iPhone 2.2 Update Up Close
I took some shots of 2.2 in action. The walking directions would have been great for the past two weeks - I've had so much trouble using car-based GPS in walking/biking cities. Streetview is also great for cities like New York but it's very limited right now - there was no information for Paris, for example. The podcast download is also really nice to have. An impressively end-user-oriented upd...
A Small Data Glitch At Facebook
We've received two reports tonight of users having their email notification settings on Facebook deleted. They were notified at login that there was a problem, and told to head over to the Notifications page to reset them.
At least one user is angry about it. The other, who sent the screenshot above, was more contemplative. He suggests someone simply forgot to back up a table before implemen...
Google, It Wasn't Broke
Bucket tests and experimental products are one thing. But to mess with the real Google search is serious stuff. Why did they do it?
Google's overall search share has grown substantially this year (and all other years since it went live). Their share of search advertising dollars is likely even higher .
The changes Google made to search today certainly make it more interactive and so...
Yieldex Takes Top Prize In Amazon Web Services Startup Challenge
When we announced the 7 finalists of Amazon Web Services ' Startup Challenge two weeks ago, we dubbed Yieldex an "online ad optimization engine for Web publishers". It's time to take a closer look at what that means, because the company has just been awarded the top prize in the contest, bringing home $50,000 in cash, $50,000 in services credits plus an investment offer from Amazon.com.
Yi...
Orb for iPhone Launched: Stream TV, Video, Music from Your PC
Orb, a $9.99 iPhone application that should be familiar to home networking buffs, is available now and will stream music from your home computer, photos, and live television from a TV tuner card - all over the Internet. It can even stream input from a webcam to your phone.
BringIt Invites Your Gamer Friends to, in Colloquial Terms "Bring It"
Even before "The Wizard" enchanted and inspired the gaming generation, gamers have sought that final prize: making a living playing video games. Unfortunately, dreams of professional-gamerism have been shown to be as elusive as dreams of being a professional gambler. Luckily, startup BringIt is attempting to make both those dreams a little more attainable. BringIt made the connection between th...
BringIt Invites Your Gamer Friends to, in Colloquial Terms, "Bring It"
Even before "The Wizard" enchanted and inspired the gaming generation, gamers have sought that final prize: making a living playing video games. Unfortunately, dreams of professional-gamerism have been shown to be as elusive as dreams of being a professional gambler. Luckily, startup BringIt is attempting to make both those dreams a little more attainable. BringIt made the connection between th...
iPhone Update 2.2.2 Now Available: Google Street View, Walking Directions, Rate-on-Delete
The calendar now reads November 21st and, just as expected , iPhone firmware 2.2 has been released to the masses. Seeing as a pretty good number of developers have had their hands on test versions of 2.2 for sometime now, and as NDAs generally turn to pudding after a few hundred people are in on the secret, we've had a pretty good idea of what this release would bring to the table for a while....
iPhone Update 2.2 Now Available: Google Street View, Walking Directions, Rate-on-Delete
The calendar now reads November 21st and, just as expected , iPhone firmware 2.2 has been released to the masses. Seeing as a pretty good number of developers have had their hands on test versions of 2.2 for sometime now, and as NDAs generally turn to pudding after a few hundred people are in on the secret, we've had a pretty good idea of what this release would bring to the table for a while....
New Beta Version of m.yahoo.com in the Works - We've Got Screenshots
Further proving that security through (very, very light) obscurity isn't a good means of keeping things secret, a new beta version of Yahoo's Mobile Front Page (generally known as just m.yahoo.com) has been found hiding just one character away from the beta announced to the public back in January.
Where as the public beta can be found at beta.m.yahoo.com, our tipster dug up the new version ...
Stalk That Twitterer
A new site called TweetStalk is in private beta. It allows you to "follow" Twitter users without them knowing you are doing it (Twitter tells you when someone new has subscribed to your data). It's all through a Firefox Add-On and appears to modify the Twitter page itself via Greasemonkey or otherwise. You are then able to follow the person without them knowing, and the service provides a RSS...
Mixx Growing Fast, But Are They Really More Mainstream Than Digg?
Social news community Mixx is seeing healthy growth ever since they left stealth mode . They got a nice traffic spike last May after CNN integrated 'Mixx it' buttons in their articles, roughly doubling their number of unique monthly visitors to nearly 1 million, and it appears their new community building features aren't hurting them either.
A screenshot from their Google Analytics ac...
Who Would Have Guessed? Blackberry Users Love MySpace
When I think of Blackberry users, I think of accountants, lawyers and anyone else who wears a tie and carries a briefcase. MySpace users, sorta the opposite.
But there must be some significant overlap, because 400,000 people downloaded the MySpace Blackberry application in the last week, says MySpace - it was launched on November 12.
Both RIM [...]
YieldBuild Launches Self-Serve Ad Optimization In Public Beta
YieldBuild , an ad optimization platform that helps users manage multiple ad networks and position advertisements on their webpages, has launched its self-service program to the public. When we last covered the company, YieldBuild was still in private beta and only sites with more than 500,000 monthly visitors were eligible to participate. Now, web publishers of any size are welcome to join...
Google Makes Major Interface Change To Search: SearchWiki
We'd noticed an increasing number of people emailing on a large-scale bucket test (a product change tested on just a percentage of total users) that Google has been conducting for months - adding a Digg-like voting feature to search results (which also changes the ranking) as well as user comments.
