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.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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.
PleaseDressMe: A Search Engine for T-shirts.
Okay, the Internet definitely needed one of these. PleaseDressMe isn't just another search engine--it's a T-shirt search engine, which is a billion dollar idea if ever there were one.
The site, launched this summer, aggregates wacky T-shirt-centric results from various sites (though, for the record, the occasional hat popped up from time to time when I tried it). That's pretty much all it does. The results at the moment are still thin, but the engine's developers are taking recommendations for more sites to crawl.
There's also a Twitter feed, Firefox plug-in, and a few widgets, because this is Web 2.0, after all.
Casually dressed nerds, rejoice!
The site, launched this summer, aggregates wacky T-shirt-centric results from various sites (though, for the record, the occasional hat popped up from time to time when I tried it). That's pretty much all it does. The results at the moment are still thin, but the engine's developers are taking recommendations for more sites to crawl.
There's also a Twitter feed, Firefox plug-in, and a few widgets, because this is Web 2.0, after all.
Casually dressed nerds, rejoice!
Access Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, and Hotmail from AOL.com
AOL added a feature to its Web site on Wednesday that lets users access several Web-based e-mail accounts directly from AOL.com.
A window on the right side of AOL.com now features boxes that lets users sign in to Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, and Hotmail. The move is part of a larger revamp of the company's main site, which will soon include new features to give users more control over displayed content, as well as custom feeds from social networking sites, local news, and RSS enabled sites on AOL.com.
After you sign in and give AOL permission to access your outside accounts, the boxes will notify you when there are new messages. You can mouse over the boxes and get a preview of new messages waiting in your Yahoo! and Gmail inboxes, but Hotmail does not support e-mail preview.
If you click on an e-mail message, a pop-up browser window will take you to the full Yahoo!, Gmail, or Hotmail inboxes. The AOL.com boxes also provide a direct "compose e-mail" link that will navigate directly to the compose screen.
"We know that consumers today have multiple email accounts on different services to keep tabs on daily, and we want to make it easier for them," Bill Wilson, executive vice president of programming at AOL, said in a statement.
AOL also debuted an extended navigation bar that will include content from sites such as TMZ, StyleList, ParentDish, Wallet Pop, Asylum and more.
Access to social networking sites will be rolled out over the next eight weeks, AOL said. This will mark the first time AOL has opened up its site to third-party content, Wilson said.
"For a portal to be relevant to consumers today, it has to recognize that users seek a variety of different experiences and connections with their various networks and information sources," Wilson said. "AOL is embracing this with the new AOL.com, becoming the first truly open portal experience offered by one of the big traditional portals."
A window on the right side of AOL.com now features boxes that lets users sign in to Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, and Hotmail. The move is part of a larger revamp of the company's main site, which will soon include new features to give users more control over displayed content, as well as custom feeds from social networking sites, local news, and RSS enabled sites on AOL.com.
After you sign in and give AOL permission to access your outside accounts, the boxes will notify you when there are new messages. You can mouse over the boxes and get a preview of new messages waiting in your Yahoo! and Gmail inboxes, but Hotmail does not support e-mail preview.
If you click on an e-mail message, a pop-up browser window will take you to the full Yahoo!, Gmail, or Hotmail inboxes. The AOL.com boxes also provide a direct "compose e-mail" link that will navigate directly to the compose screen.
"We know that consumers today have multiple email accounts on different services to keep tabs on daily, and we want to make it easier for them," Bill Wilson, executive vice president of programming at AOL, said in a statement.
AOL also debuted an extended navigation bar that will include content from sites such as TMZ, StyleList, ParentDish, Wallet Pop, Asylum and more.
Access to social networking sites will be rolled out over the next eight weeks, AOL said. This will mark the first time AOL has opened up its site to third-party content, Wilson said.
"For a portal to be relevant to consumers today, it has to recognize that users seek a variety of different experiences and connections with their various networks and information sources," Wilson said. "AOL is embracing this with the new AOL.com, becoming the first truly open portal experience offered by one of the big traditional portals."
Best TV (Commercials) on the Web: Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy
Coming soon to your online ads: interstitial cartoons. And from none other than Seth McFarlane, the brain and 90% of the voices behind Family Guy. His new Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy launched today with the first two shorts out of 50 planned.
You can watch them at www.sethcomedy.com and judge for yourself if they're funny. For my money, the shorter they are, the better, so the "Super Mario Rescues the Princess" is not a fav - even at 2 minutes it feels like 2 hours. The 1-minute "Dog on The $25,000 Pyramid" is good, if you know what $25,000 Pyramid is. If you do, you're showing your age. The opening bits with the creepy Burger King guy may be the best part.
The shorts will be available at YouTube (the Burger King channel, of course) and the site above. The big deal is that the toons could display in online ads provided by Google Adsense. Considering how well Family Guy's digressional clips do online, it's hard to bet against success, but can they work without Stewie and Brian holding things together? Only time, and several millions clicks, will tell.
You can watch them at www.sethcomedy.com and judge for yourself if they're funny. For my money, the shorter they are, the better, so the "Super Mario Rescues the Princess" is not a fav - even at 2 minutes it feels like 2 hours. The 1-minute "Dog on The $25,000 Pyramid" is good, if you know what $25,000 Pyramid is. If you do, you're showing your age. The opening bits with the creepy Burger King guy may be the best part.
The shorts will be available at YouTube (the Burger King channel, of course) and the site above. The big deal is that the toons could display in online ads provided by Google Adsense. Considering how well Family Guy's digressional clips do online, it's hard to bet against success, but can they work without Stewie and Brian holding things together? Only time, and several millions clicks, will tell.
TechCrunch50: Jam Across the World with Bojam
SAN FRANCISCO-- Anyone who's been in a band knows how hard it is to find the right people to play with. Bojam aims to widen the available talent pool to the whole world, via the Web. (Check out the company's site for a video of its presentation.)
It's a clearinghouse plus a remote-recording tool that both beginners and professional musicians can take advantage of. The concept is to do the same for music that Web-based collaborative projects like Wikipedia and Firefox have done for encyclopedias and software development.
At TechCrunch50 in San Francisco this morning, Bojam brought out rock guitarist Derek Brooker, and showed how he could add his playing of a cover of Toto's song, "Africa" to the efforts of other musicians around the world--a drummer in L.A., a keyboard player in Japan, and a bass player in Tel Aviv--all while watching video of each player's performance. The software even showed the guitar chords charts as the song progressed.
The Bojam track mixer is completely Web-based and works on both Windows and Mac PCs. In addition to the collaboration features, it does the typical mixer functions, such as turning up the vocal part, turning down the drums, and applying effects such as reverb. It's compatible with files from market-leading software from Sony and Apple, from which it can import tracks.
Bojam CEO Andrew Greenstein said that 63 million musicians worldwide spend $5 billion annually on musical instruments, and that his company's software can tap into this market with an addictive collaborative music-making experience. It also presents an opportunity to music teacher and schools to offer their services to a broader audience.
And it's not just about the satisfaction that comes from creating a fine sonic work: The participants can sell their creations through Rhapsody and iTunes, and teachers and pros can make their tracks available for a fee.
It's a clearinghouse plus a remote-recording tool that both beginners and professional musicians can take advantage of. The concept is to do the same for music that Web-based collaborative projects like Wikipedia and Firefox have done for encyclopedias and software development.
At TechCrunch50 in San Francisco this morning, Bojam brought out rock guitarist Derek Brooker, and showed how he could add his playing of a cover of Toto's song, "Africa" to the efforts of other musicians around the world--a drummer in L.A., a keyboard player in Japan, and a bass player in Tel Aviv--all while watching video of each player's performance. The software even showed the guitar chords charts as the song progressed.
The Bojam track mixer is completely Web-based and works on both Windows and Mac PCs. In addition to the collaboration features, it does the typical mixer functions, such as turning up the vocal part, turning down the drums, and applying effects such as reverb. It's compatible with files from market-leading software from Sony and Apple, from which it can import tracks.
Bojam CEO Andrew Greenstein said that 63 million musicians worldwide spend $5 billion annually on musical instruments, and that his company's software can tap into this market with an addictive collaborative music-making experience. It also presents an opportunity to music teacher and schools to offer their services to a broader audience.
And it's not just about the satisfaction that comes from creating a fine sonic work: The participants can sell their creations through Rhapsody and iTunes, and teachers and pros can make their tracks available for a fee.
Akoha: A New Way to Do Good Deeds
Started by Canadian entrepreneur Austin Hill, who's had some success of his own already, Akoha offers an easy game-like way for people to give something back to the world. It's not just about philanthropy, but also about having fun and encouraging people to do nice things for each other. In fact, Austin calls the product "the first social reality game."
Akoha uses the concept of "missions" for which you can get actual game cards to give to the recipients of your random acts of kindness. The holder of a card is expected to do the specified nice thing for someone else--say, buy a book, or give some flowers.
The good deeds are tracked on the Web, where participants can send videos or see, on a world map, where all the charitable acts took place. You can either order cards with preset missions or create your own and either print them yourself from a PDF or have them custom printed by Akoha. Each card has a unique mission ID, is dated, shows where it was acquired, and can includes a picture illustrating the mission.
Missions can be as simple as "Say "thank you" to someone." You enter the mission ID at Akoha's site to find more information about it, such as where it's been played in the world. The site also shows which participants are most active, and everyone gets a 'karma score." Social networking features such as Friends and Profiles are included, and you can browse the site for public missions submitted by the community and claim one if it appeals to you.
Akoha will launch officially to the world in 2009, but sample cards have already been printed. I'm thinking the desire to become a community leader in karma will be a great motivator--if the warm and fuzzy feeling you get from making the world a better place isn't enough!
Akoha uses the concept of "missions" for which you can get actual game cards to give to the recipients of your random acts of kindness. The holder of a card is expected to do the specified nice thing for someone else--say, buy a book, or give some flowers.
The good deeds are tracked on the Web, where participants can send videos or see, on a world map, where all the charitable acts took place. You can either order cards with preset missions or create your own and either print them yourself from a PDF or have them custom printed by Akoha. Each card has a unique mission ID, is dated, shows where it was acquired, and can includes a picture illustrating the mission.
