When troubleshooting your system, it can be helpful to keep an eye on your network utilization to see if there's a problem with your network card or if your problem is upstream with your ISP. For example, if you're getting a ton of packet loss while playing online games, the problem is very possibly your ISP, but you could also have a malfunctioning network card that's dropping the connection so often that you can't tell. With ShaPlus Bandwidth Meter, you can watch your network activity in real-time to see if there's anything unusual about the way your network card is behaving.
ShaPlus works with both hard-wired network adapters and wireless adapters, and can be useful in troubleshooting network issues where you don't think your Internet connection is to blame. For example, when visiting my parents a while ago I noticed that my girlfriend could connect without a problem to the wireless network, but I kept having problems. It turned out to be a driver issue, but had I been able to watch my network traffic drop off every couple of seconds in real-time, I may have come to that conclusion sooner.
The tool is useful for more than just troubleshooting; if you're on a data plan that charges by the megabyte or you have a bandwidth cap on your plan, you likely want to keep track of how much data you're sending or receiving through your tethered Blackberry or cellular wireless card. ShaPlus shows you not just how much traffic is going in and out at any given moment, but how much data has passed through a specific network card today, or in the past 30 days.
ShaPlus runs quietly in the background and sits in the system tray. At any time, you can click on the meter to see the traffic passing through the active network connection. If you're sitting in a coffee shop and want to keep close tabs on your bandwidth utilization, you can set the meter to be permanently visible so you can glance down at any time to make sure you're not racking up over-use charges on your data plan. You can even adjust the transparency of the window if you don't want it to be a distraction.
In addition to monitoring bandwidth, ShaPlus can disable flash video or images in Internet Explorer with a single click, which cuts down on the amount of data downloaded at one time. ShaPlus is free to download and use, and supports just about every version of Windows.
[via gHacks]
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Silverlight 2.0 Appears on Tuesday
Microsoft will release the second version of Silverlight, its answer to Adobe's Flash technology, on Tuesday, Microsoft said Monday. For those users with Silverlight already installed, the upgrade process should be seamless, as Silverlight will automatically update itself over the short term.
Silverlight 2.0 offers changes for both the developer and the user. Probably the thing that leapt out at me was the addition of Silverlight DRM, powered by Microsoft's own PlayReady digital-rights-management software, which offers "robust content protection for connected Silverlight experiences".
In the past, those connected Silverlight experiences have included Olympics coverage on NBCOlympics.com, which included 70 million video streams viewed by 50 million unique people, according to Microsoft. Microsoft also claimed that CBS College Sports, Blockbuster, Hard Rock Cafe, Yahoo Japan, AOL, Toyota, HSN and Tencent are building "their next-generation experiences" on Silverlight.
The odd statistic here is this one, however: "...Already one in four consumers worldwide has access to a computer with Silverlight already installed," according to Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. From the wording, it's hard to tell if Microsoft equates "access" with a PC in the home, down the street, across town, or in the same state. What would clear this up, of course, is if Microsoft would tell us how many times Silverlight has been downloaded and/or been installed.
As a consumer, here's what you'll see with the new release: new skinning capabilities, which means that a company like Blockbuster can customize the look and feel of a site; and deep zoom, which, as the name suggests, will allow users to zoom in on high-resoltion imagery; and support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer. Chrome is also reportedly supported as well.
It's also worth noting that Silverlight has new streaming and progressive download capabilities, Microsoft said.
From a developer standpoint, Microsoft said that it would integrate Silverlight development capabilities into the Eclipse toolset by way of Soyatec, a French developer. Microsoft also will release the Silverlight Control Pack and publish on MSDN the technical specification for the Silverlight Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) vocabulary under Microsoft's Permissive License.
In addition, there is support for networking services including REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, Microsoft said.Silverlight 2 will also include expanded .NET framework language support.
Silverlight 2.0 offers changes for both the developer and the user. Probably the thing that leapt out at me was the addition of Silverlight DRM, powered by Microsoft's own PlayReady digital-rights-management software, which offers "robust content protection for connected Silverlight experiences".
In the past, those connected Silverlight experiences have included Olympics coverage on NBCOlympics.com, which included 70 million video streams viewed by 50 million unique people, according to Microsoft. Microsoft also claimed that CBS College Sports, Blockbuster, Hard Rock Cafe, Yahoo Japan, AOL, Toyota, HSN and Tencent are building "their next-generation experiences" on Silverlight.
The odd statistic here is this one, however: "...Already one in four consumers worldwide has access to a computer with Silverlight already installed," according to Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. From the wording, it's hard to tell if Microsoft equates "access" with a PC in the home, down the street, across town, or in the same state. What would clear this up, of course, is if Microsoft would tell us how many times Silverlight has been downloaded and/or been installed.
As a consumer, here's what you'll see with the new release: new skinning capabilities, which means that a company like Blockbuster can customize the look and feel of a site; and deep zoom, which, as the name suggests, will allow users to zoom in on high-resoltion imagery; and support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer. Chrome is also reportedly supported as well.
It's also worth noting that Silverlight has new streaming and progressive download capabilities, Microsoft said.
From a developer standpoint, Microsoft said that it would integrate Silverlight development capabilities into the Eclipse toolset by way of Soyatec, a French developer. Microsoft also will release the Silverlight Control Pack and publish on MSDN the technical specification for the Silverlight Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) vocabulary under Microsoft's Permissive License.
In addition, there is support for networking services including REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, Microsoft said.Silverlight 2 will also include expanded .NET framework language support.
Microsoft PlayReady 1.2 Released
Enthusiasts experimenting with Media Center TV Pack were forced to become familiar with a new DRM scheme from Microsoft, called PlayReady--all TV shows recorded after upgrading are wrapped in the shiny new content protection scheme. Since the Windows 7 pre-beta includes the TV Pack functionality, it's got PlayReady too...or it should. I noticed earlier this week that the included link to download the software didn't work. That wasn't because the DRM scheme was dead, however; instead, MS was prepping an update to PlayReady--version 1.2, freshly released.
According to sources at Microsoft, the PlayReady PC Runtime 1.2 (or here for x64) has reduced start-up and decryption times compared with the PlayReady PC Runtime 1.0. No word on the scale of these performance improvements, but I'd be surprised if it's anything end-users will notice.
Apparently, the MS Update server hasn't been properly configured to provide the new download just yet, so if you're testing Windows 7, use these links to enable it. And if you're one of the few who've tracked down and installed the secretive TV Pack, I'd suggest updating to the new runtime. The performance enhancements probably won't be noticeable, but probably won't hurt too much either.
According to sources at Microsoft, the PlayReady PC Runtime 1.2 (or here for x64) has reduced start-up and decryption times compared with the PlayReady PC Runtime 1.0. No word on the scale of these performance improvements, but I'd be surprised if it's anything end-users will notice.
Apparently, the MS Update server hasn't been properly configured to provide the new download just yet, so if you're testing Windows 7, use these links to enable it. And if you're one of the few who've tracked down and installed the secretive TV Pack, I'd suggest updating to the new runtime. The performance enhancements probably won't be noticeable, but probably won't hurt too much either.
Is PlayReady Already Dead?
Update: It's not dead, just improved! Read about PlayReady 1.2 here.
PlayReady is Microsoft's latest DRM scheme, the successor to playsforsure. The encryption scheme is already the backbone of content security in the Windows Media Center TV Pack, and it's been smooshed into the company's recently released Silverlight 2.0 platform as well. But don't try to download the stuff.
I noticed the issue first in Windows 7. The Windows Media Center Setup menus have a new section: Install PlayReady. But as the screenshot above shows, the Microsoft Update server can't get to the package to update the security components--and it's been that way for days. For the past few months, Microsoft had a direct download link to PlayReady as well; recently that link has been taken down too. Heck, search the Downloads section of Microsoft's web site and you can't even turn up reference to the downloadable version, much less get it.
Holes in the security scheme in need of a patch, perhaps? New versions forthcoming? Or perhaps the realization that the last thing consumers want is more DRM on their PCs?
PlayReady is Microsoft's latest DRM scheme, the successor to playsforsure. The encryption scheme is already the backbone of content security in the Windows Media Center TV Pack, and it's been smooshed into the company's recently released Silverlight 2.0 platform as well. But don't try to download the stuff.
I noticed the issue first in Windows 7. The Windows Media Center Setup menus have a new section: Install PlayReady. But as the screenshot above shows, the Microsoft Update server can't get to the package to update the security components--and it's been that way for days. For the past few months, Microsoft had a direct download link to PlayReady as well; recently that link has been taken down too. Heck, search the Downloads section of Microsoft's web site and you can't even turn up reference to the downloadable version, much less get it.
Holes in the security scheme in need of a patch, perhaps? New versions forthcoming? Or perhaps the realization that the last thing consumers want is more DRM on their PCs?
Obama Launches Change.gov to Provide Transition Details
Change has come to America! Well, change.gov, that is.
President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled change.gov, a Web site that will provide details on the presidential transition.
"Change.gov provides resources to better understand the transition process and the decisions being made as part of it," according to a blog post. "The Obama administration will reflect an essential lesson from the success of the Obama campaign: that people united around a common purpose can achieve great things."
The site is thus far a little sparse on details. No mention of Rahm Emanuel, who today accepted the position of Obama's chief of staff, or the tech leaders who were named to his transition team--Julius Genachowski, former IAC/InterActiveCorp executive and chief counsel to FCC chairman Reed Hundt, and Google.org's Sonal Shah.
The site does include a form that asks visitors to "tell us your ideas and help us solve the biggest challenges facing our country." Participants will be required to provide their e-mail address, first and last names, and ZIP code.
Change.gov also includes a link to Obama's Tuesday night acceptance speech, details on Obama's agenda, a blog, recent news, and information on Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
Obama made strides during his campaign utilizing the Internet and has said he would like to continue that during his administration.
In an October interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Obama called for "using technology in intelligent ways."
"One of the things I'm excited about is to transfer what we've learned from this campaign in using technology into government," he said. "There are examples of that all throughout our government that can remove bureaucracy, eliminate red tape, [and] make the whole process more customer-friendly. They do it in the private sector all the time."
President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled change.gov, a Web site that will provide details on the presidential transition.
"Change.gov provides resources to better understand the transition process and the decisions being made as part of it," according to a blog post. "The Obama administration will reflect an essential lesson from the success of the Obama campaign: that people united around a common purpose can achieve great things."
The site is thus far a little sparse on details. No mention of Rahm Emanuel, who today accepted the position of Obama's chief of staff, or the tech leaders who were named to his transition team--Julius Genachowski, former IAC/InterActiveCorp executive and chief counsel to FCC chairman Reed Hundt, and Google.org's Sonal Shah.
The site does include a form that asks visitors to "tell us your ideas and help us solve the biggest challenges facing our country." Participants will be required to provide their e-mail address, first and last names, and ZIP code.
Change.gov also includes a link to Obama's Tuesday night acceptance speech, details on Obama's agenda, a blog, recent news, and information on Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
Obama made strides during his campaign utilizing the Internet and has said he would like to continue that during his administration.
In an October interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Obama called for "using technology in intelligent ways."
"One of the things I'm excited about is to transfer what we've learned from this campaign in using technology into government," he said. "There are examples of that all throughout our government that can remove bureaucracy, eliminate red tape, [and] make the whole process more customer-friendly. They do it in the private sector all the time."
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
RNC Launches Site: Repulican For A Reason
After the Democratic upset that was the last election, the Republican National Committee is, understandably, doing some soul searching.
While Obama's team of Web designers busied themselves with the launch of Change.gov, the RNC was hard at work on Republican For A Reason, a site devoted to giving "users the opportunity to discuss their reasons for being a member of the Grand Old Party and what being a Republican means to them."
"We are a party of principles and must regain our voice," said RNC Chairman Mike Duncan. "We need to hear what our volunteers, activists, elected leaders, and party members think about the Republican Party as we rebuild, re-focus, and renew our bond with the American people."
The site features a video intro with a lot of shots of Reagan and George H.W. Bush--surprisingly, it also features plenty of clips of W. giving speeches as well. The experience is a bit like Microsoft's "I am a PC" ad campaign, only with more moving instrumental music.
While Obama's team of Web designers busied themselves with the launch of Change.gov, the RNC was hard at work on Republican For A Reason, a site devoted to giving "users the opportunity to discuss their reasons for being a member of the Grand Old Party and what being a Republican means to them."
"We are a party of principles and must regain our voice," said RNC Chairman Mike Duncan. "We need to hear what our volunteers, activists, elected leaders, and party members think about the Republican Party as we rebuild, re-focus, and renew our bond with the American people."
The site features a video intro with a lot of shots of Reagan and George H.W. Bush--surprisingly, it also features plenty of clips of W. giving speeches as well. The experience is a bit like Microsoft's "I am a PC" ad campaign, only with more moving instrumental music.
Google's Gmail, Apps Gets Voice and Video Chat
Fearful that the tone of your instant messages is sometimes lost in translation? Google on Tuesday announced that it is integrating a voice and video plug-in for it Gmail Chat offering that lets you see or hear the friend with which you are chatting.
Users will need to download and install a plug-in and must have access to a webcam for video purposes. Google has partnered with Logitech and Buy.com to offer discounts of up to 30 percent on several cameras, as well as free shipping, until November 30.
A $99.99 Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, for example, is available for $69.99, while a $49 Logitech QuickCam Communicate MP is now $39.99
"I'm a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity," Justin Uberti, a Google software engineer, wrote in a blog post. "But people can only type so fast, and even with our new emoticons, there are still some things that just can't be expressed in a chat message."
Once installed, click the "Video
Users will need to download and install a plug-in and must have access to a webcam for video purposes. Google has partnered with Logitech and Buy.com to offer discounts of up to 30 percent on several cameras, as well as free shipping, until November 30.
A $99.99 Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, for example, is available for $69.99, while a $49 Logitech QuickCam Communicate MP is now $39.99
"I'm a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity," Justin Uberti, a Google software engineer, wrote in a blog post. "But people can only type so fast, and even with our new emoticons, there are still some things that just can't be expressed in a chat message."
Once installed, click the "Video
Google Flu Trends Uses Search Data to Track Flu Outbreaks
Does it seem like everyone around you has a cold? Turns out that might be true, and Google has the data to prove it.
The search engine giant on Tuesday launched Google Flu Trends, which will provide up-to-date flu-related activity estimate for all 50 states in the U.S.
Google will combine flu-related queries entered into its search engine with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to track cases of the flu throughout the country.
"We found that there's a very close relationship between the frequency of these search queries and the number of people who are experiencing flu-like symptoms each week," Jeremy Ginsberg and Matt Mohebbi, Google software engineers, wrote in a blog post. "As a result, if we tally each day's flu-related search queries, we can estimate how many people have a flu-like illness."
Flu Trends has been in the works since last year when Google software engineers met with the "predict and prevent" team from Google.org. "We decided to focus on outbreaks of infectious disease, which are responsible for millions of deaths around the world each year," Ginsberg and Mohebbi wrote.
Why not rely solely on CDC data? Early detection, according to Google.
"It turns out that traditional flu surveillance systems take 1-2 weeks to collect and release surveillance data, but Google search queries can be automatically counted very quickly," Ginsberg and Mohebbi wrote. "By making our flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza."
Google shared early results from the 2007-2008 flu season with the CDC's influenza division and "we saw that our search-based flu estimates had a consistently strong correlation with real CDC surveillance data."
Google stressed that the project is still very "experimental" but that flu-related search data it collects will be anonymous. "Flu Trends can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur each week," the company wrote.
According to current data on Flu Trends, flu activity in the U.S. is at "low" - on a scale of minimal, low, moderate, and intense.
The search engine giant on Tuesday launched Google Flu Trends, which will provide up-to-date flu-related activity estimate for all 50 states in the U.S.
Google will combine flu-related queries entered into its search engine with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to track cases of the flu throughout the country.
"We found that there's a very close relationship between the frequency of these search queries and the number of people who are experiencing flu-like symptoms each week," Jeremy Ginsberg and Matt Mohebbi, Google software engineers, wrote in a blog post. "As a result, if we tally each day's flu-related search queries, we can estimate how many people have a flu-like illness."
Flu Trends has been in the works since last year when Google software engineers met with the "predict and prevent" team from Google.org. "We decided to focus on outbreaks of infectious disease, which are responsible for millions of deaths around the world each year," Ginsberg and Mohebbi wrote.
Why not rely solely on CDC data? Early detection, according to Google.
"It turns out that traditional flu surveillance systems take 1-2 weeks to collect and release surveillance data, but Google search queries can be automatically counted very quickly," Ginsberg and Mohebbi wrote. "By making our flu estimates available each day, Google Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza."
