Fanfare: Google Talk is now available for the iPhone. It features a snazzy interface (is it possible to create a shoddy interface for the iPhone?) and almost everything you can do on the desktop client: create a quicklist of favorite users, search, and manage multiple conversations at the same time. There’s one problem, though, which Go to site
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- » No, You Cannot Turn Facebook Into A (Decent) Movie
- In what seems to be the worst idea in the history of television, West Wing writer Aaron Sorkin has his sight set on Facebook, claiming he’s interested in making a movie about the popular social networking site. He doesn’t understand Facebook, he says to BBC, but he’s ready to learn, thus creating his own Facebook account. It’s not entirely clear whether he wants to create a movie about the creators of Facebook (boring) or the actual users of the service (more boring), but neither sound like a good idea. Well, unless you want to watch developers do their thing for an hour and a half. Or people choosing who they’re going to vampire bite next. Sorkin himself sounds really enthusiastic and full of ideas about the project. “I honestly don’t know how this works, which is why I’m here,” he said. And if you did, Aaron, you wouldn’t be making a movie about it. In other, more interesting news, Facebook’s All Stories feed is now called Live Feed, at least in my account (I’ve switched to the new design a while ago and I love it). Other than the name change, I don’t see any differences between the old and the new version, except for the fact that Facebook altogether has been very shaky in the last couple of days, with chat and various feeds going on and off all the time.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Flixster Tops 1 Billion Movie RatingsFacebook Controversy: Virginia Tech Halloween Costumes Facebook War with ConnectU Lives OnApple Movie Rentals On its Way?Mosoto - Now a Stickam for Facebook UsersThe Facebook SongFace the News: Everything You Love And Hate About Facebook
- » What’s New with Jaiku?
- As Paul noted this weekend, Jaiku was completely down for scheduled maintenance over the weekend, with very little explanation other than it was a good time to go speak with a loved one. A lot was made of this by the few left in the blogosphere who use the service to fill their status microblogging needs, particularly how interesting it was that a Twitter-ish bird was doing the downtime notice, and how insulting it was to be told by Jaiku that they perhaps don’t spend enough time functioning in meatspace.They’re back now, and they’re purporting to be offering unlimited invites to the private beta service. I’m still skeptical this is the case, since I’ve been on the “waiting list” to join Jaiku since the months before they were acquired by Google. I even re-submitted my application for an invite the moment I saw their blog post on the re-opening hit my feed this afternoon. Clearly the process hasn’t been fully automated yet, as I haven’t received a confirmation email.Regardless of the true status of the open-ness, they say they’re ready to handle any volume. The purpose of the downtime was to move the service “to a Google data center,” something “that ’d planned to do anyway, as part of the future transition to Google App Engine.”If indeed Jaiku throws wide open the doors to the service for the masses, this will be an interesting real-world stress test for not only Google’s version of Twitter but the Google App Engine itself. So far, very little in the way of high profile, high traffic stuff has proclaimed itself to be running on Google’s cloud computing option. Those looking to evaluate it as a solution for their company would do well to watch how Jaiku performs in their “new nest.”---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Jaiku Releases New Microblogging Tool for Nokia S60Jaiku on Your iPhoneA Day Without Jaiku…WidSets to Launch Jaiku WidgetJaiku Hosting Markku’s Channel for Eurovision 2007Will Google Use Jaiku to Collect Data on You?Jaiku’s New Mobile App to be Unveiled at Supernova
- » 4 Questions for Every Early Adopter
- The battle lines have been drawn today. You’re with us or you’re against us. You’re cool and hip or lame and square. No, I’m not talking about political lines (for once), I’m talking about the early adopters versus the mainstream, or as Robert Scoble framed it: the passionates versus the non-passionates.What, though, is a passionate (sometimes referred to as an ‘evangelist’)? What is the definition of an early-adopter?Quite simply, and perhaps obviously, it’s a person who embraces new technology before most other people do. Early adopters tend to buy or try out new hardware items and programs, and new versions of existing programs, sooner than most of their peers.Remember, I’m Describing the Stereotype…Early adopters in the Web punditry sector, though, have a particularly precise stereotype. Just like all stereotypes, it’s not perfectly accurate across all examples, but it exists for a reason.What is the stereotype then? Well, your typical Web early adopter has more logins and passwords than they could possibly ever keep track of. They’re in a constant race to have the most followers of any kid on their block on the website du jour (even while they may proclaim how against the idea of follower-collection they may be). Their patron saints are Robert Scoble and increasingly Louis Gray.They voted Democrat in the last election (assuming they were old enough to vote), and are filled so full of party unity that every fifth message for the last three months has been something concerning Barack Obama. They currently have a manga avatar on at least one website they visit regularly. They love FriendFeed, and publicly denounce Twitter while secretly loving it. They hate Facebook, because it’s sooo six months ago. The dividing hot-button political issue for this group of folks isn’t abortion, homosexual marriage or the war on terrorism (or any other petty Red/Blue issue that affects the real world) - it’s whether or not they support Loren Feldman or Shel Israel.Most importantly, though, they gravitate towards whatever tool suits their hyper-connected, always-on lifestyle (rather than the tools that fit into the everyday lives of the regular folks of the world).How Is This Good For The Company?Remember that wonderful movie Office Space, and that scene with Luhmberg and the Bob’s where they asked everyone at Innetech to ask themselves: “…for every decision you make, is this good for the company? Am I helping with the company’s strategic vision?”Early adopters should be asking themselves a similar question as they try out new technologies and stay on the bleeding edge of the pretty, shiny tools we talk about every day here at Mashable. Failure to do so can result in being considered largely irrelevant, both in the calibre of advice and review the early adopter provides, as well as in general as a person (at least in the view of the average, mainstream Internet reader).For instance, ask yourself why you take to tools like Twitter and Friendfeed. Is it because it suits your always on lifestyle and constant need to be in communication with other early