Missions can be as simple as "Say "thank you" to someone." You enter the mission ID at Akoha's site to find more information about it, such as where it's been played in the world. The site also shows which participants are most active, and everyone gets a 'karma score." Social networking features such as Friends and Profiles are included, and you can browse the site for public missions submitted by the community and claim one if it appeals to you.
Akoha will launch officially to the world in 2009, but sample cards have already been printed. I'm thinking the desire to become a community leader in karma will be a great motivator--if the warm and fuzzy feeling you get from making the world a better place isn't enough!
Google Intros Blackberry App
What with all of those RIM announcements at CTIA, this week, Google's also extending a little bit of love in Blackberry's general direction. The search giant announced the release of Google Mobile App for BlackBerry, a free download that offers faster search and a slew of Google services.
The new mobile app gives Blackberry users Google apps support, a search history, software update alerts, and easier access to Google programs like Gmail, Maps, and News.
For more information on the new service, check out Google's Mobile blog.
The new mobile app gives Blackberry users Google apps support, a search history, software update alerts, and easier access to Google programs like Gmail, Maps, and News.
For more information on the new service, check out Google's Mobile blog.
Yammer Wins TechCrunch50 Top Prize
It's Twitter! For business! With that description in mind, perhaps it's not too surprising that Yammer managed to snag the highest honors at this year's TechCrunch 50. After all, Twitter has remained the darling of Arrington and the rest of the blogging technorati since its launch (yes, I'm very much tweeting this entire post once I'm done).
Created by a company called Geni, the app brings Twitter's microblogging to the business world, through internal corporate communications. According to the company, some 10,000 people from 2,000 organizations signed up for the application when it launched on Monday.
Users can sign up for the services with a corporate e-mail. If a company grabs the rights to the service, in order to claim employees, they'll have to pay.
Yammer beat out 51 other services. TechCrunch has a full list of the runners up, including Atomoshpit, FitBit, Grockit, GoodGuide, and Swype.
Created by a company called Geni, the app brings Twitter's microblogging to the business world, through internal corporate communications. According to the company, some 10,000 people from 2,000 organizations signed up for the application when it launched on Monday.
Users can sign up for the services with a corporate e-mail. If a company grabs the rights to the service, in order to claim employees, they'll have to pay.
Yammer beat out 51 other services. TechCrunch has a full list of the runners up, including Atomoshpit, FitBit, Grockit, GoodGuide, and Swype.
Recollect Desktop Wants to Revolutionize Desktop Search
There is huge demand in enterprise IT for efficient desktop search that doesn't slow systems to a crawl and can support entire offices and organizations. Products we know and love, such as Google Desktop, Windows Search, and Locate32, are great for personal use and for finding e-mails or documents by title on one desktop--but at best they're sluggish and at worst lacking in features like the ability to scan inside of files or across network drives.
Rebus Technology announced its new product, Recollect Desktop, at the DEMOfall conference earlier this week. It's meant to address the issue of search in the corporate world; to give professionals a way to store, manage, and retrieve documents and information not just by title, file name, or creation date, but also based on text inside a document, scanned documents, protected documents like PDFs, and more.
Recollect Desktop is designed to give corporate users an application that can search smarter and faster without the overhead that apps like Google Desktop require. Recollect Desktop also helps you find your desired result more rapidly by using what the developers call "fuzzy search technology," which narrows search results to real contenders instead of casting the net too wide.
The reason that Recollect Desktop really stands out, though, is that the tool searches not just files and folders, but also inside files, inside e-mails and other documents, and even inside of what the developers call "unstructured formats," such as PDF documents, downloaded files, and cached HTML documents that may not be explicitly saved and may be difficult to search. One of the features that's made Google Desktop so popular in the workplace is that it can search inside e-mail messages if you're using a supported client; Recollect Desktop makes no claims to do this, exactly, but it can search inside e-mail messages as well as inside documents scanned via OCR, PDF documents, and more.
Recollect Desktop can also recognize misspelled words and search documents that have been moved from location to location without re-indexing them. And the app has built-in OCR, so even if your current OCR solution isn't effective or turns up a high number of errors, Recollect Desktop may be able to compensate for it when you perform a search. The only problem with applications like Recollect Desktop and many other enterprise search tools is that you have to "register" your documents and applications with the app before they're really useful. This means you have to import your documents or set up an automatic scan of your existing documents, network shares, e-mail stores, and other file locations. Once the setup is complete, however, it's very efficient at finding the information you need quickly.
Rebus Technology announced its new product, Recollect Desktop, at the DEMOfall conference earlier this week. It's meant to address the issue of search in the corporate world; to give professionals a way to store, manage, and retrieve documents and information not just by title, file name, or creation date, but also based on text inside a document, scanned documents, protected documents like PDFs, and more.
Recollect Desktop is designed to give corporate users an application that can search smarter and faster without the overhead that apps like Google Desktop require. Recollect Desktop also helps you find your desired result more rapidly by using what the developers call "fuzzy search technology," which narrows search results to real contenders instead of casting the net too wide.
The reason that Recollect Desktop really stands out, though, is that the tool searches not just files and folders, but also inside files, inside e-mails and other documents, and even inside of what the developers call "unstructured formats," such as PDF documents, downloaded files, and cached HTML documents that may not be explicitly saved and may be difficult to search. One of the features that's made Google Desktop so popular in the workplace is that it can search inside e-mail messages if you're using a supported client; Recollect Desktop makes no claims to do this, exactly, but it can search inside e-mail messages as well as inside documents scanned via OCR, PDF documents, and more.
Recollect Desktop can also recognize misspelled words and search documents that have been moved from location to location without re-indexing them. And the app has built-in OCR, so even if your current OCR solution isn't effective or turns up a high number of errors, Recollect Desktop may be able to compensate for it when you perform a search. The only problem with applications like Recollect Desktop and many other enterprise search tools is that you have to "register" your documents and applications with the app before they're really useful. This means you have to import your documents or set up an automatic scan of your existing documents, network shares, e-mail stores, and other file locations. Once the setup is complete, however, it's very efficient at finding the information you need quickly.
Friday, August 14, 2009
PhoTrade Streamlines Stock Photo Sales
If you're an amateur photographer looking for a way to share and sell your photography without losing complete control over your images, or you're looking for affordable but high-quality stock photography for your project, take a look at PhoTrade.
Released at the DEMOfall conference earlier this week, PhoTrade has a simple but straightforward take on photo sharing and sales: make it easy for photographers to share and protect their photos, make it easy for potential buyers to browse and purchase those photos, and everyone's happy. Best of all, the service embraces the Web as a method for photographers to get exposure and generate sales, instead of trying to fight it.
PhoTrade reminds me a great deal of PhotoShelter, but without all the bells and whistles. Where PhotoShelter has multiple "stores" that catered to different audiences and markets, PhoTrade simplifies the gallery sharing and sales process a bit.
PhotoShelter caters more to the high-resolution stock photography market, while PhoTrade is aimed at photographers looking to embrace the Web and the spirit of photo trading and sharing but still want to protect their work and see some revenue generated by it. he service blends together ways that photographers can upload and share their work with the community, protect their photos with watermarking, size limitations, and other protections, and then open the door to bloggers and Web developers looking for stock photography to use their work freely without worrying that the art will be stolen.
Photographers and publishers can all participate in the service and reap the benefits from its open attitude toward content sharing and sales. Amateur and professional photographers of all kinds are invited to post their photos and open them up to the publishers, bloggers, art buyers, and stock photo companies that might be looking for new content.
When you upload your work to PhoTrade, you set your own prices, and you also decide how your content can be used and by what types of buyers (for example, you may be comfortable with bloggers and publishers using your work, but may choose to decline a purchase opportunity from a large stock-photography house). PhoTrade protects copyrights by watermarking photos and by limiting the display sizes and resolution of photos. Additionally, PhoTrade uses a custom photo-protection system that tracks photos as they're posted on other sites, protects them from theft as buyers use them, and simultaneously helps drive revenue back to you.
If you're a publisher or a blogger who needs some stock imagery for your blog or personal Web site, PhoTrade can provide you a database of legally licensed and ad-supported photos and images that you can use without worrying about violating the rights of the owner or improperly using the images. People looking for content can sign up for an account that gives them virtually unlimited access to the images they need, and they pay PhoTrade for their account only--the images themselves are ad-supported.
The missing pieces in this equation are the advertisers. Because only PhoTrade member photographers and publishers pay for their accounts, the revenue that photographers see from the images that publishers buy is generated from advertisers, who support the images that photographers host and the listings and photos that publishers search through and buy from. The ad revenue goes back to the photographers based on the popularity of their images with the publishers. PhoTrade calls this the Adcosystem, where photographers see constant revenue from their photos thanks not to the publishers who bought them directly, but thanks to the ad revenue generated by the use of their work.
PhoTrade is different than most stock-photography sites. The goal of the service is to make photo and image procurement more of a sharing experience where images can generate constant income for photographers over time, instead of a stock photo buyer owning the rights to a photographer's work forever and only paying for it once. Additionally, the ad-supported image system brings costs down for publishers, art lovers, or simple visitors looking for attractive images, and keeps entry costs down for photographers looking to get in the game. PhoTrade is only a few days old, but if the technology behind its ad-supported image sharing program picks up, it could make other stock photo services think twice about their business models.
Released at the DEMOfall conference earlier this week, PhoTrade has a simple but straightforward take on photo sharing and sales: make it easy for photographers to share and protect their photos, make it easy for potential buyers to browse and purchase those photos, and everyone's happy. Best of all, the service embraces the Web as a method for photographers to get exposure and generate sales, instead of trying to fight it.
PhoTrade reminds me a great deal of PhotoShelter, but without all the bells and whistles. Where PhotoShelter has multiple "stores" that catered to different audiences and markets, PhoTrade simplifies the gallery sharing and sales process a bit.
