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wIRC Brings IRC To The Palm Pre

(jeff)isageek — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:30:46 PST

So I remember back in the day getting on the internets and jumping on IRC or Internet Relay Chat chatting it up with everyone all over the world. So fast forward 12-14 years, technology has advanced but stuff like telnet, IRC, ect are still out there and the WebOS Internals gang has created wIRC and brought IRC to the Palm Pre!!! How cool is that.

I have been using wIRC for a few days jumping on Freenode and EFnet and chatting it up. They just released version 0.0.3 so needless to say it is pretty green and can have some issues but hey it works pretty good and has been great. Check it out!

[via]

LinkedIn and Twitter link up to make Reese's pieces

(author unknown) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:16:00 PST

Posted by Guy Kawasaki

So the big news is that Twitter and LinkedIn are now linked up. I sure couldn’t find any info about this until a buddy sent me to this blog post. Regarding this video, I swear Reid was asleep when the the video started. And did they not have two microphones?

Total fanboy coverage of LinkedIn and Twitter.

Permalink

Robert Scoble stopped by Posterous HQ the other day and interviewed us for Building 43!

(author unknown) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:51:41 PST

Posted by Garry Tan

via building43.com

Robert Scoble swung by our offices in North Beach in San Francisco and we sat down to talk about Posterous, design, and the future of web publishing.

Permalink

Google Cuts Prices of Cloud Storage, Increases Cap to 16 Terabytes

Stan Schroeder — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:40:48 PST

Prices? What prices? Doesn’t Google give out everything for free, one may ask?

Relax. We’re talking about extra storage; for example if free storage that comes with Picasa Web Albums or Gmail isn’t enough for you, you can purchase extra storage space for a price.

Today, Google is dramatically slashing that price. You can now buy 20 GB for $5 a year, which is pretty darned cheap compared to the old price: 10 GB for 20 bucks per year.

Furthermore, Google has increased the amount of storage you can purchase. If you have a lot (we really mean a lot) of family photos, you can store them all at Google’s servers in the clouds, as the cap is now 16 terabytes.

Extra storage will act as an overflow for the free storage, meaning it only starts being used when you reach the limit of free storage. If you already have an extra storage plan, it will be automatically upgraded.

Tags: cloud, Google, storage

First Look: Mobile Concepts For Mozilla’s Raindrop Platform

Robin Wauters — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:28:32 PST

A couple of weeks ago, Mozilla Labs presented a prototype of Raindrop, a new experimental open-source e-mail and digital communication platform that aimed to make your inbox personal again.

It’s been quiet at the Raindrop blog since the announcement, but people who are interested in the whole thing are advised to keep track of the Raindrop Design blog, where Canadian designer and Mozilla employee Andy Chung posts updates on concepts for layout and structure of the Raindrop project.

Last night, Chung posted about some very initial ideas for how Raindrop could function as a mobile application, which GigaOm correctly identified as one of the most fertile grounds for this type of platform to thrive.

Note that these are early concepts, so it’s just a way for Mozilla Labs to throw something out there and then iterate based on feedback from the designer and developer community. Nonetheless, it’s interesting to see how Raindrop could potentially look like on mobile screens.

What you see (from Flickr): a homepage with a summary and menu, what the ‘inflow’ of messages would look like on mobile, a rudimentary Twitter client, a mailing list messages inbox and finally a screen featuring notifications from around the web.

(Thanks for the tip, Orli)

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DIY Palm Touchstone car mount

Adam Flaherty — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:00:00 PST

This has to be the coolest car mount for any mobile device out there. Originally designed for home use, maker remington870_20ga from the everythingpre.com forums wired a stock Palm Touchstone Charging Dock to run directly off his car battery using off-the-shelf components. Not only do you get an unencumbered view of the screen, your mobile device gets a chance to charge itself without all the messy cables.

