Space sucks. Literally. The void of space is one perpetual vacuum that would suck the brain out of any exposed human through their ears. In space there is also unfiltered radiation, extreme temperatures and a multitude of other ways that humans can be harmed outside of low-Earth orbit. Learning how to mitigate radiation and improve space crews' health are two of 16 recommendations made by the National Research Council to NASA for the agency's technological focus in the next five years.

Researchers announced yesterday that they have discovered a new potential "Goldilocks" planet in a different solar system. A "Goldilocks" planet is one found within the habitable zone in orbit around a star - not too hot, not to cold - that could potentially support life. In hundreds of years, after humanity has exhausted all of Earth's natural resources, we may need to migrate to one of these planets. So, NASA should hurry up and get cracking on the NRC's recommendations. Best to be prepared in the face of an uncertain future.

The NRC's recommendations come in three objectives. See the chart below.

The study was sponsored by NASA. It states, " NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) should establish a rigorous process to select among competing technologies at appropriate milestones in order to ensure that the most promising ones receive sufficient attention and resources."

The study focuses on the near term goals for NASA's space flight program and recommends that the foundation for the goals be implemented in the next five years. NASA works on 20-30 year windows of technological innovation. Within that window, it is hoped, that humans will return to the Moon and maybe make a venture towards Earth's irascible sister planet, Mars. Near and long terms goals in our solar system are to identify alien sources of water and determine if life ever existed outside of our little blue orb.

Goldilocks and A Dwarf

The most recent Goldilocks planet, dubbed GJ 667Cc, is found in the constellation Scorpio, 22 light years away from Earth. It orbits a dwarf star in a system with two other dwarf stars. It has a 28-day solar cycle, meaning its "years" are very quick. The planet is much closer to its star than Earth but researchers believe it receives as much energy from its star because of the weakness of the dwarf.

This is the fourth Goldilocks planet found as scientists become more proficient at finding smaller objects orbiting distant stars. Researchers did not expect to find a planet around the star because the system does not have a lot of metal-based material such as iron in comparison with our own solar system. Yet, the discovery shows that Earth-like planets can exist in a variety of conditions in the universe, greatly increasing the likelihood that another planet much like our own exists somewhere.

"This was expected to be a rather unlikely star to host planets. Yet there they are, around a very nearby, metal-poor example of the most common type of star in our galaxy," said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz, in a release. "The detection of this planet, this nearby and this soon, implies that our galaxy must be teeming with billions of potentially habitable rocky planets."

Now that humanity is getting better at identifying extra-solar planets, NASA and the international space community needs to take the steps we will need to eventually reach out to them. The first steps to inter-galactic dominance start with the decisions makers in Washington, D.C.

Top image: UC Santa Cruz

The 30-second clip (after the jump) sweeps from the moon's northern pole to the southern polar region, passing, among other features, the Mare Orientale, a 560-mile wide dry sea that extends onto the side we can see from Earth.

According to the press release NASA released with the footage:

In the video, the north pole of the moon is visible at the top of the screen as the spacecraft flies toward the lunar south pole. One of the first prominent geological features seen on the lower third of the moon is the Mare Orientale, a 560-mile-wide (900 kilometer) impact basin that straddles both the moon's near and far side.

The clip ends with rugged terrain just short of the lunar south pole. To the left of center, near the bottom of the screen, is the 93-mile-wide (149 kilometer) Drygalski crater with a distinctive star-shaped formation in the middle. The formation is a central peak, created many billions of years ago by a comet or asteroid impact.

The GRAIL program consists of two small spacecraft outfitted with cameras. They reached lunar orbit on New Year's Eve and New Year's day. This footage was taken on Jan. 19.

The moon is "tidally locked," so the same half of its body has always faced away from the Earth and, until now, remained unfilmed. It has, however, been photographed, first by the Russians in 1959. The dark side has experienced far less volcanism, perhaps because the crust is thicker there.

And for bonus awesomeness, here is a freaky photo of the giant Vesta asteroid, shot in September. It is located in the solar asteroid belt lying between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists are reasonably certain it is filled with the souls of the damned. Well, not scientists so much as me. Look at it. Creepy.

