Feature update to kick off 2010!

Hi guys, did you have great holidays? Today we have some interesting feature updates to share with you. Here they are:

1. Pause Button

Many people have been requesting this. As you know, Lazyfeed's default mode is "Treadmill view", since the definition of the service itself is "Live Update". However, we received complaints from some users saying that it was sometimes too hectic and made them dizzy. So today we have added a "pause" button. Take a look at the top of the screen. Where it says "playing live...", you'll notice that we now have a pause button. Just click on it to pause update, and click again to resume.

2. Grayed-out state for tiles
We've been testing this for a while, and some of you may have seen this in action, but the implementation wasn't perfect before. We're finally announcing it officially today because we're ready. When you click on a tile from the monitor, it will turn gray. Only when there's new content on this topic will this become yellow--and then back to white when you hover your mouse over it--This helps you tell the difference between the topics you have already checked out and the ones that you haven't yet. If a tile is gray, this means you've already seen what's inside and nothing new have come it yet. So you don't need to busy-check it by clicking on the tile over and over.

The important part about this release is that the state for each topic is stored in the Lazyfeed Cloud, therefore the states--whether it's grayed-out or white--are preserved between sessions and across different computers.

3. Better Line Wrap

In our previous version, words at end of lines ended up being broken because of line wrap. This was kind of distracting and it definitely didn't help us scan content faster. We fixed it, so it should be much easier on the eyes.


Well, that's it! Hope you like the change! Check out the change, and please feel free to leave comments below. I would like to discuss further. Happy New Year!

Wanna know when the Top 10 Vaporwares of 2009 come alive?

Wired has released a top 10 list of this year's biggest vaporwares. Sadly, Duke Nukem Forever has stepped down from the throne this year, but there are other very interesting products on the list, so be sure to check it out first before reading on.

Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to see what's currently going on with these products. So I've added them to my Lazyfeed Monitor. And interestingly, some of these "vaporwares" turned out to be actually getting some traction, which is good :)

If you want to get progress updates on these products and be the first to know when they actually come out, add these to your Lazyfeed Monitor.

10. Spotify in the U.S.

Spotify is a music streaming service which seems to be one of the hottest products of 2009, but it hasn't invaded the U.S. market yet. I have yet to try the product, but it must be really good to gain so much buzz. Add tag:spotify on Lazyfeed to get updates on its imminent launch in the U.S.

9. Pixel Qi's Display

PixelQi is a company which initially planned to roll out a low-power, color, multimode display this year. It seems that its launch has been postponed to 2010. Reading through some posts mentioning some gadgets that will have Pixel Qi's display technology applied, it seems very interesting. Add tag:PixelQi to track its progress.

8. Mitsubishi 73-inch LaserVue HDTV

Wow, 73 inch TV would be 6' 1''. Very Large. According to Wired, a previously-released, "smaller" 65-inch model was priced at $7,000. I wonder how much this one would cost when it comes out. Add tag:LaserVue to track the development progress on this TV line.

7. Penny Arcade Adventures

Penny Arcade Adventures is an adventure game based on the famous comic Penny Arcade. If you're interested in getting updates on everything Penny Arcade, add http://www.penny-arcade.com to your Lazyfeed monitor.

6. D-Link Xtreme N450

That "450" after N represents mega bps. The fastest on the market--according to Wired--is 300 mbps. So this is 1.5 times as fast as the fastest router on the market right now. But it doesn't really mean anything if it doesn't get released, does it? Let's hope we'll see it soon. Add tag:N450 to follow this topic.

5. TextMate 2

The award-winning code editor from MacroMates is very cool, but the second version--although known to be under development--has no scheduled release date. If you are a fan of Textmate, add tag:textmate to keep an eye on their next release.

4. Black Mesa

Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half-life from 1998. I remember playing Half-life without sleeping for days. Black Mesa is an attempt to create a whole new game with a different storyline, based on the world of Half-life. Should be fun when it comes out. I just hope it doesn't become the next Duke Nukem. Add tag:blackmesa to get updates on its progress.

3. Red Scarlet Camera

Red Scarlet camera, from Red Digital Cinema (wow their URL is actually www.red.com!!) is a high-end camcorder with specs good enough to shoot a decent commercial film. This may revolutionize the way movies are created when it finally gets released, and we may see lots of experimental movies that resemble Cloverfield. Add tag:redscarlet to watch its updates.

2. CrunchPad

This controversial gadget, which started with a blog post written by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, was developed by a company called fusion garage, and due to the conflict between the two parties, is going through a great trouble, and therefore was included in the list. If you are interested in the product--or if you are interested in how the lawsuit will turn out--add tag:crunchpad, or rather, tag:joojoo (The company changed the product's name to "joojoo" after parting with Michael).