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Hate It Or Love It, Twitter’s New Retweet Style Is Rolling Out

MG Siegler — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:56:38 PST

Yes, Twitter is in the process of rolling out its new Retweet functionality to a more users, the service confirmed today. Based on the number of tips we’ve received, and the number of TechCrunch staff members who now see the functionality, it would seem that today’s roll-out is pretty large.

So what’s the verdict? Some people love it, some people hate it. It is definitely a significant change to the way people are accustomed to using Twitter, so it will undoubtedly take some time for most users to get used to. Some may call this “Facebook Syndrome” (users always complain when Facebook changes something, even if it’s for the better), I call it “human nature” (people generally dislike change).

If you do happen to have it now, here’s a few interesting notes about the new feature (at least on twitter.com):

First, there is a new Retweets area in the right side bar. This allows you to see “Retweets by others”, “Retweets by you”, and “Your tweets, retweeted”. While the UI for the main homepage retweets can be a bit confusing at times, this Retweet area is laid out pretty nicely, as it is easy to see who exactly retweeted what.
Second, as co-founder Evan Williams noted today, there is an easy way to turn off retweets from individual users. Simply click on their profile and make sure the Retweet logo (the circular arrows) below their name is not highlighted green. This means that it’s off and you will not see Retweets from that user in your timeline. That’s great for users who go overboard with the feature and muck up your stream.
Third, if you do hate the new Retweet way, just don’t use it. Nothing is stopping you from still using the “RT …” syntax. The new Retweets simply give you an easy way to highlight something to your followers with the click of a button.

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GO: Google Launches Its Own Programming Language

Ben Parr — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:41:32 PST

One of the core philosophies of Google, and one of the reasons it has been so successful, is efficiency. It’s about both being as efficient as possible when serving search results and processing data and creating product that push the limits of efficiency for the user (as an example, Google’s trying to make communication more efficient with Google Wave).

Maybe that’s why we’re not surprised that Google is finally looking to tackle the underpinning code that runs the web. Today the search giant released Go, an open-source development language that Google believes will combine performance with speed, and one that the company probably hopes will reshape the development and software industries in its favor.

Go is based on the C programming family, one of the most widely used programming language trees in the world. However, the twist is that incorporates elements of Python (a preferred development language within Google) and the Pascal/Modula/Oberon family to make faster and more dynamic programs.

Why Did Google Make Its Own Language?

In its Go FAQ, Google explains the main motivations behind the project:

“No major systems language has emerged in over a decade, but over that time the computing landscape has changed tremendously. There are several trends:

- Computers are enormously quicker but software development is not faster.

- Dependency management is a big part of software development today but the “header files” of languages in the C tradition are antithetical to clean dependency analysis—and fast compilation.

- There is a growing rebellion against cumbersome type systems like those of Java and C++, pushing people towards dynamically typed languages such as Python and JavaScript.

- Some fundamental concepts such as garbage collection and parallel computation are not well supported by popular systems languages.

- The emergence of multicore computers has generated worry and confusion.”

Summary: Google believes that the web and computing have changed dramatically in the last ten years, but the languages powering that computing have not. But when you get down to it, Google could benefit a great deal from not only having a more efficient programming language, but having one it designed being used in thousands web and software apps.

If you want to learn more, Google (as usual) has released a detailed, hour-long Google Tech Talk on the new language (embedded below). However, if you’re a developer and just want to get started, we suggest checking out the Go Tutorial and writing your first program.

Reviews: Google

Tags: developer, development, Go, Google, programming, trending

Flash placeholder spotted in webOS 1.3.1 browser

Derek Kessler — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:31:43 PST

Earlier today we posted a video of the Pixi running webOS 1.3.1 and while that was cool in and of itself, eagle-eyed reader windzilla noticed something even cooler: the browser now recognizes Flash objects in websites. At 1:29 in the video after swiping through a few cards the screen briefly shows a view of PreCentral with an embedded Flash video (darned if we can't figure out which article that is). Instead of the empty space that Flash videos currently display, a placeholder now appears with a webOS-style Flash icon. While we still don’t believe that Flash will be in webOS 1.3.1, it’s clear that at the very least Palm is laying the groundwork for its eventual inclusion.