Farside moon photo byNASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

We all know that the world is going to end in December 2012 because a giant solar eruption is going to swallow the Earth. Or is it supposed to be the implosion of the Yellowstone Caldera? Reversal of the global poles? Does anybody even care about how the Earth will end if we are all doomed anyway?

Apparently, yes. NASA has set up a Frequently Asked Questions page on its website to answer questions pertaining to the end of existence. According to NASA, there is no scientific evidence that the world is going to end in 2012. Contrary to popular beliefs, put your trust in science and do not set up the foundations for that underground bunker just yet.

NASA reaffirms this: "Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then - just as your calendar begins again on January 1 - another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar."

There is also the notion of the "Nibiru collision." Some say this dates back to ancient Sumerian and Babylonian texts, it was actually an idea put forth by Nancy Lieder of the website ZetaTalk in 1995. Nibiru, or the infamous "Planet X" was supposed to crash into the Earth in 2003, causing a pole shift that would bring and end to world. The name "Nibiru" comes from study done by author Zecharia Sitchin based on his interpretation of Babylonian texts. Nibiru is supposed to pass by Earth every 3,600 years and its alien inhabitants come to our planet to rule as gods.

There is no Nibiru. Scientists have thoroughly debunked the idea of the "12th Planet." NASA says that there are no planetary alignments in the future that could cause harm to the Earth, let alone in 2012. There is a dwarf-sized planet located within the outer regions (the Kuiper Belt) of our solar system called Eris that some apocalyptic theorists says could impact the planet. NASA says that this simply could not happen.

"Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles."

What about a giant solar eruption? This theory was put into play in the movie "2012" starring John Cusack among others. Basically, a solar eruption destroys the Earth, causing the Yellowstone Caldera to erupt, the poles to reverse, all the continents begin shifting and are swallowed by the oceans. When it comes to apocalyptic thrillers, "2012" is easily one of the best. It is followed closely by other extra-terrestrial thrillers like "Independence Day" and "War Of The Worlds."

NASA says that its satellites are in more danger of solar activity than our little blue orb, "Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history."

What should people fear about the possibility of The End coming in 2012? Do not look to the heavens. Look to your neighbors and the people you see on the street. The notions of apocalypse brings out the crazies. They load up survival gear, sell off their possessions, cause general hysteria. People are the biggest threat to your well-being. When it comes to the Internet, watch out for spam, scams, malware, phishers and poisoned websites that breed on the hysteria or curiosity of the public.

Please, do not drink the Kool-Aid.

"For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence?" NASA asks. "There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012."

Bonus: A video created that I created with Boston University classmate Ashleigh Costanza when we were in graduate school. We asked Mayan experts, theologians, people on the street and other investigators to weigh in on The End and what people should be worried about. Check it out.

OpenStack is a popular open source cloud operating system used by more than 90 companies and the U.S. government. In the world of cloud, OpenStack is where the cool kids hang out and where some of the most talented developers in the world program. Yet, it almost never came to be.

OpensStack had its one-year anniversary on July 19. The cloud structure has its roots in NASA. The story of OpenStack is really the story of how NASA created its Do It Yourself cloud environment - NASA Nebula. With just a few developers working on a side project in the basement of the NASA Ames Research Center outside of Mountain View, Calif., the seeds of OpenStack and Nebula were planted. Yet, as with any government program, lack of funding almost killed the project several times and threatens to kill its future. It took the president to really get it off the ground.

According to current Ames CTO Ray O'Brien, there was a dinner in Mountain View that included NASA's chief architect and several C-level executives of Ames in 2009. Over Indian food, the idea to start a project that could provide massive, scalable computing power was pitched and the term cloud bandied about as a way to provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for all of NASA. O'Brien was not at the dinner but he later became the project manager for Nebula. So, NASA.net was scrapped and Nebula was born.

And then almost died.

NASA has a very strict budget that is more or less set in stone from 2010 to 2013 per terms of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. This was the act that took the $6 billion or so that it cost to run the space shuttle program and dispersed it to the rest of the agency. To get funding as a federal program, Nebula would have needed to be proposed in 2007. So, Nebula was essentially bootstrapped by the Ames Research Center for the first part of its life.

This is when the big movers and shakers got into the mix.

