(* Source: Jason Kincaid *)

Jason says.. 

Regator, a new blog aggregator that hopes to reduce the blogosphere down to consumable chunks for the average user, has launched today in private beta. The site acts like a combination between Digg and a standard RSS reader, allowing users to vote on the most popular stories drawn from 3,000 blogs that have been hand-picked by Regator editors. TechCrunch readers looking to try the site can get one of 100 invites here by entering the code “techcrunch”.

The Ajax-heavy site seems best suited for users who aren’t interested in heavy-duty blog reading. There’s no way to add an RSS feed that isn’t already on the site, and the sharing options seem to be limited compared to more mature offerings like Google Reader. Each story has voting arrows which allow users to determine the most popular articles - a nice touch, but one that may turn Regator into a Digg-clone instead of a more general news reader.

Beyond standard text search, Regator offers an audio and video search across its indexed blogs, but the results aren’t always appropriate - a video search for “Yahoo” yielded a YouTube trailer for the movie Wanted as the second highest hit.

Regator will see competition from a number of blog aggregators, which include Blogged, which launched a similar feature yesterday, and TechMeme, which uses an algorithm rather than user input to rate top stories.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Erik Schonfeld *) 

Posted by brian tiong at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Erik Schonfeld *) 

Ray Ozzie first hinted at it during a keynote speech last March. But tonight Microsoft is finally launching a preview beta of Live Mesh, a new Windows Live platform for syncing files and, eventually, applications across different devices. (Of course, for Microsoft, a beta means 10,000 people, so you have a pretty good chance of getting in if you sign up now—or not). Mesh is really a key element in chief software architect Ozzie’s efforts to make the Web the center of the Microsoft experience for consumers instead of the PC.

Mesh lets you set up a virtual desktop online, and connect different computers to it. Put any file into a Mesh folder and it automatically syncs between the online desktop and every connected computer. Select a file or folder and you can easily share its contents—photos, videos, music, documents—with any friend or family member. You can also remotely control a connected computer from the Live Mesh desktop. Right now, this works with any computer, as long as it is running Windows XP or Vista. But the longer-term vision is to truly make this work with any device. Mac and mobile versions are coming later this year. And eventually, anything from Xboxes and DVRs to digital picture frames and printers could be connected through Mesh.

A hundred of Ozzie’s engineers have been working on Mesh for the past two years. At launch, it may not seem like much more than a combination of Windows Live SkyDrive and FolderShare, but under the hood it is an ambitious platform play. Mesh is really aimed at developers. Not only does it provide a framework for syncing files between devices, it can also sync applications. The way it does this is by using a two-way RSS or Atom feed developed by Ozzie called FeedSync, formerly called Simple Sharing Extensions.

The basic foundation of Mesh is this feed-centric programming model. A Web developer can build an app using any programming language or tools he likes (Python, Ruby on Rails, Flex) and then sync it across devices and other applications using two-way feeds as the basic data and communication channel. The promise for developers, says product unit manager Abhay Parasnis: “If you Mesh-enable your application, we will let you extend it to other devices.”

Microsoft is offering a set of Mesh APIs that include storage services, membership, sync, peer-to-peer communication, and a Newsfeed feature that tells users the status of different folders and who’s accessed them. The same programming model works whether a developer is building an app for an offline device or for the Web

In many ways this effort is a counterweight to what we are seeing with Adobe Air or Google Gears, which are efforts to take browser-based apps offline. With Mesh, Microsoft is in effect reasserting the primacy of client-based applications. They need not be Windows-based, but I’m sure that won’t hurt. Developers can customize their apps for whatever device they originally reside on—whether it is a PC, a smartphone, or a set-top box—and then Webify them by syncing them to other applications across the Web. These apps could be more powerful than apps confined to a browser-like sandbox without giving up the connectivity of the Web.

One example given to me was a PC-based genealogy app that would update whenever a family member made a change on their computer. The problem with this example, and perhaps the problem with Mesh, is that there is already a solution to that synchronization problem. It is called Geni, and it is a Web app. What I’d like to see, though, is a Mesh version of Word or Excel. That could at least begin to answer the threat presented by Google Docs and other online productivity apps. Mesh makes ciient apps social by linking them together and to the people you know.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 (* Source: Techcrunch *)

Michael says... 

Yahoo Buzz, a Digg-like service that launched on February 25, is now nearly three weeks old. We asked Yahoo to share some of the data from those first two weeks.