Twitter opens up retweets! Have you got’em?

Zee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:18:25 PST

Twitter just made the new retweet functionality, aka Project Retweet, available to a much larger number of Twitter users.

To check if you have it enabled, visit Twitter.com now.

So what is this new retweet functionality exactly?

Well, until now, the Twitter website doesn’t currently support a Retweet (RT) option. As of now, you have to copy the person’s tweet, append an RT @”person who tweeted”. The trouble with that is that often, the 140 character tweet has to be shortened. Plus, if there’s a RT chain… you are Retweeting a Retweet, adding all the intermediaries is a major headache.

The Retweet is so popular, that though the Twitter site does not support it, most other third-party clients do. Be it the popular TwitterFox or Tweetdeck, or any other client on mobile, browser or desktop. Even in a recent study, less than 50% actually use the website.

So now, with the new retweet feature built in, Twitter is allowing for RT support on the website itself.

So how do RT’s Work?

The moment you have the RT functionality, you’ll see this:

And here’s a new-style RT close up.

When you do a RT

This is what happens if you want to retweet using the new functionality.

Hover over a message and you see a retweet link, bottom right:

Then a confirmation appears if you click it:

You then see the message in your stream, showing you retweeted it (at the bottom):

And you can undo it if you want (bottom right):

You also get a retweets menu item in the right hand column, which shows you a screen showing what you’ve retweeted, who has retweeted you etc. There’s not much in mine as of yet!

And finally, if you go to someone’s profile, you can choose to turn off seeing their RTs: (Paul just got unlucky here…his Retweets are actually wonderful)

6 Tips For Using Google Wave On Your First Project

Will Kelly — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:00:31 PST

As Google is issuing Wave invites in a steady trickle, those fortunate enough to have an account are trying to figure out how this new tool might fit into their workflow and help them better communicate and collaborate with their teams and clients.

While the small number of people who actually have an account right now is probably going to be the first hurdle for many teams who would like to try it out on a live project, I count myself among the lucky ones who got a Google Wave invite early and spread my nominations amongst some colleagues and clients.

One of my clients to whom I sent a nomination wanted to try it out on our current project, so I thought I would share some of the early lessons we learned and some tips from my initial dip into using Google Wave for a real client project.

Set suitable expectations. Despite the months of buzz, and blogosphere- and Twitterverse-wide clamoring for Google Wave invites, the product is still in preview and has some rough edges. Therefore, it does all parties good to be realistic, even if everybody is psyched to be the first kid on their block to use it on a live project. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll also encounter bouts of slowness, messages to refresh Google Wave, and perhaps even the random browser crash. Your project team’s level of tolerance for such things might vary.
Do a dry run with a Wave. The Wave concept is definitely a new model for many. It took me an impromptu “dry run” with my client for us to truly grasp the Wave concept and see how it could shape our online collaboration. For example, I could see how Wave could be used to keep all project information and communications online and out of our already cluttered inboxes, and it was great to able to see my client paste text as well as type into a Wave in real-time.
Take control of your Waves. It’s easy to get a little excited and end up creating Waves for all sorts of things, but you need to take control of the conversation in Google Wave, instead of letting Google Wave take charge of your conversations. For my project, we decided on one Wave per project document, for the sake of organization.
Use folders and tags. While the Inbox Zero and GTD crowd have yet to full plant their stakes in Google Wave, I must say that the use of folders and tags is prudent, especially because while the Wave platform breaks so much new ground, but folders and tags are concepts are familiar to many. I ended up creating a project-specific folder for all the Waves associated with the client project. My use of tags also came further into play as a tool to fine-tune my own organization. A simple tip is to remember you can resize the navigation pane to accommodate your folder list as it grows. By default, your folder list may not fully appear in the navigation pane.
Consider whether to use live editing or attachments. Google Wave melds email and word processing together. Thus, it is important to decide whether you want to collaborate on documents directly in Google Wave or via file attachments. Unfortunately, at this time Google Wave lacks version control for file attachments (thus putting the feature at the top of my wish list for a Google Wave extension). My client and I decided to work with file attachments for the project documents and write directly in Google Wave for direct communications with each other.
Have a Plan B. It’s cool to get jazzed as an early adopter, but if Google Wave isn’t enhancing productivity and communications, be sure that you have a fall back plan in case it end up causing more problems than it is worth.

