Blogs

If you're like most developers, your goal is to create the most confusing and frustrating experience for your user audience. While I hope you read that last line with a double-take, that's just the type of environment we produce for users with disabilities when we don't consider accessible design. Some claim it's too difficult or that the demand just isn't great enough to warrant the extra effort, however just a few simple concepts make all the difference.

Check out the new "Winamp Add-ons" Online Service. It allows you to browse, search, and download new Skins, Plug-ins, and Visualizations from right inside your Winamp Media Player. It uses the same galleries that you can find on Winamp.com.

Skins - http://www.winamp.com/skins
Plug-ins - a href="http://www.winamp.com/plugins">http://www.winamp.com/plugins

Winamp Add-ons should come as a default Online Service, but if you don't already see it listed under Online Services in your Media Library tab:

MapQuest recently submitted two panel suggestions for the SXSW Interactive conference in 2010:

Time + Social + Location. What's Next In Mobile Experiences?

As more devices become location aware, social uses will continue to evolve beyond just who and what, to WHEN. Adding the temporal dimension creates new opportunities for social interaction. Learn about ways to leverage and use technology to add features at the intersection of temporal, social, and location.

Users of the AIM iPhone apps can get alerts when a new IM arrives, even if they’re doing other things on their iPhone. The new push notifications feature comes as part of the iPhone’s new 3.0 operating software. Read more about the benefits of this to AIM users on the AOL iBlog. The AIM apps, along with other AOL apps, are available for download on the iTunes App Store.

The AOL/TopCoder® Sensations Developer Challenge culminated at the 2009 TopCoder Open (TCO) which took place June 1 – June 4, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV. Accessible Walking Directions was selected as the winning accessibility application from several that were developed by competition participants.

MapQuest introduced MapQuest 4 Mobile for the iPhone.

MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com) announced that Barnes & Noble, Inc. (http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, has selected the MapQuest Platform: Enterprise Edition to power its Stores & Events locator. The company chose MapQuest for the platform’s ease of use, flexibility and scalability.

Users chose Bebo as one of the most popular Web 2.0 apps in the Webware 100 Awards, sponsored by CNET blog Webware.com. Nearly 630,000 votes were cast by the public to select the best of 300 finalists in 10 categories.

If you're one of those folks who likes to use toolbars in your browser (and who isn't) then there are several new ones available.

MapQuest released a new toolbar with some really handy features like the "Find Me" feature. You can plot your location using WiFi and the Skyhook Wireless' "Loki" plug-in. You can also get local traffic, gas prices, and directions of course. Check it out today!

The SHOUTcast team has implemented a flash based media player that allows you to listen to your favorite SHOUTcast radio stations through a mini pop-up player.

What's cool is that you can also take your SHOUTcast MP3 stations with you and listen to them in your media player of choice - Winamp, iTunes, or Windows Media Player.

To get started check out the SHOUTcast blog at http://blog.shoutcast.com/.