Top 5 future ventures of Facebook

The user base of Facebook has already touched a billion in the recent past and the social networking giant is having a valuation of $240 billion but this stupendous growth story is not all that important compared to the great futuristic projects the company has for the users. Yes, over the years Facebook developed itself as a brand that is more intent on adding or creating value for the users and taking leads with an array of user friendly features. Here we explain top 5 upcoming projects of Facebook.

UAVs for providing network in remote areas

This is viewed as one of the top future projects of Facebook. For quite some time Facebook is planning to provide internet network in remote areas for its users with the help of UAVs. Recent speculation about Facebook’s buying of solar powered drones only confirms that. For sometime under the banner of Facebook.org the company is trying to bring internet connection for everybody around the world. Though it is still not clear how various nations would take these drones from the point of view of security, the move is supposed to leverage far greater access for the brand.

Flipboard like mobile news reader

Facebook is launching soon its own news reader service that shares the news contents shared by the users. This new Flipboard like news reader feature is developed with a view of making its mobile app more popular. The shared news published on a mobile friendly visual design format can help the readers to track potential news of their interests. As per latest reports, the project has found particular favor from Mark Zuckerberg and the design is planned keeping high end mobile devices in mind.



New version for office use

Work based social network sites like LinkedIn for some time giving Facebook a bit of competition, especially among professional people. To address this finally Facebook is going to launch a new version of its site keeping the demands of work based social network in mind. According to reports, this new website of Facebook dubbed as ‘Facebook at Work’ will offer an array of workplace features like chatting with colleagues, connecting professional contacts and collaborating with official documents. Even though the version has been rolled out for official use it will also allow users to keep their personal profiles. Expectedly enough, the move will create new viability of Facebook for the professionals and office users. This is one of those future projects of Facebook which is capable of enhancing its reach even inside the so called forbidden territory right now.

Self destruct timer for deleting photos

    This is one of the most exciting future projects of Facebook. Reportedly, Facebook is going to launch a new feature for automatic deleting of posts and photos. Dubbed as ‘self destruct timer’ the feature would help users to delete a photo or post automatically at the preferred time from their Facebook page. With this feature you can schedule deletion of a photo or post in your Facebook profile. A small amount of users already received this feature as part of test run drive.
 
 New App ‘Moments’ for great private sharing

How many times you have experienced that the privacy settings for sharing your Facebook content with a few selected ones failed? Yes, keeping that thing and the corresponding demand for privacy in mind Facebook is all set to launch a standalone app for private sharing. Named as ‘Moments’ this app would allow users to share their photos, media and contents within a selected group of few members. The app presently going under tests for bugs is expected to be launched anytime soon.


  Facebook as the largest social networking brand with greatest reach is always committed to add more value to the user experience and these new future projects of Facebook are only a testimony to that.

Michael Dell defends PCs against the iPad Pro

Who would have thought that the battle between Macs and PCs would take place in London? But that's precisely the location as Dell CEO Michael Dell fired back in an interview with the UK Telegraph to explain that the PC is not dead, despite Apple CEO Tim Cook's claims in an earlier interview with the same publication.

Some 13 years after Apple debuted its "I'm a Mac" campaign to extoll the virtues of its computers over a Windows machine, the renewed battle today is being fought by the iPad Pro and tradtional PCs.

"The post-PC era has been great for the PC. When the post-PC era started there were about 180 [million] PCs being sold a year and now it's up to over 300 [million], so I like the post-PC era," Mr. Dell said.

The ultimate computer

As the iPad Pro went on sale earlier this week, Cook said that he travels only with the 12.9-inch slate and an iPhone.

Cook asked, "I think if you're looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?" Apple has been busily promoting its new iPad Pro, which runs the mobile iOS software and not the desktop-class OS X operating system, as a PC replacement for "many, many people."

The tablet market

The success of the iPad Pro will be important for both Apple and Dell. Even though Apple's iPad line of tablets remain the market leader, consumers are not upgrading as quickly as Apple would have hoped, and Apple's larger screen smartphones are cannibalizing on sales of its slates.

Similarly, the PC market has been in decline. However, analysts forecast a bright spot with hybrid devices, also known as convertibles, which can replace both a laptop and a tablet, much in the same vein that Apple has been pitching the iPad Pro. PC makers are replicating the success that Microsoft has been having with its Surface line of slates. Dell even announced a re-imagined XPS 12 convertible with a 4K display and keyboard dock.