While my initial entry into Google Wave on a real client project was really just scratching the surface of this new collaboration platform, I do see a lot of potential. However, with its rough edges, it may not be the collaboration platform for everyone just yet. Personally, I am looking towards more Google Wave extensions and gadgets going live, because my initial experience tells me that they are going to be key providers of critical functionality and user experience.

If you’re looking for more info on Wave, check out the report “Google Wave Explained” over on our subscription research service, GigaOM Pro.

Have you tried using Google Wave on any of your current projects? Share your experience below.

Google’s Holiday Gift: Free Wi-Fi at Airports

Stan Schroeder — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:51:10 PST

Here’s a nice holiday gift from Google (which may point to a service further ahead): the company will provide free Wi-Fi on airports across USA from now through January 15, 2010.

Google has worked with Boingo Wireless, Advanced Wireless Group, Airport Marketing Income and other companies to provide this free service. It is currently available at 47 airports, including Las Vegas, San Jose, Boston, Baltimore, Burbank, Houston, Indianapolis, Seattle, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, St. Louis and Charlotte. It gets even better for residents of Seattle and Burbank, where airports will now offer airport-wide free Wi-Fi indefinitely.

It’s a cool gift, but Google also gives you the option to make someone else happy, too; once you log in to one of the Wi-Fi networks, you’ll have the option to donate to Engineers Without Borders, the One Economy Corporation or the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Additionally, Google will match the donations made across all the networks up to $250,000. Finally, the airport network that generates the highest amount per passenger by January 1, 2010 will receive $15,000 to donate to the local nonprofit of their choice.

This initiative comes on the heels of another similar holiday gift; recently, Virgin America and Google started offering free in-flight Wi-Fi for passengers. This option will be also be available up to January 15, 2010.

You can find more info about this initiative, as well as a full list of participating airports, over at www.freeholidaywifi.com.

Reviews: Google

Tags: Google, trending, wi-fi

Sprint switches free conditional call fowarding on

Robert Werlinger — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:08:38 PST

As was announced back during the Sprint Open Developers Conference last month, Sprint has finished rolling out free conditional call forwarding out to everyone so folks with a Google Voice account can start using the Google Voicemail service while keeping their Sprint number as their primary number.

Gone now is the $0.20 per minute charge for no answer and busy call forwarding, replaced with the ability to manage your voicemail visually with Google Voice online and with programs like dkGoogleVoice and gDial Pro right on your webOS powered handset of choice.

Conditional call forwarding uses the *28xxxxxxxxxx code, where the xxxxxxxxxx is your phone number. Note that your original number still rings before forwarding happens and you'll need to futz with your Google Voice settings if you want to send calls directly to voicemail before rining your Google Voice number. There's plenty more information in this forum thread. Dial *38 to turn it off. Direct *72 call forwarding still costs you $.20 per minute.

While everyone's Sprint account should be updated as of this posting, it may not be a bad idea to call Customer Service (dial *2) before enabling this feature just to make sure.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

A nasty ransomware trojan making the rounds

StevenHodson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:47:25 PST

For those not familiar with the term ransomware trojans basically infect your computer and in the process encrypt your files, change extensions and several types of nasty tricks to them. When done the trojan will typically pop up a dialog demanding cash to return your system to normal.

There is a new one according to a report from Symantec called Ramvicrype Trojan that well encrypt your files and then when you are search for a fix you find yourself directed to a website that will sell you some software to fix the problem. The search will yield the expected results because of the unique file extension the malware uses on the encrypted files.

Using the file extension – *.vicrypt it takes short order to find the solution but Symantec has published a specific utility program to help any victims hit by this trojan.

