Gadget Bazar: June 2007

Friday, June 29, 2007

Google Answers Rises From The Dead In Russia

Google Answers, famously shut down by Google in November 2006 after losing the Q&A war to Yahoo, has risen from the dead in Russia.

Google Questions and Answers (Вопросы и ответы in Russian) allows users to ask a “difficult question that is interesting” and receive an answer from other users. Users earn points based on the quality of answers given and can gradually become an expert in a particular field. According to Alex Moskalyuk every new user starts off with 100 points, and can spend those points asking a question. The cost of the question can be 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 or 100 points. Logging in daily earns a user 5 points, every answer to a question is worth 2 points, and rating a specific answer if worth 1 point. The best answer gets all the points paid by the user who asked that question, providing motivation for answering higher-priced questions first. Whether these points can be purchased or redeemed for cash or something else of value was not clear from the translated version of the site or the post announcing the service on Google’s Russia Blog.

The Google Russian team notes that they are particularly pleased to announce that Russia is the first country “where we are launching this service”, a sure sign that Google is planning on rolling out the new Google Answers to other countries, possibly worldwide in the future.

Google Answers was an innovator in the online Q&A market and yet its model of paid experts answering questions failed dismally against free and open competitors including Answers.com and Yahoo Answers. The new Google Answers will still face that same competition today. Google must have something planned for the service to help it compete this time around; it’s not clear from the Russian version what secret recipe Google has planned but it surely wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice. Yahoo has nothing to fear quite yet, but it does look like the Q&A space may well get interesting again in the near future.

Bloggers, CEOs And Everyone Else Camping Out for the iPhone

As iPhone anticipation reaches a fever pitch, we are getting flooded with reports of people lining up to nab their own wonder phone. A quick trip down to the valley’s Apple store in Palo Alto shows the fervor taking over the valley.

CrunchGear even caught blogger Robert Scoble, second in line only to his son, looking to trade in his $750 N95 3G 5MP camera phone for the $600 2MP camera edge-only iPhone. He was joined by Zoomr CEO Thomas Hawk and founder Kristopher Tate, who were running crowd control by handing out numbered tags. They were later joined from Diggnation’s Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, who were also covering the controlled chaos.

You can see live coverage of the iLines on Ustream and Justin.tv. They’ll all be waiting in line until the iPhone goes on sale today, June 29, at 6:00 p.m.

Here are some photos:

Watch The iQueue Live On Ustream

For the sleepless or bored, and who can think of nothing but the iPhone: the iPhone queue Live from Palo Alto, staring Robert Scoble and friends. The broadcast is said to continue until the iPhone goes on sale later today.

To join the chat, visit the Zooomr page at Ustream.

MySpace Likely To Open Platform To 3rd Party Developers

MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe has indicated that MySpace will likely open its platform to 3rd party developers, according to a report at FT.com

The move will see MySpace following in the footsteps of Facebook; Facebook’s wildly popular F8 release has seen in excess of 1000 additional applications made available to Facebook users and has driven enormous growth.

MySpace still maintains leadership in the social networking space based on user numbers and traffic, and has continued to grow; however there is little doubt today that the hearts and minds of the people who count have abandoned MySpace for Facebook. The moves to an open platform also comes after reports earlier this week claiming that DeWolfe was asking for a $12.5 million annual salary to stay on at MySpace. If DeWolfe can successfully play catch-up with Facebook he may end up being worth it.

Foldera Launches Public Beta with V 3.0

Collaborative communications tool, Foldera, is going into public beta today with the release of their 3.0 version (Note: Michael Arrington is on the board of directors of the company). Foldera is aimed at small to medium sized businesses looking to aggregate all of their project related communications into collaboratively managed folders - think of it as Outlook online, but self-organizing by topic. It competes with Outlook/Microsoft Sharepoint, Live Office, and recently profiled Orgoo.

We covered last year’s private beta. The 3.0 version features simple search across all your content (contacts, emails, events, tasks, and files), contextual help, and an intuitive drag and drop interface.

Once your organization is on Foldera, you can trade information and bundle your projects into discrete folders. You get your group started by each signing up for accounts and importing your email and contacts from Outlook, Gmail, or Yahoo contact list on to the service. Editing and access to contacts can be managed through permissions. Foldera’s user interface looks very similar to Gmail’s AJAX interface. On the left hand side, you have a list of folders by subject containing your calendar, email, files, and tasks tied to that subject. The main pane on the right shows the content.