The big benefit for publishers is that top Buzz stories are linked from the Yahoo home page, which turns a firehose of traffic onto a story. When those stories hit the home page there’s a good chance that the linked site will have a record day in traffic. Yahoo says they’ve sent 16 million visitors to outside sites in those first two weeks, and they’ve gathered data from some of the linked partners:

• Salon got so excited about a February 28 link from the Yahoo home page to this story that they issued a press release - they had 1 million unique visitors that day, the most ever to the 12 year old site.
• US Magazine was linked from Yahoo on February 27, and had the second highest traffic day ever. 32% of visits that day came from the Yahoo home page.
• Huffington Post reported 800,000 unique visitors from a Yahoo-linked story
• Smoking Gun, Portfolio.com, Dallas Morning News and Imaginova all reported significant traffic increases after links from the Yahoo home page.
• Sugar, Inc. sites have had nearly 1.8 million unique visitors sent from five different Buzz stories on the Yahoo home page

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Michael Arrington *)

Mike says...

Google acquired hosted wiki service Jotspot in October 2006. The service immediately stopped taking new users, although existing users were supported. Now, nearly sixteen months later, Jotspot has been relaunched under the Google Apps team, as Google Sites.

Google Sites looks absolutely nothing like Jotspot, other than the fact that both are hosted wikis. All of the structured data templates launched by Jotspot in July 2006 have been stripped out. Users now have a choice between just five basic templates - a standard wiki, a dashboard where google gadgets can be embedded, a blog-like template for announcements, a file cabinet for file uploads, and a page for lists of items. Instead of creating structured templates, users will now simply embed spreadsheets, presentations and word documents from Google Docs, as well as Google Calendars, YouTube Videos and Picasa Albums.

Like Google Docs, Google Sites wikis can be made private, shared with others, or made public. Users can select from a variety of templates, but cannot yet customize the look and feel of the site. Somewhere down the road, Google says, they’ll release an API for the new service as well. Editing is done with a rich text editor that allows for basic formatting.

Google Sites is a free product, with limitations on support and storage (10 GB). Users can upgrade their Google Apps account to a standard edition, also free, and map their own domains to the site. A premier edition is also available for $50/user/year that includes a service level agreement, support and more admin capabilities.

All wiki pages have RSS feeds associated with them to allow users to track any changes.

Existing Jotspot users will continue to be supported on the old platform for the near future, and they will also be given instructions for porting their Jotspot wikis to Google sites.

In an interview today, Google’s Management Director of Enterprise Matthew Glotzbach called the combined products under Google Apps a “Microsoft Sharepoint killer” because it’s allowing businesses to collaborate without all that expensive Microsoft software. It may not be a Sharepoint killer yet, but Google Apps constitutes 2-3% of Google’s total revenues. Some point soon, its going to start hurting Microsoft.

Sample screenshots:

Posted by brian tiong at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Erik Schonfeld *) 

Erik reports... 

Daem Interactive has developed Skuair, new technology that it is calling the next generation of 2d code readers. Skuair isn’t limited to reading barcode lines and numbers but can read product logos or images. Skuair works with any mobile phone camera and is easy to operate. The user simply takes a picture of an advertisement or product logo and a low resolution image is sent to the recognition server and an associated URL is returned. The user can receive a variety of multimedia content from the company or person who owns the image

User generated tags will be launched later this year. A short demo of how Skuair works.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Duncan Riley *) 

Singapore based Comiqs gives users the ability to create their own comics with a rich web based editing suite.

Sites and services that provide comic generation aren’t new. Comic Life from Plasq (makers of Skitch) would be the best known in the field, and comes installed on new Macs. There’s also no shortage of “add speech bubble” style web editors available as well. Comiqs offers a similar feature set to Comic Life, but online and totally free.

Users can use Comiqs with photos uploaded from their computer or from a photo-sharing website like Flickr to create a comic. Tools include speech bubbles of different kinds and shapes, frames and fonts. The interface is drag and drop so the learning curve is next to zero. Comics can also be embedded on other sites in a custom viewer for multi-page productions.

Comiqs is currently securing investors to take the service to the next level, where they intend to “work closely with cartoon artists in a revenue sharing arrangement that open up new revenue streams for talented artists and position our site as a place to find talented cartoon artists.”

Comiqs completes with StripGenerator, PikiStrips and Toondoo.

The demo video below shows one frame editing, but it should be noted that the tool can be used for traditional style (frame by frame) comics. You can also play with the service directly without the need to set up an account.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Erik Schonfeld *) 

Erik says... 

