If you've noticed a slowdown here in the last few days that is because Infoblog is on vacation. We will return on March 24th, rested and ready to go.
Robert Scoble wrote a scathing entry in his blog attacking Microsoft's focus (or lack of) in its "we're in it to win" campaign.
I don’t think Microsoft is. The words are empty. Microsoft’s Internet execution sucks (on whole). Its search sucks. Its advertising sucks (look at that last post again). If that’s “in it to win” then I don’t get it. I saw a bunch of posts similar to the one on LiveSide coming out of the MVP Summit. I didn’t post any of them to my link blog for a reason: All were air, no real demonstrations of how Microsoft is going to lead.
Microsoft isn’t going away. Don’t get me wrong. They have record profits, record sales, all that. But on the Internet? Come on. This isn’t winning. Microsoft: stop the talk. Ship a better search, a better advertising system than Google, a better hosting service than Amazon, a better cross-platform Web development ecosystem than Adobe, and get some services out there that are innovative (where’s the video RSS reader? Blog search? Something like Yahoo’s Pipes? A real blog service? A way to look up people?) That’s how you win.
He's got a point. When was the last time Microsoft catered to the user instead of the business. When was the last time they innovated?
Microsoft has two problems really. 1. They don’t develop, they takeover/buy (although Google seems to be heading in that direction). 2. When they do develop, they do it for the lowest common denominator (Reminds me of AOL).
Its all about the bottom dollar and not innovation for them. If it’s not pre-installed it doesn’t do well. Give anyone a choice and 9/10 times they will use a competitors product.
With all their problems with One Care... is now the time for Microsoft to be beating thier chest about how great they are?
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmYbP0F4Zw]
Scoble posted this link on Twitter today and I thought I'd pass it on to you.
Ruby URL is a lot like TinyUrl except created with Ruby on Rails. It shortens your long urls into shorter ones and counts how many letters you are saving. They also provide you with a bookmarklet that automatically shortens any url you are at.
Quick Hits - Google Talk, Facebook
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Google has made available a new widget for its personalized homepage: The Google Talk Gadget. You also can embed the widget into your webpage or blog.
Facebook had added some new fuctionality into its photo section. You can now organize your photos within albums using drag and drop.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOSVmvsSNR8]
It's still a little early to speculate what will or won't happen with the product but the Democracy Player seems to be getting a name change to Miro. I'll reserve comment until the first release with the Miro name because, well basically, they don't seem too sure of it themselves. Until then this is their blog post on the subject.
This is some big news for us. We are planning to change the name of Democracy Player.
We chose the name ‘Democracy’ almost two years ago when we were first setting up PCF. We knew it was an ambitious name, but we thought that it made a clear statement about how important it is that an open internet TV platform is for our culture.
Our early Mac beta versions of Democracy Player were called ‘DTV’– we didn’t think that we could be ‘Democracy’ until we had something substantial to offer. When we released version 0.8 for Mac and Windows one year ago, we called it Democracy Player. In the weeks before that release, we agonized over the name. It was risky and unusual and we were both excited about it and worried. Cory Doctorow, who’s on our Board of Directors, tried to talk us out of it. And we take his advice very seriously. But we still felt compelled by the name and we decided to go for it.
And, even though I’m about to explain why we need to change it, I’m glad we’ve had this name for the past year. It’s funny that a name like ‘Democracy’ can become a name for software– I think it turned out to be less odd than we expected. When people hear a name, they tend to accept it. And it helped us assert our mission clearly: free, open, and dedicated to democratizing video online. I think conveying that mission so strongly was crucial for us.
But the name also confused a huge number of potential users. In all our debates about whether you could call something ‘Democracy’ and how people would react to the name, we hadn’t realized that so many people would simply assume that the software was for politicians and videos about politics. We hear this response over and over, and it’s a real limitation to our user base.
So we’re changing the name to Miro.
We’ll working on a new icon / logo and a new website, which will be at getmiro.com.
The name change will happen over the next month or two (now would be a good time to let us know if the word ‘miro’ means something bad in any languages). Our next release will probably still be called Democracy Player, but the one after that will be Miro. And the release after that will likely be Miro 1.0.