Folders are permission controlled workgroups, where you can send emails, assign tasks, trade files, and plan events on the calendar. All activity from that folder can be commented on by other users and is tied to that folder and the contacts it’s shared with. When you receive email replies to messages you sent from within the folder, they’re automatically filed in that folder for all members to see.

Within the folders you can also plan events, assign tasks, and share files (1GB of storage). When tasks are completed, the person who assigned them is notified by email. The calendar is a lot like Google calendar, with the ability to easily overlay events from other folders or users, but doesn’t allow exporting or importing feeds. The file system tracks versions of files as they are uploaded to the service and lets you easily attach them to emails.

Google’s addition of folders to Google Docs generated a great deal of conversation yesterday over the benefits of tags and folders. However, Foldera’s folders are a bit more flexible than traditional folders because they do allow files to linked to multiple projects (folders) in their drag and drop interface.

Foldera is Free for 5 users, but charges an extra $6 a month for each user beyond that.

Foldera is very late to launch, and some users who expressed enthusiasm over a year ago may now have moved on to other solutions. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

The Do it Yourself iPhone

Thousands of people are eagerly waiting in line to get their hands on the iPhone. However, for those of us tied into long term contracts or who just find the high price tag too much cash to part with, we’ve compiled a list of how to emulate iPhone’s features on your everyday handset.

Visual Voice Mail

Perhaps the most talked about feature, visual voice mail easily lets you play your messages out of order with more detail about who called and when. There are a couple of startups who offer this feature, Callwave and Gotvoice. Both of these programs also have other features like voice-to-text, or voicemail-to-email.

Browser

People have been gushing over iPhone’s browser, which lets you surf the “real” internet through a zoom and scan interface. Opera has recently come out with Opera Mini 4 Beta that has the same zoom navigation feature controlled by your number pad. Microsoft has their own version for Windows Mobile called Deepfish in limited beta.

Email

iPhone offers a rich HTML email interface including attachment support. Microsoft Exchange support stirred up quite a bit of controversy, but that may be resolved. Email has been offered on cell phones for a while now. Either Gmail, Yahoo, and Windows Live mail will work on your phone. Of course, Blackberry users need not apply.

Maps

iPhone is featuring a version of Google Maps that takes advantage of the touchscreen interface. A simpler Google Maps version is available for the rest of us and Yahoo is expected to release a mobile maps product on its Go platform soon. For voice and maps integration, readers should check out TellMe as well.

Music

Apple is claiming the iPhone is the best iPod to date. We’ve covered several other mobile solutions for playing music on your phone. The most recent player has been MusicStation, which mimics iTunes and plays songs with accompanying album art. If you’re only interested in playing the music you already own, you should also check out MyStrands, Avvenu, and Pandora.

Widgets

iPhone also lets you get information like weather and stock quotes through widgets. There are several companies already offering content widgets on a variety of phones. You should check out Bluepulse, Widsets, and GetMobio for ways of getting the content you crave to your phone.

Of course, if you’re willing to spend a couple days installing all this software, you might as well wait in line.

3G iPhone For Europe To Be Announced Monday?

A 3G iPhone for Europe will be announced Monday, according to an unconfirmed report from Guy Kewney at Newswireless.

Engadget points out that Kewney was recently eWeek.com’s European wireless editor and would be well placed to know.

The European 3G iPhone is said to be distributed via Carphone Warehouse with Vodafone in the UK and T-Mobile in Germany the European carriers. No word yet on other European countries. The phone is said to go on sale in Europe before the end of the year.

If the rumor is true (and it is just a rumor at this stage) it’s a positive sign for the rest of the world, particularly Australasia where the slower 2G systems are being phased out as 3G coverage is already ubiquitous. It would also create two tiers of iPhone users: Americans with the slower 2.5G versions and the rest of us with much faster 3G versions; as the saying goes: all good things come to those who wait.

iCashedIn: iPhones Flood eBay

No surprise really: iPhone buyers are flooding eBay with their new iPhones with bids starting from $1 and buy it now prices as high as $1500.

For those outside of the United States desperate to get their hands on an iPhone, a number of listings offer worldwide shipping; this listing for example posts to Australia for $50. However be aware that the iPhone does not support simcards and today no one has worked out how to unlock the phone from AT&T, although you could always buy it now and work that part out later (or use the iPhone as an expensive video iPod). MacNN has screenshots on the iPhone’s innards for those interested in hacking it.

If you do sign up for an AT&T plan and live outside the US, be warned that AT&T’s international roaming rates would make a drunken sailor blush.

