Demo of the Year 2007: Zude

from Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger by Robert Scoble

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If you search Google for “Demo of the Year” you’ll find my writeup of Microsoft’s Photosynth.

But last week I got the demo of the year that I’ve seen since then. Zude is a new way to create Web experiences. I can’t really call them pages anymore. Anyway, this is a long one — this demo is so cool that we went an entire hour. Rocky also edited down a “Editor’s Choice” which is a lot shorter (only eight minutes).

Zude has some of the coolest JavaScript I’ve ever seen. Anyone have something cooler?

Oh, and this proves that you can take an hour to do a demo and still engage me.

UPDATE: I just asked Rocky and he agrees that this is the coolest commercial thing he’s seen come through my show.

Zude is really aimed at killing MySpace but I love how you can build Web pages, er, experiences.

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iPod touch now running Mail, Google Maps, and more

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We're not looking at general availability yet, but those happy hacking cats unravelling the iPod touch have decrypted the ramdisk and are now busy installing applications. Already, Mail, Maps, and other 3rd party apps are up and running on their jailbreaked touches. The race is on between the cat and the mouse to see who will release their wares first. Maps screenshot after the break.

Continue reading iPod touch now running Mail, Google Maps, and more

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Merge Multiple RSS Feeds Into One with Yahoo! Pipes + FeedBurner

from Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

One of the very popular question in the FeedBurner FAQ is about merging XML feeds from different sources (like Blogger, WordPress, Flickr, Twitter, Jaiku) and then syndicate the entire content as one FeedBurner feed.

This is desirable because a single feed makes it extremely easy for your subscribers to track new content and updates from you.

Though FeedBurner doesn't provide any native feed mixing service, you can use the excellent Yahoo! Pipes service to combine two or more feeds and burn them into a single FeedBurner feed.

Here's a step by step guide (or you can watch the video tutorial)

Step 1: Go to the Yahoo! Pipes website and Create a new Yahoo! Pipe here.

Step 2: Drag-n-drop the "Fetch Feed" tab from the Sources tab to the main drawing panel.

Step 3: Add all the different Feed URLs in the same Fetch Feed Module (click the plus icon).

Step 4: Once you are done adding all your RSS feeds, drag the lower circle from Feed Fetch module to the Pipe Output at the bottom.

Step 5: Give some name and save this Yahoo! Pipe. Now run the pipe and you will see a new RSS feed - syndicate that feed via FeedBurner so you can even track the feed subscribers. It's all very simple - watch the video demo below:

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Screencast video created using Camtasia Studio 5. [download, 2.5 MB]

© 2007 Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

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Send Snail Mail via Email with Postful

from Lifehacker by Adam Pash

Address and send traditional snail mail via email on the cheap with web site Postful. In contrast to a similar service called eSnailer, which sends snail mail for free but requires you to sign up for a "special offer," Postful asks for a relatively low fee of $.99 for the first page and $.25 for each additional page. Whether it's to keep in contact with a Luddite lacking an email address or you just really hate buying stamps and finding a mailbox, Postful is a potentially worthwhile tool. You can even set up unique Postful email addresses for frequent contacts so that, for example, you can include your email-less grandparents in an email you're sending.

Postful

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3G: Turn Your iPhone/iTouch Into a 3G Web Device

from Gizmodo by Jason Chen

We haven't tested this ourselves, but Pyrofersprojects came up with an interesting, but ultimately impractical, way to turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a 3G internet-using device. All you need is a 3G smartphone with Windows Mobile 5 or 6, a 3G data account, and the know-how to follow a guide teaching you how to set up internet sharing over Wi-Fi. After that's done, you can use your iPhone/iTouch to go through your other smartphone (which costs probably as much as your iPhone/iTouch), in order to get online. It's pretty gimpy, but at least it's 3G—and the irony of having to use a WM phone with an iPhone isn't lost on us. [pyrofersprojects]

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Iron Chef: PopSci Culinary Gadgets Put the "Chen" Back In "Kitchen"

from Gizmodo by Wilson Rothman

Ever wonder how crazy stuff gets whipped up in pro kitchens? Take for instance the Heidolph VV Micro Evaporator, that $3,000 kitchen distiller above. Recognizable food stuffs go in one end, and a powerfully flavored goo comes out the other. (How very... soylent?) Below in the gallery, there are four more unbelievable food processors, and sh'loads more at PopSci's kitchen gadget round-up. If you want to know what kind of mind it takes to dream up and use all of this stuff, read the accompanying feature about kitchen crazyman Dave Arnold. [ PopSci]

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New Yorker on ultra-expensive wine counterfeits

from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder

Mark Hurst's Good Experience newsletter alerted me to this New Yorker article about the crazy world of very expensive wine and how it is being counterfeited and sold to rich people who don't know the difference.

[Michael Broadbent, the head of Christie's wine department] is a Master of Wine, a professional certification for wine writers, dealers, and sommeliers, which connotes extensive experience with fine wine, and discriminating judgment. He pronounced a 1784 Th.J. Yquem "perfect in every sense: colour, bouquet, taste."