Tonight, Google apparently said "what the hell" and turned it on for everyone.
The change...
BitGravity Testing New "Multiview" Product; This Is How I Want To Watch Sports
Content Delivery Network BitGravity is testing a new product they're calling Multiview (at least internally) that delivers up to six different synchronized high definition video streams at once. The viewer sees the normal view but can click on any of the other views at any time, and audio is obviously synchronized. The result is this: the viewer is put in the producer's chair, and can switch ca...
Genwi Further Blurs The Line Between A Feed Reader And A Friend Reader
When we first wrote about Genwi a year ago, it was a social feed reader with content feeds that could be organized by different categories (blogs, news, videos, music, podcasts) and shared with your friends. Today, it is relaunching with a completely new design that takes into account what your friends are doing across the Web as well.
You can think of Genwi as a combination of Google Read...
Yahoo Continues To Embrace This Openness Thing. Ebay Widget On Yahoo Home Page
Yahoo appears to be quite serious about openness and promoting third party content and applications on their massively visited home page. Today they're announcing the addition of an eBay widget to the new Yahoo home page , which is still being tested with just a subset of Yahoo users. The widget will be added to the My Applications dashboard area on the left.
eBay users can use the widget t...
TechCrunch Feed Reader Breakdown - Outlook Rules Them All
Every once in a while we show some of the stats about the feed readers people are using to access TechCrunch content. Since we recently passed a million daily RSS readers , now is a good time for a new update.
In June 2006 Firefox, Bloglines and Newsgator were the three largest readers, in that order. Feedburner did an analysis later in 2006 with similar results. Long ago Google reader ec...
Twilio: Powerful API For Phone Services That Can Recreate GrandCentral's Core Functionality In 15 Lines Of Code
Every once in a while we come across a company that seems to have a giant bullseye on it for acquisition, with a great product, viable business model, and a talented team. Twilio , a company that has created an intuitive API for a variety of telephony services, is that kind of company (it also managed to Rick Roll my boss ). The startup has developed a simple API with pay-as-you-go pricing t...
Imeem Taking Off - Before MySpace Music Has Even Launched!
Music-based social networking site Imeem is getting a lot of the right kind of press currently, based on strong traffic growth and key deals with record labels. We last wrote about Imeem in March, when they launched a developer platform that enabled read/write access to user information and more. As we explained then, Imeem is a site where users can listen to licensed streaming music, as w...
Imeem Taking Off - Before MySpace Music Has Even Launched
Music-based social networking site Imeem is getting a lot of the right kind of press currently, based on strong traffic growth and key deals with record labels. We last wrote about Imeem in March, when they launched a developer platform that enabled read/write access to user information and more. As we explained then, Imeem is a site where users can listen to licensed streaming music, as w...
last100's Smartphone Parade: One Size Doesn't Fit All
At last100 [a ReadWriteWeb Network blog] , we love the iPhone as much as anyone. Yet we remain convinced that for all of Apple's innovation - especially on the mobile browsing front and major improvements in usability - the iPhone in its current incarnation will have significant but limited appeal.
There's only one iPhone, and in the smartphone market, one size doesn't fit all.
Case i...
Online China Overview
The TrendsSpotting blog has produced a thorough overview of Online China, collected from a variety of sources such as Universal McCann, CNNIC, Pew Internet, Hitwise, comScore and more. The report focus on three key themes: 1) China as an online leader, 2) the competitive landscape in Search, IM & Web 2.0, and 3) Business in Online China. TrendsSpotting says that these are "key indicators of t...
There Must Be Something Between Viral & Obscure...
You've probably been in those meetings too: someone mentions a cool, "edgy" (uh-oh) youth-oriented campaign, and someone else says "video", and then someone else completes the axis of online evil with the word "viral".
It's been said over and over again, but maybe one more time would help: "viral" can be encouraged, it can be prayed for, but it can't be engineered. Your only hope is to creat...
Are App Stores Coming to a Carrier Near You?
There's an interesting discussion going around about the possibility of T-Mobile taking some cues from Apple with an app store of their own. Instead of offering it to a specific phone, T-Mobile wants to take things one step further and open up a platform for all of their mobile devices. Who can blame them? Their current mobile store is equivalent to a mess when compared with Apple's App St...
Keep Track of Your Favorite Blogs in Gmail
If you've ever wondered what the headlines at the top of your Gmail inbox are, they're called "web clips", not ads. Gmail has a preselected amount of news headlines from various sites across the web that you can customize to have displayed across the top of your inbox as you check your mail. Now you're no longer stuck with the default selections and can add your own selections.
Web Clips i...
Weekly Wrapup, 4-8 August 2008
It's the weekend, so time for our review the past week's web tech news, reviews and analysis on ReadWriteWeb. On the product side we showed you how to create a custom search engine using social bookmarks, found out why online video is set for a boost at the Olympics, analyzed a new mainstream RSS Reader, and checked in with Windows Live. On the trends side we answered Mozilla's call for vision...
Do You Want Incoming-Call Ads on Your Mobile?
Your mother's calling - and there are shoes on sale.
A new study released this week in the UK found that 80% of respondents said they were "happy to have [15 second pre-roll] video ads if it meant they could watch free video" on their phones. Almost nothing's shocking in the wacky world of mobile advertising-to be, but one thing we found absolutely horrifying in the discussion around t...