We've heard rumors about this for about a year now but it seems it is now a reality. The 8-core Mac Pro was listed on the Apple UK website and was taken down as soon as they realized the mistake. I don't know when the announcement will be, tommorow or a month from now, but you can be sure it will be met with a bit of a snicker. After all once the cat's out of the bag...
Ok I think the new DST schedule may have screwed me up a little. I slowed down my postings to a crawl but don't worry, I'll reset my body clock and get back to a regular posting schedule ASAP. In the meantime, if you have any news or stories you'd like to see here let me know. Send your tips and/or suggestions to Infoblog3.0@gmail.com
In case you've been living under a rock, you've heard that the start of daylight savings time has changed this year. In what might go down as the most futile attempt to curb energy consumption, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed both the starting and ending dates of DST. The new dates this year are March 11 to November 4.
Some people are predicting this year to be another Y2K but there are a few steps you can take to protect yourself from imminent doom and disaster.
To make sure your system clock and Outlook appointments are correct, Microsoft offers a Time Zone Update Tool as a free download. Check the list of products affected by DST to see if you need to crawl back under that rock and wait it out.
If you are an OSX or Vista user you should be fine. Also make sure if you use XP that you set your computer to update automatically.
Related Links:
Lifehacker 1
Lifehacker 2
History Of DST
Netvibes just announced the release of their universal API that will allow widget builders to use the API for Netvibes, Google IG, Apple Dashboard and many more...
The Universal Widget API (UWA for short) is the name of the 1.0 release of the Netvibes API. With it come major changes and possibilities.
While previous version of the API only let you build modules for Netvibes, UWA makes it possible for you to see your widget be used not only on Netvibes or on personnal websites, but also on many other platforms, both online or on the desktop. For instance, it is already possible to install a UWA widget on Google IG, in Apple Dashboard, soon the Opera browser, and many more to come...
Thanks to its open-source JavaScript runtime, the Netvibes UWA can be easily ported to other platforms. As a developer, you can leverage your existing code on a large number of platforms. As a user, you can use all your favorite UWA widget on your favorite platform - it doesn’t have to be on Netvibes only.
The reliance on open content pushes for the availability of more and more web services, leading to a “Wall of APIs”. Netvibes UWA promotes the use of legal or personnal web APIs, thus leading to a blossoming of web services, all available to UWA widgets users and developers.
Related Links:
Google operating System blog
Netvibes Blog
It what could have wide ranging effects on VOIP providers, a jury ordered Vonage to pay out $58 million dollars to Verizon in its patent case. Vonage was found guilty of infringing on 3 of the 7 patents Verizon originaly sued on. Verizon originally asked for $197 million in damages. The Judge may issue an injunction but that will be decided in the next two weeks. Vonage has announced they will appeal and that thier customers will not see a change in service.
Related Links:
Vonage Press Release
GigaOM
AP Story
Picasa Web Albums, Google's online photo sharing tool, underwent a major update today.
The free version of Pacasa Web increased its storage from 250mb to 1 gig (and counting) mirroring its Gmail plan to increase with time. 1 Gig is enough to hold about 4000 standard resolution photos.
Picasa Web also allows users to search for photo's withing the community. Previously you could only search within your contacts.
Another new feature is better integration with Blogger. You automatically get new albums for your Blogger pics and a refined linking system.
For information check:
Official Google Blog
Google Operating System
The website Digg has announced in its blog that it has reached one million members in just over two years:
It’s now been more than two years since the first story was submitted and dugg on Digg. Since then you guys have helped Digg move from a personal project amongst a group of friends to a huge online community. Now, your contributions in submitting, digging, and commenting on content have propelled Digg to a point I never dreamed of – as of today Digg has one million registered users.
I’d like to let this post serve as a thank you from me to you — the Digg community faithful. You’ve not only made it possible for the Digg team to continue the Digg concept in new and exciting ways, but you’ve also driven us, with a sense of pride and excitement that genuinely makes going to work a lot of fun.
