Ajax Girl

What we saw today was the spark. The explosion will continue for twenty years. We will all feel the warmth.

What we saw today was the beginning of two-decades of mobile domination by Apple. What Microsoft and Windows was to the desktop, Apple and Touch will be to mobile.

And while mobile platforms have been around for a while, they never really gained passionate traction. Palm sorta had it for a while. Windows Mobile has been getting better. RIM is the current choice for business email on the go.

But just like there were a lot of players in the portable music space, there were no clear leaders. Until Apple came to town.

The same thing is happening today in the mobile space. Palm, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian. They’ve been players, but no one has broken out big. No one has managed to grab both the business and consumer markets like Windows did on the desktop. Until Apple came to town. At least that’s my prediction.

Apple has the superior product, the big momentum, the cool, the lust, the business hooks, the consumer hooks, the customer experience, the interface, the design (interface and industrial), the smooth development environment, the vision.

And, maybe the secret key to it all, they have the commercial platform that makes it possible for a developer to actually sell, distribute, and update their software with the flip of a switch. And don’t forget the customer experience revolution — buying and it-just-works installation of iPhone software will be as one-click easy as buying music from the iTunes store. It’s all wrapped into one beautiful package. A package that only Apple can deliver.

This is brand new big shit. It all started today.

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Looking for an iPhone Developer? Post an ad in the new iPhone Developer category on the Job Board.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/900-iphone-sdk-apples-touch-platform-and-the-next-two-decades

Amazon is to starting selling wine from its site to US customers.

According to FT.com, Amazon is currently looking to recruit a senior wine buyer who will be responsible for “the acquisition of a massive new product selection.”

Online alcohol sales have been a difficult market in the United States due to the multitude of laws in relation to online alcohol sales in different states. The market though is somewhat easier to enter today than during the first web boom, with the US Supreme Court having ruled that state governments may not prohibit residents from ordering directly from out-of-state wineries in 2005.

Amazon invested $30 million into Wineshopper.com in 1999. The site lasted one year. Sales of wine in the United States totaled $30 billion in 2007.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/247045138/

Apple made a number of major announcements today around the iPhone. We live blogged the event if you want to see all of the details. But if you want a summary of the important parts, read on.

Two things happened worth noting. First, the iPhone is no longer just a really fun phone/Internet device. It now supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, meaning it can hold its own against any other business device out there (more on that below). Second, Apple gave more details on its previously announced software development kit that will allow third parties to get their software onto the iPhone. From the demo’s shown today, developers by the thousands will be clamoring to jump on board.

The iPhone still has a tiny 0.14% market share in the mobile world. But even so, Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that 71% of web browsing on smart phones occurs on iPhones. As someone who’s used many mobile devices over the last couple of years, that’s a believable statistic. Surfing the web on an iPhone, with the high resolution screen and touch interface is a superior experience.

iPhone: Enterprise Ready

Last summer we compared the iPhone to the BlackBerry 8820 on business features, and it lost hands down. The iPhone still has big limitations that make it less useful for business users, particularly battery life. And many users cannot adapt to the iPhone touch screen, preferring physical buttons. But announcements made today make the iPhone’s core office functionality as good as any other device out there. And the iPhone still has, by far, the superior browsing experience and user interface.

Version 2.0 of the iPhone software now supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. That means much better syncing with the desktop, and not just when the iPhone is physically connected to your computer. If you use Microsoft Exchange, you can now easily set up the iPhone to work with it so you enjoy push email, calendar and contacts.

Business users will also have VPN connectivity, certificates and identities, enterprise WiFi, enforced security policies, device configuration, and remote data wipes.

While users can only configure one Exchange account at a time, setup takes only about 20 seconds (assuming your company already has an Exchange server running). The iPhone applications relevant to Exchange - such as Mail, