Sometimes the PR materials are so full of noise that they become more interesting than the actual product they’re supposed to advertise. Such is the case with Clickster, a desktop software application which searches MP3s on web sites and lets you rip them from MySpace profiles and Shoutcast’s radio stream.
We’ve seen a fair share of MP3 search engines, but what makes Clickster interesting is their claim that their way of downloading MP3s is perfectly legal and free. I’m definitely not the one to advocate the fight against music sharing, but I honestly don’t see what separates Clickster from any other search engine that grabs MP3s from a zillion blogs and other sites that post songs with dubious legal origin.
Even the screenshot of the free version of Clickster from Remlap site displays songs from a Libertines album. Now, Libertines were a British Band signed with the label Rough Trade Records. If you download those songs for free from the internet, wouldn’t you think that Rough Trade will probably consider this to be piracy?
Consider this excerpt from Clickster’s PR pamphlet:
“Unlike peer to peer networks that are increasingly coming under pressure from western governments and the recording industry to crack down on illegal file sharers Clickster provides a safe, fast and comprehensive alternative, directly sourcing over 30 million mp3’s hosted on web servers.”
Yeah, right. Downloading copyrighted music without paying for it will be frowned upon by the music industry, regardless of whether you’re using http or some p2p protocol to download.
The fact that Clickster can rip music off MySpace profiles or Shoutcast streams sounds nice enough from the user’s standpoint, but since the recording industry has been trying to prevent such actions for years, once again I doubt one can consider this to be a legal way to freely download music.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that the recording industry is right at everything they do to prevent music sharing. But on the other hand, simply saying that something is “legal” and “free” won’t make it so.
Handset Alliance to create an open platform (to be called Android) for a Linux phone that can run mobile Google apps and others. The 34 partners include T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, NTT Docomo, China Mobile, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Motorola, Samsung, HTC, Qualcomm, Intel, and Google itself. No mention of Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone, or Nokia (which is pushing its own Ovi development platform). Here is the press release. Writes Andy Rubin, the man behind the Google Phone. :
Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we’re not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing — the Open Handset Alliance and Android — is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. In fact, through the joint efforts of the members of the Open Handset Alliance, we hope Android will be the foundation for many new phones and will create an entirely new mobile experience for users, with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today
Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications — all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation.
Reports started trickling out last week that Google is ready to announce its Gphone, or rather Gphones. It is more a reference design, than a single phone. Android-based phones will start to come out on the market in the latter half of 2008 (from HTC at minimum). One mobile startup CEO I know says he was contacted on Friday by Google and given the final go-ahead to port his app onto Android, which his company has not even started to work on yet. The software development kit will be available on November 12. Today’s announcement is just that. There is nothing concrete here in terms of products or services, but going mobile represents a major growth opportunity for Google, which wants to bring the Internet (along with search and contextual ads) to your phone.
John Biggs at CrunchGear is liveblogging the conference call, and he is also streaming the audio
Here are my notes from the call:
Google CEO Eric Schmidt notes there are 3 billion mobile users. He says:
“We want to create a whole new experience for mobile users.”
“This will be the first fully-integrated software stack, including an operating system and middleware, being made available under the most liberal open-source license ever given to mobile operators [and handset makers].”
“This is not an announcement of a Gphone. We hope thousands of different phones will be powered by Android. This will make possible all sorts of applications that have never been made available on a mobile device.”
He think s a”lack of a collaborative effort” is what has been keeping back the mobile Web. Android will help developers reduce complexities and costs across different mobile devices.
“Mobile software complexity and cost is increasing, but mobile users want the same apps as they have on the Internet. Android will be able to deliver on this.”
Sergey Brin: “As I look at it I reflect, ten years ago I was sitting at a graduate student cubicle. We were able to build incredible things,. There was a set of tools that allowed us to do that. It was all open technologies. It was based on Linux, GNU, Apache. All those pieces and many more allowed us to do great things and distribute it to the world. That is what we are doing today, to allow people to innovate on today’s mobile devices. Today’s mobile devices are more powerful than those computers I was working on just ten years ago. I cannot wait to see what today’s innovators will build.”
