Bebo’s Application Platform is Actually Doing Well
Bebo is not in the social networking spotlight as often as MySpace and Facebook, but it’s doing a darn good job at always breathing down their necks. A couple of weeks ago Bebo launched its API (compatible with Facebook’s application platform), and as Programmable Web’s data shows, the number of Bebo applications has since been growing in a steep curve.
With a little over 900 applications Bebo is still far from Facebook’s 14,000+ apps, but Facebook’s API has been around much longer. If you look at sheer growth, Bebo is growing at about half the rate of Facebook, which is still a very good result if you consider that Facebook’s API has been a stellar success (although some might argue *cough* me *cough* that most, if not all, apps on the platform are completely useless.)
The entire picture will be much clearer when LinkedIn and MySpace’s app platforms go live, but judging by these results, Bebo might not be the last to cross the finish line here.
[graphs courtesy of Programmable Web]
As Twitter Service Woes Contiune, Japanese Money Looks Likely
Twitter dumped Joyent as its hosting provider late yesterday (see our report here) and it was presumed by some that the switch away form Joyent was due to the poor reliability of the service. We later learnt that Twitter had switched to Verio, and this is where the rumor mill gets interesting.
According to one source, the move to Verio wasn’t related to issues with Joyent, but due to a yet to be disclosed investment from Japanese telco NTT, who are also the full owners of Verio. They did not provide the amount of the investment or terms, but they suggested it was finalized at the same time the Digital Garage investment was announced. Apparently it had been a done deal for months prior to that, hence the talk that Twitter had been planning a move away from Joyent for months. The Digital Garage deal was announced January 16, so presuming reasonable preparations before that, 15 days after signing to make the move is a reasonable enough time frame.
There is some sense in the notion that NTT may have been involved along side Digital Garage in taking a strategic investment in Twitter. Although both companies are separate, they often cross paths in Japan, and staff such as Stuart Woodward have worked for both. Twitter’s still strong roots as a mobile offering would also appeal to NTT, particularly as Google tries to break into Japan with Jaiku one of the platforms they may eventually be offering. NTT does however have a search deal with Google, but no doubt due to the promised financial returns from it as opposed to any greater love for Larry and Sergey.
We’ve put an email into Twitter for comment on this, and if we get a response we’ll add it.
On the reliability side, the move to Verio isn’t going well for Twitter so far with regular down time, delayed messages and related issues in the just over 24 hours since the move was made. As one wag suggested on Twitter, “even www.istwitterdown.com can’t keep up.”
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Leica rolls out M8 hardware upgrade program — for a price
Filed under: Digital Cameras
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Chatty Zuckerberg Tells All About Facebook Finances (Kara Swisher/BoomTown)
Chatty Zuckerberg Tells All About Facebook Finances — Want to know about how privately held Facebook is doing from a financial point of view? — Well, just ask Mark Zuckerberg! — This afternoon, at an all-hands meeting held in a Palo Alto, Ca. theater near the social networking site's headquarters …
Source: BoomTown
Author: Kara Swisher
Link: http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080131/chatty-zuckerberg…
Motorola to Explore Structural and Strategic Realignment of its … (Motorola)
Motorola to Explore Structural and Strategic Realignment of its Businesses to Enhance Shareholder Value — Company will evaluate alternatives to accelerate the ability of its Mobile Device Business to recapture growth and profitability in an expanding global market
Source: Motorola
Link: http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.jsp…
Facebook Finances Leaked
Kara Swisher’s elves must have Mark Zuckerberg’s number. Because she is reporting details from an all-hands meeting the Facebook founder held on Thursday for employees that had an open dial-in number, in which he revealed the following financial metrics for the still-private company:
2007 Revenues: $150 million
2008 Revenues: $300 to $350 million (projected)
2007 Headcount: 450
2008 Headcount: 1,000 (projected)
2008 Capital Expenditures: $200 million (i.e., servers)
2008 EBITDA: $50 million
2008 Cash Flow (EBITDA - CapEx): negative 150 million.
If he wants to go public in 2009, he is going to have to start making some money before then.
