There have been a fair few things bubbling under the radar this past week, as people have been slowly switching back on and remembering that yes – we all have to go back to work.
I’ve been playing with my goodies from the Mac Giving Tree, which was created by the lovely people at MacHeist. From Christmas Day onwards, this included a range of free software to trial, including ‘1password’ from Agile Web Solutions - which pretty much does what it says on the tin - and ‘Headline’, a sleek RSS feed from Doseido. I spent more time on Synergy – an iTunes extender built by Wincent – which although I don’t think I’ll purchase, is a nice way to view your track’s artwork and easily skip or pause tracks from within your toolbar.
For those of you who aren’t aware, the MacHeist bundle was introduced in December 2006, containing 10 of the Mac development community's best offerings. Customers snapped up over 16,000 copies, and donated 25% of their purchases to various charities. Over $200,000 was raised in total.
The second MacHeist outing was made up of 14 apps, worth around $500, for the same price of $49. This time, they raised $500,000 for charity. The third round is coming soon, and is set to be the biggest and best value yet - so keep your eyes peeled.
On Sunday, The Independent launched its guide to understanding the buzzwords of 2009. The tech section was small, but priceless. Geo-fencing (setting a physical boundary on a GPS device or mobile, that when breeched, sets off a warning) is not something I can see the average person throwing into a conversation in the pub. Neither would ‘Cloud Computing’ (though, surely a little 2008 now?).
My favourite though, is GRIN Tech; Genetic, Robotic, Information and Nano Technology. Which as David Randall so beautifully described is something that doesn’t really exist yet, but is coming. Probably. I do, however, think that ‘Unplugging’ (as mentioned in my last column), is now something of a necessity. Especially as time spent online, is definitely no substitute for living.
Finally, Alfie Dennen launched Agit8 over the weekend. This is designed to be a hub, bringing together his own projects (like Britglyph, Moblog and Stopped Clocks), as well as commentary from those who share the same goal – forming a kind of quasi talk/thinkspace. The man himself explained his new project by saying,
“I’m doing so many other things that are based around social tech and activism, and so much of my thinking is focused there now - I decided to set up something new. This will be a lot like a weekly magazine around art, tech and social subjects."
He’ll be seeking out posts from people that have something to say about art, society, education, politics and their relation to technology. Just as long as it speaks to; “what we should have in the future, want in the future, or are likely to have whilst doing our best to foment change where we can."
All of this comes combined with news from Mike Butcher at TechCrunch that a 13-year-old boy has set up his own start-up social network called ScotBlog.net – for anyone living within Scotland or of Scottish heritage. So, even the kids are getting involved. It’s definitely been a busy week while we’ve all been preparing to come back, and it seems that not everyone has been switching off for the holidays after all.