Chris Kemp met with then CIO of the federal government Vivek Kundra, a huge proponent of cloud computing and government transparency. This is where the president steps in. It was also around this time that the Obama White House announced that the open government initiative that included Recovery.gov, Data.gov and USASpending.gov, along with the U.S. IT Dashboard. Kundra, being the first-ever federal CIO, had the ear of president Obama. Kemp and Kundra were able to strike a deal that USASpending.gov and its corollary sites would be hosted with Nebula. That way, NASA's budget would not be affected and the White House (more specifically, the Office of Management and Budgets) would fund Nebula.

Work on the Nebula IaaS started to ramp up, especially as the IT world became more aware of the capabilities of the cloud. Nebula was designed to carry working-class science loads - basically, NASA's tonnage of data about space - as opposed to a Web-hosting services the way Amazon Web Services does. Hence, Nebula has the ability to be massive (not that AWS does not, Nebula is just a different type of animal).

The Nebula team at Ames started running into problems. Everything went wrong that could possibly go wrong. They were building an infrastructure from scratch and feeling their way through the problems. Hardware, software, databases, client management, virtual machines ... rain - anything and everything that could go wrong did. One of the biggest problems that the Nebula team faced was that it did not have a sufficient controller to manage Nebula. The team got together one weekend and decided to put an end to that and wrote an entirely new code controller for Nebula that became Nova, which "has been empowering NASA users since May 2010," according to O'Brien.

"We always knew that NASA would have an open-source road map," O'Brien said at the Cloud Control Conference in Boston this week. "We just had to build the source code."

Funding was still a problem. But, the project had caught the eye of NASA CIO Linda Cureton and Nebula had a new champion. Cureton was able to name Nebula an "official agency project" and use funds from other NASA centers (such as the Goddard Space Flight Center).

That is when Rackspace called.

Almost every bit of code that NASA creates is later open sourced. That is what has happened with Nebula. The resulting creation of NASA+Rackspace= Openstack.

Tim O'Reilly says that "NASA and Rackspace are taking amazing steps to my vision of an open cloud future," according to the OpenStack website. O'Brien provided a quote from an anonymous Ames IT official that said "Nebula could be the Linux of cloud."

NASA would eventually love to let the open source community develop OpenStack while the agency just becomes a customer. That is the plan though currently NASA is still putting a lot of resources into developing and mainting Nebula and OpenStack. It has been around for a year. The guess is that it will be here a lot longer than that.

Image Source: NASA Ames Research Center CTO for IT Ray O'Brien Power Point Presentation from Boston Cloud Control Conference 2011, July 20.

To celebrate this milestone, NASA has found a particularly lovely pair of galaxies to photograph. Known by the mellifluous appellation of Arp 273, it consists of UGC 1813, on top, and UGC 1810, the one below, whose gravity has shaped the stars of its sister galaxy into the shape of a pinkish rose.

"The newly released Hubble image shows a large spiral galaxy, known as UGC 1810, with a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. A swath of blue jewel-like points across the top is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot young blue stars. These massive stars glow fiercely in ultraviolet light."

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden commemorated the anniversary:

"For 21 years, Hubble has profoundly changed our view of the universe, allowing us to see deep into the past while opening our eyes to the majesty and wonders around us. I was privileged to pilot space shuttle Discovery as it deployed Hubble. After all this time, new Hubble images still inspire awe and are a testament to the extraordinary work of the many people behind the world's most famous observatory."

If the Hubble's done nothing else, it has reminded us, repeatedly, of the beauty and the wonder of the universe.

Photo and video via Hubblesite

The images, taken by the MESSENGER probe early this morning, will be posted to a special page on NASA's site as the teleconference is taking place on another.

MESSENGER, short for "Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging," has been in orbit around the planet since March 17. It took 364 images today, will take 1,185 photos over the next few days and wind up with over 75,000 images altogether over the next year.

Mercury is the planet closest to the sun. It's got a year of just under 88 days and an iron core that creates weak planetary magnetism. The temperature ranges from a brisk -364 degrees Fahrenheit at the poles to a cozy 800 degrees in the sun.

According to NASA:

"In the course of the one-year primary mission, the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation will unravel the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet."