Bloglines: Now With Advertising
Today, Bloglines has unveiled a new skin for its public beta site and has announced that it will start displaying ads on its start page. The new skin for the beta is is quite well done and definitely an improvement over the regular Bloglines interface, as well as the last version of the beta skin. The really interesting news, however, is that Bloglines now, for the first time, features ad...
Yahoo Gives You More Options to Opt Out of Personalized Advertising
Yahoo today announced that it will allow its customers to opt out of customized advertising on Yahoo.com. Yahoo made this announcement in a response to the an inquiry by U.S. Congressman John Dingell (D- Mich.). Just yesterday, Google had announced a similar opt-out program for its DoubleClick advertising network. Yahoo's opt-out program won't take effect until the end of this month and wil...
Use Twitter for Work With Twellow
Does Twitter Have a Role in the Workplace? A Directory Project Thinks it Can Help
Did you know that there are more than 100 people who work in the Oil and Gas industries who use Twitter? There are more than 400 people on Twitter who say they work in a field related to accounting, 115 professional language translators, 75 people who sew or are tailors and 33 people in the Air Force. How w...
Facebook Didn't Want to Sue StudiVZ
According to a report in the International Herald Tribune , Facebook tried to acquire the popular German social network StudiVZ . When those negotiations ended without a deal, Facebook decided to sue StudiVZ instead for copying Facebook's look and feel. According to the article, StudiVZ's owners, the German media company Holtzbrinck Gruppe, wanted to sell, but for far more than the $134 milli...
Poll: What Should Be Done About The "I Am Rich" App?
By now you've surely heard the story about the "I Am Rich" app that sold in Apple's iTunes store for the ridiculous price of $999.99 (U.S.). What you may not have heard was that there were eight people who actually bought the app - six in the U.S. and two Europeans. So far, there only appears to be one person who bought the app in error, if a certain screenshot circling the net is to be believe...
Three New AIR Apps To Bring Facebook To Your Desktop
If you love both Facebook and Adobe AIR, then you're going to love these three new AIR apps for your desktop: Facedesk, Zebr , and Flair . Facedesk is a standalone application that lets you use Facebook without having a browser window open. Both Zebr and Flair are notification programs for receiving alerts about Facebook status updates, wall posts, messages, and more. The last two are a bit m...
A First Look at Mozilla's Snowl
Yesterday, Mozilla announced Snowl , a prototype of a universal messaging/content aggregation plugin for Firefox. In its current incarnation, Snowl only allows you to view your Twitter messages and RSS feeds, though Mozilla is planning on adding more messaging services in the near future. During our first tests, we came away disenchanted, as the execution of this first version leaves a lot to ...
Winners: Web 2.0 Expo NY Competition
Earlier this week we ran a competition for 2 full tickets to the New York Web 2.0 Expo conference 16-19 Sept. The tickets are valued at over $1000 each and we also have a consolation prize of a free Expo hall pass (value $100).
To be in to win one of the 3 prizes, we asked: for the 'Web Meets World' charity auction at the Web 2.0 Summit later this year (5-7 Nov), what would YOU bid on...
#080808 Twitter Campaign For Beijing Olympics
This week we've discussed how Social
Media Marketing and Online
Video is being used in the Beijing Olympics. It's now 8.08am on Friday 8th August 2008 in Beijing and some Chinese Web fans have launched a campaign to
celebrate and support the opening of the Beijing Olympics, using (you guessed it) Twitter!
8 is a lucky number for the Chinese, and 08/08/08 is definitely a very spe...
New Translation Services Come to MS Office and JaJah
Automated translation services seem to be getting more and more traction these days. Today, we saw announcements about new translation related products from both Microsoft and telephony service JahJah . Microsoft announced that it will be giving its users a free update that will integrate Windows Live Translator into MS Office 2003 and 2007, while JaJah is now offering free voice translations ...
Offer Personal Content Recommendations for Free with New MyBlogLog Plug-in
Personal recommendations of targeted content are something almost every publisher would like to offer their site visitors. It's hard though, to know who those visitors are and what they really like. That task just got easier today with the release of a WordPress plug-in called " Just for You ," built by the team at Yahoo's MyBlogLog .
MyBlogLog has more personal information about millions...
Open APIs reach new high water mark as the Web evolves
Late last week an important milestone for the Internet was quietly reached as the number of available open Web APIs crossed the 1,000 mark, according to the popular API tracking service, Programmable Web.
The WOA story emerges as better outcomes sought for SOA
Over the summer the enterprise IT blogosphere was swept up in the conversation around the concepts that many are calling Web-Oriented Architecture, or WOA. A different way to think about service-oriented architecture, WOA extolls a different but related set of technologies, in particular how to apply them in specific ways to connect our systems together into the solutions we need to take on our...
Ten leading platforms for creating online communities
Creating online communities of customers and workers has been one of the hotter topics in business and technology this year. Whether you're on the business side, in IT, or are just trying to build virtual teams around shared goals, online communities are rapidly becoming a popular way to organize people and accomplish work in a highly collaborative manner. It's beginning to be understood that ...
Are we ready to declare the "time of death" for the enterprise data center?
The announcement this week of the launch of Amazon's Elastic Block Store (EBS) adds another vital piece to the cloud computing picture. The announcement is particularly significant since it takes the gloves off when it comes to meeting the demanding needs of enterprise class computing requirements. The Elastic Block Store finally makes it practical, cost effective, easy to perform traditional s...
