Archive for January, 2008

By Andrew Liszewski There have been plenty of books written about ‘The Enlightenment’ over the years, but it takes a truly gifted mind to realize the word ‘enlightenment’ includes the word ‘light.’ And it takes a whole other level of genius to turn that realization into a clever pun-inspired lamp. The appropriately-named Enlightenment lamp is made of […]

Enlightenment Lamp (Images courtesy Light Up Your World)
By Andrew Liszewski

There have been plenty of books written about ‘The Enlightenment’ over the years, but it takes a truly gifted mind to realize the word ‘enlightenment’ includes the word ‘light.’ And it takes a whole other level of genius to turn that realization into a clever pun-inspired lamp.

The appropriately-named Enlightenment lamp is made of white plexiglass, is 24cm x 17cm x 8cm and includes a 9-watt energy-saving lamp to illuminate it from the inside. For maximum enlightenment you’ll want to stick it on a shelf full of other hardcover tomes, or you can also go the less-classy route, and just use it as a water closet nightlight.

The Enlightenment lamp will set you back about $130, but %10 of that cost actually goes to educational charities.

[ Enlightenment Lamp ] VIA [ DVICE ]

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With the DEMO 2008 conference kicking off this day, a bunch of tech companies are making announcements. Here are some of the highlights: BitGravity Content delivery network BitGravity is launching its streaming video offering, BG LiveBroadcast. The company aims to make streaming video online as instantaneous and high-quality as streaming video on TV, while adding an extra layer […]

With the DEMO 2008 conference kicking off this day, a bunch of tech companies are making announcements. Here are some of the highlights:

BitGravity

Content delivery network BitGravity is launching its streaming video offering, BG LiveBroadcast. The company aims to make streaming video on the web as instantaneous and high-quality as streaming video on Television, while adding an extra layer of interactivity and customization.

BitGravity already provides on-demand (i.e. recorded) video delivery for fifty clients, including Revision3 and Tom Green. Its streaming video service promises to bring the same robust scalability to live events, allowing thousands if not millions of viewers to watch the same shows simultaneously.

If you want to stream live events using BitGravity, you can request a machine from them that will come preloaded with all the requisite software. Costs will then accrue depending on how much bandwidth you consume.

Blist

Blist, a web-based application that promises to make database management as simple as using Excel, is launching in private beta this Tuesday. A number of improvements have been made to the product’s design since we covered it this past November.

Of particular note is a new “visual query builder” that makes the construction of complex queries easy with a drag-n-drop interface. Blist’s approach to relational data is also notable; relationships are established primarily in the “design” phase of database construction, obviating the need to explicitly extract relational data during query time.

If you become Blist beta tester, head over to InviteShare to share your five invites with others.

Eyealike

Eyealike is announcing a service called Eyealike Copyright that’ll hunt down copyrighted material found in videos posted across the internet. Eyealike purportedly has a knack for finding copyright material mixed in with user generated content on sites like YouTube.

The company claims that its technology can “process hundreds of images and video clips per minute by still objects, object movement, and facial recognition” with 95% accuracy and a “near zero false positive rate.” Its web interface, pictured left, features a prominent “Send Notification” button that will allow companies like Viacom to speed up the process by which they send out take-down requests.

GoldMail

With GoldMail, you can send slideshows accompanied by audio messages to friends, family, and business contacts. The goal is to enrich communication over the net by providing a way to send not only your voice but visual materials, such as photos and diagrams, that reinforce your message as well.

While GoldMail soft launched a tiny while ago for consumers, it’s rolling out a business offering at DEMO with which companies can brand the service to their liking. For two examples of how organizations have used the branded service, see messages by the Mia Hamm Foundation and the Oakland Raiders.

Enterprise pricing will start off at $5,000 per year, or $500 per month, for 10 seats. GoldMail will perform all of the customization work for their clients.

good2gether

good2gether seeks to help non-profit organizations broaden their reach by connecting them with media partners, sponsors, and volunteers. It’s described as part search engine, part social network.