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Evil Mad Scientist Labs’ Peggy terrorizes roomates, darkness
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
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Sony unleashes a holographic monster on Tokyo Bay
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Continue reading Sony unleashes a holographic monster on Tokyo Bay
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Podcast: A Conversation with TitanTV’s Mark Effron
Mark Effron used to program daytime TV for the network MSNBC, but now functions as the COO for TitanTV. That’s a company that is trying to do for online network TV station presences, as they say, what King World Syndication did for the local affiliate when they burst on the scene. TitanTV has a powerful combination of solid distribution and content management software as well as original programming to offer the local affiliate’s web presence to provide a reason beyond weather-related school closing to come to the site.
I, myself, have been involved in similar ventures for other media consulting firms in the past, so I really was interested in seeing how TitanTV approached this interesting market. Our conversation went far longer than the usual conversation went, as a result, even though he was literally on his way to take his daughter to her homecoming dance this evening. Despite this, we covered a wide variety of topics, including opportunities within his organization for independent program directors, content producers, and from Effron’s unique vantage point what he sees the future for the Old Media’s role is in the New Media.
The embed is available below, or you can download the MP3 file directly here.
Subscribe to the podcast here.
You can check out TitanTV here.
Predictions for 2008 Event Recap
Tonight I participated in a panel discussion about what's coming in 2008. It was hosted by Ember Media and overall I'd say it was one of the most enjoyable evenings I've had in a while. The conversation before, during and after the panel was great. It's always great to meet people in person who read CN.
The Ember Media team did an excellent job in coordination and organization as everything went off without a hitch. Clayton Banks, Ember Media CEO led off with a presentation about his picks for 2008. The truth is that 2008 might be the most exciting year on the Web yet. We may move further along overall this year than we have in the last 3-4 years combined.
The panel discussion followed with panelists: Jonah Bossewitch, Kay Madati and myself. Jonah works at Columbia University and Kay runs marketing for Community Connect which includes sites such as Black Planet which did half a billion pageviews in December 2007.
Some of the topics we discussed include: online advertising, supply/demand with regards to content, privacy, data portability, mobile, barcode technology with regards to advertising and the sematic Web.
Thanks to Clayton for including me and thanks to everyone for coming out.
Here are some of my photos from the evening:
Panasonic Booth Acrobats Bounce Around Like Wannabe Ninjas [Boothtainment]
newVideoPlayer("panasonicfreerunners_gizmodo.flv", 463, 387,"");
We know most of you guys would prefer hot booth babes filling up our megapixels, but Panasonic's above all of that sexyist mess. Instead, they gave us some freerunners hopped up on caffeine, rainbows and Abercrombie cologne running and rebounding like ADD children.
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[PMA @ Giz]Culinary Seductions: Cooking For Men Who Want To Impress Women
Cooking and recipe sites are a dime a dozen online, but usually they often generic recipe sites tailored for people who cook regularly….and despite women’s liberation and equality of the sexes that’s still statistically women.
Culinary Seductions is billed as “the guys guide to cooking for girls” and does just that, offering recipes for men wishing to look smart by cooking for women.
The recipes are split into Dishes/ Course (including “food for the morning after”), difficulty and moods. Moods include decadent, snugly, saucy, sassy, nutty and luscious, but seem to miss out some obvious mood choices for a partner like cranky, irrational and argumentative.
The recipes on offer seem to be reasonable enough; there’s nothing ground breaking in the food but the way its split up is helpful and the instructions are fairly straight forward.
Might be worth a look if you’re a bloke looking for something to cook for your better half.
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Belvedere Automated File Manager Gets New Features, New Look [Lifehacker Code Update]
Windows only: Lifehacker's very own automated file manager, Belvedere, has hit its second release. Among various bug fixes, Belvedere can now set up rules to match multiple requirements and you can now edit your existing rules. Also, HUGE thanks to John from What Cheer for the excellent new Belvedere icon. It's oh so lovable. Hit the jump for a closer look Belvedere's latest and greatest features.
galleryPost('Belvedere 0.2', 3, '', 'list');
Head to the download page to grab the latest version, and to install it just replace the old Belvedere.exe file with the new. I didn't add multiple actions in the 0.2 release as I had discussed in the roadmap, since the more I thought about it the less it seemed necessary, but if anyone's dying for this feature, let me know. I also added the option to send files to the recycle bin rather than permanently deleting them, which is obviously a much less worrisome way to point an automated tool at your files. Finally, I changed the time between scans to once every 5 minutes, since most readers felt once a minute was far too often. In a future release, I'll try to make this a user-defined setting.
It's only been tested on my computer, so give it a try and let's hear how it works for you in the comments.