Web-based IM and chat room provider Meebo is releasing full-fledged APIs for its Meebo Rooms that will allow Websites to embed chat functionality in an automated fashion. Currently, Meebo Rooms can be embedded on sites or blogs manually by pasting in the appropriate code, which has already led to a proliferation of such widgets. There are more than 200,000 Meebo Rooms, attracting millions of visitors a month. (See our previous coverage here and here). Explains Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg:

Now, the servers of our partners can say, “I want to create a room.” It automates the creation process on a server-to-server basis. Also, we will be putting advertising into these rooms.

In addition to the APIs, the company is also announcing the Meebo Network, which will serve ads inside Meebo Rooms across the Web, splitting the revenues with the Websites hosting the rooms. Since each Meebo Room is formed around a particular interest, ads can be targeted. And to the extent that sites participating in the network have demographic data on their members, that can be used for ad targeting as well. Only Meebo Rooms created through the API will show ads, not the ones created manually.

The launch partners joining the Meebo Network are Piczo, Revision3, RockYou, Social Project, and Tagged. Revision3, for instance, will create a Meebo room on its site where fans can watch a synchronized loop of Web TV shows while chatting. Access to the full APIs and the ad network is by invitation only at this point. Social networks could use the new APIs to automatically add chat rooms to every group page. Rock bands or movie sites could add Meebo Rooms to their sites for visiting fans.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source Adam Ostrow *) 

Dan Frommer at Silicon Alley Insider alerts us to a new offering from Google: the ability to purchase ads within newspapers that contain a 2D bar code. If a consumer sees such an ad, they can capture a picture of the barcode, and special software will then de-code it and send them to a specified page on the mobile Web. Apparently, this advertising format is already gaining popularity in Japan.

Will it work in the US?

To be able to use barcode ads, you first need to download de-coding software to your phone. Google provides a link to a site Nokia has setup to download codes, as well as to a company called Kaywa that is offering a form of de-coding software. The problem here is that I know very few people who will go out of their way to download software that helps them participate in more advertising. For bar code ads to work, phones need to come pre-loaded with the software, meaning carriers and device manufacturers will ultimately decide when barcode ads take off, if ever.

What are the benefits?

For the most part, today’s print advertising is limited in terms of being able to measure response. You don’t necessarily know if someone is visiting your store or web site because of your ad. Google, through AdWords/AdSense has created perhaps the most advanced advertising measurement system in the world, and by making newspaper ads interactive, advertisers will have much more insight into how their ads are performing, and presumably, be able to get a better return on their investment. For consumers, the ad format beats writing down a phone number or cutting out a coupon.

When will it happen?

A mobile exec tells Frommer that probably only around 1% of phones in the US have the necessary software installed. Thus, while including a bar code in a print ad might be a nice novelty, it’s not likely to be a good investment at this time. That said, with Google Android ramping up this year with the support of most of the carriers, the company clearly has a plan for how to get the software on more phones. As usual, Google is aiming big on this one, and has a very clever strategy for making it work. However, I think it is likely still at least a few years until they get enough traction to make barcode ads commonplace.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Dave Bullock *) 

We get strange Jacob’s Ladder flashbacks every time our musician friends ask us if we’re going to NAMM, but then we realize they're talking about the National Association of Music Merchants show. Chock full of motorized automated faders and digitally controlled blinking lights, NAMM 2008 was a digital producer's nirvana.

(Note: To get the full experience of the NAMM show floor while you view this gallery, take every MP3 you own and play them simultaneously while banging on some drums.)

Posted by brian tiong at 03:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Dan Neumann *)

Ah... it's good to see 2D black & white barcodes moving into the airline space in the US and Canada. Saving trees makes sense.  Colorzip, a company I consulted for late last year has 3D color barcodes that have launched in Singapore.  How are we doing, Andrew?

Posted by brian tiong at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Alex Chitu *)

They're coming and it will be difficult to get away without having one. Google Profiles will be integrated in most Google services so you have a coherent identity and a simple way to manage your contacts.

"A Google Profile is simply how you represent yourself on Google products — it lets you tell others a bit more about who you are and what you're all about. You control what goes into your Google Profile, sharing as much (or as little) as you'd like."

Until now, you could create profiles in Blogger, orkut, Google Groups, Google Co-op and all of them could contain different information. You could also add photos in Gmail, Google Talk and orkut, so the situation started to become confusing.

The new Google profiles are already available in Shared Stuff, Google Maps, Google Reader and will be added to other web applications. For example, in Google Maps you'll find the link to your profile at the top of the page.

Profiles are public and contain basic information about yourself: a nickname (the real name is displayed only to your contacts), your occupation, your location, a list of links, a photo and a short description. They are embedded as iframes in pages that showcase user-generated content (personalized maps, shared bookmarks).


