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Bluewin Beta Vorschau

CoCaman — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:42:22 +0000

Laut Alexa gehört bluewin.ch zu den 10 am meisten besuchten Webseiten der Schweiz (Rang 8). Und ist gleichzeitig die beliebteste, von einer Schweizer Firma betriebene.
Nun hat sich die Swisscom entschieden, das gesamte Design von Bluewin zu aktualisieren und ihr einen frischeren Look zu verpassen.

Gleichzeitig sollen möglichst viele Dienste von Swiscom in Bluewin.ch integriert werden. So verweisen viele Links direkt zum Swisscom Online-Kundencenter und das gesamte Swisscom Angebot ist in die Seite integriert/verlinkt.

Also äusserst nützlich finde ich beispielsweise die “CenterBar”. Dort sind viele wichtige Funktionen wie Telefonbuch (local.ch), Radio, Wetter, TV+Kino usw. zusammenfasst und übersichtlich dargestellt.

Zusammenfassend kann ich sagen, gefällt mir die aufgeräumte Seite. Sie wirkt sauber und trotz vielen Javascript Effekten nicht zu verspielt. Natürlich passt das neue Design mehr ins Corporate Design von Swisscom.
Leider fehlt jedoch eine Personalisierung. Ich kann weiterhin nicht auswählen, welche News-Bereiche mich nicht interessieren und diese ausblenden.
Ausserdem ist es etwas umständlich, zwischen den Hauptkategorien zu wechseln. Wenn ich beispielsweise einen Artikel in der Kategorie “Sport” lese, dann aber auf “Digital” wechseln möchte, muss ich immer über das riesige “Page-Down Popup” gehen.

Leider ist auch die “Seite Drucken” Funktion nicht wirklich nützlich. Neben der Werbung (die da definitiv nicht hingehört), wird das gesamte Seitenlayout, Navigation und der grosse Footer gedruckt. Definitiv eine Stelle, die noch verbessert werden muss.

Hier noch ein direkter Vergleich der alten, aktuellen Bluewin Seite und der Beta Version.

Artikel auf der aktuellen Bluewin Seite

Artikel in der Bluewin Beta

Die Beta-Version des neuen Bluewin-Portals ist frei zugänglich und kann über diesen Link erreicht werden. Wie findest du die Seite? Gut, schlecht? Was fehlt, was wurde gut gelöst? Feedback wie immer in die Kommentare

Unofficial Zattoo Android App (Android 2.2)

CoCaman — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:41:27 +0000

Warning: This app is in no way official or approved by Zattoo. I have just spend little over 2 hours to create this app. The data usage is like 6 megabytes per minutes. So make sure you use Wifi or a data flat rate if you watch TV.

Requirements

Android 2.2 (FroYo)
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 BETA (in the Android Market)
TV.Centerr (my app)

Screenshots

Download

Search for Zattoo or TV.Centerr or scan the QR code below. If you do not have Android 2.2 installed, the app will not show up!

Zattoo on Android Mobile Phones

CoCaman — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 11:36:25 +0000

I have created an Android Zattoo app!

I admit it, one thing that Android phones are missing are apps for live TV. There is a native app for Zattoo or Swiss newspapers offer apps to watch and record TV. But now thanks to Android 2.2 and Flash 10.1 for Android phones, I can now enjoy the full repertoire of TV channels on the Zattoo website.

The steam is very smooth, steady and the audio is great. The only problem are HiQ streams. Those are not synced and the video is not smooth. Other than that my quick test seems to be good. So get yourself Android 2.2, the Flash 10.1 BETA 3 and enjoy some Zattoo TV.

Apple Refreshes Mac Mini – Goes Insane on Price Differences

CoCaman — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:55:19 +0000

First things first: Apple refreshed their Mac Mini computer. Nice upgrade I have to admit. But there is also a downside. And as so often it lies in the price…

Update: as journalist and Apple user Thomas Benkö just noted, are the new prices CHF 300.- higher than for the old system.

Country	US-Dollar ($)	Swiss Franc (CHF)	Euro (€)	Difference
USA	$699	CHF 798	€ 572
Switzerland	$876	CHF 999	€ 717	+ 25%
Germany	$988	CHF 1’128	€ 809	+ 41%
France	$976	CHF 1’113	€799	+ 39%
Spain	$952	CHF 1’085	€779	+ 36%
Canada	$725	CHF 828	€595	+ 4%

Of course the US and Canada prices do not include taxes (usually around 10-15%). But even with that added, the Swiss Mac Mini is 10% more expensive.
I am particularly sorry for my German friends…

Google Maps Navigation Opens For More Countries

CoCaman — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:29:20 +0000

This is fresh of the Google press. The free and Google Maps based turn-by-turn navigation is now available in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. These countries join the already launched US and UK versions.
Thanks to this launch, Android owners in these countries have now a completely free and fast turn-by-turn navigation application on their handset.