Google shared early results from the 2007-2008 flu season with the CDC's influenza division and "we saw that our search-based flu estimates had a consistently strong correlation with real CDC surveillance data."
Google stressed that the project is still very "experimental" but that flu-related search data it collects will be anonymous. "Flu Trends can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur each week," the company wrote.
According to current data on Flu Trends, flu activity in the U.S. is at "low" - on a scale of minimal, low, moderate, and intense.
Finally, a Fishing and Boating Social Network
Dear Internet; you've got all kinds of cool sites, but what you really need is some kind of social network for boating and fishing enthusiasts. What's that? You have one? It's called Fishington? Tell me more!
"We're thrilled to offer this online community where boaters and anglers can engage in conversation about their experiences, find hotspots in their area, share memories and advice," said the site's CEO, Frank Peterson. "We encourage anyone who has an interest in boating and fishing to get involved and create a profile on Fishington.com. Help us build a community with valuable boating and fishing information for all enthusiasts."
The site lets users upload photos, create groups, and pinpoint fishing and boating "hotspots" on an interactive map. Mostly I like to just sit, stare at the site, and make some off-hand comments about the weather.
"We're thrilled to offer this online community where boaters and anglers can engage in conversation about their experiences, find hotspots in their area, share memories and advice," said the site's CEO, Frank Peterson. "We encourage anyone who has an interest in boating and fishing to get involved and create a profile on Fishington.com. Help us build a community with valuable boating and fishing information for all enthusiasts."
The site lets users upload photos, create groups, and pinpoint fishing and boating "hotspots" on an interactive map. Mostly I like to just sit, stare at the site, and make some off-hand comments about the weather.
Exorcise Task Pane from Desktop
Q: Suddenly the Task pane showed up on my desktop. How do I get rid of it? It's on the left side and is about 3 inches wide. System Restore didn't work. - Richard Hoppe.
A: This doesn't happen often, but when it does, whether in XP or in Vista, the effect is totally bizarre. Annoying, too, since it eats up valuable desktop real estate. The cause is a corrupted value in the Registry, and you can fix it with a simple Registry tweak. Well, the tweak is simple, but the key name in which you'll make the tweak is not: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\shellex\ExtShellFolderViews\{5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}. Click Start, click Run, enter REGEDIT, and navigate to that key.
In the right-hand pane look for a value named PersistMoniker. If you don't find a value with that name, right-click in the right-hand pane and choose New | Expandable String Value from the popup menu. Then name the new value PersistMoniker. Double-click this value and set its data to exactly this text, omitting the quotes: "file://%userappdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop.htt". Reboot the system and the errant Task Pane will be banished from your desktop. - Neil J. Rubenking.
A: This doesn't happen often, but when it does, whether in XP or in Vista, the effect is totally bizarre. Annoying, too, since it eats up valuable desktop real estate. The cause is a corrupted value in the Registry, and you can fix it with a simple Registry tweak. Well, the tweak is simple, but the key name in which you'll make the tweak is not: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\shellex\ExtShellFolderViews\{5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}. Click Start, click Run, enter REGEDIT, and navigate to that key.
In the right-hand pane look for a value named PersistMoniker. If you don't find a value with that name, right-click in the right-hand pane and choose New | Expandable String Value from the popup menu. Then name the new value PersistMoniker. Double-click this value and set its data to exactly this text, omitting the quotes: "file://%userappdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop.htt". Reboot the system and the errant Task Pane will be banished from your desktop. - Neil J. Rubenking.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Google Earth Adds Ancient Rome
You know what Google Earth has been missing? Time travel. The company is seeking to amend this glaring oversight, with the addition of Ancient Rome.
Now Google Earth users can explore a 3D representation of Rome as it looked circa 320 AD. The map features more than 6,700 buildings, 11 of which--including the Coliseum--feature detailed interiors. The layout also features information bubbles written by historians.
According to Google, the ancient city is one of the most extensive layouts of 3D buildings in the whole of Google Earth. It was developed in collaboration with Perfect Productions and the University of California Los Angeles and the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) at the University of Virginia.
And for K to 12 teachers in the U.S.: Google is sponsoring a curriculum contest. Submit "creative, innovative lesson plans that incorporate the Ancient Rome 3D layer" and you could win a slew of goodies for your classroom, including an Apple MacBook laptop.
Now Google Earth users can explore a 3D representation of Rome as it looked circa 320 AD. The map features more than 6,700 buildings, 11 of which--including the Coliseum--feature detailed interiors. The layout also features information bubbles written by historians.
According to Google, the ancient city is one of the most extensive layouts of 3D buildings in the whole of Google Earth. It was developed in collaboration with Perfect Productions and the University of California Los Angeles and the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) at the University of Virginia.
And for K to 12 teachers in the U.S.: Google is sponsoring a curriculum contest. Submit "creative, innovative lesson plans that incorporate the Ancient Rome 3D layer" and you could win a slew of goodies for your classroom, including an Apple MacBook laptop.
Yahoo! Updating Home Page...Again
Change is scary when you run a Web site. People don't like change, and when you give it to them, they might stop coming by. As for Yahoo!, it's an especially risky proposition: The company's homepage is its flagship property, and it's the most frequented home page on the Internet.
Honestly, it doesn't feel like all that long ago that the company gave its home page a complete overhaul, and now it's looking to roll out another update. Says Yahoo! in a recent blog post.
The goal was to make the Front Page into the most important starting point on the Web while also showcasing Yahoo!'s commitment to openness. From the engineering team's perspective, this meant turning the Front Page into a framework upon which Yahoo! and its partners could build new functionality and experiences rapidly.
The company used the framework from its customized My Yahoo! start page to build the new home page. According to Yahoo!, the redesign is based on five criteria: "Eliminate global dependencies. Make it small, make it fast. Create version independence. Allow code portability. Be forward compatible."
The page is in bucket testing at the moment.
Honestly, it doesn't feel like all that long ago that the company gave its home page a complete overhaul, and now it's looking to roll out another update. Says Yahoo! in a recent blog post.
The goal was to make the Front Page into the most important starting point on the Web while also showcasing Yahoo!'s commitment to openness. From the engineering team's perspective, this meant turning the Front Page into a framework upon which Yahoo! and its partners could build new functionality and experiences rapidly.
The company used the framework from its customized My Yahoo! start page to build the new home page. According to Yahoo!, the redesign is based on five criteria: "Eliminate global dependencies. Make it small, make it fast. Create version independence. Allow code portability. Be forward compatible."
The page is in bucket testing at the moment.
Microsoft Quietly Rolls Out Hotmail Revamp
Microsoft is quietly rolling out a redesign of its Hotmail e-mail service.
"No big changes--more like a repainted room than a remodeled house," according to a note Microsoft posted on the Hotmail landing page. "All your messages and contacts are still there. We've just made a few improvements to Hotmail based on feedback from customers like you."
Hotmail was "reborn" as Windows Live Hotmail in May 2007. At the time, it let users switch between the drag-and-drop Ajax-enabled version and the classic view.
Say goodbye to the classic version with this latest update. If you haven't signed into Hotmail lately, a welcome screen will greet you and inform you of the changes, but it does not offer the opportunity to continue using the classic version, as it has in the past.
Microsoft, however, says that the revamp combines elements of the classic and full versions. "One version = greater simplicity," Microsoft said.
Microsoft also touts the "cleaner and more customizable look" of the newest Hotmail, and promises up to 70 percent faster access to e-mail for broadband customers; 54 percent for narrowband users.
The Live team also updated the contacts section to make it easier to add multiple contacts to an e-mail, and provided several "design themes" to customize the look of your inbox.
In the coming months, Microsoft promised increased storage space, instant message through Hotmail, and updated calendar features.
"No big changes--more like a repainted room than a remodeled house," according to a note Microsoft posted on the Hotmail landing page. "All your messages and contacts are still there. We've just made a few improvements to Hotmail based on feedback from customers like you."
Hotmail was "reborn" as Windows Live Hotmail in May 2007. At the time, it let users switch between the drag-and-drop Ajax-enabled version and the classic view.
Say goodbye to the classic version with this latest update. If you haven't signed into Hotmail lately, a welcome screen will greet you and inform you of the changes, but it does not offer the opportunity to continue using the classic version, as it has in the past.
Microsoft, however, says that the revamp combines elements of the classic and full versions. "One version = greater simplicity," Microsoft said.
Microsoft also touts the "cleaner and more customizable look" of the newest Hotmail, and promises up to 70 percent faster access to e-mail for broadband customers; 54 percent for narrowband users.
The Live team also updated the contacts section to make it easier to add multiple contacts to an e-mail, and provided several "design themes" to customize the look of your inbox.
In the coming months, Microsoft promised increased storage space, instant message through Hotmail, and updated calendar features.
Fake New York Times Paper, Site Baffles New Yorkers
How does that old John Lennon quote go? "War is over (if you want it)." Call it wishful thinking, or chalk it up to a bunch of folks with too much time on their hands, but you've got to hand it to the folks behind the faux The New York Times that was distributed this morning, which boldly declared "Iraq War Ends." They do good work.
Released this morning and handed out to New Yorkers by an army of devoted newspaper distributors, the fake paper fooled more than a few people--it looked legit, save for the July 4th, 2009 date printed in small letters across the top.
The paper was loaded with all kinds of wishful thinking. The "Special Edition" of the paper receiving more than a few comparisons to The Onion, sans jokes. An accompanying Web site was launched as well, and is a near-perfect knockoff of nytimes.com. Of course, the site has been down for the better part of the morning, whether from excess traffic or litigation from the real Times, we can't say for sure.
Leave it to Gawker to get to the bottom of things. The group behind the paper issued an e-mail last night that read in part:
What will happen:
Something cool! You'll receive materials and instructions when you arrive. NOTE: YOU DON'T KNOW WHO DID THIS. We want to maintain maximum mystery around this, for as long as possible - at least for a couple of days.
Tomorrow morning we'll also have an online viral campaign - a quick click before you take off for work can make a big difference! Thank you again for volunteering your time and energy!
See you soon,
The many secret people YOU DO NOT KNOW
Apparently, though, the project is being linked to progressive prank group The Yes Men. Surely whoever put this together will be more than happy to take a little credit for it in the near future.
Released this morning and handed out to New Yorkers by an army of devoted newspaper distributors, the fake paper fooled more than a few people--it looked legit, save for the July 4th, 2009 date printed in small letters across the top.
The paper was loaded with all kinds of wishful thinking. The "Special Edition" of the paper receiving more than a few comparisons to The Onion, sans jokes. An accompanying Web site was launched as well, and is a near-perfect knockoff of nytimes.com. Of course, the site has been down for the better part of the morning, whether from excess traffic or litigation from the real Times, we can't say for sure.
Leave it to Gawker to get to the bottom of things. The group behind the paper issued an e-mail last night that read in part:
What will happen:
Something cool! You'll receive materials and instructions when you arrive. NOTE: YOU DON'T KNOW WHO DID THIS. We want to maintain maximum mystery around this, for as long as possible - at least for a couple of days.
Tomorrow morning we'll also have an online viral campaign - a quick click before you take off for work can make a big difference! Thank you again for volunteering your time and energy!
See you soon,
The many secret people YOU DO NOT KNOW
Apparently, though, the project is being linked to progressive prank group The Yes Men. Surely whoever put this together will be more than happy to take a little credit for it in the near future.
Gmail Backup: Saving Your Gmail Account for Posterity
I use Gmail for Web mail and even use Google to host mail for a number of my personal domains, so if something happened to them, I'd be lost. No one seriously expects a major outage or data loss at Google, but it's always good to make sure you keep your own backups in case something catastrophic does happen. Enter Gmail Backup, a utility that allows you to copy the entire contents of your Gmail account to your computer for archiving or safekeeping.
Gmail is one of those services that no one anticipates going down, but the fact remains that Google still considers Gmail a beta service, and changes can be made at any time. If you experience massive data loss, your account is compromised, or Gmail goes down when you need to grab an important e-mail, having a backup of your mail and files can be a lifesaver. Gmail Backup takes advantage of IMAP support in Gmail to retrieve copies of your messages and store them on your system.
Once you have IMAP enabled on your Gmail account, the app will log in as you and download copies of your messages. The process can take minutes to hours depending on how much information you have in your Gmail account. Gmail Backup stores your messages in EML format, which means you can import them into a desktop e-mail application if you need to access them.
If you're migrating from Gmail to domain-hosted Google Apps and want to use the version of Gmail set up for your domain, Gmail Backup allows you to download all of the messages from your Gmail account and then re-upload them to your new domain-hosted Gmail account when it's created. Once it's set up though, Gmail Backup supports domain-hosted Gmail. The utility is normally a one-way backup tool, only downloading messages and only uploading them when you ask it to.
With account storage limits at Gmail as high as 7GB now, the possibility of losing all of that data can be frightening if you use Gmail as a main e-mail address. It's always important to keep your own backups, even though it's highly unlikely that something major will happen to your Gmail account. The utility might be more useful if you're worried about being hacked, banned, or your account being otherwise closed inadvertently. Gmail Backup is free and works under Windows XP and Vista. Command-line versions are available for Linux and Mac OS X.
[via Lifehacker]
Gmail is one of those services that no one anticipates going down, but the fact remains that Google still considers Gmail a beta service, and changes can be made at any time. If you experience massive data loss, your account is compromised, or Gmail goes down when you need to grab an important e-mail, having a backup of your mail and files can be a lifesaver. Gmail Backup takes advantage of IMAP support in Gmail to retrieve copies of your messages and store them on your system.
Once you have IMAP enabled on your Gmail account, the app will log in as you and download copies of your messages. The process can take minutes to hours depending on how much information you have in your Gmail account. Gmail Backup stores your messages in EML format, which means you can import them into a desktop e-mail application if you need to access them.
If you're migrating from Gmail to domain-hosted Google Apps and want to use the version of Gmail set up for your domain, Gmail Backup allows you to download all of the messages from your Gmail account and then re-upload them to your new domain-hosted Gmail account when it's created. Once it's set up though, Gmail Backup supports domain-hosted Gmail. The utility is normally a one-way backup tool, only downloading messages and only uploading them when you ask it to.
With account storage limits at Gmail as high as 7GB now, the possibility of losing all of that data can be frightening if you use Gmail as a main e-mail address. It's always important to keep your own backups, even though it's highly unlikely that something major will happen to your Gmail account. The utility might be more useful if you're worried about being hacked, banned, or your account being otherwise closed inadvertently. Gmail Backup is free and works under Windows XP and Vista. Command-line versions are available for Linux and Mac OS X.
[via Lifehacker]
AlwaysVPN Secures Hotspots and Gets Around US-Only Sites
My friends in Canada gripe about some of the sites I write about, because they're U.S.-only. With sites such as Hulu, you need to check your IP address when you visit. Because if your IP is from an ISP not in the United States, you won't be allowed to access the content.
AlwaysVPN is a free, hosted VPN service that can be useful for non-U.S. users to get access to U.S.-only sites, or for anyone who's in the States and is looking for a way to keep network eavesdroppers from keeping tabs on your Internet connection.
AlwaysVPN is in early beta, but you can download the VPN client and try it at any time. The service provides a VPN client for Mac OS X, Windows XP and Vista, and even Linux. When you connect to the AlwaysVPN network, you create a secure tunnel through which your Internet traffic is sent. The service is great for surfing the Web in places where you may be concerned about security, but because AlwaysVPN is based in the United States, it's also useful for obtaining an American IP address to access U.S.-only Web services.
The security aspect of AlwaysVPN is tenuous at best. The service is great if you want a relatively weak level of security and the knowledge that others on your local network can't see what you're doing. The tunnel between your system and the AlwaysVPN network is encrypted, so anyone with a sniffer on your network won't be able to see passwords or sensitive information heading out from your computer.
At the same time, AlwaysVPN is providing a free service to anyone who chooses to use it and is a new, virtually unknown company; there's no guarantee that AlwaysVPN is trustworthy enough to be the courier of your credit card number or your bank account password. The service also doesn't offer a privacy policy or terms of service on its Web site. AlwaysVPN is great if you're doing general Web surfing from an airport or a caf, but it's no replacement for your company's corporate VPN service, for example.
Where the service comes in really handy is when you need to access the U.S.-version of a site or service and you're outside of the country. For example, if you're trying to get to the U.S. version of the iTunes Music Store, or if you'd like to watch videos at Hulu and you're on vacation in Mexico, AlwaysVPN can mask your traffic as coming from a U.S. location.
Unlike other free VPN services, AlwaysVPN currently doesn't have a bandwidth cap, which could make it useful also for streaming video or audio. The service pays for itself by displaying banner ads over the pages you visit. The ad-supported strategy may or may not pay off in the long run, depending on the bandwidth costs the service racks up. In the meantime however, AlwaysVPN could be a great way to get at U.S.-only content like Hulu or Pandora when you're abroad, or provide a little security when you're reading blogs in some seedy cybercaf.
