The Next Web |  |
- Facebook partners with Y Combinator to spur “deeply social” startups
- ActiveSync coming to Hotmail on Monday reports CNET
- Back to the future: Yahoo’s Time Explorer is a search engine for the past and future
- Mophie juices up mobile payments on the iPhone with Intuit partnership.
- Foursquare To Start Polling Your Mayorship Chances
- The Next Web Podcast – Episode 24: Long podcast is long
- WordPress By The Numbers
- Distort the dickens out of your photos with Photastic HD for iPad.
- Appsfire, the app recommendation engine, gets truly social with Facebook Connect.
- Yelp Officially Testing Yelp Deals
- Google launches new Real Time Search tools
- Movie Studios Suing Advertisers On Pirate Websites
- The full Android 2.2 build for HTC Droid Incredible has leaked
- What Digg Needs To Change To Keep Its Users Happy
- Boomerang for Gmail updates. Better management, more control, UI improvements abound.
- Netflix app for iPhone and iPod Touch launched.
- Nsyght Turbo-Charges Twitter Lists
- Google’s Acquisition Appetite: An Infographic
- iPhone Dev Team Will Not Offer iOS 4.0.2 Specific Jailbreak
- RIM in final talks with India ahead of security deadline
| Facebook partners with Y Combinator to spur “deeply social” startups Posted: 26 Aug 2010 05:50 PM PDT
Y Combinator, led by Paul Graham, pushes out a lot of great startups, including ones that you’ve read about here on TNW and others such as Divvyshot that have been acquired by Facebook in the past. Its model is so well-respected, in fact, that Y Combinator clones have started to pop up worldwide. As far as Facebook’s role?
The announcement also serves as a sneak peak for an upcoming Y Combinator announcement where it will be looking for interested entrepreneurs for the winter funding cycle of 2011. Original title and link for this post: Facebook partners with Y Combinator to spur “deeply social” startups     |
| ActiveSync coming to Hotmail on Monday reports CNET Posted: 26 Aug 2010 05:21 PM PDT CNET is reporting that Microsoft’s Dharmesh Mehta has told them that on Monday, August 30, Exchange ActiveSync will be enabled for Hotmail users, allowing users to receive push emails on mobile devices. This is apparently a long awaited feature for Hotmail users according to CNET, and one that Microsoft promised to roll out when it updated Hotmail recently. According to CNET, the integration will work like this:
Any Hotmail users out there reading this? Are you excited about this? Please let us know in the comments! Original title and link for this post: ActiveSync coming to Hotmail on Monday reports CNET    |
| Back to the future: Yahoo’s Time Explorer is a search engine for the past and future Posted: 26 Aug 2010 04:50 PM PDT A Yahoo lab in Barcelona has developed Time Explorer, a new search engine that goes back AND forward in time to see what people have said and predicted will happen on a topic. Here’s the timeline you get when you search for “China”: Right now, Time Explorer is populated with New York Times articles dating back to 1987, and it certainly is fascinating. Basically the idea is that people say things about the future all the time, such as “by 2035 we’ll have a true Semantic Web,” etc., and what Time Explorer does is index and serve results around the year that NYT writers referenced. So an article written in 1992 about 1992 will show up on the Time Explorer timeline under 1992, but an article written in 1993 about 2011, will show up under 2011.
Time Explorer most closely resembles Wolfram Alpha in how it presents its data, and is certainly closer to that site than traditional search engines. A note on the site says that right now Time Explorer only supports Firefox. Regardless, this new effort from Yahoo is certainly something to keep an eye on in the future. Original title and link for this post: Back to the future: Yahoo’s Time Explorer is a search engine for the past and future    |
| Mophie juices up mobile payments on the iPhone with Intuit partnership. Posted: 26 Aug 2010 04:43 PM PDT Mobile payment systems are quite popular right now. Square, Inc., the mobile payment service founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, aims for a mass rollout of its much mobile payment product by the end of Summer. Visa and Bank of America are rolling out a mobile payment system based on Visa payWave technology and using a system called In2Pay, starting in New York this September. Now Mophie is entering the fray. According to a statement on Mophie's site, Mophie is partnering with Intuit on what they are calling, "Complete Credit Card Solution for iPhone." Mophie, known for their battery extending options, is combining its resources with Intuit, "a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals," on a mobile payment solution for iPhone owners. According to the statement, the system "integrates Intuit's GoPayment credit card processing app and quick-to-activate merchant account with the mophie marketplace credit card reader. This package is now available in Apple Retail Stores and soon on Apple.com" How does it work?
