ReadWriteWeb

In this edition of the Weekly Wrapup - our newsletter summarizing the top stories of the week - we report on a new "superphone" launched by Google, take a look at how the Web is transforming personal finance, give you 5 reasons why RSS Readers still rock, get a first look at the new startup of ex-Facebook CTO Adam D'Angelo, analyze the trends that emerged from this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and more. And as usual we check in on our two main channels: ReadWriteEnterprise (devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' trends and products) and ReadWriteStart (our daily resource for entrepreneurs).

Also read on for details of the newly released printed edition of our current premium report, about the Real-Time Web.

The 2010 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) gets into full swing today and already we're seeing a big trend emerging: web applications being ported to consumer electronics, from the technology inside cars to Web-enabled TVs.

Yesterday we noted that online music service Pandora will be made available in cars, courtesy of a new Pioneer device that will begin selling in March. The pricey $1,200 device detects users' Pandora settings via their iPhones. Other evidence of this trend can be found in Ford's announcement of a new in-car system and Samsung's latest Internet-connected TV.

Nobody puts it in a square box, at least.

Boxee, the software that brings Internet media to your television, has been seen in the flesh at CES today.

We first heard about the Boxee Box in November, but the announcement was light on details. This time around, D-Link offered a list of specifications and media-format compatibilities at the oddly-shaped device's unveiling.

One of the most apparent trends from this month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), was the proliferation of flat panel, internet-connected TVs. Nearly every major television manufacturer was demonstrating some sort of web-to-TV integration, including sets that offered Yahoo widgets, MySpace social networking, and Netflix built directly into the TV sets themselves. This isn't the "Web TV" of days past, but a whole new way to internet-enable the living room. This is the year of the "connected TV."

Yes there are profitable, self-funded SaaS product companies out there. They're the ones we're celebrating in our Gritty Entrepreneur series. To that end, we recently interviewed Timothy Young, CEO of Socialcast, which is in the "enterprise social messaging" market - otherwise known as enterprise microblogging. The consumer champions are Twitter and FriendFeed. The best known enterprise play (at least known within the Blogosphere) is Yammer, a company we panned. Socialcast not only has a revenue model, it also has profits, so that seemed worth investigating.

Bill Gates has started a mysterious new company, called bgC3, possibly to be focused on creating catalyst business ideas to spin off to Microsoft, the Gates Foundation or elsewhere. Little is known about the company, which doesn't appear to have a public web page, but a fair number of details have been ferreted out by the Seattle area tech reporters Todd Bishop, Eric Engleman and John Cook.

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.

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.

Rumors abound that Yahoo! will make a major announcement about OpenID today at CES. It looks like at the very least you'll be able to use your Flickr user page URL to log in anywhere that supports OpenID login. The code is live, view source of any user page and search for OpenID and you'll find it.

The service, however, is not usable yet. Try logging in to an OpenID enabled site using your Flickr URL and you'll get this message: "Hey there! You have stopped by a bit sooner than we had expected. This feature is still being tested, so please check back in a few days. " So Flickr is set to become one more of a long list of accounts you can use to login to a relative handful of websites.

Yahoo! probably has more adherents than G*d, so meaningful OpenID support company wide would blow the doors wide open. That's not likely to be what happens.

One of the highlights of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) each year is Bill Gates' keynote speech, available here as a webcast. Every year ReadWriteWeb analyzes Gates' keynote, highlighting the main themes and trends that he discusses. This year there were a slew of products and partnerships announced. It was less futuristic vision and more beta products and what's coming in 2008. In other words, it was much less about Internet-connected fridges, and more about what you can do now on your Xbox 360.