For a commercial device to be successful, it must satisfy the security and manageability needs of IT, be driven by design and a simple UI and come with peripherals that enhance productivity, said Raza Haider, Executive Director of Dell's Commercial PC Product Group.

Dell and its PC rivals may also soon get a boost from businesses as they begin the upgrade process to Windows 10 and Intel's new Skylake processors.

Intel is also pushing for PC users to upgrade their hardware. With more than half a billion PCs on the market that are more than five years old, Intel claims that Skylake will offer a vastly superior experience than what users are accustomed to.

The future

Even though the PC market remains vital to Mr. Dell's company, it's finding more competition from smaller, connected devices that are getting more powerful. Internet of Things devices collect more data, and there is incentive for companies to understand the data.

Apple is making a push into this space. In his interview, Cook hinted that Apple is working on a connected health-focused wearable device that will collect more data.

Last month at Dell World in Austin, Texas, Mr. Dell touched on the importance of his $67 billion acquisition of data storage provider EMC. The deal, one of the largest in tech history, also includes VMWare, which will allow Dell to progress in the cloud business. Dell and EMC could help other companies, like Apple, build servers to store, manage and analyze the collected data.

As Apple and Dell are fighting for consumer dollars, both companies are united in their views of privacy.

"To protect people who use any products, you have to encrypt," Cook explained. "You can just look around and see all the data breaches that are going on."

Mr. Dell and Cook are both staunch opponents of the UK's Investigatory Powers Bill, which would force technology companies to create encryption backdoors for law enforcement purposes.

"The reason it's a horrible idea is if you have a back door it's not just the people you want to get in that are going to get in, it's also the people you don't want to get in," Mr. Dell explained. "All of the technical experts pretty much agree on this.

Canon G series - A camera which is portable and professional in use

Canon’s G line of cameras are meant to offer better quality and controls than the typical cheap-o point and shoot. With two new members of the family, the G9X and the G5X, you have whole lot of options, depending just how much camera you want to carry.

Last year with the G7X Canon introduced a very nice 20 megapixel one-inch sensor into a pocket-size camera. This year’s G3X housed the same sensor but with a big ol’ zoom lens attached. These new cameras are similar beasts. They have the same one-inch sensor, which means they’ll have very similar image quality. The big differences are their size and external features.

G5X - $800

The G5X is the beefier of the new cams, and it is mostly so because it features a built-in 2.36 million dot OLED electronic viewfinder. Yay!


EVFs have been growing steadily in performance and popularity, and Canon has stubbornly refused to include one in its cameras until now. I was baffled that the G3X didn’t have one. So it’s about time. Viewfinders makes it easier to shoot in bright light and add stability when holding the camera to your face.


The lens is the same 24-100mm f/1.8-2.8 equivalent glas, used on the G7X. The camera inherits the Digic 6 processor as well inside. Additions include a hot-shoe for a microphone or flash, as well as an extra dial on the front for controlling exposure more easily. The camera aslo adds an LCD that flip-outs fully rotates.

G9X - $530

Smallest possible footprint is the approach with the G9X. It’s about the size of Canon’s older Powershot cameras like the S120 and S100. You’ll have no problem fitting this one in a pants pocket. It too has the same sensor and processor as its latest G-series brethren.


Of course, there are also fewer buttons and dials. You’ll be forced to rely on Canon’s touch interface for most settings changes—which isn’t the end of the world! Canon has pretty well-designed touch menu functionality. There is also a control ring around the lens, which performs different functions depending on the mode and settings.What you’re giving up with the small size is the tilting LCD—the G5X has a completely flat and fixed display, and some zoom range. Instead of a 24-100mm lens, the G9X has a 28-84mm f/2.8-4.9.

What else?

Like the G7X, both new cameras shoot 1080p video, but it should be the same crappy quality as before. Which sucks hard. Why Canon can’t offer decent video quality in their consumer cams is beyond me.

Other than that, I commend Canon for offering so many options in size and configuration with the G series. One size truly does not fit all when it comes to cameras, and Canon is recognizing that. The G5X and the G9X will both ship in November.

The last announcement by Canon is that of the EOS M10. It’s a new member of their almost-forgotten mirrorless camera lineup. The M10 is an entry-level version, with few bells and whistles. In terms of quality and overall makeup, it’s the same as the original EOS M with an 18 megapixel sensor. It does have an updated autofocus system to match the more advanced M3.