It's not a stretch to see that these profiles are the perfect host for your activity streams and your public activities could become a part of the profile (uploading photos to a public album, bookmarking web pages, posting a new blog post). It's basically FrindFeed's widget that can be contemplated at Paul Buchheit's blog.

A side-effect of the public availability of your profile is that people can find it. "Can people do a Google search for my name and find this profile? It depends. If you put your full name in the Nickname field, pages on which your profile appears may be returned as results by Google." You can already find more than 100 profiles attached to Google Maps pages. Maybe Google will even create a directory for profiles and start to suggest friends based on personal descriptions, location and activity streams.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As a Blackberry addict, and increasingly a user of Twitter, I was pretty pumped to learn about TwitterBerry via Download Squad this afternoon. As the name suggests, it’s a version of Twitter optimized for the Blackberry, and it is very well executed.

To get started, I downloaded TwitterBerry over the air (OTA) by going to http://www.orangatame.com/ota/twitterberry/ on the mobile browser of my Blackberry Pearl. The download took only a few seconds, and then asked for my Twitter credentials. You can also download using a USB cable if you prefer.

Once that was done, I had access to all of the main components of the Twitter interface: the ability to post an update, see any replies to me, and also check out my timeline, friend timeline, and the public timeline. All of these come with user pictures right next to the respective updates. When posting an update via TwitterBerry, the program will even conveniently tell you how many characters you have remaining.

I check Facebook status updates all the time using their Blackberry app, and I imagine TwitterBerry will ultimately lead to a similar addiction for me. Kudos to the developers of this very simple yet powerful app.

See Also - Twits to Go: Top 12 Twitter Apps for Your Phone

Posted by brian tiong at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Adam Ostrow *)

I have been playing with the google maps application on my blackberry pearl and it's positioning ability is truely amazing and usable even though my blackberry doesn't have GPS.  No more getting lost anymore... 

Google has released a “mobile updater” for Blackberry devices that allows you to download all of the company’s mobile applications in one simple step. I gave it a try, and in reality, Gmail and Maps are the only services with downloadable applications, as the mobile site (mobile.google.com) itself is more of a portal for connecting you to all of the company’s different services.

Nonetheless, some of the services linked to are super convenient. For example, the GOOG-411 link initiates a call to Google’s free 411 service, while the Google Docs link takes you to a nicely formatted site for viewing (but not editing) the documents you have uploaded. Additionally, Google Mobile Updater will keep you posted on new applications and updates to various programs.

I’m already a big fan of Gmail’s mobile app for Blackberry, and much like Google Pack for recommended desktop software, offering all mobile apps as a bundle for Blackberry users should be a good way for Google to drive more adoption of its mobile services.

Google’s Blackberry version follows news yesterday of a Google interface optimized for iPhone.

[via Google Operating System]

Posted by brian tiong at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

Its December already! The year just flew by and in a couple of weeks, Christmas will be here.  Everyone will be wishing for presents under their Christmas tree.  Here is a list from Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins  from Mashable on things he would like to see made better on the web.

Mark says... 

We here at Mashable have been going back and forth on the things we’d like to see for Christmas this year, in terms of what the Web and social media can do for us. After we marked world peace and 10,000 shares of Google stock off, we came up with a bit more realistic wish-list. Of course, a few plasma TVs and a Nintendo Wii would also be welcome

Better Privacy with Facebook’s Project Beacon

Our biggest wish this year is for Facebook to either get rid of Beacon, or to make it less privacy invasive. We got part of our wish already. Personally, I’d like to see the mini-feeds and the news feeds over at Facebook become more useful. By this I mean allowing them to be exported more easily via RSS. I know some of the feeds are capable of this, and there are hacked-together ways of making it work as well, but for me to really get behind the idea of Project Beacon being not just good for advertisers, but good for me as well, I’d like to see Facebook give a little something back this year. To me. In the form of RSS.

Google Should Modify its Mission Statement

The #1 search engine is doing a bit more than organizing the world’s information these days. They’re bidding on wireless spectrum. They’re integrating everyone’s social graph. They’re providing platforms for new communication methods. They’re creating mobile alliances. Beyond the digital world, they’re creating maps of genomes on demand. They’re funding foreign startups. They’re engaging the free market in creating solutions to the world’s problems. They’re going green.

It is ok to admit it, Google. You want to be the internet. You want to fix the world. You can say it. I’m sure it will be quite liberating. Just come clean with us. We’ll still love you.

Net Neutrality. We Want It.

