Saturday, September 11, 2010

19 new stories on The Next Web today

19 new stories on The Next Web today

Link to The Next Web

Wikileaks to Release Massive Document Collection on Iraq War

Posted: 11 Sep 2010 03:55 AM PDT

Wikileaks is considered one of New Media's most influential and unprecedented sources in the past couple of yearsWikileaks.org the website behind the recent release of more than 92,000 documents covering US military operations and communications in Afghanistan are currently in the works of releasing a massive collection on similar documents regarding operations in Iraq 3 times the size of that released before.

Wikieleaks the global whistleblower website which came into the spotlight after releasing a video of a US military massacre in Iraq caught on a pilot’s video feed titled ‘Collateral Damage‘ (Extreme caution advised NSFW) has revealed that it is currently working with a not-for-profit organization to release programs and stories based on what is described as massive cache of classified U.S. military field reports related to the Iraq War.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has teamed up with media organizations—including major television networks and one or more American media outlets—in an unspecified number of countries to produce a set of documentaries and stories based on the cache of Iraq War documents in the possession of WikiLeaks stated it’s Editor Iain Overton reported Newsweek earlier today.

Overton acknowledged that the volume of Iraq War reports that WikiLeaks has made available for the project is massive, and almost certainly more than the 92,000 Afghan field reports the organization made available for advance review to The New York Times, Britain’s Guardian, and Germany’s Der Spiegel.

After contacting regional news networks like Al Jazeera it is not yet clear whether or not they will be amongst those participating in the media coverage of the documents that are speculated to contain information that could put many lives at risk.

Individuals and organizations most expected to be at risk will be Iraqis whom cooperated with the US Army throughout and after the invasion of the country that left more than 1.5 million killed and over 7 million internally and externally displaced.

Original title and link for this post: Wikileaks to Release Massive Document Collection on Iraq War

Windows Phone 7 Coming To Broadway For October 11 Launch

Posted: 11 Sep 2010 01:49 AM PDT

New York City will serve as the location for another product launch in October, on the 11th of that month Microsoft are in town and Windows Phone 7 will be getting its first formal outing, in what is thought to be its formal launch event.

CNET confirmed the details, which will not primarily serve as a Windows Phone launch but rather an “open house” that will serve as a more casual, consumer focused event.

It is expected that the New York event won’t be an event to showcase each of Microsoft’s launch partners’ new Windows Phone 7 powered smartphones, although it is expected that manufacturers including LG, Asus, HTC and Samsung will be displaying some of their devices with the intention of releasing them later in October.

Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 operating system is Microsoft’s attempt at creating a more consumer friendly mobile experience, coming away from its previous business-centric OS. With Xbox Live integration, support for Hotmail, Outlook and Internet Explorer, Microsoft hopes that consumers will recognise its brand names and continue to use them on its new mobile devices.

Original title and link for this post: Windows Phone 7 Coming To Broadway For October 11 Launch

Samsung Cuts US Carrier Deals, Gets Sept 16 Unveiling

Posted: 11 Sep 2010 01:01 AM PDT

After a successful European unveiling, Samsung were quiet on release dates and availability in North America as it tried to work out deals with various carriers.

It appears that the electronics giant has managed to establish deals with Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint to carry its new Galaxy Tab device, intentionally putting an end to carrier exclusivity so that customers of all networks can take advantage of carrier subsidises and order the new tablet.

WSJ reported the deals, confirmed to them by three independent sources, and it is expected that Samsung will unveiled its Galaxy Tab at an event held at the Time Warner Center in New York City on September 16.

T-Mobile USA have yet to confirm they will be carrying the tablet, the only company of the big four US networks, a device that will likely retail for between $200 and $300 depending on independent carrier deals, but could cost up to $800 if bought unlocked.

Samsung will hope the deals with carriers will appeal to consumers as it tries to compete against Apple’s iPad. The iPad require customers to take out a separate data tariff if they intend to buy a 3G unit with no carrier subsidies available.

Original title and link for this post: Samsung Cuts US Carrier Deals, Gets Sept 16 Unveiling

Who’s your new Daddy? GoDaddy.com goes up for sale.

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 04:17 PM PDT

According to a story just published by The Wall Street Journal, GoDaddy.com, a website that registers Internet domain names and is known for its intriguing, because of their raciness, commercials has put itself for auction.

