ReadWriteWeb

With the ability to reach billions of people for the price of a few keystrokes and clicks, the Web has become the way many of us make our first impressions. These days, I might know a person from their blog or Twitter account before I ever know them in real-life. If they made poor personal branding choices, perhaps I'll never want to actually meet them. Effectively constructing an online brand isn't easy, but thankfully one of the experts in the subject, Loïc Le Meur, founder of Seesmic and LeWeb, is launching his own video series to help set the foundation.

Mobile media company ParkVu is today introducing a new Facebook application called Music WithMe which publishes your iTunes music library to Facebook where the tracks it contains can be shared, liked, commented on and discussed among your friends.

The app, which also requires a desktop software download (currently Windows-only, Mac coming soon), connects your iTunes music library to Facebook and then continually syncs changes as you purchase and add new music.

It's fascinating to track the changing dynamics of how artistic content is delivered and promoted on the Web. Last week we looked at how the band Arcade Fire released its latest album 'The Suburbs' via the Web, using social media like Facebook and YouTube. Today we check out how a web site in the backwaters of Illinois is making a name for itself as a live recording studio. Daytrotter records indie bands and releases those recordings on its web site for free, accompanied by unique cartoon imagery. Daytrotter is also currently working on a movie.

"The Internet is the new Seattle," was the rather hyperbolic claim made by a musician in a Daytrotter promo video (see below). Does this mean that musicians should wear their pajamas on stage now, instead of flannel? Let's find out.

AudioBox.fm, an online streaming service which lets you access your music collection via the cloud, has today released its highly anticipated native iPhone application. With the new app, you can organize your files by playlist, artist, genre or album and stream them directly to your mobile device. You can also scrobble your played tracks over to Last.fm and, on devices running iOS 4.0, you can listen to music in the background while multitasking.

Oh, and it's free.

Earlier this week, we reported on the removal of iChatr, the iPhone version of the popular randomized video chat service ChatRoulette, noting that we thought Apple had gone too far in its action. Because users were exposing themselves, Apple removed the app as part of the company's anti-porn stance.

Now we hear from DLP Mobile, creators of a mirror app for the iPhone 4, that Apple rejected its app from the App Store because its submitted screenshots were considered "obscene, pornographic, or defamatory." All we can say to this is: Take a look and see for yourself.

GetJar, the world's second-largest applications store, just announced a series B funding of $11 million from Accel Partners.

Second in volume only to Apple's app store, GetJar has seen over a billion downloads of 65,000 applications. Its focus on cross-platform sales (iPhone apps included) has positioned it to take advantage of the burgeoning app war between Apple and Google.

Apple bans Ulysses, again. Apple, energized by its campaign against porno, required Rob Berry, a graphic novelist, to redact the lovely lady lumps and other human bedanglements in his interpretation of James Joyce's novel, "Ulysses," called "Ulysses 'Seen'" before he could offer it in the iTunes store.

This, of course, is the problem with all censorship, from international country-wide filtering to a single company's ill-advised big brothering of its customers. For every highly offensive sex act (sex is dirty, after all) that the little people are spared, tons of legitimate content is junked along with it.

When Apple purchased the cloud-based music streaming service Lala in December of 2009 and then announced a few months later that it was planning to shut it down, many hoped that this signaled Apple's intentions to launch its own cloud-based version under the iTunes label. And so, a replacement for Lala was on many people's wishlist for announcements they hoped to hear Steve Jobs make today at WWDC.

But unfortunately, Jobs had no such news.

A first peek at Apple's new data center in Maiden, North Carolina, shows a massive complex that demonstrates the huge commitment Apple may be making to cloud computing.

According to Data Center Knowledge, the $1 billion data center is 500,000 square feet in size, nearly five times the size of Apple's 100,000 square foot facility in Newark, New Jersey.

The data center is considered a major part of Apple's cloud computing roll out.

Luckily, we aren't in the business of trying to figure out what exactly is up Apple's sleeve at the upcoming Jan. 27 event at Yerba Buena Gardens. Much speculation has surfaced in recent weeks on what products and services will announced.

Now, in addition to the iTablet madness, new information comes in the form of several reports that Apple is set to announce a cloud-based music service. This will likely incorporate its recent purchase of the Lala application with Apples' hardware and iTunes empire, bringing a ray of hope that iTunes will become more social - as suggested by ReadWriteWeb's Sarah Perez nearly two years ago.