Advocate's Studio

I have talked about intelligent news readers here in the Studio before, so why not again? Genieo (link here) is another entrant in the arena of relevance-based reporting. Genieo is a desktop application based on proprietary algorithms that “read” user behavior, learn relevancies and feed back content tuned to user interest. That information is viewable through a dynamic, personal content portal, a/k/a home page. From the site:

The company’s vision is to become the leading source of user behavioral modeling, supplying content and application providers with effective means to address their users’ needs, and help advertisers and publishers with targeting personalized ads, with the utmost precision.

The process is simple enough – download the Genieo software and make your settings, allow Genieo some time to pull together your interests and profile and create your home page, and open your browser to your page. It will show, in magazine format, top news headlines, actual and real-time updates and filtered Facebook and Twitter updates. Everything shown will be related to your interests and Genieo will refine those interests over time as you use their service. You can also manually adjust interests to direct the process.

Some cool adds? Genieo will auto-update your bookmarks as you visit sites and manage these bookmarks based on your level of interest and interaction with them, all without interfering with your browser’s own bookmarking system. A Mini Topic Filtering System sifts through all information at the “highest resolution”, continually bringing items exclusively relevant to you. You can pull real-time updates from events you are following, stocks, sports (WORLD CUP!!!!) or developing news stories. Unobtrusive notifications of updates are displayed on your screen as you work. And, of course, there is the ubiquitous ability to one-click share your stories with your networks.

Genieo offers an interface modded for iPhone – simply navigate to my.genieo.com, log in, and get your information iPhone-sized. You can also pull your Genieo feed into your favorite RSS reader.

Lots of relevancy-based coolness from the fine folks at Genieo! Curate your own news now, automatically!

Still on the fence about the iPad? Lists are so very, very helpful. How about this great list of iPad pros and cons compiled by Zee over at The Next Web (link here). These are initial, hands-on comments from early testers, so they are not based entirely on conjecture. For ease, I will requote Zee’s list here, but feel free to head over there for his thoughts:

Positives

• Sleek, light, silver-and-black
• As an e-book or digital periodical reader, it works brilliantly (better than the Amazon Kindle in Mossberg’s  opinion)
• Runs all iPhone apps 150,000+ of them.
• Large screen allows much more functionality than you initially imagine.
• If you’re mainly a web surfer, note-taker, social-networker and emailer, and a consumer of photos, videos, books, periodicals and music—this is for you.
• The iPad is thinner and lighter than any netbook or laptop Mossberg has seen.
• It boasts a big, bright color 9.7-inch screen that occupies most of the front
• It has a decent speaker, and even a tiny microphone.
• iPad’s battery life great, Mossberg found it to be even longer than Apple’s ten-hour claim (He played movies, TV shows and other videos back-to-back until the iPad died). Lasted 11 hours and 28 minutes. “I was able to watch four feature-length movies, four TV episodes and a video of a 90-minute corporate presentation. All with wi-fi running and email downloading in background.”
• Overall speed of the iPad, “wicked fast”
• Typing accurately and quickly on the iPad’s wide on-screen keyboard was perectly comfortable and fast.
• The Web browser also works beautifully.
• Watching videos, viewing photos, listening to music, reading books and playing games was “satisfying and fun”.
• Generally the iPad apps are much better than their iPhone equivalents, but more expensive, but some free.
• The photo app is striking, and much more like the one on the Mac than the one on the iPhone. The device can even be used as a digital picture frame.
• Reading the news on iPad was the “best implementation of the newspaper” (WSJ) Mossberg has ever seen.
• iBooks is superior to the Kindle, and encountered no eye strain says Mossberg. (but heavier)
• You can search text in iBooks and it will open to a specific page
• The simple act of making the multitouch screen bigger changes the whole experience. Maps become real maps, like the paper ones.
• there’s no contract. (By tapping a button in Settings, you can order up a month of unlimited cellular Internet service for $30)
• It gives portable game machines from Nintendo and Sony a run for their money.
• Apple expects more than 1,000 iPad-specific apps to be available at launch,