An additional option lets businesses integrate GoPayment with QuickBooks Mac to easily and quickly match the right customer and invoice in QuickBooks. The service is priced as follows:
Compare that to Square, priced at 2.75% + $.15 if a credit card is present, and 3.5% + $.15 when a card is keyed into the Square app, with no setup fees or other additional fees required. Should Square be concerned? Not at this point. Square's card reader is compatible with any iPhone 3G/3GS, and iPhone 4, while Mophie's option is a case designed for only iPhone 3G/3GS at this point. That said, the added QuickBooks functionality and instant availability of the product makes it stiff competition for Square, especially for mid to large companies looking for an all-in-one payment management system. What do you think? In the mobile payment sphere who currently holds the stronger position, Mophie/Intuit or Square? Original title and link for this post: Mophie juices up mobile payments on the iPhone with Intuit partnership.    |
| Foursquare To Start Polling Your Mayorship Chances Posted: 26 Aug 2010 03:11 PM PDT Foursquare’s support Twitter account tweeted out a curious message an hour ago, and now they have confirmed it with a blog post: We’ve checked in on the iOS, Android apps, as well as on foursquare.com/mobile, and we don’t see any indication of this, or any number that says how far away we are from any given mayorship – but Foursquare says that it is rolling it out today – possibly the reason we’re not seeing anything is that we’re not close enough to the mayorship of the venues we’re checking into? AboutFoursquare has a screenshot of the feature on their post, though. Here’s what Foursquare said on its blog:
This is a good move by Foursquare. Many people have started to complain not only that it is nearly impossible to get mayorships in major cities now, but also many people are very surprised when they lose a mayorship, especially if they regularly check into a venue. This should not only clear up a lot of those issues, but spur people to go after mayorships (and any rewards associated with those mayorships) that are within possible reach. Image: The committee to re-elect Mayor Cartman Original title and link for this post: Foursquare To Start Polling Your Mayorship Chances    |
| The Next Web Podcast – Episode 24: Long podcast is long Posted: 26 Aug 2010 03:04 PM PDT
Because you know us, we never get off topic. Ever. Nope.
On this week’s show: Brad McCarty (Nashville), Matt Brian (Essex), Alex Wilhelm (Palo Alto) Download / Listen:
In this week's episode: Kindle Outselling iBooks 60 To 1 Google Officially Adds Google Voice To Gmail Alexa: YouTube surpasses Yahoo! as the Internet's 3rd most visited site A "special event" from Apple on September 1st. Is this the new Apple TV? Original title and link for this post: The Next Web Podcast – Episode 24: Long podcast is long    This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 26 Aug 2010 02:38 PM PDT |
| Distort the dickens out of your photos with Photastic HD for iPad. Posted: 26 Aug 2010 11:20 AM PDT
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| Appsfire, the app recommendation engine, gets truly social with Facebook Connect. Posted: 26 Aug 2010 11:10 AM PDT
While Appsfire already solved the issue of having to import your applications, the social issue wasn’t so easy to overcome. However, Appsfire has just integrated Facebook Connect as a sign-in method for its Buddies page, so your social graph just became your best source for new apps. Facebook is quite happy with the implementation, it seems. From Christian Hernandez, Head of Inernational Bussiness Development for Facebook:
So what does Facebook Connect bring to the Appsfire table? Here’s the list, courtesy of Appsfire:
The other side of Appsfire? It’s a developer’s dreamland. Developers can think of Appsfire as a download accelerator for their product. Exponential growth, 1.5 million clicks/month and integrated app previews are an amazing source of truly organic marketing for developers.