No ad-supported phones, says Andy Rubin in Q&A: “Part of this Android solution is a very robust HTML Web browser, so there is really no difference between browsing on a phone [and on a PC]. Contrary to speculation, you won’t see a completely ad-driven phone on this platform for some time.” But he confirms that this plays into Google’s overall advertising strategy by bringing a more fully functioning Web browser to the handset. Notes that Android will require at minimum the equivalent of a 200 MHz ARM 9 processor. The platform is open source, and that will be its competitive advantage over other mobile platforms.
Schmidt: “The best model is to be open. that is what the Internet has taught us. The test of course is whether the applications and developers emerge. The reason we are announcing now is to make sure developers have time to make available applications that have never been available before but are common on Macs and PCs.”
And not that he is announcing anything, but: “If you were to build Gphone, you would build it on this platform.”
Qs about ability of carriers to lock down devices. Rubin: “When you free something into the open it is up to the industry to do something with it.” (i.e., it is not Google’s problem).
Q: “So if the industry wanted to create completely locked down devices, that would be possible?”
And Rubin: “Yes.”
Schmidt: “While that is possible, it is highly unlikely.” Uh-huh, what planet does he live on?
Q: Any overlap with OpenSocial?
Schmidt: “Google announces products whenever they are ready, and the teams are different. OpenSocial will be a framework that will run extremely well on Android for all the obvious reasons. Developers building interesting social apps will have the benefit of mobility as Android becomes widespread.”
Dell says it will pay $1.4B in cash to buy EqualLogic, which sells storage units for virtualization. This is huge win for management and investors, who put in only $52M. Backers include Charles River Ventures, Sigma Partners, Focus Ventures and TD Capital.
EqualLogic had exected to complete an IPO by the end of this year and had filed an S1. For 2006, EqualLogic had $68M in revenue and lost $4.3M. In the first nine months of 2007, it had $91M in revenue and lost $1.9M.
Storage has become Dell's fastest-growing business unit and the company is pushing to increase its offering there with EqualLogic.
Is your life lacking some much needed direction? Things to do before you die. Goals to accomplish by the years end. People you'd like to meet, places to visit. Most everyone has a list of things they'd like to accomplish-- ambitions, goals, and dreams they want to follow through with. But what happens? Dreams fall to the wayside, life gets in the way so to speak. Somehow you've managed none of your goals, or perhaps you really hadn't any in the first place. those may help you.
MoveMoutains helps you achieve your goals. The site basically acts as a life coach, but you don't need pay for their services. It’s actually free.
eLifeList is a social network centered around goals, or as the site creators call them Life Lists. This is essentially an inventory of things you want to accomplish during your lifetime
This goal-oriented site brings together a community of similarly minded people whose aim is to help each other accomplish their aspirations and thus live their lives to the fullest. Members of the site can join in on preset goals and they can search for pals who want to achieve the same things. There’s a whole community at work here, so you’ll never feel alone.
Optimost offers more experience across a wider range of industries than anyone else in the field. That experience is not only in their technology, but also in their professional services, which encompass everything from test planning and design all the way through implementation and data analysis.
This site will help you keep track of all your goals. Once you've registered simply jot down your goals (quick description, title) and the date by which you'd like to accomplish them.
LifeTango lets you make the most of your life by helping you create a Life List. Can't think of anything? Let the brainstorming wizard take over. Browse other people's goals
SuperViva is a site which can help you make that happen. Basically, you make a list of all your life goals, whether they be tiny minutiae, or lifelong tasks. Of course, if you haven’t got any ideas on your own you can take a tour of other people’s life lists and get inspired from there; check out the idea inventory and the idea lists.
Snap.com will launch the Snap Shots Ad Network Monday at Ad:Tech, a new program that allows advertisers and ad networks to deliver context-based ads to Snap Shots users.
Snap Shots, for those not familiar with the service, are the little site preview windows that pop up on websites with the service enabled, mouse over the image at the end of this link to Snap.com for a demo.