The iPod Is Built Globally, But The Money Is Made In The US

Over at The New York Times, economist Hal Varian discusses a recent study that looked at the various countries involved in making an iPod. Not surprisingly, a large chunk of each iPod goes abroad, as companies in different countries are involved with its production, either as parts suppliers or manufacturers. The study is useful in showing the difficulty in measuring trade statistics, although the authors conclude that each iPod sold contributes $150 to the US trade deficit with China. Andy Kessler actually took up this exact issue a few years ago, examining the link between the iPod and the trade deficit. The key thing to realize is that while Apple receives a fairly modest cut of each iPod sold, it's by far the most profitable chunk. The money made by the various chip makers and assemblers commands the low margins that are typical for their industries. Thus, while you could blame Apple for causing so many dollars to leave the US, you have to figure in the company's exploding stock price post-iPod. When the iPod was launched in October, 2001, the company's market cap was less than a tenth of what it is now ($105 billion). So any contribution to the trade deficit that the company might be responsible for is more than compensated by the $90+ billion that it's added back to the US economy.

Rolling Stone Writes Obituary For The Recording Industry's Suicide

Yeah, it's not like most of the folks outside of the recording industry didn't recognize this years ago, but Rolling Stone has pretty much summed up the situation in the recording industry by writing what is effectively an obituary for the industry's suicide. There's nothing really new in there, but it hits on a few key points. The music industry is still doing great. There's more music available. Sales of products to listen to music (iPods, etc.) are flying off the shelves. The publishing business, which licenses music to things like TV shows is growing. Concert revenue continues to grow. All of these things were easily predictable back in the Napster days if you recognized that free music made everything else more valuable and expands all those other industries. It's just that the recording industry was unable to recognize this in time to change its business model. The article highlights how its almost entirely the recording industry's own fault. They had a chance to sign a deal with Napster and they backed out, sending people off to tons of other file sharing tools, that were often more underground (just as everyone predicted).

The amazing thing, however, is that the recording industry still doesn't recognize that it did this to itself. The current head of the RIAA, Mitch Bainwol, still insists that piracy is destroying the music industry -- when nothing is further from the truth. The article also quotes his predecessor, Hilary Rosen, who instead blames everyone else. She blames the retailers and the musicians for not letting the record labels change their business models. Of course, she leaves out the part where she lead the charge to sue customers and get Congress to put in place anti-consumer laws that simply drove people away. So, no, there's nothing really new in the article -- but to have the industry's bible declare that the recording industry sealed its own fate is certainly a milestone. Now, can we move on and start focusing on ways to continue to build the new music industry?

E-Voting Company Agrees To Let California See Its Source Code... But Includes Angry Threats

In the ongoing effort to make sure that electronic voting machines used in public elections actually have some sort of real scrutiny, we've never had anyone convincingly explain why the source code for these voting machines shouldn't be made public. You may recall that a while back, in a post about some of the limitations being put on security experts trying to examine some of the machines, a representative from the firm Election Systems & Software Inc. (ES&S) showed up in our comments and responded to our questions not with any good reasons, but with insults to everyone here saying we couldn't possibly understand. When asked, point blank, about why he wouldn't let experts like Ed Felten and Avi Rubin test the machines, he responded by claiming that such experts are misleading in their reports and are publishing things solely for a profit motive (which is pretty laughable, if you've ever read either's writings and analysis -- which come across as exceptionally even-handed on these issues). The same guy also claimed that the e-voting companies have always willingly handed over source code to gov't agencies. Specifically he stated: "The companies have always complied with legitimate requests to test and inspect the software. They handed over their source code for review on multiple occasions and have never denied the request of any U.S. government authority to review the code or test the equipment." Of course, he didn't say they did so happily. When California came asking for the source code, ES&S certainly wasn't happy about it.

You may recall that back in March, California's Secretary of State decided that anyone providing e-voting machines in California had to withstand independent testing from a group of security experts. This seems perfectly reasonable, and it's hard to come up with any reason not to do this... unless you're a company like ES&S whose machines have been caught counting votes in triplicate, among other things. Despite the claim that they "never denied the request of any U.S. government authority," ES&S certainly resisted the requests and only handed in the code three months late, along with an angry, petulant, threatening letter to the Secretary of State warning her that the company will hold the Secretary of State personally responsible "for any prohibited disclosure or use of ES&S' trade secrets and related confidential and proprietary information." Frankly, this should be reason enough to ban the company from having its e-voting machines used in elections. If the company is so worried about having its machines tested by security experts, then it shouldn't be in the business. Furthermore, for a free and fair election, there's simply no reason that the company shouldn't be required to make the core of its system freely available so that the voters of this country can actually trust that their votes are being accurately counted. It's not a crazy request. It's about protecting our fundamental right to vote. Apparently, ES&S doesn't respect that enough to prove to anyone that it can actually build a safe and secure machine that counts votes accurately.

