The Bailout

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeI haven't written in a while because I've been more than a little bit caught up reading anything I could about the Bailout being proposed by Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke (hilariously termed 'Hanke-Panke' Bailout). So, I've shared a lot of stories in google reader that I thought people might like. You can check them out if you are my friend in google reader or you can go to the 'bailout' tag that I made public.


You can also see everything that I've shared.  And, of course, I have a google reader gadget on the left.

I try not to get into crazy political discussions on the blog (and in real life), but I have no idea if I am in favor of the plan or not. I don't know if I really had a problem with the original proposal, though I admit it feels better that they are going to take equity stakes in the new proposal.

The most interesting part of all of this has been thinking about how devastating this could be in a worst case scenario. The vicious cycle created by credit-ratings, bad assets, and capital requirements is amazing.

Keyboard to a Man's Heart: a touch keyboard that works?

Swype just launched at TechCrunch50. It provides a way to more quickly use a keyboard on a touchscreen. You can imagine that I am impressed. It looks amazing and definitely has potential, in my mind to remove the 'it doesn't have a keyboard' complaint that I have about the iPhone. I previously wrote:

I really like having a physical keyboard. I haven't used the iPhone keyboard that much, but I do have some difficulty with it (though I'm sure I could get used to it). What makes me nervous about it is that in my effort to type more quickly, as I move my fingers to type, I would hit every key as though I dragged them along the keyboard. I haven't tried this, so I don't know, but I could imagine that I would have to lift my fingers a bit more and that would annoy me (though this has to be slightly insane on my part)

So, now that Swype has come around and literally encouraged me to drag my finger across the keyboard, this could be gone as a complaint. I could see it still being a bit slower than my two thumbs slapping at the keyboard on my blackberry.

Check out the video demo on their website (which is way cooler than this one I've embedded below).

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Mobile RSS - Update

A few weeks ago, I started using Newsgator Go! to read my RSS feeds while commuting. (You already know that I love RSS, even if you don't use it). My impression of it: meh.

Newsgator Go! has a few major usability issues for me.

First, the web-based Newsgator is not a good experience in my opinion. I don't like the interface, it's just not as intuitive as Google Reader. The other option is to use a desktop-based application. The desktop application for mac, NetNewsWire is fine, and does sync with the server, so multiple instances would reconcile without issue, but it just isn't ideal for me. I ended up creating a feed from a specific tag in google reader that would be just for articles I planned to read on the subway. So, maybe I didn't give the web reader enough of a chance, but I don't see why I should. I'm generally pretty good with the computer, so I think if I don't like it, there's probably a good reason.

Second, the application does not download stories automatically. So, I have to check each of the RSS feeds before I got on the subway each time, if I want to read them. No thanks. That is something that obviously could run in the background automatically.

I do have to admit that NewsGator has some advanced functionality that could be totally cool. The Smart Feeds seem like a very useful feature. Signing up for email newsletters, but having them come to the feed reader would be nice. I deliberately don't sign up for those things now because I don't want my inbox clogged up. But, in my experience, if there exists an email newsletter, there often exists an RSS feed with that same content anyways.

The NewsGator products also do a good job of giving you 'location-specific' options. You can choose which feeds show up where. So, if I wanted to, I could limit NewsGator Go! to have only my 'to read' feed while having the desktop client show all of them.

So, if NewsGator Go! was the only option out there, it would be serviceable. However, (!) the Wall Street Journal put out a mobile RSS reader. Now, this is a product that I like. For one, it gives me free access to WSJ content. Plus, it easily let me import my 'to read' items from Google Reader. It's still not ideal, but at least it updates automatically. And, overall, the program just seems more responsive.

Interesting to note: FreeRange Communications powers both programs, so I'm not sure why they are not more similar. But, I imagine that has something to do with server capacity, syncing, etc.

One thing to note with both of these products is that there does not seem to be a way to let them know that I have a microSD card in my Curve. This means that my memory gets full quickly and I've experienced a weird disappearance of text messages and emails. You can change the options about how many articles these programs should download and keep, but it's still a bit of a swag. Some tips on how to deal with this are here.

If you've given any of these things a try, let me know (in the comments, ideally).

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