Adaptive Path’s Measure Map has been snapped up by Google according to Google’s Blog. Measuremap, though still in private beta, came to prominence as a free blog stats service that has been attracting great reviews. Using a great combination of Ajax and Flash, Measuremap gives you your information put into digestible chunks that is in layman’s terms. A product clearly with much potential there has been reports of performance problems recently though on larger sites which is ironic given the recent issues that Analytics had when first launched. The integration into Analytics is sure to follow and it will be interesting to see the results and how competitors like Mint respond. Their homepage has already been updated to reflect this takeover; with a link to Google’s blog at the top and a ‘Measure Map is a production of Google’.
With Apple’s OSX and the advent of Vista, Windows XP has begun to look really pretty stale and dated. This is understandable for an operating system that has been available for nearly 5 years but there’s a pretty simple stop gap solution that can keep us going until the next big Windows release.
The Energy Blue Theme originally came with Windows Media Center 2005 and then was released as part of an ‘Enhancment Pack’ for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. This slick and fresh theme has since been made available as a seperate download (one of the Tablet PC’s power toys) from Microsoft, but still no release for XP Home or Pro.
Think Secret has posted an article confirming rumours of a Ipod Video with 3.5" diagonal display and touch screen wheel. According to the site an announcement could be as soon as 1st April which would coincide with the companies 30th anniversary.
Apple has been working with at least two other companies to perfect the digital click wheel display technology. While not all the engineering was completed in-house by Apple, sources have said Apple could hold an exclusive license on the technologies it borrowed from other developers for a period of time, limiting the ability of competitors to copy Apple’s design.
Songbird, the Firefox based media player, was released as a ‘User Preview’ (read alpha) amid much fanfare today. Billed as an alterternative for Windows Media Player and Itunes, Songbird comes from Rob Lord of Winamp fame and a team based of developers from the Mozilla Foundation, Muse and the Yahoo Music Engine.
Songbird is a complete desktop media player or "jukebox" with a uniquely open approach to Internet digital media network services. Examples of digital media network services included; eMusic‘s á la carte MP3 store, Last.fm‘s social networking service, Odeo‘s podcast service or La Blogothèque, a personal MP3blog.
Apple today announced the 1GB Ipod Nano, retailing at $149 or £109 it is ready to ship according to both the US and UK online Apple Stores.
This has got to be a sensible business move for Apple after making the high end (Ipod) and middle (Nano) market their own, this entry level price point Nano is surely going to seal the lower end of the market. Surely the next step is to discontinue the 1GB Shuffle? Though still listed at $99 or £69, depending manufacturing levels, could it be a case of selling off the remaining stocks? Its is interesting that it coincides with Microsoft’s recent announcement that they’re looking at the portable music player market. At this late stage though surely they must have doubts about entering a marketplace that is so dominated by Apple.