adopters like yourself? Or is it because the tool has a genuine ability to make a normal person’s life easier, and you see the value in that.Some Quick Question to Help You not be a New Media DouchebagWill your mom use it? Think less about whether your other early adopter friends will like the product or service - think about your mom. This is obvious - your mom doesn’t need another way to gossip about politics and the neighbors online. Your great-uncle doesn’t need another way to share jokes. They both have email for that. They probably won’t enjoy lifestreaming the way FriendFeed works. They will, however, get into lifestreaming if it means there’s an effortless way to maintain a website that showcases their likes and dislikes on the web. Consider introducing them to Tumblr, MyBlogLog or FriendFeed as a way to effortlessly update their home page. Call it “low-impact blogging.”Is it truly a time-sink or a time-saver. Most professionals don’t need distractions from their daily routine. The only way you can sell addicting tools like Twitter or Facebook to someone who actually works for a living is to show them how they can add to their productivity with them. Saying “this is the most fun thing in the world - I spend all day chatting there” makes it look as pathetic and useless as a subscription to World of Warcraft.Is the tool an intrusion or an integration? Similar to the last question, ask yourself if this tool is a “configure-once and forget” or the type of tool you have to constantly maintain, tweak and engage with. The beauty of automation and technology is that tools (think I Want Sandy) can be set up once and can run as background processes. People are looking for ways to offload mundane tasks from their plate, not add to them.Will it increase their bottom line? We like to get excited about new distribution technologies quite a bit in our world. YouTube, RSS, podcasting, and blogging… these things are great, as we’ve learned, but it’s taken quite a bit of development and innovation after these concepts have been in existence for them to become seamless parts of our daily lives. Tools like Utterz, UStream and Qik make creating video and audio a snap. How long did embedded video, RSS and podcasting exist before it was so easy a six year old could do it? Quite a while. Likewise, when you come across a bleeding edge technology - it’s important to recognize the potential but be careful in your evangelism. Chances are the mainstream might take your advice, try it out, and wonder what you were smoking when you thought it was a good idea.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:The Early Adopter vs. The Harsh ReviewerBugLabs To Slash Prices at CESTotSpot Adds New Features, Still Making Your Kids True Early AdoptersWill Aggregation Ever Go Mainstream?Woman Sues Apple For $1 Million - Over $200 Price CutZune Marketplace to Accept Podcast SubmissionsMosio Launches Mobile Q&A
- » Startup Hacks: Know When to Walk Away, Know When to Run
- Michael Cerda blogs about startups, people and the variety hour at Cerdafied.Startups are a gamble by nature. Some of us thrive on sitting at that table, but it’s not for the faint of heart. The reality is most startups will fail. Here are 5 ways startup employees can call a bluff. 1. No customer feedbackIf no one is using it, it usually means no one cares. Why should you? Never hesitate to talk to your product people and ask the hard questions. If they don’t have answers then you have even bigger problems. Sometimes startups don’t have resources for extensive business intelligence, but any data is good data, and should be measured and discerned.2.Business model MIA Few companies exit big on the “free” phenomenon. Therefore having a business model is key. It takes a lot of time to validate the legs on a business model. IT’S INEVITABLE THAT YOU’LL TWEAK IT AS YOU GO, BUT if you’ve been iterating for years, that means your company is burning capital. Unless there’s a capital tree in the lobby somewhere, you’re in a race against insolvency. 3. Excessive fund raising/M&A exploration If the company you’re working for has been fund raising for more than six months without any bites, then the market has spoken. Either the company is in between value creation inflections, or there simply aren’t enough positive data points to support the event. Either way, ask lots of questions about the fund raise and beware: you don’t want to be the last person to know. 4. Musical chairs It’s never a good sign when your company turns over leaders more than once. It’s very common for a founding CEO to step aside for an expansion stage CEO. But if the expansion stage CEO turns over, it was either a bad hire or the business has a larger problem to face. Neither condition serves the company well. Key roles in startups require stability and continuity. That said, it’s very important for companies to ‘fail fast’ on bad hires. 5. Founders/CEO MIA These are the people with the dream, the vision, and the tenacity to lead you to the promise land. If they’re checked out, that means they’re either giving up, they have board level issues, they’re bored, or they simply aren’t capable of taking the company to the next level. None of these bode well for the company. Tune into their vibe; it will usually tell you what you need to know. This isn’t intended to make you run from a good, earnest challenge. It is, however, meant to provoke some thought before you decide to sit at the startup table and bet your talent, energy –and perhaps several months, if not years, of your life.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Musicians Targeted in Latest MySpace HackSteve Jobs Will Fight iPhone Unlocking HacksDavid Caruso Gets Into Startup BusinessiPhone Apps Can Void your Apple WarrantyAnnouncing StartUp Camp: March 7-8th in London3G iPhone Confirmed for 2008Startup Search Launches Web 2.0 Directory
- » The Secret Knowledge Hidden in Tag Pairs
- There’s an interesting new research tool available, focusing on tags - or, more precisely, tag pairs. Tagatum’s tag spider searches blog feeds for tags, combines tags into pairs and calculates which pairs are most often used together. Those who are experienced in keyword analysis and the subtleties of SEO will probably know what to do with the tool, but if you’re clueless, the creators of Tagatum already have a couple of ideas for you. For example, one method of use is the simple extension of search queries with commonly used tag pairs, while another involves a “tag snowflake“, a more advanced version of the common tag cloud, showing how strong the relation is between tags.Tagatum is not a tool that an average user will find attractive, but I have a feeling that it’s a godsend for someone who’ll know what to do with it. Developers will be happy to know that an API is also available, and I don’t doubt that someone will put it to good use. ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Del.icio.us Drops the Dots as Site Gets MakeoverTraitcloud - MySpace Tag CloudDel.icio.us Tag Descriptions - Very MetaThe Pirate Bay Launches Free Uncensored Image HostingWordpress 2.3 out on Monday; Now with TagsMyFeedz - Social News OverloadThe Definitive Directory of Web 2.0 Companies?