[via gHacks]
AlwaysVPN is a free, hosted VPN service that can be useful for non-U.S. users to get access to U.S.-only sites, or for anyone who's in the States and is looking for a way to keep network eavesdroppers from keeping tabs on your Internet connection.
AlwaysVPN is in early beta, but you can download the VPN client and try it at any time. The service provides a VPN client for Mac OS X, Windows XP and Vista, and even Linux. When you connect to the AlwaysVPN network, you create a secure tunnel through which your Internet traffic is sent. The service is great for surfing the Web in places where you may be concerned about security, but because AlwaysVPN is based in the United States, it's also useful for obtaining an American IP address to access U.S.-only Web services.
The security aspect of AlwaysVPN is tenuous at best. The service is great if you want a relatively weak level of security and the knowledge that others on your local network can't see what you're doing. The tunnel between your system and the AlwaysVPN network is encrypted, so anyone with a sniffer on your network won't be able to see passwords or sensitive information heading out from your computer.
At the same time, AlwaysVPN is providing a free service to anyone who chooses to use it and is a new, virtually unknown company; there's no guarantee that AlwaysVPN is trustworthy enough to be the courier of your credit card number or your bank account password. The service also doesn't offer a privacy policy or terms of service on its Web site. AlwaysVPN is great if you're doing general Web surfing from an airport or a caf, but it's no replacement for your company's corporate VPN service, for example.
Where the service comes in really handy is when you need to access the U.S.-version of a site or service and you're outside of the country. For example, if you're trying to get to the U.S. version of the iTunes Music Store, or if you'd like to watch videos at Hulu and you're on vacation in Mexico, AlwaysVPN can mask your traffic as coming from a U.S. location.
Unlike other free VPN services, AlwaysVPN currently doesn't have a bandwidth cap, which could make it useful also for streaming video or audio. The service pays for itself by displaying banner ads over the pages you visit. The ad-supported strategy may or may not pay off in the long run, depending on the bandwidth costs the service racks up. In the meantime however, AlwaysVPN could be a great way to get at U.S.-only content like Hulu or Pandora when you're abroad, or provide a little security when you're reading blogs in some seedy cybercaf.
[via gHacks]
The Best Accounting Software for Troubled Times
Income, credit, and funding for small businesses are all drying up, so you've got to keep a closer eye than ever on your bottom line. Whether you're a one-person shop or an entire crew, you can't afford to not have top quality bookkeeping.
The PC Magazine Software Team has reviewed four accounting apps that can help you keep your cash flow in check. Find out which one of these programs will fit your needs in our accounting software roundup.
Each of these four products has its own strengths and weaknesses, depending on what you're looking for in an accounting app. If--like most--you're used to using Office applications, you'll feel right at home with Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008. The interface is not only comfortable to use, but it also integrates well with other Office applications.
MYOB Premier Accounting 2008 is also very user friendly, proving to be one of the cleanest, most easily navigable accounting products we've reviewed.
Peachtree by Sage Complete Accounting 2009 gives you more flexible database forms for customers, vendors, and inventory items than its competitors, and its transaction forms are equally adaptable.
Of the four accounting products listed here, our Editor's Choice, QuickBooks Accounting Pro Edition 2009, is the most well-rounded, offering robust time-billing features, more choices for payroll processing, and better online accessibility.
The PC Magazine Software Team has reviewed four accounting apps that can help you keep your cash flow in check. Find out which one of these programs will fit your needs in our accounting software roundup.
Each of these four products has its own strengths and weaknesses, depending on what you're looking for in an accounting app. If--like most--you're used to using Office applications, you'll feel right at home with Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008. The interface is not only comfortable to use, but it also integrates well with other Office applications.
MYOB Premier Accounting 2008 is also very user friendly, proving to be one of the cleanest, most easily navigable accounting products we've reviewed.
Peachtree by Sage Complete Accounting 2009 gives you more flexible database forms for customers, vendors, and inventory items than its competitors, and its transaction forms are equally adaptable.
Of the four accounting products listed here, our Editor's Choice, QuickBooks Accounting Pro Edition 2009, is the most well-rounded, offering robust time-billing features, more choices for payroll processing, and better online accessibility.
Vista Recovery Partition Out of Space
Q: I keep getting the following annoying message at Windows startup: "Low disk space. You are running out of space on Recovery (D:). To free space...click here." When I click 'there', the Disk Space Cleanup Manager shows zero space to delete. I think I simply need to delete the backup file on D: drive, but I'm not sure. Do I really need to backup the D: drive? - Bonnie Berg.
A: Quite a few people have come to me with similar problems. The short answer is no, you need not include the recovery partition in your backup. It exists specifically to rescue your computer if something drastic happens and you can't boot. Pressing some specific key during the boot sequence (different for different PCs) will activate the recovery process. You don't ever want to do this except in desperation, because typically it will restore your system to its "out of box" state, minus any updates, installed applications, and personal documents.
So, find the Backup Set folder on drive D: and delete it. You will probably get a message about how it won't fit in the Recycle Bin. If you don't get such a message, empty the Recycle Bin afterward. Better still, simply hold down Shift while deleting the folder so it bypasses the Recycle Bin. And configure your backup program to leave drive D: alone. - Neil J. Rubenking.
A: Quite a few people have come to me with similar problems. The short answer is no, you need not include the recovery partition in your backup. It exists specifically to rescue your computer if something drastic happens and you can't boot. Pressing some specific key during the boot sequence (different for different PCs) will activate the recovery process. You don't ever want to do this except in desperation, because typically it will restore your system to its "out of box" state, minus any updates, installed applications, and personal documents.
So, find the Backup Set folder on drive D: and delete it. You will probably get a message about how it won't fit in the Recycle Bin. If you don't get such a message, empty the Recycle Bin afterward. Better still, simply hold down Shift while deleting the folder so it bypasses the Recycle Bin. And configure your backup program to leave drive D: alone. - Neil J. Rubenking.
Myspace Comes to the Blackberry
Myspace wants to make your Blackberry a little more social. The News Corp-owned social network today announced the release of a mobile app for RIM's popular smartphones.
Available now as a free download from Blackberry's site, Myspace for Blackerry lets users send and receive Myspace messages, comment on profiles, update their status, post photos, send bulletins, and more.
The app requires 64MB of onboard memory and 100 KB of available memory.
Available now as a free download from Blackberry's site, Myspace for Blackerry lets users send and receive Myspace messages, comment on profiles, update their status, post photos, send bulletins, and more.
The app requires 64MB of onboard memory and 100 KB of available memory.
MySpace 'Primetime' App Adds Hulu Content to Site
MySpace is incorporating content from Hulu into its MySpaceTV lineup, the social networking site announced Wednesday.
Users can add the Primetime Application to their MySpace profiles and homepages, or view content on the standalone site, http://www.myspace.com/primetime. The add-on allows members to search and watch the Hulu database, as well as MySpace original content and shows from the site's 150 partners, without leaving MySpace.
"Video on MySpace flows throughout the network, as there are multiple entry points where videos can be discovered, watched and shared including comments, bulletins and MySpaceTV," Jason Kirk, vice president of video and entertainment for MySpace, said in a statement. "We believe the 76 million U.S. users spending four hours on the site every month, and the advertisers that rely on our ad-solutions, will be happy with the flexibility of this application."
MySpace said it has a partnership with Hulu, Warner Bros, and Sony for the delivery of content through Primetime. MySpace also distributes content from partners like TMZ, BBC Worldwide, The Sony Minisode Networks, and National Geographic. Hulu, however, has said it encourages "the viral distribution of Hulu content in accordance with our terms of use."
The social networking site launched the MySpace Primetime community in December 2007, and this announcement adds content from Hulu to that offering.
Those who want to install the app on their profile need to visit the Primetime landing page and click "add this app." MySpace will then ask you would like it to appear and with whom you would like to share this information before installing it.
MySpace said it expects the move to generation 152 million more page views per month and increase its overall ad revenue via increased on-network video viewing.
Users can add the Primetime Application to their MySpace profiles and homepages, or view content on the standalone site, http://www.myspace.com/primetime. The add-on allows members to search and watch the Hulu database, as well as MySpace original content and shows from the site's 150 partners, without leaving MySpace.
"Video on MySpace flows throughout the network, as there are multiple entry points where videos can be discovered, watched and shared including comments, bulletins and MySpaceTV," Jason Kirk, vice president of video and entertainment for MySpace, said in a statement. "We believe the 76 million U.S. users spending four hours on the site every month, and the advertisers that rely on our ad-solutions, will be happy with the flexibility of this application."
MySpace said it has a partnership with Hulu, Warner Bros, and Sony for the delivery of content through Primetime. MySpace also distributes content from partners like TMZ, BBC Worldwide, The Sony Minisode Networks, and National Geographic. Hulu, however, has said it encourages "the viral distribution of Hulu content in accordance with our terms of use."
The social networking site launched the MySpace Primetime community in December 2007, and this announcement adds content from Hulu to that offering.
Those who want to install the app on their profile need to visit the Primetime landing page and click "add this app." MySpace will then ask you would like it to appear and with whom you would like to share this information before installing it.
MySpace said it expects the move to generation 152 million more page views per month and increase its overall ad revenue via increased on-network video viewing.
Monday, September 21, 2009
SanDisk and Veoh Team Up for Offline Video Watching Software
Online video aggregator Veoh and Flash memory maker SanDisk today launched the simply named Veoh Web Player for SanDisk. Available solely for SanDisk Cruzer USB drives, the app lets users browse and download content from Veoh.
The app is designed to let users consume video content even when they're offline or to "skirt the system" when their system is restrict from browsing entertainment sites.
The app will begin shipping with SanDisk Cruzer USB. Those who already own a Cruzer can download the app for free from SanDisk's site.
The app is designed to let users consume video content even when they're offline or to "skirt the system" when their system is restrict from browsing entertainment sites.
The app will begin shipping with SanDisk Cruzer USB. Those who already own a Cruzer can download the app for free from SanDisk's site.
Rumor: Apple is Building a Search Engine
It's always fun to stir the rumor pot--especially when it comes to Apple. The latest coming down the tubes today involves the Cupertino dipping its foot in yet enough unfamiliar sector of the tech world--search.
According to some rumors uttered via TechCrunch, the company is looking to take advantage of Safari's 6-7-percent browser market share and the Web browsing capabilities of the iPhone/iPod Touch by creating its very own search engine, thus forgoing its current dependency on Google--who, of course, has since gone and done its own thing in the phone space.
It would be an odd move, of course. Microsoft, as we know, has long lamented its partial flirtation with the search world--and, let's face it, as Arrington points out, if Apple really were looking to get fully into the space, it would be actively seeking a team of search experts.
According to some rumors uttered via TechCrunch, the company is looking to take advantage of Safari's 6-7-percent browser market share and the Web browsing capabilities of the iPhone/iPod Touch by creating its very own search engine, thus forgoing its current dependency on Google--who, of course, has since gone and done its own thing in the phone space.
It would be an odd move, of course. Microsoft, as we know, has long lamented its partial flirtation with the search world--and, let's face it, as Arrington points out, if Apple really were looking to get fully into the space, it would be actively seeking a team of search experts.
Mozilla's SpreadThunderbird.com Will Promote E-Mail Client
Can't get enough Thunderbird? Mozilla on Wednesday launched SpreadThunderbird.com, a Web site intended to spread the word about the company's e-mail client.
"Spread Thunderbird is the volunteer-run Mozilla Thunderbird advocacy site where community marketing activities are organized to raise awareness and to promote the adoption of Thunderbird," according to a blog post.
This site is a community effort, according to Mozilla, programmed and designed by volunteers using the open source Drupal platform. "In the future, Spread Thunderbird will coordinate a series of volunteer efforts to promote Thunderbird, and run campaigns to focus our community's energy on very tangible, specific goals," according to the site.
What can you do now?
Mozilla is urging supporters to add a Thunderbird promo line to e-mail signatures and Thunderbird buttons to Web sites and blogs.
"Each time someone clicks on your link, you'll get a point, so you'll be able to see how much impact you're making," Mozilla said. "We highlight and publicize the ten most successful promoters in the 'roll call' in the green bar on the right."
The site will also "beef up our referral tracking and award points for many other things besides referrals, such as donations and active participation in one of our marketing teams."
"Spread Thunderbird is the volunteer-run Mozilla Thunderbird advocacy site where community marketing activities are organized to raise awareness and to promote the adoption of Thunderbird," according to a blog post.
This site is a community effort, according to Mozilla, programmed and designed by volunteers using the open source Drupal platform. "In the future, Spread Thunderbird will coordinate a series of volunteer efforts to promote Thunderbird, and run campaigns to focus our community's energy on very tangible, specific goals," according to the site.
What can you do now?
Mozilla is urging supporters to add a Thunderbird promo line to e-mail signatures and Thunderbird buttons to Web sites and blogs.
"Each time someone clicks on your link, you'll get a point, so you'll be able to see how much impact you're making," Mozilla said. "We highlight and publicize the ten most successful promoters in the 'roll call' in the green bar on the right."
The site will also "beef up our referral tracking and award points for many other things besides referrals, such as donations and active participation in one of our marketing teams."
Valleywag Folded Into Gawker, Consumerist For Sale
Even snarky blogs are not immune to economic turmoil. Gawker Media tech blog Valleywag will be folded into sister publication Gawker, while the Gawker-owned Consumerist blog is now for sale, the company announced Wednesday.
The Valleywag.com URL will continue to work but will eventually redirect to Gawker.com. Valleywag currently has two full-time writers--Paul Boutin and Owen Thomas. Boutin will leave the site by December 1, and Thomas will post Valleywag-related news items to Gawker.com starting in 2009.
The Consumerist, meanwhile, will be sold off completely.
"Economic times being what they are, Gawker must refocus its efforts on its most commercially successful blogs," according to a Wednesday post. "Which means, yes, The Consumerist is for sale."
The site is looking for a "new home where our kickass blogging team can continue to thrive and grow," the post said.
On the Valleywag front, writer Boutin shed a bit more light on the situation.
"Valleywag's traffic isn't enough to pay for two writers, even with Ketel One ads on every page," Boutin wrote in a Thursday blog post.
"I will be back now and then to do my Hank Moody impersonation," Boutin continued. "I've been contributing for free since before Valleywag even launched. Where would I go? I already have new work lined up to pay the rent, so don't worry about me."
Valleywag launched by Gawker Media founder Nick Denton in December 2006.
"A bubble and a bust later, we're still here," Thomas wrote in a Wednesday post. "At least through the end of the month -- after which, I'll be the Valleywag both here and on Gawker.com, and Paul will no doubt return to his sub rosa role as advisor and instigator. Same party, different venue."
The Valleywag.com URL will continue to work but will eventually redirect to Gawker.com. Valleywag currently has two full-time writers--Paul Boutin and Owen Thomas. Boutin will leave the site by December 1, and Thomas will post Valleywag-related news items to Gawker.com starting in 2009.
The Consumerist, meanwhile, will be sold off completely.
"Economic times being what they are, Gawker must refocus its efforts on its most commercially successful blogs," according to a Wednesday post. "Which means, yes, The Consumerist is for sale."
The site is looking for a "new home where our kickass blogging team can continue to thrive and grow," the post said.
On the Valleywag front, writer Boutin shed a bit more light on the situation.
"Valleywag's traffic isn't enough to pay for two writers, even with Ketel One ads on every page," Boutin wrote in a Thursday blog post.
"I will be back now and then to do my Hank Moody impersonation," Boutin continued. "I've been contributing for free since before Valleywag even launched. Where would I go? I already have new work lined up to pay the rent, so don't worry about me."
Valleywag launched by Gawker Media founder Nick Denton in December 2006.
"A bubble and a bust later, we're still here," Thomas wrote in a Wednesday post. "At least through the end of the month -- after which, I'll be the Valleywag both here and on Gawker.com, and Paul will no doubt return to his sub rosa role as advisor and instigator. Same party, different venue."
PDFMeNot Makes PDF Sharing Easy
There are a number of utilities that allow you to manage your PDFs online like PDFEscape and PDF Hammer, but when it comes to actually reading or browsing a PDF file, you still have to download it, open a desktop app to review it, and you have to send the file to others if you want to share it. With PDFMeNot, a Web app from the folks behind RetailMeNot and BugMeNot, you can share PDF documents with others, upload your own to share, and you don't have to download it locally when you want to view the document--everything happens on the Web.
If you're using a relatively fast PDF reader like SumatraPDF, you may not mind having to download PDFs to open and review them. But even the speediest PDF readers can slow down when you download more and have to open larger PDF documents. PDFMeNot wants to free users from the need to have a PDF reader installed on their desktop at all and wants to give document creators a way to easily share their PDFs on the Web.