The main benefit to non-profits seems to be derived from the partnerships good2gether makes with media companies, a list of which will be announced at DEMO. Apparently these partners will include “major newspapers from six of the top 10 media markets”. Just how these media partners will benefit the non-profits is unclear.

MOLI

MOLI is a social network with the mantra “control your privacy”. Members, whether individuals or businesses, can manage multiple profiles, each of which can be made public, private, or hidden. For individuals, the value proposition seems to lie in the ability to create different personas for different contacts (friends, family, colleagues, etc.). I’m not sure just how this functionality will benefit companies who want to establish on the web presences.

The company says its target audience is “25 to 55 year old knowledge workers (art and fashion designers, technologists, musicians, etc.) and the under served small businesses community”.

SceneCaster

SceneCaster is a virtual world offering that launched at DEMO in the fall and was well-received.

The company will use DEMO 2008 to promote its “SceneWeaver” technology, which allows users to access 3D environments through any XHTML compliant browser. The idea in a nutshell is to bring Second Life-like experiences to the browser, and it even works on the iPhone (no Flash or other plugins are needed).

On the web retailers can integrate SceneCaster with their websites to create 3D storefronts, and others can use the technology to create their own 3D webpages.

StandoutJobs

StandoutJobs wants to help companies recruit more effectively by providing them with Netvibes-like pages that contain information for prospective employees. Companies can customize their StandoutJobs sites to include components that inform visitors about company culture, job opportunities, current employees, and more. Other, livelier features such as Flickr pics and quirky corporate videos can be added, too. While companies using StandoutJobs may risk looking like they’re trying too hard, these portals may also add a more personalized touch to the recruitment process.

Voyant

Voyant is launching a web-based financial software offering called Voyant @Home intended for individuals who want to gain “direct control over their financial health”. The software has been billed as particularly useful for generating “what if” scenarios and forecasts stemming from your current financial situation. Users can also use the service to track their financial goals.

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The World Economic Forum at Davos: 3,000 or so world leaders, celebrities and top CEOs (and a couple of bloggers) gather to discuss the major issues of the day. At one end of the Congress Center is the main meeting hall. At another, private meeting rooms for the super-VIPs. And nestled right in the middle […]

The World Economic Forum at Davos: 3,000 or so world leaders, celebrities and top CEOs (and a couple of bloggers) gather to discuss the major issues of the day.

At one end of the Congress Center is the main meeting hall. At another, private meeting rooms for the super-VIPs. And nestled right in the middle is the YouTube room.

Actually it isn’t called the YouTube room because there’s no branding at Davos except for the WEF. But Google is a major partner to the conference, and this year the WEF added a new feature to reach out to attendees as well as non-attendees - the Davos Question. An entire room has been dedicated to this - five personal line the wall, all pointing to YouTube, where attendees can answer the question.

Between sessions this is clearly the place to be. Each few minutes another celebrity or leader walks through to leave a Davos Question response or go to a private meeting in the rooms beyond. The security detail comes first, giving everyone notice that someone interesting is coming. Then the person him/herself and their entourage.

Bono has been by twice. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf came by so many times that people stopped noticing (he was in the background of this CNN report, I had to point him out to get the cameras to pan over). Rupert Murdoch strolled in, as did Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai (recording his YouTube video), UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former PM Tony Blair, Howard Dean, Michael Dell, Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, Chad Hurley, Henry Kissinger and Shimon Peres (the winner of the most intimidating-looking security detail at Davos). All stopped politely for interviews and photos with Forbes, CNN and others (here I’m with Peres and Brin, here’s Robert Scoble interviewing Michael Dell).

The entire Forbes team has camped out here for the duration of the event, and editor Carl Lavin wrote his own thoughts about this being the power center of the event. As I sit here now there are no less than four camera crews and a score of journalists milling around.

It didn’t take me long to find the YouTube room, and I’ve spent more time here than anywhere else. This conference is exceptional, and this room is the center of it all. Brilliant move, Google.

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If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s pretty damn funny, and NSFW (language and suggestive imagery): In summary: Snopes is hot, MySpace is annoying, and everybody hates Facebook. [ Those Aren’t Muskets: World wide web Celebration ] VIA [ Neatorama ] Humor

If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s pretty damn funny, and NSFW (language and suggestive imagery):

In summary: Snopes is hot, MySpace is annoying, and everybody hates Facebook.