- » ASCII Spam Is Coming, And I’m Not Happy
- Is nothing sacred anymore? Is there no length to which spammers won’t go? They’ve taken over our e-mails and social networks, and now they want to take the oldschool nerd’s most sacred delight: ASCII art?CNET reports that it’s true. In yet another way to circumvent spam filters, spammers have started using ASCII-style messages - and it works. It’s not an entirely new practice, but according to internet security firm FaceTime there’s been an upsurge in this particular type of spam in the last week, which means we’ll all start seeing a lot more of it real soon. I haven’t yet received any such abominations in my inbox, but I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before I start seeing VIAGRA and CIALIS (on a side note, I know what Viagra does, but I’ve never bothered to check what Cialis does. Don’t tell me; I’d rather not know) in nice, big, fat ASCII letters. I don’t know why, but I somehow thought that even spammers hold some things sacred; I guess I was wrong. Once you step over to the dark side, anything goes.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Spammers Send Emails from YouTube ServersMySpace Wins $234M in Anti-Spammer CaseHot or Not Abandons Free Dating ExperimentThree Clicks to Spam: Google’s Hypocritical Link Selling PolicyGmail Security Flaw Spotted, Spam Filters SubvertedTwitter Vigilantes Step Up to Solve Spam ProblemMsplinks.com
- » Blogger Michelle Malkin Attacked in Denver near DNC08
- Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin was beset by a horde of self-described leftist anarchists not far from the site of the Democratic National Convention earlier today. The mob was lead by well known left-wing conspiracy theory radio show host Alex Jones, who was there to lead a protest designed to (and I’m not exaggerating at all) levitate the Denver Mint so as to shake out all the money. The mob was organized under the banner “Re-Create ‘68″, with the goal of re-igniting the riots of 1968 around the Chicago Democratic Convention.Alex Jones is indeed a left wing blogger (with an army of left wing bloggers under his New Media umbrella). He’s the curator of a number of New Media websites often cited by the left, including InfoWars, PrisonPlanet, The Jones Report, and Truth News.Jones, accompanied by little more than a handful of protesters that showed up for the event were documented chanting “Kill Michelle Malkin,” only moments after chanting their previous refrain of “Love! Peace! Justice!”After shouting orders out to his followers to “not let Michelle Malkin leave,” Alex Jones and the small mob of protesters (followed by the much larger mob of press) harangued and screamed a bevvy of personal and ideological attacks for a number of blocks, as the diminutive Malkin attempted to calmly flee the scene.But for a bit of shoving, a lot of yelling and a number of intimidation tactics, no actual violence took place, but as the video captured by Pajamas Media reporters on the scene shows, it couldn’t have been a picnic for Michelle.What’s most irritating is that once again, tactics that originate from left-wing bloggers have bled into meatspace and painted a picture that puts all of New Media in a poor light.Of course, I’m referring to the lousy vetting process that was in place during the Republican Primary YouTube debates. It was discovered during the broadcast of the show that one of the questioners was a plant from one of the Democratic campaigns, and a careful analysis of the rest of the bunch showed that almost half of the questioners were Democratic plants, staffers, organizers or bloggers. The net result was that the first “New Media” handled presidential debate in history had a black eye from appearance of impropriety.Similarly, this event leaves New Media journalists and bloggers with what undoubtedly will be seen as a propensity for immaturity, unable to behave themselves in public without attacking one another physically as viciously as on the message boards and comment fields. Watching the footage from the event, I had to wonder if this is what a YouTube or Daily Kos message board looks like if it were acted out LARP style.Interestingly, it seems that despite being present for the threats, the Denver police took no action against Alex Jones or any of the other protesters calling for the death of Ms. Malkin.Instead of taking the position of some liberals in the blogosphere, the best move for Democrat aligned bloggers would be to immediately denounce the actions of Alex Jones. Of course the right will denounce Jones & Company, but they would never link to a PrisonPlanet article but to ridicule it.Those that use Jones’ sources on a regular basis would do good to distance themselves from this sort of ridiculous behavior or risk being painted with the same brush.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:20 Tools to Follow the Democratic and Republican National ConventionsCBS to Offer First Online Stream of Political Convention CoveragePodcast: A Conversation with Metacafe’s Michelle CoxDigg Dialogg Kicks Off at Democratic National ConventionAirBed & Breakfast: For Obama’s Sake, Skip the HotelsHuffington Post Profitable?YouTube to Sponsor Official Democratic Debate
- » 40+ Eye-Opening OpenID Sites and Services
- OpenID support continues to spread throughout the Web ecosystem and new names are added to the list of sites that support OpenID all the time. Since the release of OpenID 2.0, which includes better security features, OpenID has gained major traction as the single sign-on standard. Its biggest benefit being tremendous reduction in the number of login names and passwords that you have to manage. In addition, great time savings when registering at new sites.Ultimately, all you will ever need is your single OpenID URL or an email address linked to it. Here’s where you can get your own OpenID and all of the sites that support it:Where Do you Get your own OpenID?If you have an account at any of the following sites then you might already own an OpenID that you can use anywhere else on the Web that supports it. The format of your OpenID URL will be slightly different from site to site so pick one that’s easiest to remember.- AOL - openid.aol.com/screenname- Blogger - blogname.blogspot.com- Flickr - www.flickr.com/photos/username- LiveDoor profile.livedoor.com/username- LiveJournal - username.livejournal.com- Orange (France Telecom) - http://openid.orange.fr- SmugMug - username.smugmug.com- Technorati technorati.com/people/technorati/username- Vox - member.vox.com- Yahoo - http://openid.yahoo.com (Every Yahoo ID is now an OpenID 2.0 ID)- Wikitravel provides an identifier to each registered user- WordPress.com - username.wordpress.comWho are OpenID Identity Providers?If you don’t have an OpenID yet, you can create a free one at any of these 80 and counting OpenID Identity Providers. Keep in mind that these providers all offer different features when it comes to OpenID. Here’s an excellent Guide for OpenID Identity Providers that compares their diverse feature sets.Below are just some of the most popular OpenID Identity providers:- ClaimID - One of the most popular OpenID providers- myOpenID Another popular provider. Hosted OpenID server by JanRain.- VeriSign’s Personal Identity Provider - Free OpenID Provider with support for multi-factor authentication. - myID.net - Free OpenID Provider with support for groups and Korean language.- myVidoop - Free OpenID Provider that eliminates passwords with security features, customization, and browser integration.- MyLID - Unique because it’s the only identity aggregator as it supports not only OpenID but also LID and Yadis. Thus, your single sign-on such as mylid.net/Paisano would work on any site that supported any of those three identity services. You can also host it yourself by downloading the code here.Want to Run Your Own OpenID Identity Server?For you hardcore geeks there’s always the option to host you own OpenID identity Server. Delegation is the simplest way to get up and running with OpenID because it requires nothing more than an OpenID Provider and some basic HTML. OpenID for Developers provides excellent information. You can find additional valuable information at: Plaxo OpenID Recipe and Sam Ruby’s IntertwinglyWho supports OpenID anyway?The list of sites that support OpenID continues to grow as increasing numbers accept the fact that it’s not going away any time soon and realize that there’s a great demand for it. The good news is that even startups are coming out of the gate supporting OpenID (Blippr, Rejaw, etc.) So, how do you know if a site supports OpenID or not? Just look for the OpenID logo on any sign-up or login page. It’ll always be clearly visible and sometimes even labeled with OpenID. Here’s a sample login screen.The other thing to check is the MyOpenID OpenID directory that the folks at MyOpenID maintain. There’s also a handy RSS feed that you can subscribe to in Google reader or whatever RSS reader you prefer that’ll let you know whenever a new site has been added to the directory. If you know of a site that is not listed in the OpenID directory then simply send the site’s URL to MyOpenID’s email address for the directory.Here’s another OpenID directory that also tracks all of the sites that proclaim to support OpenID. This directory is a little different because it allows visitors to vote for their favorite OpenID sites so it’s like digg in that respect. Here are the top voted OpenID Providers.Here are just some of the sites that support OpenID with many more added all the time:- Skitch.com - A Web service that gives you 1-click uploading of images for fast image sharing.