Here’s a tricky Christmas wish. I want network neutrality. I want to be able to throw up my BitTorrent client and not have it crap out at 95%. I want to have a conversation on Skype that lasts more the 20 minutes. I want ISPs to stop monkeying with my traffic. I don’t want the government to step in, because they’ll just gum up the works even more. But I want it fixed. Personally, I think telecom deregulation and de-subsidization is the way to go. I say we give it a shot. Santa, think you can make this one work?

We Want the RIAA and the MPAA to Quit It

The big music labels are realizing they should just quit. Radiohead made more money on one album than Warner made with their entire library this year. If the RIAA weren’t getting paid hundreds of millions a year to sue Warner’s customers, they may have more money to buy albums. All this while they get France to make P2P illegal. Meanwhile, the MPAA is getting legislation in place that forces universities to hunt down pirate students, or risk losing all federal funding. If I could get Santa to bring me one thing this year, I think it would have to be the bankruptcy papers for the RIAA and MPAA.

Google Should Get a Handle on Its Censorship Policy

Google is all over the map on this. They say they lean for free speech, but more stories crop up each week on new ways and reasons for them to censor Internet denizens. I know the company is growing fast (something like 100% staff growth over the previous year?). They’re losing many top tier executives to Facebook and elsewhere. Still, there needs to be an edict from the top to figure out what they’re doing in terms of their privacy and censorship policies. If YouTube is going to ban content that talks bad about terrorists, they need to ban content that shows terrorism. If they ban police brutality, then they need to ban civilian brutality. Or, as is our wish, block nothing at all.

Bloggers, Give Me Full RSS Feeds

One of my biggest wishes for this Christmas is for all the bloggers of the world to turn on FULL RSS FEEDS! Come on, most of you have to be with me on this. There’s little more annoying than coming upon a great new blog or content source, and finding that the RSS feeds only have short descriptions. I do 90% of my news consumption from within my RSS reader. I don’t want to load a special tab just for your site, you’re one of hundreds I read on a daily basis. Chances are, I’ll either unsubscribe or pass up on your content if I don’t have the time to click out and go to your blog specifically. Not to mention the fact that I can’t share your posts with folks on my link blog or easily email an article of yours to a friend who might find it interesting. This one is a group gift. It benefits me as much as you.

Podcasting Advertising Companies, Stop Being Hippies!

I need more podcast ad groups that will live up to their promises. If you have me run an advertisement for three months on my podcast, then you need to pay me. If you have me signed up to your download metering service for six months, you need to toss me an advertising deal once in a while. If you promise me $40 CPM, then don’t give me $3 CPM. There’s a reason that support and respect for the podcasting medium is eroding, and it is you. We’re in one of the biggest advertising booms in recorded history, and its taking place online, yet you guys can’t seem to grab any of the cash. Get with the program.

I Want Better Interoperability in Social Media

While we’re talking about the podcasting genre of social media, I want my services to talk to each other. TubeMogul has started this ball rolling, and Blip.TV does a little bit of this. RSS is sitting there and waiting for YouTube, UStream and your favorite podcast distribution point going “hey! we’re all the same thing - video! how about letting me help share the love around?” I’d love to be able to take a live stream I’ve done on UStream, click a button when I end transmission, and have that shoot directly to my Podango and TubeMogul accounts so that my podcast subscribers and viewers on all the embedded media sites can see it moments after it was live. Even more than that, I want major PVRs like TiVO and Comcast to nudge the door a bit wider open so that I can more easily get my video content onto their systems (as opposed to the climb the corporate ladder approach to the syndication deals).

MySpace, Please Lose the Glitter

I’ve been called elitist for wishing for this in the past, so I checked with my wife and her friends. They’re typical nerdy but non-techie folks who enjoy MySpace for the way it puts them in contact with one another, despite that they are separated by hundreds of miles. As it turns out, I’m not the only one that’s more than a little annoyed when it takes twenty minutes for a MySpace profile to load with all the slideshows and band music videos you have playing in the background. Here’s my Christmas wish: fix it so that only so many widgets are allowed per page. I know MySpace has a culture of excess, so I’d be ok if you limited it to under 25 widgets. But anything above that is too much.

I Wish the Patent System in America Wasn’t Broken

I’m not sure even how to formulate this Christmas wish. I know that the USPTO was designed to encourage innovation. I know that it currently serves as a system for patent trolls to inhibit innovation. I know this should be fixed. I don’t know how. I wonder if Santa has an elf that specializes in Intellectual Property Law.

Twitter Should Buy More Servers

Or something. Just make it stop going down as much, please? We love you, Twitter, but you’re killing us here.