Enterprise cloud computing gathers steam
The days when organizations carefully cultivated vast data centers consisting of an endless sea of hardware and software are not over, at least not yet. However, the groundwork for their eventual transformation and downsizing is rapidly being laid in the form of something increasingly known as "cloud computing." This network-based model for computing promises to move many traditional IT capabil...
Twelve best practices for online customer communities
One of the more significant Web 2.0 trends in business this year has been the advent of the Web-based customer community, where groups of like-minded individuals focus around a brand or a set of product and services come together and interact online. Far from the cynical marketing ploy that it can sometimes seem, customer communities often sprout up on the initiative of passionate customers. Su...
Enterprise 2.0: Lively conversations driving change
Last week's Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston has been over for a few days and converage continues to pour out in the mainstream press and the blogosphere, including here on ZDNet where fellow bloggers David Howlett, Oliver Marks, and others have had excellent coverage. I was there early in the week and there was a palpable sense of interest from an attendees to understand the current state o...
Mashups turn into an industry as offerings mature
There were a great many product announcements at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco last month, but it was the number of announcements around Web-based mashups in particular that received a large share of attendee and media attention. By my count there were at least nine significant announcements in this space, many around the business flavor of this emerging new type of ad hoc Web applications. ...
Enterprise 2.0 industry matures as businesses grapple with its potential
Some of the big IT news over the weekend was the announcement that Forrester predicts that the Enterprise 2.0 space will be a $4.6 billion industry within 5 years. ZDNet's Larry Dignan had the full breakdown yesterday on Forresters bullish outlook while Dennis Howlett immediately took umbrage with Forrester's conception of the Enterprise [...]
Web 2.0 success stories driving WOA and informing SOA
The striking contrast between the stories that we've been hearing about the slow going of SOA initiatives in the enterprise compared to the vibrant and rapidly growing ecosystems similar to them on the consumer Web has been generating a lot of debate and discussion in the enterprise IT community recently. ZDNet colleague Joe McKendrick [...]
Comparing Amazon's and Google's Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Offerings
The announcement this week that Google released a beta version of a robust cloud computing platform called Google App Engine that lets anyone build apps on Google's renowned and highly scalable infrastructure underscored a key trend in the software industry today. Namely that software platforms are moving from their traditional centricity around individually owned and managed computing resource...
Standards support for mashups emerge
The announcement earlier this week that IBM has put together an open approach for making user data secure inside of Web mashups, known as SMash, was the most recent step in an unfolding story about the way the industry is trying to bring structure and order to the rapidly growing and frequently unruly world of Web mashups.
openid: The once and future enterprise Single Sign-On?
The decision two weeks ago for Yahoo! to support the burgeoning openid initiative, where users choose their preferred user account provider for logging into other Web sites, was a defining moment for the increasingly popular effort to bring order and sanity to the often confusing world of user identity on the Web. This major move by Yahoo! underscores how new models for user identity and securi...
12 predictions for Enterprise Web 2.0 in 2008
The worlds of SOA, SaaS, and Web 2.0 have been swirling around each other for a couple of years now and in 2008 we'll finally see these gel into a practical, modern vision of next generation enterprises. And a variety of forces are coming together to make 2008 the year that enterprises refit themselves for the 21st century.
The top Enterprise Web 2.0 stories of 2007
Over the last year, we have witnessed the continuation of the steady movement of the mostly consumer-driven Web 2.0 phenomenon into the workplace that began as a trickle in 2006. Blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, social networking, end-user mashups, and even prediction markets saw their largest entry yet into businesses and institutions around the world. [...]
Significant workplace inroads for Enterprise 2.0?
According to a random poll I recently conducted on Facebook, just over a quarter of 300 respondents -- 27% of them in all -- answered in the affirmative that they are provided with an easy way at work to post on a blog or put information on a wiki. I often ask this same question to gatherings of people whenever I get the chance these days and have been getting roughly the same answer for the la...
SaaS and Office 2.0 evolving towards Enterprise 2.0?
Yesterday on the Boston waterfront at the Reinventing the Enterprise summit, a lively panel of industry luminaries discussed and debated the topic of the event: How enterprises are dealing with the powerful transformational forces from the Web 2.0 era that are reshaping the workplace today. The issues and concerns around adoption and governance of Enterprise 2.0 was a hot topic.
The state of Enterprise 2.0
Industry analysts, CIOs, and business leaders around the world are continuing to try to read the industry tea leaves in 2007 when it comes to the topic of Enterprise 2.0, the increasingly popular discussion of using Web 2.0 platforms in the workplace. The primary topic of interest? Whether Enterprise 2.0 brings real bang for the buck by making the daily work of organizations measurably more pro...
The 10 top challenges facing enterprise mashups
The promise of remixing existing online services and data into entirely new online applications in a rapid, inexpensive manner, often referred to as mashups, has captured the software industry's imagination since the release of first major example, HousingMaps.com, in early 2005. Since then, mashups have offered the potential to finally make widespread software reuse a reality, enable SOA initi...
Facebook set to overtake MySpace?
Mainstream social networks continue to grow at a staggering pace in 2007 as they offer users compelling ways to manage and leverage their relationships with each other online. MySpace and Facebook continue to lead the pack as the two most popular social networking sites but for the first time, it also seems fairly clear that Facebook will soon overtake MySpace in overall usage, particularly as ...