- PBWiki - Create a free wiki using your OpenID. It’s as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich.- LiveJournal - One of the first blogging platforms.- Drupal - The official website of Drupal, an open source content management platform.- Mixx - The well-known news site.- 37Signals - Simple software to help you get organized. Basecamp, Highrise, and Backpack are all OpenID enabled.- Foodio54 - Has a database of over half a million restaurants with reviews.- ToodLedo - An easy to use Web-based to-do list.- WetPaint - A popular wiki host.- Grou.ps- Allows you to create sharing platforms for your social groups- Jyte - Allows you to make claims about yourself and your friends, give and receive cred and manage your contacts and groups.ConclusionOpenID continues to gain support and acceptance. Even the big boys like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and AOL have all made the decision to embrace and support it. One of the strongest signs of this acceptance occurred when Microsoft added OpenID support to their own Identity platform called CardSpace. Since OpenID appears to be headed towards becoming the single sign-on standard then it might make sense to give it a look to see what it’s all about.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:SourceForge Now OpenID-FriendlyThe Daily Poll: How Often Do You Use OpenID to Login?Another Victory For OpenID: Yahoo Announces SupportBlogger’s OpenID Support Now OfficialWikispaces Adds OpenID SuportBlogger Beta Gets OpenID SupportWetpaint Adds OpenID Support
- » Think You Can Guess The Next Big Startup? Put Your (Fake) Money On It
- Virtual stock trading is nothing new; there are hundreds of services that offer it, and many online brokers have caught up, too. But, if you - like me - are knee deep in the wonderful world of web startups, perhaps you’d like to try your hand at Startup Exchange, a virtual stock trading application focused only on web startups. The premise is simple: you get 100.000 virtual dollars, buy and sell startup stocks, and try to earn money. It’s created by TradeVibes, which leverages its existing community to determine the valuations for startups. In their own words, “the prices of the companies in the exchange represent the community’s view on the valuations for these companies,” which pretty much means that the stock prices go up and down randomly - just like in the real stock market. So, if you’re the gambling type, and are sick of losing real money on the stock market (it’s ok, you can admit it), Startup Exchange might be a welcome change for you. ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Announcing StartUp Camp: March 7-8th in LondonGlam’s New Ad Exchange Connects Marketers, Publishers, & Ad NetworksStartup Search Launches Web 2.0 DirectoryStartup 2.0 Awards for European WebsitesFinal Reminder: Sun Startup Camp on May 4-5, Kicks off with MorningMashRingside Startup: Poland’s Wacky IdeaAnnouncing The Startup Review Sponsored by Sun Startup Essentials
- » MapQuest Releases New Homepage, Promises More
- MapQuest today launched its new homepage design that aims at reducing the amount of time you spend surfing through the site’s pages and keeps you doing more of what you want.According to the company’s Vice President of product development, Mark Law, MapQuest has received countless messages from users asking execs to revamp the site and make it a more useful tool for getting work done quickly and efficiently. And in order to do so, MapQuest’s latest design (which, right now, mostly impacts the homepage) tries to take the site from a “directions and map service” to a “location-centric” service that provides mapping and directions.The improved MapQuest homepage now features a map that displays the location you input into the box above it. MapQuest said that most of its users — about 48 million unique — simply didn’t want to move from page to page when searching on a map and it decided to make the front page the place to get practically everything.Included in that map, the new MapQuest homepage will allow you to get gas prices and see where construction is going on in a cleaner interface than before. On top of that, it will feature a Weather section and available live cams (in certain cities) to show you what’s happening on the ground.MapQuest is also using its AOL ownership and will now display different AOL properties at the bottom of the page, like City Guide, which lets you search for point of interest and practically anything else in the city you’re viewing.More importantly, MapQuest is using the bottom of the page to see if users want the information to be included in the maps. Want to find the best burger in New York with City Guide on MapQuest maps? If so, tell the company that you want to do it and if enough people agree, it’ll integrate that into the maps.MapQuest claims getting directions will be easier too. Instead of offering two search boxes like it does now, the new MapQuest homepage will leave the directions box “greyed out” until you decide to search for directions. Once you do, it’ll work just as it does now.I had the opportunity to see the new MapQuest homepage in action and it does look much cleaner and generally more useful than its predecessor. That said, I don’t know if it’s really enough to make Google Maps users switch and MapQuest was quick to note that this is just the beginning of much more to come.The company wouldn’t tell me any more than that, but as more of its pages are revamped and it improves its offerings, it’ll be interesting to see what will come of it.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:MapQuest Maps Get GreenMapQuest’s Latest API Utilizes Actionscript 3MapQuest Debuts Traffic Data FeaturesAOL’s New Mobile Services to take Geo-Presence MainstreamGarmin Teams Up with Google and MapQuest for Simple Data TransfersYahoo Maps Major Upgrades – Whose Maps Do You Like Best?MapQuest Releases Open APIs With New Free Dev Platform
- » FriendFeed’s New Design
- I just got a quick note from FriendFeed’s Bret Taylor letting me know that the FriendFeed Beta that MG Siegler spotted the other day is officially out and ready for public consumption. The new look sports a number of new features, all of which will end up getting integrated into the default design once feedback is garnered from the userbase.There are a lot of interesting aspects to the new layout, most of which have to do with the organization of the data into different and user-defined groups, something that partially answers an issue I brought up with FriendFeed over the weekend.In new functionality, though, there’s the ability to upload photos with new posts to the system, allowing you to select and upload multiple files at once with no additional downloads required (just using the standard share button that’s on every page).Probably the most useful feature in this update is the ability to define friend lists. They’re designed to enable you to organize your friends into groups. This has long been a feature requested for services like FriendFeed and Twitter - the noise level that rises with adding new friends can interfere with the reliable communication you may have had with your close friends when you first set up your service. Despite the trademark spartan design on FriendFeed, keeping up with hundreds of folks is surprisingly easy, but in doing so, you’ll probably notice as I did the decrease in intimacy with your core friends.The friends lists can help remedy this, and by setting up the groups, you’ll more easily be able to scan through and get a handle on what your buddies have been up to before heading on over to the white noise that is the combined feeds of all the people you’re following.If your goal is more noise, rather than less, you’ll probably enjoy the newfound ability to see other people’s home feeds. This can be useful for when you want to explore others’ circles of friends and assimilate them into your own collective, as you’ll be able to see your current friend’s postings in the context of all their friend’s postings.I haven’t had long to test these features yet, but at first blush, I’d say I’m all for them. They potentially solve a lot of issues I was developing with the service, so I expect them to be widely well recieved.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:FriendFeed Gets $5M, Launches to the PublicFriendFeed Recommendations? Who Are You Likely to Like?Former Googlers Team Up to Launch FriendFeedMashable Rocks: Connect with us on FriendFeedFriendFeed Launches SearchFriendFeed for iPhone Coming - I’ve Waited For This All My LifeFriendFeed Brings Twitter Back
- » Mashable’s Upcoming Guide to Conerences and Events