I Want a New Version Number

We’ve been stuck on Web 2.0 for too long. I think it’s time we either picked a new buzzword, or gave ourselves a couple version bumps. I’m even open to doing the WinAmp thing, and skipping a few version numbers. Can we get ourselves up to Web 5.0 between now and the New Year? What about Web Candle + A Monkey?

Posted by brian tiong at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(*Source: Techcrunch *)

It seem apple always has a couple of soothsayers from the dark side... didn't they say the same thing about iTunes, iPod and the new iPhone? only time will tell or until another product company comes up with sexier products.

Erick Schonfeld says...

“Merry Christmas, Steve. Enjoy it while it lasts.” That is the sentiment of Fast Company’s December cover story about Apple, written by Adam Penenberg. (I got my hands on the cover at right, which is a computer-generated image of a sour-faced Jobs by Alex Ostroy). He argues that it is a “dangerous moment for Apple.” The stock is near an all-time high, with a P/E ratio about the same as Google’s. Everyone from Nokia to Amazon to Microsoft to Vivendi Universal to NBC is gunning for it, and its ability to sell 10 million iPhones next year—the famous third leg that is propping the stock up—is yet to be proven. Writes Penenberg:

But when you get down to it, the Apple phenomenon is as much about fashion as it is about technology. You might say that Steve Jobs is the Marc Jacobs of computers (minus the heroin), betting the house his products will be, season after season, cooler than anyone else’s. Yet fashion is, by definition, fickle. Lose the buzz, and you’ve got trouble. And for the first time in years, there are signs that Apple is not infallible and that Jobs’s reservoir of goodwill with his followers is not bottomless.

I’m not so sure I buy the arguments that Apple has to worry about the cell phone industry getting its act together, or the music industry, or the movie industry, for that matter. We still have not seen much evidence of this, although there’s been plenty of grumbling from all corners. The notion, for instance, that iTunes has anything to worry about from subscription music services is laughable. Rhapsody? Please. It is a great service, but hardly a business threat to the iPod/iTunes juggernaut. Apple should be more worried about free advertising-supported music services that are popping up.

I do agree, however, that the “iPod-iTunes pairing was the product of a historical moment that may never be reproduced.” AppleTV is certainly a bust, and Hollywood bosses will not be the easy marks that the desperate music executives were when iTunes first got started. Penenberg’s strongest argument is that in an era of increasing openness, Apple’s insistence on closed perfection might no longer fly:

What does Steve Jobs know that Albert Einstein didn’t? Einstein posited that a closed system would become stagnant over time. . . . Jobs may have to accept that Apple’s next wave of growth–or energy, as Einstein might have put it–depends on syncing up his products and platforms with those of his competitors.

In an age of convergence and simplification, customers are ever more insistent that computers, phones, TV, and music systems work together. For them, being “open” isn’t about sharing patent information or computer code but about compatibility and seamlessness, from the phones in their pockets to the movies playing on their flat screens. . . . Winning outright is a very tall order, of course. It means coming up with a self-contained system so beautifully functional that a critical mass of consumers are willing to enter that world and never leave

It all sounds good. Except that, it has been exactly this closed-world strategy that has worked perfectly for Apple so far. The digital device industry needs a control freak like Jobs to show the rest of us what is possible when everything works as it should. Open systems are great because of their inherent flexibility, but they can also be more chaotic and difficult to manage. The question is whether everyone else can learn from Apple, catch up, and surpass it. And if they do, whether Steve Jobs won’t simply join their parade (at the front, shouting loudly about his new-found open religion) just as it begins to pass by.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Techcrunch *)

Google takes a bite at the TV space...here are some hightlights on its plans to reinvent the box as we know it.

Erick Schonfeld says...

"An open-source operating system like Android for the set-top box could change that. If creating applications for set-top boxes was more like creating applications for the Web, we’d be able to do a lot more things with our TVs—especially if those set-top boxes were also connected to the Web. Want instant messaging and caller ID on your TV? No problem. Want customized information widgets for the TV that scroll breaking news, weather, sports scores or stock quotes from sources you choose in your own ticker at the bottom of the screen? No problem. Want to turn that annoying ticker off? No problem. Want to control the camera angles on that basketball game? No problem. Want to add the live video stream from your friend’s cell phone who is attheir TVs? No problem. The game? No problem. Want to create your own video mashup of fight scenes from various movies that you can edit right on your TV and share with others on"

"Oh, and what about new forms of advertising? Inserting ads into pay-per-view or triggering them when someone presses fast-forward on their DVR require applications of a different sort. You might not like that, but the TV industry would. Any new video ad unit that starts to gain traction on the Web could be ported over to regular TVs—clickable overlays, contextual video ads, unobtrusive sponsorship icons. Why not even let viewers program their own ads with a laundry list of categories and companies to choose from? They might actually watch them."