To use PDFMeNot, simply paste the URL of a PDF that's already on the Web into the input box. PDFMeNot will process the document and open it if it's not an encrypted PDF. Once the document is open, the document controls are simple: on the upper right side of the screen, you can zoom in or out on the document and you can click back and forward buttons to move between pages.
On the upper left side of the screen you'll find links to share the PDF with others. You'll see a link to the original PDF if you want to go back and download it. The service also provides embedding code so you can paste a PDFMeNot widget with your document already open in the viewer into your own site. PDFMeNot also provides a link that you can send to others that opens the document directly in PDFMeNot if they click on it.
The service also offers a bookmarklet and a Firefox Extension for folks who need to easily add PDFs they find on the Web to PDFMeNot. Additionally, the service has a small JavaScript for bloggers that, when embedded into their blogs, instantly converts any PDF they link to into a PDFMeNot document.
PDFMeNot isn't designed for people who want to share encrypted PDFs, like proofs or government documents, and it's definitely not for people who only bother with PDF documents when they have sensitive information to fill in (like tax forms, employment verification, or investment enrollment documents, for example). When many people think of PDFs, they think of documents like these.
The best uses for PDFMeNot revolve around documents that are already on the Web or available to the public, like scientific papers you want to share on your blog, court rulings, free eBooks, product documentation and manuals, rebate forms, and so on. With PDFMeNot, you can freely upload, share, and then embed those documents with ease.
If you're using a relatively fast PDF reader like SumatraPDF, you may not mind having to download PDFs to open and review them. But even the speediest PDF readers can slow down when you download more and have to open larger PDF documents. PDFMeNot wants to free users from the need to have a PDF reader installed on their desktop at all and wants to give document creators a way to easily share their PDFs on the Web.
To use PDFMeNot, simply paste the URL of a PDF that's already on the Web into the input box. PDFMeNot will process the document and open it if it's not an encrypted PDF. Once the document is open, the document controls are simple: on the upper right side of the screen, you can zoom in or out on the document and you can click back and forward buttons to move between pages.
On the upper left side of the screen you'll find links to share the PDF with others. You'll see a link to the original PDF if you want to go back and download it. The service also provides embedding code so you can paste a PDFMeNot widget with your document already open in the viewer into your own site. PDFMeNot also provides a link that you can send to others that opens the document directly in PDFMeNot if they click on it.
The service also offers a bookmarklet and a Firefox Extension for folks who need to easily add PDFs they find on the Web to PDFMeNot. Additionally, the service has a small JavaScript for bloggers that, when embedded into their blogs, instantly converts any PDF they link to into a PDFMeNot document.
PDFMeNot isn't designed for people who want to share encrypted PDFs, like proofs or government documents, and it's definitely not for people who only bother with PDF documents when they have sensitive information to fill in (like tax forms, employment verification, or investment enrollment documents, for example). When many people think of PDFs, they think of documents like these.
The best uses for PDFMeNot revolve around documents that are already on the Web or available to the public, like scientific papers you want to share on your blog, court rulings, free eBooks, product documentation and manuals, rebate forms, and so on. With PDFMeNot, you can freely upload, share, and then embed those documents with ease.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Find Coupon Codes with RetailMeNot
I'll admit it, I'm a cheap geek, and I'm always searching for a bargain before I buy. Even if I'm sure I'm getting a bargain, I'll still look around for a better one, or see if I can dig up a coupon code for the retailer I'm buying from. That's where RetailMeNot comes in. RetailMeNot was developed by the folks who gave us the popular BugMeNot plugin for Firefox, and is a community-driven database of coupon codes for hundreds of online retailers. RetailMeNot currently has over 15,000 coupon codes, and its database is growing every day.
The site takes user submissions, verifies them, and stores them, so when you search the database, you see what they have to offer. RetailMeNot has coupon codes for such sites as amazon.com, kbtoys.com, and barnesandnoble.com, but the most popular at the moment are for Victoria's Secret and Papa John's Pizza. Interesting. Either way, you can either search for a specific site, or browse the coupons by category. Participate in the forums to interact with the community or get the scoop on limited-time offers, and you can submit your own coupon code too. If you have a Mac, you can download the Dashboard widget for OS X and search for coupons without having to come to the site.
Post by Alan Henry
The site takes user submissions, verifies them, and stores them, so when you search the database, you see what they have to offer. RetailMeNot has coupon codes for such sites as amazon.com, kbtoys.com, and barnesandnoble.com, but the most popular at the moment are for Victoria's Secret and Papa John's Pizza. Interesting. Either way, you can either search for a specific site, or browse the coupons by category. Participate in the forums to interact with the community or get the scoop on limited-time offers, and you can submit your own coupon code too. If you have a Mac, you can download the Dashboard widget for OS X and search for coupons without having to come to the site.
Post by Alan Henry
BeatMyPrice: Crowdsourced Bargains
With the holidays rapidly approaching and everyone watching their wallets, it's more important than ever to make sure you find the best prices when shopping online. The folks behind RetailMeNot, BugMeNot, PDFMeNot, and other related services have unveiled BeatMyPrice: a Web service that will find the best price on an item you're shopping for. Enter the name, link, and current price of the item into BeatMyPrice. Using user-searches and retail partners, the service compiles a list of prices at other stores that hopefully beats the one you've submitted.
BeatMyPrice is completely crowdsourced, which means that its database is populated with information provided by its users. The database behind BeatMyPrice grows as the service gains popularity and more people search for products they'd like to buy. The site is still new and growing, so you may not be able to find an online store that can really beat your price. That being said, I was surprised with the number of retailers that were available when I went shopping.
To use the service, you first have to shop online for the desired product. Once you think you've found the best price, paste the product name, price, and URL into BeatMyPrice. The site will then search for matching products from other users' searches, and from sites like Amazon and Newegg, to see if it can find a better price than the one you've submitted.
Additionally, once the service compiles a list of prices, BeatMyPrice also searches the RetailMeNot database for available coupons. The price list also has a slider where you can set your target price if you'd like to expand or narrow your search. Your price becomes the ine to beat if it is the cheapest available. Future users who search for the same product will be able to see how much you paid for the item.
If you're not sure how to phrase your product, the tag cloud at the bottom of the page shows what other users have recently searched for. When I went shopping for a new video card, I found that what I thought was the best price was actually middle of the road and I could save over $30 by shopping at a different online store.
All of the listings and prices are real and appear to be from reputable vendors. The connection between BeatMyPrice and RetailMeNot is invaluable, and my searches turned up a number of coupons. As long as the developers can keep the listings free of false positives and dead bargains, BeatMyPrice will remain useful. In the meantime however, the service might save you some money if you do your holiday shopping online.
BeatMyPrice is completely crowdsourced, which means that its database is populated with information provided by its users. The database behind BeatMyPrice grows as the service gains popularity and more people search for products they'd like to buy. The site is still new and growing, so you may not be able to find an online store that can really beat your price. That being said, I was surprised with the number of retailers that were available when I went shopping.
To use the service, you first have to shop online for the desired product. Once you think you've found the best price, paste the product name, price, and URL into BeatMyPrice. The site will then search for matching products from other users' searches, and from sites like Amazon and Newegg, to see if it can find a better price than the one you've submitted.
Additionally, once the service compiles a list of prices, BeatMyPrice also searches the RetailMeNot database for available coupons. The price list also has a slider where you can set your target price if you'd like to expand or narrow your search. Your price becomes the ine to beat if it is the cheapest available. Future users who search for the same product will be able to see how much you paid for the item.
If you're not sure how to phrase your product, the tag cloud at the bottom of the page shows what other users have recently searched for. When I went shopping for a new video card, I found that what I thought was the best price was actually middle of the road and I could save over $30 by shopping at a different online store.
All of the listings and prices are real and appear to be from reputable vendors. The connection between BeatMyPrice and RetailMeNot is invaluable, and my searches turned up a number of coupons. As long as the developers can keep the listings free of false positives and dead bargains, BeatMyPrice will remain useful. In the meantime however, the service might save you some money if you do your holiday shopping online.
vlc4iphone: Play Almost Any Media on Your iPhone
I can literally throw any type of media on my desktop at VLC Media Player and expect it to play; I don't have to worry about codecs or converting to an acceptable file type for my system's default player. On the iPhone or iPod Touch, you normally have to convert your media to an iPod-friendly format before you can play it, but vlc4iphone allows you to play different video types without having to convert them first.
vlc4iphone isn't an official Apple-sanctioned app, so it's only available for jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches through Cydia, the alternative app distribution service. The application is essentially a port of the desktop version of VLC to the iPhone, so it can play FLAC, XviD, MPEG4, and more, including video and streaming audio.
Simply enable disk mode to copy media to your iPhone or iPod Touch and make a note of its location on the device. When you open vlc4iphone, you can browse your iPhone like a hard drive and find the media to play.
If you use vlc4iphone for streaming media, you'll need to know the URL of your stream ahead of time. vlc4iphone supports Shoutcast and other Internet radio stations and streaming video from sites that don't use Flash. The app also supports streaming audio or video from other computers on your network.
vlc4iphone does have some limitations, including the fact that it doesn't support RTMP, only works in portrait mode, and has trouble with videos at higher resolutions than 320x240. The developer is actively working on the project and promises to port them to the iPhone as new versions of VLC are released.
[via Lifehacker]
vlc4iphone isn't an official Apple-sanctioned app, so it's only available for jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches through Cydia, the alternative app distribution service. The application is essentially a port of the desktop version of VLC to the iPhone, so it can play FLAC, XviD, MPEG4, and more, including video and streaming audio.
Simply enable disk mode to copy media to your iPhone or iPod Touch and make a note of its location on the device. When you open vlc4iphone, you can browse your iPhone like a hard drive and find the media to play.
If you use vlc4iphone for streaming media, you'll need to know the URL of your stream ahead of time. vlc4iphone supports Shoutcast and other Internet radio stations and streaming video from sites that don't use Flash. The app also supports streaming audio or video from other computers on your network.
vlc4iphone does have some limitations, including the fact that it doesn't support RTMP, only works in portrait mode, and has trouble with videos at higher resolutions than 320x240. The developer is actively working on the project and promises to port them to the iPhone as new versions of VLC are released.
[via Lifehacker]
Economic Crisis Robs Google of Snacks: Open Letter
Dear Google,
These are hard times, we know. Things are rough all over, particularly in the tech sector. Heck, hardly a day goes by that we don't blog about yet another startup folding or a larger company announcing massive cutbacks. When we heard that even Google would be tightening its belt, though, we were surprised. Surely if there's one bulletproof company in the tech sector, it's you.
As any company that's gone through tough times can tell you, the first thing to go is the snacks. As Valleywag reported earlier today, that's exactly what happened to Google's Chelsea headquarters.
Your company has always been the envy in the rest of the tech sector because of its impressive snack selection. You gave us a tour of your NYC campus earlier this year, we thrilled at the bins of granola and the world famous Google frozen yogurt machine.
Sergey Brin and Larry promised that, as time went on, the perks would only get better. However, few could see that the current economic crisis would hit as hard as it has. A few months ago, though, free meals came to an end in your California headquarters. Now, New York is following suit.
With all of this in mind, the editors at Appscout have put together a care package to help you through these trying, snackless times. America's a tough country, and Google is the embodiment of that toughness. Together we will persevere.
In the meantime, please accept this care package. Inside we've included Smart Water, granola, a Cliff Bar, some green tea, and dry cereal--all your favorites.
Sincerely,
Your pals at Appscout
These are hard times, we know. Things are rough all over, particularly in the tech sector. Heck, hardly a day goes by that we don't blog about yet another startup folding or a larger company announcing massive cutbacks. When we heard that even Google would be tightening its belt, though, we were surprised. Surely if there's one bulletproof company in the tech sector, it's you.
As any company that's gone through tough times can tell you, the first thing to go is the snacks. As Valleywag reported earlier today, that's exactly what happened to Google's Chelsea headquarters.
Your company has always been the envy in the rest of the tech sector because of its impressive snack selection. You gave us a tour of your NYC campus earlier this year, we thrilled at the bins of granola and the world famous Google frozen yogurt machine.
Sergey Brin and Larry promised that, as time went on, the perks would only get better. However, few could see that the current economic crisis would hit as hard as it has. A few months ago, though, free meals came to an end in your California headquarters. Now, New York is following suit.
With all of this in mind, the editors at Appscout have put together a care package to help you through these trying, snackless times. America's a tough country, and Google is the embodiment of that toughness. Together we will persevere.
In the meantime, please accept this care package. Inside we've included Smart Water, granola, a Cliff Bar, some green tea, and dry cereal--all your favorites.
Sincerely,
Your pals at Appscout
Google Stock Dips Below $300--Panic Ensues
What? You were expecting some good economic news? Google's stock price dropped below $300 for the first time in three years, closing at $291 yesterday. The grim economic outlook, meanwhile, has dropped as well. Citigroup, which was estimating its price at $590 a month ago, has dropped Google's target price to $450.
The analyst, one Mark Mahaney, writes in his report that this is, "almost surely the worst economic environment in our collective lifetimes," later adding "We didn't uncover a single source that thought business trends were going to improve in the foreseeable future."
Especially scary, TechCrunch points out, in light of the fact that Google has thus far been one of the few companies that has appeared relatively unharmed by the economic story.
Looks like there may be more gift baskets on the way...
The analyst, one Mark Mahaney, writes in his report that this is, "almost surely the worst economic environment in our collective lifetimes," later adding "We didn't uncover a single source that thought business trends were going to improve in the foreseeable future."
Especially scary, TechCrunch points out, in light of the fact that Google has thus far been one of the few companies that has appeared relatively unharmed by the economic story.
Looks like there may be more gift baskets on the way...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Zoho Integrates Web-Based Office Suite for 'Docs'
Online office suite Zoho continued its battle against Google Thursday with the release of Zoho Docs, which integrates the company's suite of Web-based applications into one offering.
Zoho Docs, which is available now at docs.zoho.com, combines Zoho's Writer (documents), Sheet (spreadsheets), and Show (PowerPoint-esque presentations) offerings into one. It operates much like Google Docs, allowing users to create documents and share them with friends or groups via e-mail.
Zoho Docs allows users to upload ZIP files, exports documents, and it integrates the chat function directly into the Docs window.
"Zoho Docs fosters this notion of context-based work by bringing all of a user's content to a single place without having to go to any individual application," Raju Vegesna, Zoho evangelist, said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Zoho rolled out a service that lets users login using existing Google and Yahoo! accounts, and added the ability to import contacts to Zoho using one of the two companies' webmail services.
Zoho Docs, which is available now at docs.zoho.com, combines Zoho's Writer (documents), Sheet (spreadsheets), and Show (PowerPoint-esque presentations) offerings into one. It operates much like Google Docs, allowing users to create documents and share them with friends or groups via e-mail.
Zoho Docs allows users to upload ZIP files, exports documents, and it integrates the chat function directly into the Docs window.
"Zoho Docs fosters this notion of context-based work by bringing all of a user's content to a single place without having to go to any individual application," Raju Vegesna, Zoho evangelist, said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Zoho rolled out a service that lets users login using existing Google and Yahoo! accounts, and added the ability to import contacts to Zoho using one of the two companies' webmail services.
JetBlue And eBay Together At Last
The past few months have seen a sea change in the airline business. Charges have sprung up for everything from bags to blankets to water. No pay toilets yet, but one Canadian airline has decided to ditch life vests--most of their flights don't fly over water. Bonne chance!
What I'm getting at is that nothing should surprise us... and yet I'm surprised by JetBlue (the pay-for-blanket carrier). The carrier is about to auction tickets and vacation packages on eBay! In fact, JetBlue has its own eBay store.
"Jetting lands on eBay with exciting, no reserve auctions of flights and packages to great JetBlue destinations for a limited time only."
I'd like to hold my jet travel in higher esteem than discount Chinese computers and camera parts, but this is JetBlue's call. I clicked on the link to its New York City area flights and found many still at the opening bid of $0.05. Of course, those prices won't last. As the closing time approaches the selling price will become more realistic. ABC News quotes Harlan Platt, a finance professor at Northeastern University: "The auctions will likely produce final bids between 85 percent and 90 percent of the flight or package's total value." From where I sit, that's still a deal.
As is always the case with airlines, taxes and fees (and blankets) are additional and substantial. Full disclosure is made on the individual auctions, but here's an example on a New York to Chicago flight:
"Bid/fares do not include Passenger Facility Charges of up to $9 each way, September 11th Security Fees of up to $5 each way and a Federal Segment Tax of $3.50 per domestic segment. A segment is a takeoff and landing. Puerto Rico fares also do not include an excise tax of $15.40 each way. Bid/Fares for international travel also do not include government fees and taxes of up to $76.20 each way. All taxes and fees must be paid at the time of purchase. Additional bag charges may apply."