- Here’s Mashable’s latest round-up of upcoming Web 2.0 events, parties, and conferences. Not on this list? Contact us and let’s establish a media partnership. September 6-7, 2008: SearchCamp is designed to be an affordable and fun way for small businesses and marketers to learn about how to market their businesses online. Topics range from Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO Basics) to Public Relations & the Internet and Web 2.0 Technologies. Speakers are from the local Philadelphia area as well as New York City and Washington D.C. including well known blogging authors Geoff Livingston, Debbie Weil and search experts like Mike Grehan and Kevin Ryan. The event will coincide with PodCamp Philly. Read more about SearchCamp Philly.September 7-9, 2008 Be the first to see the most innovative, marketing defining new technologies unveiled for the very first time. Attend DEMOfall 08 on September 7-9, 2008 in San Diego. Mashable readers are invited to attend for a special rate of only $2,395 – a $600 savings off our regular rate. Click here to learn more and register: http://www.demo.com/F8mashableSeptember 8, 2008: The Inbound Marketing Summit brings together experts in the field of inbound marketing to share the latest strategies, tools, and best practices to utilize inbound marketing methods to grow your business. In order to remain competitive, businesses need to be found on the web and leverage inbound marketing techniques to reach customers with targeted messages that customers seek out, not ignore. Learn about search engine optimization, business blogging, social media marketing, optimizing landing pages, closed loop marketing, and more. Keynoting the event are best-selling marketing authors and bloggers Seth Godin (Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, Meatball Sundae, and more) and David Meerman Scott (The New Rules of Marketing & PR). More information and a discount code are here.September 10th, 2008: Join The E.Factor for an evening filled with some of the brightest minds and learn how this economy could be a prosperous time for start-ups and Entrepreneurs alike. More information, agenda, and registration information can be found here.September 10, 2008: StartupSF is back with Scott Nazarian, Principal Designer for frog design, inc., who will be speaking. Be the first of 10 to sign up with the code SUSFmash88 for free tickets to the event. September 16-19, 2008: Web 2.0 Expo New York will be held at the Javits Center. Whether you’re new to the Web 2.0 world or an expert or in Ajax, Ruby, tagging, the social graph, user experience, meta-programming, search engine marketing, community building, web operations, user-generated content, building startups from scratch, or “Web2.0-ifying” the enterprise, come to Web 2.0 Expo New York and immerse yourself in the Web 2.0 experience. Mashable readers can save or get a FREE expo hall pass! All the juicy details are here.September 18, 2008: The Houston Interactive Marketing Association presents “Interactive Strategies: Secrets Exposed,” a full day conference in Houston, Texas, on September 18, 2008. Interactive Strategies is the South Coast’s rogue interactive marketing conference featuring Tara Hunt as the keynote speaker. Breakout sessions will cover topics in social media, SEO, and digital media. More conference details and a 20% discount for registration can be found in the official announcement on Mashable. September 19-21, 2008: Join Mashable staffers in Las Vegas for BlogWorldExpo, the first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference, and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of blogging and new media. BlogWorld also features over 50 seminars, panel discussions and keynotes from iconic personalities on the leading-edge of online technology and Internet-savvy business. ALSO, this year, Mashable is ready to help organize booths and sponsors for BlogWorldExpo! Got what it takes? Email us at advertising@mashable.com and we’ll fill you in with all the details! More information and a discount code are in this post!September 23-26, 2008: Returning to Sydney Australia in September for the 5th year, Web Directions South ‘08 once again features a two day conference of leading international and local experts in web design and development, two days of in depth workshops, parties, receptions and other networking events. Featured speakers this year include Jeffrey Veen, Derek Featherstone, Daniel Burka, Douglas Crockford, Jeff Croft, and Lynne D Johnson, who will cover front and back end web development, web app security, web design, interaction design, and much more. Check out Mashable’s official announcement here. September 29-30, 2008: InterAct 2008, to be held on September 29-30 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC, hopes to have 1,000 attendees each day, 65 exhibitors, and 35+ of the industries hottest talents speaking about proven methods to increase market share on the web, turnkey web solutions, user experience, search engine optimization, user interface design, branding, rich media, video, mobile media, social media, new business development, and networking, networking, networking. Want more information and a discount code? Hop on over to our conference post with all the deets!September 30, 2008: For the very first time in the UK, the Web 2.0 University is running a one day Executive Bootcamp on Tuesday 30th September in London. The Web 2.0 Executive Bootcamp is a one day event for a management and executive audience to gain a thorough brefing on the state of Web 2.0 and why it matters to any business. If you’re building and delivering next-generation online products and services, this intensive, day-long course will provide you with a thorough grounding in the revolutionary world of Web 2.0—a set of design patterns and business models that are reshaping the face of the Web. More information and a 10% discount code is here. Startonomics is a one-day workshop (October 2nd) designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs on how to create simple, actionable metrics for internet startups, and how to use them to make better product and marketing decisions for long-term growth and success. Twenty VIP tickets are available to Mashable readers. Grab yours today!The hands-on Aloha Social Media Summit will be in Boulder, Colorado, and 25 special people get to learn about social media strategy from pros such as Charlene Li, Peter Shankman, Om Malik, and Biz Stone. It’s a great opportunity for executives and marketers to get some face-to-face time with influencers who know all about the forms of new media. A discount is available to the Aloha Social Media Summit so sign up now.October 6-8, 2008: Back for the second year, Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2008 (VWF) isproduced by the Virtual Economic Forum, Europe’s leading virtual worlds media company. Three days of congress, expo and workshops covering entertainment, enterprise, community, education, marketing, regulation, and finance… plus lots more. VWF is the place to make connections, be inspired and have fun.October 20-21, 2008: Mashable is pleased to be collaborating with US-based Virtual Worlds Management to bring you to Virtual Worlds London, the premiere event focused on virtual worlds and Web 3D. Virtual Worlds London takes place 20-21 October 2008 in the heart of London at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Virtual Worlds London is the leading event for businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies within virtual worlds. VW London is presented by leading VW business blog Virtual Worlds News. More information and a discount link is right over here. October 21-23, 2008: Marketing Connections is a unique event focused on exploring the great power and strategic value in integrating all the pieces of the modern marketing landscape: both traditional and emerging. Most events today only present a sliver of the marketing mix — whether it’s online, search, email, tv or radio. At MCONN, attendees will walk away with a holistic view of the broad spectrum of technologies, strategies and solutions at their disposal in this new marketing world — leading them back to their most important goal — generating effective outcomes for their customers. Get a discount code and more details in this post. Register with code freeipod to get a chance to win an iPod (and get $200 off automatically!)November 11-14, 2008: For anyone involved in the production, marketing, or management of an Internet web site - this is a must attend event to be held in Las Vegas, NV. PubCon covers search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), web hosting issues, domains & the domaining business, Internet video, podcasting, multimedia, and special sessions of interactive attendee site reviews. In addition, there are tracks on new marketing techniques, linking strategies, social media, and online advertising. Save 15% by using the code on our discount announcement. November 24-25, 2008: Affiliate marketers unite in Israel for Affilicon Israel. For the first time ever, you have the chance to meet face-to-face in Israel with top affiliate marketers and learn from experts in Search Engine Optimization, social networking and media, and other leading internet technologies. At Affilicon, network with highly successful affiliates who live and breathe the world of affiliate marketing. Meet new people and explore new potential relationships with operators and vendors. Want more information? And perhaps a discount code? Click here.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Upcoming.org Absorbed By Faceless Corporation, Free T-Shirts for AllWevent is Flickr Plus EviteWindows Live Hints at an Upcoming Events FeatureEventat to Offer Hub for Event Planners and GoersYahoo Local Relaunches, Adds Flickr and Upcoming.orgOpen Web Awards: Nominations for Places and EventsMicrosoft’s Live CRM Tool Priced Lower than Salesforce