"When it comes to advertising, Google is not shy about stating its ambitions. “We are confident we are going to revive the television advertising industry,” says Dureau, “by bringing new advertising to it.” Already, Google is trying to make TV ads more relevant, easier to target, and cheaper to deploy. As a result, Google thinks it can attract more ad dollars from smaller businesses that may not have been advertising on TV before."

 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : Virtual World News *)

Posted by brian tiong at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : Worldsinmotion.com *)

Posted by Leigh Alexander :

Looking at market penetration, Mitham opined, "I think it’s pretty fair to say that virtual growth to date has been heavily based on word of mouth and viral marketing.” Moreover, Mitham expects the trend to continue, calling on the example of companies like BMW opening Second Life islands to widespread media coverage as a driver of Second Life population growth.

Finding New Markets, Developing Existing Ones

One can't rely purely on PR for advertising, Mitham added, stating that he hopes to see traditional marketing to start happening. "We’re seeing children actively adopting Club Penguin, Whyville, Habbo... as they eventually grow out of it, they will be looking for new worlds to grow into. There’s a huge market already there, waiting to happen."

The market is developing globally, too, Mitham said, noting that European countries are also actively embracing virtual worlds. Though typically Russia and South America are slower to adapt, Mitham noted, these are large growth areas that will begin adopting virtual worlds more in the future.

"We don't see much for 'silver surfers,'" Mitham added, noting that older users are also a prime growth area. Similarly, he expects corporate adoption to broaden, as companies like IBM encourage their employees to move into virtual worlds for corporate uses, and educational institutes are using virtual worlds in the classroom for the set aged 8 to 15.

Engaging New Users

It's a matter of product development, he said -- developing new products for marketplaces that already exist. Mitham also noted that better user interfaces and new user orientation will assist in driving more widespread adoption, as will other avenues of access like web-based remote viewers.

Diversification is the other key avenue, Mitham noted -- bringing new products into untapped markets, as with category-centric "vertical worlds". One example Mitham raised is Football Superstars, a virtual world currently in development for people who play football and soccer. Half the world is for playing football, the other half is for living the life of a footballer.

Beyond this, there are platform-centric virtual worlds, such as Sony's upcoming PlayStation Home, which will be used as a convergence tool for gamers. "The reason for going in isn’t the new technology; people are going in for a specific reason,," Mitham said.

Additionally, Mitham said that avatars that can cross worlds -- the interoperability work IBM is currently involved in -- will be "a really good driving factor for getting more people engaged in virtual worlds."

Mitham offered some projections on growth in virtual worlds he believes will take place between the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. He anticipates growth of registered accounts in Second Life to increase from 10 million to 20 million, 1 million to 7 million for There, .6 to 3 million for Kaneva, from zero to 10 million for the Chinese virtual world HiPiHi, an increase from 3 million to 10 million for Whyville, and from 15 million to 30 million for Club Penguin.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

Google Earth has integrated YouTube, allowing you to view videos from specified locations around the world. A new “YouTube” button in Google Earth places icons on a map to show you where the videos are located. Upon zooming in, you will see more videos for the location of interest. The YouTube videos are plotted according to geotags that YouTube users have placed on their content.

This is a really clever integration between Google products. Versus the Street View feature of Google Maps where the company is sending camera crews around the globe, all of the content here is user-generated. In other Google Maps developments, the company has also added community maps to find things like places to eat, events, and activities, also submitted by users.

Could Google Maps be turning into one of the major social initiatives at Google? Between integrating YouTube videos, user-generated local maps, and potential presence features from the recently acquired Jaiku, it seems like there might be something brewing here.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

( Press Release via Virtual World News *)

TORONTO , ON – October 7, 2007 – SceneCaster today announced the release of the first immersive 3D Web application for Facebook - where anyone can create, transform and explore interactive 3D scenes and share them with their friends – all within Facebook. The application is available at: http://apps.facebook.com/scenecaster.

SceneCaster extends the rich visual experience of 3D on the Web to all Facebook users including consumers, creative professionals, and social media enthusiasts. Bridging the gap between the virtual and real worlds, SceneCaster also connects the Facebook 3D experience to eCommerce sites such as eBay and Amazon, product catalogs from leading manufacturers and retailers and to other rich media social networks such as Flickr.

SceneCaster is breaking new ground in 3D Web applications as the first 3D immersive experience that is built to leverage the "social graph" of Facebook. The Facebook economy is growing every day that could see it achieve 200 million users next year up from over 40 million today. SceneCaster delivers new conversation opportunities to all Facebook users while also providing an innovative revenue model simultaneously with each Facebook profile.