[ Those Aren’t Muskets: World wide web Celebration ] VIA [ Neatorama ]

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SpiralFrog has just announced the site is up to over 1 million uniques each month and expected to end this month with over 1.2 million uniques. SpiralFrog, for those of you who don’t remember, is the free (as in ad supported, not P2P) legal music service that unlocks over 1 million songs to their users […]

SpiralFrog has just announced the site is up to over 1 million uniques each month and expected to end this month with over 1.2 million uniques. SpiralFrog, for those of you who don’t remember, is the free (as in ad supported, not P2P) legal music service that unlocks over 1 million songs to their users as long as they log back in to their site at least once every month (an easy task if you update your library frequently). The songs are downloads and played as WMA files under DRM controls.

While you’d think the main advantage of a download is portability, most people won’t be able to take songs off their computer because they use iPods that can’t play the WMA files. See more details in our earlier coverage.

The songs come from some pretty very special deals with the large labels UMG, EMI, and BMI. In exchange, labels get a share of the ad revenue and affiliate song sales on the site and the comfort of control through the service’s DRM.

However, SpiralFrog was over a year in the making and only officially launched last September. A lot has changed since then. Music prices have dropped, DRM is dead (for paid tracks at least), and new legal/questionably legal sites have popped up to serve up free tunes. Competition includes HypeMachine, RadioBlogClub, Deezer, InTune.fm, Mog, Last.fm, Imeem, and a bunch of other sites. One key difference is that users on these sites stream music instead of downloading it, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing down their growth rates. Imeem, which follows an ad splitting model similar to SpiralFrog, did over 3 million monthly uniques around the time SpiralFrog launched last year. Lets not forget that Yahoo might be treading in this territory as well.

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A UK startup called Yabb launched today in closed private beta. It is a VOIP micro-blogging service that lets you publish voicemails on Skype. So instead of blogging you just speak your thoughts and your Skype contacts can subscribe. It is like Seesmic, without the video. TechCrunch UK has the details: Users […]

logo-tag-art.pngA UK startup called Yabb launched today in closed private beta. It is a VOIP micro-blogging service that lets you publish voicemails on Skype. So instead of blogging you just speak your thoughts and your Skype contacts can subscribe. It is like Seesmic, without the video. TechCrunch UK has the details:


Users import their Skype contacts, then are asked to allow Yabb access to Skype. The idea is to find a conversation topic of interest to you on the Yabb site, pick someone with interesting thoughts who has joined that topic then send them a call request by asking them to Skype you. By integrating with Skype’s API, Yabb allows you to then call people over Skype. While you wait for a call, you can join other topics, add your thoughts and send more call requests. [Update: I hadn’t previously realised this, but Paul Sweeney points out that Yabb is less disruptive than one might think in that you can’t send voice messages to people who aren’t in your Skype contact list. This means nos ‘voice spam but also less ability for this to go viral maybe].

Founder Paul Birch told me Yabb is going to be about re-inventing the ‘art’ of conversation. He is hoping there will be more potential adoption of Yabb than video-blogging systems like Seesmic since most people are happy to talk, but not everyone wants to appear on video. (Yabb is built on Ruby on Rails and is hosted by EngineYard).

Note to self: voicemails are not a mass medium. Does anyone enjoy listening to voicemails? They are something to avoid or get through as quickly as possible, even the funny ones. I should do a VOIPcast on this topic.

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By Luke Anderson I don’t really have any issues downloading photos from my digital camera to my computer. Mostly because I just pop out the SD card and insert it into the card reader in my Personal computer. It eliminates the need for any resource-hogging software. The same goes for my camera phone, there’s just the extra […]

USB Camera

By Luke Anderson

I don’t really have any issues downloading photos from my digital camera to my personal. Mostly because I just pop out the SD card and insert it into the card reader in my Computer. It eliminates the need for any resource-hogging software. The same goes for my camera phone, there’s just the extra step of inserting the microSD card adapter. Apparently some people still think this is an issue, which is one of the reasons why this tiny USB digital camera was created.