7 Wacky Wi-Fi Gadgets
I'm a big believer that Wi-Fi will come to dominate the home networking environment because of its ubiquity and familiarity to consumers. I got even more proof of it earlier this week. Behold, seven wacky examples of how Wi-Fi is moving way beyond computing equipment.
7 Real Reasons Why iPhone Is a Smash Hit
Love it or hate it, there is no denying that Apple's iPhone is not only a game changer but a certifiable hit. I culled some of the more interesting stats from the transcript of Apple's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings conference call. Read on...
Where Will Android Go Next?
Google today announced that the open-source version of its mobile operating system, Android, is now available for anyone to download and use for their devices — even to improve upon Android itself. Its availability comes a day ahead of the launch of T-Mobile's G-1 handset -- and marks the first step towards making Android a ubiquitous platform.
Indian Telco Offers Free Netbook With a Wireless Contract
Reliance Communications, an Indian wireless operator is now offering free netbooks in exchange for a two year contract for its wireless data service. Say hello to the new computing business model where laptops are sold just like cell phones.
How About That iPhone Bump?
It has been widely reported that iPhone owners use data connections to surf the Internet more often than people whose smartphones have built-in browsers do. Now the very same dynamics are working their magic on all those applications that were made available on the iTunes App Store. Get ready to see the iPhone bump. Continue Reading.
Why Google's Partners Should Be Worried
Google today announced its third quarter 2008 earnings - which were in-line with investor expectations, thus giving market a reason to exhale. For the quarter, Google reported net income of $1.35 billion on sales of $5.54 billion. Google partners however, should gulp hard, for the Mountain View, Calif.-based search and online advertising company is keeping more and more of its online ad bounty ...
The Google Phone Review: What I Love & Hate About T-Mobile G-1
It's here: the Google Phone. After years of speculation and months of waiting, the first Google Android OS-based smartphone has finally been released by T-Mobile USA. Here are my major takeaways.
Why Windows Mobile Is In Trouble
With competition from a resurgent Research in Motion's Blackberry Platform, Apple's iPhone and most importantly, the Google Phone platform, Microsoft's mobile platform is facing its toughest test yet. Here is why.
Dude, Where's My Ad?
Last week, Silicon Valley woke up to find itself caught in the death grip of the credit crunch. As to which sector is going to get hit the hardest, the consensus so far is: advertising.
Inside Details of Sequoia Capital's Doomsday Meeting With its Companies
I managed to get ahold of the details of Sequoia's startup meeting that we reported on yesterday. The message wasn't the prettiest, but there was a lot of good advice -- to which all startups should to pay attention.
Sequoia Rings the Alarm Bell: Silicon Valley Is in Trouble
Silicon Valley's smartest investor Sequoia Capital is telling its companies to tighten their belts. Super angel Ron Conway is telling his portfolio of startups to batten down the hatches, cut jobs, and get ready for the worst. Credit Crunch is hitting tech land like the proverbial category 5 hurricane. Continue Reading
Aluminum: Canary in the Tech Mine
Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum company, this week slashed its growth forecast and suspended its stock repurchasing program, battening down the hatches as the global credit crunch continues to hurt demand. My feeling is that aluminum is the canary in the coal mine and is foretelling tough times ahead for both the consumer electronics and computer hardware sectors.
Why Digg Should Buy StumbleUpon
Speculation has surfaced recently that StumbleUpon, a social media utility that was acquired by eBay in April 2007 for around $75 million, was back on the market. If true, I think eBay should sell it to Digg in exchange for equity in the combined entity. Before you call me crazy, hear me out. Continue Reading.
Where's the Money in Online Video?
The sharp growth in online video viewing, increasing availability of TV online, and proliferation of high-quality, web-originated content has made it easy to point the arrow for online video advertising up and to the right. But entrepreneurs and creative types should worry that industry watchers are now cutting their revenue growth expectations for online video based on factors other than the s...
Storage Startups Turn Cache Into Cash
Other than the availability of bigger boxes it's hard to point to big changes in the way we store our stuff. But much like the physical storage industry, which has seen slight innovations in recent years, business-class data storage is quietly making its own incremental improvements — with support from venture capitalists.
AT&T Reorg Could Be the First Step Toward Layoffs
AT&T's move to reorganize itself into four business units -- consumer, business, infrastructure and diversified products -- is likely a precursor to layoffs, according to sources within the company who asked not to be named.
GigaOM White Paper: The Facts & Fiction of Bandwidth Caps
Beginning on Wednesday, Comcast is going to start capping the total amount of data you can transfer using their broadband connection, to 250GB per month. In order to give you a better understanding of the issues at hand, I have teamed up with my old friend Muayyad Al-Chalabi to release this white paper, "Broadband Usage-Based Pricing and Caps Analysis."
The Perfect Apple for the Living Room
If Apple wants to dominate the living room, it will have to do better than the AppleTV. So with rumors abounding that the company is poised to launch a new consumer device, it's time for a wish list as to what such a device would like like.
Can Browser Plug-ins Be a Business?
For as long as I can remember, I have been highly skeptical of the concept of browser plug-ins as a business. Whenever I'd learn of a browser plug-in startup fetching millions of dollars in venture funding, I'd just shake my head. And while my skepticism hasn't really gone away, I am beginning to view a select few of these players with fresh eyes.
Counterpoint: It's Time for Venture Capital – Now More Than Ever
The current economic meltdown and its effects, which are expected to be felt for at least the next year, require entrepreneurs to find investors with deep pockets and a long-term investment horizon starting from a company's earliest days. In other words: venture capital.