- » Ma.gnolia Goes Open Source, But Bookmarking is Dying
- There has been a lot of brouhaha over Ma.gnolia going open source and I’m not sure most of it is justified. There are certainly features that work to Ma.gnolia’s advantage, but even though embracing open source and data portability (among other features) improve the service, they are unlikely to make it competitive. Not only is Ma.gnolia minuscule compared to Yahoo’s Delicious (recently relaunched to version 2.0), but compared to Yahoo’s Buzz and Digg, even Delicious itself is minuscule and that’s not about to change.The times, they’re a-changin’The launch of Yahoo’s Buzz was a somewhat controversial move on the company’s part. First, many thought that it would cannibalize the Delicious user base (which I’m now sure it will to an extent), second, it launched with an incredibly exclusive beta and several severe limitations in social capabilities (most of which still exist today), and third, it was yet another large corporation taking a shot at the house that Digg built.Regardless, it was also a brilliant move and not just for the reasons I’ve mentioned before. Traffic figures and user acceptance have been excellent, (already surpassing Digg by some measures), and recent reviews have been generally positive. Apart from displaying Yahoo’s ability to enter and dominate a space within a matter of months, it also shows that they understand the changing landscape of the social bookmarking space. Even after the launch of delicious 2.0, the service no longer grips the imagination (or even fleeting fascination) of the digerati, who have already moved on from social bookmarking to social news and networking, and perhaps the launch of Yahoo Buzz in advance of the Delicious relaunch was Yahoo’s way of hedging its bets.All that is to say that bookmarking as a social activity is soon to become a thing of the past. In fact there is already interest in non-social bookmarking with services like Instapaper (my personal favorite) popping up everywhere you turn. As people move away from the rather passive activity of sharing bookmarks to actively participating in the submission, promotion, and propagation of news and networking on the basis of their interests, social news and networking sites are bound to replace bookmarking sites like Ma.gnolia and Delicious. The only reason to make bookmarking social was so that you could find new sites from people that share interests or activities with you. StumbleUpon has done such a par excellence job of doing exactly that, it further diminishes the importance of sharing bookmarks in the traditional sense.But that’s not allEven if there was hope for the social bookmarking space, there are several other points to consider.- Open source without a willing community means nothing. Developers, developers, developers! Going open source allows people freely to interact with and build for/on your platform, but you need people who want to do this, for it to be fruitful.- Social news and networking is already open source. We’ve had pligg for a very long time now, plus there is Meneame and more recently Reddit has also gone open source.- Just because you built it doesn’t mean they’ll come. You don’t have to look much farther than mixx to realize that you can do everything right, have all the right partnerships in place, and still not get the following you deserve. Success rarely comes easy and almost never overnight.While Ma.gnolia’s efforts are commendable they don’t predict a very bright future for the site and the ongoing decline in use and impending obsolescence of social ‘bookmarking’ is partly to blame.Muhammad Saleem is a social media consultant and a top-ranked community member on multiple social news sites. You can follow him on Twitter. ---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:SocialPoster Is a One-Stop Bookmarking ToolSocialMarker Is a One-Stop-Shop Bookmarking SiteCoRank’s Latest Version: Create Your own DiggSocial Bookmarking Explained (Video)Ma.gnolia - Because You Really Need Another Social Bookmarking SiteStyleHive Adds Premium Content in StyleDiary AcquisitionBe a Digg Rockstar with Social Media Firefox Extension
- » If I Had a Startup, I’d Send All My PRs on Weekends
- You’ve seen the situation a thousand times. There’s a limited window of opportunity to perform some task - for example, all citizens are required to pick up new IDs within the next three months - and although everyone knows that there’ll be a huge queue, everyone waits for the very last day, creating a huge mess. It’s almost as if all people are masochists by nature, secretly enjoying the fact that they’ll have to wait for hours in the queue (and then complain about it) although they could have easily avoided it. In the world of web startups, there’s an opposite, yet eerily similar situation. Summer is the dead season, and weekends are no better. Everyone who has something to say, waits for September/Monday morning to do it, thus creating a huge noise in which some of the good stuff inevitably gets lost. And yet here I am, looking for a lead, a development or a story and bashing my head against the desk cause there are (almost) none. On that first Monday in September I’ll have to discard 95% of what reaches my inbox, and now I’d be happy to find any half-decent new web application. Of course, not everyone can take advantage of this weekend/summer slumber. If you’re a well known company, you’re probably looking for some mainstream media coverage, and then you’ll be better off sending your press releases on a work day. But if you have a cool widget, Facebook application, mashup, or something similar that will only get picked up by blogs, why not be one step ahead of others and send the news about it when everyone else is resting? Unlike mainstream media publication, most blogs don’t know about weekends, holidays, summer, or day and night: anything goes. And not only that; bloggers are hungry for breaking new stories, and many of them will be paying extra attention over the weekend when some of the other bloggers are away. Yes, on a weekend and in the summer there will be a lot less readers that are paying attention, but at least you’ll get a decent chance of getting your startup covered; when Monday comes and heavyweights like Google, Yahoo and a hundred others start sending PRs and your little Facebook app is dead meat, simply because it’s impossible to cover everything. It’s ultimately your call; but sometimes the risky approach pays off, and it’s definitely easier to get spotted if no one else is around.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Get Your Startup on Mashable (If You’re in a SummerMash City)Announcing StartUp Camp: March 7-8th in LondonSponsor Opportunities for 1 to all 7 US Summer Tour CitiesFree Advertising on Mashable for Three Lucky StartupsStartup Search Launches Web 2.0 DirectoryStreaming Live from SummerMash AustinSummerMash San Francisco Streaming Live
- » 13 Free and Cheap Website Monitoring Services
- Everyone seems to have their own website or blog nowadays. But do you want someone else to tell you your site is down? So what do you do? Corporate IT shops can install some fancy monitoring software suite that can track hundreds of types of software, servers, ports and hardware devices. That monitoring software also normally costs hundreds of thousands for dollars. Most likely, you want to monitor your website for free, or at least cheaply.Not surprisingly there are a wealth of free and cheap website monitoring services available. Just do a Google search for “free website monitor” and you will get plenty of services to look at. For most of the services, you only need an email address and the URL that you want to monitor. Of course, when it comes to free and cheap you have a wide range of services offered. To make your job easier, we’ve put together this list of 13 services that will help you monitor your website.Pingdom - Has a good set of cheap packages, but alas, nothing is free. They come highly recommended by just about everyone.LiveWatch - A German service that allows you to monitor one server free. The free notifications package contains email alerts, 10 SMS notifications, and Yahoo Messenger. The only problem with the service is that it requires a script on the server in order to monitor it.Observu - A really, really basic service. You register, add a website monitor with the text that should appear on the page and save the monitor. There are no reports and nothing flashy. You will be emailed if there is a problem.ServerGuard24 - The prices are not that expensive and there is a free plan. However, the free