GoDaddy.com is no one trick pony, however.  The company also sells e-commerce, security and other services to individuals and businesses in need of managing their online presence.  Financial records indicate the company posted revenue between $750 million and $800 million in 2009.

With the domain registration successes and other services, those familiar with the sale indicate the auction of the site could result in a sale exceeding more than $1 billion.

Technology banker Frank Quattrone who runs Qatalyst Partners, has seen his firm selected as the party to execute the sale of Go Daddy Group Inc. which runs the world’s largest domain name registrar.

Who's expected to try to acquire the company?  According to WSJ, "Private-equity firms are expected to bid for the company, which currently has more than 43 million domains under management."

Are you a GoDaddy.com customer?  What services do you use?  Your prediction on the final sale price?

Original title and link for this post: Who’s your new Daddy? GoDaddy.com goes up for sale.

City of Vancouver, Cisco and Pulse Energy make a deal to bring green tech to you and me

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 03:11 PM PDT

The City of Vancouver, Cisco, and Vancouver-based Pulse Energy have inked a deal to bring green tech and energy management tools to Vancouver city buildings and homes in the near future. I had a chance to chat with City Councilor Andrea Reimer about what the deal means for people and, frankly, I’m excited about the program. Andrea told me that there is a five-pronged approach to this initiative that will first bring smart metering to city buildings, then to homeowners (get me on that list!), green data centres, data analysis by the University of British Columbia, a living lab showcasing local technologies, and finally connecting in with Urban Eco Map. All together this means we’ll have more information and understand of how we use energy and where we can save energy.

Did you know that you can achieve a 4-15% reduction in energy use (therefore cost) just by knowing about your energy use? So applied to city buildings, the first phase, this could save taxpayers a good chunk of change. When you apply this to homeowners, imagine what you can save by eliminating and managing “vampire devices” in your home. In the homeowner phase, Cisco and Pulse will be supplying their technologies for free to help both test the devices in the real world and provide data for UBC’s analysis of power use. Yeah, sign me up for that! I’m game!

The data from this project will help feed into the Urban Eco Map (currently Amsterdam and San Francisco are the only cities in the map) which will allow people to understand their city’s even their neighborhood’s energy use. Maybe your neighborhood is great at saving electricity, but your carbon footprint is high because of driving, you could look at similar areas that have lower carbon footprints and see what they are doing (or just move there).

Andrea said that this initiative ties in nicely with both Vancouver’s Open Data project and the Greenest City 2020 plan, but some might cry fowl because most of our electricity use (for example) is generated by hydro power (so little carbon impact). What would reducing electricity use do for climate change? Andrea took this head on noting that by reducing the energy use now, we stave off having to build more dams and plants in the future, which would save both money and conserve land.

From the Cisco press release, here are the highlights and goals:

  • The city of Vancouver, Cisco and Pulse Energy are joining together to explore opportunities that will transform the city’s energy and environmental strategy through the use of innovative technology. Principal areas of collaboration will include:
  • A showcase for Vancouver technologies: Creating a ‘living lab’ culture that enables and showcases Vancouver and B.C.-based technologies developed in partnership with the city, global leaders like Cisco, and other local partners like Pulse Energy.
  • Building-energy management: Deploying a comprehensive pilot of the Cisco Network Building Mediator, combined with Pulse Energy software, to monitor and manage energy consumption for several city-owned buildings, including City Hall.
  • Residential-energy management: Conducting pilot deployments of the Cisco Home Energy Controller, focused on enabling consumers to monitor and reduce residential electricity consumption. IDC found that customers reduce overall energy use by 4 to 15 percent when they receive real-time feedback on power consumption. According to a study by Zogby International, 74 percent of users are likely to change their energy use if they are given the technology solutions to do so.
  • Energy sustainability:  Enabling Vancouver to provide climate-change information and actionable steps for its citizens to take to minimize their environmental impact. Vancouver will utilize Cisco’s Urban EcoMap, an Internet-based tool, to create awareness among its residents of the impact of carbon emissions on their urban environment. The tool provides information on carbon emissions from transportation, neighborhood energy and waste use, and delivers tips on ways to reduce a resident’s carbon footprint.
  • “Green” data center:  Establishing a model energy-efficient data center to foster research, development and deployment to advance the transition to the real-time data acquisition and integration of smart-grid applications.