Below I have pasted a few screenshots of a quick test on my HTC Desire phone.

The system is very simple to use. The biggest problem is, that it requires a data connection, to download the map for your navigation. Other than that, the system is very sophisticated and might be a real alternative to TomTom, Navigon and all those other navigation systems for your car.

Google With New Search Results Page

CoCaman — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 09:56:03 +0000

Just a couple of weeks after publicly launching their new look & feel and less then a week after allowing people to use custom backgrounds on the Google homepage, they do another redesign. As of today, I see preview pictures next to search results. Check out the screenshot below.

To use this, simply append “&tbs=prv:1” to your search url as in this example (original URL).

Google.com With Background

CoCaman — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:23:26 +0000

More and more, Google decides to move away from their simplistic and minimalistic look. Some lucky people can now set a background for the google.com engine.

You can either select and upload your own pictures or choose from the galleries “Public Gallery”, “Editor’s Picks” or your own Picasa Web Album. In the public gallery you can search the Picasa online site directly within the popup. Any image, even those NSFW.

After some tests I would suggest you use a darker picture. The Google logo and links are white once you have selected a design. And if you photo is white, you can’t really see any links. I miss some sort of preview option. I would love to preview my choice, before selecting it. I have no idea how big the image is and which parts are displayed once I have selected it.

Facebook – New Privacy Settings

CoCaman — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:52:23 +0000

Warning, HUGE screenshots

Steam for Mac is Here

CoCaman — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:34:07 +0000

Check this out! Valve just launched the Steam for Mac Platform. All your glorious Valve and Steam games are now available for your Macbook, iMac or other Mac Hardware.

Not all games are currently playable on the Mac platform, in fact, the only one I can play is Portal. But this is good enough for now .

No Related Posts

Apple Announces iPad Prices for Switzerland

CoCaman — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:55:07 +0000

Fresh of the ticker, these are the prices for the iPad in Switzerland. Pre-order starts on May 10th, delivering by end of May 2010.

	iPad with Wifi	iPad with 3G
16 GB	649.-	799.-
32 GB	779.-	929.-
64 GB	899.-	1049.-

(Table 1: iPad prices in Switzerland, in Swiss Francs)

Prices are roughly 30% over the US price. Not that bad in my humble opinion. Still won’t buy one

Thanks to Patrick for the list.

put.io Exits Beta Phase

CoCaman — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:03:30 +0000

Highly controversial video and download service put.io has just informed its beta testers about their official public launch in 7 days. Read the full email below. What is interesting to note with this launch is the fact, that put.io will only offer a limited amount of accounts. See the following screenshot.

And the accounts are going fast.

Will you set up an account or will you let go of put.io now that the beta testing is over? Post your thoughts in the comments.

We’re slowly coming out of beta right now. It’s time for
Put.io to start standing on it’s three feet.

The last 6 months were absolutely amazing. We’ve enjoyed
every minute of it and we’d like to extend our sincere
thanks to you.

You have found many bugs, helped us scale the service and
most importantly made Put.io an amazing place to be in.
Now, we would like to invite you to be among our first
customers. And as a token of our appreciation we’re giving
every beta tester who purchases a plan 100G’S OF EXTRA
BANDWIDTH. You will also RETAIN ANY BANDWIDTH YOU’VE
ACCUMULATED during beta.

As always, our capacity is limited due to the projects
intense hardware needs. So you should secure your slot right
now. If you do, we’ll start your subscription from the
official launch date.

To purchase please login to Put.io at your earliest
convenience and visit: https://put.io/account/upgrade

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DO NOTHING?

We’re going to launch officially in 7 DAYS. After that your
account will enter into LIMBO MODE for another 7 DAYS, where
you will still be able to download/stream from put.io to
your computer, but won’t be able to add new files. So you
will still have some time to clear the attic, even if you
don’t decide to stay with us.

Sincerely Yours,
Put.io Team

Apple iPad on 24?