Oh, an the display now rotates upwards for selfie .

Hypersonic planes-A concept for timesaving future transp

Hypersonic Airliner concept who cross Atlantic in Just 40 Minutes

Sketched out by Canadian engineer and inventor, Charles Bombardier, this concept hypersonic airliner can theoretically cross the pond in just over 40 minutes! In chronological ascending order, we have the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927 in which Charles Lindbergh took 33 hours, 30 minutes, 29.8 seconds to cross the Atlantic ocean. Direct flights on large jets today last around six and a half hours. The (now defunct) supersonic Concorde could do it in three and a half hours. Finally, the Bombardiers Skreemr can achieve this feat in less than an hour.

Combining three fast technologies: rockets, scramjets, and magnetic rails, this airliner is headed for the win. First, the plane would accelerate along a special runway, much like this sled is hurtled from an aircraft carrier into the sea by an electromagnetic catapult. This was the magnetic rails part. Then, the rockets would get to work and boost the acceleration. The Scramjets would kick in once the supersonic speed is attained to further accelerate this jet to four times the speed of sound.

The goal with a capacity of 75 passengers is to use clean electricity for the magnetic rails and hydrogen fuel cells for the plane itself, as befits a largely hypothetical craft. Bombardier says, “the Skreemr concept aims to ignite your imagination around this idea.”

While such similar designs are expected to come up in the future, the airliner still has at least a century to see reality.

project ballons- A hope for free net

Project Loon is a research and development project being developed by Google X with the mission of providing Internet access to rural and remote areas. The project uses high-altitude balloons placed in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 32 km (20 mi) to create an aerial wireless network with up to 3G-like speeds. It was named Project Loon, since Google itself found the very idea of providing internet access to the remaining 5 billion population unprecedented and "crazy."

The balloons are maneuvered by adjusting their altitude to float to a wind layer after identifying the wind layer with the desired speed and direction using wind data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Users of the service connect to the balloon network using a special Internet antenna attached to their building. The signal travels through the balloon network from balloon to balloon, then to a ground-based station connected to an Internet service provider (ISP), then onto the global Internet. The system aims to bring Internet access to remote and rural areas poorly served by existing provisions, and to improve communication during natural disasters to affected regions.Key people involved in the project include Rich DeVaul, chief technical architect, who is also an expert on wearable technology; Mike Cassidy, a project leader; and Cyrus Behroozi, a networking and telecommunication lead.
Project Loon is Google's pursuit to deploy a high-altitude balloon network operating in the stratosphere, at altitudes between 18 km and 25 km. Google asserts that this particular layer of the stratosphere is advantageous because of its relatively low wind speeds (e.g., wind speeds between 5 and 20 mph / 10 to 30 kmph) and minimal turbulence. Moreover, Google claims that it can model, with reasonable accuracy, the seasonal, longitudinal, and latitudinal variations in wind speeds within the 18–25 km stratospheric layer.

Given a reasonably accurate model of wind speeds within the 18–25 km band, Google claims that it can control the latitudinal and longitudinal position of high-altitude balloons by adjusting only the balloon's altitude.By adjusting the volume and density of the gas (e.g., helium, hydrogen, or another lighter-than-air compound) in the balloon, the balloon's variable buoyancy system is able to control the balloon's altitude. Google has additionally indicated that balloons may be constructed from various materials (e.g., metalized Mylar or BoPet) or a highly-flexible latex or rubber material (e.g., chloroprene).

technology

Initially, the balloons communicated using unlicensed 2.4 and 5.8 GHz ISM bands,and Google claims that the setup allows it to deliver "speeds comparable to 3G" to users, but they then switched to LTE with cellular spectrum by cooperating with local telecommunication operators. It is unclear how technologies that rely on short communications times (low latency pings), such as VoIP, might need to be modified to work in an environment similar to mobile phones where the signal may have to relay through multiple balloons before reaching the wider Internet.