plan only polls every 40 minutes and you need a banner ad for them as well. Otherwise, it looks like a very professional service.SiteUptime - One free and two cheap premium levels are offered. The free plan allows only one monitor, but it does have a very clean and professional user interface. The service only monitors from location but it does fall over to another location if needed.Host Tracker - The free plan enables monitoring for two URLs in two different domains. The main issue with the service is that the navigation is hard to work with. It does use the most distributed network of monitoring servers of the services listed, as it currently monitors from over 50 nodes.mon.itor.us - Yes, it has a cute name, but cute does not mean limited. The service is completely free with email alerting. There are basic reports for uptime and response time. The user interface may look simplistic, but the service delivers with a more complete offering than most.InternetSeer - “My site has been down for how long!?!” The free offering monitors one URL and polling every hour. The professional plans look to have some really nice features, but the free plan is fairly limited.WatchMouse - You have to like a service that uses a mouse as its mascot. The free plan monitors one URL every hour. Disappointingly, the premium plans are more expensive than most listed here.ServiceUptime - They have a nice free service that monitors one URL. There are seven different sites polling every 30 minutes to determine whether your website is alive. ServiceUptime also has a decent reporting package and very reasonable premium packages.Montastic - Montastic allows free monitoring for up to 100 URLs! Your websites are monitored by two different servers about every 10 minutes. They also have a cute colored logo you can put on your site. Sadly, there are no cute colored reports.FreeSiteStatus - The free service has nine separate locations monitoring you servers every minute. Various additional features can be purchased for little cost, as well as a service configuration wizard to help you create your monitoring service. One cool feature FreeSiteStatus offers is the ability to create one-time or recurring maintenance windows where monitoring of the servers can be suspended.Site24×7 - It is free to monitor two URLs that are polled every 60 minutes. This is another service that allows you to create maintenance windows for your server. The premium plans also offer reasonable prices for various levels of monitoring.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Free Pingdom Accounts for Mashable ReadersWeb 2.0 Marketplace Listings for May 19th, 2008Web 2.0 Marketplace Listings for May 23rd, 2008Web 2.0 Marketplace Listings for May 29th, 2008Web 2.0 Marketplace Listings for June 2nd, 2008Twitter + Uptime Monitoring = MoniTwitterWeb 2.0 Marketplace Listings for May 16th, 2008
- » Oosah’s iPhone App Extends Storage to Whopping 1TB
- Oosah’s free virtual storage service is releasing its new iPhone application today, turning your iPhone and iPod Touch into a mobile desktop of sorts. The benefit of having access to your documents and files is that an application such as Oosah effectively extends the storage capacity of your mobile device. Oosah already had limited mobile support, allowing you to upload media from your mobile phone directly to your Oosah account while on the go. In this day and age, however, mobile accessibility to your own content is equally important and we’ve seen a number of applications moving us in that direction. Oosah in particular takes advantage of the iPhone’s drag and drop capabilities for file management, and focuses on the two-way sharing capacity that its storage options allow. Box.net, a similar virtual storage service, released its iPhone application shortly after the emergence of the iPhone, and the recently launched DataCase is finding new ways in which to share files between your computer and your iPhone or iPod Touch. Moblyng is going after the socially active media user for its mobile appeal, even though this moves beyond the iPhone and iPod touch demographic. The ultimate difference for the adoption of these services will be the end users’ needs and the management capabilities of files while on the go, and increasingly manageable between social media sharing networks as well. Oosah’s promotion of its new iPhone app is actually focusing on the accessibility of files that you’re likely to use on your mobile device anyway, such as your music library, meaning that you’ll be able to access and play far more songs than what the highest memory capacity of your iPod can carry. So in Oosah’s case, the management of your files via your mobile device is a highly important task, and this appeal to the media functions that are already in use by iPhone and iPod Touch users is what Oosah is banking on in order to stand out from the growing number of applications making your mobile device that much more like a mini computer. Now if we can only get Jobs to include copy and paste on these things…---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Oosah’s Almost Social “Virtual Desktop”World’s Simplest iPhone AppiPhone to Launch in Germany on T-Mobile3G iPhone Confirmed for 2008Mundu Optimizes Multi-Client Chat Tool for the iPhoneApple Making a Directory for iPhone Apps?European iPhone to be Offered on Multiple Carriers
- » There’s No Free Lunch - Even At Google
- Valleywag brings us a well researched insight into the dramatic situation in Google’s cafeterias. A culinary tragedy is brewing over there, friends, and I can almost hear the collective cry of Googlers as their selection of dishes shrinks. The rest of the world, of course, silently rejoices the fact that these flamboyant showoffs might soon be forced to eat the same plebeian meal as most of them: burger and coke. You can read the gory details over at Valleywag, but the short version is this: no more free afternoon snacks, dinner or tea for Googlers. They’ll still get free breakfast and lunch, though, which is better than what most people are getting, so they shouldn’t complain. Plus, I’m sure that Google will restore all the culinary privileges very soon when bad publicity tarnishes their image of the coolest company in the world.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Google Docs Won’t Save Anything; I’m Going to LunchPagety, Reply.com, FluidPlay, Lunch Prodigy, Baynote, ZoodangoThe CommunityNext::Monetize Event is Coming Up!What Google Should Learn From StartupsGoogle Releases Custom Search Business EditionGoogle I/O Ticket Giveaway: Answer This Question and Get Conference TixGoogle Now Lets You Place Ads On TV
- » The Olympic Closing Ceremony Covered the Way Bloggers Love Best
- The closing ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing has already been underway for some hours now, but if you’d like to follow it all through some good ol’ liveblogging action, we’ve scrounged up several choice picks. For an American audience, relegated to watching happenings time-delayed by nearly half a day, these will surely come in handy.NBC has no hold over the news media’s reportage of the celebration, as it does with broadcasts of the ceremony in the US prior to its own showing later today, so feel free to venture over to The New York Times, The Washington Post, or USA Today to get a text-based grip on the big finale happening in China.The New York Times and USA Today appear to deliver the best reviews of the closer. They’re easiest to follow, while WaPo’s delivery is less substantive. WaPo’s commentary is nice an casual, though, so if you’re looking for a bit of humor to go with the liveblog process, there you have it. No imagery to go along with the jokes, however.Want images? Visit The New York Times. Quite a nice amount, I think. USA Today hosts one JPEG as I write this.Across the pond, the BBC has put together some good text for readers. Like WaPo, it is absent of anything shiny and bright to look at, but it otherwise makes for a decent source of information.The Telegraph packs quite a decent punch, too. And its commentary has that classic Telegraph tinge to it, which makes for fairly entertaining reading.Collectively, there’s certainly going to be ample overlap in terms of coverage among these various sources, but all told, they make for a rather thorough take of the event. Some of you will naturally prefer video entertainment to finish out the weekend, but this bunch will have to do for now. Surely there’ll be plenty to consume in short order within the folds of YouTube and DailyMotion and whathaveyou.If you feel it imperative to school us further on the ways in which the closing ceremony can be consumed, either in part or in full, speak your part in the comments. Educate us.---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Microsoft, NBC Join for Olympics Coverage OnlineMichael Phelps Has One Million Facebook FansNBC Extends Olympic Downloads to Vista Media CenterYahoo Photos Announces Closing Date; Options for Migrating Your ImagesBlogs are Going to the OlympicsOlympics Viewing Should Teach TV Studios to Embrace the WebNBC Chooses TVTonic to Provide Downloadable Olympics Coverage
- » Students Don’t Need Amazon Kindles. They’ve Got Laptops!
