Eclectic Electronics

Twitter bounce rate at an appalling 60%!

Posted: 29 Apr 2009 02:30 PM PDT

Twitter, the popular social messaging utility which recently experienced a massive increase in traffic due to publicity, is experiencing a very high bounce rate!

Bounce rate is a term common to those who blog. If you have a high bounce rate, it means that users only check a single page and their off to the next one which can suit their fancy.

I guess I can use the term similarly for Twitter’s current situation. According to Nielsen, 60% of Twitter users fail to return after a month. This is certainly not a good sign for the Twitter bird! While Twitter has enjoyed massive growth with respect to traffic, they need to be able to sustain that in order to stay in the game.

I, very much doubt, that Twitter would have been able to achieve the massive gains in traffic without being publicized by celebrities. Ashton Kutcher, who recently hit the 1.5 million followers milestone, may very well be the most popular celebrity on Twitter.

The service, which was established sometime during 2006, was pretty obscure until recently in 2009, when it started to gain recognition on the worldwide web. What probably attracts some Twitter users is the fact that there are celebrities who hang around on Twitter and tell people inside stories on their personal life. And… that a celebrity would possibly directly reply to them. Oh, I can’t imagine the goosebumps some people get when celebrities reply to them! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against that. It’s just not my thing.

[via Twitteratti]

Dell’s iMac-looking multi-touch screened Studio One 19 desktop

Posted: 29 Apr 2009 12:30 PM PDT

Having a slim-profile all-in-one PC usually cuts down on most necessary ports, but this is obviously not the case with the iMac-looking Dell Studio One 19.

On the right side, it has a slot-loading optical disc drive (with a Blu-ray upgrade option). On the back, it has four USB ports, an audio out port and an ethernet port (I wasn’t able to distinguish one of the ports. If someone could kindly point that out, I would appreciate it). On the left side, it has two additional USB ports, a microphone in, another audio out plus a memory card reader.

The product looks pretty much like Apple’s iMac, or an insanely huge iPhone. The bad things with these all-in-one PC’s is that you need to go directly to Dell if something breaks down. You obviously can’t upgrade components if you feel they’re outdated after a year or so, because everything is integrated into the back part of the display.

From Dell.com:

Reach out and explore the Studio One 19’s 18.5″ display with optional multi-touch screen functionality on a choice of 5 colorful trim options. Crystal clear 16:9 widescreen flat panel HD display with optional wireless keyboard and mouse.

Up to Intel® Quad Core™ Processors

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic 32-Bit

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit

Crystal clear 16:9 widescreen flat panel HD display

Built in optical drive and NVIDIA graphics cards

Get creative and connected with this personalized laptop computer with rich multimedia features

Available in 5 colorful trim options (Solid Pure White, Navy Blue, Charcoal, Powder Pink, Tuscan Red)

Optional wireless keyboard and mouse and optional built-in WiFi

The Studio One 19 was released both in the US and Europe, yesterday April 27th. It was introduced in Japan, sometime last month. Prices start at $699 USD for the non-touchscreen model. Have an additional $100? $799 USD, for the multi-touch screen variants, would be the way to go. It’s like having an iPhone enlarged to unimaginable proportions right on your very table.

The first video showcases the hardware of the Dell Studio One 19. There is not much to see since everything is fitted inside the back area of the display. The latter half of the first video showcases Dell’s take on the multi-touch screen. There’s a Dell-developed software called YouPaint which is targeted for a young audience, it’s basically like an advanced virtual drawing/coloring board.

The second video completely highlights the multi-touch aspect of the Dell Studio One 19.

For more details on the Dell Studio One 19, visit Dell’s website.

[via Pause and PlunderGuide]

Palm Pre webOS. Ready, set, action!

Posted: 29 Apr 2009 10:30 AM PDT

14 screenshots of the Palm Pre webOS (which looks to be running on an emulator, note the Mac program window graphic on top) are roaming around on the worldwide web.

The user interface, although looking quite a bit iPhone-like with the silver backgrounds, certainly looks finger-friendly. Everything is basically big enough, to not require the use of a stylus.

Settings menus are shown on the screenshots along with how Google Maps would look on a Palm Pre. The display, only utilizing HVGA (320 x 480) resolution, somehow looks quite satisfactory based on one of the screenshots. Of course, having a bigger resolution would not hurt, as it would reduce panning across those non-mobile web optimized pages.

Head on over to PreThinking for more Palm webOS screenshot goodness. If you want just the pictures, then click here.

[via MobileCrunch]

Big chunk of author’s new novel was written on HP iPaq

Posted: 29 Apr 2009 08:30 AM PDT

It’s pretty amazing what technology can do for those who really know how to take advantage of it. Making use of absolutely every minute, while riding on a commuter train? Check! Making everybody else

A novel author named Peter Brett, reportedly pressed down about 100,000 words on his HP iPaq while doing everyday commutes. He initially used the HP iPaq 6515 and then migrated to a newer HP iPaq 900. He also recounts why the iPhone couldn’t satisfy his mobile phone needs.

Peter Brett initially used a Palm Pilot in order to be able to write down things electronically while not at home, but he wanted to get something which can transfer data to and from a computer. That way, he can continue his work on the big screen when he gets home and take it with him whenever he would go somewhere else.

A Windows Mobile device was his choice after the Palm Pilot, simply because it can be transferred easily to and from Microsoft Word and more importantly, the device, a HP iPaq 6515, had a full QWERTY keyboard. Fast forward a couple of years, Peter Brett decided to upgrade to a newer model, the HP iPaq 900, because the 6515 was extremely buggy and unpolished.

Even though the Apple iPhone was available, he decided not to go with it because it didn’t have physical, tactile keys. And of course, that it would simply not work with Microsoft Word as easily as a Windows Mobile device would.

Should you choose to read more about his thoughts, on the Kindle along with some others, go here.

Peter Brett, is an obvious example, of one who fully takes advantage of the true purpose of smartphones. Some people go buy these types of phones just for show and sparingly use the multitude of functionality that come with it.

[via Laptop Mag and CrunchGear]