The bottom line for me, and what I think people should be excited about, is that the city is first going to be more proactive about trying to save energy. City buildings and data centres are huge energy sucks, anything we can do to help reduce that will save money. Leading the way, then bringing homeowners/renters into the picture is a great way to get green tech accepted and in use. When the Living Lab opens, you can bet I’ll be there to show you the cool stuff that will be showcased (cause I think all of this stuff is cool).

Original title and link for this post: City of Vancouver, Cisco and Pulse Energy make a deal to bring green tech to you and me

Prezi launches Prezi Meeting to create presentations that pop.

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 01:15 PM PDT

Prezi has added some neat new features to its already slick product.

What’s Prezi? According to their site:

“At Prezi, we prefer not to follow trends. Instead, we learn about culture and respond with technology. We believe in humanity's desire for creativity and self-expression.”

With that goal in mind, Prezi has added to its slideless presentation platform and launched “Prezzi Meeting.”

Prezi Meeting allows users to work together in real-time, whether in the same room or in separate locations, near and far.

“Prezi Meeting is the ideal way to brainstorm collaboratively and share thoughts with team members from disparate locations,” said Michael Fauscette, group Vice President of Software Solutions, IDC.

“Unlike traditional slide-based presentation tools, Prezi lets users zoom in and out to examine the big picture and focus on details, which is great for creating and showing compelling messages,” said Peter Arvai, chief executive officer Prezi, Inc. “Now, with Prezi Meeting, teams around the world can work together in real time or simply present prezis to each other.”

Here’s how Prezi Meeting works:

  • Originators of presentations — or “prezis” — email an invitation with a special URL to designated editing collaborators.
  • Recipients open the prezi by pasting the URL into any web browser.
  • Once designated team members have opened the same link, users “see” invited collaborators as individual animated avatars on the shared prezi canvas.
  • Collaborators can easily explore the prezi together, then add their own ideas in the form of text, images, and videos while watching their colleagues do the same.
  • Team members talk their way through the collaborative editing process using such Web-based communications tools as Skype.
  • Text, images, and videos added to the prezi are visible to all collaborators simultaneously, giving remote team members the sensation of being in the same creative space together.
  • When the brainstorming, collaboration, and editing of the prezi are completed to the team’s satisfaction, any participant can switch to Show mode and present the prezi to anyone with a browser without the need for additional web meeting tools.

Here’s a nice little video from the folks at prezi:

Prezi is a grand presentation product, endorsed by the equally as grand Robert Scoble, “if you want to do better presentations, you should visit the Presentation Zen blog, and you should use Prezi instead of Microsoft PowerPoint.

If you’ve tried Prezi, what do you like/dislike about it?  If you are a die-hard PowerPoint or Keynote user, will you give Prezi a look as an alternative?

Original title and link for this post: Prezi launches Prezi Meeting to create presentations that pop.

End of an Era: Bloglines Shutting Down October 1

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 12:36 PM PDT

If you’ve been in the Web 2.0/Social Media space for more than 4-5 years, your introduction to RSS was probably Bloglines. It was THE web-based RSS reader. Everyone used it. I used it until Google Reader came out, and I guess so did everyone else. The announcement came today from Ask.com that Bloglines will fade away into the Web 2.0 sunset October 1st. It’s a pity, because one of my first thoughts was “wait, it hadn’t closed already!?!”, Bloglines was the innovator. It was the benchmark that Google Reader and other RSS tools were measured against. Believe me, I tried all the RSS tools out there. There was a time when I was even working on an RSS reader called Lektora (which was way, way ahead of its time), and still Bloglines was the standard.

What killed Bloglines? I think it’s too simplistic to say that Google and Google Reader killed it. NetNewsWire and FeedDemon adapted to sync with GR (okay that killed Newsgator Online, but that might have been a good thing for them), couldn’t Bloglines have seen the writing on the wall that just having the stand alone product wasn’t enough? What if Bloglines had switched to an import and sync with GR model? Maybe focused on filling gaps in the GR offering instead of trying to go it alone?

Bloglines faded because it lost its ecosystem of users and didn’t innovate to keep up. I think it could have survived, but even as early as 2005-6 it was starting to lag behind. I think the purchase by Ask only did bad things for it Bloglines, in the long run. But that’s all for naught now.

Bloglines we’ll miss you, I think we already have been for some time.

Original title and link for this post: End of an Era: Bloglines Shutting Down October 1

Did a science columnist for Oprah’s magazine get fired for her views on pseudoscience?

