos?

Find out whether cats are more popular than dogs, of course. Or whether good outdoes evil. Or the Yankees beat the Mets.

The FlickrTrends application takes advantage first of the API (application programming interface) at Yahoo's photo-sharing site, Flickr, which can show how many photos have been tagged with a particular word over a period of time. Second, it uses Google App Engine to present the relative popularity of two tags in chart form to show what's waxing and waning. … Read more

Sonos updates iPhone controller app, launches limited-time bundle deals

A bit of news from the Sonos camp: the company has delivered a minor update to its iPhone controller app, and offered a short-term bundling deal for new customers.

The company launched its iPhone controller app--which lets any iPhone or iPod Touch control the company's multiroom digital music system--in October of 2008. Many Sonos owners liked the app more than the system's own CR100 remote (which is included in the two-room, $1,000 system, or available separately for $400). Today's minor upgrade adds multilingual support (Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish, in addition to English), alarm and sleep functions, and PC-free setup (instruct your Sonos to access network music folders without the need to install software on a computer).

The upgrade also enables the playback of DRM-encoded WMA files from the likes of the Zune Marketplace. Sonos is also trumpeting the fact that Apple's decision to drop DRM from its iTunes Store means that newly purchased iTunes music will stream perfectly on the Sonos system (though DRM iTunes music you've purchased in the past will need a de-DRM'd version--which requires an upgrade fee through Apple.)

Separately, Sonos is also running a short-term bundling deal for its hardware. Those who don't want to go for the $1,000 two-room bundle (one ZP90 base station, one ZP120 amplified base station, and one CR100 controller) can instead get $150 to $200 off when purchasing either the ZP90 or the ZP120 plus the CR100. The deal runs through May 31, 2009.

We've long prodded Sonos to lower its prices, but $600 to $700 for a one-room system is still too rich for our blood. If you've already got an iPhone or iPod Touch, a better choice would be to pick up a single ZP90 for $350, and just grab the free Sonos controller app--you'll just need a stereo or a pair of powered speakers to hear your music. (That's assuming you don't already have an Apple TV or an AirPort Express--in which case you can cobble together your own Apple-ized multiroom audio system as well, albeit without access to the wider range of non-iTunes music services available on the Sonos.)

Check out Sonos' demo video of the iPhone controller app below (we've tested it, and can vouch that the video is a good representation of the software and hardware.)… Read more

Virgin to migrate customers onto Google Mail

Virgin Media plans to move all its home broadband customers onto the Google Mail platform, the company said on Wednesday.

Google's Web-based e-mail service is known as Google Mail in the UK and Germany, and Gmail in the rest of the world.

According to the Internet service provider, the Web-mail rollout will extend to all of its 4 million home broadband customers, but there will be a delay before it reaches everybody. While the customers will be moved off Virgin Media's existing e-mail platform, they will be able to retain their existing e-mail addresses.

The company said the rollout will be one of the largest deployments to date of Google Partner Edition Apps, which lets businesses and individual customers use Google's communication and collaboration applications under their own domain names.

"New customers signing up will get it now and we will start to roll it out to all our customers but it will take time for everyone to get it," a spokesperson for Virgin Media told ZDNet UK.

The service, which will provide each user with 7GB of e-mail storage, will be piloted by the first 20,000 new customers, Virgin Media said in a statement. The full launch to all new customers will follow "shortly," the company said, after which existing customers will be migrated across to the new service. They will be able to keep their existing @blueyonder.co.uk, @ntlworld.com, or @virgin.net e-mail addresses, or sign up for new @virginmedia.com e-mail addresses. … Read more

Webware Radar: RetailMeNot unleashes printable coupons

RetailMeNot, an online destination for coupons and discounts, announced Tuesday that it has a new printable coupon offering, dubbed RetailMeNot Printable. According to the company, users will be able to print more than 90,000 coupons from thousands of companies.

RetailMeNot also announced that it has partnered with MoneyMailer, Redplum, and Valpak, to provide its users with more printable in-store coupons. The company didn't disclose the details, but it did say that it will continue to add partners to expand the volume of the coupons it offers. Its Printable service is live now.

Rhode Island's general treasurer, Frank … Read more

Apple nearing 1 billion apps served

Apple is approaching the 1 billion mark for applications downloaded from the App Store, and plans to give out a host of Apple gear to the lucky billionth customer.

The company put up a countdown Web page Friday as it gets closer to the mark: as of this writing, about 928 million applications have been downloaded from the App Store since it went live last July, according to the counter. Whoever manages to download the 1 billionth application will come away with a pretty good haul: a MacBook Pro, a 32GB iPod Touch, a Time Capsule, and a $10,000 … Read more

Read It Later's new iPhone app works offline

Read It Later (download), the bookmarking meets productivity tool has a new iPhone app out (review it). It lets you sync up with your desktop reading list and pick up stories while away from your computer. But the real reason to get it, is that like the desktop version it lets you save stories for offline reading, giving you a way to catch up on content even when you're away from a sturdy data connection.

There's both a free and pro version. The pro version, which costs $2.99, adds in things like a bookmarklet for saving links … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Google App Engine could bring cloud apps mainstream

As the concept of cloud computing is becoming more familiar to people, Google is now making it easier to write programs that use it. Reporter Stephen Shankland stops by the podcast studio to talk about why a change Google made to its App Engine could dramatically increase the number of cloud-based apps on the market.

Also in this podcast: International spies hack into U.S. electricity grid; Silicon Valley venture capitalists feeling more positive; and Taiwan's Elan sues Apple over touchscreen patents used in the MacBook, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:… Read more

15 cool apps from the Google Applications Gallery

Google's App Engine, which lets developers run their Web apps on Google's infrastructure, enjoyed its one-year anniversary Tuesday. To mark the occasion, let's take a look at 15 applications from the company's Applications Gallery. (All of the apps are ordered by the category listing on the Applications Gallery.)

Web Tools

PrintWhatYouLike: Instead of printing out an entire Web page, PrintWhatYouLike lets you remove elements from the page that you don't want to print, set the page to a particular width, or print specific areas of a site. Even though I found this utility last night, … Read more

For Googledom, start here

A vast improvement on its BlackBerry predecessor, Google Mobile App is primarily a search app that also serves as a portal to other Google Web apps. It's anchored by a search bar, with a string of icons along marching along the top. Click one to download or launch native Google apps like Gmail and maps, or to jump to mobile Web sites for the panoply of Google apps.

Warmly welcomed are autocomplete search suggestions, the ability to scroll through search history, and the ability to edit a misspelled search term and begin a new search. Brand new is a … Read more

Google Mobile App for BlackBerry: First Look

Google's Mobile App for BlackBerry picks up two new features in version 3.3 that are all but guaranteed to make your search results more reliable. Also, see what the voice search app has in store for our British friends over the pond. Check it out in this First Look video.