At two-thirty that December afternoon, Broadbent opened the bidding, at ten thousand pounds. Less than two minutes later, his gavel fell. The winning bidder was Christopher Forbes, the son of Malcolm Forbes and a vice-president of the magazine Forbes. The final price was a hundred and five thousand pounds -- about a hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars. "It's more fun than the opera glasses Lincoln was holding when he was shot," Forbes declared, adding, "And we have those, too."

Link

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All I want for Christmas is my HDTV... and an Apple

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Displays, Gaming, GPS, HDTV, Laptops

A national survey of 1,200 consumers conducted by Solutions Research Group found that 3 out of 4 surveyed Americans wanted a new gadget this holiday season. The rankings went a little something like this:

1. HDTV (35%)
2. Windows-based notebook (20%)
3. Digital camera (17%)
4. Windows-based desktop computer
5. GPS car navigation
6. Cellphone
7. Digital video camera
8. Nintendo Wii
9. Sony PS3
10. HD DVD or Blu-ray player

So where's Apple, the big bad daddy of consumer electronics? Well, their best showing was the MacBook with an 11 ranking followed by the iPhone at number 15. Pretty good when you consider the level of brand awareness this represents in a field of otherwise unspecified laptops and cellphones. In fact, 1-in-6 consumers are hoping for some type of Apple gear under the Chanukazaa tree this season.

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IBM And Linden Lab Team For Virtual World Interoperability

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

IBM and Linden Lab (the company behind Second Life) will announce a new partnership at the Virtual Worlds Conference in San Jose today that will focus on virtual world interoperability.

The initial focus of the joint effort will be the ability to allow users to use a single virtual persona (or Avatar) across multiple virtual platforms, with seamless interworld transactions to be considered later.

Discussions and efforts surrounding standards and interoperability are in vogue this year, as the marketplace for virtual worlds has matured. Chinese Second Life clone HiPiHi announced its intention to lead a push towards standards based virtual worlds in August, and TechCrunch 40 presenting company Metaplace offers interoperability between user generated worlds on its DIY virtual world platform.

IBM has been highly active in the virtual worlds space, both as a user of platforms such as Second Life as a conference and business communications tool, and as a creator with its Active Worlds chat platform. IBM's Italian employee's went on strike within Second Life in late September.

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Consumer Feedback Impact - AT&T Changes its ‘Terms of Service’

from GigaOM by Om Malik

Remember the brouhaha about AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) and the awkward language in their user agreements that prevented people from among other things criticize them. (As Bill Maher says, I kid the phone companies.) AT&T, seems to have taken the feedback from blogs and is changing the language of its terms of service. An AT&T spokesperson emailed us with the following statement.

We are revising the terms of service to clarify our intent. The language in question will be revised to reflect AT&T's respect for our customers' right to express opinions and concerns over any matter they wish. And we will make clear that we do not terminate service because a customer expresses their opinion about AT&T.

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THIRTY virtual worlds in San Jose

from GigaOM by Wagner James Au

First the good news: virtual worlds are experiencing their own dot com boom. Now the bad news: virtual worlds are experiencing their own dot com boom. Tomorrow and Thursday, the second Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo launches in San Jose; the first one went off last March in New York, when just nine worlds/MMOs were showcased. Six months later, thirty of them will be on hand, many you've probably never heard of, and if past history is any guide, just as many you'll probably not hear much about, afterward. Seven slated for the show are kid-oriented, including Zwinktopia, Gaia Online, and Habbo Hotel, all of which have been featured on GigaOM; with the continued growth of MMOs for minors, this isn't surprising. But then, four of them are virtual worlds designed for enterprise solutions, including Forterra, Unisfair, Project Darkstar from Sun Microsystems, and something called VT&T, a stealth project from a team of developers formerly of AT&T.

Like the original dot com boom, the Expo is an awkward convergence of traditional media corporations like Disney (new owner of Club Penguin), MTV/Nickelodeon (announcing eight virtual worlds), and Turner (which recently bought partnered with Kaneva), scrappy start-ups like Metaplace and Ogoglio, and lumbering into the proceedings like they always have, Microsoft with Virtual Earth and an unknown MMO set to be announced there.

And if the last boom's trajectory of hubris and greed is followed, most of these are destined for obscurity– or acquisition by their wiser superiors. While kid-oriented MMOs have the most active users and thus seem like the safest bet, for example, as FoundRead editor Carleen Hawn suggests, they're also fragile ecosystems that can fall apart with too much outside interference and commercialism.

In any case, I'll be there to appear on a panel, and looking for GigaOM stories to file from the scene. If you see me, be sure to say hi; and if you miss me at this virtual worlds conference, you can still look for me at the one in London, later this month.

Disclosure: My Second Life blog New World Notes is a "media partner" with the Expo.

30 VIRTUAL WORLDS PLATFORMS TO BE SHOWCASED

With more than 30 virtual world platform providers participating at our Fall Conference, attendees will gain unique insight into the solutions available to meet their individual needs.

For the first time ever, professionals seeking to leverage virtual world technologies will be able to review and interact with all the major providers in one location. Attendees will be able to discuss business strategy, gain a comprehensive understanding of available technology and learn best practices. The Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo provides participants an edge in using virtual worlds applications to deeply engage their customers, partners or employees.