- I love books. They’re second to music in importance so far as media in my life is concerned. But I like the physical variety. Ebooks don’t appeal, and I’ll tolerate an audiobook now and again only when I’m on the go. Yet, when I read earlier this year that Amazon was rumored to be developing a new Amazon Kindle device tailored specifically for textbooks, according to Andrea James of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I thought that might prove useful. And then I thought different. I still do, to be honest, even with assurances delivered Friday by an analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen, Inc that efforts for such a release are underway.I can understand why ebooks have their devotees and newfound adopters, particularly given the ease of use of the Kindle’s design in form and in function. Carrying multiple volumes can be tedious. So there’s really no question of if they will really hit the mainstream in the way the MP3 and the iPod did for music. It’s only matter of when.But for academic publications, there seems particularly little need for an “Amazon Kindle Big,” as it were. And I imagine demand won’t be high, either. The reason being that students already invest in the ideal coursework tool: a laptop computer.No, not everyone is privileged to own such a device. They still carry a premium for a number of K-12 students and undergrads and postgrads alike. But given the option to spend considerable dollar amounts on a digital reader in one form or another, a laptop is most certainly the logical pursuit. They’re relatively easy to manage via a school network, they’re free to display and transmit data in all sorts of formats over the cloud, and they’re multifunctional. (Consume and produce.)Something from Amazon of the Kindle’s making would strike me as an extravagance, and hardly practical.The original Amazon Kindle has taken on a sizable customer base, according to readings by analysts and researchers over the last several months. Not immense, by any means. But I think the company can sustain that proprietary economy for a while longer. Maybe even indefinitely, if it continues to grow at its current pace for years to come. And we can place Amazon’s Sprint-powered WhisperNet for that. A wireless storefront with no mandatory monthly fee will do that for a product.Still, for education purposes, Amazon will have a potential flop on its hands in its large-size foray. Let’s be clear. There was no Kindle before Kindle in the casual reading market. There is, however, a panoply of portable computers big and small that have been proven most useful for the scholastic set. And if Amazon goes full-on with this new attempt, and it is deemed a non-seller, its smaller sibling might unfortunately feel a spillover of bad vibes. And I would hate to see that. Wouldn’t you?(Image credit: Santarosa.edu)---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Google Maps on Amazon’s Kindle, In Case You Get Lost While ReadingMoving To Montana? Forget About Your Kindle!beRecruited Teams Up with Student Advantage for Co-Branded Discount CardsBookGlutton’s Kindle Competitor Launches Public BetaAmazon Dishes Out $300 Million for AudibleiPods Are Pwning Amazon’s Bestselling ListAmazon Kindle Showing Less Than Stellar E-Book Sales?
- » Obama Spoils the SMS Surprise and Still Hits a Triple
- I’m still waiting for my text message.As the world now knows - courtesy of CNN’s Twitter feed, and now countless channels elsewhere - the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, has chosen the veteran legislator from Delaware, Joe Biden, to accompany him on the ticket for the final months of the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign. Speculation was palpable in the latter half of the week, Friday especially, but the guesswork has since been officially validated. And all it seemed to take was some well-financed, Big Media-driven investigative savvy.I must say I’m not surprised that the cart came before the horse on this one. As if the Obama for America campaign could really keep it shut all the way to Saturday morning, when it planned to distribute via mass SMS and email the senator’s pick for VP. Logic doth prove such an experiment’s success unlikely, if not impossible. If you do a good amount of pestering and sort of a Sudoku-esque cancellation of the no-goes, eventually you’ll get something. Indeed, if you happen to be an outfit such as CNN, well, doors tend to open, willingly or unwillingly.That being said, the promotional push being attempted was a smart one. The guy gets press for putting the people first, he gets said people to commit their digits, the giftwrap gets torn prematurely, and everyone’s abuzz. Voilà. The man knows how to market himself.It really is interesting to see how technology has pervaded the political scene the last year or so. Far more than 2004 and 2000, for sure. At those moments, online interaction was brewing, but it was not booming. The most highlighted stories to come out of recent elections past were the funding efforts taking place on the Web. Now there’s thunder. Now there are the social networking and social media components that have taken stride in ways that seem increasingly critical to the candidates’ success - Barack Obama’s especially.His campaign’s drive to lower the bar for access to information has gripped millions of people around the country. The most current example is of course the grand text-email login. He convinced a vast swath of the population to offer their cellular connections to his promotional engine, and it’s doubtful that he will do nothing but prosper further from it.Yes, grumblings about deflated followers will naturally be amplified over the weekend and could even loiter around a bit longer. The bandwagon, after all, which was en route to what they thought would be a special celebration via their inboxes, was prematurely shown billboards screaming a secret they’d wished to know before the press could deliver its affirmative fill. Alas, the spell was broken, and quite a few folk will let that be known in the coming hours - including myself and Mashable’s commander in chief.But soon enough Denver will be ablaze with talk of hope, unity, strength, and messianic worship of the Washingtonian kind, and the “botched” mobile messaging play will be a boo-boo on the heal. All in all, this whole spectacle makes for yet one more hefty bump for Obama. He gets press for thinking of you, lucky you; breaks your heart a bit; presumably does his rockstar thing in front of 80,000 or so disciples (with some opposing apples littered amongst the many); and continues on as he has done since June, likely none the worse for forgetting to send you 160 characters before letting slip to those gorgeous news people over there.Technology is fantastic, is it not? No one can argue with that. Especially when it is used effectively. Funnily enough, Obama didn’t have to make good on that front to make his latest splash. What’s the saying? All’s fair in love and war?(Images: BarackObama.com)---Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Obama on LinkedInMake Your Own Obama Logo, With Your FaceObama Does the TwitterGuiliani’s Own Daughter Shows Support for Obama on FacebookObiden?AirBed & Breakfast: For Obama’s Sake, Skip the HotelsOn YouTube, YouChoose Obama
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