Negatives

• The Apple iPad is basically a gigantic iPod Touch says Pogue.
• No physical keyboard
• no Webcam
• no USB ports
• no multitasking.
• No headphones with the device
• Not as good for writing or editing longer documents
• Not good for anything that requires Flash.
• battery is sealed in and nonreplaceable
• Memory, also sealed in and nonexpandable (ranges from 16 gigabytes to 64 gigabyte)
• no stand but $39 iPad case works well.
• iWork works well, a “serious content creation app”, but exporting to Microsoft’s formats (which only Pages can do) doesn’t work so well.
• No Weather, Clock and Stocks apps.
• iPad heavier than Kindle
• Most people need two hands to use iPad
• The iBooks app also lacks any way to enter notes, and Apple’s catalog at launch will only be about 60,000 books versus more than 400,000 for Kindle.
• email app lacks the ability to create local folders – email app doesn’t include rules for auto-sorting messages
• email app doesn’t include group addressing
• No tabs in Safari
• Wifi only version lacks GPS.
• Wide screen view can be awkward. Either you have black bars in wide screen view or you get some of your image cut off in fill screen view.
• There’s an e-book reader app, but it’s not going to rescue the newspaper and book industries says Pogue
• At 1.5 pounds, the iPad gets heavy in your hand after awhile (the Kindle is 10 ounces)
• You can’t read books from the Apple bookstore on any other machine — not even a Mac or iPhone.
• When the very glossy 9.7-inch screen is off, every fingerprint is grossly apparent.
• You can’t read well in direct sunlight
• Pogue: “When the iPad is upright, typing on the on-screen keyboard is a horrible experience; when the iPad is turned 90 degrees, the keyboard is just barely usable (because it’s bigger). A $70 keyboard dock will be available in April, but then you’re carting around two pieces.”
• Pogue: “The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money — with a full keyboard, DVD drive, U.S.B. jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works.”
• The new iBooks e-reader app is filled with endearing grace notes.
• Apple says that 150,000 existing iPhone apps run on the iPad but many appear or small and dead center on the screen — or, with a tap, doubled to fill the screen, a little blurry.
• Skype (even voice calls, through its speaker and microphone). Just no video
• Pogue: The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget.
• Pogue: The iPad is not a laptop. It’s not nearly as good for creating stuff.
• Pogue: It’s infinitely more convenient for consuming it — books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail and so on.
• You will have to buy into the iTunes ecosystem, of course, to watch movies, read e-books and sync up the apps.
• You have to purchase a $29 iPad Camera Connection Kit, which lets you connect a USB camera or import photos via an SD card.
• Baig: “Many people will still need a more traditional computer. You can’t edit video on an iPad. And the virtual onscreen keyboard that pops up when needed is fine for e-mails or scribbling notes, but I wouldn’t want to regularly write articles using it. “
• No coverflow in iTunes

Hit the jump above to The Next Web for reviewers’ overall impressions and the link to a video review.

What do you think? Does this change your mind in one direction or the other?

Twitter and RSS are popular sources for examining the flow of news through the internet pipeline. But there are other ways to get your goods. I have discussed Lazyfeed, the real-time blog aggregator / updater, here in the Studio. Now another tool has emerged to help you stay on top of breaking news and site changes.

Readfresh is a web site that collects your favorite web pages, and brings the most recently updated sites to the top of the screen, so you can see what’s new at a glance.After signing up (you can use Facebook Connect) and entering your favorite web site URLs, just sit back and watch the sites shift and flow as new information is added to them.

You also can search for content via Readfresh. Use the Search tab to search the latest updates across all sites in the Readfresh index.

It has a nice, simple interface, which is both a benefit and a drawback. Consider using Readfresh if you only have a handful of sites to follow. For power readers, the interface may not capture enough of the breaking information for your tastes. Nonetheless, if you are new to following changing web content, Readfresh might be a good starting point.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Invisible RSS Technology in Visual Feed Readers: RSS for the Rest of Us (readwriteweb.com)
• More Focus, Less Distraction Means Less Twitter More RSS (trishussey.com)
• ReadFresh.com – The Latest News At Your Fingertips (killerstartups.com)

Sometimes it is tough getting an unbiased view of current events. Everyone knows that news outlets can’t help but color their works with their own special tint. What is the searcher of neutral news to do?

Well, try Newsy for one. Newsy is a relatively recent addition to the world of web news applications, of which there is no dearth. What makes Newsy unique is its treatment of news stories by inclusion and analysis of various news stories, media and sources with respect to each single news-worthy event. Obviously, one can glean all sorts of information from merely watching or reading the different takes. But there is even more to be learned about the story by examining which facts are emphasized, how much time and effort is devoted to the story, and other indirect characteristics of a given report. And Newsy provides its own version of the story, ostensibly culled from the various media outlets’ reports. Newsy’s self description from their site explains that:

Newsy.com is unlike any other news service on the web – we highlight the key differences in reporting so that you can understand all the angles of a story.

As indicated on the site, you will find CNN right next to Al Jazeera, the BBC next to ABC, and content from newspapers, news magazines and top blogs.

In a sense, Newsy not only aggregates news, but offers a means of analysis unavailable in typical news aggregators. Why fall prey to the game of telephone, when you can put everyone on the line in a conference call?

You can keyword browse by tags and filter content by popularity, recency, most commentary and highest ratings. There is also a category for editors picks. While not all news sources and news stories are represented, Newsy is definitely a place to check because its treatment of the stories offers a unique perspective.

Even cooler is the free Newsy iPhone app, so you can take your news analysis on the go.

If you are a news junkie, or simply a researcher looking for the widespread treatment of a particular story, Newsy is a hard application to overlook.

Hat tip to ResourceShelf.

Exciting news for business voyeurs: a new startup has just launched a service with access to a sizeable structured database of all things (public) financial. It is called Tracked and allows you to search for all sorts of business-related information on people and companies.  Data includes company financial statements, compensation data, insider trading by executives, overiews and news items for people and businesses, etc. You can set up lists to watch for information about particular people, companies or industries. In other words, your own, customized Wall Street Journal.

Profiles are organized, much like LinkedIn, but the depth of financial information is far greater. Techcrunch likens the new service to a cross between LinkedIn and Yahoo Finance. If only it could include the real-time aspects of Skygrid, Tracked could easily become “must see TV” for the financially-interested.

Hat tip to Techcrunch.