For those of you who can make it to the Bay Area in mid-April, we’re planning a party to thank you for your contributions to Digg. We’re tentatively looking at an event on Thursday, April 19th in San Francisco. Stay tuned for more updates, because obviously this milestone calls for good celebration!
Digg on,
-Kevin
At the Game Developers Conference, Sony announced a free application for users of it's Playstation 3 Network. Home, Reminiscent of Second Life, is a 3d virtual world that attempts to tie together the various multimedia capabilities of the PS3.
The application, to debut in the fall, will "allow PS3 users to interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share private content and even build and show off their own personal spaces to others in real time"
TOKYO and SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 7, 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced the unveiling of a first-of-its-kind 3D online user community service for the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system. The service, known as “Home,” will enable users to create their own avatar and explore a real-time virtual community, as if they are playing a detailed 3D game for PS3. The service will become available globally beginning in fall 2007.
Home will be demonstrated at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California on March 7 as a key element of SCEI Worldwide Studios’ President Phil Harrison’s keynote presentation titled “Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the 3rd Age of Videogames.”
Home is a real-time online 3D, networked community available on the PLAYSTATION®Network. It allows PS3 users to interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share private content and even build and show off their own personal spaces to others in real time. Home will be available as a free download from the PLAYSTATION®Store and will launch directly from XMB™ (XrossMediaBar) on PS3.
With an avatar uniquely customized according to each user’s preference, users can explore the 3D community that is Home – a sleek, modern environment featuring spacious common areas; custom spaces dedicated to specific games; and personal apartments. Each user is assigned an apartment in Home where they can invite others to join them as they show off their own style in an area they can personalize themselves with furniture, art and other items – even a different view from their windows. They can also show their personal video, pictures and other digital media content found on their PS3 hard drives in their apartments. Very rich interactive communication with others is achieved through built in text, audio and video chat, along with sophisticated emotional animations for each character.
Sharing continues in the “Hall of Fame,” where users can display new 3D trophies that will be unlocked through in-game achievements, as well as real time score rankings in PS3 games.
“This is a significant step forward in the area of user community services and emergent entertainment experiences,” said Izumi Kawanishi, Corporate Executive and CTO Software, SCEI. “While the 3D graphics demonstrate the power of PS3 and the PLAYSTATION Network, the most impressive feature in Home is the variety of ways in which multiple consumers, as well as our third-party partners, can experience the next generation of communication by interacting and sharing among each other. I feel strongly that this unique blend of community, user-generated content, collaboration and commerce will expand the future of computer entertainment.”
Home will go into a closed beta test this spring with a full launch targeted for later this year. By having a broad range of business partners participate in Home, along with an expansive catalog of upcoming game software titles for PS3, SCEI will continue to enhance the new world of entertainment and vigorously promote PS3 as the next generation computer entertainment platform.
Press Release
does one thing and it does it well. SnapStream, the company behind PC DVR program BeyondTV, has ventured out into the intertubes to bring you a simple, working, online tv listings guide. Just plug in your zip code, select your provider, and off you go into channel surfing bliss. Couchville doesn't try to muddle up its offering by adding unnecessary features.
After entering your initial information you are greeted with an Ajaxian interface that allows you to drag your listings in any direction -ala Google Maps. A vertical red line indicates the current time on the grid. You may configure your listings by hiding the channels you never watch but its probably more useful just to star programs that are your favorites. There is a search at the top that you can use to find a program and all related information, although it seems to need some refining.
Clicking on a program brings up its "tv show page" which lists a description of the show and future showings of it. Using Beyond TV collected data, Couchville also ranks shows according to number of dvr downloads. SnapStream also hints at a future "blurring of the lites" between its two offerings.
The only question is, does it work? Precisely, and thats all it needs to do. It is after all just a TV listing.
Couchville
Today Google released Google Desktop 5.0 beta (it's Google, isn't it always beta?) and they seem to be elbowing for room on the Vista desktop. Without adding any real functionality they did greatly improve the visual. Google says their sidebar will " fade in" the color of you wallpaper so that it will blend in more seamlessly. It actually looks to me like they just made their transparency smarter. They also added some phishing detection in your search and it also displays a thumbnail of the site. I'm still waiting for the sidebar to be able to double as a dock for shortcuts but that's just me.