And why visit? As one of the "terrestrial" (or rocky, as opposed to gaseous, planets), it can teach us about Earth, among other things.

"Understanding this 'end member' among the terrestrial planets is crucial to developing a better understanding of how the planets in our Solar System formed and evolved."

Also, because it's awesome. Being a part of the process of unveiling, of sharing, at however great a remove, the adventure of approaching, investigating and understanding another of our system's planet, that's awesome too.

In collaboration with the Internet Archive, NASA already makes thousands of images and thousands of hours of video available on NASAimages.org. There, however, users can't comment on pictures.

"An Opportunity for the Public to Participate in the Process of Discovery"

According to Debbie Rivera, the lead for the NASA Images project at the agency's headquarters in Washington, the agency hopes that this new collaboration will provide "an opportunity for the public to participate in the process of discovery. In addition, the public can help the agency capture historical knowledge about missions and programs through this new resource and make it available for future generations."

NASA plans to release additional photo sets over time.

Lighting up the Sky

Launch of Friendship 7

Construction of Hangar One at NAS Sunnyvale circa 1931 - 1934

Dr. Robert H. Goddard at His Launch Control Shack

While the experiments may sound like crazy, harebrained science projects akin to an episode of MythBusters, the purpose was highly practical. The project's goal is to determine if the low-cost parts found in cellphones can reach orbit without shaking apart, if they can work in a vacuum, and if they can operate at extreme low and high temperatures.

In the Wired interview, Thomas Atchison, chairman of the Mavericks Foundation, explained, "The radio, processing power, sensors and cameras in smartphones potentially have the same capability as those in satellites."

The group actually launched two NexusOne devices, but only one survived the experience. Sadly, the first phone crashed to the ground due to a parachute failure.

Both rockets, however, reached speeds of Mach 2.4 (about 1,800 mph) before returning to Earth. The phones each recorded the rocket's speed using the standard built-in accelerometers that ship with the devices.

On the phone that made it back unscathed, there was two and half hours of video footage, a snippet of which is posted to YouTube here. 

The end goal of these experiments is to significantly decrease the cost involved with building satellites. "Today's satellites are the size of Greyhound buses," Atchison told Wired. "But I believe they are going to get smaller and more frequently deployed. This is a first-step effort."

The results of that change wouldn't just impact today's satellite makers, but would allow anyone - even hobbyists with just a few thousand dollars - to deploy their own satellites into space. Imagine the innovation that could bring!

On the flip side, we hope NASA comes up with some viable solutions for dealing with space junk before such a technological revolution takes place.

According to Boeing, the Block IIF series of satellites include a host of enhanced features and functionality that will improve GPS signal strength, quality and accuracy. Boeing says the new satellites will have "two times greater predicted signal accuracy" than the previous ones, as well as improved signals for aviation and military use. Additionally, this new fleet of satellites should improve the overall accuracy of GPS signals from the rough estimates of 20 feet to a tighter radius of between two and three feet.

For mobile location-based applications, these improvements could be monumental. Not only would location apps as we know them today be greatly improved, but increased power and accuracy could create entirely new breeds of applications. By boosting the signal, the possibility of having GPS function in large indoor facilities, like malls or convention centers, is significantly increased. Mobile apps could be developed to help stranded cave divers, rock climbers or even victims of landslides and earthquakes be located by rescue personnel. In fact, NASA already has plans to continually improve on the GPS satellites for the purpose of creating a better search and rescue system.

Mobile augmented reality, a field that relies heavily on GPS data, would also see large improvements with increased accuracy. With the current limited accuracy of GPS, mobile AR apps can only give users a rough estimate of where locations are relative to their position; these new satellites could make it much easier for an app like Layar or Wikitude to point users directly to the nearest ATM or subway entrance. Combine this with enhanced visual recognition technology and AR could quickly evolve to recognize our surroundings and help us navigate the world.

But what about privacy? With increased accuracy, users' homes could be identified by their location data, not just what area of town they are in. Location-based applications may need to implement privacy controls that limit the amount of data shared with other users. I wouldn't mind if an app used as much data as it needed to find me and provide relevant information, but once that is complete, I should have the option of what level of location to share with other users.

