Software posts

Sensitive data has always been a challenge to deliver securely. Even in the days of the Spartans, military commanders would use ingenious encryption techniques to communicate with each other across distances. Today, we have an ongoing battle for data security that pits the brilliant minds of encryption experts with the equally-brilliant hackers trying to get into this database or capture that bit of data. A ton of resources are used on both sides to get the upper hand in the various virtual wars. As this infographic from Visual.ly details, even governments are involved. Special thanks for…

What happens when a stream of water hits a big enough obstacle? It moves towards right or left to pass over the blockage. Same thing happens to your audiences when they face dashboard or presentations on your site and fail to make anything out of them. We are talking specifically about drill-down charts here. They are pretty intuitive tools to make your reports and dashboard easier to grasp. However, the same tool can break your neck if you don’t use it with intelligence. Here, we explain how to make drill-down charts more intuitive and least obnoxious for all your reports and dashboards.  …

Merchant tools on Foursquare are free and the company claims to want to always keep them that way. It’s challenging for Foursquare to make money when they don’t charge their 750,000 businesses for their listings and they definitely won’t charge the 20,000,000 on the platform to be able to use it, so they’ve chosen to generate a bit of revenue by speeding up the process through which businesses can get verified and utilize Foursquare’s tools. It all comes at a cost. Granted, it’s not much. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Foursquare Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"][/caption]…

Recently, Apple announced and showcased their new vision for 64-bit non-linear editors (NLEs). They called it Final Cut Pro X (FCPX). The news of this NLC sent waves through the industry, quickly appearing to be the biggest feature at NAB 2011. Finally, Apple released FCPX. Letting my inner child’s excitement take over, I went online and download it. Many technology review blogs haven’t yet explored this software deeply; I will show you the complete details and user experience of Apple’s Final Cut Pro X. As the software loaded up, I noticed that the process was much faster than it was on…

One of the primary goals of software (at least in theory) is to make things easier. It’s a simple, almost too-obvious concept, but one that users seem to find elusive with the constant need to upgrade, update, and search for the latest and greatest. It’s turning into a part of daily business to keep our computers and mobile devices up to date with the products that are supposed to improve efficiency and productivity. As the survey below shows, they’re not pleased. At what point do these updates get in the way rather than enhance our productivity? When does technology start to outsmart itself? From:…

Since the dawn of graphic interfaces on computers, designers and developers have faced off over the proper ways to present data and tools. The aesthetics that please designers often conflicts with the functionality and ease that pleases developers. This battle is spilling over into iOS app development, but it doesn’t have to get bloody. In this graphic, the war is brought into the realm of compromise with these tips for designers that can cut off the objections before they materialize. With the right tact, proper techniques, and patience for the “less creative” types on the other side of the…

Everyone has startup fever again after Facebook’s huge purchase of Instagram last week, perfect timing for Path to announce a $30 million round of funding led by Redpoint. “We are delighted to announce that last week we closed a significant round of funding with a new set of investor partners,” CEO Dave Morin. “It is important to us to work with investment partners who share common values around quality and building for the long term. Our ‘Path’ has only just begun, and we are looking forward to continuing to bring world-class design and simplicity to the world of mobile personal…

As startup success stories go, few can compare to Instagram. When they were purchased by Facebook earlier this week, there weren’t many people crying the standard conviction of “they sold too early!” At $1 billion, most agree that they hit their peak and sold off at just the right moment. This timeline from Visual.ly breaks down the course that brought them from small startup with a clever concept for photo sharing to a company that has made its 13 employees rich and ready for more adventures with Facebook. Click to enlarge. From: Los Angeles Honda Via: Visual.ly H/T: Automotive SEO…

The cloud doesn’t scare me. The future will be more secure the sooner bigger companies adopt standards on cloud computing and data storage that makes sense. By that time, we’ll have the infrastructure in place to make the internet accessible from virtually anywhere. The challenge I’ve had over the past few months with Google Docs is the reliability issue. There are very few things in business that are more frustrating than to lose work because of technology. We put in human effort, knowledge, and creativity into doing things. When we lose access to them (or the entire documents themselves) it…

Adobe is gearing up to release Creative Cloud, their online edition of the Creative Suite. The San Jose-based company claims it offers all of the benefits of their desktop applications, with the added ability to use anyof their CS software titles. Creative Cloud gives users the freedom to run any Adobe Master Collection application on a multitude of systems and store their work in the cloud. However, critics of the platform claim the cost outweighs the benefits of these Cloud features.Much like its desktop-based prototype, Adobe Creative Cloud enables users to explore, create, publish, and…