Top 10 WordPress Plugins 2012 | Best WordPress Blog Plugins
http://deanethridge.com/blogging-tips/10-best-wordpress-plugins/ What are the best WordPress plugins to install for your blog in 2012? Slow page loads, blog …
Excerpt from: Top 10 WordPress Plugins 2012 | Best WordPress Blog Plugins
Google Fiber TV gets its first 3D channels: 3net included with plan and ESPN3D for an extra $5 per month
Google on Thursday announced Fiber TV has received its first 3D channels: 3net and ESPN3D. The rollout has already begun; existing customers can find 3net on channel 338, and they can call Google to sign up for ESPN3D.
The reason for the difference between the two is simple. 3net is available to all subscribers of Google’s “Gigabit + TV Plan” while ESPN3D will set you back an additional $5 per month (plus tax) on top of your Gigabit + TV plan (which is already $120 per month).
3net features an “extensive library” of original 3D programming, including natural history, documentary, action/adventure, kids and family, lifestyle and cuisine, concerts, movies scripted series, and so on. ESPN3D is meanwhile being pegged as “the industry’s first 24/7 3D sports network” so if you couldn’t care less about the game, you can probably skip this one.
Here’s Google’s pitch:
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again — we’re committed to making these qualities that you’ve come to expect from Google Fiber TV better and better. And, thanks to the amazing capacity of Fiber, we can also include some new experiences and tools that will make watching TV even cooler. For example, 3D channels.
Nevertheless, we can’t help but feel this rollout is way too early. Not only do you need to own 3D glasses and a 3D-capable TV, but you also have to have Google Fiber. 3D TV adoption is slow because of the high extra cost versus the arguably small gain, while Google Fiber TV adoption is slow because of the high extra cost and limited availability (don’t live in Kansas City? Tough luck).
Add those two together and you have an incredibly small market. We’re willing to bet the number of people with this setup is less than a thousand, if not under one hundred.
That being said, we have no problem with Google continuing to push forward with Fiber. 3D, or really any content that requires more bandwidth, makes perfect sense for the product.
It’s just important to remember not to get too excited: Fiber really is the beta products of beta products.
See also – Google Fiber gets more TV channels, to “sweeten the deal” for Kansas City residents and Google announces 2013 application deadlines for Fiber Internet in 5 more Kansas City neighborhoods
Image credit: MJimages
Android Jelly Bean hits 16.5% adoption, ICS continues slow slide, and Gingerbread finally falls below 45%
Google updated its Platform Versions Web page for Android on Tuesday, and slow progress is still being made, with some notable milestones in the last month. Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) are still growing and have passed the 15 percent mark, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is starting to slip and will likely never pass the 30 percent mark. Finally, and arguably most importantly, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is now on less than 45 percent of devices.
Breaking down the numbers more specifically, 16.5 percent of Android users are using Jelly Bean, 28.6 percent have devices powered by ICS, 1.2 percent are on Honeycomb, 44.2 are stuck with Gingerbread, and 7.6 percent unfortunately still have Froyo. Here’s how the current Android landscape looks like in graph and table form:
Compared to last month, Android has shown its usual slow but notable progress. Android 4.2 has budged a minute 0.2 percentage points (from 1.4 percent to 1.6 percent) while Android 4.1 has gained a huge 5.9 percentage points (from 9.0 percent to 14.9 percent).
Android 4.0 has indeed peaked, as we guessed last month. It has dropped another 0.4 percentage points (from 29.0 percent to 28.0 percent), meaning it will likely never cross the 30 percent mark.
Android 2.3 meanwhile is down 1.4 percentage points (from 45.6 percent to 44.2 percent) and Android 2.2 fell 0.5 percentage points (from 8.1 percent to 7.6 percent). The bigger picture remains unchanged: Gingerbread (released December 2010) is first, ICS (October 2011) is second, the latest and greatest Jelly Beans (June 2012 and November 2012) are third, and Froyo (May 2010) is fourth.
Given that we think ICS has peaked, we expect Jelly Bean to move up into second place by the summer months. Nevertheless, Gingerbread will probably remain in first throughout the majority of 2013.
Again, this is all assuming that Key Lime Pie devices don’t somehow take the world by storm. Given that the Galaxy S4 will be announced in less than two weeks, and will likely ship a few months later, Jelly Bean will continue to plow forward and Key Lime Pie simply won’t be able to catch up this year (until Samsung and carriers push out an update).
Image credit: Jenny Rollo
Facebook Employees Do The “Harlem Shake”
Multiple Facebook employees just shared this clip of a bunch of Facebookers doing the “Harlem Shake” dance at their HQ. Supposedly some of the Instagram team and COO Sheryl Sandberg participated, but I can’t spot them (Oh, but please try your best to). I wonder if Zuck is the Smiley Face lemon balloon guy ..?
Of course this made our team jealous. “Just as with ‘Shit Tech Reporters Say,’ ‘Call Me Maybe,’ and ‘Gangnam Style,’ TechCrunch was slow on the draw to produce its own gag-inducing meme-following viral video,” Ryan Lawler sullenly remarked, “Let’s change that next time, people!”
If you don’t know what the Harlem Shake is, you should a) befriend more people with the access and desire to use the Internet b) read this simple Buzzfeed guide on how to replicate the phenomenon.
Here’s the video that started it all, via “Know Your Meme.”
More: Facebook Employees Do The “Harlem Shake”
Better For Companies: Slow And Steady Or Fast And Furious?
