This post describes how  to download videos directly from youTube as 480×360 MP4 files. The quality is visibly better than the .flv files offered on youTube, and it’s pretty straightforward. Nice.

Interesting interaction study with robots from New Scientist:

People prefer robots that do small talk

I’m sure this applies to interaction design in general - that it’s not so important how long a task takes, as long as some kind of response is immediate so that the user doesn’t feel they’re being ignored altogether.

How many elements can you name? http://www.sporcle.com/games/elements.php

(Edit) I got 27 out of 114, and gave up with 3 minutes left…

One is live now and one is for downloading in the spring.

One competes with Sharepoint, one competes with Google Earth.

Here’s an introduction to Sites. And a demonstration of the Telescope from TED.

No opinions on this one. Sorry. Bit busy right now.

The Pottery Barn rule doesn’t apply.

Wait a few moments after the page has loaded. Couldn’t see how to turn it of though.

Thanks to Tracey Wood.

“The Big Word Project is redefining words. You pick a word and link it to your website. Your website is then the new definition. Simple.”

And it costs $1 per word.

http://www.thebigwordproject.com/ 

There’s a new Elmo toy out. Movement is standing, sitting, a variety of arm and head/jaw positions. These a combined with voice, as he appears to move his mouth at roughly the same time, so that he tells stories, jokes and generally makes quite a bit of noise.

In the demo they squeeze every last combination out - I’m not massively convinced but then I’m not the target market. For me to be held by this a greater vocal dynamic range would be the way forwards - fill the gaps with audio, let the imagination do the rest. It works in parts of the story.

Anyhow, here’ s the video:

Quite long but worth it for the commentary from “Chris Byrne - The Toy Guy” at the end. I’m not sure if he’s a celebrity in this world but when you’re able to get away with phrases like:

“children live in a world where there’s more realism around them than ever before”

then it’s a distinct possibility.

Sourced from: I4U

Great article on the considerations of bringing Flash to the iPhone platform.

There are currently two ways to develop software for the iPhone (and iPod Touch): using HTML/CSS/JavaScript web standards, and using Cocoa. Cocoa is proprietary, but from Apple’s perspective, it’s the good sort of proprietary: a competitive advantage completely owned and controlled by Apple. Apple doesn’t control the HTML/CSS/JavaScript web standards, but neither does anyone else. And Apple does control and own WebKit, which is by anyone’s measure the best mobile implementation of these standards today.

From the excellent Daring Fireball.