PhotoShelter caters more to the high-resolution stock photography market, while PhoTrade is aimed at photographers looking to embrace the Web and the spirit of photo trading and sharing but still want to protect their work and see some revenue generated by it. he service blends together ways that photographers can upload and share their work with the community, protect their photos with watermarking, size limitations, and other protections, and then open the door to bloggers and Web developers looking for stock photography to use their work freely without worrying that the art will be stolen.
Photographers and publishers can all participate in the service and reap the benefits from its open attitude toward content sharing and sales. Amateur and professional photographers of all kinds are invited to post their photos and open them up to the publishers, bloggers, art buyers, and stock photo companies that might be looking for new content.
When you upload your work to PhoTrade, you set your own prices, and you also decide how your content can be used and by what types of buyers (for example, you may be comfortable with bloggers and publishers using your work, but may choose to decline a purchase opportunity from a large stock-photography house). PhoTrade protects copyrights by watermarking photos and by limiting the display sizes and resolution of photos. Additionally, PhoTrade uses a custom photo-protection system that tracks photos as they're posted on other sites, protects them from theft as buyers use them, and simultaneously helps drive revenue back to you.
If you're a publisher or a blogger who needs some stock imagery for your blog or personal Web site, PhoTrade can provide you a database of legally licensed and ad-supported photos and images that you can use without worrying about violating the rights of the owner or improperly using the images. People looking for content can sign up for an account that gives them virtually unlimited access to the images they need, and they pay PhoTrade for their account only--the images themselves are ad-supported.
The missing pieces in this equation are the advertisers. Because only PhoTrade member photographers and publishers pay for their accounts, the revenue that photographers see from the images that publishers buy is generated from advertisers, who support the images that photographers host and the listings and photos that publishers search through and buy from. The ad revenue goes back to the photographers based on the popularity of their images with the publishers. PhoTrade calls this the Adcosystem, where photographers see constant revenue from their photos thanks not to the publishers who bought them directly, but thanks to the ad revenue generated by the use of their work.
PhoTrade is different than most stock-photography sites. The goal of the service is to make photo and image procurement more of a sharing experience where images can generate constant income for photographers over time, instead of a stock photo buyer owning the rights to a photographer's work forever and only paying for it once. Additionally, the ad-supported image system brings costs down for publishers, art lovers, or simple visitors looking for attractive images, and keeps entry costs down for photographers looking to get in the game. PhoTrade is only a few days old, but if the technology behind its ad-supported image sharing program picks up, it could make other stock photo services think twice about their business models.
WMWifiRouter 1.20: Instant Hot Spot From Your Handset
After many a techie event or press conference, we journalists often to dash to Starbucks--not just to refuel with caffeine after a long demo, either. Just as often, we need to get to a Wi-Fi hotspot, then file a story and check e-mail. Of course, just as many people are likely to pull out a dongle and plug it in their laptops to get online.
But soon that might not even be necessary: Morose Media has released WMWifiRouter 1.20 (and for the record I have not the slightest idea how you pronounce that either). This Windows Mobile application turns Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones into wireless Internet hubs.
It's compatible with phones that feature Windows Mobile 5 AKU 3.3 or newer, or Windows Mobile 6, and it provides a secured network for PC, Apple and ASUS EeePC users. The 1.20 app is available via download and offers a 21-day free trial before a lifetime-purchase price of $29.99 U.S. (thought the price may drop in a few days, according to the company's site). Once it's running it can create instant Internet access for any Wi-Fi device in the vicinity.
WMWifiRouter sounds a lot like the easier-to-pronounce Taproot WalkingHotSpot. I still have to try each one to decide between them... but maybe I soon won't have to make the Starbucks dash again.
Post by Peter Suciu
But soon that might not even be necessary: Morose Media has released WMWifiRouter 1.20 (and for the record I have not the slightest idea how you pronounce that either). This Windows Mobile application turns Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones into wireless Internet hubs.
It's compatible with phones that feature Windows Mobile 5 AKU 3.3 or newer, or Windows Mobile 6, and it provides a secured network for PC, Apple and ASUS EeePC users. The 1.20 app is available via download and offers a 21-day free trial before a lifetime-purchase price of $29.99 U.S. (thought the price may drop in a few days, according to the company's site). Once it's running it can create instant Internet access for any Wi-Fi device in the vicinity.
WMWifiRouter sounds a lot like the easier-to-pronounce Taproot WalkingHotSpot. I still have to try each one to decide between them... but maybe I soon won't have to make the Starbucks dash again.
Post by Peter Suciu
CTIA 2008: Slacker Unveils Blackberry App
Today at CTIA in San Francisco, Slacker announced that it was bringing its popular Web radio app to RIM BlackBerry smartphones.
Coming in October, the app will utilize more than 100 Slacker stations with over 10,000 artists. Like its browser-based counterpart, the app will also let Blackberry owners create their own customized stations.
Slacker for Blackberry will also let users download and store songs on their devices and browse artist info. The mobile app works with existing Slacker Basic Radio and Slacker Premium Radio accounts.
We've taken to calling it "SlackBerry" around the office, but the name hasn't quite caught on elsewhere just yet.
Coming in October, the app will utilize more than 100 Slacker stations with over 10,000 artists. Like its browser-based counterpart, the app will also let Blackberry owners create their own customized stations.
Slacker for Blackberry will also let users download and store songs on their devices and browse artist info. The mobile app works with existing Slacker Basic Radio and Slacker Premium Radio accounts.
We've taken to calling it "SlackBerry" around the office, but the name hasn't quite caught on elsewhere just yet.
Apple Intros iTunes 8
A live, and reasonably well Steve Jobs took the stage at today's Apple event in San Francisco, in order to introduce a slew of new music-related products. Most notably on the software front was the announcement of iTunes 8.
The new version of iTunes offers HDTV support, a (typically humble) a feature called "Genius," and a new form of browsing, which lets users browse albums via cover art located at the top of the app's window. Genius, on the other hand, offers a quick way to choose, "songs that go great together" with a single click. Users are then presented with a list of recommended music, based on track ratings and song counts.
The feature also incorporates the taste of other users with similar playlists, though Jobs was quick to assure the audience that the results would remain anonymous.
iTunes 8 is available now for download from Apple.com.
The new version of iTunes offers HDTV support, a (typically humble) a feature called "Genius," and a new form of browsing, which lets users browse albums via cover art located at the top of the app's window. Genius, on the other hand, offers a quick way to choose, "songs that go great together" with a single click. Users are then presented with a list of recommended music, based on track ratings and song counts.
The feature also incorporates the taste of other users with similar playlists, though Jobs was quick to assure the audience that the results would remain anonymous.
iTunes 8 is available now for download from Apple.com.
AppSpout: Recent Reviews from the PCMag.com Software Team
The big software news in the PC Magazine offices is the recent release of iTunes 8. Fellow AppScouter Brain Heater already gave you the quick scoop on the latest version of iTunes on Tuesday. For a thorough look at its features--such as HDTV support, tiled album-cover view, and the new Genius custom playlist generation feature--check out our in-depth review at PCMag.com.
Another major software release this week was Norton Internet Security(NIS) 2009. While it's not as glamorous as iTunes, it's just as impressive. NIS 2009 is the leanest, meanest Norton security suite ever. It's much less obtrusive than previous versions, while still delivering the top-notch protection you'd expect from Norton. You can check out our full review at PCMag.com.
Take a look at other recent software reviews after the jump.
Google Chrome: Google hopes this bare-bones browser will be the vehicle for Web applications. It's lightning-fast, has built-in Gears support, and can display sites without any browser interface elements. But it still has problems with popular sites like Facebook, and it's less customizable and capable than either Firefox or Internet Explorer.
GIMP 2.4.7 for Windows : Developers and Linux fans will appreciate this image editor's capabilities, but those simply looking to do basic photo fixes will find it unnecessarily difficult.
ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 2009: ZoneAlarm is strong on defense. It has a tough firewall and keeps malware totally out of a clean system, but it's less effective in cleaning up entrenched malware, and some of its features are antiquated. ZoneAlarm is still a fine choice, but we had hoped for a makeover that would be more than skin deep.
Serif PhotoPlus X2: Serif PhotoPlus X2 is a powerful yet easy-to-use image-editing program for anyone who doesn't need
Another major software release this week was Norton Internet Security(NIS) 2009. While it's not as glamorous as iTunes, it's just as impressive. NIS 2009 is the leanest, meanest Norton security suite ever. It's much less obtrusive than previous versions, while still delivering the top-notch protection you'd expect from Norton. You can check out our full review at PCMag.com.
Take a look at other recent software reviews after the jump.
Google Chrome: Google hopes this bare-bones browser will be the vehicle for Web applications. It's lightning-fast, has built-in Gears support, and can display sites without any browser interface elements. But it still has problems with popular sites like Facebook, and it's less customizable and capable than either Firefox or Internet Explorer.
GIMP 2.4.7 for Windows : Developers and Linux fans will appreciate this image editor's capabilities, but those simply looking to do basic photo fixes will find it unnecessarily difficult.
ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 2009: ZoneAlarm is strong on defense. It has a tough firewall and keeps malware totally out of a clean system, but it's less effective in cleaning up entrenched malware, and some of its features are antiquated. ZoneAlarm is still a fine choice, but we had hoped for a makeover that would be more than skin deep.
Serif PhotoPlus X2: Serif PhotoPlus X2 is a powerful yet easy-to-use image-editing program for anyone who doesn't need
CTIA 2008: Blackberry and TiVO Announce Partnership
Yet more Blackberry news coming out of CTIA in San Francisco this morning. RIM has announced a partnership with TiVo that will bring the company's DVR services to the smartphone.
The news here is more of an announcement of a partnership than the unveiling of any specific product. The first application to arrive from the two companies lets users view television listings and schedule recordings on their home systems, from the convenience of their handsets. According to the company, future products will "focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content."
RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie had this to say,
TiVo subscribers will soon be able to wirelessly control their TiVo DVRs using a BlackBerry smartphone - anytime, anywhere - and that is a powerful example of how our respective technologies can complement each other to serve our mutual customers. As the BlackBerry smartphone continues its evolution as a modern lifestyle device, the importance of home entertainment integration will continue to grow and TiVo will be the key in providing consumers with greater flexibility in accessing television content.