This year was a pretty amazing one in technology: Many startups were funded and acquired, and there were some real advancements made in the way that we communicate on a a daily basis. I’d definitely call 2012 a major win, but it’s been interesting to watch how companies operate to reach their goals and hit moving targets.
Sure, it’s not new that companies have to completely shift directions when something they’re doing is flat out not working or the space that they’re in is oversaturated.
How they get there is the key, and there’s more than one way to skin that cat. Two trends I saw this year, which are polar opposites, were the “slow and steady” approach and the “hacker mentality” of pushing things fast and iterating quickly. Some companies had success with their choice of operating procedure, and some didn’t. Let’s take a look at a few of them.
No company comes up with ideas and executes them as quickly as Facebook. It’s the “Hacker Way,” after all. You’ve seen it as recently as the launch of “Poke”, it’s Snapchat “competitor.” Mark Zuckerberg and company wanted this functionality for its 1 billion users, and when it couldn’t acquire Snapchat, it built it itself in just 12 days.
Did it work? It seems like it, since the app hit the No. 1 free spot on Apple’s App Store. Facebook Gifts? Quick hit and it’s great. Messenger and Camera? Same thing. Acquiring Instagram? Brilliant move. But it’s not always roses for Facebook when it comes to its fast-and-furious approach.
When it comes to privacy policies and terms of services changes, it just seems that Facebook’s quick approach rubs people the wrong way. Change is difficult, especially when it comes to personal information. With its own changes and Instagram’s as well, things got hairy.
Maybe Facebook should slow down on those types of initiatives.
Google’s 2012 was one of patience. The company watched what the rest of the world was doing, especially Microsoft, Facebook and Apple. What Google did was consistently put out amazing products, with partners, that pleased and delighted audiences. The Nexus 7 and 10 were both a long time coming, and the waiting paid off. The products are amazing. The same thing goes for its newly released Chromebooks.
When it comes to social, Google was very meticulous about its presentation of Google+. Nobody who works for Google ever explained it as a social network, yet the media ran with the “Facebook vs. Google+” story, because it was easy to write. Looking at Google+ as a social network is purely lazy thinking.
What Google is doing with social is integrating functionality into all of its products in a very slow, planned out, way. It’s working for them. Look at the Maps debacle with iOS. Google had been working on a native Maps app for iOS for quite a while, but didn’t rush it out when the market was screaming for it.
Google did things slowly and intelligently, and it worked out for them in the long run.
Apple
Let’s not kid ourselves. Apple has the best year ever every year. The iPad mini will probably be the hit gift of the holiday season, and along with a new iPhone, laptops and computers, the fanboys, including myself, are happy campers.
In the above case, Apple was nice and slow with its rollout, as it always is. However, there was one rushed misstep, and that would be Maps for iOS 6. It’s an awful product that wasn’t ready for primetime. Apple wanted to distance itself in that space from Google so much that it released an inferior product.
And that’s something Apple simply doesn’t do often. Its CEO, Tim Cook, even apologized for it. That fast-and-furious approach didn’t work in this case, and Google’s slow-but-sure approach did.
Microsoft
What can we say about Microsoft? The company does really well in the enterprise space, but can’t get its stuff together when it comes to regular old consumers. If you’ve used a Surface, you know what rushed looks like. The product is horrible, and the operating system wasn’t complete either.
When a consumer product is riddled with bugs and slowness, you can tell that the company behind it wanted it out of the gates to simply “compete.” Xbox continues to dominate, and for some reason Microsoft takes its time with releasing new consoles and games. And it works.
Why can’t this approach be taken with its core products and new offerings? I have no idea, but Microsoft is a mess.
Snapjoy
For me, Snapjoy is the startup story of the year. Yes, even over Instagram.
This small team from Boulder set out to build a fantastic photo-hosting service that they’d want to use themselves. They never rushed a thing, even when they were finished at Y Combinator. People sniffed around at what they were working on, but the site was never fully opened to the public in a “finished” format. It was always beta.
The team pushed out release after release, feature after feature, a brilliant iPhone app built for the iPhone 5 experience — and all of that hard work paid off.
The company recently sold to Dropbox, which is an absolute match made in heaven. The guys at Snapjoy didn’t rush. They took their time, and it paid off. Big time. That team will now head up the photo division at Dropbox, and everyone should keep an eye on that company for a slew of reasons.
Yes, Instagram. The company sold to Facebook for more than $700 million when all was said and done. The co-founders turned down a deal from Twitter and stuck to its guns when it came to what it wanted to be acquired for.
Its CEO, Kevin Systrom, spoke to Zuckerberg off and on, and finally got the deal that was right for him and his employees. They all now work at Facebook but stay in a tidy self-contained unit. His patience, as well as Instagram’s patience and passion for its users, paid off. Big time.
The terms of service and privacy changes? See Facebook. Not smart.
Most of these companies saw success in the long run, or are on their way to a huge 2013, but they all took different approaches. Find the one that works for you and your company and stick with it. Consistency always wins, and even when you have to change directions quickly, selling yourself out for a “fast win” isn’t always the way to go.
Remember, it’s your users who matter, because they are your customers. Whether you’re selling hardware or giving “software” away, if you don’t have customers, you have nothing.
Here’s to 2013.
[Photo credit: Flickr]
Excerpt from: Better For Companies: Slow And Steady Or Fast And Furious?