Powerset: Is There More Than Buzzwords And Patent Threats?

There's been so much hype around search startup Powerset that it seems like it's going to be quite difficult to live up to it. The company kicked off by raising a lot of money at an insanely high valuation for a seed stage company, and then used some of that cash to license some natural language technology from PARC. Of course, natural language search has been tried and failed many times before -- sometimes because the technology sucks, but more often because there just isn't that big a benefit to it compared to traditional keyword search (especially as more people have become comfortable with keyword searching). However, Powerset keeps generating lots of attention and hype, and on Thursday apparently revealed a lot more concerning what it's about... we think. That is, the company revealed a lot, but an awful lot of it comes off as simply repeating every buzzword they can think of and reminding everyone they have patents.

It's always a signal to be worried if a company kicks off a description of its product by bragging about its patents rather than the actual benefits of its product, but Powerset kicked off the discussion by talking about how "locked down" its patents are. If the company is really doing something special, then people will beat a path to its door, whether or not it has patents. If the technology is useless, the patents will also be meaningless. We don't care about the patents, we care about what's useful. The rest of the talk apparently was about this incredibly confusing buzzword-fest of a social network/ecosystem that the company is apparently trying to build around its search engine:

"Imagine a mashup between Facebook, Digg and Google Apps, but you get to participate in the building of the products that sit on top of our platform. You log into a social network, like you would Facebook, and you get certified to be a Powerlabber. Once certified you can join different interest groups, such as travel, and participate in idea and mashup competitions. QA is embedded and its all bloggable."

What does that mean? I've read it many times and I still can't figure it out. He goes on to mention MySpace, Second Life and Wikipedia, of course. It sounds like the company is trying to build the ultimate web platform -- which is a good strategy, but it needs to get away from buzzwords and patents and actually explain what makes it useful.

Steve Case Gets A Familiar Competitor In Online Health Space

AOL founder Steve Case has high ambitions for his newly launched consumer health site Revolution Health, but at least at this point, it's not living up to its name. There's a lot of content there, but nothing that looks particularly groundbreaking. Now Microsoft is said to be nearing the launch of its own consumer health portal, and again, it's hoped that the site will bring about a new level of ease and efficiency to this highly complex area. But it's not clear that Microsoft has what it takes to crack the nut, so to speak. Like Revolution Health, it wants to make progress on electronic medical records, but there's little reason to think that Microsoft is in the best position to do this. Other planned services, like medical information search, have been around for a while with little usefulness. It's great that so many well-heeled companies are trying their hands at this, but there's not much reason to be optimistic.

TIC's Picks: How Can Others Respond To The iPhone

Since it's "iPhone Day," and there have been a ton of stories about the iPhone that focus on the wrong thing ("oh look, shiny new toy!"), we thought it would be good to consider the more important impact that the iPhone will have on the mobile phone ecosystem -- and who better to dive in and provide the analysis than our very own Techdirt Insight Community. As is standard with the diverse group of experts in the Techdirt Insight Community, we received fantastic, detailed, well thought-out analysis that goes a lot deeper than most of what's coming out today. Here is the best analysis from the experts within the community:

Vinaya.HS explains why it's a mistake for other device makers to simply copy the iPhone, rather than leapfrogging it with new innovations (even though he knows that's where they're heading). He also plays up the benefit of separating the device from the operator (and ending operator subsidies).
Joe Hunkins explains the two likely strategies that other device makers will follow: trying to catch up and surpass the iPhone's high points, but at a cheaper price point, or giving up on competing and focusing on totally different markets (such as low-end users).
Derek Kerton has an exceptionally detailed analysis on how the iPhone will end up benefiting everyone -- even competitors and customers who choose not to buy an iPhone.
Tim Marman focuses on how this could set off a change in distribution methods for mobile phones, as Apple proves that it's possible to do things in a very different way.
Rafe Blandford highlights the limitations of the iPhone and suggests there's more to learn in how Apple went about marketing the device.
Steve Litchfield points to the key ease of use features of the iPhone, where simplicity trumps feature creep -- noting how difficult it will be for others to not fall victim to the allure of piling on additional confusing features.