The first fruit of the collaboration is expected to roll out later this year.
The news here is more of an announcement of a partnership than the unveiling of any specific product. The first application to arrive from the two companies lets users view television listings and schedule recordings on their home systems, from the convenience of their handsets. According to the company, future products will "focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content."
RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie had this to say,
TiVo subscribers will soon be able to wirelessly control their TiVo DVRs using a BlackBerry smartphone - anytime, anywhere - and that is a powerful example of how our respective technologies can complement each other to serve our mutual customers. As the BlackBerry smartphone continues its evolution as a modern lifestyle device, the importance of home entertainment integration will continue to grow and TiVo will be the key in providing consumers with greater flexibility in accessing television content.
The first fruit of the collaboration is expected to roll out later this year.
Social Networking: From the Cradle to the Grave
Until fairly recently, social networks have largely catered to a specific demographic. When Facebook opened its doors to the world outside of college, however, it helped demonstrate that perhaps the appeal of such sites extended beyond high school halls and dorm quads.
Over the past couple of years, social networks have popped up for just about every group, age, and lifestyle imaginable. Now, for better or worse, it's possible to participate in the wonderful world of virtual friendships at every point in your life--and beyond.
After the jump, we take a look at a life in social networking.
Babies
Totspot: Every since cyber-predators began latching on to sites like Facebook and Myspace, authorities and parent groups have argued for strict age policy for social networks. Totspot throws all of that out the window--the site refers to itself as Facebook for babies. Of course, babies, as we all know, are really slow typers, so the kids' profiles tend to actually be updated by their parents. And of course, there's plenty of privacy behind the site, so only people you trust can look at your infant's profile. The New Times has a good piece on the bizarre phenomenon that is baby social networking.
Kids
Imbee: There are a lot of social networks that cater to the k-12 demographic. Many, if not most, are actually centered around virtual worlds, often maintained by trusted kids brands like Nickelodeon and Disney. We're picking Imbee for this one, however, because of the site's pretty strict adherence to the social networking model put forth by sites like Friendster and Myspace. Imbee also has a stringent age verification standard, always a plus for kids of that age. It also lets users write blogs, watch video, and more.
High School
MyYearbook: There's no question that sites like Myspace and Facebook have a fairly devoted userbase of high school students, but MyYearbook takes things a step further (including an over-crowded front page that will likely make anyone over the age of 18 a bit lightheaded). The site has plenty of high school-specific features, including content from CliffsNotes and lockers for multimedia content. The site boasts some 7.8 million members, at present.
College
Facebook: This one's a no-brainer, right?
The Real World
LinkedIn: Hey kids, it's time for life after college, where "social networking" means trading business cards at annual conventions. Woo! No poking here, unless you want to report to HR
Retirement
Friends Over 50: No clever Web 2.0 names here. Friends Over 50 is a social networking site that lets the user do exactly what its title implies. It's an easy to use site that lets subscribers discuss topics like grandkids and healthcare.
Death
Footnote: Sorry to get all morbid on you, but let's face it, death is very much a part of life. A TechCrunch50 finalist, we've taken to referring to the site as social networking for dead people. Footnote lets users build memorial sites for the deceased, complete with remembrances and historical documents.
The Afterlife
LineforHeaven: So, what are you doing with the rest of eternity? LineforHeaven lets users build up karma points to make their way into that big social network in the sky.
Over the past couple of years, social networks have popped up for just about every group, age, and lifestyle imaginable. Now, for better or worse, it's possible to participate in the wonderful world of virtual friendships at every point in your life--and beyond.
After the jump, we take a look at a life in social networking.
Babies
Totspot: Every since cyber-predators began latching on to sites like Facebook and Myspace, authorities and parent groups have argued for strict age policy for social networks. Totspot throws all of that out the window--the site refers to itself as Facebook for babies. Of course, babies, as we all know, are really slow typers, so the kids' profiles tend to actually be updated by their parents. And of course, there's plenty of privacy behind the site, so only people you trust can look at your infant's profile. The New Times has a good piece on the bizarre phenomenon that is baby social networking.
Kids
Imbee: There are a lot of social networks that cater to the k-12 demographic. Many, if not most, are actually centered around virtual worlds, often maintained by trusted kids brands like Nickelodeon and Disney. We're picking Imbee for this one, however, because of the site's pretty strict adherence to the social networking model put forth by sites like Friendster and Myspace. Imbee also has a stringent age verification standard, always a plus for kids of that age. It also lets users write blogs, watch video, and more.
High School
MyYearbook: There's no question that sites like Myspace and Facebook have a fairly devoted userbase of high school students, but MyYearbook takes things a step further (including an over-crowded front page that will likely make anyone over the age of 18 a bit lightheaded). The site has plenty of high school-specific features, including content from CliffsNotes and lockers for multimedia content. The site boasts some 7.8 million members, at present.
College
Facebook: This one's a no-brainer, right?
The Real World
LinkedIn: Hey kids, it's time for life after college, where "social networking" means trading business cards at annual conventions. Woo! No poking here, unless you want to report to HR
Retirement
Friends Over 50: No clever Web 2.0 names here. Friends Over 50 is a social networking site that lets the user do exactly what its title implies. It's an easy to use site that lets subscribers discuss topics like grandkids and healthcare.
Death
Footnote: Sorry to get all morbid on you, but let's face it, death is very much a part of life. A TechCrunch50 finalist, we've taken to referring to the site as social networking for dead people. Footnote lets users build memorial sites for the deceased, complete with remembrances and historical documents.
The Afterlife
LineforHeaven: So, what are you doing with the rest of eternity? LineforHeaven lets users build up karma points to make their way into that big social network in the sky.
Dropbox Opens to Public, Adds Linux Sync
Dropbox, one of the many file-synchronization and online-backup combo tools to debut this year is finally ready for the masses to sign up; no more invite required. The basic service is free and includes 2GB of storage space online.
With the launch comes pricing for more storage--the next jump from 2GB at no charge is 50GB for either $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. The Dropboxers say the 2GB accounts will remain free forever, and if you had more space during the beta you're probably grandfathered in.
Maybe even better news: Dropbox now has Linux clients (for Fedora Core 9 and Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04), which it says is functionally the same as what you get on Mac and Windows. You won't find that yet with the competition. Now, if only Dropbox opened up sync/backup to more than just a single folder. But the developers in the Dropbox forums say it's coming.
With the launch comes pricing for more storage--the next jump from 2GB at no charge is 50GB for either $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. The Dropboxers say the 2GB accounts will remain free forever, and if you had more space during the beta you're probably grandfathered in.
Maybe even better news: Dropbox now has Linux clients (for Fedora Core 9 and Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04), which it says is functionally the same as what you get on Mac and Windows. You won't find that yet with the competition. Now, if only Dropbox opened up sync/backup to more than just a single folder. But the developers in the Dropbox forums say it's coming.
Google Buys Korean Blogging Company TNC
Wow, the folks at Tatter and Company (TNC) sure are happy to have been Googled. I don't know what all the fuss is about. I get Googled all the time--and heck, from time to time, when I'm alone, I'll even Google myself.
It turns out that when TNC talks about being "Googled," it's referring to a bit more than a simple search-engine query. The Korean blogging company has been acquired by the American search giant.
Said the company in a blog post that went up today:
Despite the danger of sounding too self-important, I would say our company was a fairly good acquisition target for Google. First, we had a killer product: Our previous work, Tistory blog service (now property of Daum as we sold the service to the Korea's #2 portal), made to the top 10 Korean web destination in less than a year from launch, showing some 30,000% growth over the initial 8 months. While other blog services seem to be exploring the idea of integrating social networks with blogs only lately, our new blog service Textcube (link in Korean) had already implemented the feature much earlier. Secondly, we have great engineering talents. Many of our software engineers hail from the nation's leading comp sci programs, such as KAIST.
The company says that it's the first Korean property to have been acquired by Google, and as such, plans to help increase Google's market share in the Asian country.
It turns out that when TNC talks about being "Googled," it's referring to a bit more than a simple search-engine query. The Korean blogging company has been acquired by the American search giant.
Said the company in a blog post that went up today:
Despite the danger of sounding too self-important, I would say our company was a fairly good acquisition target for Google. First, we had a killer product: Our previous work, Tistory blog service (now property of Daum as we sold the service to the Korea's #2 portal), made to the top 10 Korean web destination in less than a year from launch, showing some 30,000% growth over the initial 8 months. While other blog services seem to be exploring the idea of integrating social networks with blogs only lately, our new blog service Textcube (link in Korean) had already implemented the feature much earlier. Secondly, we have great engineering talents. Many of our software engineers hail from the nation's leading comp sci programs, such as KAIST.
The company says that it's the first Korean property to have been acquired by Google, and as such, plans to help increase Google's market share in the Asian country.
OpenTrace.org: Calculate Your Environmental Footprint
Did you ever wonder what the environmental impact of that loaf of bread you just bought is? OpenTrace, one of the biggest hits of the TechCrunch50 show here in San Francisco, aims to be sort of a wikipedia of the carbon footprint of everything.
Created by Japanese startup Rinen, OpenTrace not only lets you find out how much energy was used to cook the bread, grow its ingredients, and package it, but also how much fuel was expended in transporting it to you and how much electricity was used in making it. You'll even be able to scan a product's barcode with your webcam to find out how much environmental impact it's had.
The site lets you see these different aspects in graphical format. For example, you can see a graph for CO2 production or electricity use, and in the case of the bread example, you can build a complex diagram linking the ingredients--flour, salt, yeast--and each of their production and transportation usage rates in a complex linked web.
The site's founders said that producers would be able to place an OpenTrace rating on their products to indicate low environmental impact. It's a free service that the producers can enter data into and the end users can measure their own overall footprint.
Created by Japanese startup Rinen, OpenTrace not only lets you find out how much energy was used to cook the bread, grow its ingredients, and package it, but also how much fuel was expended in transporting it to you and how much electricity was used in making it. You'll even be able to scan a product's barcode with your webcam to find out how much environmental impact it's had.