This will probably be the first time in your life PayPal is required to fly! It's a brave new world.
What I'm getting at is that nothing should surprise us... and yet I'm surprised by JetBlue (the pay-for-blanket carrier). The carrier is about to auction tickets and vacation packages on eBay! In fact, JetBlue has its own eBay store.
"Jetting lands on eBay with exciting, no reserve auctions of flights and packages to great JetBlue destinations for a limited time only."
I'd like to hold my jet travel in higher esteem than discount Chinese computers and camera parts, but this is JetBlue's call. I clicked on the link to its New York City area flights and found many still at the opening bid of $0.05. Of course, those prices won't last. As the closing time approaches the selling price will become more realistic. ABC News quotes Harlan Platt, a finance professor at Northeastern University: "The auctions will likely produce final bids between 85 percent and 90 percent of the flight or package's total value." From where I sit, that's still a deal.
As is always the case with airlines, taxes and fees (and blankets) are additional and substantial. Full disclosure is made on the individual auctions, but here's an example on a New York to Chicago flight:
"Bid/fares do not include Passenger Facility Charges of up to $9 each way, September 11th Security Fees of up to $5 each way and a Federal Segment Tax of $3.50 per domestic segment. A segment is a takeoff and landing. Puerto Rico fares also do not include an excise tax of $15.40 each way. Bid/Fares for international travel also do not include government fees and taxes of up to $76.20 each way. All taxes and fees must be paid at the time of purchase. Additional bag charges may apply."
This will probably be the first time in your life PayPal is required to fly! It's a brave new world.
Nintendo's Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir for the DS Launches
Have you seen Phil T Rich?
Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir for the Nintendo DS combines brain-challenging puzzles, complicated story lines, and beautiful graphics. After I got a quick hands-on at the release party at the Nintendo World Store in New York City this weekend, I can tell you that many attendees (as well as Nintendo store employees) found the game challenging, as the levels became more and more complex.It may even frustrate you at points, but players who describe themselves as task-driven will be rewarded with even more complex puzzles.
The game is the DS equivalent of the seek-and-solve games on PC. Phil T. Rich, a millionaire, has gone missing. You're a detective and must search for clues, investigate various places, and interview people to find Phil. It's a simple game at first, as you search areas using the DS touchscreen and stylus.
Emmy Daynow wants Phil T. Rich back--citing that he'll help her with her dreams as an actress.
As you play, though, the artwork and environments become more complex, and the game actually can become frustrating. Fnding a corn dog in a highly detailed environment with objects placed to distract your eye can be tough. Don't try tapping everywhere on the touchscreen either, as each item requires that you tap it twice in order for it to come off of your list.
Justine Time, an amateur inventor, claims to not know anything about where Phil T. Rich is.
Phil was apparently found, and made a guest appearance at the release party.
Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir for the Nintendo DS combines brain-challenging puzzles, complicated story lines, and beautiful graphics. After I got a quick hands-on at the release party at the Nintendo World Store in New York City this weekend, I can tell you that many attendees (as well as Nintendo store employees) found the game challenging, as the levels became more and more complex.It may even frustrate you at points, but players who describe themselves as task-driven will be rewarded with even more complex puzzles.
The game is the DS equivalent of the seek-and-solve games on PC. Phil T. Rich, a millionaire, has gone missing. You're a detective and must search for clues, investigate various places, and interview people to find Phil. It's a simple game at first, as you search areas using the DS touchscreen and stylus.
Emmy Daynow wants Phil T. Rich back--citing that he'll help her with her dreams as an actress.
As you play, though, the artwork and environments become more complex, and the game actually can become frustrating. Fnding a corn dog in a highly detailed environment with objects placed to distract your eye can be tough. Don't try tapping everywhere on the touchscreen either, as each item requires that you tap it twice in order for it to come off of your list.
Justine Time, an amateur inventor, claims to not know anything about where Phil T. Rich is.
Phil was apparently found, and made a guest appearance at the release party.
Caffeine Keeps Your Mac Display Bright When Inactive
I watch a ton of Web video and video podcasts on my Mac, especially when I'm using another computer for some intensive task and I can keep my laptop showing video next to me. Unfortunately, when you don't interact with the computer, the screen dims automatically after a few minutes, and you have to move the mouse or press a key to brighten it up again. Thanks to Caffeine, I don't have to worry about that anymore. With a couple of clicks on my Mac's menu bar, I can make sure the screen stays bright for the duration of a video.
Caffeine is a tiny menu-bar applet for Mac OS that keeps your display awake and alive while you're watching movies or videos, or just doing something where you need to leave the computer alone but keep your eyes on the screen. It's perfect for watching movies on your laptop, monitoring downloads or alerts, keeping your eye on auto-refreshing Web pages, and more. The app not only keeps the screen bright while you're not using the system, it will also keep screen savers from activating and keeps your Mac from automatically going to sleep.
After you've downloaded Caffeine, double-click to run the app and you'll notice a small cup of coffee in the menu bar next to the clock. Click the cup of coffee to turn Caffeine on or off, and command-click on the cup of coffee to access the app's preferences and tell Caffeine how long to police your display. You can set Caffeine to keep your display alive for anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours.
The free app is a universal binary, so it works equally well on Intel and PowerPC Macs. And it supports AppleScript, so you can add Caffeine to scripting tools or automated workflows. One note of caution however, Caffeine can keep your display alive longer, but using it on a Mac laptop without a charger attached will rapidly deplete the battery. So just bear in mind that while Caffeine can make sure you can watch your movie without interruption from a dimming display or a screensaver, it can't keep your battery from running out of juice in the middle of the movie.
Caffeine is a tiny menu-bar applet for Mac OS that keeps your display awake and alive while you're watching movies or videos, or just doing something where you need to leave the computer alone but keep your eyes on the screen. It's perfect for watching movies on your laptop, monitoring downloads or alerts, keeping your eye on auto-refreshing Web pages, and more. The app not only keeps the screen bright while you're not using the system, it will also keep screen savers from activating and keeps your Mac from automatically going to sleep.
After you've downloaded Caffeine, double-click to run the app and you'll notice a small cup of coffee in the menu bar next to the clock. Click the cup of coffee to turn Caffeine on or off, and command-click on the cup of coffee to access the app's preferences and tell Caffeine how long to police your display. You can set Caffeine to keep your display alive for anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours.
The free app is a universal binary, so it works equally well on Intel and PowerPC Macs. And it supports AppleScript, so you can add Caffeine to scripting tools or automated workflows. One note of caution however, Caffeine can keep your display alive longer, but using it on a Mac laptop without a charger attached will rapidly deplete the battery. So just bear in mind that while Caffeine can make sure you can watch your movie without interruption from a dimming display or a screensaver, it can't keep your battery from running out of juice in the middle of the movie.
Updating.me Updates All of Your Micro-Blogging Services At Once
Many of us have accounts on several social networking and micro-blogging services, but we update them individually when we get around to it. A number of services will update multiple micro-blogging or social networking services at the same time, but most of them don't include some of the most popular ones, such as Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, FriendFeed, and Pownce. Updating.me does, though; and it even offers a downloadable app that you can use to update all of your services at once.
Updating.me combines the convenience of an app like Posty with the Web-based functionality of a service like HelloTXT, and trades in services that aren't quite as popular with ones that people actually use. The beauty of these services like these, which can update multiple social networks and feeds at one time, is in that you have to type your status message only once, and all of your friends across multiple networks can stay in touch with you easily. You don't need to worry about your Facebook friends complaining they never hear from you very often, or your Twitter friends complaining that you've moved to Plurk.
Updating.me lets you update your statuses from the Web, or you can download an Adobe AIR applet to run that allows you to update all of those services at one time from your desktop. In addition to allowing you to update all of your statuses, you can view updates from all of your friends on all of those services inside one interface. You can click any of the specific services to see them individually, or you can view them all in one stream.
So far, Updating.me supports Facebook, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, Koornk, Plurk, Pownce, Rejaw, TwitArmy, and Twitter. The developers promise that more and more services are added all the time, presumably any service that has an API or a toolkit that allows third-party developers to hook in to their service somehow. The fact that you have the flexibility to update your services using the Web site or through the downloadable applet makes Updating.me far more compelling than the competition, and the breadth of services that it supports dwarfs many other mass-update applications or services.
Updating.me is currently in private beta, but the developers are actively handing out beta invites. If you actively use one of the supported services, or would like to use one of them but have your hands full with some of the others, Updating.me is a great way to stay in touch with all of your friends without the hassle of updating a half-dozen social Web services over the course of your afternoon.
Updating.me combines the convenience of an app like Posty with the Web-based functionality of a service like HelloTXT, and trades in services that aren't quite as popular with ones that people actually use. The beauty of these services like these, which can update multiple social networks and feeds at one time, is in that you have to type your status message only once, and all of your friends across multiple networks can stay in touch with you easily. You don't need to worry about your Facebook friends complaining they never hear from you very often, or your Twitter friends complaining that you've moved to Plurk.
Updating.me lets you update your statuses from the Web, or you can download an Adobe AIR applet to run that allows you to update all of those services at one time from your desktop. In addition to allowing you to update all of your statuses, you can view updates from all of your friends on all of those services inside one interface. You can click any of the specific services to see them individually, or you can view them all in one stream.
So far, Updating.me supports Facebook, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, Koornk, Plurk, Pownce, Rejaw, TwitArmy, and Twitter. The developers promise that more and more services are added all the time, presumably any service that has an API or a toolkit that allows third-party developers to hook in to their service somehow. The fact that you have the flexibility to update your services using the Web site or through the downloadable applet makes Updating.me far more compelling than the competition, and the breadth of services that it supports dwarfs many other mass-update applications or services.
Updating.me is currently in private beta, but the developers are actively handing out beta invites. If you actively use one of the supported services, or would like to use one of them but have your hands full with some of the others, Updating.me is a great way to stay in touch with all of your friends without the hassle of updating a half-dozen social Web services over the course of your afternoon.
iPhone Gets Voice Recognition for Driving Direction
Since the introduction of the iPhone 3G, we've all been saying pretty much the same thing: It's the apps, stupid. Thanks to the near simultaneous rollout of the iTunes App Store, the device just keeps getting better and better.
Dial Directions raised the bar a tad this morning, with the introduction of Say Where, which lets users get driving directions through a collaboration between their voices and sites like MapQuest, Yellow Pages, Ask.com, Yelp, and Traffic.com.
According to The Inquirer, the program will be available as a free download from the App Store.
Dial Directions raised the bar a tad this morning, with the introduction of Say Where, which lets users get driving directions through a collaboration between their voices and sites like MapQuest, Yellow Pages, Ask.com, Yelp, and Traffic.com.
According to The Inquirer, the program will be available as a free download from the App Store.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
RealNetworks Releases DRM-Crippled Movie Ripper
RealNetworks came into our office a few weeks back to talk about its new product. Suffice it to say, the company was incredibly excited to discuss the details of its new software, which it expects will revolutionize the way consumers watch DVDs.
The new product is called RealDVD. For $39.99, it promises to offer a legal way to save DVDs to computer, thanks to extensive talks the company conducted with members of the MPAA.
First question: Aren't there already a lot of DVD-ripping solutions around? The answer, of course, is a big "yes." However, apps such as Nero and Roxio won't let users rip commercial DVDs, thanks to copyright limits imposed by the aforementioned movie organization. Any other apps that let you rip commercial DVDs are likely illegal under copyright laws. Real is banking that offering a solution that's okay in the eyes of the law will convince users to plunk down that initial $40. I say "initial," because that's not the only fee here--at least not if you want to watch your movies on more than one PC.
Under the license, it will cost you an extra $19.99 per system to watch your movies on another PC--up to five, total. More than that (who owns that many computers?), and you'll have to buy another license.
The app is bogged down with quite a lot of DRM, assuring that users won't be able to transfer ripped movies freely. I'm sure a hack is possible, but heck, if you're going to do that, you might as well just download one of those legally questionable apps, right? (Not that we condone such activities.)
And of course, RealDVD won't let you burn discs--this app is solely for backing up. Nice, perhaps, if you have a terabyte drive lying around. Otherwise, you'll be storing only a few movies on your PC at a time.
So how would you use this app? Perhaps if you're going on a business trip, you can load up some movies on your PC to save luggage real estate (though, really, how much space does a CD case take up?) and the extra battery power that it takes to run an optical drive.
The other application seems to be for Netflix users who want to boost their film collections. But, of course, Real doesn't condone this kind of usage--the MPAA would have its head. The company's reps bristled when I suggested the possibility. Also, you run into the aforementioned issues of not being able to burn or transfer the movies.
In all, RealDVD's utility seems fairly limited. Real mentioned that it would be on sale in big-box stores like Best Buy, which I suppose does have an appeal for some customers. The rest of us may have to keep peering into that legal gray area.
The new product is called RealDVD. For $39.99, it promises to offer a legal way to save DVDs to computer, thanks to extensive talks the company conducted with members of the MPAA.
First question: Aren't there already a lot of DVD-ripping solutions around? The answer, of course, is a big "yes." However, apps such as Nero and Roxio won't let users rip commercial DVDs, thanks to copyright limits imposed by the aforementioned movie organization. Any other apps that let you rip commercial DVDs are likely illegal under copyright laws. Real is banking that offering a solution that's okay in the eyes of the law will convince users to plunk down that initial $40. I say "initial," because that's not the only fee here--at least not if you want to watch your movies on more than one PC.
Under the license, it will cost you an extra $19.99 per system to watch your movies on another PC--up to five, total. More than that (who owns that many computers?), and you'll have to buy another license.
The app is bogged down with quite a lot of DRM, assuring that users won't be able to transfer ripped movies freely. I'm sure a hack is possible, but heck, if you're going to do that, you might as well just download one of those legally questionable apps, right? (Not that we condone such activities.)
And of course, RealDVD won't let you burn discs--this app is solely for backing up. Nice, perhaps, if you have a terabyte drive lying around. Otherwise, you'll be storing only a few movies on your PC at a time.
So how would you use this app? Perhaps if you're going on a business trip, you can load up some movies on your PC to save luggage real estate (though, really, how much space does a CD case take up?) and the extra battery power that it takes to run an optical drive.
The other application seems to be for Netflix users who want to boost their film collections. But, of course, Real doesn't condone this kind of usage--the MPAA would have its head. The company's reps bristled when I suggested the possibility. Also, you run into the aforementioned issues of not being able to burn or transfer the movies.
In all, RealDVD's utility seems fairly limited. Real mentioned that it would be on sale in big-box stores like Best Buy, which I suppose does have an appeal for some customers. The rest of us may have to keep peering into that legal gray area.
Real Ups Price, Delays Release of RealDVD
As I mentioned before, when Real came into our offices, a few weeks ago, they were incredibly excited to discuss their latest piece of software, RealDVD, which provides a legal way for users to rip (but not burn) DVDs to their PCs. Perhaps they were a little too excited. Over the weekend, we received a couple of updates about the software.
First, that $39.99 price point that we were admonishing a bit as being too expensive (especially in light of the fact that opening up additional PCs to the license will cost you $19.99 for up to four computers) has been changed. Now it's $49.99.
Real was quick to point out the fact that those who opt in early will still be able to take advantage of the special $29.99 launch price (and that the added $19.99 hasn't gone up at all).
The only thing is, the company isn't so sure of that launch date. We received a second note from a company spokesperson, which read, in part, "consumer availability will be within the month, and we are creating the slight delay just to make sure that the product is rock solid when consumers get it."
So, there you have it. My initial comments still stand, but it will be a while longer, and a few dollars more until the users themselves can weigh in....
First, that $39.99 price point that we were admonishing a bit as being too expensive (especially in light of the fact that opening up additional PCs to the license will cost you $19.99 for up to four computers) has been changed. Now it's $49.99.
Real was quick to point out the fact that those who opt in early will still be able to take advantage of the special $29.99 launch price (and that the added $19.99 hasn't gone up at all).
The only thing is, the company isn't so sure of that launch date. We received a second note from a company spokesperson, which read, in part, "consumer availability will be within the month, and we are creating the slight delay just to make sure that the product is rock solid when consumers get it."
So, there you have it. My initial comments still stand, but it will be a while longer, and a few dollars more until the users themselves can weigh in....
Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2
Mozilla today released Firefox 3.1 Alpha today, perhaps in quiet celebration of Google Chrome's one-week anniversary.
