Archive of TheNextWeb.org
Written on January 8, 2009 – 5:01 pm
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
If you haven’t come across Boxee yet, you’re in for a treat. Boxee is a free, open-source software platform that lets users control their media from a computer-connected TV. Like other media applications, you can watch movies or web video, listen to music, browse photos and more, all with your remote control.
Today the Boxee team are at CES, but they have a number of newsworthy announcements worth sharing with you.
- Firstly, Boxee are announcing support for BBC iPlayer! This is a major integration considering it was only a few weeks back that Mac/Linux support were announced by the BBC. Sadly, it is only available to UK users however I have a good feeling the BBC will open up the service (supported by ads) in the very near future.
- That’s not all, they’ve also integrated Joost. Joost’s content library has grown impressively over recent months with TV Shows, Web Videos, music videos and movies - all now available via Boxee. This is an interesting turn of events considering Joost recently abandoned the desktop application for an in-browser experience.
- For the MTV heads out there, Boxee have added support for MTV’s latest release MTV Music allowing you to search by artist, song or just have a browse.
I have yet to try out the additional releases but if the integration is up to the standard of previous releases, this should be a slick iteration.
Finally, in respect to availability, Boxee have opened up the alpha release to Mac, Ubuntu and Apple TV - all you need to do is signup. Windows is also moving into private-alpha, which will still require an invite but apparently invites are being sent in the thousands so you shouldn’t need to wait long.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on January 8, 2009 – 8:59 am
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
I’m going to do something here which I tend to not normally do and use myself as an example.
(by the way, if you really don’t want to read the story behind this post then just skip to the “I followed this process” section below)
I signed up to twitter almost two years ago now but that still wasn’t early enough to get my hands on my usual username of choice @zee. This then lead to me using a number of different but highly unsatisfactory alternatives. After checking back relatively frequently, I noticed a name had actually been typed into the twitter.com/zee account page in the ‘name’ field - although the last actual update on the account was months ago. After about 3/4 attempts contacting the account owner via searches on linkedin and facebook, I thought i’d contact Twitter support with the request - unfortunately, no response.
Yesterday, however, a breakthrough. Rochelle on Friendfeed directed me to a Get Satisfaction discussion highlighting exactly how to acquire twitter usernames which had already been snapped up but lay unused.
I followed this process:
- Emailed username@twitter.com with the following information:
• The username you want
• Your existing username, if you have one
• Whether you want to change your username, or start a new account with the username you’re requesting
- I received confirmation the email had been received a few minutes later, then another email asking me to reply with the above information (if I hadn’t already provided it).
- Literally, an hour later, I had my account switched from @zeedotme to @zee.
Criteria for Reclaiming a Username on Twitter
While the process appears to have been improved, the same criteria allowing someone to gain access to a name seems to remain.
We generally have a 9 month rule; if a profile has been inactive for more than 9 months, we release the user name. In cases where the account has never been updated, Twitter can write the owner of the username about releasing it, but results vary.
Best of luck!
Written on January 8, 2009 – 1:54 am
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
Now on first glance, you may wonder what exactly is so exciting about “post by moderation”?? Surely this is something which should have been integrated from the beginning. Well, this is why it’s exciting - the feature is for “group blogs”. Still confused? Let me explain…
Posterous is a blogging platform just like wordpress, typepad and others. How it distinguishes itself is that it focuses primarily on blogging via email and therefore making the process much simpler to use and open to anyone who knows how to send an email, Grandma.
Last month, the startup launched “group blogs” which allow for numerous editors to edit/post to the same blog. With this new update, a blog such as Posterous Recipes for example can hand out an email address, people can send in their recipes and simply moderate the various recipe posts they receive. It really couldn’t be much simpler and with the right idea, you could potentially have a great site with contributions from tens, hundreds or even thousands worldwide. I am curious as to how they’re protecting users from floods of spammers but it is curiosity rather than a possible flaw, these guys know what they’re doing.
If you haven’t at least tried Posterous out yet, you need to. Posting via email has never felt so good.
Written on January 8, 2009 – 12:26 am
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
Despite the economic climate, some advertising reliant businesses are continuing to grow. Yelp, the established US listings site, has launched in the UK with a site dedicated to London businesses.
Similar to competitors Yell.com, TimeOut, Trusted Places and Qype, the startup will have listings and customer reviews of offline businesses throughout London and presumably in the future, the UK.
Yelp will also attempt to bring the events aspects of the business over to the UK. Being a great way to grow the community, their latest event in San Franciso saw 2,500 “Yelpers” come together to share their passion for reviewing on the site (!?!).
In an interview with the Guardian, Jeremy Stoppelman said the expansion into the UK was in response to user demand. With 16 million users during November 2008, 100,000 are UK based using the site when visiting the US. It may appear a bold move in this economic climate but with funding totaling over $21m number, dwarfing competitor Trusted Places £1 million, the site should have little trouble surviving through this current economic downturn.
Written on January 7, 2009 – 6:36 pm
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
TVTrip is essentially a hotel search engine. Yawn right? Well not quite, it’s actually both interesting and informative. TV Trip focuses almost exclusively on video to showcase hotels from across the globe.
Working with hotels, they send you on a guided tour of the hotel (not virtual tour by the way) and do their best to show you interiors, exteriors and everything in between! Currently the hotels are mainly Europe focused, however they are expanding and fast, clearly with the goal to have covered hotels on every corner of the world by the end of it.
Launched in June 2007 with headquarters in Belgium, the startup is founded by four executives of Expedia Europe - clearly the experience is there. Plus, they have the backing of renown VCs in Partech and Balderton.