The first person to connect to the "Google Balloon Internet" after the initial test balloons were launched into the stratosphere was a farmer in the town of Leeston, New Zealand, who was one of 50 people in the area around Christchurch who agreed to be a pilot tester for Project Loon. The New Zealand farmer lived in a rural location that couldn't get broadband access to the Internet, and had used a satellite Internet service in 2009, but found that he sometimes had to pay over $1000 per month for the service. The locals knew nothing about the secret project other than its ability to deliver Internet connectivity; but allowed project workers to attach a basketball-sized receiver resembling a giant bright-red party balloon to an outside wall of their property in order to connect to the network.

The technology designed in the project could allow countries to avoid using expensive fiber cable that would have to be installed underground to allow users to connect to the Internet. Google feels this will greatly increase Internet usage in developing countries in regions such as Africa and Southeast Asia that can't afford to lay underground fiber cable.

Reception

Project Loon has generally been well received, although Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project developers and astronomers have raised concerns that the lower of the two ISM bands that Loon uses (2.4 GHz) will interfere with the mid-band frequency range (0.5 GHz-3 GHz) used in the SKA project.

Google has not yet specified the costs of this project.

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key delivered a speech at the launch event in Christchurch stating that the Internet is important for New Zealand to help it globally distribute what it produces in a low cost way as the next 4 billion people come online; Key also acknowledged the potential of utilizing Loon for disaster recovery.

10 Fastest Cars in the world

There are many ways to measure automotive excellence, but top speed is the one everybody secretly cares about the most. Aldous Huxley was right about speed being the only truly modern sensation. He left out the part about how much fun it is.


These 10 cars are more than just fun, though, they’re the fastest production cars in the world. The emphasis here is on “production;” racers and one-off custom jobs need not apply. We also tried to limit the selections to cars whose claimed top speeds have been generally recognized as legitimate by the automotive media and sanctioning groups.

There are also some cars on the horizon that appear ready to knock some names off this list. SSC still hopes to reclaim the title of world’s fastest car with its 1,350-horsepower Tuatara, and Koenigsegg claims a top speed of over 270 mph for its One:1.

For now, though, these are the fastest cars that can legally sport a license plate.

Hennessey Venom GT (270 mph)

This combination of a Lotus Elise chassis and 1,244-hp 7.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8, and you have the fastest production car in the world. Depending on your definition of “fastest” and “production car,” that is.


Hennessey recorded a 270.4-mph run at the Kennedy Space Center last year, but only in one direction. To be considered legitimate, record attempts usually require one run in each direction. An average is then taken to account for wind conditions.

Because of its hand-built nature, there’s also some debate about whether the Venom GT qualifies as a production car. While it can claim the highest recorded speed, Hennessey’s monster isn’t recognized as the world’s fastest car by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport (268 mph)

When Volkswagen purchased the Bugatti brand, it had one goal: build the fastest production car in the world. The original Veyron achieved that goal, and with a price tag of $1.7 million and a quad-turbocharged W16 engine producing 1,000 hp, it also boasted the most superlatives of any production car.


Yet the Veyron was soon dethroned by the SSC Ultimate Aero, so Bugatti came back with the Veyron Super Sport. This Veyron-plus has 1,200 hp, and numerous aerodynamic changes meant to help gain a few extra miles per hour.

With a top speed of 268 mph recorded at Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessein test track, the Veyron Super Sport is still recognized as the world’s fastest production car by Guinness. The related Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse is also the world’s fastest open-topped car, with a top speed of 254 mph.

SSC Ultimate Aero (256 mph)

Briefly, the might of the Volkswagen Group and the prestige of the Bugatti name were bested by a car company no one had ever heard of.


Shelby SuperCars (SSC) has nothing to do with Carroll Shelby of Cobra fame, but for a moment its Ultimate Aero was the fastest production car in the world. It hit 256 mph in 2007, beating the non-Super Sport version of the Veyron.

Helping it achieve that velocity is a 6.3-liter twin-turbocharged V8 with 1,287 hp. There are no electronic driver aids to help control that power either, creating a purer driving experience for those with talent, and a scenario for certain death for those without it.

Koenigsegg CCR (242 mph)

Swedish supercar builder Koenigsegg briefly held the “world’s fastest” title before being bested by the original Bugatti Veyron. Its CCR reached 242 mph at Italy’s Nardo Ring in 2005.

The CCR was essentially an earlier generation of the cars Koenigsegg is building today. It featured a 4.7-liter V8 of the company’s own design, a carbon-fiber body, and not much in the way of electronic aids.

