Year: 2006

The other night I was walking down the Molos promenade, listening to The Raven ‘n’ the Blues podcast. The show mp3 played on my mobile, which was hidden deep down in the pocket, and I was getting the sound via a pair of earbuds.

I was walking, minding my own business, when someone came up to me and asked what was the time. I had to “unplug” myself first, to hear the question again.

Later, when I continued my way, I started thinking about the evolution of the earbuds…

These days, if you see someone with earbuds, you can be almost sure that there is some mp3-enabled device on the other side. It might be a mobile phone, a standalone mp3 player, or some such.

About five-six-seven years ago, mp3 players weren’t as popular as they are now. And CD players were in wider user than they are now (I don’t know this for sure though, I’m just assuming). So, if back then you saw someone with earbuds, you won’t be able to tell if there is an mp3 player in the pocket, or a CD player.

Go further back in time, and there is a cassette player now. Also with earbuds. Is it a cassette player or a CD player? You don’t know.

If you reverse few years more, you won’t have any mobile device with earbuds (or am I too young to remember?). So, if you walke down the street with earbuds plugged in, say, 30 years ago – nobody would know, what’s that hanging out of your ears.

Don’t you just love competition?

Today I wrote about a few user interface improvements for Bloglines, and now I have to write this post about Google Reader’s completely new user interface. I went to check it out, and you know what – not only I liked it, but I found it difficult to “disconnect”. I wanted to just try this and that for a few minutes, but I am still there two hours later. And I hate to leave to blog about it…

So, I’ll make it short. Just go and check it out for yourself. Export your subscriptions as OPML from your current feed reader and import them to Google Reader. See if you like it as much as I do.

I’ve noticed that there was something different about my Bloglines feeds today. Somehow they looked as good as always, but a little bit better. I rushed towards the Bloglines news feed, and indeed, there was an update to the user interface.

• We no longer update the entire left pane when the unread or “kept as new” co unts change. Now the counts update in place with a fading yellow indicator. The result is a f aster, more pleasant way to cruise through your feeds, especially for those quick on the hotkeys.
• We’ve decreased the time between automatic updates to your unread counts so you don’t have to press the “r” hotkey quite so often.

Thank you guys! Now I’m loving yet even more.