ADrive
Revolutionizing Online
Storage and Backup.
A quick, easy, and secure solution to
backup your valuable files.
Reviews for ADrive
8BOX
Best web 2.0 music in China Reviews for 8BOX
12visitme Charity Tourism and Travel Tips
12visitme ("want to visit me") gives people from Developing Countries the possibility to offer travel opportunities to people around the world. This way they can make a living, get volunteers, or just get attention for their community! And for people travelling around, it is possible to give travel tips to other travellers. Reviews for 12visitme Charity Tourism and Travel Tips
1time time tracking
1time is a web-based time and expense tracking application that allows you to easily keep track of real time project costs.
1time will reduce non billable time in your company. Each employee gets their own login and reminders so you don't have to micro manage recording timesheets. Reviews for 1time time tracking
(sxp) SocialXperience
(sxp) SocialXperience takes a new approach to the Social Networking / Web 2.0 blog by inviting the teams behind the companies to be the editors. The companies create an (sxp) account, which gives them the ability to post company news or industry insights from an insider perspective. We offer a unique customizable user interface, and a number of widgets that can be arranged around the main blo...
ActiveCiti
ActiveCiti is an extremely simple, easy to use, no-nonsense event management application which lets people create, plan, organize and manage events with the utmost ease.
ActiveCiti provides features required to address the major pain points while organizing any event.
From sending out invitations, tracking guests, sending automatic event updates to them to allowing the event owner to add more ...
7tasks
7tasks is a lightweight super easy to use web based to do app.
Reviews for 7tasks
1time
What is 1time?
1time is a web-based time and expense tracking application that allows you to easily keep track of real time project costs.
How can 1time help us?
1time will reduce non billable time in your company. Each employee gets their own login and reminders so you don't have to micro manage recording timesheets.
Reviews for 1time
123brand.it
I'd like to let you know that we have just launched the English version of 123brand.it, one of the very few sites in the user generated marketing space (we believe the one with the widest appeal).
WHAT IT IS:
Thanks to 123brand.it -as easy as one, two, three- companies can ask to the community for opinions (Surveys) or for suggestions (Requests) on marketing and communication subjects.
Two ...
$haring Paid Easy
Billhighway is a virtual collection basket that letÂ’s you gather and track money from friends, family, teammates, colleagues for any type of social event or group expense.
Notify others of group expenses and collect money online (no PayPal account required.) Reviews for $haring Paid Easy
PriceFad
See alexa-style price charts for products and category. Know whether today's deal is really a deal Reviews for PriceFad
openpuzzle
At openpuzzle we are growing the biggest jigsaw puzzle of portraits of people from all over the world. We're putting a visible face to the internet! Join free of charge and place yourself among friends. Make use of the numerous options:
Keep track with PuzzleMarks Save interesting parts of the jigsaw puzzle and show the world who belongs together. For example, group up your highschool classmat...
Novlet
Novlet is a web application designed to support collaborative writing of non-linear stories in any language. With Novlet you will be able to read stories written by other users, create your own ones, and choose the plot you like most from several alternatives.
Novlet stories are divided in passages, text sections usually made of a few paragraphs: users can continue stories or add alternative s...
MojiKan
Imagine a world where you could create your own virtual pet. A pet created by you that doesnÂ’t just look like you but also matches and learns from your personality and characteristics.
Then imagine that your pet can understand what you say on your blogs or in an instant messenger and can communicate its thoughts and feelings to you. Imagine also that your pet can interact and play with your ...
GnarstarTV
Videosharing platform dedicated to the art of skateboarding. Launched in May 2007, GnarstarTV has a lot going for itself: Talent, great clips straight from the streets and a killer url. Reviews for GnarstarTV
Motortopia
Share your passion for cars, bikes, boats and planes. Reviews for Motortopia
mkmap
mkmap a web 2.0 type of website based on the Google map API and it allows you to do a couple of things with maps: explore, create, share and collaborate. Reviews for mkmap
MeetYourBand
MeetYourBand is a new, free musician's networking site, utilizing profiles to find local musicians instead of traditional classified ads. Bands can also get hired through the site. Features include audio and video playlists, as well as profile widgets, which are portable mini-profiles that can be placed on other websites such as MySpace and personal and band blogs. Reviews for MeetYourBand
Crusher
Crusher, an independent consortium of digital designers-developers, proudly announces the launch of crush3r.com [beta], a free online service that empowers creative individuals to easily plan, personalize, and document their events. Reviews for Crusher
eBacchus
Wine tasting notes, information, education, reviews, & ratings. Reviews for eBacchus
Motivated Marketing Intern Available
From time to time, I use this blog to promote a cool product or service I came across, or help a friend out. Today, this friend is actually a family member: her name is Sarah, she is my younger sister, 25 year old, studying marketing and business administration at Audencia (one of the top management schools in France), and looking for a one-year internship to start in February or March 2009. ...
Imagine
Imagine a BPM tool that could be used by real business people. Imagine a tool that would allow them to document business processes using the simplest notation possible. Imagine a tool that would not only show pretty pictures, but actually turn them into executable processes, at the click of a button. Imagine a tool that could be used on demand, without having to install any software. Imagine ...
Should We Design Processes Like Airplanes?
As the ongoing discussion about standards for BPM continues, an interesting thread with Mr. Khan of Ultimus fame emerged. In response to his Don't Forget the BPM Ecosystem article, I explained that standards always play a critical role in the development of mature industries, and drew further analogy to the airline industry that Mr. Khan felt compeled to challenge in a subsequent arti...