1. Starcraft 2

I'm not sure if we should call this vaporware, but for most people it is. I have seen numerous videos of people playing Starcraft 2, and it looks awesome. I don't think this will be a vaporware for long. Hope it gets released in 2010. Add tag:Starcraft2 to see all the latest videos and posts on Starcraft2.

Honorable Mention: Duke Nukem Forever!

Oh, finally, to honor sir Duke, I've included the following tag as well (and actually if you scan through Lazyfeed, you can see that this project is not completely finalized and some screenshots are still being released, so let's have some hope!): Add tag:DukeNukemForever to wait effortlessly for Duke Nukem to come alive, instead of checking out Duke Nukem forum once every day like we have done for last 12 years :)

Well, that's it. Hope these topics were interesting. Are there any Lazyfeed users who are looking forward to these products?

Futuristic reading interface for the lazy and productive

Today, We have a cool christmas present for you guys. It's a new interface, and I think you will like it.

First, check out the video below:

Pretty futuristic, huh? It almost feels like we've implemented something from a sci-fi movie. Let me explain why this is not just cool but also very convenient. After all, it's not "coolness" that we ultimately want. It's "laziness", right? So, here are the direct benefits:

1. Fast Scanning

This varies depending on different screen sizes, but from my macbook air, I used to be able to view only 4 post previews in one screen. Now I can scan through about 16 posts in a single screen! This means I don't need to scroll as much, and now I am happy to be 4+ times lazier. And just imagine how many posts you can scan through in one screen if you had a large monitor.

2. Easy Switching between modes

When you click a topic from the monitor, you'll immediately observe the tile magnify itself. It's called "Magnified topic view". To shrink it back, you can click the x button at the top right corner, but actually, you can pretty much click anywhere else outside the magnified tile to shrink it back to its position on the monitor (The red area from the below screenshot). Isn't this much lazier than just the small button?

This interface also applies to the content browser. You can close it by clicking on the x button, but you can click anywhere else outside the browser to close it (The red area from the below screenshot).

The new interface provides much more immersive content consumption experience, and scanning through topics and contents is much faster and lazier. Best of all, even with all these animations, it's still faster than ever! Our top priority is speed, and Lazyfeed never gets slow even on a low-spec computer.

I hope these changes will greatly improve your Lazyfeed experience and ultimately make you lazier :)

Go ahead and check it out now. Would love your feedback! Merry Christmas!

Lazyfeed Squared!

Hi Guys. It's been a while. Early last week, we launched a new version of Lazyfeed. Many of you may have found out about this recent "extreme makeover" through our email as well as several mentions:

Lazyfeed's Real-time RSS Engine Preps Multi-Column Revamp (Louis Gray)

Web App of the Week: Lazyfeed (MaximumPC)

Lazyfeed Gets Even Lazier: Users Get TV-Like Feed Reader (ReadWriteWeb)

Lazyfeed’s New Realtime Interface Tips Into Information Overload (TechCrunch)

The New Lazyfeed Adds Real-time Updates to Your News Feeds (WebWorkerDaily)

If you haven't yet read these posts, you can check them out now. Anyway, the new version is called "Squared", and it looks like this:

It looks pretty distinct from our previous version, which looked like this:

You can learn more about the change at our new about page. Since this is such a big change, I thought I would take some time to explain the rationale behind our overhaul. To explain the concept, I think it's the best to explain the philosophy behind Lazyfeed using an analogy.

Conveyor Sushi for your interest

Have you ever been to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant? If you haven't, take a look at the short video first:

Conveyor belt sushi brings you sushi, so you don't have to move around. Sound familiar?

Yes, Lazyfeed "feeds" you updates on your interest so you don't have to surf around. Lazyfeed is your own customized conveyor belt sushi. We all want to be productive, but also like to be lazy. Lazyfeed's vision is to let everyone achieve that goal--be lazy and stay productive at the same time. Our first version couldn't quite capture that because people had to click on each topic to see what's inside. It was like a saved search feature. It wasn't "fun" enough. And it wasn't "Lazy" enough. With Lazyfeed Squared, you can just watch the topics update and don't even need to flick a finger, that is, unless you come across a headline that looks interesting.

More to Come
As fun and as lazy as the new version is, it is not perfect. We have more to come, and every single feature that we roll out will have something to do with making you lazier. It will be fun. Stay tuned!

Scheduled Maintenance (Nov 12)

Hi guys,

Lazyfeed will go under hardware maintenance tonight, and the service will be down during that time. This is a major one, so it will take about 6 hours. The maintenance will start at midnight and end at 6am tomorrow morning (PST). I apologize for the inconvenience, and also for having to do this twice in a row, but it's all for the good, so please bear with us. We will try to finish as soon as possible. Thanks!