The Block IIF satellites are the first step in creating a highly accurate GPS network for consumers. The second step is creating smaller, more capable GPS chips for mobile devices, and the third is updating databases of location data to reflect more accurate results. It's not good enough anymore to just know the address of an establishment, especially if it is in a mall or shopping center. In the near future, our GPS devices won't simply drop us off at the block a business is on, they will walk us right through the front door.

Image from Boeing.

We begin our post looking at the state of the art in car sensor technology: Formula One manufacturer McLaren's 300 live, simultaneous data streams. We end with a look at family car Alhambra's more humble sensor technology. In between we have the latest from Chrysler, General Motors and Ford.

The latest McLaren Formula One car, as driven by current world champion Jenson Button, relies on feedback during the race from 300 data streams - via miniaturized sensors on the car and the driver. This data tells Button's team how well he and his car are performing. This system is called "live telemetry" and it sends data such as the heart rate of the driver and the fuel level in the car.

This same technology is now being implemented in healthcare. Explained the Times Online:

"If we can track the heart rate of an elite athlete, why not also track the heart rate of a patient recovering from a heart attack? If, for instance, a patient is released from hospital having suffered a heart problem, the McLaren technology can employ wireless sensors the size of sticking plasters that will send, via the internet to the doctor or clinician responsible, a continuous record of the patient's heart rate and electrocardiogram, the graph that monitors the heartbeat."

NASA Technology in Chrysler Cars

Perhaps in a bid to out-do Formula One, Chrysler is tapping into space travel technology!

According to a recent press release from NASA, it is partnering with Chrysler to "use technologies originally developed for human spaceflight to enhance future vehicles and adapt advanced automotive technology for use in space." The two organizations will share information about mobility systems, wireless technologies, robotics, energy storage, radar, materials engineering, and battery systems.

Chrysler said that it plans to use NASA's research in surface navigation sensors for backup warning systems, lane departure warning systems and adaptive cruise control.

GM's Augmented Reality Car

In an article entitled What You'll See In The Future, AOL Auto looks at the latest advances in car cameras and sensors. Side-view cameras, currently available on some up-market vehicles, can be used to assist parking and as "advanced systems that help spot vehicles in your blindspots." Sensors on the side of the car are also used for lane departure warning systems, which "monitor lane lines and alert a driver when he or she inadvertently crosses those lines."

Another use for external cameras and sensors, writes AOL Auto's Frank Filipponio, is forward vision enhancement. Last month ReadWriteWeb wrote about a new General Motors technology that will bring AR to car windshields and provide a heads-up-display (HUD) experience. Here's a video showcasing this "enhanced vision system" of General Motors:

Ford's Voice Controlled Car

Last week we reported on the latest update to Ford's Sync system, a voice-controlled connectivity system. Sync allows drivers to use voice commands to do things like place a call or control their music playlists.

With Sync AppLink, Ford introduced a new platform that allows developers to offer voice controls for their mobile apps on Sync-enabled cars. The first Sync-enabled applications, which will be available later this year, are Pandora, Stitcher, and Orangatame's OpenBreak Twitter app. The first car to feature this new service will be the 2011 Ford Fiesta.

Opposite End of Car Spectrum: The Alhambra

To show that even cheaper models of cars are getting sensor technology, let's look at the latest model of the Alhambra - a Spanish MPV car (Multi-Purpose Vehicle). The Alhambra was described by British car guide Whatcar? as "cheap to buy, comfy for seven and good to drive."

The latest model comes with "bi-xenon headlamps with adaptive control and full beam assistant." This works via a sensor, which "detects oncoming vehicles and automatically dips the beam."

Another new feature is "the park/steer assistant, which autonomously manoeuvres the Alhambra into tight parking spaces - even perpendicular to the direction of travel."

While the Alhambra may sound humble compared to Formula One's sensor technology, or Chrysler's deal with NASA, it shows that even the most basic of cars is using sensors - which will inexorably lead to an Internet of Things.

Let us know in the comments what you're driving and if it uses sensor technology.

Research for this article was contributed by Deane Rimerman.

