Sean Ammirati posted a 20 minute podcast interview and transcript with new Mozilla CEO John Lilly tonight and Lilly has some interesting things to share about the future of the organization. Data Portability, the forthcoming version of Firefox (Firefox 3, available in beta now), mobile Firefox and the Mozilla Weave "cloud computing for the browser" project are among the topics the two discuss.
Last week gadget blog Gizmodo admitted to pulling a prank at CES 2008 in which they used a device to turn off TVs on the exhibit floor and during company presentations. In their post about the prank Gizmodo apologized ("It was too much fun, but watching this video, we realize it probably made some people's jobs harder, and I don't agree with that [...] We're sorry," they wrote), but across the blogosphere the blog was still widely panned for the juvenile prank. And rightly so. Today, Gizmodo editor Brian Lam posted a lengthy response to his critics.
A couple of days ago I received the following email, from a Mr Vladislav Sobolev, who I'd never heard of before:
"Hi,I am going to launch ReadWriteWeb.mobi, the mobile version of ReadWriteWeb
optimized for viewing on a mobile phone. I am also launching a number of other
mobile sites including buzzmachine, craphound, crunchboard, deadspin,
micropersuasion, scobleizer, sethgodin, and a couple dozen other projects.
Thought you might be interested.I'm also launching MacManus.mobi btw.
Cheers,
V.S ."
There's no shortage of weird stuff on the internet, but how can you find the weirdest? The following is a demonstration of how you can use a handful of different applications together to automate the discovery of the content that's most worth your time in any niche - whether you're looking for weird stuff or anything else.
Last July MySpace deleted the profiles of more than 29,000 registered sex offenders who had been using the social networking site. The sheer number of sex offenders using the site highlighted one of the biggest checks against MySpace: child safety. Numerous news reports over the past couple of years have painted the site as a hang out for sexual predators. This morning, MySpace aimed to put its problems behind it by announcing a new set of safety guidelines drafted in conjunction with 49 US state attorneys general.
According to our network blog last100, Google unveiled a new user interface today for its iPhone Web apps. Daniel Langendorf reports:
"With Google for the iPhone, users will get an improved UI optimized for the touch screen, customization of default tabs (easy access to favorite applications), faster Gmail (email automatically show up, no refreshing needed), a speedier Calendar (including a new month view), and iGoogle."
With Apple expected to announce iTunes movie rentals at the Macworld conference this week, Netflix eased the restrictions on its movie streaming service. Starting today, all subscribers save those on the cheapest Netflix plan will have access to unlimited online video streaming from among the company's 6,000+ movie online library. This is seen as a preemptive strike against Apple, who may also tie their 24-hour iTunes movie rental service into their AppleTV set-top box product.
Lifestreaming, according to Wordspy, is "an online record of a person's daily activities, either via direct video feed or via aggregating the person's online content such as blog posts, social network updates, and online photos." In this post we review some of the top lifestreaming web apps: Onaswarm, Lifestrea.ms, Soup, Jaiku (the service Google bought), and perhaps the most popular of them all, Tumblr.
Xobni (that's inbox backwards - cute!) is the next big idea in productivity enhancements for your inbox. The Xobni software is an add-on for Microsoft Outlook that offers email management and quick access to important information in your email. But more than that, Xobni claims to "expose the hidden social network" in your email. That's ingenious because everyone I know is in my email...somehow, somewhere...but they may or may not be my friend on MySpace, Facebook, flickr, YouTube, etc. This is especially true for my family members over 40!
UPDATE: ReadWriteWeb has just received 50 beta accounts to Xobni. Enter the invite code “RWW” at www.xobni.com/download to get instant access to the download of Xobni Insight.
Here is a summary of the week's Web Tech action on ReadWriteWeb, the first full working week of 2008!
Highlights this week: Our coverage of CES, including Web product and strategy announcements from Microsoft and Yahoo!; Google and Facebook join DataPortability Workgroup; a review of the latest Web adventure for television show Lost; an analysis of the 'killer apps' for the Semantic Web; some new, stunning, stats from the world of podcasting; Newsgator releases its premium products for free; and predictions for next week's Macworld conference.