The site lets you see these different aspects in graphical format. For example, you can see a graph for CO2 production or electricity use, and in the case of the bread example, you can build a complex diagram linking the ingredients--flour, salt, yeast--and each of their production and transportation usage rates in a complex linked web.
The site's founders said that producers would be able to place an OpenTrace rating on their products to indicate low environmental impact. It's a free service that the producers can enter data into and the end users can measure their own overall footprint.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
GoodGuide Identifies Safe, Green, Socially Responsible Products
When Dara O'Rourke discovered that the sunscreen he was rubbing on his 5-year-old daughter's skin every day contained toxins, he was pretty strongly motivated to create a Web site that could help address not only products' safety but also the environmental and social impact of their creation. An expos last year of a top-selling baby shampoo containing carcinogens and the well-publicized toys containing lead only fortified his resolve.
Unveiled on the third and last day of TechCrunch50 and a clear judge favorite, the result was GoodGuide, a site with a mission very similar to that of OpenTrace.com. GoodGuide relies less on user input, getting its data from public scientific data and has in-house toxicologists and chemists on staff to interpret the not-for-laymen data. It displays a score from 1 to 10 for each product, based on over 140 criteria, and makes purchase recommendations.
Results can be limited to what's available in a particular chain store, if you're using the site's iPhone application on location. Another option is to text message a product's UPC number to have the score sent to any mobile phone. Another is to print your shopping list of best rated products from the site.
O'Rourke calls GoodGuide a "for benefit" organization, as opposed to a non-for-profit. It is indeed intended to make a profit, with selling opportunities for products that score best. Right now the site only covers 60,000 personal care and household chemical products. Though the company plans to expand to other product categories, these two alone account for 250 billion dollars in sales worldwide.
Unveiled on the third and last day of TechCrunch50 and a clear judge favorite, the result was GoodGuide, a site with a mission very similar to that of OpenTrace.com. GoodGuide relies less on user input, getting its data from public scientific data and has in-house toxicologists and chemists on staff to interpret the not-for-laymen data. It displays a score from 1 to 10 for each product, based on over 140 criteria, and makes purchase recommendations.
Results can be limited to what's available in a particular chain store, if you're using the site's iPhone application on location. Another option is to text message a product's UPC number to have the score sent to any mobile phone. Another is to print your shopping list of best rated products from the site.
O'Rourke calls GoodGuide a "for benefit" organization, as opposed to a non-for-profit. It is indeed intended to make a profit, with selling opportunities for products that score best. Right now the site only covers 60,000 personal care and household chemical products. Though the company plans to expand to other product categories, these two alone account for 250 billion dollars in sales worldwide.
Toolgether: Create, Find, and Share Widgets
Suppose you have a fitness and wellness blog and you'd like to do a special article on the body-mass index. It might be useful to include a tool or widget that would allow your readers to calculate their own BMI. Or perhaps you've launched into a discussion on your site about the mortgage and housing crisis, and you'd like to show people what a few tenths of a percent in interest can mean for a home loan. A widget or app embedded on your site could help visitors calculate how changes in interest rates can affect their own mortgages.
Toolgether, a Web service launched at the DEMOfall conference, is designed to help blog owners enrich their sites with embedded widgets, apps, and other tools that can add features or functionality to their Web sites and blogs and help energize discussion by readers. The site lists several apps and widgets that site owners can freely take and use on to enrich their own Web content.
Toolgether wants to be a clearinghouse for widgets and Web apps that bloggers and site owners can use to bring a new dimension to their blog entries and site features. Simply sign up for a free account at Toolgether, and you have immediate access to the site's library of apps, widgets, and other tools. Some of the most popular tools on the site today include a BMI widget, a tool that will do an SEO link analysis of your Web site, and a school-district locator. The fact that these three tools are so vastly different is a testament to how varied the catalog of widgets and apps is.
The widgets and apps at Toolgether aren't just for flash or functionality; it offers technical tools as well: for example, a widget that provides an MD5 hash for any file or text that you provide. If you're looking for widgets or utilities that will help your programming, help you stay healthy, or keep your personal finances in order, you can find one by browsing Toolgether by category. If you're looking for a specific tool, you can search by keyword as well.
If you're a developer, Toolgether encourages you to share your widgets and Web apps with the service. The site has a simple tutorial to help you design your widget or app and walks you through the upload and submission process. And if you have a self-contained widget or an offline application, Toolgether will help you modify it so it works on the Web and then help you put it into a widget that can be embedded on a Web site. Once you upload the app to Toolgether, you still retain rights and control to the app, and you can choose to make the app free to everyone, or generate revenue with it by allowing Toolgether to support it with advertisements.
Toolgether is a brand new service, so the apps available are somewhat sparse. As the service grows, the catalog of applications will also grow, so don't be surprised if a widget that matches your site or your interests isn't there yet. Alternatively, the service has a robust FAQ for developers and a solid tutorial to get your favorite app ready for Toolgether, so you might try your hand at a little Web programming and roll your own Web app.
Toolgether, a Web service launched at the DEMOfall conference, is designed to help blog owners enrich their sites with embedded widgets, apps, and other tools that can add features or functionality to their Web sites and blogs and help energize discussion by readers. The site lists several apps and widgets that site owners can freely take and use on to enrich their own Web content.
Toolgether wants to be a clearinghouse for widgets and Web apps that bloggers and site owners can use to bring a new dimension to their blog entries and site features. Simply sign up for a free account at Toolgether, and you have immediate access to the site's library of apps, widgets, and other tools. Some of the most popular tools on the site today include a BMI widget, a tool that will do an SEO link analysis of your Web site, and a school-district locator. The fact that these three tools are so vastly different is a testament to how varied the catalog of widgets and apps is.
The widgets and apps at Toolgether aren't just for flash or functionality; it offers technical tools as well: for example, a widget that provides an MD5 hash for any file or text that you provide. If you're looking for widgets or utilities that will help your programming, help you stay healthy, or keep your personal finances in order, you can find one by browsing Toolgether by category. If you're looking for a specific tool, you can search by keyword as well.
If you're a developer, Toolgether encourages you to share your widgets and Web apps with the service. The site has a simple tutorial to help you design your widget or app and walks you through the upload and submission process. And if you have a self-contained widget or an offline application, Toolgether will help you modify it so it works on the Web and then help you put it into a widget that can be embedded on a Web site. Once you upload the app to Toolgether, you still retain rights and control to the app, and you can choose to make the app free to everyone, or generate revenue with it by allowing Toolgether to support it with advertisements.
Toolgether is a brand new service, so the apps available are somewhat sparse. As the service grows, the catalog of applications will also grow, so don't be surprised if a widget that matches your site or your interests isn't there yet. Alternatively, the service has a robust FAQ for developers and a solid tutorial to get your favorite app ready for Toolgether, so you might try your hand at a little Web programming and roll your own Web app.
HeyCosmo Concierge Saves You Time by Asking Questions for You
A number of apps offer to be your personal secretary and keep you from forgetting appointments or tasks. However, those services can't proactively collect information you need, call places to get the answers you want, and then present them to you in an organized way. HeyCosmo Concierge can handle all of that for you, from finding a garage to do an urgent car repair to locating a restaurant with room for your coworkers half an hour before you all leave the office for drinks.
HeyCosmo Concierge is one of a number of apps hosted by HeyCosmo, but at first blush it looks to be the most useful. It's designed to help when you need to call around to get information from a number of prospective companies, restaurants, or locations to get information, but you don't want to be on the phone forever.
For example, if it's the middle of the night and your kitchen faucet started spewing water, you could drag out the yellow pages and start calling plumbers, or you could use HeyCosmo Concierge to look up available plumbers in your geographic area, type in the questions you'd ask them once, and let the Concierge do the calling and asking for you.
It may sound odd to ask a Web service to essentially cold-call services, stores, and restaurants for you, but the idea is catching on and is popular at least with HeyCosmo Concierge members. When you log in, Concierge asks you what kind of service you're looking for. Some of the categories the service supports are food and dining options, a contractor or home improvement person, looking for information on travel and lodging arrangements, a cleaning service, car repair, and more.
Click the category of information you need--for example, Food and Dining--and you'll be prompted with a pop-over menu for a more specific type, like the type of dining you're interested in (American, Japanese, Thai, or even Vegetarian). Once you click through, you can input an address or ZIP code to narrow the search.
Concierge then asks you what you'd like to know from the restaurants or services it found. For example, if you're searching for restaurants, this is where you ask if they have seating for a party of 10 in 15 minutes, or if they serve meatless options for the vegetarians in your party. After that you can select the answers that the location can choose from when picking a response.
If you're asking if they can accommodate a party of 10 in 15 minutes, you can give them the option of suggesting a half-hour, or the option of simply replying that they don't take reservations. Depending on the answer they select, you can even customize your own response to their answer.
Once you have your question, answers, and responses set up, you can browse the list of results that match your original query (plumbers open late, restaurants that have veggie options, hotels that allow early check-in, and so on), and you can pick and choose among them based on their rating and distance from the address you entered. You can also see the address in case you'd like to get directions before contacting them.
When your locations are selected, click the Make Call button at the bottom, and Concierge will place an automated call to each of the services you selected, ask them the questions you proposed, and then accept their answer and play your response. After all the calls are placed, you're brought back to a report of how many calls were placed, what the responses were or if the business didn't respond at all, and an overview of the questions and answers you supplied.
HeyCosmo Concierge is perfect for that annoying boss who tells you to "call around and look for someone" without giving you much information as to what he or she is looking for; if you're looking for a service at odd hours (like the plumber in the middle of the night); or if you're somewhere unfamiliar and looking for a business or person who can help. At the same time, there can't be too many businesses or services that will be comfortable answering what amounts to a cold call by an automated voice, even though it gives them a chance to provide valuable information and potentially land business. As for the user, HeyCosmo Concierge can potentially save you a lot of time.