Original title and link for this post: Appsfire, the app recommendation engine, gets truly social with Facebook Connect.    |
| Yelp Officially Testing Yelp Deals Posted: 26 Aug 2010 10:36 AM PDT Yelp has started its foray into the deals space with two deals in San Diego, according to the Yelp Blog. We first reported exactly a month ago of rumors of Yelp testing deals in Sacremento, CA, but today’s announcement is official confirmation that Yelp is getting into the deal space. Interestingly, Yelp has chosen to offer its first two deals at a spa and a yoga studio, instead of at resturants, which is the service’s bread and butter (pardon the pun). The first deal is finished, but the current deal at The Little Yoga Studio is offering a 54% discount on five yoga classes, so not bad, but also, nothing groundbreaking here either. In the blog post, Yelp said, “we have been working with some of the best local businesses — as identified by the Yelp community — to highlight some great deals for our users.” We’re assuming that “as identified by the Yelp community” means by rating, but we’re not sure and Yelp didn’t go any further into it. Yelp said that it plans to expand to other US cities, and might already be offering deals in New York and San Francisco, as it said, “More to come as we continue testing deals in markets like San Francisco and New York,” which is a bit confusing – are they already testing them or will they move onto those cities next? We’ve emailed Yelp for comment. UPDATE: Yelp responded and said that right now deals are only in San Diego, “In the coming weeks you can expect to see Yelp Deals in SF and NY.” Of course, Yelp is late to the deals game that Groupon has been dominating, and is flooded with hundreds of other deals sites, as well as deals from social location services such as Foursquare (we just covered a nice-looking deal aggregator this week if your interested). Yelp is also fighting an increasingly hard fought battle with Google Places, and of course, Facebook has also finally gotten around to location with Facebook Places, and place-based deals from Facebook are an extremely likely possibility somewhere down the road. All of that said, as our Jacob Friedman said a month ago, Yelp is strongly positioned to enter this market with great relationships with venues, a loyal user base popular mobile apps. Time will tell if Yelp has waited too long to get into the game. The Yelp deals can be shared on Twitter and Facebook, with tweets looking like this: “$30 Package of 5 Yoga Classes (Normally $65) http://www.yelp.com/deal/8QAHOwtLZnZJFEA8nad7uw/view”. Here’s a screenshot of the yoga classes deal page:
Original title and link for this post: Yelp Officially Testing Yelp Deals    |
| Google launches new Real Time Search tools Posted: 26 Aug 2010 10:11 AM PDT
The page, at www.google.com/realtime isn’t live for everyone yet (we’ve heard reports of Error 404s for some users) but it features some nifty tools for finding out exactly what’s happening now.
Google has been relatively slow off the mark in embracing realtime features. It first dipped its toe in the water with basic realtime results in December last year. Today’s new tools offer a more well-rounded experience for monitoring the social web as it happens. Here’s Google’s introductory video.
Original title and link for this post: Google launches new Real Time Search tools    |
| Movie Studios Suing Advertisers On Pirate Websites Posted: 26 Aug 2010 10:04 AM PDT
What is the alleged crime that Triton media has so willfully committed? Try “contributory copyright infringement and induced copyright infringement,” if you can believe it. Why? Triton runs ads on 9 websites that contain copyrighted material. By completing the tasks of “advertising consulting and referrals for, and/or provided other material assistance” to the infringing websites, they are in hot water. In short, they ran ads on the behalf of their paying customers on websites with information that Warner doesn’t want to give away for free. But wait, why not go after the websites themselves? Simple, as HW points out: “All of [the websites that Triton runs advertising on] could themselves be liable for a contributory infringement claim, but the studios have instead decided to reach out even further by taking action against a larger business in Triton (emphasis TNW).” In short, Warner and Walt want money, so instead of attacking the infringers, they are attacking a deeper pocketbook. Greed is so sad when you see it. Their suit rests on the fact that “Triton allegedly enables these websites to operate and has actual knowledge that the sites are participating in copyright infringement.” The two studios want to block Triton from handling advertising on the 9 sites in question, and they want a pile of money for damages. They want it both ways. They are attacking the ad company, forgetting the infringer, and then taking money from the rich guy. If you want to see how honorable these people are, take a look at this lawsuit. This is not about copyright protection, or the law. This is about cash. The two studios think that they found a pocket they can pick, and easily on the double. You can read the full complaint here. Original title and link for this post: Movie Studios Suing Advertisers On Pirate Websites    |
| The full Android 2.2 build for HTC Droid Incredible has leaked Posted: 26 Aug 2010 08:30 AM PDT
If you own an HTC Droid Incredible and are all hot and bothered waiting for Android 2.2, be jittery and warm no more: you can get your Froyo fix on right now. Even better, the files are an RUU (Rom Upgrade Utility) executable, so moving to 2.2 Froyo should be a snap to pull off. You can find the things you need right here. If you have any problems, let us know in the comments. Who wants to wait for official updates when the quick route to root is right in front of you?