Symantec virus researcher Shunichi Imano said in a blog entry that Ramvicrype victims will see some files on the computer with a vicrypt extension.

Entering the term ‘vicrypt’ into a search engine leads us to a company offering a fix, which of course is a charged service. So, there was a reason for that file extension after all.

The security vendor has developed a Symantec Ramvicrype removal tool for victims to decrypt the files.

The one other solution is to make sure you have a current image file of your system and then restore if hit by crippling malware such as this one.

hat tip to the Security Bytes team.

They’re Baaack! ElfYourself 2009 Is Now Live

Jason Kincaid — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:14:06 PST

It’s that time of year again. OfficeMax and JibJab have just launched the latest edition of ElfYourself, the massively popular website that features dancing elves you can customize to feature the faces of you and your friends. The site, which serves as a promotion for OfficeMax, has turned into an Internet phenomenon, drawing many millions of visitors a year.

ElfYourself started back in 2006, when it received a surprising 36 million views in its first year. In 2007, it took the web by storm, with a whopping 193 million views. In 2008, the company teamed with JibJab to power the site (one of JibJab’s specialities is creating customized videos like these, so it was a good fit). However, there was a significant dropoff between 2007 and 2008 — last year the site drew 55 million views. That dropoff wasn’t a surprise though: JibJab CEO Gregg Spiridellis says that the company decided to require users to register in order to share their videos with their friends, when previous years hadn’t required registration. This led to an anticipated dropoff in virality, but it also resulted in a huge jump in JibJab’s userbase, which is more valuable to the company in the long run.

This year though, we can expect some more astronomical numbers, because JibJab has removed its required account registration. Instead, it’s deeply integrating Facebook Connect, which will give users one-click signin to the site and will also help ElfYourself go even more viral as videos get distributed through Facebook News Feeds.

Users can make their videos and share them across the web for free. They can also pay to have their elves printed on gift cards or greeting cards, or to download a version they can store locally.

Spiridellis also told us some of JibJab’s recent traffic stats: the site has 11.5 million unique visitors in October, up 229% over the same time period last year. 18 million views came from the site’s Monster Mash customized videos.

Below are two of the new videos the site is offering this year:

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

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Too Lazy To Make Your Own Twitter List? Let Conversationlist Do It For You.

MG Siegler — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:39:29 PST

Did you get added to a bunch of Twitter lists today with the name “conversationlist”? If so, you’re not alone. No, it’s not a bug or a worm spreading through Twitter, it’s a new service that aims to create a Twitter list for you based on people you actually have conversations with on Twitter.

The idea is very simple: If you’ve @replied someone in the past day, Conversationlist will add them to your “conversationlist” Twitter list. But this person will only stay on that list as long as you keep talking to them. If the next day you don’t @reply them, they’re gone.

That in and of itself is kind of an interesting way to keep track of people that you find interesting enough to want to directly talk to at any given time. But it gets more interesting when others start following your Conversationlist, because it gives them a glimpse of the people you actually talk to on Twitter. And if you’re the type of person who wants to try out Twitter lists but doesn’t want to take the time to make one, this is a pretty simple way to create one that could actually be useful.

According to Conversationlist, there are only ever 25 people on the list they create for you at any given time. If you want to stop it from updating, simply delete the list on Twitter and Conversationlist will stop building it for you each day. To get it working, you only have to click one button on the Conversationlist site, authorize the service via OAuth, and you’re set. Super simple.

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New Version of Google Search Is Launching Soon

Ben Parr — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:21:09 PST

Back in August, we were shocked to learn that Google was working on a new version of its search engine. The secret project, known officially as Google Caffeine, wouldn’t change the face or design of the Google search engine, but would instead provide an overhaul of the architecture of Google’s web search that would improve its indexing speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Since the launch of the developer preview however, we haven’t heard much about it. It’s quietly been undergoing testing and tweaking. That’s all changing though, as now the developer preview of Google Caffeine has been taken down, replaced with an announcement that Google Caffeine will go live in its first datacenter soon.