HeyCosmo Concierge is one of a number of apps hosted by HeyCosmo, but at first blush it looks to be the most useful. It's designed to help when you need to call around to get information from a number of prospective companies, restaurants, or locations to get information, but you don't want to be on the phone forever.
For example, if it's the middle of the night and your kitchen faucet started spewing water, you could drag out the yellow pages and start calling plumbers, or you could use HeyCosmo Concierge to look up available plumbers in your geographic area, type in the questions you'd ask them once, and let the Concierge do the calling and asking for you.
It may sound odd to ask a Web service to essentially cold-call services, stores, and restaurants for you, but the idea is catching on and is popular at least with HeyCosmo Concierge members. When you log in, Concierge asks you what kind of service you're looking for. Some of the categories the service supports are food and dining options, a contractor or home improvement person, looking for information on travel and lodging arrangements, a cleaning service, car repair, and more.
Click the category of information you need--for example, Food and Dining--and you'll be prompted with a pop-over menu for a more specific type, like the type of dining you're interested in (American, Japanese, Thai, or even Vegetarian). Once you click through, you can input an address or ZIP code to narrow the search.
Concierge then asks you what you'd like to know from the restaurants or services it found. For example, if you're searching for restaurants, this is where you ask if they have seating for a party of 10 in 15 minutes, or if they serve meatless options for the vegetarians in your party. After that you can select the answers that the location can choose from when picking a response.
If you're asking if they can accommodate a party of 10 in 15 minutes, you can give them the option of suggesting a half-hour, or the option of simply replying that they don't take reservations. Depending on the answer they select, you can even customize your own response to their answer.
Once you have your question, answers, and responses set up, you can browse the list of results that match your original query (plumbers open late, restaurants that have veggie options, hotels that allow early check-in, and so on), and you can pick and choose among them based on their rating and distance from the address you entered. You can also see the address in case you'd like to get directions before contacting them.
When your locations are selected, click the Make Call button at the bottom, and Concierge will place an automated call to each of the services you selected, ask them the questions you proposed, and then accept their answer and play your response. After all the calls are placed, you're brought back to a report of how many calls were placed, what the responses were or if the business didn't respond at all, and an overview of the questions and answers you supplied.
HeyCosmo Concierge is perfect for that annoying boss who tells you to "call around and look for someone" without giving you much information as to what he or she is looking for; if you're looking for a service at odd hours (like the plumber in the middle of the night); or if you're somewhere unfamiliar and looking for a business or person who can help. At the same time, there can't be too many businesses or services that will be comfortable answering what amounts to a cold call by an automated voice, even though it gives them a chance to provide valuable information and potentially land business. As for the user, HeyCosmo Concierge can potentially save you a lot of time.
Apple Address iTunes 8 Vista Incompatibility
In spite of the buzz surrounding new features such as Genius, the response to iTunes 8 hasn't been entirely enthusiastic. Many users have reported seeing a blue error message after attempting to install the software on their Windows Vista systems.
Apple addressed the complaints today, acknowledging the problem and issuing a response on its site. "After installing iTunes 8 for Windows, some users may see a blue screen error message when connecting iPhone or iPod to a Windows Vista computer," wrote the company. "In some cases, the computer may immediately restart when connecting iPhone or iPod to the computer."
The site offers a step-by-step solution that involves uninstalling and reinstalling the software. For the full rundown, check out Apple's site.
Apple addressed the complaints today, acknowledging the problem and issuing a response on its site. "After installing iTunes 8 for Windows, some users may see a blue screen error message when connecting iPhone or iPod to a Windows Vista computer," wrote the company. "In some cases, the computer may immediately restart when connecting iPhone or iPod to the computer."
The site offers a step-by-step solution that involves uninstalling and reinstalling the software. For the full rundown, check out Apple's site.
Jerry Seinfeld to Push Vista for $10 Million
What is the deal with Windows Vista? While would be remiss to pin the Microsoft OS's relatively poor showing entirely on the success of Apple's Get a Mac ads, the Cupertino company's cleverly simple (or, perhaps, simply clever) advertising campaign certainly didn't help Redmond's cause.
The company hinted a little while ago that it was set to fight back in a big way, with a $300 million campaign. Mojave was the tip of the iceberg, a slew of videos that essentially involved the company tricking jaded users into admitting that they actually didn't totally hate the OS.
Since news of Mojave broke, we've been awaiting phase two, which, as it turns out, is a whole lot of nothing--$10 million worth, in fact. That's the amount Microsoft in paying comedian, former TV star, and part-time animated bee, Jerry Seinfeld to push their OS.
Microsoft explains the concept thusly: "Windows, Not Walls," which involves "break[ing] down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting."
Hey, throw in a diner and some inane conversations about Superman and we're game.
The company hinted a little while ago that it was set to fight back in a big way, with a $300 million campaign. Mojave was the tip of the iceberg, a slew of videos that essentially involved the company tricking jaded users into admitting that they actually didn't totally hate the OS.
Since news of Mojave broke, we've been awaiting phase two, which, as it turns out, is a whole lot of nothing--$10 million worth, in fact. That's the amount Microsoft in paying comedian, former TV star, and part-time animated bee, Jerry Seinfeld to push their OS.
Microsoft explains the concept thusly: "Windows, Not Walls," which involves "break[ing] down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting."
Hey, throw in a diner and some inane conversations about Superman and we're game.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Seinfeld Gates Vista Ad "Shoe Circus" Debuts
It's two in the morning in my little piece of Connecticut and I'm surprised... no, I'm astounded to let you know the Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft Vista ad has debuted. In fact, I've got it's little YouTube embodiment attached to the bottom of this post.
It's no secret Jerry Seinfeld was doing a Vista commercial. We've written about it more than once. What's surprising is it's showed up in this ultimate soft opening where even "insomniac-boy" can scoop the rest of the crew.
I checked. At this moment the inline search box on the Microsoft site can't find it
It's no secret Jerry Seinfeld was doing a Vista commercial. We've written about it more than once. What's surprising is it's showed up in this ultimate soft opening where even "insomniac-boy" can scoop the rest of the crew.
I checked. At this moment the inline search box on the Microsoft site can't find it
Our Take on the Second Microsoft Gates-Seinfeld Ad
Microsoft issued the second ad in its long-awaited $300 million Vista campaign today. The first installment of the campaign, featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, met with a fairly lukewarm response. Actually, perhaps "lukewarm" is a tad too generous. The ad was met with a mixture of confusion and loathing and a sense of existential dread.
Pegged as the antidote to Apple's highly successful "Get a Mac" campaign, the commercial featured Gates and Seinfeld shoe shopping. To the chagrin of tech journos everywhere, no one could really figure out the point of the thing. A handful compared the ad with the whole "nothing" premise that famously fueled "Seinfeld," only, you know, without the funny.
The first difference you notice with this second ad is the length. At 4.5 minutes, the long version is clearly not intended for standard television airings. In fact, it actually resembles a Webisode more than a regular TV commercial. In that respect, it seems aimed at people who already possess enough tech savvy to seek out and watch video online.
Interesting, in a sense, because the appeal of the commercial--which involves Seinfeld and Gates staying with a family in their suburban home--seems to be the "regularness" of using a Windows, contrasting the default PC OS with the perceived stuck-up attitude of Apple and its commercials. Also interesting is the choice of Seinfeld for the role, seeing as how the comedian is about as New York as it gets, and that city is lousy with Macs. If anything, the commercial seems to make a point (for the sake of comedy, naturally), of just how awkward Gates and Seinfeld are, in their attempts to be "normal people."
That said, the second commercial is unquestionably more enjoyable than th first, and while the laugh-out-loud moments are still few and far between, it actually succeeds as a mildly entertaining Webisode. Microsoft is still going the slow-burn route, establishing an ad campaign before it actually attempts to sell something.
Ultimately, however, this campaign will likely be less about selling users on Vista than it will be about Microsoft as a lifestyle choice. But that's just my take. Check out more reactions from the PC Mag staff:
Dan Costa, Executive Editor: The great effort to humanize Microsoft continues, and now Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld are sharing a 12-year-old girl's bedroom? I can't want to see how John Dvorak twists this into yet another metaphor for kinky sex. I am waiting for the subtle digs at Apple to begin. Watch out for the first character in a black turtleneck.
Dan Evans, Reviews Editor: This ad is more funny ha-ha and less funny "creepy" than the first one. The clip plays more like a structured skit and less like some comedy writer's, "Wouldn't it be funny if..." daydream.
Eric Griffith, Senior Writer: This new episode--hard to call it a commercial--is much funnier. Which is not hard, considering the pure flood of unfunny in the first one. I'm surprised it produced some chuckles, since it was so much longer, and my attention span for online video is like that of a raccoon surrounded by tinfoil (shorter = better). But I still fail to see the point that Microsoft is going for. How humanized are Gates and Seinfeld when they have to point out their riches? Is this really about connecting people? These guys are not exactly Morgan Spurlock. Do I have to let a rich, out-of-touch CEO and a comedian with "Bee Movie" on his resume live with me to understand the wonder that is Vista? If it were Ballmer cranked up on Red Bull and matched with someone angry like Chris Rock, or filled with loathing like Louis CK, I'd be more entertained... but still unsure how it helps me love Vista.
Mark Hachman, News Editor: Call me jaded, but I'm still not seeing anything more than some mildly humorous chitchat, paced to the tempo of a "Seinfeld" episode. Sure, it was less uncomfortable than the first one, but is this what advertising has come to? Comfort? Familiarity? Bill Gates as a brand? I suppose if Microsoft wants to diffuse its image as the company that makes your PC crash, this isn't a bad idea. But all Microsoft has told me so far is that I should be using a PC. I am, you numskulls. But shouldn't you be telling me that I should use Vista?
Jeremy Kaplan, Executive Editor: The first one had more of the charm of the original "Seinfeld" TV show in my eyes. But they both amuse and entertain me in a way Microsoft's ad campaigns never have before. Pundits talk about whether the ads "work" or not, whether they succeed at reinspiring users or making you think differently about Microsoft. But in the end, isn't being entertained by the company really a completely new thing? We've all chuckled at Microsoft before; who's ever laughed with them? That seems like a success in and of itself.