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 11:47 AM PDT

It’s hard to pinpoint when critics first began sounding the alarm to the health and wellness views that Oprah Winfrey has been broadcasting to her millions of fans, probably because the views are interspersed with so much other innocuous content. While provocateurs like Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann assert daily proclamations that are ridiculed by their political opponents, Oprah can put on entire episodes without diving into a single controversial topic. But over the years there has been a growing body of criticism that questions many of the unchallenged claims guests make on her show and accuses her of pushing damaging pseudoscience on millions.

In a 2007 piece titled “Oprah’s ugly secret” — a harsh detraction of her support for the pseudoscientific phenomenon The Secret — Salon began by giving recognition to the millions of dollars the daytime host has given to worthy causes before wondering if “in light of her zealous support” of The Secret, “isn’t it reasonable to ask about why she does what she does, and the way she does it?” A 2009 Newsweek piece was even more damning, highlighting an incident in which Oprah invited on Suzanne Somers to explain how she injects hormones into her vagina as a means to stay youthful, after which Oprah claimed she had begun doing the exact same thing. “Suzanne swears by bioidenticals and refuses to keep quiet,” she told the audience. “She’ll take on anyone, including any doctor who questions her.”

One of the countless doctors who have questioned Oprah’s wisdom over the years has been Harriet Hall, a retired family physician and former Air Force flight surgeon who writes for the blog Science-Based Medicine. Perhaps this is why several bloggers expressed shock when an editor from O: The Oprah Magazine asked her to write a kind of medical myth busting column. It’s also why so few were surprised when she announced on her blog that she had been fired from the column.

But why was she fired, exactly? To read many of the blogs and tweets linking to her post, one would think that the magazine was uncomfortable with her scientific rigor and skepticism toward pseudoscience beliefs. Reading the first few paragraphs of her post, it’s not difficult to assume as much. “I told [Oprah Magazine editor] Mr. Graham my opinion of Oprah and of her chosen medical expert Dr. Oz and why I was hesitant to associate my name with theirs, and he seemed to understand,” Hall wrote of her early conversations with the editor. ” … I foolishly assumed Mr. Graham was trying to improve Oprah's image by introducing more science and skepticism to the magazine.”

But reading further into the post, it seemed like this was more a case of gross editorial incompetence on the part of the magazine than any ideological backlash. Hall described unreasonable word restrictions (only 250 for an entire column), late and non-existent payments for her work, being shifted from editor to editor, fact checkers who had no scientific knowledge and couldn’t understand basic citations, and delayed publication of her work. As Gawker noted, “many of her complaints would be familiar to any freelance writer for any magazine anywhere.”

So was this just an example of a magazine not understanding how to handle its talent, or were there more nefarious anti-scientific motivations at play?

“I think it was just editorial incompetence,” Hall told me in a phone interview. “And I know those kinds of things happen in big organizations everywhere. I don't think my skepticism was an issue. In fact they didn't let me write about anything skeptical, so the issue never really came up.”

Still, Hall couldn’t help but read into the scientific stance of the magazine because of how its editors “fact checked” her pieces. “One thing that one of [my blog] commenters pointed out is that they're demanding scientific precision from me, and yet they let Dr. Oz and the people who go on Oprah's show talk about ridiculous and unscientific things and they're not challenged at all,” she said. “There is a definite double standard.”

If given more freedom, Hall said she would have picked her own topics and would have preferred an editor with more scientific knowledge. “Some of the questions they asked” when asking for clarification “just showed a depth of scientific ignorance that was really appalling.”

Hall told me she decided to write about her firing from the magazine because her blog at Science-Based Medicine acts as a kind of therapy. She explained that she enjoyed the immediate feedback that results from blogging and much prefers it to magazine writing, which must be done months in advance before publication and therefore precludes writing about timely topics.

In her blog post, she said she felt relief when O pulled the plug because she had grown tired of fighting with management. And at least one email she received from someone who had worked for the same editor gave credence to the idea that it was editorial incompetence — not ideological beliefs — that led to her unhappiness.

“I quit writing for womens magazines because of working with [Oprah Magazine editor] Jennifer Rainey Marquez, though she was at Women’s Health then,” the emailer wrote, referring to a magazine Marquez worked for before O. “She contacted me about writing a piece about books to build your healthy library. I wrote three outlines and she tossed out some books because she thought that what they said didn't fit with their theme … After a year of this, she canceled the piece and said I didn't deserve a kill fee since I'd only done an outline. I went over her head and got paid because she asked me. Ridiculous that I write for a living."