I’m going to guess that there’s some artistic reasoning behind this creation as well. You’ll notice that this thing is little, which gives no room for any kind of viewfinder or LCD display. You’re kind of in the dark as to whether your picture is going to turn out. I guess I don’t really get it, as I want to make sure that my photos are actually going be worth looking at when I download them.

I’ve also got a beef with their tiny diagram. They clearly show a card reader that plugs into a USB port, then they show that you need a USB extension cable. Why do they think you’ll need one for that and not your little camera? Because it makes their tiny camera look superior, that’s why. Yes, I’m probably reading into it just a little much.

VIA [ Yanko Design ]

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By Andrew Liszewski Here’s a dilemma I’m sure many of us have faced. You’re a large Nintendo fanboy, but can’t quite decide how to redo the walk in your back garden… Well at least one fanboy in Denmark faced that dilemma, and their solution was to cook up these pretty slick Game Boy bricks instead of […]

Game Boy Bricks (Images courtesy Gieskes.nl)
By Andrew Liszewski

Here’s a dilemma I’m sure many of us have faced. You’re a big Nintendo fanboy, but can’t quite decide how to redo the walk in your back garden… Well at least one fanboy in Denmark faced that dilemma, and their solution was to cook up these pretty slick Game Boy bricks instead of just using regular pavers. From what I can tell they didn’t actually construct an entire sidewalk from the bricks, but considering they look even better after a year of natural wear and tear I would be tempted to redo an entire driveway like this.

You can actually purchase the Game Boy bricks too, but including shipping you’re looking at a cost of about $45 per brick. So only the most devoted of Nintendo fans need apply.

[ Game Boy Bricks ] VIA [ Boing Boing ]

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YouTube has launched a new mobile oriented site that brings video to more handsets, as well a mobile app. m.youtube.com offers mobile optimized content to 3G or WiFi enabled handsets that support RTSP streaming. The mobile page supports logins and channel subscriptions, and is available in country specific form as well. YouTube has also released a beta […]

YouTube has launched a new mobile oriented site that brings video to more handsets, as well a mobile app.

m.youtube.com offers mobile optimized content to 3G or WiFi enabled handsets that support RTSP streaming. The mobile page supports logins and channel subscriptions, and is available in country specific form as well.

YouTube has also released a beta version of the YouTube for Mobile downloadable application. The app supports the Sony Ericsson k800, w880 and the Nokia e65, n95, n73, 6110 navigator and 6120 classic, providing the same YouTube browsing functionality currently available on the iPhone.

To obtain the app, users on compatible phones should visit m.youtube.com, where they’ll be asked if they want to install it.

More details on the YouTube blog here.

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By Andrew Liszewski Although a lot of people were convinced the world would come to an end after Gizmodo’s TV-B-Gone stunt at CES, it seems the only real fallout will be security guards at future trade shows specifically keeping an eye out for the tiny device. So if you were hoping to be absolutely unoriginal […]

World Time Zone TV Remote Control Watch (Images courtesy Vavolo)
By Andrew Liszewski

Although a lot of people were convinced the world would come to an end after Gizmodo’s TV-B-Gone stunt at CES, it seems the only real fallout will be security guards at future trade shows specifically keeping an eye out for the little device. So if you were hoping to be completely unoriginal and pull the exact same stunt at another show, you’re going to need something a bit less obvious.

Enter the World Time Zone Television Remote Watch that looks like your typical Ironman-esque sports model, but also includes an IR emitter for controlling a wide range of Televisions, VCRs and DVD players. (I think it tells time too.) The emitter only has a range of about 10 to 16 feet, so you’re going to have to be really subtle and preferably hide in a big crowd in order to use it. But on the plus side, if you’re successful you’ll get to star in one of thousands of me-too! videos on YouTube. (Please note: OhGizmo! does not endorse the use of this device for shutting off displays during presentations we happen to be attending.)

The watch is available from Vavolo for just $12.50.

[ World Time Zone TV Remote Control Watch ] VIA [ Gear Live ]

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