Lance Ulanoff, Editor-in-Chief: This 4-minute-long commercial was 10 times funnier than the first one (which was just uncomfortable) and, finally, I can see what Microsoft and its ad agency are up to. This humanizing of Gates and connection of the brand to people just like us--instead of to up up-tight folks in suits--is a clear intent. It's also obvious that this Gates/Seinfeld road show is not just about changing Microsoft's image or improving the impression of Vista. They want you to see "PCs" differently. I noticed that the word "PC" (which starts as "perpetually connecting") appears prominently at the end of the commercial.
Joel Santo Domingo, Lead Desktop Analyst: First thing I thought was that there's got to be a short version for TV, and lo and behold--there isn't. I lost interest about 2 minutes in. I mean, I enjoy surreal situational comedy, but this is pushing beyond Dada and Dali, "Ren and Stimpy" (the brilliant early episodes), and Phineas and Ferb, and approaching "Hellraiser"-straight-to-video territory. Seinfeld is still great on camera, but Bill just looks uncomfortable (like in his "last days" bit). I slogged through to the end. So the message is, "We're replacing your live-in grandma with two billionaires"? Or "teenage girls won't get PCs"? I would've given them more credibility if the last line was:
JS: Where are we walking to?
BG: What about that Waffle House over there?
I'm beginning to dread the Act III payoff.
Pegged as the antidote to Apple's highly successful "Get a Mac" campaign, the commercial featured Gates and Seinfeld shoe shopping. To the chagrin of tech journos everywhere, no one could really figure out the point of the thing. A handful compared the ad with the whole "nothing" premise that famously fueled "Seinfeld," only, you know, without the funny.
The first difference you notice with this second ad is the length. At 4.5 minutes, the long version is clearly not intended for standard television airings. In fact, it actually resembles a Webisode more than a regular TV commercial. In that respect, it seems aimed at people who already possess enough tech savvy to seek out and watch video online.
Interesting, in a sense, because the appeal of the commercial--which involves Seinfeld and Gates staying with a family in their suburban home--seems to be the "regularness" of using a Windows, contrasting the default PC OS with the perceived stuck-up attitude of Apple and its commercials. Also interesting is the choice of Seinfeld for the role, seeing as how the comedian is about as New York as it gets, and that city is lousy with Macs. If anything, the commercial seems to make a point (for the sake of comedy, naturally), of just how awkward Gates and Seinfeld are, in their attempts to be "normal people."
That said, the second commercial is unquestionably more enjoyable than th first, and while the laugh-out-loud moments are still few and far between, it actually succeeds as a mildly entertaining Webisode. Microsoft is still going the slow-burn route, establishing an ad campaign before it actually attempts to sell something.
Ultimately, however, this campaign will likely be less about selling users on Vista than it will be about Microsoft as a lifestyle choice. But that's just my take. Check out more reactions from the PC Mag staff:
Dan Costa, Executive Editor: The great effort to humanize Microsoft continues, and now Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld are sharing a 12-year-old girl's bedroom? I can't want to see how John Dvorak twists this into yet another metaphor for kinky sex. I am waiting for the subtle digs at Apple to begin. Watch out for the first character in a black turtleneck.
Dan Evans, Reviews Editor: This ad is more funny ha-ha and less funny "creepy" than the first one. The clip plays more like a structured skit and less like some comedy writer's, "Wouldn't it be funny if..." daydream.
Eric Griffith, Senior Writer: This new episode--hard to call it a commercial--is much funnier. Which is not hard, considering the pure flood of unfunny in the first one. I'm surprised it produced some chuckles, since it was so much longer, and my attention span for online video is like that of a raccoon surrounded by tinfoil (shorter = better). But I still fail to see the point that Microsoft is going for. How humanized are Gates and Seinfeld when they have to point out their riches? Is this really about connecting people? These guys are not exactly Morgan Spurlock. Do I have to let a rich, out-of-touch CEO and a comedian with "Bee Movie" on his resume live with me to understand the wonder that is Vista? If it were Ballmer cranked up on Red Bull and matched with someone angry like Chris Rock, or filled with loathing like Louis CK, I'd be more entertained... but still unsure how it helps me love Vista.
Mark Hachman, News Editor: Call me jaded, but I'm still not seeing anything more than some mildly humorous chitchat, paced to the tempo of a "Seinfeld" episode. Sure, it was less uncomfortable than the first one, but is this what advertising has come to? Comfort? Familiarity? Bill Gates as a brand? I suppose if Microsoft wants to diffuse its image as the company that makes your PC crash, this isn't a bad idea. But all Microsoft has told me so far is that I should be using a PC. I am, you numskulls. But shouldn't you be telling me that I should use Vista?
Jeremy Kaplan, Executive Editor: The first one had more of the charm of the original "Seinfeld" TV show in my eyes. But they both amuse and entertain me in a way Microsoft's ad campaigns never have before. Pundits talk about whether the ads "work" or not, whether they succeed at reinspiring users or making you think differently about Microsoft. But in the end, isn't being entertained by the company really a completely new thing? We've all chuckled at Microsoft before; who's ever laughed with them? That seems like a success in and of itself.
Lance Ulanoff, Editor-in-Chief: This 4-minute-long commercial was 10 times funnier than the first one (which was just uncomfortable) and, finally, I can see what Microsoft and its ad agency are up to. This humanizing of Gates and connection of the brand to people just like us--instead of to up up-tight folks in suits--is a clear intent. It's also obvious that this Gates/Seinfeld road show is not just about changing Microsoft's image or improving the impression of Vista. They want you to see "PCs" differently. I noticed that the word "PC" (which starts as "perpetually connecting") appears prominently at the end of the commercial.
Joel Santo Domingo, Lead Desktop Analyst: First thing I thought was that there's got to be a short version for TV, and lo and behold--there isn't. I lost interest about 2 minutes in. I mean, I enjoy surreal situational comedy, but this is pushing beyond Dada and Dali, "Ren and Stimpy" (the brilliant early episodes), and Phineas and Ferb, and approaching "Hellraiser"-straight-to-video territory. Seinfeld is still great on camera, but Bill just looks uncomfortable (like in his "last days" bit). I slogged through to the end. So the message is, "We're replacing your live-in grandma with two billionaires"? Or "teenage girls won't get PCs"? I would've given them more credibility if the last line was:
JS: Where are we walking to?
BG: What about that Waffle House over there?
I'm beginning to dread the Act III payoff.
Hands-On with Spore: Origins for iPhone/iPod Touch
I managed to get my hands on the second-generation iPod Touch in our Labs, and I've squandered most of my afternoon playing Spore: Origins on it. I figured if I did a little write up of the game, I could justify the way in which I've spent the last 45 minutes of my life.
Those expecting a faithful port of the PC version of Spore may be disappointed by the game. A more appropriate name might have been Spore Light; in essence, Origins is a game built around its older cousin first stage. While the game reference evolution to some degree, your character never really evolves beyond the Cell stage. The absence of later stages certainly robs the game of some of the full version's charm, sure, but any attempt to fully recreate Spore on a platform such has this may havet failed entirely.
Instead, the game is based entirely in the two-dimensional primordial stage of the evolution process, with your creature swimming around, eating and being eaten. Every smaller creature you eat helps push up your DNA meter toward the next stage. Every time you're attacked by a larger creature, you lose points on the life meter--lose them all, and you have to begin the level over again (the game, fortunately, saves your progress at the end of every stage).
Fill up your DNA meter, and you advance to the next level. Before beginning, you're given the option of entering a mini version of the Creature Creator, wherein you can change the design of your creator and add defensive and offensive options that you've unlocked. Floating pellets also help your creature gain temporary help such as defensive shields, poison, and speed. At the beginning of the stage, the game offers up some minor missions, such as targeting specific prey.
Rather than taking advantage of the touch screen as I'd initially imagined, you control the creature by tipping the device in the direction you want it to move. Tip it more, and your creature speeds up. There's a bit of a learning curve to mastering the controls, but after a minute or two, you should be set.
The graphics are quite good, including a snazzy little video intro involving a meteor crashing into your planet. The music is also a lot like that of the full Spore, retaining its atmospheric ambiance.
Spore: Origins isn't a bad way to spend $10 and a few hours, but above all, the game offers a constant reminder of what you'r missing by not playing the full game.
Those expecting a faithful port of the PC version of Spore may be disappointed by the game. A more appropriate name might have been Spore Light; in essence, Origins is a game built around its older cousin first stage. While the game reference evolution to some degree, your character never really evolves beyond the Cell stage. The absence of later stages certainly robs the game of some of the full version's charm, sure, but any attempt to fully recreate Spore on a platform such has this may havet failed entirely.
Instead, the game is based entirely in the two-dimensional primordial stage of the evolution process, with your creature swimming around, eating and being eaten. Every smaller creature you eat helps push up your DNA meter toward the next stage. Every time you're attacked by a larger creature, you lose points on the life meter--lose them all, and you have to begin the level over again (the game, fortunately, saves your progress at the end of every stage).
Fill up your DNA meter, and you advance to the next level. Before beginning, you're given the option of entering a mini version of the Creature Creator, wherein you can change the design of your creator and add defensive and offensive options that you've unlocked. Floating pellets also help your creature gain temporary help such as defensive shields, poison, and speed. At the beginning of the stage, the game offers up some minor missions, such as targeting specific prey.
Rather than taking advantage of the touch screen as I'd initially imagined, you control the creature by tipping the device in the direction you want it to move. Tip it more, and your creature speeds up. There's a bit of a learning curve to mastering the controls, but after a minute or two, you should be set.
The graphics are quite good, including a snazzy little video intro involving a meteor crashing into your planet. The music is also a lot like that of the full Spore, retaining its atmospheric ambiance.
Spore: Origins isn't a bad way to spend $10 and a few hours, but above all, the game offers a constant reminder of what you'r missing by not playing the full game.
World Association of Newspapers Fighting Google-Yahoo! Deal
Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN), an organization representing some 18,000 newspapers worldwide, asked the European Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Competition Bureau of Canada to reject Google and Yahoo!'s recently struck advertising deal, arguing that the plan is anti-competitive.