Developing a True BPM Ecosystem
In a recent article , Rashid N. Khan, former founder and CEO of Ultimus, makes a case for diversity in the BPM ecosystem, comparing it to the transportation ecosystem. He then goes on concluding that "one BPMS will not satisfy all the process needs of an organization, one BPMS vendor is unlikely to meet all the process needs of an organization, [and] one standard will not be suitable f...
Greed is not Good
Over the past few weeks, discussions started by the Why BPEL Matters article have gone from mildly engaged to radically passionate, bringing some clarity to otherwise arcane subjects. The need for standards was clarified , and Bruce Silver wrote one of the best analysis of the BPM marketplace I've seen in a long time. While I am thoroughly enjoying this debate, some bloggers are going ...
Why Standards Matter
A month ago, the Why BPEL Matters article was posted on IT |Redux, and triggered a wave of discussions rarely seen in the little BPM microcosm. Initially, they focused on arcane mathematical considerations supported by pseudo-scientific arguments on both sides of the fence ( here and there ). But as the debate progressed, what is at stake for those opposed to BPEL as standard process...
BPMI.org Redux
A breakthrough, finally! After almost a month of back and forth discussions started by the now-infamous why BPEL matters post, and continued on InfoQ , the Workflow Patterns Google Group , and countless posts on this very blog, we finally reached a conclusion, drawn by Bruce Silver and relayed by David French . They are calling for the industry to develop a "Compliance Specification f...
Why All This Matters
Some regular readers of this blog seem to be surprised by the passion I am showing in promoting the BPMN + BPEL cause. For many, BPEL is just another execution language for processes, and what really matters is their notation. For me, it is the very embodiment of the vision I have been trying to realize for over nine years now. It has been a long and tortuous road, partially illustrated by ...
Some More BPEL Fun
The more I'm writing about BPEL , the more people I seem to be annoying. The latest to date is Keith Swenson from Fujitsu, who seems to be pleased by InfoQ's recent article , and more than happy to join the BPEL bashing party. I call them legacy workflow vendors. They call us EAI folks. Touché! This is so much fun... But let's take a look at why their arguments just don't hold.
In al...
COSMO Logo
Since we published our original article on COSMO , we have been approached by the CEOs of several Commercial Open Source companies who expressed interest for the model and were thinking about using it for marketing purposes. We have no idea where this whole thing will end up, but we're happy to take it a few steps further, and here is the first one: a logo, courtesy of SolutionSet .
...
BPM 2.0, Pi-Calculus, and BPO
Two years ago, I complained that BPM had lost its appeal as a technology, acknowledging a dearth of public discussions on the topic. Well, I should have been careful about what I wished for, for I definitely got it, in droves. The partisan debate has been fueled again, ignited with this post , relayed by InfoQ with proper Intalio bashing, then followed on this Google Group , with lots o...
BPEL and Pi-Calculus
Apparently, my last article on why BPEL matters ruffled some feathers. My arguments about why BPEL is better than XPDL on purely mathematical grounds are upsetting some "academics", and I am being portrayed as a shallow marketer for making such unsubstantiated statements. I love nothing more than a fair fight, and I am pleased to see that such discussions are finally making their way ...
Making It All Work
Today, I received an advanced uncorrected proof of David Allen's upcoming sequel to Getting Things Done, titled Making It All Work . The book will be released in December, so I won't tell you much about it, for I really don't like spoilers. Instead, I will just share the following opening quote, which I found amazingly insightful.
The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to ...
Updated Travel Schedule
As of today, Intalio has user organizations in over 100 countries, and paying customers in 42 of them. Most of our deals are closed over the phone, but we like to meet our customers and partners in person from time to time. For this purpose, we're expanding our roadshow to all five continents, organizing as many cocktails as possible. Here are the places where we will have one in the coming s...
Adding Data to Processes
Business Process Management ( BPM ) differs from Workflow in many ways, but its native support for data might be the most critical one. When BPML was introduced eight years ago, its most fundamental innovation (later embraced by BPEL ) was to treat data as an integral dimension of processes, rather than simple parameters of workflow activities. Assaf Arkin, Intalio's CTO , deserves credit f...
The Great Migration
As we further pored through Intalio's results for the past quarter (call to be scheduled), we stumbled upon a very interesting combination of events: for the first time since Gartner's Magic Quadrant for BPM Suites was published in November 2007, at least one existing customer for every single vendor in the Leader quadrant decided to migrate to Intalio's product. Something is going on her...
Don't RFP, Just DIY
Here is something you won't hear from many BPM vendors: more than 50% of all BPM projects fail, and the few that succeed do not lead to any repeat sales 3 times out of 4. Across the board, BPM shows one of the poorest track records of any enterprise software category. What is to blame? A broken technology adoption process.
Up until now, most enterprise customers have selected BPM prod...
Oblique Strategies
I love Oblique Strategies' deck for the iPhone [ Make ].
More on BPM 2.0 and CEP
My recent post on BPM 2.0 and Complex Event Processing started quite a few discussions, some online (like this one with Bruce Silver and Paul Vincent), some offline with a few prominent CEP vendors, who seemed to agree with my position. Let's give it another shot and see where this takes us.
First, some external validation that BPEL is perfectly suited for describing complex event p...
