by alec on November 21, 2009
Qwisk is a new social browsing tool that launched yesterday at the TechCrunch Real-Time CrunchUp. Qwisk lets you quickly and easily share content with your social networks (Twitter and Facebook supported, plus the Qwisk network). It inserts a messaging pane on the left side of your screen to give you access to your social networks as you browse, and adds a sharing toolbar at the top of the screen to allow you to share content as you browse. To access content that others have shared, you simply click the individual messages in the messaging pane. To share content, press the appropriate button in the toolbar.
One can also start an IM-like conversation about a particular page with another Qwisk user by simply dragging that person’s image from the left pane onto the page.
It’s a clever implementation, although others have tried similar projects before (anyone remember me.dium?). The timing for a social sharing tool, however, is better than it has been previously as sites like Twitter and Facebook have rapidly become a constant firehose of links. Moreover, every link shared via Qwisk is actually a link embedded into Qwisk, making each user who clicks into a Qwisk user. Qwisk should propagate virally, and very very quickly.
In use Qwisk is reasonably unobtrusive, although it requires the user to remember to browser using the Qwisk URL bar rather than the standard browser bar. With large widescreen monitors, the extra real estate Qwisk consumes isn’t an issue. It might be irritating on a netbook. It is, however, far too easy to leave the Qwisk environment – the simple act of clicking on a link forwarded via email brings up the browser without the Qwisk add-ins. The Qwisk team needs to find a way to make their tool a permanent feature of my browsing environment, and not something I have to remember to browse to each time before beginning to browse.
Will people leave the tools they’ve become accustomed to for Qwisk? That part is unclear. Tweetdeck is a staple in my toolbox because of the other features – searches, filters, and so on – and not so much the fact that it makes it easy to share content. Qwisk, while promising, has more work to do before it’s a replacement for me.
by alec on November 18, 2009
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been playing with the Yamaha SoundGadget PSG-01S – a Skype-certified speakerphone provided to me for evaluation. This pint-sized device provides business travellers with a high quality portable alternative to the conference phones that can be found in boardrooms everywhere.
The SoundGadget packs an array of four microphones and two speakers into a tiny rectangular pillar standing less than 5 inches tall. The speakers support frequencies from 300 Hz to 20 KHz, making them an excellent alternative to the cheap units in most laptops, especially for casual music, video and podcast audio. The microphones are arranged in a 360 degree array at the top of the unit, with internal echo cancellation and noise reduction firmware. It’s intended to be used at a table for meetings, but it also worked incredibly well for me as I walked around my office. The extra microphones apparently made a huge difference.
Windows 7 recognizes the SoundGadget as a simple USB microphone and speaker combo. To the operating system, it’s little more than a USB headset. However, with the addition of the convenient utility packaged with the SoundGadget, the row of buttons on the side of the device are now activated. You can now answer and hang up calls with the touch of a button rather than searching the desktop for Skype. That’s a nice usability improvement, albeit not completely necessary.
If this were just a speakerphone it would be a handy gadget. However, recognizing that road warriors prefer to be economical about weight and baggage (see Jim Courtney’s comments about his recent experiences flying to Europe with the SoundGadget), Yamaha has added a couple of extra features to expand the SoundGadget’s appeal.
- When turned on its side, the SoundGadget converts from a mono speakerphone into a tiny set of stereo speakers. In my use, it was a nice improvement over the speakers in my HP laptop.
- Coupled with the software utility included, the SoundGadget can also function as a high quality microphone for recording podcasts or even music.
Until December 31, 2009 the SoundGadget is available at $199.90 at any Skype Store. In fact, the price is my only reservation about this device. To ameliorate that, it’s being offered with a full money back guarantee during this promotional period. If you don’t like it, just ship it back at their expense before January 31, 2010 for a full refund.
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