There's plenty to chew on here, from a variety of different perspectives -- so for those of you hoping to dig in and understand what changes the iPhone will unleash on the market, we hope this is a good starting point. If you would like to get further analysis from these experts, along with other experts within the Techdirt Insight Community, please let us know.

More Trouble At #2 VoIP Firm

The patent imbroglio between Verizon and Vonage may prove to slowdown the advance of consumer VoIP, but for companies involved in the space, the real problem is basic economics. Since the cost of a phone call is rapidly dropping to zero, a voice pure play like Vonage has its work cut out for it if it wants to make money. While Vonage's poor stock market performance has been a reflection of its woes, there have been rumors of troubles at #2 player SunRocket. Word now is that the company has canned a large number of its employees, including some top executives. It's hard to know how a company in SunRocket's position can turn things around, given how they're positioned in the industry, particularly as the broadband operators are doing a good job of getting customers to sign up for voice services.

Does It Make Any Difference If Kids Get Bullied Online Or Off?

A new survey from the Pew Internet Project says that one third of US teenagers online have been "cyberbullied". The kids say they've experienced at least one of the following: "having a private e-mail, IM or text messaging forwarded or posted where others could see it, the victim of an aggressive email, IM or text message, having a rumour spread about them online or having an embarrassing photograph posted online without permission." Without wishing to downplay these incidents, which can certainly be very damaging, they don't seem particularly different than the sort of bullying kids are subject to in school or elsewhere in the physical world. While there seems to be this desire to look at cyberbullying differently than offline bullying, the implication seems to be that technology is to blame, rather than the bullies. When permanent markers became widely available, allowing bullies to scrawl insults on their victims' metal lockers with some permanence, where they singled out for scorn or special legislative treatment? Probably not. The point here is that bullying is a problem, no matter where it takes place, or what tools bullies use. Rather than focusing on cyberbullying, the focus should be on combating all forms of bullying, online or off.

Cops Who Started 'Hackers Are Us' Service Convicted

A few months back we wrote about a private investigation firm in the UK that had a separate "computer hacking" division called "Hackers Are Us." It seemed like the sort of thing that you wouldn't necessarily want to name a company that clearly was breaking computer fraud laws -- but no one ever said criminals were smart. A court has now convicted the two guys who set up the service... and it turns out that both were actually on the police force at the time (though one was on leave for depression). Yes, "Hackers Are Us," a private investigation firm that would illegally install keyloggers on anyone's computer was run by two moonlighting cops. For future reference, though, if you're setting up a business to do illegal stuff, it's probably not a good idea to advertise it in your name. It may help for marketing purposes, initially, but sooner or later it seems likely to come back to bite you.

Microsoft: Patents Are About Sharing, Not FUD

Last month, Microsoft went on the offensive in playing up its patent portfolio in an attempt to scare other companies into agreeing to licensing deals. This showed a complete flip-flop from Bill Gates' own words from the early '90s about how innovation is stifled by patents. It seemed to only underscore the idea that patents are used not to encourage innovation, but to protect legacy business models against innovation. Now, Microsoft's deputy general counsel is trying to spin the patent story in a nice, fuzzy way to make us think that patents are all about sharing. This guy came to Microsoft after 20 years at IBM, the company that famously threatened employees at a young Sun by saying: "We have 10,000 U.S. patents. Do you really want us to go back to Armonk [IBM headquarters in New York] and find seven patents you do infringe? Or do you want to make this easy and just pay us $20 million?"

Anyway, his claim is that patents are fantastic because they let multiple companies share in the wealth. As he says: "We used to define competitive advantage as 'I've got and you don't.' Or 'You've got it, but I got better.' Well, today it's 'You got it and I got it, but I make money when you use it.'" That would be nice, if true, but it ignores reality. The reality is that those patents aren't for unique or novel ideas, but for broad and obvious ones, and when you bundle all of those ideas into a patent thicket it makes any additional innovation prohibitively expensive. It's not, as he says "you got it and I got it, but I make money when you use it," but, rather, "you may have figured out what consumers want, but you still owe me and 17 other patent holders money every time you use it, even if you figured it out entirely outside of our patents -- and now the product is too expensive for any consumers to want to buy anyway." That's not quite as pithy, I'll admit, but it's a lot more accurate.