Firefox 3.1 Alpha Two is built on Gecko 1.9.1, and offers a few new features, including the ability to drag and drop tabs between browser windows, support of a new video tag element, and further integration withVista's Aero graphics, according to The Register.
Codenamed Shiretoko, this latest rev is designed solely for testing and early app development. The build lockdown for Firefox 3.1 is set for September 30th.
Firefox 3.1 Alpha Two is built on Gecko 1.9.1, and offers a few new features, including the ability to drag and drop tabs between browser windows, support of a new video tag element, and further integration withVista's Aero graphics, according to The Register.
Codenamed Shiretoko, this latest rev is designed solely for testing and early app development. The build lockdown for Firefox 3.1 is set for September 30th.
Blah Girls: Dude, Where's My Web Site?
SAN FRANCISCO--So it turns out that Curt Schilling isn't the only celeb that wants in on the tech craze enveloping our land. Ashton Kutcher is the latest crossover Internet entrepreneur, and he's introducing his Blah Girls site today at TechCrunch50. The site offers a look at current show-biz news through the lens and wisdom of a group of sassy teenage girls. The real goal seems to be to offer advertisers access via the Web to that youthful audience with disposable allowance money.
Ashton calls Blah Girls a "dynamic interactive pop culture celebrity environment...a celebrity blog, or blah blah blog. (He seems much smarter in person than the characters he plays do, by the way.) The girls--Cristal, Brittany, and Tiffany, the "token black friend"--are actually cartoon characters, in the South Park vein.The site includes video, blog, Ask Us, Bios, Shop, and Contact sections, showing its social networking ambitions. Product placement rather than display ads contributes to Blah Girls' revenue. Be warned though: Some of the humor is more adult-ish than you'd expect to find on what might look like a site for children.
Ashton seems to have done really well at picking up market-speak: "The Web is not a passive environment. Engagement creates retention."
Blah Girls can be found on the Web at its own site, and the videos will show up on YouTube and Yahoo! Videos at noon Pacifc time today.
Ashton calls Blah Girls a "dynamic interactive pop culture celebrity environment...a celebrity blog, or blah blah blog. (He seems much smarter in person than the characters he plays do, by the way.) The girls--Cristal, Brittany, and Tiffany, the "token black friend"--are actually cartoon characters, in the South Park vein.The site includes video, blog, Ask Us, Bios, Shop, and Contact sections, showing its social networking ambitions. Product placement rather than display ads contributes to Blah Girls' revenue. Be warned though: Some of the humor is more adult-ish than you'd expect to find on what might look like a site for children.
Ashton seems to have done really well at picking up market-speak: "The Web is not a passive environment. Engagement creates retention."
Blah Girls can be found on the Web at its own site, and the videos will show up on YouTube and Yahoo! Videos at noon Pacifc time today.
Google Digitizes Historic Newspapers
At TechCrunch50 today, Google announced the upcoming rollout of its News Archive Partner Program, which will make historical newspapers accessible via Google News. Beginning today, the papers will appear in their original form, with "original headlines, articles, photographs, even advertisements and cartoons intact."
The company has already digitized millions of articles from U.S. and Canadian papers, including Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the St. Petersburg Times. Google plans on adding a number of new partners, growing the selection on an ongoing basis.
In coming months, the results will be available through Google's standard search as well.
Update: Check out Lance Ulanoff's direct-from-the-conference notes on this announcement after the jump.
Google's VP of Search Products and User Experience Marissa Mayer, who unveiled the service at TechCrunch 50, said Google built a new algorithm to find articles on the scanned pages. Search results will bring back full pages with relevant terms highlighted. Mayer also added that these print page results will include Google's AdSence and there will be revenue-sharing deals for partner papers.--Lance Ulanoff
The company has already digitized millions of articles from U.S. and Canadian papers, including Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the St. Petersburg Times. Google plans on adding a number of new partners, growing the selection on an ongoing basis.
In coming months, the results will be available through Google's standard search as well.
Update: Check out Lance Ulanoff's direct-from-the-conference notes on this announcement after the jump.
Google's VP of Search Products and User Experience Marissa Mayer, who unveiled the service at TechCrunch 50, said Google built a new algorithm to find articles on the scanned pages. Search results will bring back full pages with relevant terms highlighted. Mayer also added that these print page results will include Google's AdSence and there will be revenue-sharing deals for partner papers.--Lance Ulanoff
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Church of Scientology Sends Takedown Notices for 4,000 YouTube Videos
Remember when the Church of Scientology launched its own YouTube channel, back in April? The church posted about 3 hours worth of content on Google's popular video site, in order to meet "global demand for video content and accurate information about its beliefs, practices and its humanitarian programs addressing drug abuse, illiteracy, human rights and disaster relief."
Well, it turns out that Scientology is in favor of posting videos only as long as they paint the church in a positive light. Over the weekend, the American Rights Counsel LLC invoked the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DCMA) to demand the take down of some 4,000 YouTube videos.
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the organization made claims of copyright infringement against clips that include "footage of Australian and German news reports about Scientology, A Message to Anonymous/Scientology, and footage from a Clearwater City Commission meeting." Accounts were subsequently suspended by YouTube in response to the complaints.
Thanks to DMCA counter-notices filed on the part of YouTube users, the clips have since been reinstated.
Well, it turns out that Scientology is in favor of posting videos only as long as they paint the church in a positive light. Over the weekend, the American Rights Counsel LLC invoked the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DCMA) to demand the take down of some 4,000 YouTube videos.
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the organization made claims of copyright infringement against clips that include "footage of Australian and German news reports about Scientology, A Message to Anonymous/Scientology, and footage from a Clearwater City Commission meeting." Accounts were subsequently suspended by YouTube in response to the complaints.
Thanks to DMCA counter-notices filed on the part of YouTube users, the clips have since been reinstated.
IThryv: Online Banking for Kids
SAN FRANCISCO--iThryv, announced by Shryk LLC today at TechCrunch50, brings online banking nearly down to the crib, with versions for users as young as 5 years old. Within a cute, colorful, goofy interface, designed for young sensibilities, iThryv teaches kids how to be responsible with money. It lets them categorize expeditures by "wants" and "needs"--a concept lot of adults could use reinforcement on, given the number of people knee-deep in credit card debt and the level of personal bankruptcy.
Teenagers with cars and girlfriends have different money management issues, and iThryve addressed those too in its versions for kids aged 12 to 17. Credit cards come into the picture at age 18, and this is a factor in the young-adult version via a "savings score" that others can see, like a credit rating. If a youngster moves money to savings, his score goes up.
iThryv is not a bank, but it connects to bank systems. Shryk got feedback from parents, teachers, and banks to help nip financial illiteracy problem in the bud. The product can even help kids become entrepreneurs, by organizing activities such as lemonade-selling and neighborhood car-washing. They can see their peers' success in these ventures as well and are presented with a simple profit-and-loss page.
iThryv will be given to schools and educators free to help cure the epidemic of financial ignorance in the U.S. It's not intended to make money through ads, but will sell the service to banks, with the proposal that they'll be creating customer-for-life relationships. It's nice that iThryv could help kids learn about financial responsibility, but should we be concerned that perhaps the banks that it's partnering with are getting a leg in the door of the schools that Thryve is provided to for free?
Teenagers with cars and girlfriends have different money management issues, and iThryve addressed those too in its versions for kids aged 12 to 17. Credit cards come into the picture at age 18, and this is a factor in the young-adult version via a "savings score" that others can see, like a credit rating. If a youngster moves money to savings, his score goes up.
iThryv is not a bank, but it connects to bank systems. Shryk got feedback from parents, teachers, and banks to help nip financial illiteracy problem in the bud. The product can even help kids become entrepreneurs, by organizing activities such as lemonade-selling and neighborhood car-washing. They can see their peers' success in these ventures as well and are presented with a simple profit-and-loss page.
iThryv will be given to schools and educators free to help cure the epidemic of financial ignorance in the U.S. It's not intended to make money through ads, but will sell the service to banks, with the proposal that they'll be creating customer-for-life relationships. It's nice that iThryv could help kids learn about financial responsibility, but should we be concerned that perhaps the banks that it's partnering with are getting a leg in the door of the schools that Thryve is provided to for free?
Are You Ready for Digital Immortality?
When a loved one dies, the sadness is magnified by the fact that you'll never talk to them again. Sure, you can look at photos and videos, but you've had your last conversation. Or have you? Virsona, has introduced a service that offers the possibility of "Digital Immortality."
Currently in beta, and on display here at TechCrunch 50, the free service asks you to fill a knowledge base with information about you. This can include your responses to questions it asks you, e-mails you forward to the system and daily diary entries you add. Then, using natural language processing, your digital persona attempts to figure out the right response to someone communicating with your virtual you via the service's custom instant message interface. You can test it by talking to your virtual self. According to company CES Peter Hodge the more information you give the engine (you can apparently continue to train it over time), the better responses it can provide. Eventually, Virsona will let you collect your personal footprint, including activities on Twitter, MySpace, Flickr and other social interaction sites on one site.
Anyone can achieve digital immortality today. There's no charge for the service, unless you want to start storing lots of photos and videos on the site (for later retrieval by you ancestors) or if you want an ad-free version of the service. It's $10 a month for the latter option.
There's another side to the service. It currently offers conversations with living and dead luminaries like Barack Obama, Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jerry Garcia and Marilyn Monroe. Plus the company will create custom virtual personas for companies seeking to create digital interactions that, they hope, lead to sales.
Right now, the interaction is pretty stilted and hit or miss. I asked Abe Lincoln "What made him so great?" His response was "Superb."
Currently in beta, and on display here at TechCrunch 50, the free service asks you to fill a knowledge base with information about you. This can include your responses to questions it asks you, e-mails you forward to the system and daily diary entries you add. Then, using natural language processing, your digital persona attempts to figure out the right response to someone communicating with your virtual you via the service's custom instant message interface. You can test it by talking to your virtual self. According to company CES Peter Hodge the more information you give the engine (you can apparently continue to train it over time), the better responses it can provide. Eventually, Virsona will let you collect your personal footprint, including activities on Twitter, MySpace, Flickr and other social interaction sites on one site.
Anyone can achieve digital immortality today. There's no charge for the service, unless you want to start storing lots of photos and videos on the site (for later retrieval by you ancestors) or if you want an ad-free version of the service. It's $10 a month for the latter option.
There's another side to the service. It currently offers conversations with living and dead luminaries like Barack Obama, Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jerry Garcia and Marilyn Monroe. Plus the company will create custom virtual personas for companies seeking to create digital interactions that, they hope, lead to sales.
Right now, the interaction is pretty stilted and hit or miss. I asked Abe Lincoln "What made him so great?" His response was "Superb."
OtherInBox Paving a Way to E-Mail Sanity?
Most of us have multiple e-mail boxes. We have one for work, one for family and friends and maybe another two or three that we use to sign up for random and sometimes important stuff. Over time, those mailboxes fill up with newsletters we never read, offers we don't get and spam we'd rather not get in the first place. Disposable e-mail address services are nothing new. There are various free services and Gmail and even Yahoo's online premium e-mail service lets you create them (but does anyone pay for Yahoo Mail?). Still, comprehensive solutions are still few and far between.
OtherInBox, a free service launching here at TechCrunch 50, could help you unclutter your mail, organize it by Web site and even manage the spam that signing up for newsletters and site services sometimes spawn. The concept is simple: you create e-mail addresses under your own personal domain whenever you sign up for a new service. A new membership at Amazon, for example, would result in this email amazon@billsmith.otherinbox.com and signing up for Facebook could result in this one: facebook@billsmith.otherinboxcom. New e-mail addresses can be created on the fly, while you're signing up for each service, newsletter, ecommerce site, etc.
Since OtherInbox is a full-blown mail service, it has its own inbox, where all the mail is managed by e-mail address. So every bit of mail sent to amazon@billsmith.otherinbox.com ends up in a folder devoted to it. This makes it easier to manage and digest mail from Amazon and also to see if that address is generating unwanted spam. If the spam flow becomes too great, you can simply block incoming mail or kill the address.
OtherInBox, which is still in private beta, also integrates with some external services. For example, it can recognize ecommerce-related e-mail that might contain, shipping info and add expected arrival dates to your favorite calendar app.
OtherInBox, a free service launching here at TechCrunch 50, could help you unclutter your mail, organize it by Web site and even manage the spam that signing up for newsletters and site services sometimes spawn. The concept is simple: you create e-mail addresses under your own personal domain whenever you sign up for a new service. A new membership at Amazon, for example, would result in this email amazon@billsmith.otherinbox.com and signing up for Facebook could result in this one: facebook@billsmith.otherinboxcom. New e-mail addresses can be created on the fly, while you're signing up for each service, newsletter, ecommerce site, etc.
Since OtherInbox is a full-blown mail service, it has its own inbox, where all the mail is managed by e-mail address. So every bit of mail sent to amazon@billsmith.otherinbox.com ends up in a folder devoted to it. This makes it easier to manage and digest mail from Amazon and also to see if that address is generating unwanted spam. If the spam flow becomes too great, you can simply block incoming mail or kill the address.
OtherInBox, which is still in private beta, also integrates with some external services. For example, it can recognize ecommerce-related e-mail that might contain, shipping info and add expected arrival dates to your favorite calendar app.
CTIA Fall: Verizon Loads Up On New Phone Apps, Including MySpace
The annual Fall CTIA trade show, one of the three big cell phone shows of the year, is usually more about content than about new phones. That isn't to say that there won't be new phones; I'm landing in San Francisco today to dig 'em up.But Verizon Wireless, for one, is churning out new applications for their existing phones to keep them fresh. They've promised announcements every day through Thursday, though of course some of those announcements are bigger than others (and we hear that none of them are hot new phones. Sorry, folks.)
Today Verizon is making a lot of mobile application companies happy by welcoming their various solutions to Verizon's feature phones, from free phones on up. Today's bucket of joy includes:
SocialLife (aka Anthem), a mobile networking aggregator app (shown at left) that lets you combine MySpace, LiveJournal, Photobucket and seven other much less prominent communities (not Facebook or Bebo, though) on your phone, for $1.49 monthly.
New ringtone apps that let you clip a specific portion of a song, alter your voice or add vocals to pre-recorded beats, for the usual extortionate ringtone rates
Caller ID which lists city and state of incoming calls for the LG Voyager, for $1.99/month
Access to Verizon's proprietary V CAST videos via a WAP site on some phones, which basically exists so you can send links to other phones; it looks like regular PCs won't be able to access the site
Of the bunch, SocialLife (call it MySpace Mobile Plus A Few Others) looks like the biggest news here. It looks like a good app, but Verizon's application catalog still looks small to anyone who's browsed the world of unlocked Java apps or the Apple App Store. Hopefully pressure from Apple means Verizon will bulk up their options.
Today Verizon is making a lot of mobile application companies happy by welcoming their various solutions to Verizon's feature phones, from free phones on up. Today's bucket of joy includes:
SocialLife (aka Anthem), a mobile networking aggregator app (shown at left) that lets you combine MySpace, LiveJournal, Photobucket and seven other much less prominent communities (not Facebook or Bebo, though) on your phone, for $1.49 monthly.
New ringtone apps that let you clip a specific portion of a song, alter your voice or add vocals to pre-recorded beats, for the usual extortionate ringtone rates
Caller ID which lists city and state of incoming calls for the LG Voyager, for $1.99/month
Access to Verizon's proprietary V CAST videos via a WAP site on some phones, which basically exists so you can send links to other phones; it looks like regular PCs won't be able to access the site
Of the bunch, SocialLife (call it MySpace Mobile Plus A Few Others) looks like the biggest news here. It looks like a good app, but Verizon's application catalog still looks small to anyone who's browsed the world of unlocked Java apps or the Apple App Store. Hopefully pressure from Apple means Verizon will bulk up their options.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Google Halves IP Retention Time Over Privacy Concerns
Google today agreed to half its 18 month IP address retention policy, in an attempt to use user privacy concerns. Addresses will now be anonymized after sitting in server logs for nine months.
The company set the 18 month time limit in March of last year. Back then, governments were already beginning to raise concern about the company's policy of anonymity. Says Google on its blog,
Over the last two years, policymakers and regulators --especially in Europe and the U.S.--have continued to ask us (and others in the industry) to explain and justify this shortened logs retention policy. We responded by open letter to explain how we were trying to strike the right balance between sometimes conflicting factors like privacy, security, and innovation. Some in the community of EU data protection regulators continued to be skeptical of the legitimacy of logs retention and demanded detailed justifications for this retention. Many of these privacy leaders also highlighted the risks of litigants using court-ordered discovery to gain access to logs, as in the recent Viacom suit.
Upon this most recent announcement, the company issued another response with EU regulators.