Boost Your Morning Alertness Without Caffeine [Sleep]
Blogger Scott Young's not a morning person, but he gets up early every day without caffeine by opting for energy boosters that don't come with the post-caffeine crash. Some of his tips help him take that initial step of getting out of bed, while others keep him awake during the early work hours.
If you want to stick with a consistent wake-up time, practice the ten-minute rule. This means you commit to staying awake for at least the next ten minutes. Once you get over that initial period, the temptation to go back to bed is usually gone.Do you rely on caffeine to get up and going in the morning, or have you got your own special set of caffeine-free energy boosts that get you up and keep you going? Let's hear about it in the comments.
In Time For Super Tuesday, It’s Super Obama Girl
You can argue all you want about who won the Democratic debate tonight, but all that matters is who wins on Super Tuesday. If viral video is any indicator (and I don’t think it is), Barack Obama is already ahead. From the folks at Barely Political, now part of Next New Networks, here is latest Obama Girl video: Super Obama Girl. It just came out:
Personally, in my book, you can never top the original Obama Girl video. Let’s review (for comparison purposes only):
There’s also the whole YouBama phenomenon,which we broke, and now the Washington Post, Yahoo News, and CNN has picked up. I got an e-mail earlier tonight from YouBama co-founder Christopher Pedregal informing me that “Our servers are melting.” They seem to be back up now. I wonder how long before someone puts the Obama Girl videos on YouBama. Check out Craigslist founder Craig Newmark’s Obama video testimonial. He ain’t no Obama Girl, but he is sincere. Where are all the viral videos for Hillary or McCain?
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WonderHowTo, Launched and Funded. Is it Too Late?
In a sea of video how-to sites, WonderHowTo has recently launched one of its own, and has just closed a Series A round of investment funding led by General Catalyst Partners. WonderHowTo has also signed an ad sales deal with Scripps Network, a company looking to expand the reach of its online properties, including the recently launched FrontDoor.
With WonderHowTo’s CEO, Stephen Chao, being a Hollywood vet, the touch of commercialism is quite evident when you visit WonderHowTo’s site. So the question is, can Chao make WonderHowTo work, when it’s later in the game and faces serious competition from sites like VideoJug?
While most of the earlier entrants into this space were more inclusive to the type of content on the sites, the more recent video how-to sites have typically been for various niche markets. Yet, the recent funding of how-to site 5min means there’s a growing interest in the market, WonderHowTo has few differentiating factors. The one I did pick up on was the emphasis on community, and the blatant site navigation that lends WonderHowTo to be utilized as a search engine as well.
That means there’s a good amount of potential for WonderHowTo to make some headway in the market. As I mentioned in the article about 5min’s funding, it’s the larger networks like Scripps that will be looking to increase advertising supplements, and it looks like it’s found an opportunity to do so with WonderHowTo.
Yahoo To Announce Large Video Acquisition–Maven Networks For $150 Million. (Michael Arrington/TechCrunch)
Yahoo To Announce Large Video Acquisition—Maven Networks For $150 Million. — We've gotten word that Yahoo will make an acquisition announcement of a video startup today or tomorrow. At first we thought the target might be Metacafe, which was almost acquired by Yahoo just following the Google/YouTube deal in 2006.
Source: TechCrunch
Author: Michael Arrington
Link: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/31/rumor-yahoo-to…
Korean Engineers Develop Miraculous 20,000-Year Photograph [Amazing]
Tucked into a dark and tiny corner of the PMA showfloor is a revolution made by a small Korean company called Wonyun: metal photographs that last for 20,000 years. These images depicting the Democratic US presidential frontrunners (and no Republicans) were chemically etched in a patented, print-like process—probably with stuff that gives improperly masked technicians some horribly debilitating ailment. They'll last up to 1,000 years under the hot unforgiving sun. Hear that? Screw biodegradability. Put another way, that Hillary card you see in the gallery will outlast her reign by at least 15,000 years.galleryPost('metalphoto', 3, '');
Hands-on with General Imaging’s E-1050
Filed under: Digital Cameras
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Track and Visualize Your Work with PTM [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free, open source application Personal Task Manager (PTM) tracks how you spend your time at the computer. The application is developed to look and feel a bit like the Windows Task Manager, but it's goal is to help you manage a completely different breed of tasks. As soon as you run PTM, it starts tracking what applications you're using and when you're not using your computer and logs all of that data to your database. Once it's been running for a bit, take a look at the mile-high stats and charts to get a better idea of how and where you're spending your computing time. PTM is basically an open source version of previously mentioned trackers like Slife and RescueTime, so if those looked useful to you, this one might be worth a glance. Thanks Manuel!