Original title and link for this post: Did a science columnist for Oprah’s magazine get fired for her views on pseudoscience?

WordPress.com Launches Blog Subscriptions

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 11:02 AM PDT

Claiming that RSS feeds are “tricky to manage for a non-technical person,” WordPress.com has built a simple method for their users to subscribe to other blogs in the network. They call it rather originally, ‘Subscriptions.’

The system allows for users to, with a single click, follow a blog on the network and have its posts fed to their ‘subscriptions tab’ in their account. WordPress.com calls the system “an easy way to track and read posts across multiple blogs, all in once place.”

Think of it like a stripped down Google Reader that can only read blog posts from a single host. The scenario for its use is this:

“Let's say you're reading a blog on WordPress.com that you really enjoy — so much so you want to be notified when new posts are published so you remember to read them. You can subscribe to this blog really easily by using the "Subscribe" menu in the admin bar. By going up to your admin bar, and clicking "Subscribe to blog", you'll be instantly subscribed.”

Groundbreaking? Hardly. But for the masses of WordPress.com users this is going to give them another nice community tool that will promote total content consumption, something that will make the average user very happy.

Flame them if you want, but this tool is a welcome, if late, addition to the WordPress.com platform.

Oh, and if you get lost the WordPress.com team has thrown together a help page.

Original title and link for this post: WordPress.com Launches Blog Subscriptions

Snap up Camera 360 Pro for Android and snap photos like a pro.

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 10:37 AM PDT

TNW Quick Hit

Camera 360 Pro turns your Android device into into a professional camera with an impressive set of features.

Love It: One of, if not the best, camera apps for Android devices.

Hate It: Fairly expensive app. Can be buggy.

Overall: 4/5

The Details:

I will readily admit I am new to the Android scene.  I have had an Android device, for 2 months, and tested others.  iPhone 4 is still my best friend, but I do understand the appeal of Android devices and do enjoy having one.

However, one thing annoys me above all others, how do you find new, really good apps on Android (if you know please comment below)?  Like a camera app?  Our own Brad McCarty turned me on (not literally) to Retro Camera and FxCamera, but I wanted something more.  So the search began and I found what I was looking for, Camera 360 Pro ($3.99).

What a delicious camera app, not without its flaws mind you, for an Android device.

The app features:

  • "Tap to Focus."
  • Photo selection alteration, allowing one to select of a certain area in a photo after taking it and adding features to your selection.
  • The ability to add background scenery, take photos in fish eye style, photo symmetry, Andy Warhol-style 4 color tiles, HDR simulations (Light and Heavy), and even "Ghost Mode."
  • Zooming supported and is done using the volume rocker.
  • If your device supports it, Camera 360 Pro will take advantage of your GPS chip for Geo-tagging and the phone’s Flash for low light situations.
  • The ability to delete, save or send, and if you touch the image it shows the original image and when you release your finger it switches back to edited image.

Below are some great pictures taken with the app on an HTC Hero, courtesy of cloudplasma.  As you can see, the images taken with the app are incredible.  I'd post some of mine, but let's face it, I am not the photography great I think I am, I simply love great photography apps.

While the app is priced at $3.99, and can crash or experience delays on occasion, I found these annoyances to be few and far between, and the price well worth it..  For me, the new Android user, Camera 360 Pro quickly captured my heart, and I suspect it will do the same once you try it.

Get Camera 360 Pro here, or by scanning below and let me know what you think of the app, other great camera options and how you find Android apps in an ever-expanding market.

Original title and link for this post: Snap up Camera 360 Pro for Android and snap photos like a pro.

Office For Mac 2011: Coming This October 26th

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 09:45 AM PDT

That is right ladies and gentlemen, according to the obsessive 9to5mac the upcoming version of Office for computers running OSX will be released this October 26th.

How did they find out? Amazon pulled one of their classic slip-ups and pushed the shipping date out before they should have. Thanks to Bezos for the following image:

The academic version will cost a mere $99, the Student version should run $119, and the Business and Home version will cost $199. Pricey for most, but not out of the ballpark in terms of sticker level.

There you have it Mac users, unless Amazon was just kidding you can start the countdown to an Office refresh.

Original title and link for this post: Office For Mac 2011: Coming This October 26th

How FarmVille Stacks Up Against Actual Farms

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 08:51 AM PDT

No matter whether you hate or love FarmVille, you have to admit its massive place in online society. This lovely infographic breaks down the wildly popular virtual farming application and compares it to actual (real world and all that) farmers. Enjoy!