The company closed the announcement on a somewhat reluctant note, stating,
While we're glad that this will bring some additional improvement in privacy, we're also concerned about the potential loss of security, quality, and innovation that may result from having less data. As the period prior to anonymization gets shorter, the added privacy benefits are less significant and the utility lost from the data grows. So, it's difficult to find the perfect equilibrium between privacy on the one hand, and other factors, such as innovation and security, on the other.
The company set the 18 month time limit in March of last year. Back then, governments were already beginning to raise concern about the company's policy of anonymity. Says Google on its blog,
Over the last two years, policymakers and regulators --especially in Europe and the U.S.--have continued to ask us (and others in the industry) to explain and justify this shortened logs retention policy. We responded by open letter to explain how we were trying to strike the right balance between sometimes conflicting factors like privacy, security, and innovation. Some in the community of EU data protection regulators continued to be skeptical of the legitimacy of logs retention and demanded detailed justifications for this retention. Many of these privacy leaders also highlighted the risks of litigants using court-ordered discovery to gain access to logs, as in the recent Viacom suit.
Upon this most recent announcement, the company issued another response with EU regulators.
The company closed the announcement on a somewhat reluctant note, stating,
While we're glad that this will bring some additional improvement in privacy, we're also concerned about the potential loss of security, quality, and innovation that may result from having less data. As the period prior to anonymization gets shorter, the added privacy benefits are less significant and the utility lost from the data grows. So, it's difficult to find the perfect equilibrium between privacy on the one hand, and other factors, such as innovation and security, on the other.
Jimmy Wales Greens Up Wikia
Jimmy Wales is going green. The Wikipedia co-founder has been looking into ways to make his business more environmentally sustainable through virtualization, more energy efficient electronics, and moving its headquarters to San Francisco, in order to reduce worker commutes.
Wales has also announced the launch of Wikia Green, a Wikipedia-like resource that zeroes in on environmental issues.
Speaking to him about the matter, CNET asked Wales whether the site was entering an already crowded marketplace. Wales had this to say,
What we're doing is actually complementary to blogs in the sense that what blogs do is update you on a day-to-day basis. Also, blogs are engaged in political or other types of analysis, whereas a wiki becomes a touchpoint for the community, a place where people meet up and work on whatever the consensus is about a certain topic.
Now, if only there were a blog that served all of our green tech needs...
Wales has also announced the launch of Wikia Green, a Wikipedia-like resource that zeroes in on environmental issues.
Speaking to him about the matter, CNET asked Wales whether the site was entering an already crowded marketplace. Wales had this to say,
What we're doing is actually complementary to blogs in the sense that what blogs do is update you on a day-to-day basis. Also, blogs are engaged in political or other types of analysis, whereas a wiki becomes a touchpoint for the community, a place where people meet up and work on whatever the consensus is about a certain topic.
Now, if only there were a blog that served all of our green tech needs...
Connective Logic's Blueprint: Making Multicore Easy for Developers
Pretty much every computer sold these days has dual-core or even a quad-core CPU, but pretty much all existing software can't take advantage of it. Enter Connective Logic with Blueprint, its programming and middleware product, announced at TechCrunch50 on Monday. The software uses a graphical flowchart approach that lets developers build modules in their programs that can multithread to take advantage of multiple CPU cores far more easily than is possible with brute program rewriting.
The first version of Blueprint lives inside Microsoft's Visual Studio, a widely used development environment. Its diagrams represent program flow that can allow instance of code to run in parallel, sometimes meaning a program can run twice as fast as before applying Blueprint. The software will determine the number of cores avaiable at startup, and supports any number of cores. It can even scale over a network to take advantage of more processors. Code generated by Blueprint is reusable in other projects--a major desideratum for coders.
The first version of Blueprint lives inside Microsoft's Visual Studio, a widely used development environment. Its diagrams represent program flow that can allow instance of code to run in parallel, sometimes meaning a program can run twice as fast as before applying Blueprint. The software will determine the number of cores avaiable at startup, and supports any number of cores. It can even scale over a network to take advantage of more processors. Code generated by Blueprint is reusable in other projects--a major desideratum for coders.
AntStorm Makes Your Bookmarks Social and Searchable
There's no shortage of services that allow you to share your favorite sites with others, and there's no shortage of services that promise better search results than the major search engines. But I've never seen a service that brings social bookmarking and semantic search together the way AntStorm does.
The service works on two major fronts: first, AntStorm allows you to upload your bookmarks, tag them, share them, and access them from any computer you choose, and second, AntStorm uses your tagged bookmarks to power a semantic search engine that will help you find new sites and services that match your interests.
AntStorm may initially sound like any other social bookmarking service, such as del.icio.us, but under the surface it's far more powerful. The service has two major features: One is social bookmarking and the ability to save and share your bookmarks on the Web first, and the other is the ability to harness the power of the bookmarks of the collective to find new sites, connect with other members, and even donate to charity.
AntStorm is free to use. Once you've signed up the first step is to import your bookmarks. The service supports bookmark files from Firefox and Internet Explorer. Once you've imported your bookmarks to your AntStorm account, your bookmark folders are recognized as "trails" laid out in horizontal columns. If you click on one of your bookmark folders, the contents of that folder are displayed on the right. You can add descriptions to your bookmarks and organize them via AntStorm, and use "trails" instead of tags to keep similar bookmarks together. If you download the AntStorm toolbar for your Web browser, you can immediately add new sites to your AntStorm trails as you decide to bookmark them.
By default, your trails are all marked private, so only you have access to them. You can use AntStorm privately to keep your bookmarks in order and make sure you have access to them from any computer with Web access, but that would only scratch the surface of AntStorm's features. As you add descriptions to your bookmarks, you can unlock trails to share them with the world or add them to your public trail. As more and more users share trails publicly, the AntStorm semantic search engine gets more and more powerful. Users can search for terms and pull up a laundry list of sites, blogs, and other Web pages that other AntStorm members have annotated with their search terms. This way, the AntStorm search engine gets stronger as AntStorm members share their bookmarks and provide details about them.
For example, if all of the technology blogs that you read frequently are in a "technology" trail, you can share them with the world and other members can use the search engine to search for technology and pull up the blogs that you and other AntStorm members read. Additionally, you can start a group dedicated to a specific topic or trail or join an existing group that piques your interest. This way you can share your interests with other AntStorm members, and connect with new people who share your interests or may be able to recommend new sites and services you may not know about. The service is still brand new and only launched its public beta earlier this month, so searches might be a little weak until more members hop on board.
When another AntStorm user views a trail, they see text advertising relevant to the topic of the trail. As visitors and users click on those ads, AntStorm donates 10% of the advertising revenue from user trails to charities of their choice. As you create trails around your favorite topics and as your trails become more popular, you can see how much money you've risen for charity and choose the charity that your revenue is donated to.
The key to all of this is making sure that your trails and bookmarks are properly noted when you upload them. You'll want to be as descriptive as possible, but you can do that as you go along; it doesn't have to be a chore. The reward for taking the time to use AntStorm and share your bookmarks is an incredibly rich social bookmarking and online bookmark management service that can also help you connect with others and find new Web sites to read and explore.
The service works on two major fronts: first, AntStorm allows you to upload your bookmarks, tag them, share them, and access them from any computer you choose, and second, AntStorm uses your tagged bookmarks to power a semantic search engine that will help you find new sites and services that match your interests.
AntStorm may initially sound like any other social bookmarking service, such as del.icio.us, but under the surface it's far more powerful. The service has two major features: One is social bookmarking and the ability to save and share your bookmarks on the Web first, and the other is the ability to harness the power of the bookmarks of the collective to find new sites, connect with other members, and even donate to charity.
AntStorm is free to use. Once you've signed up the first step is to import your bookmarks. The service supports bookmark files from Firefox and Internet Explorer. Once you've imported your bookmarks to your AntStorm account, your bookmark folders are recognized as "trails" laid out in horizontal columns. If you click on one of your bookmark folders, the contents of that folder are displayed on the right. You can add descriptions to your bookmarks and organize them via AntStorm, and use "trails" instead of tags to keep similar bookmarks together. If you download the AntStorm toolbar for your Web browser, you can immediately add new sites to your AntStorm trails as you decide to bookmark them.
By default, your trails are all marked private, so only you have access to them. You can use AntStorm privately to keep your bookmarks in order and make sure you have access to them from any computer with Web access, but that would only scratch the surface of AntStorm's features. As you add descriptions to your bookmarks, you can unlock trails to share them with the world or add them to your public trail. As more and more users share trails publicly, the AntStorm semantic search engine gets more and more powerful. Users can search for terms and pull up a laundry list of sites, blogs, and other Web pages that other AntStorm members have annotated with their search terms. This way, the AntStorm search engine gets stronger as AntStorm members share their bookmarks and provide details about them.
For example, if all of the technology blogs that you read frequently are in a "technology" trail, you can share them with the world and other members can use the search engine to search for technology and pull up the blogs that you and other AntStorm members read. Additionally, you can start a group dedicated to a specific topic or trail or join an existing group that piques your interest. This way you can share your interests with other AntStorm members, and connect with new people who share your interests or may be able to recommend new sites and services you may not know about. The service is still brand new and only launched its public beta earlier this month, so searches might be a little weak until more members hop on board.
When another AntStorm user views a trail, they see text advertising relevant to the topic of the trail. As visitors and users click on those ads, AntStorm donates 10% of the advertising revenue from user trails to charities of their choice. As you create trails around your favorite topics and as your trails become more popular, you can see how much money you've risen for charity and choose the charity that your revenue is donated to.
The key to all of this is making sure that your trails and bookmarks are properly noted when you upload them. You'll want to be as descriptive as possible, but you can do that as you go along; it doesn't have to be a chore. The reward for taking the time to use AntStorm and share your bookmarks is an incredibly rich social bookmarking and online bookmark management service that can also help you connect with others and find new Web sites to read and explore.
BizEquity: How Much is Your Startup Worth?
It seems every day there's news of a small business that's been acquired by a larger firm looking to get its hands on the technology, product, or service that the smaller company provides. If you work at a small company and you're worried the owners might get a raw deal when they sell the company, or if you own a small startup and are curious about how much your company might be worth, BizEquity might be able to give you a clue.
The service offers valuation estimates for over 10 million businesses, and based on your market, location, and business type, it might be able to tell you if your startup is worth pitching to the big money.
If you're a homeowner, you're used to being able to search based on location and type of home to find out how much--roughly--your home is worth. The values are rough estimates and not binding by any means, but they help if you're shooting for a range of values. The founders of BizEquity unveiled the service yesterday at the DEMO 2008 conference, and explained that the tool could be useful both for small business owners to get a feel for the value of their own businesses as well as the value of their competition across the street.
The site itself is simple to use - type in the name of your business or the category of business that your small company operates in and the location or zip code of your corporate headquarters. If BizEquity already has a value for your company, it'll display it, but if not it'll pick some businesses in your area and show you their values. The service displays the first handful of valuation on a Google map that you can drag around, and you can click through several pages of business search results in your area.
When I searched for a couple of different businesses, I found that the search results based on category weren't particularly tight, so when I searched for a marketing firm I got a fish market a few miles down the street that the service already had a value for. That's not necessarily a bad thing though; if you scroll down the page you'll see some useful statistics for small businesses in your ZIP code. Among the stats, BizEquity shows graphs that display how many companies have been moving into or leaving the areas, broken out by the average sales of those companies, as well as number of companies moving in or out of the area based on their employment rate.
Even if BizEquity doesn't have a valuation for your company, you can search by ZIP code and see how other companies in your area are doing, whether those companies are hiring or firing people, and whether the companies moving into the region are companies doing well or companies about to go under.
If you're looking for more specific data, you can request that BizEquity do a custom valuation for your specific firm. Simply fill out the valuation request form with some information about your business, its category, and financial data for the past three years, and some information about your company's sales and performance, and the service will do a custom valuation of your firm for free. Once you've done the custom valuation, you can choose to let BizEquity keep the information in the public listings for future reference.
BizEquity may not be the perfect solution for super-small businesses, or privately held companies that may be wary of disclosing the financials required to get a custom valuation done. At the same time, if you're looking to move your small business to a new location, or if you want some information on the competition, BizEquity might reveal some useful information about the town or city you're interested in moving or about other businesses in your area.
The service offers valuation estimates for over 10 million businesses, and based on your market, location, and business type, it might be able to tell you if your startup is worth pitching to the big money.
If you're a homeowner, you're used to being able to search based on location and type of home to find out how much--roughly--your home is worth. The values are rough estimates and not binding by any means, but they help if you're shooting for a range of values. The founders of BizEquity unveiled the service yesterday at the DEMO 2008 conference, and explained that the tool could be useful both for small business owners to get a feel for the value of their own businesses as well as the value of their competition across the street.
The site itself is simple to use - type in the name of your business or the category of business that your small company operates in and the location or zip code of your corporate headquarters. If BizEquity already has a value for your company, it'll display it, but if not it'll pick some businesses in your area and show you their values. The service displays the first handful of valuation on a Google map that you can drag around, and you can click through several pages of business search results in your area.
When I searched for a couple of different businesses, I found that the search results based on category weren't particularly tight, so when I searched for a marketing firm I got a fish market a few miles down the street that the service already had a value for. That's not necessarily a bad thing though; if you scroll down the page you'll see some useful statistics for small businesses in your ZIP code. Among the stats, BizEquity shows graphs that display how many companies have been moving into or leaving the areas, broken out by the average sales of those companies, as well as number of companies moving in or out of the area based on their employment rate.
Even if BizEquity doesn't have a valuation for your company, you can search by ZIP code and see how other companies in your area are doing, whether those companies are hiring or firing people, and whether the companies moving into the region are companies doing well or companies about to go under.
If you're looking for more specific data, you can request that BizEquity do a custom valuation for your specific firm. Simply fill out the valuation request form with some information about your business, its category, and financial data for the past three years, and some information about your company's sales and performance, and the service will do a custom valuation of your firm for free. Once you've done the custom valuation, you can choose to let BizEquity keep the information in the public listings for future reference.
BizEquity may not be the perfect solution for super-small businesses, or privately held companies that may be wary of disclosing the financials required to get a custom valuation done. At the same time, if you're looking to move your small business to a new location, or if you want some information on the competition, BizEquity might reveal some useful information about the town or city you're interested in moving or about other businesses in your area.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Popego: Making the Internet Interesting Again
With more and more online services becoming necessities for Web-lovers--Twitter, Facebook, and Pandora joining YouTube and Flickr--there's more noise to sift through as well. Attempts to solve this problem have been made in the form of portals or start pages like Netvibes, but these present everything in all your subscribed sites, with updates coming in minute by minute. Popego's goal is to let users "enjoy a more meaningful Web" by bubbling the most interesting missives to the top.
After signing up at the site, which was announced today at TechCrunch50 in San Francisco, you press the Pop my Ego button to get started. You'll get a popego.com Web address starting with your user name, and then can enter login info for all your online accounts--Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and most of the others you can think of.
Popego starts your feed and builds a tag cloud of your interests, which you can edit if you disagree with what it selects. An "equalizer" lets you slide the importance of each term in your cloud up and down, to control which topics will pop up higher in your feed. You can also help target your feed with the "I hate this" or "I love this" buttons for each item.
One very cool feature in Popego is a sort of "gain" slider, which lets you display only, for example, what it predicts will be the ten most important items if you're pressed for time.
You can, as with any social-networking-aware site these days, add friends and see their most important feed items, or you can check out the most popular among all Popego users. For each item in your feed, you can view a Pop card about its contributor, as a mechanism for keeping content sources credible--you can block those you don't trust.
Popego also offers code for a widget that you can place on your other sites, or that sites themselves can use it as an added feature. The company hopes to use the deep profiling that Popego generates to help advertisers target more relevant ads. You can see whether this well-designed, intriguing site really makes the Web more interesting to you personally by trying Popego for yourself.
After signing up at the site, which was announced today at TechCrunch50 in San Francisco, you press the Pop my Ego button to get started. You'll get a popego.com Web address starting with your user name, and then can enter login info for all your online accounts--Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and most of the others you can think of.
Popego starts your feed and builds a tag cloud of your interests, which you can edit if you disagree with what it selects. An "equalizer" lets you slide the importance of each term in your cloud up and down, to control which topics will pop up higher in your feed. You can also help target your feed with the "I hate this" or "I love this" buttons for each item.
One very cool feature in Popego is a sort of "gain" slider, which lets you display only, for example, what it predicts will be the ten most important items if you're pressed for time.
You can, as with any social-networking-aware site these days, add friends and see their most important feed items, or you can check out the most popular among all Popego users. For each item in your feed, you can view a Pop card about its contributor, as a mechanism for keeping content sources credible--you can block those you don't trust.