Under the new program, each time a Snap Shot is triggered, the Snap Shot window reveals both the information the user specifically requests and a context-based ad centered directly where the viewer’s eyes are focused. The focus of the ads is said to be better as the are contextually served against a specific link, ignoring other information on the same page that may otherwise result is lower quality contextual results.
Snap.com has over 2,000,000 Web site operators, bloggers and individual Web surfers currently using Snap Shots served via a webpage or browser. The Snap Shots service is used approximately 15 million times daily and is available in 43 different languages.
The Snap Shots Ad Network will initially offer three ad formats that include simple banners and text to expandable rich media, with ad serving provided by DoubleClick.
techcrunch report that MySpace will announce plans to introduce a new advertising platform, “SelfServe by MySpace,” at Ad:Tech Monday.
SelfServe by MySpace will allow users to directly purchase, create and analyze the performance of ads throughout the MySpace network, in a similar fashion to Google Adwords. MySpace will be the first of the big social networking sites to announce an advertising product such as this, with Facebook said to be announcing a similar service Tuesday.
The new tool will enable users to select from a number of ad targeting factors such as geographic, demographic, and various user interest categories. The service will be ready for use by early 2008.
MySpace will also announce the completion of the first phase of another new advertising platform, “HyperTargeting by MySpace” which allows marketers to buy advertising targeted to specific interest-based segments of the MySpace audience. The service first launched in July and has around 50 advertisers using the service including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Ford and Taco Bell.
Socialtext, the early wiki company, has raised $9.5 million in a third round of financing to a total of $14.1 million.
Socialtext is one of a number companies loading delivering “social software” to large companies, helping employees collaborate in real-time on documents in ways they haven’t done in the past. It has recently expanded beyond mere wikis, or Web pages that multiple people can edit at the same time, and now offers multiple social networking tools, such as social bookmarking, where employees bookmark online documents that they can share with their colleagues.
Socialtext also named a new chief executive, Eugene Lee, who replaces founder Ross Mayfield.
Gartner recently concluded that no company has stolen a leadership position within the social software sector. However, it placed Socialtext close to the so-called upper right “magic quadrant,” making it one of the leading start-ups in the same league as large companies Microsoft,IBM and BEA (see chart below).
Other wiki players include Jot (now owned by Google), PBWiki, Wetpaint and Wikia. However, they are consumer focused, and don’t sell to large companies.
Socialtext says it has 4,000 customers, including Nokia, Basf, USA Today and Ikea.
The company isn’t profitable yet. It employs 50 people in Palo Alto, Calif.
The round was led by DFJ, SAP and Omidyar, all previous investors. Previous investor Intel Capital did not reinvest.
Also on Monday, Yahoo's Brickhouse technology incubator will be launching a development platform, code-named FireEagle, that will eventually enable people to provide their location in one place and have that information distributed across multiple applications, such as social networks, microblogs and instant-messaging services. The data dissemination also can be automated with a GPS-enabled phone.
"The platform geocodes the data and makes it machine-readable so other applications can plug into it, publish to it, or read from it," says Salim Ismail, head of Brickhouse.
Yahoo isn't a start-up anymore; it hasn't been for years. But it has retained the start-up mentality in its Brickhouse and Advanced Products divisions, where ideas can go from scrawls on a napkin to product in a short amount of time.
"We can throw things out to the marketplace and see if they work," Gatz says. "We have created an environment where we build products quickly, get them to market quickly, and iterate, iterate, iterate, and then bring them into the core business unit."
USB devices do everything these days, including charge your gadgets with only the power provided by your breathing: specifically, the act of moving one's chest in and out. Just in case you thought this required sticking a gadget down your throat, see the image above and note that it's attached to the outside of the model's chest. The instructions for building your own breathing powered USB charger are over at instructables, and the kit only requires simple equipment like a spare CD drive, some elastic bands, and an electric circuit. You've got all that lying around, ain't ya? Well then, stick it all together and get breathing. Unfortunately, it only produces around 5 volts, so you'll have to breath a lot whole lot to get any meaningful charging time from this invention. And don't even think about attaching it to the cat.