Music Retailers Flip Out That Prince Wants To Give Away His Music

For years, some have been saying that the real problem holding back the music industry from embracing digital distribution hasn't been the record labels so much as the record stores. In fact, in the Rolling Stone article about the suicide of the recording industry, one of the key stumbling blocks was that the music retailers threatened the record labels if they embraced digital distribution such as Napster. So, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that music retailers are spitting mad over Prince's plans to give away his latest album. Prince has actually been on the cutting edge of new music business and distribution models for many years, so this doesn't come as much of a surprise. What's interesting, is that he's actually linking two troubled industries: recording and newspapers in a way that helps both. His latest CD will be available for free with a newspaper in the UK -- and the newspaper is thrilled because it's going to seriously increase circulation for that week. This is a perfectly reasonable idea: it adds value to the newspaper and makes it a more worthwhile purchase, while at the same time getting Prince a lot of attention and many more people hearing his latest works (which opens up many more opportunities for him to make more money through concerts, back catalog, merchandise, appearances, sponsorships, etc.).

However, the music retailers are freaking out that someone else might distribute music instead of them. Apparently they haven't been paying much attention to all that online distribution of music that goes on these days and the fact that the business model of the traditional record shop is pretty much dead and buried. Instead, they blame Prince for actually getting more fans to hear his music. "It would be an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," claimed one. Another said: "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores." Of course, that's the funniest one, since it's pretty clear that Prince has already realized he's better off without the record stores. Then there's the head of HMV: "I think it would be absolutely nuts. I can't believe the music industry would do it to itself. I simply can't believe it would happen; it would be absolute madness." Basically, what you're reading here is an industry in complete and total denial over the fact that their service (delivering plastic discs to willing buyers) is a business model that's increasingly obsolete.

Transparent LCD Display

With all the iPhone hype, it is easy for new and advanced technology to swept under the rug on today of all days. Case in point, the transparent LCD display. Transparent TVs are have always been a vision. I've lost...

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Official iPhone Acessories Just in Time for iPhone Day

Well, it wasn't hard to find source material today. With the iPhone or Jesus Phone being launched on this historical day, the tech blogs were saturated with nothing but iPhones, and the people who wait in line for them. Therefore,...

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Thursday, June 28, 2007

Solar Radio

As we live in earthquake-prone country (California) I'm always on the lookout for new gadgets for our state-of-the-art earthquake kit.

The AM/FM solar radio from Brando is perfect since it doesn't even need batteries, which can lose power over years. Just stick it in the sun during the day and the internal battery gets charged via the solar plate .The radio can be powered by a AAA cell also. The frequency range is AM: 88-108 MHz and FM: 530-1600 KHz.

A mere $15 at Brando.

Via FarEast Gizmos.

The new iPod FM Transmitter by Proporta

This new iPod FM Transmitter by Proporta enables you to listen to your iPod on your home or car stereo by simply plugging it in to the dock connector of your device.

The iPod FM Transmitter is specially designed to be compatible with a range of Apple iPods including the 1st and 2nd generation iPod nano, 5G iPod with Video, iPod mini, iPod Photo, and 4G iPod.

This compact product fits perfectly into your iPod and does not require any cables to connect to your FM stereo. Another bonus is that you can save your precious iPod battery whilst transmitting - the transmitter includes a dock connector which allows you to use your Sync Charger cable enabling you to obtain power from your laptop, car or other USB port.

The Fm Transmitter is available in pink, black and silver and is ready to order now and ready to ship Tuesday 3rd July.

iTaggit: Personal Asset Management

iTaggit aims to change the way people collect, organize, and enjoy their personal items and collections by providing a service to catalog collections online.

iTaggit provides an online environment for cataloguing, managing, and sharing collections of items, while preserving user and data privacy. The site features community resources, where users can connect and interact with friends, like-minded collectors, and experts. Recent upgrades include an Add Item Wizard, a Flickr-like picture uploader, an Amazon import tool, and Item Publisher.

The best way of describing iTaggit is as a personal asset management service. If you’re a hobbyist or someone who likes cataloguing collections then iTaggit will appeal; although notably this would likely be a relatively small vertical.

TechCrunch Readers Can Join Swaptree Now

I just posted on the Swaptree private beta and upcoming launch. You can actually join right now, and there are no limits on signups. Just go to swaptree.com/techcrunch.htm and follow the instructions. Let me know what you think.