Despite its impressive stats, the CCR’s moment in the spotlight was as brief as its claim on the world. It was soon supplanted by the CCX, and then by the current Agera. Koenigsegg says the Agera-based One:1 will top out at over 270 mph, but no one has tried it yet.

McLaren F1 (241 mph)

The F1 is more than just a former world’s-fastest car. With its carbon-fiber body, gold-lined engine bay, 6.1-liter BMW M V12, and center driver’s seat, it just might be the coolest car ever made.

Years before it attempted to take on Ferrari and Porsche with the MP4-12C, McLaren was known only as a successful race team in Formula 1 and the defunct Can-Am series. Yet its first road car wasn’t exactly an amateur effort.

McLaren intended to make the F1 the ultimate road-going supercar, but its design was informed by the company’s racing experience. The F1 even went on to a fairly successful racing career in its own right, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1995.

Related: Aston Martin’s 800-hp Vulcan track car revealed

Aston Martin One-77 (220 mph)

The One-77 is the most extreme road-going Aston ever, and the fastest. It may share a front-engined layout with “regular” Astons, but the One-77 is a completely different animal.

Only 77 examples were made, and each sports a 7.30-liter V12 producing 750 hp. Like the chassis, it’s based on an engine used in lesser Aston production models, but it’s both lighter and more ferocious.

Aside from its performance and jaw-dropping good looks, the most remarkable thing about the One-77 may be that Aston was able to create a hypercar without making many compromises.

While it matches race-inspired mid-engined designs for performance, the One-77 still has the look and feel of something much more luxurious and well-rounded. It is, after all, the only front-engined car on this list.

The One-77 proves that incredibly fast cars don’t have to focus solely on performance. Its character is almost as special as its 220 mph top speed and limited production run.

Jaguar XJ220 (217 mph)

The XJ220 lost six cylinders and two driven wheels on the way to production, but it still managed to claim the title of fastest production car in 1992.

The original concept version featured a V12 engine and all-wheel drive, but the production model had to make due with a twin-turbocharged V6, and rear-wheel drive. Still, that was enough to get the XJ220 to 217 mph at Nardo, once engineers removed the rev limiter.

However, it wasn’t enough to solidify in the car’s place in history. Buyers weren’t as impressed by the production version as they were with the concept, and a weak early ‘90s economy tanked sales. Sometimes being the fastest just isn’t enough.

McLaren P1 (217 mph)

McLaren’s successor to the F1 isn’t as fast, but it’s much more high tech. Its 903-hp hybrid powertrain seamlessly blends electric and turbocharged V8 power, making the P1 one of the most capable performance cars ever made.

During the car’s press junket, McLaren said it emphasized the driving experience over outright top speed. Maybe the company didn’t think it could compete with Bugatti, or maybe it just thought organ-shredding lateral grip was a better way to torture customers than stratospheric speeds.

With a claimed lap time of around six minutes, the P1 also excels at a performance metric that’s almost become more important than top speed: the Nürburgring.

Ferrari LaFerrari (217 mph)

Along withe P1 and the Porsche 918 Spyder, the Ferrari LaFerrari is part of a trio of hybrid supercars that showed the world that performance cars don’t have to be (too) inefficient.

The Ferrari matches the McLaren for top speed and cleverness. Its 6.3-liter V12 is joined to a hybrid system modeled on the Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) used in Ferrari’s Formula One cars. Not only does the LaFerrari give its driver 950 hp to play with, it also provides the instantaneous response of electric motors to get things going.

Ferrari Enzo (217 mph)

That the current LaFerrari isn’t any faster than the Enzo that appeared a decade before it could be viewed as proof of lack of progress. Or maybe it’s just an indication of how good the Enzo really was.

The Enzo looks positively ancient next to the LaFerrari, but it was state of the supercar art a decade ago. It was the first of Ferrari’s flagship hypercars to incorporate Formula 1-style tech, and when it launched it was also the fastest and most powerful production Ferrari to date.

Named after Ferrari’s founder, the Enzo’s mechanicals and styling set the tone for a generation of Ferrari road cars, and may also represent an important point in supercar development.

With relatively few electronic aids, the Enzo was tricky to drive. A string of crash photos and Youtube videos attested to that. Subsequent Ferraris have included more driver aids, making the Enzo among the last of the analog cars from Maranello.