From Google Desktop Blog:
The sidebar has a completely new look and feel. It samples the color of your wallpaper and fades in the sampled color so that it fits seamlessly onto your desktop. Some of our gadgets have been redesigned so that they are easy to tell apart, easy to read, and easy on the eyes. More differentiated gadgets allow for faster scanning of information through the sidebar. And we've created a new dialog for adding gadgets so it's easier and faster than ever to find the right gadgets for you.
In addition, we have improved two other key features of Google Desktop:
- Desktop Search - Ever searched your computer and seen a row of results that looked almost identical - so you had to open file after file until you found the right one? Now there is a better way: preview search results from within Google Desktop. Don't wait for an entire application to load, just click "Preview" and find the information you want right away. Finding the right file has never been easier!
- Security - We take your security extremely seriously and have added new features to help make your search experience safer. Whether you’re clicking on links from documents, IMs and email or browsing the web, if we have information that the site you're visiting might be trying to steal your personal information or install malicious software on your computer, we'll give you a warning first so you can decide if you want to use the site.
Google desktop 5.0 beta is available for Vista, XP, and 2000+sp3
Every Tuesday, Infoblog will attempt to explain or define a term that is being used today. Today's term is DRM.
DRM
DRM (or Digital Rights Management) is a broad term used to describe a number of techniques for restricting the free use and transfer of digital content. Typically, a DRM system protects intellectual property by either encrypting the data so that it can only be accessed by authorized users or marking the content with a digital watermark or similar method so that the content can not be freely distributed. Supporters of DRM argue that without a means of encrypting digital content so that only the original purchasers have access, pirating will continue unabated.
DRM in the news today:
Berners-Lee calls for net neutrality, questions DRM
AnyDVD Says Buh-Bye To DRM
Barenaked Ladies: New Album. Free. No DRM. Now.
According to venture capitalist Simeon Simeonov an inside source has given him the low down on the long rumored Google Phone.
"here is what I have learned from my inside source:
- Blackberry-like, slick device
- C++ core w/ OS bootstrap (some version of Linux?)
- Optimized Java running on the C++ core (similar to what Andy did at Danger)
- Vector-based presentation courtesy of Skia’s technology
- Many services, including VoIP"
He also includes a photo of the Google Phone (leaked to Engadget).
Read more here and here.
Today Apple released updates for both iTunes an Quicktime today.
iTunes 7.1
Now supports Apple TV, full screen cover flow and improved sorting options.
Quicktime 7.1.5
Various bug fixes and critical security updates.
Still no Vista support for either one however.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
Last Friday, USA Today updated their website to capitalize on the web 2.0 and social networking trends and already are seeing some backlash from the community. In an open letter to their readers, USA Today announced the changes to their approach while trying to minimize the design aspect of it.
Changes include:
- A larger focus on the biggest stories of the day
- Tabbed interface including "Top Stories" and "Most Popular"
- A "Only on USA Today" section containing exclusive stories grouped together
- Ability to comment on news articles
- Recommend button (ala Digg This)
- Personal profile pages and avatar
- Photo submissions
- Story tags
- And an overhauled search feature
Regular visitors to the site have expressed their distaste for the new layout in comments on the "To our readers" letter. Here is just a sampling of their issues:
This format is horrible. Difficult to find anything. Front page way to long. Score and Stock links taken way from front page....bad. Readers opinions/blogs most prevelent thing on the front page....also bad - who cares.
Back to the drawing board ladies and gentlemen!
Count me among the many who registered only to complain. But note that this will be the last time anyone at USAToday.com hears from me. Because my boycott starts right now. It's clear from this reaction that USA 2.0 is a tragic misfire that didn't take into account the wants or needs of the original site's loyal core audience. However, complaining about the new site is a waste of all our time. The only logical action is to leave it now and leave it completely. Change your homepage setting today and avoid the tempation to visit the site for the next month or two. They'll get the message only if and when traffic numbers decrease and advertising revenues slide. Registering for the site, staying here and complaining gives false traffic numbers and with it false justification for the move.