Original title and link for this post: The full Android 2.2 build for HTC Droid Incredible has leaked    |
| What Digg Needs To Change To Keep Its Users Happy Posted: 26 Aug 2010 08:04 AM PDT
Fortunately for Digg, the most frequent complaints seem to be very fixable. I have compiled a list of the most common complaints from conversations on Digg, Twitter, and via email with some of my power user buddies. Before we get started, go follow TNW on Digg. Now, to the list: Bury ButtonBring it back like black in the winter, Kevin. People were damn attached to the ol’ bury button because it was a powerful tool against spam, wayward Digg gods pushing bullshit, and any other weak nonsense. I have agreed with this complaint since the first time I played with the new Digg. It’s easy, just bring it back. The ‘hide story’ functionality, even if it does the same thing as the old bury is hard to find, and not as compelling. Digg is a wonderful self-policing (for the most part) community who can handle their own dirty work. Let them bury, bury, and bury some more. Thumbs Down For Generic ButtonsThe little things can be big things. You must bring back the thumbs up/thumbs down icons and drop (like they are hot) the up and down arrows. Reddit has arrows. Enough said. I have to say, this one should have been obvious. Oh No, Where Is Upcoming?No seriously, where is it? The new Digg is simpler to navigate, sure. But it seems that that is mostly true because things have been stripped out of the total architecture. If I head over to Top News, click on a category, and try to find the upcoming stories there, I can’t. Is My News supposed to replace upcoming? It makes a nice addition, but it is no replacement. Upcoming was where many of the most dedicated Digg fans spent time curating content for the front page. By taking it away, you are lowering the ability of Digg users to craft the editorial line of the website, in effect neutering the people who tend Digg and give it its character. Keep My News, but bring back upcoming for all sections. Default? No Thanks!Perhaps I missed it, but I could not find the button that allows me to change my default load page to Top News away from My News. If I missed it, I am quite sorry, but myself and many others would love to change this setting. I am going to use My News, but I don’t want it to be my regular Digg experience, at least not yet. Let me decide where I go first, it saves me steps and makes me feel more comfortable seeing a familiar landscape even in the new Digg. This is simple, do it yesterday. Overly Harsh Activity BanMuhammed Saleem pointed this out: “Digg’s new ‘itchy trigger’ system completely locks you out of all activity (submitting, voting, commenting, anything) if you participate …” I know that you want to knock down power users some, we all get it, but that is a bit much. No You Are Not On Drugs, There Are Bugs On YouNew launches are always tough, and no one is expecting Digg to be perfect. The number of bugs and errors that cropped up on Day 1 were a little out of control though, even with that in mind. Many people who were on the fence over the redesign were lost in a sea of errors. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to do something, anything, and then having Digg choke and log you out. In a week V4 needs to be on par with V3 in terms of stability, or many users may begin to drift away. All in all, that list is not that hard for Digg to accomplish over the next few weeks. People are not complaining about the switch to followers and following, the core of the new Digg, as much as one could have expected. There are some whines about Digg being a mix of Twitter and Facebook, but those complaints are far less rancorous as the list above. Get to it Digg, you went all-in with the redesign, so listen to your community and win the pot. Original title and link for this post: What Digg Needs To Change To Keep Its Users Happy    |
| Boomerang for Gmail updates. Better management, more control, UI improvements abound. Posted: 26 Aug 2010 07:18 AM PDT
Baydin, the company behind Boomerang, saw an absolutely overwhelming response to the Boomerang rollout. Servers were crippled, gates were crashed and a product launch went down in TNW history. In the two weeks since then, Baydin has been hard at work to implement some features that you’ve asked for since the original launch. Today, with Boomerang 0.5, those features are yours for the taking:
The biggest thing is probably the scheduled message management. Here’s what Baydin has to say:
Beyond the management screens, Boomerang looks better and acts better than ever before. A full run-down of all of the improvements can be found on the Baydin blog. Here’s the part you’ve been wanting to know about. Last time, we had 250 Boomerang invite codes and that simply wasn’t enough. This time, we’re told that the following code will open up the Boomerang world to unlimited users, so here you go:
Hop in, get downloading and let us know what you think. The team from Baydin is amazing, so please do give them feedback as well. Original title and link for this post: Boomerang for Gmail updates. Better management, more control, UI improvements abound.    |
| Netflix app for iPhone and iPod Touch launched. Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:36 AM PDT Fans of Netflix with an iPhone and/or iPod Touch, the time has come. As promised at the unveiling of iPhone 4 in June, Netflix has lauched their app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Get the free app here. Netflix has been available on the iPad since its launch, and is one of my favorite apps as an iPad owner. The iPhone and iPod Touch version is equally as grand, albeit on a smaller screen. The app features:
The Netflix app allows iOS device owners to stream video directly from Netflix. Users must have a Netflix subscription which starts at $8.99/month. From my early use, the Netflix iPhone app appears to stream TV shows and movies over WiFi and 3G. Are you a Netflix user? Have you tried the Netflix app yet? Thoughts? Original title and link for this post: Netflix app for iPhone and iPod Touch launched.    |
| Nsyght Turbo-Charges Twitter Lists Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:05 AM PDT
Nsyght lists allow you to add users or track text queries and filter the results by media type and the service it was posted to. So, if you want to set up a list just to see the images that everyone you work with is sharing, that’s simple. How about videos from The Next Web conference being shared on multiple services? Links being shared by your friends on Delicious and Facebook? Images everyone on Twitter is sharing related to cats? They’re all easy to set up as saved search lists.