Thanks to Mashable for having this put together.

Original title and link for this post: How FarmVille Stacks Up Against Actual Farms

Nokia N8 Commercial Breaks Cover

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 08:50 AM PDT

With the Nokia N8 release looming and the upcoming Nokia World event coming soon, its expected that we will begin to see various commercials and marketing materials.

Today a new commercial has emerged, even though it was posted on August 31, showcasing the Nokia N8 and carrying a “It's not technology, it's what you do with it,” tagline.

The ad centres on various Nokia handsets, showing how they have helped advance technology, its a little sad that the N8 doesn’t get more screen-time.

There’s no doubting the commercial is engaging and thoughtful, I feel it doesn’t give enough viewing time to the Nokia N8, the smartphone charged with reversing the Finnish mobile giant’s fortunes.

Original title and link for this post: Nokia N8 Commercial Breaks Cover

Placing your bets on Google TV? Here’s the spread.

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 08:43 AM PDT

It’s an interesting world, this Internet. Apparently you can now place a wager on anything, and people do just that. YouWager.com has put its knowledge to the test by placing some lines on upcoming Google products.

According to the lines, it appears that Google TV will  be more expensive (not surprising), yet immediately more successful (somewhat surprising) than the recent Apple TV offering.

As for the rest of the details? Here’s what YouWager had to say:

Will Google TV cost more than Apple TV ($99)?

Yes 66.7% (-200)
No 50% (+100)

Launching this fall, will the Google TV sales exceed 100,000 by January to surpass the Apple TV launch sales figures?

Yes 75.2% (-300)
No 33.3% (+200)

Will Samsung join Sony and Logitech in offering sets with Google built in before January 2011?

Yes 75.2% (-300)
No 33.3% (+200)

Will Google announce its rumored Google Me social network before year end?

Yes 83.3% (-500)
No 25% (+300)

Original title and link for this post: Placing your bets on Google TV? Here’s the spread.

The Times’ Paywall Momentarily Falls Over

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 08:26 AM PDT

If you head over to The Times (and also Sunday Times) website right now, it’s very likely that you will be able to view all of the articles on the news website, despite the fact that the publication is meant to be behind a very public paywall.

At the moment there have been no official statements on the matter, although some of The Times’ journalists, namely Caitlin Moran, are making light of the situation by telling their Twitter followers to read as many of their articles as possible before the paywall is reinstated.

The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones says that The Times website is undergoing some routine maintainence:

The Times says routine maintenance is underway on its login page (sounds like they’re changing the oil) & the paywall will be up again soon.

Other Twitter users have realised the error and are urging Twitter users to bombard the The Times website with pageviews to show Rupert Murdoch (owner of The Times) just how much traffic the website would get without a paywall.

If The Times is a publication you enjoyed reading before the introduction of a pay barrier, now’s your chance to absorb all that the newspaper website has to offer before it goes back behind its iron curtain.

Original title and link for this post: The Times' Paywall Momentarily Falls Over

Skype Gives Out 30 million Minutes of Calls for Eid

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 08:15 AM PDT

Skype sends you Eid Greetings worth 30 million minutesSkype has decided to make Eid this year a bit less expensive for those of you living or working away from friends and family and because celebrating Eid would not be the same without your friends and family…

Skype is giving away up to 30 minutes worth of calls to landlines and mobiles to 1 million people worldwide. Anyone registered with Skype can go to happy.skype.com to request a Skype Credit voucher so that they can start sending happy Eid wishes around the world. Anyone not on Skype can get started by downloading Skype from Skype.com and following the simple instructions.

The Skype Credit voucher can be used to reach friends and family on their phones in places like India, Turkey, USA, or Europe at low pay as you go rates, and to send text messages to mobiles from your computer.

The only downside to the offer is that after applying you’ll have to wait for some time before you get the voucher, possibly 3 days, so if it’s mom or dad waiting for that phone call I’d suggest making it and postpone some of those distant relatives and friends for the Skype Eid credit.

You should receive it within 3 days from

If you’re in a country like the UAE where Skype is blocked you might want to consider getting yourself an application like UltraSurf which you can download here.