Intellectual Property Fights Move Into The Restaurant Business

When trying to explain the problems of today's intellectual property system, it's often useful to use pizza shops as an example. Competition is natural. No one, the idea goes, should feel that a competitor opening up a pizza shop down the street somehow "infringes" on another pizza shop. It's just basic competition -- the same type that has helped grow and benefit society for ages. However, in our over-lawyered age where suddenly everyone is looking for ways to apply the monopoly powers of intellectual property law to their own business, this may be changing. Just like there's a push underway to introduce new monopoly rights into the fashion industry in spite of (or, in fact, because of) a thriving competitive market, it appears that lawyers are now looking to do the same in the restaurant business. The NY Times writes about a restaurant owner who is suing the owner of a competing restaurant. It is true that the second owner used to work for the first, but saying he then cannot open a competing restaurant is ridiculous (and, is pretty clearly allowed by the law).

There are some amazingly ridiculous statements in the article. For example, the owner of the first restaurant, Rebecca Charles, is most upset by the fact that the owner of the second, Ed McFarland, offers a Caesar salad that Charles insists McFarland copied from her recipe. Of course, even she admits that her mother got that recipe from another restaurant, but doesn't seem to note the irony of then claiming ownership of it herself. Also, Charles admits that she based the idea for her restaurant on another restaurant. Looking at the menu for Charles' restaurant shows that she sells New England Clam Chowder... clearly invented by others. Is she paying up for that intellectual property? Of course not. The law is pretty clear on this one that she has no case -- and that's for a good reason. Imagine if there could be only one pizza shop in all of New York. Or only one oyster bar. That's ridiculous and would harm just about everyone. However, in this age where monopoly rights are bizarrely considered a good thing, it's no surprise that we're seeing a push to go in that direction.

Congress Subpoenas White House Wiretapping Docs

Congress subpoenas warrantless wiretapping documents from the White House, setting up a Constitutional showdown over the spying program.

Effects of Global Warming Overshadow Political, Economic Benefits

Countries who manage their environments better are generally more politically and economically stable, too.

AMA Stops Short of Calling Gaming Addiction an 'Addiction'

The American Medical Association is concerned, but says more research is needed before a definitive statement can be made.

Microsoft Pays Bloggers to Tout MS Slogan

Stony Stevenson writes "In an effort to inject Microsoft's latest slogan, 'People-ready business', into popular usage (and no doubt raise its Google page rank), Microsoft asked a passel of A List Bloggers to write blurbs on what this meaningless phrase means to them. Michael Arrington, Om Malik, Fred Wilson, Richard MacManus and a handful of others happily agreed to churn out some mush for Microsoft, which it later used in banner ads. What it really meant to these guys was income. Redmond paid the bloggers for every user who clicked through to the PRB microsite. That caused other bloggers, lead by Gawker chief Nick Denton, to rightfully question their ethics. A spitball war has been raging ever since."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

YouTube visits larger than rivals combined: survey

YouTube, which has had to pull copyrighted videos off its site after legal attacks by some big media franchises, has enjoyed a surge in U.S. audience share that leaves it far larger than the next 64 video-sharing sites combined, a survey found.

Mochila lands photo deal with Getty, Zuma, Jupiter

Internet content syndication marketplace company Mochila said on Thursday it has landed deals to make photographs from the catalogs of three major photo agencies available to editors and independent Web sites.

Nokia sees new rivals emerging in China: paper

Nokia is seeing small local rivals entering the Chinese market, filling a gap left by Motorola , the Finnish firm's regional head said in comments published on Thursday.

IPhone accessory market set for slow start

Owners of Apple Inc.'s iPod love to trick out the music players with cases, speakers and other accessories and its upcoming wireless iPhone promises to be no different.

Japanese gadget can predict tremors before they hit

A Japanese company has created a home appliance the size of a paperback novel that can warn of earthquakes seconds before they strike.

Japan toy makers turn air guitars into reality

Air guitars just got real. Japanese toy makers unveiled "air guitar" gadgets at the annual Tokyo International Toy Show that, thanks to heat and motion sensors, actually make music.

All Things iPhone

With the iPhone release coming soon there is no shortage of stories being submitted. Here is an overview of all of its features and specifics on its technical workings. A list of applications is out and still growing. There are warnings however that some applications and peripherals won't be ready or compatible in time for the release. Finally with all the hype associated with the iPhone, we have a reminder of some previous Apple products that ended with a whimper instead of a roar.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The United State's Space Arsenal

ntmokey writes "When China tested a missile on its own satellite in January, the nation's aggressive statement immediately raised eyebrows among the world's other space-faring nations. Popular Mechanics looks at the implications of a conflict in space — including debris that could render space unusable for decades — and examines the United State's own space arsenal."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Giant Microwave Turns Plastic Back to Oil

An anonymous reader writes "From the newscientist article: "Key to GRC's process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials. As the material is zapped at the appropriate wavelength, part of the hydrocarbons that make up the plastic and rubber in the material are broken down into diesel oil and combustible gas.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google Offers Money For Gadgets

Google has announced the launch of Google Gadget Ventures, a new pilot program that will help fund third-party gadget development and gadget-related businesses.