The organization's president, Gavin O'Reilly, said this morning, "The proposed advertising deal between Google and Yahoo would seriously weaken that competition, resulting in less revenues and higher prices for our members." He added that "WAN is also concerned that this deal would give Google unwarranted market power over important segments of online advertising. Advertisers will increasingly migrate to Google since they will see diminishing price advantages to advertising through Yahoo."
Paid Content points out that the deal is for North America only, but WAN argues that it will directly impact newspapers in other part of the world, particularly Europe.
The organization's president, Gavin O'Reilly, said this morning, "The proposed advertising deal between Google and Yahoo would seriously weaken that competition, resulting in less revenues and higher prices for our members." He added that "WAN is also concerned that this deal would give Google unwarranted market power over important segments of online advertising. Advertisers will increasingly migrate to Google since they will see diminishing price advantages to advertising through Yahoo."
Paid Content points out that the deal is for North America only, but WAN argues that it will directly impact newspapers in other part of the world, particularly Europe.
Best Buy Nabs Napster for $121 Million
Napster, once the darling of college kids everywhere, then the darling of music execs certain that it was the future of distribution, then the darling, of, well, very few, now has an unexpected new suitor.
Mega-retailer Best Buy is said to be looking to pick up the music subscription service for a cool $121 million--at $2.65 a share. That's down from the company's trading price of $3 a share, last year.
Best Buy is looking to use Napster's platform to help distribute electronic content. The company is expected to keep all of the staff at Napster's Los Angeles-based headquarters intact.
Mega-retailer Best Buy is said to be looking to pick up the music subscription service for a cool $121 million--at $2.65 a share. That's down from the company's trading price of $3 a share, last year.
Best Buy is looking to use Napster's platform to help distribute electronic content. The company is expected to keep all of the staff at Napster's Los Angeles-based headquarters intact.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Invision.tv: Channels for Internet Television
If you watch a lot of Web video, you're likely accustomed to browsing through sites to find things to watch. Some Web services promise to help you aggregate video from multiple sites and direct you between sites easily, but not all of them allow you to browse, create, and view "channels" of your preferred Web video the way Invision.tv does.
The service starts you off with a few popular channels that correspond to actual TV channels, such as CNN, HGTV, and ESPN, and also shows you popular videos at sites such as Hulu and Funny or Die. From there, you can mix and match videos from numerous sources to create your own custom channels and see only the video you want to see.
Services like Invision.tv are designed to bring the world of Web video content to one site and also to bring you the tools to customize what you see. YouTube and Hulu allow you to add favorites and review videos that you've watched in the past, but Invision.tv combines custom channels with a program guide similar to what you might see on your television to help you find new content to watch. The fact that so many Web video sites are included in Invision's program guide also makes the service compelling as a source for lots of new and interesting Web video to watch. And if you're looking for something specific, you can always keyword-search Invision and all the associated sites.
By default, the site's pre-created channels are shown horizontally across the left two-thirds of the screen, the bottom right third of the screen shows some popular videos, and a large chunk of the right third of the screen is dedicated to the video you've chosen to play. That way you can click around between videos without having to change pages or lose your search results. If you prefer a tiled interface for the channels or the videos, you can change the view with a single click to go directly to new videos or channels that interest you.
Invision supports more Web video services and sites than you might expect, from popular ones like YouTube and Hulu to Web video services provided by TV networks like ABC, CNBC, Food Network, and The Discovery Channel. As you find channels that you like, you can add them to your favorites or mix and match channels to create your own custom channel. Additionally, the service allows you to create playlists of your favorite videos, search for new videos by interest (entertainment, lifestyle, sports, etc), and subscribe to channels and be notified when new videos are posted.
The service also has a loose social network bolted on, where members can search for each other based on profile, rate one another, and rate and comment on individual videos. The social functionality really seems to be a distraction and somewhat poorly designed--almost as though it had to be there to complete someone's desired features list. All the videos I browsed had no comments, and most members didn't even complete their profiles.
Above all, Invision is a great way to aggregate Web video from all of your favorite sources. The majority of the video sources are popular sites, but it would be good to see more video podcasts from IPTV networks alongside traditional TV networks. Since the service pipes in video from so many quality sources though, there's tons of content. The ability to customize your own video channels and subscribe to the existing channels also makes sure you can go directly to the content that interests you the most. Invision can certainly keep your thirst for Web video quenched.
The service starts you off with a few popular channels that correspond to actual TV channels, such as CNN, HGTV, and ESPN, and also shows you popular videos at sites such as Hulu and Funny or Die. From there, you can mix and match videos from numerous sources to create your own custom channels and see only the video you want to see.
Services like Invision.tv are designed to bring the world of Web video content to one site and also to bring you the tools to customize what you see. YouTube and Hulu allow you to add favorites and review videos that you've watched in the past, but Invision.tv combines custom channels with a program guide similar to what you might see on your television to help you find new content to watch. The fact that so many Web video sites are included in Invision's program guide also makes the service compelling as a source for lots of new and interesting Web video to watch. And if you're looking for something specific, you can always keyword-search Invision and all the associated sites.
By default, the site's pre-created channels are shown horizontally across the left two-thirds of the screen, the bottom right third of the screen shows some popular videos, and a large chunk of the right third of the screen is dedicated to the video you've chosen to play. That way you can click around between videos without having to change pages or lose your search results. If you prefer a tiled interface for the channels or the videos, you can change the view with a single click to go directly to new videos or channels that interest you.
Invision supports more Web video services and sites than you might expect, from popular ones like YouTube and Hulu to Web video services provided by TV networks like ABC, CNBC, Food Network, and The Discovery Channel. As you find channels that you like, you can add them to your favorites or mix and match channels to create your own custom channel. Additionally, the service allows you to create playlists of your favorite videos, search for new videos by interest (entertainment, lifestyle, sports, etc), and subscribe to channels and be notified when new videos are posted.
The service also has a loose social network bolted on, where members can search for each other based on profile, rate one another, and rate and comment on individual videos. The social functionality really seems to be a distraction and somewhat poorly designed--almost as though it had to be there to complete someone's desired features list. All the videos I browsed had no comments, and most members didn't even complete their profiles.
Above all, Invision is a great way to aggregate Web video from all of your favorite sources. The majority of the video sources are popular sites, but it would be good to see more video podcasts from IPTV networks alongside traditional TV networks. Since the service pipes in video from so many quality sources though, there's tons of content. The ability to customize your own video channels and subscribe to the existing channels also makes sure you can go directly to the content that interests you the most. Invision can certainly keep your thirst for Web video quenched.
Diplodocs: Read the Manual Before You Buy
How often have you purchased a device or product, only to get home and discover that setup and configuration is so complicated that it'll take days to finish? Some manufacturers and product designers engineer their products to be easy to use and simple to set up, but that's certainly not always the case; and other times, the owner manual is absolutely no help and you're on your own.
If you find yourself stuck in this kind of situation, check at Diplodocs. You can find over a million user manuals in 26 different languages for a wide variety of products, from computer equipment to sewing machines. You can therefore check out the user manual before you buy, and make sure the product you're interested in is as easy to use as the commercials say it is.
Diplodocs is free, so if you're looking for a manual to show you how to thread your mom's old sewing machine, you don't have to pay some obscure service to go research it, scan it, and e-mail the PDF to you. The beauty of Diplodocs is that it serves as both a reference utility for products and services that you already own and a resource for you to check out the owner's manual of products you'd like to buy before you drop the cash on them.
One of the major benefits to a service like Diplodocs is that you can check product manuals to see if the manual would be helpful when it comes to set up or configure a device, and whether the setup is complicated. You can also use the product manuals of competing products to judge for yourself if one device is significantly more difficult to set up and use than another, which helps you make an educated buying decision before you actually go and purchase the product. Similarly, the service lets people who have inherited a used item or who have lost their owners manual search the site and print out a replacement copy for free.
Simply search for the brand or product name, or pull down the brand and product menus to select specifically which device or product you're looking for. Once the site has found the manual you're looking for, you can preview the first three pages to make sure it's the right manual before downloading. You can download manuals in PDF format after filling in a captcha. All of the 1.2 million manuals that the service supports are free to download.
Diplodocs is completely user-supported, so the site encourages you to scan and upload your own user and product manuals to help the library grow. You can even create an account with the service to upload your manuals and refer back to them if you ever need them. This way the service can work as both a shared service and online storage for digital copies of your own manuals.
If you find yourself stuck in this kind of situation, check at Diplodocs. You can find over a million user manuals in 26 different languages for a wide variety of products, from computer equipment to sewing machines. You can therefore check out the user manual before you buy, and make sure the product you're interested in is as easy to use as the commercials say it is.
Diplodocs is free, so if you're looking for a manual to show you how to thread your mom's old sewing machine, you don't have to pay some obscure service to go research it, scan it, and e-mail the PDF to you. The beauty of Diplodocs is that it serves as both a reference utility for products and services that you already own and a resource for you to check out the owner's manual of products you'd like to buy before you drop the cash on them.
One of the major benefits to a service like Diplodocs is that you can check product manuals to see if the manual would be helpful when it comes to set up or configure a device, and whether the setup is complicated. You can also use the product manuals of competing products to judge for yourself if one device is significantly more difficult to set up and use than another, which helps you make an educated buying decision before you actually go and purchase the product. Similarly, the service lets people who have inherited a used item or who have lost their owners manual search the site and print out a replacement copy for free.
Simply search for the brand or product name, or pull down the brand and product menus to select specifically which device or product you're looking for. Once the site has found the manual you're looking for, you can preview the first three pages to make sure it's the right manual before downloading. You can download manuals in PDF format after filling in a captcha. All of the 1.2 million manuals that the service supports are free to download.
Diplodocs is completely user-supported, so the site encourages you to scan and upload your own user and product manuals to help the library grow. You can even create an account with the service to upload your manuals and refer back to them if you ever need them. This way the service can work as both a shared service and online storage for digital copies of your own manuals.
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