David Lidsky's Blog, page 3379
December 12, 2013
Is Google Waging War On Email Marketers?
First it was Gmail Tabs that irked marketers. But now, with changes to how images display in emails, Google has taken away marketers' ability to track the success of campaigns.
For years, Gmail turned off inline images by default, requiring users to manually display them if they so desired. That changed Thursday, when Google announced it would serve Gmail images through its own secure proxy servers: Inline photos will be displayed automatically without posing a security risk to recipients. Inadvertently or not, the rollout of this feature gives Google an upper hand against email marketers.
This App Had The Worst Possible Launch Timing
Third-party app LIFTTT debuted location-based recipes two days before IFTTT, which is almost certainly a recipe for obsolescence. But here's why LIFTTT might actually be better.
IFTTT activated an iOS location channel to much fanfare today. With this addition, people can build geo-based recipes that do things like post to Facebook when they're back in their hometowns, save wedding Instagram photos to a Dropbox folder, or log hours on the job to a spreadsheet.
How Do Couples Stick Together? A New Series of Documentary Shorts Reveals The Secrets Of Enduring Love Stories
Kickstarting: The producers of the Global Glue Project want to create an archive of lasting relationships.
What does it take for two people to stick together until death do us part? The makers of the Global Glue Project is on a mission to find out. For the last three years, producers filmed 52 couples in eight countries, following relationships that have lasted as long as 70 years and as little as one. They've now launched a Kickstarter to turn each couple's story into a short documentary about the challenges of creating that life-long bond.
With WordPress Update, A Lot More Websites Will Be Completely Responsive
WordPress 3.8 comes less than two months after version 3.7, bringing with it redesigned themes, a streamlined dashboard, and refreshed admin interface.
Clarification: The Wordpress 3.8 rollout brings a new magazine-style default theme called 2014, which is responsive on mobile devices. As commenters have pointed out, the dashboard is also responsive.
Twitter's Most Popular Tweets, 2013: Paul Walker's Death, Boston Marathon Bombing, More
More than ever before, tweeters took on the news--and television.
This was the year all news was tweeted.
Why Printer Ink Should Be Packaged Like Chanel No. 5
It's not as absurd as you think. You won't believe what printer ink is actually costing you.
There are few liquids on Earth that cost more than printer ink. In fact, at a cost of $4,285 per liter, it's almost double the cost of even the most expensive perfumes. Put that way, there are few people on Earth who would argue that printer ink is actually worth that much, yet that is what the vast majority of us pay, ounce by ounce, and cent by cent. As a way of highlighting the absurd cost of printer ink, Australian artist Celeste Watson has subversively redesigned the packaging of Hewlett Packard printing ink to resemble Chanel No. 5.
Instagram Unveils Direct Messaging System For Private Group Photo Sharing
Kevin Systrom unveils Direct, which he calls "a simple way to send photos and videos to your friends."
Today in New York City, Instagram unveiled Direct, a new product which cofounder Kevin Systrom calls a "a simple way to send photos and videos to your friends." Until now, Instagram users could only share their photos with all of their followers; this new feature enables users to share media to specific friends or groups.
Digital Cameras Are Messing With Your Memory
New research finds a "photo-taking-impairment effect": when people take a picture, they forget the moment.
Socrates once feared that technology would corrupt human memory. Quaint as it sounds today, he was worried about a form of communication called writing. The more easily people could access something in a document, he reasoned, the less inclined they'd be to remember it.
This Smart Sleep Mask Helps You Rest Better in Less Time
A Polish startup wants to help you quantify your sleep cycles, wake up refreshed in the morning, and take more efficient naps.
Studies say up to a quarter of Americans don't get enough sleep, and there's no shortage of articles about how to function better with power naps and elaborate "polyphasic" sleep-and-wake cycles.
December 11, 2013
Expect Labs Releases A Voice-Activated Search App: MindMeld
The app only listens to you when you want it to--but Expect Labs envisions a future when your gadgets listen to you all the time.
Imagine a world where devices are so smart they surface the information you're looking for the moment you think of it. An emerging field, anticipatory computing takes its cues from various sources to determine what consumers want before they can even type it.
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