Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 25th June 2009
1 COMMENT 
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
Micropayments are a popular way for developers of online games to make money from their products. Players typically get the game for free but must pay for extra levels, upgraded items and the like.
Developers of Facebook games have been able to build micropayments into their products since earlier this year. Now those working on Flash-based games will be able to do the same thanks to a new service from San Francisco startup Heyzap.
Heyzap Payments, launched today, is a platform that allows developers to easily build a standardized payment system into their Flash games. Revenue is shared between the Heyzap and the developer. (more…)
Written on 12th May 2009
5 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
It is hard to imagine, even for a second, that we’ll ever forget about Google and all start using a new search engine. But that is exactly what happened in 2003 when we all forgot about Yahoo, Lycos and AltaVista. If history is any indication within 10 years we WILL be using something else other than Google to search. Do you believe it?
I know, it takes a very large leap of faith to believe it but experiments like Spezify do make me wonder what the ‘Next’ big thing will be. Spezify is a visual search engine that collects search results, arranges them on a desktop and allows you to drag around that desktop. It feels more like spreading out old photos and articles on a big desk and shuffling them around than what you are used to with regular search.
Spezify is currently in beta and you can test it here: http://beta.spezify.com/
Written on 15th February 2009
9 COMMENTS
Srikanth AD, Web Designer, Search Engine Optimizer and Google Devotee
The UMapper plugin is a universal mapping platform that makes it easy for you to create custom maps and add them on your WordPress blog posts.
You can choose a title and a description for you map, customize the markers and objects on it to suit the right sort of color, font sizes and labels.
Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo and OpenStreet are all supported by this plugin.
Key Features :
- Provides collaboration tools, map wiki, and social networking features (comments, ratings, etc.)
- Switching between map providers when creating a map, and later on while editing.
- Map Editor has HTML capabilities and allows Wikipedia and Geo Names search.
- Integrated map editor – manipulating geographical contents to suit your site requirement.
- Allows map distribution via embeds and widgets.
- Allows syndication of map data using KML.
Some potential ways of using it:
- If your blog is based on e-commerce or shopping, then you can integrate custom map(s) onto your blog posts, pointing to the retailer’s location, address and other directions.
- If your are addressing about an event, public meeting or gathering on your site then you can indicate its details by using custom objects and markers on the map.
UMapper is certainly a stand out plugin to aid your visitors with appropriate directions on the custom map based on your subject of interest, making your blog posts more lively and interactive.
Download UMapper WordPress Plugin
Written on 2nd February 2009
6 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Ze Frank is a speaker, humorist and online performance artist. He has used all of the above to put together an intriguing flash app which lets you draw literally draw with your voice.
You simply speak, sing, shout or anything else you’d like to do with your voice and watch as the app draws away based on the volume, pitch and direction of your voice.
Try it out here, although it’s still very much in development, trust me – you’ll be impressed.
Load the player, enable you mic and low volume curves counterclockwise, medium volume is straight, high volume curves clockwise, pretty tough to control nevertheless amazing results can be produced with only your voice.
Written on 16th December 2008
6 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
The Iraqi who tossed a shoe to George Bush yesterday has inspired lots of Web entrepreneurs to come up with flash games. cartoons and animated gifs.
At Boing Boing they have a huge collection of The Animated Gifs but if you are really bored check out these Flash games. The games are simple but impressive when you realize they were made in less than 24 hours:
Let us know how many points you scored!
Written on 10th November 2008
0 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Sprint, in an effort to promote their new Mobile Broadband Card, has launched a Flash Information Dashboard that will keep you entertained way longer than you think. The screenshot here doesn’t do their gizmo any justice. Trust me, just follow this link, pump up the volume, and hover over all the images and links for extra entertainment.
Written on 18th October 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Hobnox is a Berlin-based start-up that brings creative minds from all over the world together in their online community. With a strong focus on music and video, users can create, share, and collaborate their funky stuff.
What particularly impressed me when I first reviewed Hobnox in May, was the state-of-the-art Audiotool. The developers have created a browser-based Flash version of a mix table, so that Hobnox members can create their own beats and melody lines within the site. For me it was all quite overwhelming, as I’m anything but a digital music maker.
That my influence my ability to properly review the tools as well, since some commenters basically said that online flash based toys are not useful in the ultimate business of making music. I can imagine what they meant to say, so I’m really interested to hear their opinion about Hobnox’s updates. David Noël, head of Hobnox marketing, has sent me the following list:
- Live recording and saving functionality
- Addition of a ‚Mac-Dock’-like shelf with all the devices
- We added new devices (Splitter, Merger, Compressor, Phaser, Slope and Gate)
- We’ve improved the performance by getting rid of the Java bypass which means that you’ll need to upgrade to Flash 10 to use the tool
- Starting the Audiotool, you can choose out of three default set-ups or start a blank set-up
The latter even is exciting for a uninitiate like me, as I can just press “electro” and listen in awe. Anyhow, if you’re a professional, please let me know what you think about the Hobnox Audiotool.