Virtual World platform companies participating at Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo:

Company	Platform Name
Animax Entertainment	TyGirlz.com
Areae, Inc.	To Be Announced
Conduit Labs	To Be Announced
Disney Online	Club Penguin, Virtual Magic Kingdom and others
Doppelganger	vSide
Forterra Systems	OLIVE platform
GAIA Interactive Inc	Gaia Online
GoPets Ltd.	GoPets
HiPiHi Co., Ltd	HiPiHi
IAC/InterActiveCorp	Zwinktopia
Icarus Studios	Icarus Platform
Ironstar Helsinki	MoiPal mobile platform
Kaneva	Kaneva Platfrom
Linden Lab	Second Life
Makena Technologies	There.com
Microsoft	Microsoft Virtual Earth
Microsoft	Entertainment Effort To Be Announced
MindArk	Entropia Universe
MTV / Nickelodeon	more than 8 virtual worlds and growing
Multiverse Network	Multiverse platform
Numedeon Inc	Whyville.net
ProtonMedia	ProtoSphere
Qwaq	Qwag Forums
Stardoll	Stardoll Platform
Sulake Corp. Ltd.	Habbo
Sun Microsystems	Project Darkstar
Three Rings	Whirled
Transmutable	Ogoglio
Unisfair	Unisfair Virtual Event
View 22	Immersiv Platform
VT&T	To Be Announced

The conference has five primary tracks:

Entertainment and Marketing
Virtual Worlds for the Enterprise
Business Strategy and Investment
Community and Customer Service
Design and Development.

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DOE to Invest in Projects to Store 1 Million Tons of CO2

from Earth2Tech by Katie Fehrenbacher

About half of the electricity Americans consume comes from coal, and China's economic boom is being fueled by the dirty-burning stuff. So while we'd prefer an end to all coal, technologies to capture and store the carbon emissions from coal plants will just have to help us out in the meantime. The DOE said today that it has awarded the first three large-scale carbon sequestration projects in the U.S., the largest single set of projects in the world to date.

The three projects — the Plains Carbon Dioxide Reduction Partnership, the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, and the Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration — will test the storage of 1 million or more tons of CO2 in deep reservoirs. The basins supposedly have the capacity to store over 100 years of CO2 emissions, and the DOE will invest $197 million over ten years, subject to Congressional approval. Including partnership cost share, the total value of the projects is $318 million.

For now the technology of capturing and storing carbon emissions is unproven, expensive and still in the research stage. And clean coal technologies in general are highly controversial. Though that hasn't stopped the venture world from investing in startups like GreatPointEnergy and Secure Energy. Check out the release for details on the individual projects .

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outside.in Raises $1.5 Million

from Silicon Alley Insider by Peter Kafka

outside.in, the Brooklyn-based "place blogging" site, has raised $1.5 million, which it will use to build out the site and develop a geo-targeted ad platform. The site, founded by writer-entrepreneur Steven Berlin Johnson last year, raised $900,000 this spring.

Most of the original investors re-upped for this round: Union Square Ventures, Milestone Ventures, Village Ventures, George Crowley, John Seely Brown, Esther Dyson and John Borthwick. We're confirming whether Marc Andreessen, who invested in the first round, participated in this one.

Related: outside.in Launches Neighborhood News Widget
Brooklyn Bonkers About Blogging

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Nine Inch Nails Help Seal Record Industry’s Coffin

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

Highly popular Industrial Rock Band Nine Inch Nails have announced that as of today they are free agents, and will not be using the services of a record company in the future.

Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor wrote on the NIN site that the writing is on the wall for the traditional music distribution model, saying that the music business has radically mutated from one thing to something inherently very different today and that "it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as i see fit and appropriate."

It's expected that Nine Inch Nails next album will follow on from Radiohead's Rainbows and be released directly to the public.

I think Gizmodo hits it right on the head when they write:

If two of the biggest acts in the industry can see the digital writing on the wall and totally embrace it—that the old way of doing business is broken—why can't the labels? What Radiohead and NIN are showing is that the business model "of the future" feared by entrenched interests isn't arriving some time in the horizon. It's touching down now.

See also Michael's take on the music industry here.

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Search Engine Marketing Firm ReachLocal Takes $55.2 Million

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

Woodland Hills based search marketing firm ReachLocal has taken an additional $55.2 million in funding, brining total funding to $67.9 million on a valuation of $305 million.

The round was led by Rho Ventures, with original investors Galleon Crossover Fund VantagePoint Venture Partners also participating.

ReachLocal offers a local-focused search marketing product that targets SMBs. ReachLocal offers campaign management for online advertising on major services including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL, and also provides campaign specific site building and click tracking to customers.

For what is basically a SEM firm, the valuation is staggering; however despite the direct to buyer model of advertising options such as Google Adwords there is a growing market for middle-man services such as ReachLocal. There will be many people in the SEM business who will be re-evaluating their company valuations following ReachLocal's new round of funding, and I'd suggest that many of them may be sitting on a lot more value than they had previously thought.

(in part via LA Times)

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