Meet Me There
I crossed the 200,000 qualifying miles for the year two days ago, and still have almost a quarter to make it to 250,000 before the year ends. It's equivalent to ten times the Earth's circumference (24,899 miles at the equator). What this means is that I spend an insane amount of time in planes, and visit quite a few places throughout the year. Unfortunately, I do not get to stay very long at an...
All Sonic, No Boom - Mach Plus travel is back
Sophisticated aerodynamic shaping muffles eardrum-blistering sonic booms, permitting the QSST to fly over land at supersonic speed. If you're ever lucky enough to fly a Quiet Supersonic Transport between New York and Los Angeles, you'll have just enough time to get through a movie—a short one. Instead of the usual six hours, it will be at 1100mph.
Nine Inch Nails Concept Album Builds Story With Websites From The Future
A set of websites have emerged in support of the new Nine Inch Nails album "Year Zero". The first of the sites was discovered by fans who noticed highlighted letters on the back of a nine inch nails shirt for a tour that kicked off this weekend. This led to the discovery of various IP addresses and an entire story of the future built through sites.
A detour into the strange world of quantum computing
A Vancouver startup promises to demo the first commercial quantum computer on Tuesday. Is this the dawn of a new age of computing? If not, what is it?
Top Gear James May's Response to the Alabama Hicks Who Stoned Him
"We'd been warned by some American modernists - i.e. Californians - that the southerners wouldn't take kindly to any of our light mockery of the things they hold dear - Bush, heterosexuality, NASCAR, Country and Western, short hair..."
The Ten Best Five O' Clock Shadows of All Time
Has there ever been a more versatile facial hair style than the five o' clock shadow? It's badass, yet lazy. Hardcore, yet jaded. For that reason, the Double Viking guys decided to rank the 10 best five o' clock shadows of all time. Number one will definitely surprise you.
How to regularly backup Windows XP to Ubuntu, using rsync
This blog covers one of the more exotic solutions - backup Windows XP to Ubuntu, using rsync
Yahoo Pipes: Search Stories Digged by a Specific User
On theit last update, Digg decided to get rid of the feature where you could search your own digged stories. Since I frequently used that, I decided to try to recreate it using Yahoo Pipes. This if my first attempt. Sadly, it only searches back your most recent diggs, but is a start. Feel free to copy and reuse this pipe if you want.
The 360's failure rates are bad enough; why terrible customer service?
The games a system plays are only half the story of why we buy and love this console over that one. The very act of owning a console is made up of many things: everything from how well the stock controller works to how the company deals with us if/when the system has an issue. When it comes to customer service, Microsoft is failing miserably.
Blockland - Play with Legos on Your Computer
Looking for a free game that's fun and lets you build with Legos? Then Blockland is the game for you!
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA to get a Fourth Season
SCI FI is confirming Tuesday... BSG will live on for a fourth season, 13 eps, starting jan 08
Number of pilots carrying guns rising as more sign up for federal training
Five years after the 9/11 attacks, a growing number of U.S. airline pilots are packing heat, prepared to use lethal force to protect the cockpit. Soon, they will carry badges, bringing them even closer to being bona fide law enforcement officers.
HD DVD and Blu-ray DRM Cracked
arnezami has found the "processing key" used to decrypt the DRM on all HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc films
What America could buy for $145 billion dollars (the 2007 Iraq war budget).
The Iraq war will cost Americans $145 billion dollars this year alone. That $145 billion could buy free tuition, room, and board for every student in a public university or college, and there would still be enough money left over to end hunger in America four times over. Digg this story and help spread the word on how our taxes are being spent.
Cheetahs Kill Zoo-Goer Who Entered Cage
An animal lover was mauled to death by cheetahs after entering their cage at a zoo in northern Belgium, authorities and zoo officials said Monday. Authorities believe Aerts, a regular visitor to the zoo, hid in the park late Sunday until it closed and managed to find the keys to the cheetah cage.
How To Survive a Horror Movie!
When it appears you have killed the monster, NEVER check to see if it's really dead... The first woman to either lose or remove her clothing is dead meat... Never back out of one room into another without looking. It's always behind you... Never run into a deserted graveyard at night... Never listen to strange voices on the telephone...
The Scarier Resident Evil 4 version
This is a video depicting levels in Resident Evil 4 that featured creepier and darker levels not available in the final version.
Depression: An Evolutionary Survival Trait?
A psychiatrist is treating depression as not simply a disease to be eliminated, but an evolutionary trait to elicit support from family and friends. It's a concept derived from evolutionary psychology, a burgeoning field that is starting to influence psychotherapy.
God of War II Rumor Busted: Not In 720p on PS3
Word that God of War 2 would be running at 720p on the PS3 was debunked when we contacted a SCEA rep. IGN's review originally stated that: "God of War II will not only be playable on the PlayStation 3, of course, but that it will run at a true HD resolution of 720p." 480p is the resolution God of War II will be available in.
One 'Bad Apple' Really Can Kill the Company
Whether it's an office bully, team slacker or a chronic pessimist, a single employee can seriously damage an entire company, according to William Felps and Terence Mitchell of the University of Washington Business School.
No DRM Could Mean Cheaper Music
Even if Steve Jobs' essay last week -- in which the Apple chief questioned the wisdom of continuing to sell music wrapped in digital rights management -- was a negotiating tactic designed to give Apple an advantage during impending license renewal negotiations, as some have suggested, Jobs' proposal is still spurring lots of discussion.