Lists can be private or public, making them useful both as a personal tool and for sharing with others. Another new feature rolled out today is ‘Mute’, allowing you to filter out a user’s tweets but still see their Flickr photos, for example. The service also has a new interface that’s pleasant to both look at and use. This is somethingwe feel previous versions of Nsyght lacked. So, should you try Nsyght? Absolutely, but there are some caveats that stop us from recommending it wholeheartedly. Firstly, to get the most out of the social search features you need to be searching Nysght users who have added multiple services to their accounts. Simply searching public tweets won’t unearth those users’ Diggs for example. Also, as Nsyght lacks Twitter firehose access, it can’t always be relied upon to be up to the second. “”We dont really cache as such”, says founder Geoffrey McCaleb, “We’ve built our own search index but we are tracking over 12 million users – hence why things take a minute or 2 to catch up. Once you’re logged in, we do keep things rolling in real time” We’ve followed social search service Nsyght for over two years and last time we looked it was most definitely heading in the right direction. It’s still heading that way, and we’ll certainly be using the List feature to create powerful searches when needed. We’d love to see Nsyght team up with fellow UK company Tweetmeme’s new project DataSift. Datasift’s powerful search and filtering capabilities (and firehose access) could make Nsyght a real force to be reckoned with. Indeed, founder Geoffrey McCaleb tells us that it’s something he’s interested in looking at. You can read more about Nsyght’s new features here and try it out by signing up here. Here’s Nsyght’s screencast demonstrating lists.
Original title and link for this post: Nsyght Turbo-Charges Twitter Lists    |
| Google’s Acquisition Appetite: An Infographic Posted: 26 Aug 2010 06:01 AM PDT From February of 2001 to August of 2010. A look at every company that Google has acquired. Original title and link for this post: Google’s Acquisition Appetite: An Infographic    |
| iPhone Dev Team Will Not Offer iOS 4.0.2 Specific Jailbreak Posted: 26 Aug 2010 05:11 AM PDT
To those people, we bring bad news. The iPhone Dev Team, in their latest blog post, have decided not to take on Apple in an epic game of jailbreaking cat and mouse. Instead of working on an exploit that would allow users to jailbreak devices running iOS 4.0.2, the team will be looking forward to iOS 4.1, a firmware currently in its final beta stages. In their own words:
For those running iOS 4.0.2 on your iPhone3G or iPod Touch 2G, you will still be able to jailbreak your devices using the Rednsn0w tool. Original title and link for this post: iPhone Dev Team Will Not Offer iOS 4.0.2 Specific Jailbreak    |
| RIM in final talks with India ahead of security deadline Posted: 26 Aug 2010 04:44 AM PDT
The issue centers around the encryption used by RIM to securely protect emails and messages sent using its services. The Indian government argue that militants will be able to send encrypted messages that authorities cannot decipher, creating political instability.
If the talks do not end in a suitable solution, India will shut down RIM’s secure email service on August 31st, leaving over one million Indian BlackBerry users without access to the service. Messaging services will be allowed to continue beyond the deadline after RIM said it could deliver manual access to instant messages by September 1st. Original title and link for this post: RIM in final talks with India ahead of security deadline    |
When in doubt, just guess! OK, so we didn’t really just guess at the stories behind our stories, but some people sure seem to think that we do. We’ll talk about that fact, plus many more on another lovely edition of The Next Web Podcast.
TNW Quick Hit
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