The new Caffeine splash page says it all. Here’s the full text:

“Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given. ”

While we admit that there isn’t a lot to go off of, we can discern two key takeaways:

- Caffeine testing was successful. The project is moving forward

- Caffeine is going live on Google.com soon, starting with one datacenter

We’re going to dig deeper and see if we can’t find out when Caffeine will actually go live. The new Google search infrastructure is coming though, and as our previous tests have revealed, there should be a lot of subtle but important changes to search results arriving soon.

Thanks to Arthur for the tip

Image Credit: Mike the girl via Flickr

Reviews: Flickr, Google

Tags: Google, Google Caffiene

Firefox Hits 25% Market Share on its Birthday

Ken Kovash — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:47:21 PST

At the very same moment in time that Firefox celebrates its 5th birthday, Firefox has also surpassed 25% worldwide market share for the very first time. This news comes from Net Applications’ report for the week of November 1st (their weekly data requires a subscription).

Congrats everyone!

For those interested in “before and after” pictures, below is one way to visualize the browser market share landscape (based on Net Applications’ data).

What’s Trending in Your City? Soon, Twitter Will Tell You

Ben Parr — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:54:49 PST

When Twitter announced that it would soon attach location to tweets, we began to imagine the possibilities. In fact, we made a wishlist of geolocation features we’d like to see Twitter implement. Our top request was the ability to see trending topics by country, state, and city.

Apparently, Twitter thinks that’s a solid idea as well. In fact, the company has just taken the first step towards implementing local Twitter trends. On the Twitter API Announcements Google Group, the microblogging company announced the developer preview for the Trends API, which will open up a wave of new info on local Twitter trends to developers.

Here’s the first part of the announcement by Twitter’s Raffi Krikorian (bolded text is our emphasis):

“We’ve heard from lots of users that trending topics, as seen on the twitter.com homepage and on search.twitter.com, are a fun way to figure out what’s going on in the Twitter-verse at this very instant. The one feature request that we’ve heard over and over, however, is “what’s going on where I am?”. To answer that, we wanted to give you all a heads up regarding the new “Trends API” that we’re launching. This API will open up trending information that is specific to a number of locations around the world.”

“At a high level, there will be two new endpoints:

- an endpoint to give a listing of all locations that trends are
available for, and
- an endpoint to actually allow you to query by a specific location.”

Summary: The new API will open up the ability for Twitter apps to figure out what’s trending in a pre-defined set of locations. This means that while San Francisco will almost certainly have a set of local trends, my hometown of Princeton, IL (7200 residents) probably will not, at least in the beginning.

We look forward to testing out local Twitter trends and seeing what the company and 3rd party developers create. In the meantime, let us know what you think of this new announcement in the comments.

Reviews: Twitter

Panera Bread Blocks Bit.ly Links

Leena Rao — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:39:32 PST

Here’s an interesting factoid. Panera Bread, the national bakery and cafe chain, has blocked all Bit.ly links from users who happen to be using Panera’s free WiFi. In a tweet to user who was inquiring about the issue, Panera’s official Twitter handle responded that the coffee shops have “blocked b/c link is hidden & can’t determine content. Want to keep a friendly-family environment for all.” Hmm.

It appears that Panera has also blocked many of the other popular URL shorteners as well. It’s true that a short URL obscures the target address and present opportunities for spammers, but many URL shorteners offer previews of the longer links or content to mitigate the chance of accessing a site you don’t want to visit.

And Bit.ly has its own protection against harmful links and recently started warning users of potentially malicious, based on information it has about URLs being shortened. Bit.ly will warn users who are accessing potentially malicious sites with a message that reads, “Warning – this site has been flagged and may contain unsolicited content. The content of this web page appears to contain spam, or links to unsolicited or undesired sites.” The URL shortener will then suggest to users to close the page. We’re fairly sure that Starbucks let’s you access shortened links off of their paid WiFi service.

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