LinkedIn - Search Errors

Have been getting "Search is currently unavailable" error for several hours on LinkedIn today.

Netflix on Xbox 360 Live

A small Xbox live gold membership fee aside, Netflix on Xbox is a great service. Finally, Netflix on TV w/o additional appliances!

The way things are right now, you have to jump back to your Netflix account in a regular browser to manage your queue before you can view movies on the Xbox. Netflix should offer a queue management API to allow for a tighter integration with Xbox, TiVo and other consoles/DVRs.

New favorite iPhone App -- Chess with Friends

I've tried several iPhone chess apps so far and they all seem decent. However, Chess with Friends kicks it up a notch by allowing players to take as much time as they want to make a move and to keep multiple games open. You can play with friends or random people.



It would be great if they could add SMS support for move notifications to keep the usage up.

The Black Swan

Having read The Black Swan earlier this year, it was interesting to see the author of the book, Nassem Taleb, talking about the economy on CNBC recently. However, it was a shame that Nassem wasn't able to express himself as eloquently about the recent Black Swan events as he has in his book.

Loopt Jumps Ahead Of Facebook And MySpace On iPhone

Downloads metrics are misleading. Most apps in this category are not actively used. The geo-aware app fun factor wears off rather quickly for ONE reason:
Apple's iPhone apps cannot run in the background! You have to manually launch all the apps and manually make updates... one app at a time.




90% of all the social iPhone apps, especially the geo-aware social apps, are USELESS until the iPhone can run them in the background & let the user multitask.

Imagine an iPhone alerting you when your geo-aware social network buddies are in your area w/o you having to log in to check anything -- NOW THAT'S A REAL APP (privacy & battery issues aside).




This is not Loopt's fault of course but things could be so much more interesting if the iPhone supported multitasking & background apps out of the box. The way things are right now, you can't even listen to your own music while running the apps -- what a mess.

Now RIM's BBs & Loopt that's another story...

'08 Election Day

--
Sent from my iPhone