The down and dirty deets are as follows: 3Mbps up and 10Mbps down speeds via a KU-band satellite. According to our late-night, Twitter-powered research, this beats more than a few Earthlings' connection speeds. To learn more about the hardware, servers, and how often the crew gets told to "just turn everything off then on again," read on.

Moving on to hardware, the space station houses 68 IBM ThinkPad A31 laptops and 32 Lenovo ThinkPad T61p laptops, one of which is a server. Between cabled routers and WiFi hotspots, our brethren in space have a few ways to connect to the Internet via their local network. Their connection also allows for limited video calls. But there are no iPods for astronauts - or relatively few, at least. The team reported that the crew don't usually request to bring netbooks, gaming devices, or MP3 players aboard the ISS.

The ISS crew is connected to the Internet indirectly. Data is run through the ISS server and through NASA. Email for the crew is updated three times a day.

So, what happens when the system fails? Although the ISS crew is trained to respond to and repair common problems, the Houston ground crew maintains an exact duplicate of the space station's network for extraordinary circumstances. When viruses infiltrate ISS machines, as they have in the past, the infected machines are quarantined; and from the notes we've read, hackers have not yet been able to affect ISS's systems. Also, the ISS's IT folks told CNET, "One thing that really impacts the crew's day-to-day operations is if the file server itself fails. This forces them to reload the hard drive and re-establish all the network drives and all the apps. They actually have to get out the media and load the image to the hard drive... Over the last nine years, this has only happened twice."

We hope to bring you more news on the Internet as it applies to space, but we have reason to believe these updates may be sporadic. Stay tuned, live long, and prosper.

The NASA Endeavour was set to launch to the International Space Station today at 7:13PM EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida after a 24 hour lightning-induced delay. The mission was delayed several times and while Commander Mark Polansky's Twitter account and NASA's official account announced that the launch was likely to happen, online viewers watched via NASA TV as the mission was scrubbed with only minutes to spare. The launch has been rescheduled for 6:51PM EDT tomorrow.

The live broadcast as well as additional resources are available on NASA's Multimedia Page. Below are some additional space-related resources you might want to check out before tomorrow's scheduled launch:

NASA Collaborate:Those interested in joining NASA's online groups can connect via Facebook, Ustream, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace. Rather than waiting for press releases, fans can get their updates straight from astronauts, scientists and NASA executives.

Google Sky and Hubble's KML plug-in files: Google Sky allows users to view high resolution images of the night-sky. Hubble image plug-ins make for an extremely crisp intergalactic travel experience. You can search for planets, galaxies, nebulae and stars and zoom into them with great precision.

NASA Satellite Tracking & Heavens Above NASA Satellite Tracking offers users a number of options to track more than 2,500 satellites, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. Meanwhile, Heavens Above offers satellite predictions, sky charts and info on a number of comets.

Note: See update at the bottom of this post.

What that means, is that users are given the option to earn stuff in return for completing offers -- like applying for credit cards, getting information about vacation rentals, receiving free trials of magazines, or finding out their credit score. The offers subsidize the reward (like, say, an iPod Touch or an XBox 360) and the developer gets a cut.

If this sounds familiar to you, it's because the company behind SocialCash is Gratis Internet, who is also the company behind the famed FreeIpods.com. Gratis has been in business since 2000, and has given away $20 million in products over the past 8 years (their first site was actually FreeCondoms.com, which did $20.5 million in revenue in its first 4 years by handing out condoms to college kids in exchange for personal information that it sold as leads to other companies).

The Gratis concept works for two reasons: 1. people love free stuff, and 2. in order to get the stuff, users must invite a certain number of users who also complete the program (the number varies based on the value of the reward). So the customer pool grows virally and exponentially. Once users feel confident enough that the site isn't a scam (and seeing the in business for 8 years notice -- which is an eternity on the Internet -- goes a long way toward making people comfortable), then the concept is a winner. But will it work on social networks, where advertising methods that have worked elsewhere have thus far not worked?

That's a tough call. We can look at FreeCondoms.com as an example, though. FreeCondoms.com made its return to the web in September of last year as a Facebook application built around the same concept -- complete offers, get free condoms. Sounds like a winning idea for college kids. But as the graph below shows, though Facebook users initially loved the idea, the novelty quickly wore off and the app is down from highs of about 54,000 active users last fall to just over 1,000 today. Clearly, the viral spread didn't work as it has for Gratis' other sites.