Original title and link for this post: Skype Gives Out 30 million Minutes of Calls for Eid

BlurryPeople is what ChatRoulette 2.0 could have been

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 07:43 AM PDT

When Chatroulette took the Internet by storm earlier this year there was much talk about its potential as new type of video chat service. However, by the time version 2.0 launched recently we declared that "The joke's worn off" and argued that it was likely to forever remain the home of exhibitionists, perverts and voyeurs.

However, that doesn't mean that another "chat with random people" service couldn't slide nicely into the mainstream. One site hoping to offer exactly that cleaner take on the Chatroulette model is BlurryPeople. The basic premise of the service may seem a little silly at first, but bear with me…

BlurryPeople is essentially Chatroulette, but with the difference that the people you chat with are blurred when you first see them. Over time they gradually become clearly visible. The idea is that if the person at the other end is up to something you'd rather not see (all too common on Chatroulette) you can click away to a different chat before you get a complete view.

On its own this might not seem like much, but BlurryPeople has been designed to offer a safer and more user friendly than its notorious competitor. You know what? It might just take off.

After each chat you're given a chance to rate the people you see on their friendliness, how interesting they are and how good looking they are. These ratings are then used to allow users to filter the type of people they want to see. So, you could narrow down to only see ugly but friendly men in their fifties, for example, or attractive and interesting women in their twenties (hey, different strokes for different folks!).

BlurryPeople has been created by the team behind Dutch dating site Paiq.nl and it's no surprise that they are planning to develop and monetize the dating potential of BlurryPeople.

The problem the team may face is that chatting to a blurred-out person can be a little disconcerting at first and may put off some first time users. There's no potential for eye contact, making it more like an audio chatroom, at least until the blur clears. Still, as an example of how the ChatRoutlette model can be cleaned up, BlurryPeople excels.

Original title and link for this post: BlurryPeople is what ChatRoulette 2.0 could have been

FaceTime Coming To Mac OSX And Windows?

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 07:24 AM PDT

It’s that time of the week loyal readers, the lovely moment when we bring to you the juiciest Apple rumor to be had. Today’s edition of “things that may be true, but don’t bet the house on it” is the bit of gossip that indeed FaceTime, Apple’s video chatting solution, may be coming to regular Mac computers and Windows machines.

Why does this not make sense? Apple has so far focused FaceTime on the iPhone 4 and the new iPod Touch, two mobile devices. To bring the protocol and software to desktops and laptops does change the focus of the product.

Why does this make sense? Apple claimed that FaceTime was going to be an ‘open standard‘ for calling, meaning that it was to be free to use on numerous devices including non-mobile solutions. If not, Apple would have called it an open mobile standard, or something close to that. Also, by bringing it to regular computers, Apple is making an end-run around Skype, which cannot do video calling into mobile at the moment, but is working on the problem.

Who broke this rumor? The lovely French Mac4Ever, who have something of a strong track record on calling things correctly. There it is folks, your rumor. If it is true we shall all find out in due time.

Original title and link for this post: FaceTime Coming To Mac OSX And Windows?

Google gets family friendly with a new Family Safety Center

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 07:21 AM PDT

Google’s newest feature, a Family Safety Center, is being billed as a “a one-stop shop about staying safe online”. Featuring practical tips, timely advice and instruction for using online safety tools, the site is dedicated to enhancing the comfort of parents raising kids in an online world.

Google has some heavy-hitting partners in the Family Safety Center, as well. On top of hearing from parents who work at Google, you’ll see advice from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's OnGuard Online initiative, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, theAustralian Communications and Media Authority, U.K.'s ChildNet, and New Zealand'sNetSafe.

Original title and link for this post: Google gets family friendly with a new Family Safety Center

Android on track to become #2 mobile OS worldwide in 2010

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 06:54 AM PDT

If the numbers speak the truth, then the growth of Android is likely even larger than what we’ve heard in the past. According to research group Gartner, Android is on track to become the 2nd most used mobile operating system in the US before the end of 2010, and could surpass Symbian as soon as 2014.

It should come as no surprise, honestly, given the numbers that we’ve seen in the past couple of months concerning the explosive growth of the platform. However, bear in mind that this still isn’t a game of Android versus iPhone. The apples-to-oranges comparrison simply isn’t fair given Android’s availability across a number of devices and carriers.

Make no mistake, however. Symbian, at this point, still dwarfs Android in the worldwide market. The stalwart OS’s market share appears to be on a slippery slope, though, and this leaves the door open for Android to overcome:

Original title and link for this post: Android on track to become #2 mobile OS worldwide in 2010

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