For all of you who enjoyed the original site as much as I did for all those years, I invite you to join me in boycotting USAToday.com until it's management realizes it's error. Switch now. Stay away. Hope for the best.
See you all at CNN.I'm curious if the site will listen and respond but history as shown us that it doesn't happen that often.
Microsoft One Care has once again finished low in a comparative study of virus scanners. This time the report was done by independent security researcher Andreas Clementi. He submitted the results to his av-comparatives.org website. Some of the scanners evaluated were Avast! Professional, BitDefender Professional, FortiClient, F-Secure, Kaspersky, NOD32, and Norton. One care wasn't even comparable stopping only 82.4 percent of the 497,608 different pieces of malware thrown at it. One Care was the only scanner to register under 90% with most scanners stopping over over 95%. To see the online comparison click here.
If you downloaded WordPress 2.1.1 within the past 3-4 days, your files may include a security exploit that was added by a cracker, and you should upgrade all of your files to 2.1.2 immediately. Click here to download the current update. Wordpress 2.1.2
Ever since former President Bill Clinton blew his sax on The Arsenio Hall Show and talked about his boxers on MTV, presidential hopefuls have attempted to reach out to their young constituents with mixed results. With more than 600 days until the election, the race is heating up not only in your town but in your MySpace. That is where TechPresident.com comes in.[digg=http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Web_2_Obama]
TechPresident.com has gathered all the information on how technology will play a role in this upcomming election. In what might be seen as the first running tally of how many babies a candidate has kissed, TechPresident.com promises to cover the following topics:
A daily digest of fresh news clips, blog posts and campaign initiatives
Live from-the-campaign-trail photo feeds created by voters
Campaign website reviews
Links to campaign ads and websites (official and unofficial)
Charts showing who's winning the most friends on MySpace and Facebook
Detailed tracking of incoming blog links showing who's hot and why [to come]
Up-down voting on each candidate [to come]
A searchable repository of emails from each campaign [to come]
It remains to be seen if this is just another gauge of general popularity and not a snapshot of how a candidate turns new media into something concrete. Would an online faux pas affect a candidate in the real world? Just how many MySpace friends does it take to win an election? I guess we'll see in '08 or is it 2.0
We knew this was coming but now it's official. YouTube and BBC are in a non-exclusive aggreement that will see some of the BBC's high quality content on YouTube for at least the next several years. In a twist, YouTube will offer three channels for the content: BBC, BBC Worldwide and BBC News. Click below to read the press release in its entirety.
From MSDN:
Welcome to the Beginner Developer Learning Center - a centralized learning environment specifically targeted to beginning programmers. Here you'll find a rich array of learning content that starts with the very basics, and guides you through step-by-step to becoming a fully-fledged developer!
No experience or programming knowledge required - so dive right in!
Since they seem to cater to 10 year olds with no programing background, I might take a shot at learning more than what I've just "picked up" along the way. Wish me luck!
Beginner Developer Learning Center
I resisted it for a while but now I'm a Twitter. If you don't know what it is, this is what the website says about it:
Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing. For some friends you might want instant mobile updates—for others, you can just check the web. Invite your friends to Twitter and decide how connected you want you to be.
Ok so that doesn't explain much but just look at my Twitter feed to get an idea. http://twitter.com/DudeGuru
It could be used as a "mini-blog", an away message, or a personal feed of what you are doing. You can export it as an rss feed or intigrate it into a instant messanger or your blog. Not very useful unless you actually have people who want to know what you are doing all day but its kinda fun to play around with. I heard about it from Leo Laporte.
On another note, if anyone know how I can get my Twitter feed to work in the Wordpress sidebar, let me know please.
YouTube... ah that little website that has caught everyones attention and caused them to be late for work. Well if you think thats a time waster, you haven't seen anything yet.
I recently began beta testing a program called Joost (formally The Venace Project) and I've got to say, it has my attention. It was developed by and Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (creators of Kazaa and Skype) along with about 150 software developers starting in 2006. In a sentence, its a P2P TV application that is supposed to bring you visual media at near television resolution.
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