Google: Social Networking Inventory Not Monetizing As Well As … (Eric Savitz/Tech Trader Daily)
Google: Social Networking Inventory Not Monetizing As Well As Expected; Trouble At MySpace? — Speaking on the company's post-earnings conference call, Google (GOOG) CFO George Reyes said the company has found that “social networking inventory is not monetizing as well as expected,” …
Source: BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily - Barron's Online
Author: Eric Savitz
Link: http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2008/01/31…
An Unfortunate Grope of SmartParts’ Fugly Digital Photo Frame/Printer [The Sum Of Its Parts]
Digital photo frames were the spammiest product spam at CES, lurking around every corner with their crappiness so I still have a biley taste in my mouth. SmartParts' efforts to pile crappy function atop crappy function with a built-in photo printer, unsurprisingly just amounts to one big crapgasm. On the front, it looks like any other generic frame, but peer behind its faux-elegant bezel and you'll see some serious junk in the trunk. galleryPost('photoprint', 6, '');
I will admit it's kind of cool watching the printer add layers of dye sublimation to add build one full picture, but the novelty quickly wears off. It takes about a minute to print, and it's instantly touchable. But the photos suck. This is a pre-production model, so it could get better, but the sample I printed removed all subtlety from the photo—shadow detail lost, whites blown out and noticeable bleed.
The paper stock is mediocre and you can't even upgrade—you buy proprietary cartridges for $20 that have 36 sheets, with dye cartridge to match. Then you've gotta buy a new one. The printer, as you can imagine, adds a little lot of heft. This hunchbacked mess is not the digital photo frame you were looking for. [Giz @ PMA]
An Unfortunate Grope of SmartPants’ Fugly Digital Photo Frame/Printer [The Sum Of Its Parts]
Digital photo frames were the spammiest product spam at CES, lurking around every corner with their crappiness so I still have a biley taste in my mouth. SmartParts' efforts to pile crappy function atop crappy function with a built-in photo printer, unsurprisingly just amounts to one big crapgasm. On the front, it looks like any other generic frame, but peer behind its faux-elegant bezel and you'll see some serious junk in the trunk. galleryPost('photoprint', 6, '');
I will admit it's kind of cool watching the printer add layers of dye sublimation to add build one full picture, but the novelty quickly wears off. It takes about a minute to print, and it's instantly touchable. But the photos suck. This is a pre-production model, so it could get better, but the sample I printed removed all subtlety from the photo—shadow detail lost, whites blown out and noticeable bleed.
The paper stock is mediocre and you can't even upgrade—you buy proprietary cartridges for $20 that have 36 sheets, with dye cartridge to match. Then you've gotta buy a new one. The printer, as you can imagine, adds a little lot of heft. This hunchbacked mess is not the digital photo frame you were looking for. [Giz @ PMA]
AT&T data network fails for BlackBerry, iPhone users (Nancy Gohring/InfoWorld)
AT&T data network fails for BlackBerry, iPhone users — San Francisco - AT&T's wireless data networks in the Southeast and Midwest U.S. are down, causing BlackBerry and iPhone users to be without data services. — The EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) and UMTS …
Source: InfoWorld
Author: Nancy Gohring
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080131…
HTC TouchFLO 2 “Manila” leaks out, are you brave enough to install it?
Filed under: Cellphones
[Via The Unwired]
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January 2008’s Most Popular Posts [[this Is Good]]
What, you didn't spend every day of this month refreshing Lifehacker every hour? We forgive you. Here, have a recap of January's most popular posts.
- Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks
"Dozens of Google search guides detail the tips you already know, but today we're skipping the obvious and highlighting our favorite obscure Google web search tricks." - Turn Your $60 Router into a User-Friendly Super-Router with Tomato
"There's been a lot of development of open source firmwares, and today we're taking a look at my new favorite, a firmware called Tomato." - Install OS X on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required
"Now you can install Leopard on your computer about as easily as installing Leopard on a Mac--no command line hacking required." - Download and Listen to Free Music on the Web
"RIAA lawsuits have scared you off P2P, but the iTunes DRM is both too expensive and too restrictive for your tastes, right? Then it's time you head to the web." - Top 10 Telephone Tricks
"When getting things done involves making phone calls, you want to spend the least amount of time and money on the horn as possible--and several tricks and services can help you do just that." - The 20 Best iPhone and iPod touch Applications
"Last week we showed you how to install third party apps on your iPhone or iPod touch, and since then a new firmware preview has leaked its way to the 'nets with saucy new features that--once released--may tempt you to abandon your jailbreak for the newly introduced features." - Top 10 BitTorrent Tools and Tricks
"BitTorrent is the go-to resource for downloading everything from music and movies to software and operating systems, but as its popularity continues to grow, so do the number of tools available for making the most of it." - Top 10 Underhyped Webapps
"Even in this golden age of Big Internet Companies Acquiring Everything In Sight, there are still a few independent, small webapps out there that don't get the attention they should for their useful functionality." - Jailbreak the iPhone 1.1.3 Firmware for Third Party Apps
"Third party iPhone app lovers who also want the latest and greatest Apple firmware rejoice, as iPhone hacker extraordinaire Nate True has released a new jailbreaking application for the recently released iPhone 1.1.3 firmware."
Jelly click: it’s an inflatable mouse, not a whoopee cushion
Filed under: Peripherals
[Via Yanko Design]
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Google Misses Revs/EPS…and Pulls Out the “Display” Card (Henry Blodget/Silicon Alley Insider)
Google Misses Revs/EPS...and Pulls Out the “Display” Card — Google missed consensus revenue and EPS estimates. Stock down 7% in after-market. Revenue shortfall on Google Sites (vs. affiliates), due to a shortfall in paid-click growth (startling deceleration). Adjusted operating income slightly light.
Source: Silicon Alley Insider
Author: Henry Blodget
Link: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/01/live-analysis…
Thatsmymouse: Social Browsing Widget
If you head over to thatsmymouse, you’ll be greeted by one of the more sparse layouts ever put together since Google. That’s oddly appropriate, since the tool it houses is a simple but brilliant gimmick. The concept reminds me of the old 
PowWow chat system translated to Web 2.0 - a simple gimmick that adds a real-time social interactivity and chat aspect to just about any website.
The tool isn’t quite available for public consumption just yet. As of the time of this writing, the launch counter currently says it will be available for install on websites everywhere in 6 hours, 13 minutes. James, one of the curators of the site offered a guided tour of the system, using the system.
The way it works is simple - a small word bubble with your nick in it follows your mouse pointer around. All others on the page are visible as well. When it is in presentation mode, both users can navigate within the website and edit the page, and the edits and movements are available for all to see. Instead of a clunky chat system overlaid somewhere in the page, one simply needs to start typing somewhere, and your words will show up in word bubble above your pointer.
Simple social interaction, right?
James showed me a test case application where he created an interface to Google Maps with the thatsmymouse system inline. We were both able to make changes to the map view, look up addresses, and each other were able to see it.
After the walk-through demo was done, he sent me over to the forum they’ve been using as a private beta test, the PAL Gaming Forum. Here it was being used less like a website demonstration or presentation tool, and more as a social add-on. The site is fairly well populated, and quite a busy forum. The tool wasn’t used for very much real time interaction, but if you caught someone inbetween page views (I hung out on the main forum index for a while), and said hello, people would stop to chat for a bit.
The tool is going to be available for anyone to install on their site or blog, and is easily enough accomplished with a couple lines of JavaScript. They currently don’t look to have any logging in place, but this is just exiting private beta. To me, this takes the idea of social web to a new platform, and if the development cycles go the way I envision them, could end up in a very cool place.
As a browser plug-in, you could use followmymouse to turn the entire web into a social browsing experience, as systems browsers like Flock aim to do. Add in a bit of standard social networking functionality, and suddenly the browse becomes the platform (no, that’s not a misprint - I said browse. I know. I noun-ified a verb).
Check it out. If you’re a webmaster of any kind, chances are you and your users will enjoy adding this unobtrusive widget to your system. If my glowing review didn’t convince you, the fact that they’re on Amazon EC2 servers (and thus won’t slow your site load times down) and that they’re members of the DataPortability Workgroup might push you over the edge.
Nikon’s PMA 2008 booth tour
Filed under: Digital Cameras
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