TVtrip’s features include member reviews, interactive maps, links to booking sites, average room rates, photos and detailed hotel descriptions. To book however you need to navigate to one of the sites partners which include Expedia and Booking.com, fortunately they’re just a click away.
One noticeable issue could be videos becoming out of date, when a hotel renovates for example. I’m certain the sites founders will have considered the issue but one other startup may have found the solution to that particular problem, TVtrip’s main competitor tripr.tv. Tripr.tv is a very similar concept but focuses on user generated content rather than hiring their own staff to record the videos, it then compensates users by paying 33% of their commissions for every booking made via their contributed video. Other competitors also include Trivop and Travelistic.
Unfortunately you can’t embed any of TVtrip’s videos on other sites, however, if you click on the image below it’ll direct you to a good example of their video tours.
Written on January 6, 2009 – 9:53 pm
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
You’ve got to love the Dutch, never running out of ideas and seemingly always a step ahead when it comes to innovation. This time they’ve turned their hands to a worlds first, YouTube at the Cinema, cleverly titled Upload Cinema.
Upload Cinema IS a wonderful idea. A members only film club that takes the best web films and displays them on the big screen for weekly get-togethers. Shown every Monday on a full-sized screen at the De Uitkijk theater in Amsterdam, the idea is to offer a feature length stream of internet shorts based on a particular theme.
According to Barbara de Wijn and Dagan Cohen, Upload Cinema’s founders:
Upload Cinema wants to take this exciting new way of making and sharing film out of the domestic realm, away from the internet and the tiny computer screen and into a space that’s designed for a collective experience: the cinema.
Sponsored by Amsterdam advertising agency Draftfcb, Upload Cinema is by invitation only, however you can apply for membership here.
Also, if you fancy setting up an Upload Cinema in your town/city, see details at the bottom of the page here.
Hopefully, the comments at the event are a bit more tasteful than the ones you’ll find at the bottom of a YouTube video page!
via
Written on January 6, 2009 – 6:29 pm
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
Earlier today we drew your attention to the release of Picasa for the Mac, well now Apple has made the next move and it hasn’t waited around, they’ve released iLife 09 with a variety of spanking new features.
The three most unique being:
Faces. An intriguing addition to the application allowing you to organise your photo collection by the people in the photos! Although not perfect, it’s far better than even I could have expected on viewing the demo.
Places. A way to instantly view your photos based on where they were taken. Thanks to built-in GPS and ironically Google maps, iPhoto translates the latitude and longitude into recognisable places.
Facebook Integration. iPhoto integrates with Facebook allowing you to tag the people in your photos with your friends names from Facebook. Definitely something i’m looking forward to incorporating.
Other new features worth mentioning include;
i) iPhoto has brand new slideshow themes bringing life to your photos and the slideshows can then be saved onto your iPhone or touch!
ii) Smart folders to organise your photos as you wish.
I have to say, I am highly impressed with this new release. For a split second there, I had abandoned the idea of using iPhoto and focused on a future with Picasa… Where do your photos belong?
photo via MacRumors
Written on January 6, 2009 – 3:14 pm
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
Yesterday, Google announced the beta release of Picasa for the Mac, something which Mac users have been nagging Google for since it’s inception. With ‘most of the core features of Picasa on Windows’ Google proe
Picasa for Mac will have “most of the core features of Picasa on Windows” according to Google, “…we’ll be working on more refinements to the Mac interface and feature set as time goes on,”.
Impressions
For a first release i’m pretty impressed. Drag and drop functionality, decent integration with iPhoto, retouching brush, slideshow movie maker, autocropping and an auto red-eye removal is not a bad first line up. In addition, there’s the auto-sharing to Picasa web albums and tagging/organisation options which needless to say, work very well.
If you haven’t had a play yet, I highly recommend downloading the app here: http://picasa.google.com/mac. But most importantly come back and share you’re thoughts with us, enough to make you switch from Flickr, Smugmug or Phanfare?
Written on January 5, 2009 – 4:18 pm
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
British citizens will soon have their personal computers scrutinized by the police at any given time under new plans on electronic surveillance from the European Union council of ministers. According to The Times, police will not need a warrant to do so either and to add further fury, Ministers are also drawing up plans to allow police across the EU to collect information from computers in Britain. Material gathered includes all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging ‘chats’.
Hacking has been quietly adopted by police across Britain, saying it is vital for tracking cyber-criminals and paedophiles and is used sparingly but civil liberties groups are very concerned.
“These are very intrusive powers, as intrusive as someone busting down your door and coming into your home. The public will want this to be controlled by new legislation and judicial authorisation. Without those safeguards it’’s a devastating blow to any notion of personal privacy,” the paper quoted Shami Chakrabati, Director of Liberty, as saying.
In this day and age, ‘Freedom’ is a very difficult ideal to define. Freedom in the UK is of course very different to what someones definition is in China. However, the fact that your personal computer, probably one of the most personal items in ones home, can be subjected to search at any given time without the requirement of warrant…crosses the line, irrespective of nation or culture.
via / image credit
Written on January 5, 2009 – 3:32 pm
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
Despite ever increasing denials that health issues played a part a in the pulling out of MacWorld, Jobs has finally decided to come clean in an open letter.
He highlights that his startling and publicly noticed weight loss has been due to a hormone imbalance. He concludes, “I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.”
Here is Steve’s letter:
Dear Apple Community,
For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.
Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.
I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.
As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.
(more…)
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