Written on 6th July 2008
3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Flash-publishing tool Sprout has a new competitor, and a it’s pretty tough one. Israeli-based Wix doesn’t just makes widgets, but also complete sites. People who are web-savvy enough to maintain a Flickr and YouTube account, but find it too complicated to build a fancy flash site, should definitely read this post.
Co-Founders Giora Kaplan, Avishai Abrahami, and Nadav Abrahami launched their service in open beta at the end of last June, saying that it’s “a big step forward in our journey to change the way web content is created”. I’m not sure whether this is a little bit too enthusiastic, yet I do think Wix can help starting web publishers to shape their online identity.
Thanks to a drag ‘n drop interface, users can create three sorts of Wix publications: the WixSite (1), a Flash-based website that uses an XML file to make it Google-friendly. ExtraSpace (2), a flash widget that allows you to spice up your MySpace page. The third option is WixComment, a fancy widget that functions like an embeddable bio on social network pages. There are several templates available, categorized under Business, Art, Personal, Music, Designers, and MySpace.
To give you an example of how Wix can be used: my grandparents have just celebrated 50 years of marriage and also bought a computer. I can browse to Wix, open the Personal category, select the family tree option and start building a really good-looking genealogy tool for them. Best of all, it will cost me absolutely nothing – except some time.
Written on 19th May 2008
4 COMMENTS
Steven Carrol, Next Web WebTipr France
Hank Williams started a little shit storm in the hacking community recently claiming death to the content distribution networks with the launch of Flash Player 10.
It led to an interesting discussion among hackers and forced Adobe out of bed to respond. See live video is hot right now, but so are those bandwidth charges which are very limiting on profits.
Flash Player 10 coupled with Flash Media Server will be offering new features which will essentially allow some form of p2p streaming capability (though the details have not yet been released), thus possibly enabling live p2p streaming and according to Adobe “applications like chat and games are great examples of likely uses of this technology”.
Why pay charges if you can avoid them? RED5 an open source alternative to the 1K USD Flash Media Server, may well be interested in reverse engineering this new functionality, as will no doubt the 8 hackers at Justin.tv who claim to be one of the largest players in the live video biz and who have developed their own Python Media Server – “a custom built live streaming video server cluster. The network can support thousands of live broadcasts and over 100,000 simultaneous viewers and is 100% owned and operated by Justin.tv”.
Plus Justin.tv are currently leading the way in reducing bandwidth charges. “For most in the industry, live video streaming tends to be expensive – with costs ranging between 15-30 cents per user hour of live streamed video. The Justin.tv video network streams live video at 1/4 cent per user hour – by far the most cost effective live streaming ever built.”
So it looks like Flash Player 10 might help the ‘cutting edge providers’ of live streaming services to reduce those high bandwidth charges even further and maintain an edge over the mighty Yahoo who probably don’t care quite so much about bandwidth as those who actually need profits in order to survive this battle.
Written on 3rd May 2008
1 COMMENT
Steven Carrol, Next Web WebTipr France
It’s difficult for us developers, with tags such as ‘OCD’, ‘aspergers’ and ‘nerds’ to detach the word Macromedia away from Flash. But Flash has been playing Frogger for many years. Formally known as Splash, it has been jumping logs for a long time and with each new release and throughout its management changes, this single star has jumped itself into becoming one of the most dominant and integral players on the Internet today.
With each jump there has been thousands of dedicated and obsessive devotees simultaneously having ejaculations (metaphorically speaking) as the gravity settles to the new possibilities that the latest incarnation makes possible. These would not be apparent to a ‘normal’ person, for only those with the above mentioned tags have the capacity to really grasp the essence of the bifurcation immediately.
Flash has explored every area of the landscape, looking for acceptance, adoption and for an audience that truly appreciates their quests. I say quests because the team behind this baby are ruthlessly exploring new worlds, as and when they find a new feeding ground, they evolve with the terrain leaving little resemblance of their previous incarnation intact. This is one team that is highly interested in natural selection and breeding with aliens!
It is of little surprise that when Adobe Flash announces that they will now explore the mobile market further (code name: Open Screen Project) that when the fruits of this initiative are ripe, we will no doubt have strange new gadgets not even predicted by Philip K Dick, that we will use to navigate the new world around us, with unprecedented access to information and communication, but in an international timezone that has no on/off switch.
So what is it that Adobe’s crystal ball is saying this time about the future. Here are some predictions of scenarios that come to mind when I dare let my imagination go wild with the inevitable consequences of the Open Screen Project. (more…)
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 off, the future of the Web. (More info 
