The folks over at Qik were kind enough to outfit me with a Nokia N95, so I could test out their service. I’ve been quasi-resistant to lifecasting of any kind, for a few reasons:

1. My days are typically very boring.
2. I feel bad shoving a camera into people’s faces and streaming them.
3. You wouldn’t like me anymore if you knew just how frequently I speak to my cats.

Jason and Scoble seem to find no end to the things they want to share with the Qik (and by proxy, Twitter communities), but I find myself hesitant to turn on the camera. After some brainstorming, here are some applications that I could see Qik being useful for:

1. Clothes shopping — If I’m out shopping, and I can’t decide which shirt or shoes to pick, why not let the live audience help? I mean, they’re the ones that have to look at the outfit on camera later anyway, right?
2. Company on public transportation — As if there aren’t enough crazies on SF Muni, let’s add one more (me) talking AT my phone (instead of on it) during my commute.
3. Instant support group — If one of my girlfriends is having man trouble, it would be nice to have another hundred or so people to back me up at any given moment to say “Dump the loser!”

I’m only half kidding on some of those. What value do you guys get out of lifecasting? Why is it so popular? Maybe because it’s like reality TV, but without all the convinient editing? I’ve tried a few other services, and none of them have been compelling enough for me to continue to use them. The mobility factor with Qik is a definite plus, so maybe that will help.

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I noticed today that Thomas Hawk (and later TechCrunch) are writing about a service called TagCow, which apparently can tag large batches of photos at a time. Anyone who takes a lot of pictures can attest to the immense annoyance of tagging tons of photos, especially when you want to be very specific about them. Sure, you can batch tag when you upload, but then you still have to go back and add whatever other tags are needed depending on the individual photo (like batch tagging all my SXSW photos “sxsw” “austin” “conference” and then going back and adding someone’s name, etc). Pain in the butt, right? Some people (like Tantek) bow to the wisdom of crowds and simply add a “needs tags” note to the photos, but it would be nice to have a service or program that could actually recognize the content of the photo and do it for you.

Is TagCow that much-needed service? Thomas seems to think so, although he admits that he’s not quite sure how the technology works. TechCrunch says that it’s got to be people actually viewing each photo and giving it the appropriate tags, although how someone could go through that many photos is beyond me (says the girl who works for a “people-powered search engine“). Arrington says:

The answer is, humans do it. I note that the TagCow site is careful not to say anything about the tagging process, and never use the word “automated” or anything else that would suggests computers are doing the work. Munjal Shah, the founder of Riya/Like, agreed, noting that it recognized a witch in Thomas’ photo - he says this just isn’t something a computer can do today.

But this makes me concerned about privacy. If I’m uploading 200 photos from my vacation, do I really want a bunch of dudes sitting around an office picking apart each one? No, obviously not. Therefore, I probably wouldn’t use the service. However, since TagCow is being a little vague about how everything works, I’m worried that people will walk into a situation where their privacy could be at stake. Does TagCow keep copies of the photos you send them? Do they live on some server there, even though you’re only tagging them for, say, your personal collection (as opposed to being on Flickr or Zooomr)? TC also writes:

And the business is definitely a little sketchy. Worried about the privacy of your data? Just don’t click on their Privacy Policy or Terms of Use: “Privacy policy is TBD.” and “Legal stuff TBD.” Not exactly a way to build confidence.

Yikes. Anyhow, I’m aware that I’m putting on my tinfoil hat a little early, considering we hardly know anything about TagCow. It could be the answer to our tagging prayers, or it could be a huge privacy-sucking black hole. For now I think I’ll continue adding my metadata by hand.

However, their tagline is hilarious.

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If Pro-Tools is the well-muscled, handsome (and rich) jock of the audio recording world, then Audacity is the smart (yet perpetually stoned) kid sitting at the back of the class. He’ll help you with your homework, sure, but don’t count on him to come through on exam day.

Two programs at the two ends of the spectrum. But what of the people who need an app that’s dependable, easy to use, and won’t break the bank? Sound Studio 3 ($79.99 from Freeverse) is a solid middle ground. I’ve been using it for the past couple of months, for anything from recording podcasts to voice overs. My setup at home is really basic (M-Audio Fast Track, SM57 mic) but I’ve been extremely happy with the sound quality of those tools with Sound Studio. (more…)

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Last night I was on the Typical Mac User Podcast with Victor Cajiao, and it was great to be able to have a chat about some of the apps we love, and our predictions for this year’s Macworld. I’m hoping for a ultraportable laptop, and Victor has a crazy prediction that has to do with AppleTV (you’ll need to listen to get the full scoop!).

But the best part about the show was taking live calls from listeners via Talkshoe. This was my first time using their interface, and I think they’re definitely on the right track. It reminds me a lot of Stickam and Ustream, except without all the pesky video. Yes, sometimes it’s nice to not have to deal with video, it’s true. Users interact with the host over chat, phone, VoIP or not at all (just listening). The host can queue up questions and bring them into the discussion at will.

The chat interface could use a little improvement, but I heard from someone over Twitter that they’re planning on implementing an IRC-based chat interface sometime in the future. Despite that (and it’s a small issue — I got used to it after a couple of minutes) I really enjoyed the experience. I didn’t even mind downloading their small app, which usually drives me crazy.

I love that there are new services enabling podcasters to really engage with their audience. My favorite part of podcasting is interacting with users, whether it be via forums, emails, social networks, etc. Now we have to figure out how to do a live Mahalo Daily, and we’ll be all set!

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