"Facebook facilitates better communication and an easier way to share & discover meaningful content," said Rodney Rumford, Editor of FaceReviews.com, a leading Facebook application review, rating and consulting service based in Solana Beach, CA. "SceneCaster in Facebook makes communications with my real world friends much richer and efficient. SceneCaster's great 3D immersive experience is revolutionary in concept and execution to sharing and discovering the 3D Web." Rodney's review of the SceneCaster Facebook app can be found at http://facereviews.com/2007/10 /04/facebook-3d-rooms-with-scenecaster

SceneCaster was first beta launched on September 25 th at DEMOfall '07, the technology industry's leading conference for innovative and disruptive technologies. Industry media and pundits have praised SceneCaster's debut with over 250,000 pages of reviews and comments residing on the Web today.

"SceneCaster's mission is to mainstream the 3D Web by lowering the barriers to adoption for the largest possible audience," said Mark Zohar, SceneCaster founder. "We've built it from the ground up by combining the very best the Web has to offer today – search, eCommerce and Facebook – with a rich, immersive 3D experience that is accessible within a standard Web browser."

About SceneCaster

SceneCaster is a 3D Web community where anyone can visualize their ideas, share them, and make them real. SceneCaster bridges the gap between the virtual and real worlds by connecting the 3D Web experience to online storefronts, product catalogs from leading brands and retailers, social networks, and consumers' dreams. SceneCaster is a brand initiative of View22 Technology Inc., a leading provider of 3D Web commerce and media solutions used by Global 2000 companies. For more information please visit www.scenecaster.com.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : MediaPost.com *)

Laurie Petersen says :

TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC.'S NEW Products Group has signed a one-year deal with Kaneva to build and test virtual world extensions of its entertainment properties.

Each Turner Web community and corresponding virtual space inside Kaneva will contain video players for video streaming of select Turner network content.

"Our exploration with Kaneva of virtual worlds is yet another example of Turner staying at the forefront of consumer technology trends," said Blake Lewin, vice president for TBS Inc.'s New Products Group. "Through this opportunity, we hope to leverage the Kaneva platform to explore how users interact with our brands in a virtual world."

The agreement will grant Turner access to Kaneva's technology and tools to create and use Web communities and Virtual Spaces on the Kaneva Web site and in the virtual world of Kaneva.

"Turner is an ideal flagship media partner for Kaneva," said Christopher Klaus, founder and CEO of Kaneva. "Turner's high-quality programming and credibility is synergistic with our unique focus on delivering entertainment to the masses inside a virtual world. As a result of this partnership, we will provide entirely new ways for audiences to watch, participate and interact around their favorite TV programming."

Kaneva, which is Latin for "canvas," is a virtual entertainment world that unifies the 2D Web with a 3D experience. It integrates social networking, shared media and collaborative online communities into a modern-day, immersive 3D virtual world. Kaneva enables its members to hang out with their friends online and in 3D, share entertainment, express creativity and passions, and establish meaningful connections with others.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : Caleb Booker *)

We started off in Skype voice chat, but then he met me in Second Life at the same time. Using tools his company haven't even named yet, he was able to broadcast video of our avatars meeting through Skype. (Click the picture for full-size.) They still consider it technology in the pre-alpha stage, and won't feel like it's ready for consumers until they have it running in much higher detail. Even at the low resolution, being "in" Second Life through Skype and, in addition, seeing myself through multiple camera angles at once was a pretty impressive experience.

This was, of course, just the beginning. He switched from Second Life to a custom environment they had built with the Unreal 2 engine and again, streamed it right through Skype. The great part about using an engine like this one was that they were able to import high-detail AutoCAD files and make them look extremely realistic. Soon I was watching a high-quality alien avatar from Mars Attacks! exploring the environment in real-time. Below is a video of the world he had walked me through that they apparently built over the course of a few days.

Recently Rigby showcased the technology at the Copper/Cobre Conference. All of the other presenters went up and showed PowerPoint presentations. Rather than show a series of AutoCAD sketches, he plugged his laptop into the projector and walked the crowd through a 3D rendering. A copper smelter in the U.S. retained him to create a "virtual furnace" that not only showed the schematics in high resolution, but had walls lined with photographs of how everything is supposed to look as you assemble the machine. Not only that, but you can actually enter the furnace itself and (through color coding) see how everything is supposed to fit together.

Even though his company has already been retained by a few engineering firms for more work, Rigby sees more applications for high-resolution custom worlds. He's currently in touch with several galleries in London to cre