New apple television- A new upgrade on predecessor

 It turns out that Apple's streaming-TV box -- aptly named Apple TV -- isn't just for streaming anymore. Its latest incarnation, which ships this week, offers on the big screen just about anything you could previously only do on an iPhone or iPad.
Whether that's good may depend on whether you really want to buy shoes, browse home listings or read comic books on your TV. The new Apple TV looks to be a capable device for those purposes, although it's not flawless. Its streaming-TV features also trump those of its predecessor.
The new Apple TV will set you back $149, or $199 for a version with extra storage. Apple will still sell the old version for $69. Neither requires an iPhone or iPad, although either iDevice can simplify the Apple TV setup process.

The basic

Apple TV has been a dependable streamer, but until now its repertoire was limited to a few dozen services. Sure, these included Netflix, Hulu and HBO. But Apple didn't let you add other channels -- say, competitive videogame play from Twitch.tv -- on your own.
That's all changed. The new Apple TV features an iPhone-like app store that lets you choose your own streaming services. And it's no longer pushy about steering you to iTunes and other Apple services. You can easily customize the home screen with your favorites.
Video quality on the new Apple TV maxes out at full high definition, known technically as 1080p. That should be plenty for most people. Video enthusiasts may complain that it doesn't support a higher-quality video standard called ultra-high definition or 4K, as several other streaming boxes do. But there aren't many 4K TVs or much programming for them available yet.
The Apple TV remote doesn't have a headphone jack, which other streaming devices like the Roku 3 and 4 and the Nvidia Shield offer to spare your family and roommates late at night. Instead, Apple TV supports Bluetooth wireless headphones. Although you need to buy those separately, I prefer them because it can be tricky doing chores with a remote dangling from your headphone cords.
It's not yet clear whether you'll be able to stream video from Amazon and Google Play. Both companies have competing video stores, and one sticking point could be the cut Apple takes on in-app digital sales. Other major services, including Google's YouTube, are expected on the Apple TV.

Innovations

The new Apple TV enables voice searches using the Siri virtual assistant. Request "Seinfeld" or Jennifer Lawrence, and Apple TV will look through catalogs for iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, HBO and Showtime, with more to come. You can even ask for "good documentaries to watch."
Although similar capabilities are available on other devices, Apple TV goes further in a few ways:
The remote replaces traditional rewind and forward buttons with a laptop-style trackpad. By sliding left and right, you control playback and navigate the on-screen keyboard more quickly. Sliding down gets you settings and show details, when available. The remote also lets you control the TV's power and volume directly, something I've seen only with TiVo video players.
You can control playback by asking Siri to rewind 45 seconds or jump ahead five minutes, though some services won't let you forward past commercials. Saying "What did she say?" will rewind video 15 seconds and briefly turn on closed captioning, when available. It works fully with iTunes for now, but the closed-captioning part doesn't work with all third-party services yet.
You can ask Siri for a specific episode, such as the "How I Met Your Mother" episode with Katie Holmes. Guest stars tend to trip up rival devices.
Beyond streaming
Siri offers weather, stocks and sports information. It was great for tracking Tuesday's World Series opener without watching the game. This feature isn't unique to Apple TV, but unlike the competition, Apple TV feeds you info without interrupting your video by sliding up results from the bottom of the screen.
I had to rephrase or repeat my questions a few timeespecially if I was speaking quickly. As long as I enunciated clearly, results were mostly satisfactory. Apple TV's version of Siri, however, won't handle general Web searches.
Apple TV catches up with rivals in enabling games. The remote has sensors that let you navigate spaceships and swing baseball bats by moving it around. But a bigger potential lies in bringing other apps to the big screen.
You can browse home to buy through Zillow and places to stay on vacation through Airbnb. Images on the big TV gave me a better sense of these properties than phone browsing would. You can also shop through Gilt and QVC.

Room to grow

Apple still needs to persuade developers to make more apps that really exploit the larger, and often shared, TV screen. Many of the apps now available are limited to one user profile or account, making them difficult for others to use.
It would also be nice for Apple TV to work better with payment services. You can easily buy videos and games with your iTunes account, but non-digital products are another story. Airbnb, for instance, will let you "favorite" places to stay, but you'll need a phone or computer to book a room. It's not exactly the relaxed, couch-potato experience you expect from TV.
Generally speaking, though, the new Apple TV has taken an important first step into a broader world. Plenty of devices do video and games well. With a new range of non-streaming apps, Apple has an opportunity to do much more than that.