Popego also offers code for a widget that you can place on your other sites, or that sites themselves can use it as an added feature. The company hopes to use the deep profiling that Popego generates to help advertisers target more relevant ads. You can see whether this well-designed, intriguing site really makes the Web more interesting to you personally by trying Popego for yourself.
Lance Tweets TechCrunch50
UPDATE: Check out Lance's predictions of how well these new products will do at PCMag.com.
This morning in San Francisco, the TechCrunch50 conference got underway. Its goal: to "find the best start-ups and launch them in front of our industry's most influential VCs, corporations, fellow entrepreneurs and press."
We'll be posting on some of the cooler products that pop up here. Meanwhile, Lance Ulanoff, PC Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, is attending. At this writing he's sitting in on demos and posting his thoughts on Twitter. Go ahead and follow along!
This morning in San Francisco, the TechCrunch50 conference got underway. Its goal: to "find the best start-ups and launch them in front of our industry's most influential VCs, corporations, fellow entrepreneurs and press."
We'll be posting on some of the cooler products that pop up here. Meanwhile, Lance Ulanoff, PC Magazine's Editor-in-Chief, is attending. At this writing he's sitting in on demos and posting his thoughts on Twitter. Go ahead and follow along!
MIller Blogs DEMO: New EReader, Video and TV Solutions
While Lance checks out TechCrunch50, our former Editor-in-Chief, Michael Miller, is attending DEMO Fall 2008. Here the mission is:
During 70 six-minute presentations in two days, you will be the first to see the latest, most innovative and market-defining products unveiled for the very first time. Only the best-vetted products and companies are chosen to present in a show-me-don't-tell-me format that demands demonstrators seize the moment and convincingly crystallize the opportunity.
Michael's got his first two posts up: Check them out.
Demo Fall: New Video and TV Solutions: RealDVD, Invision.TV, BeeTV, and more.
Demo Fall 08: A New Reader And Other Cool Gadgets. Perhaps the coolest demo of the morning was from Plastic Logic -- an 8.5-in by 11-in. ebook reader that uses the company's own electronic ink technology. The company showed a very thin screen that it said was the same size, weight and thickness as a pad of paper. They said the technology was flexible, using plastics with embedded transistors, and compared it to the Amazon Kindle, but designed for business reading.
During 70 six-minute presentations in two days, you will be the first to see the latest, most innovative and market-defining products unveiled for the very first time. Only the best-vetted products and companies are chosen to present in a show-me-don't-tell-me format that demands demonstrators seize the moment and convincingly crystallize the opportunity.
Michael's got his first two posts up: Check them out.
Demo Fall: New Video and TV Solutions: RealDVD, Invision.TV, BeeTV, and more.
Demo Fall 08: A New Reader And Other Cool Gadgets. Perhaps the coolest demo of the morning was from Plastic Logic -- an 8.5-in by 11-in. ebook reader that uses the company's own electronic ink technology. The company showed a very thin screen that it said was the same size, weight and thickness as a pad of paper. They said the technology was flexible, using plastics with embedded transistors, and compared it to the Amazon Kindle, but designed for business reading.
CTIA Fall: Verizon's 16 Mobile Video Press Releases
What Verizon Wireless is lacking in new phones at the CTIA Fall trade show, they are making up in the sheer number of press releases they're putting out. I woke up today to, get this, sixteen press releases detailing new content for their locked-down, walled-garden, proprietary V CAST mobile video service.
As Americans get more video options, Verizon is trying to stay relevant by taking two tacks. First, they're increasing their number of content providers to fight competitors like Sprint TV, which has a truly terrifying number of channels.
Much more interestingly, though, Verizon is looking at mobile video as a sort of perpetual DVR, with past episodes of popular TV shows on tap in case you missed them. This gets interesting because it points to better integration with Verizon's FIOS TV service. Both Verizon and Sprint have cable TV and wireless products, and neither has been able to integrate them at all. For years now, I've been hearing dreams of transferring TV programs over to your phone to watch them. It still isn't happening.
Until that dream does come true, Verizon will now let you watch The Office, CSI, The Hills, and other programs from NBC, CBS, BET, MTV and ESPN on your Verizon Wireless phones.
On their V CAST streaming video service, they've added something called "Tuned In" from 60Frames, which is an Internet video channel; Comedy Time Latino; TLC, Animal Planet, Planet Green and Discovery Kids; four music/video channels I promise you've never heard of; G4; The WB, which I thought didn't exist any more; HGTV; Food Network; a channel called "SayHeyHey" containing "user generated dating videos," which promises to be an absolutely marvelous train wreck; a DC Comics superheroes channel, and a channel devoted to classic old Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
To access all this stuff, you need a Verizon Wireless phone with their $15/month V CAST package.
As Americans get more video options, Verizon is trying to stay relevant by taking two tacks. First, they're increasing their number of content providers to fight competitors like Sprint TV, which has a truly terrifying number of channels.
Much more interestingly, though, Verizon is looking at mobile video as a sort of perpetual DVR, with past episodes of popular TV shows on tap in case you missed them. This gets interesting because it points to better integration with Verizon's FIOS TV service. Both Verizon and Sprint have cable TV and wireless products, and neither has been able to integrate them at all. For years now, I've been hearing dreams of transferring TV programs over to your phone to watch them. It still isn't happening.
Until that dream does come true, Verizon will now let you watch The Office, CSI, The Hills, and other programs from NBC, CBS, BET, MTV and ESPN on your Verizon Wireless phones.
On their V CAST streaming video service, they've added something called "Tuned In" from 60Frames, which is an Internet video channel; Comedy Time Latino; TLC, Animal Planet, Planet Green and Discovery Kids; four music/video channels I promise you've never heard of; G4; The WB, which I thought didn't exist any more; HGTV; Food Network; a channel called "SayHeyHey" containing "user generated dating videos," which promises to be an absolutely marvelous train wreck; a DC Comics superheroes channel, and a channel devoted to classic old Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
To access all this stuff, you need a Verizon Wireless phone with their $15/month V CAST package.
Umbrella Today: Simplest Weather Report Ever
Some days, you want every bit of information that the local weather report can provide. High temperatures, the seven-day forecast, projected conditions for the afternoon and evening--all that information can be useful when you're trying to decide what to put on in the morning. At the same time, if all you have is a mobile phone, or all you want to know is whether or not it's going to rain, Umbrella Today can tell you in one word.
Simply give Umbrella Today your ZIP code, and the Web app will instantly let you know whether you'll need an umbrella when you head out for the day. If you work in one ZIP code and live in another (like I do), you might want to check both; I found today that I didn't need an umbrella in my home ZIP code, but I would need one where I worked.
Once you've received your one-word weather report, the service offers to text-message you automatically on days where you'll need your umbrella. Enter your phone number, the time you'd like to receive the text message, and select your wireless carrier, and Umbrella Today will send you a text message to remind you to take your umbrella when you leave the house, and include a more detailed weather report if you're interested. On days where you won't need your umbrella, the service will leave you alone and save you a text message.
Umbrella Today's layout is simple, and since the only input field is the one for your ZIP code, you can use the service from your mobile device if you'd rather not get automated text messages. If you do sign up for text message alerts, you can unsubscribe your phone at any time from the link at the bottom of the main page. The service even offers a link to "umbrella etiquette" at the bottom of the page if you're unsure how to handle your umbrella in public. It may not have a ton of bells and whistles, but Umbrella Today is so elegant and simple that I can't help but enjoy it.
Simply give Umbrella Today your ZIP code, and the Web app will instantly let you know whether you'll need an umbrella when you head out for the day. If you work in one ZIP code and live in another (like I do), you might want to check both; I found today that I didn't need an umbrella in my home ZIP code, but I would need one where I worked.
Once you've received your one-word weather report, the service offers to text-message you automatically on days where you'll need your umbrella. Enter your phone number, the time you'd like to receive the text message, and select your wireless carrier, and Umbrella Today will send you a text message to remind you to take your umbrella when you leave the house, and include a more detailed weather report if you're interested. On days where you won't need your umbrella, the service will leave you alone and save you a text message.
Umbrella Today's layout is simple, and since the only input field is the one for your ZIP code, you can use the service from your mobile device if you'd rather not get automated text messages. If you do sign up for text message alerts, you can unsubscribe your phone at any time from the link at the bottom of the main page. The service even offers a link to "umbrella etiquette" at the bottom of the page if you're unsure how to handle your umbrella in public. It may not have a ton of bells and whistles, but Umbrella Today is so elegant and simple that I can't help but enjoy it.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Tonchidot's Sekai Camera: Tagging the World
Tokyo-based tonchidot Corp. has a technology that Tim O'Reilly says is as big as the Internet. Here's how it works: You're walking around a city with your iPhone 3G, gazing at its camera view of the world in front of you. Say you want to buy a new cell phone or digital camera. tonchidot's Sekai Camera app for the iPhone then displays tags on top of the image of your environment, showing you exactly where the phone or camera you want is located, and even lets you buy it or read comments about the store in front of you.
Sekai Camera uses the iPhone's GPS capability to literally tag the world. Anyone can leave comments in a particular space and send personal messages to you in a space they know you'll visit.
They can even add a post using the phone's microphone, and like any post, it's send to tonchidot's servers. You could be in a gallery and learn about the artist of the picture in front of you, or read reviews by your friends or the menu of the restaurant you're standing in front of, deciding whether or not to go in and eat.
It's an ambitious project that will require participation, but tonchidot's founders here at the TechCrunch50 show, where the product garnered the biggest audience outburst of approval in two days, say simply "Join us!" Their statement is equally optimistic: "Our mission is to create a world of wit, parallel to our real world, where witty technology and sensibility are used to find witty solutions."
Sekai Camera uses the iPhone's GPS capability to literally tag the world. Anyone can leave comments in a particular space and send personal messages to you in a space they know you'll visit.
They can even add a post using the phone's microphone, and like any post, it's send to tonchidot's servers. You could be in a gallery and learn about the artist of the picture in front of you, or read reviews by your friends or the menu of the restaurant you're standing in front of, deciding whether or not to go in and eat.
It's an ambitious project that will require participation, but tonchidot's founders here at the TechCrunch50 show, where the product garnered the biggest audience outburst of approval in two days, say simply "Join us!" Their statement is equally optimistic: "Our mission is to create a world of wit, parallel to our real world, where witty technology and sensibility are used to find witty solutions."
Billeo Makes Online Shopping and Bill Pay Easy
I find myself shopping online at least as much as I shop in brick-and-mortar stores these days, mostly because I can order everything from my favorite herbal tea to a new pair of jeans from the comfort of my chair. Similarly, online bill-pay means I never have to worry about late fees or missing a payment on an important bill ever again.
Billeo makes it easy to ensure that all of the bills are paid online when I schedule them, remind me of the bills I have to pay manually, automatically log in to online shops where I commonly shop, save my preferred credit card and banking information for each service that I use, and more. A number of services make it easy to track your online shopping habits and financial history, Billeo makes it easy to track your habits and shop at the same time.
Billeo combines a number of features that make it easy to automate and streamline the process of paying bills online or shopping for products and services at your favorite sites. The free service allows you to manage your bill payments, accounts with your utilities and other online bill payment services, and will auto-fill banking account and credit card information for your bills and online accounts.
You can also set up reminders and alerts so you're notified when bill payments come out of your bank account, or when the service has processed a bill payment for you. If you prefer to pay your bills manually (like I do), you can configure Billeo to notify you when a bill is coming due so you can pay it. Additionally, Billeo will automatically generate and save receipts of your online transactions and keep them for future reference and financial planning.
In addition to helping you with your bills and expenses, Billeo can also help you spend money at your favorite online stores. The service can handle your passwords and account information for your favorite stores, automatically log you in when you visit a supported store. When you've got a full shopping cart and you're ready to check out, the service will even automatically fill in your preferred credit card information and address information so you don't have to. As with bill pay, Billeo will automatically save your receipts and other purchase information for future review. This way you don't ever have to look at your checking account statement and wonder what that cryptic store abbreviation really was, or what you bought there.
Billeo incorporates password management as well, and gives you single sign-on capability for both the Web services that support your utility bills and favorite online stores. Billeo can log you in to your cable company to pay your cable bill one moment, and then into Amazon to buy new DVDs the next. Along with password management, Billeo has a robust form-filler that you can configure with different credit card and banking information and various shipping and billing addresses for use around the Web. The service supports thousands of services and companies, and if one that you use isn't supported, you can add it to the service manually. All of your Billeo data, including your credit card numbers, banking information, and saved passwords, are encrypted and saved locally on your computer.
Billeo took advantage of the TechCrunch50 conference to unveil its newest feature, Splendid Search - a new feature that augments the automatic receipt-saving features and bill tracking functions Billeo already offers and adds comprehensive search by retailer or company name, amount paid, credit card used, or date. Prior to Splendid Search, Billeo has somewhat poor search functionality, but now you can search your financial history by a number of keywords that will help you track down exactly what you spent, when, and with whom.
To use Billeo, you'll have to download the toolbar, which supports Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox 2, and Windows XP with SP2 and Vista. Unfortunately the service offers no support for Mac or Linux users, and the Billeo Toolbar does not support Firefox 3, although there is a Firefox 3 beta of the Billeo Toolbar you can sign up for. The Billeo support site claims that Mac OS and Linux support is coming soon, and I imagine that if the Billeo Toolbar were rolled into a Firefox extension instead of a toolbar, they'd have instant cross-platform support.
Despite its platform limitations, Billeo is one of the most robust tools available to streamline and manage your online bill-payment and shopping transactions, and then roll them all into one easy-to-scan report. The service reminds me a bit of other Web services that track your spending and saving habits by hooking into your bank account, but Billeo is a perfect solution for people who just want to track their online shopping and spending habits.
Billeo makes it easy to ensure that all of the bills are paid online when I schedule them, remind me of the bills I have to pay manually, automatically log in to online shops where I commonly shop, save my preferred credit card and banking information for each service that I use, and more. A number of services make it easy to track your online shopping habits and financial history, Billeo makes it easy to track your habits and shop at the same time.
Billeo combines a number of features that make it easy to automate and streamline the process of paying bills online or shopping for products and services at your favorite sites. The free service allows you to manage your bill payments, accounts with your utilities and other online bill payment services, and will auto-fill banking account and credit card information for your bills and online accounts.
You can also set up reminders and alerts so you're notified when bill payments come out of your bank account, or when the service has processed a bill payment for you. If you prefer to pay your bills manually (like I do), you can configure Billeo to notify you when a bill is coming due so you can pay it. Additionally, Billeo will automatically generate and save receipts of your online transactions and keep them for future reference and financial planning.
In addition to helping you with your bills and expenses, Billeo can also help you spend money at your favorite online stores. The service can handle your passwords and account information for your favorite stores, automatically log you in when you visit a supported store. When you've got a full shopping cart and you're ready to check out, the service will even automatically fill in your preferred credit card information and address information so you don't have to. As with bill pay, Billeo will automatically save your receipts and other purchase information for future review. This way you don't ever have to look at your checking account statement and wonder what that cryptic store abbreviation really was, or what you bought there.
Billeo incorporates password management as well, and gives you single sign-on capability for both the Web services that support your utility bills and favorite online stores. Billeo can log you in to your cable company to pay your cable bill one moment, and then into Amazon to buy new DVDs the next. Along with password management, Billeo has a robust form-filler that you can configure with different credit card and banking information and various shipping and billing addresses for use around the Web. The service supports thousands of services and companies, and if one that you use isn't supported, you can add it to the service manually. All of your Billeo data, including your credit card numbers, banking information, and saved passwords, are encrypted and saved locally on your computer.
Billeo took advantage of the TechCrunch50 conference to unveil its newest feature, Splendid Search - a new feature that augments the automatic receipt-saving features and bill tracking functions Billeo already offers and adds comprehensive search by retailer or company name, amount paid, credit card used, or date. Prior to Splendid Search, Billeo has somewhat poor search functionality, but now you can search your financial history by a number of keywords that will help you track down exactly what you spent, when, and with whom.
To use Billeo, you'll have to download the toolbar, which supports Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox 2, and Windows XP with SP2 and Vista. Unfortunately the service offers no support for Mac or Linux users, and the Billeo Toolbar does not support Firefox 3, although there is a Firefox 3 beta of the Billeo Toolbar you can sign up for. The Billeo support site claims that Mac OS and Linux support is coming soon, and I imagine that if the Billeo Toolbar were rolled into a Firefox extension instead of a toolbar, they'd have instant cross-platform support.
Despite its platform limitations, Billeo is one of the most robust tools available to streamline and manage your online bill-payment and shopping transactions, and then roll them all into one easy-to-scan report. The service reminds me a bit of other Web services that track your spending and saving habits by hooking into your bank account, but Billeo is a perfect solution for people who just want to track their online shopping and spending habits.
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