Right now, monetization of social networking traffic is in the "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" mode. Gratis is trying something new with SocialCash, at least. Whether it sticks remains to be seen. In addition to their BannerCash and PointCash programs, SocialCash also promises a third program that's "so awesome, we can't even tell you about it yet..." Hmm.

Update: Via a comment from Gordon Peters of Social Cash, it turns out that I was mistaken -- the company is actually not attempting to bring the FreeIpods.com concept to Facebook. The relevant parts of his comment:

(1) SocialCash does not give away free products to Facebook users. Instead, SocialCash is a suite of tools that enables awesome app developers to monetize their traffic.

(2) BannerCash is an ad network for social networks that is built upon Gratis' strong CPA relationships across the globe (and these advertisers happen to have unlimited advertising budgets... which leads to 100% fill rate for our inventory).

(3) PointCash is a monetization solution targeted to application developers who have an existing virtual currency system. For example, a gaming developer may give its users 5 blackjack credits per day automatically... however, if that user wants to play more than 5 times per day, the user would need more blackjack credits. [Enter PointCash stage left]. PointCash provides a fully-managed set of advertising offers to the developer who offers their users an opportunity to earn more blackjack credits by participating in the ads (typically surveys, free trials or online purchases). The advertisers pay a bounty for every user that signs up and SocialCash passes on the majority to the developer. This easy-to-integrate advertising solution is a great way for developers to augment any existing revenue streams while simultaneously increasing user engagement with their application. Everyone wins.

So it would appear that Social Cash is a CPA banner ad network and a points management system. To be honest, we're somewhat disappointed. While the FreeIpods.com model may not have worked, at least it was something novel for Facebook. CPA banners are nothing new and points management/advertising tie-in management, while somewhat more intriguing, is of limited or no use to most social app developers.

• Yes, it supports 3G and faster data networks.
• Yes, it supports GPS.
• Yes, it has a few cosmetic changes and is thinner.
• Yes, it carries a (dramatically) lower price: $199 for the 8 GB iPhone, $299 for the 16 GB model.
• No, it's not immediately available, but you can get it in 22 countries starting July 11.
• Microsoft Exchange and full enterprise support is enabled out of the box.
• "Exchange for the rest of us" will be available through MobileMe and Me.com, the re-branding of .Mac.
• Third-party applications and the App Store will be available in early July.
• No, there does not appear to be an improved camera or video recording (including video chat) of any kind. There's no Flash support. Or external storage slots. And still no cut and paste!

To which I'd add, longer lasting battery! Very big feature IMHO.

And now for the contrary, non-geeks view, courtesy of our commenter Raph:

"Even though this blog has been particularily quiet around Apple's WWDC08 and the new iPhone announcement, I'd like to voice an opinion that is likely to make me look like I'm an old dinosaur that is just bitterly jealous over Apple's success.

Well in fact, I'm not. But I am still looking for words to describe how pathetic Bubbleland looks like from a higher perspective, buzzing crazily around Apple, their conference, and the new iPhone.

Just look at that : an army of bloggers "liveblogging" what ? An event primarily addressed to people who write programs working on products of a (still) relatively small company that until now addresses only the 10% of the richer people in the world with their fancy gadgets.

And writing about what ? A BIG event : the second release of a phone that until now lacked what 80% of the phones sold in Europe and Japan have had for the last 2-3 years - 3G connectivity. And guess what : it also does portable music playing and GPS. Woaaah ! Excellent ! Nobody else does that on the market, do they ?

Now, don't tell me guys that the iPhone was a revolutionnary phone : it wasn't, except maybe for its stylish look. And this release is anything but exceptionnal. It basically is a "survival release". Adjust the competition or die. And also adjust the competition's pricing or die.

People are talking about this as the latest genius move from Apple's Steve Jobs. It's not a genius move. It's the only strategy to avoid the short-term failure of the product. Except to Apple groupies (which are numerous in Bubbleland's crowd), this phone had been bought until now for its stylish look. And that wouldn't have gone much further than it was."

Raph, you are a brave man. So folks, what do you think?

Photo credits: Engadget