CoCaman — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 19:31:24 +0000

When the iPad was publicly announced in January 2010, a producer of Fox’ tv action series “24″ reported on Twitter that they are working hard to get the iPad on the show. And now that the US launch of the iPad is less then a week away, I start to wonder, I we will see the device in action this Monday, as the fourteenth episode of season 8 is airing. Wouldn’t that be some great treat for the Apple and 24 fanboys? Watching Jack defuse a bomb with his iPad and Chloe hacking some firewall with the tablet?

Let us do some math. The last episode (ever) of 24 will be aired on May 24h. Production date of that episode will be around April 9th, several days after the availability of the iPad. That’s 45 days in between. Now lets calculate from the iPad event in January to next Monday’s episode: 62 days. Minus a few days/weeks of negotiation with Apple, it could very well be, that Apple’s iPad will have an appearance on 24 this coming Monday.

Google vs. China: What About Mobile?

CoCaman — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:50:38 +0000

Google today announced, that they redirect any services from google.cn (Google China) to their services at google.com.hk (Hong Kong). The reasons are, that google.com.hk is outside of the great Chinese firewall and therefor does not need to be self-censored. On the other side, this means that China can just block any traffic from inside to google.com.hk and hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet users are cut off from Google and their services like Blogger, Picasa, Adsense, Google News and others.

What makes me wonder is that, what happens to the tens of millions of mobile users? Isn’t Google all about mobile web and search? How are they going to offer their products to these users? Are they being redirected as well? Will more device makers switch to bing or Baidu?

Swisscom Xtrazone Neuer Launch

CoCaman — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:09:49 +0000

Die Swisscom scheint wohl gelernt zu haben. Nach dem ersten katastrophal Launch der neuen Xtrazone unter neuem Design im Oktober 2009 hat sich Swisscom nun Zeit gelassen und mitte Januar 2010 einige Benutzer zu einem exklusiven Betatest geladen.

Die rund 130 Tester und Testerinnen hatten fünf Tage zeit, die strukturtechnische Erneuerung ausgiebig zu testen. So erhielt jeder Tester 500 zusätliche SMS, die kostenlos an alle Schweizer Handys geschickt werden konnten. Es konnten Freunde hinzugefügt werden und systemintern Nachrichten ausgetauscht werden.

Die erste grosse Neuerung, die einem beim Login auffällt, ist das neue Captcha System. In meinen Tests handelte es sich dabei immer um deutsche Wörter. Wurden diese korrekt eingegeben, war die neue Xtrazone Welt offen.

Die Oberfläche und Bedienung des System hat sich gegenüber dem ersten Launch vom Oktober 2009 nicht oder nur gering verändert. Es können immer noch Freunde gesucht und hinzugefügt werden. Mit diesen lassen sich dann beliebig viele Xtra-Messages verschicken. Ähnlich funktionert das Nachrichten System auf Facebook (nicht der Chat). Mitglieder erkennen auf einen Blick ihr aktuelles SMS-/MMS-Guthaben. Es wird weiterhin Specials und Wettbewerbe geben. Die grösste Änderung für mich war, als ich festegestellt habe, dass hochgeladene Bilder neu von Menschen verifiziert werden. Gemäss Aussage von Swisscom ist dies leiter nötig geworden, um Missbrauch zu verhindern.

Mehr geändert hat sich jedoch im Hintergrund des Systems. So arbeiten jetzt mehrer Backendserver unter anderem in Bern und Luzern. Das System soll dadurch stabiler funktionieren und nicht unter der Last von tausenden simultanen Benutzerzugriffe zusammenbrechen. In der Betaphase waren jedoch nur wenig Benutzer zugelassen. Wie gut das System nun mit bedeutend mehr Benutzern reagiert wird sich erst nach dem Launch zeigen. Aber hoffentlich hat die Swisscom ihr System dieses mal in grösserem Umfang getestet.

Zusammengefasst kann ich sagen, dass es mich sehr gefreut hat, als Betatester dabei sein zu dürfen. Auch konnte ich einige Details in Erfahrung bringen. Ich hoffe natürlich, die Swisscom erlebt so ein Missgeschick wie beim letzten Launchversuch nicht erneut.

Webtuesday Job Board

CoCaman — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:07:02 +0000

A couple of days ago the official Webtuesday Job Board has been launched. Head over to the Webtueady wiki to take a look at open positions at some technology and Internet related companies in Zurich and Switzerland.

No matter if you are looking for a job as PHP or Ruby On Rails developer or as a system administrator in a Linux environment, chances are good some swiss startup is looking for a highly talented person.

Or if yourself are looking for talent, add your positions to the wiki and I am sure, people will contact you.