O'Reilly News

Android Rising: O'Reilly Android Apps Gaining Ground on iPhone

2009-12-23T23:00:30Z

O'Reilly sells apps in both the iPhone App Store and the Android Market. Most apps (for now) are just app presentations of our ebooks, built using ereader apps popular on each platform (Stanza on iPhone, Aldiko on Android). That means many of our apps are essentially the same on each platform, so any difference in sales can be at somewhat...

Upcoming Webcasts: 2010 Schedule - DRBD and MySQL, Cloud Security, IT and Sustainable Business, Entity Framework 4, and Social Media Marketing

2009-12-22T23:57:23Z

What people are saying about our webcasts: "Content superb of course. But I also loved its "personality" - friendly, casual, expert, geeky: perfect!"
-- Heather Young

Our upcoming webcasts include:

Check out our Webcast page for on-demand videos of past webcasts and more upcoming live events!

Featured Video: The Known Universe - From the American Museum of Natural History

2009-12-22T23:43:19Z

O'Reilly Media

A Story Before Bed

2009-12-22T01:00:59Z

I'm totally gaga over Jackson Fish Market's new site, A Story Before Bed. This might be one of those things that parents and grandparents will flip out with happiness about while everyone else scratches their heads, but as a new parent, finding it made me feel like a special delivery had arrived expressly for my daughter. The idea of the site is to make it easy for people far from kids they love -- grandparents in another city, parents on a business trip, soldiers in training or deployed -- to read a story to a child. But you really have to watch a demo video to see what a jewel of a product they've made.

What's New in O'Reilly Answers - Deleting online accounts, Best to-do app, Symbols and punctuation on a Droid, and more!

2009-12-22T00:12:54Z

Share knowledge, ask questions on O'Reilly Answers today.

Playing With Foursquare Data

2009-12-21T22:41:40Z

Foursquare is the new Dodgeball. Which is to say that it is my (and many other people's) method for tracking where we go (and in most cases our social activities). On a daily basis I use the iPhone app to announce some of my whereabouts to friends. I share specifics selectively, but in aggregate my information is shared publicly. (Disclosure: Foursquare is an OATV investment)

Four short links: 21 December 2009 - Social Networking Data, Memory Tech, Sim News, Microbe Jalopy Breakthrough

2009-12-21T17:02:45Z

See Bacteria-Powered Micro-Machines. This and more in today's Four Short Links .

Being online: Your identity online--getting down to basics

2009-12-20T21:10:40Z

What men daily do, not knowing what they do!
The Internet provides minimal information about us when we go online, but compensates by providing immediate, dynamic exploitation of that information. This post in the identity article series shows what we tell others just by connecting to the Internet. Previous posts in this series explored the various identifies that track you in real life. Now we can look at the traits that constitute your identity online. A little case study may show how fluid these are.

Does your UI work for the masses? Test it with Google Browser Size

2009-12-20T20:50:50Z

I was perusing the Google Code blog recently, and stumbled across a post explaining the new Google Browser Size tool. This is a tool that allows you to compare the size & layout of your design against data showing the most common browser sizes of client machines.

Surviving a Re-Org

2009-12-19T23:28:26Z

End of year is a time when companies and departments reflect on the previous year and begin planning for new projects and challenges in the coming year. It's also a time when departments usually restructure to bring more focus and fortification to the challenges ahead. It's a time to re-org. Re-orgs can be stressful. If you've spent the previous year in one role it's natural to be a little intimidated if your role has changed. But re-orgs are a good thing.

Why Using ShopSavvy Might Not Be So Savvy

2009-12-18T18:52:52Z

Reading this morning's New York Times story, Mobile Phones Become Essential Tools for Holiday Shopping, I was reminded again of the fundamental shortsightedness of so many of our economic decisions, that flaw in human nature that makes us seize on temporary advantage without thinking of the long-term consequences. The article focuses on the use of applications like ShopSavvy and RedLaser to do comparison price checking while in the store. On the surface, these are great tools for consumers (and there are other applications besides price comparison.) But remember, cutthroat pursuit of the lowest price will hasten the demise of many retailers, while strengthening others (usually, the biggest and most efficient, who can make money on the slenderest margins.) But what happens once those mega-retailers are the last one standing? Prices are likely to go up.

Featured Ignite Video: Clunkers for Cash - Ignite Show Episode 41

2009-12-18T16:27:12Z

O'Reilly is launching the first-ever Global Ignite Week, to bring together as many local Ignites as possible. Read more.

David Pogue Revisits DRM Question about Ebooks

2009-12-17T22:39:41Z

In a blog post today, New York Times Columnist (and bestselling O'Reilly author) David Pogue responds to a reader question about DRM (he calls it "copy protection") in light of all the recent ereader buzz, and he's very honest and open about his (very natural) reaction to finding copies of his books out in the wild: "As an author myself, I, too, am terrified by the thought of piracy. I can't stand seeing my books, which are the primary source of my income, posted on all these piracy Web sites, available for anyone to download free." He then discusses sales for one of his books since we began offering it as a (DRM-free) ebook: "The thing was pirated to the skies. It's all over the Web now, ridiculously easy to download without paying... The crazy thing was, sales of the book did not fall."

Being online: identity, anonymity, and all things in between

2009-12-17T22:07:24Z

To be or not to be: that is the question.
Hamlet's famous utterance plays a trick on theater-goers, a mind game of the same type he inflicted constantly on his family and his court. While diverting his audience's attention with a seemingly simple choice between being and non-being, Hamlet of all people would know very well how these extremes bracket infinite gradations. Our fascination with Hamlet is precisely his instinct for presenting a different self to almost everyone he met. Social networking gives us an impetus to review how we appear online. When people ask who we are, questions multiply far beyond the capacity of a binary "to be" digit.

The Best and the Worst Tech of the Decade - It was the best of decades, it was the worst of decades...

2009-12-17T19:17:29Z

With only a few weeks left until we close out the 'naughts and move into the teens, it's almost obligatory to take a look back at the best and not-so-best of the last decade. With that in mind, I polled the O'Reilly editors, authors, Friends, and a number of industry movers and shakers to gather nominations. I then ~~tossed them in the trash and made up my own~~ compiled them together and looked for trends and common threads. So here then, in no particular order, are the best and the worst that the decade had to offer.