Google will offer two types of funding: $5,000 grants for gadget developers who want to improve an existing gadget, and $100,000 seed investments for new gadget-related businesses. Applications will be restricted initially to gadget developers who have more than 250,000 pageviews per week on their gadget.

Google aims to “help create an ecosystem where developers can spend more time doing what they love — building great gadgets”. In other words Google wants more gadgets for iGoogle and Google Gadgets and what better way to encourage development than to offer money to gadget builders. It probably goes without saying that this is a smart move by Google; Google’s gadget specific offerings are all smart products but still lag in gadget choice compared to competitors such as Yahoo Widgets, a number of Web OS and Widget specific startups and even OSX.

A full FAQ for the program is available here.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Thoof Now in Public Beta

Social news site Thoof, privately launched nearly two weeks ago by invitation only, is now open to anyone. Our launch post is here.

Thoof is about personalized news and incorporates elements of Wikis, Digg/del.icio.us voting features. Users submit stories to the service as a link to the news item, along with a title, description and tags. Other users start to see the news item if Thoof determines they will like it. However, submissions can be easily be edited by other users who think there is something lacking.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Zentation: Online Video And Powerpoint Get Married

Zentation is a free service that marries video with PowerPoint presentations, delivering a mashed up version of both for online viewing.

Using Zentation is simple. Users upload their video to Google Video, log into Zentation and copy and paste the URL of the Google video, then upload a PowerPoint file. The final step involves using the “ZenSync” tool to provide precise start timings for each graphic in the presentation.

Zentation currently only supports Google Video; apparently Google Video the only major video sharing service that allows users to jump to any point in the video even if it has not fully downloaded. YouTube does not provide this functionality and Zentation believes that it is essential for the service.

Mashed presentations can be viewed directly at Zentation.com or through an embedded widget like the one below.

Some people will groan at the thought of marrying PowerPoint presentations to online video. It’s bad enough having to sit through any conference or presentation which relies heavily on PowerPoint, yet on occasion PowerPoint slides can add to the experience. PowerPoint addicted professional speakers will love Zentation by enabling them to add their slides to recorded video presentations.

Zentation is not the first app trying to bring PowerPoint style presentations to the web. Sites like Slideshare offer online PowerPoint hosting and WebEx, DimDim and TeamSlide also compete in this space. Zentation differs by providing a mashup service with video, yet all collectively demonstrate a growing interest in the online presentation space.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

FreshBooks Launches Open API

Online invoicing service FreshBooks has launched an open API.

Freshbooks sees the new API allowing application designers, businesses, services companies, and users to integrate FreshBooks’ billing platform into a new category of products, features, and solutions for enhancing and streamlining productivity, workflow, sales, CRM, project management, and invoicing.

Possible uses of the API including adding to existing products to extend functionality, including timers, project planners, and desktop widgets. Sites with an existing sales infrastructure can use the API to add a billing component.

There are a lot of possibilities here and Freshbooks really has nothing to lose by offering an open API service. The API is an open invitation to innovation and should keep Freshbooks in could stead against competition including BillMyClients and Blinksale.

Previous Freshbooks coverage on TechCrunch coverage here.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

HotorNot Founder James Hong Talks About Past, Future

Read this excellent post by James Hong, co-founder of the nearly seven year-old startup HotorNot. He talks about the history of the startup, and touches on where it might be going in the future.

A lot of this I wrote about last month after interviewing Hong, but there’s lot of additional information that people will find fascinating. The company naver raised venture capital, and was throwing off a signficiant amount of cash early on. As free dating competitors emerged, however, the popularity of the site declined. They responded by going free as well (killing a $500,000/month revenue stream), and traffic has doubled to around 20 million daily page views.

HotorNot is now looking more like a a traditional startup - they’ve converted to a C corporation and are giving stock options to employees. That suggests a sale or venture financing might be coming up in the near future. Of course, the amount of fun that Hong and cofounder Jim Young are having.

My favorite stat about HotorNot: Up to ten marriages per day can be tracked to couples who originally met at the site.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Friday, June 29, 2007

Thursday, June 28, 2007

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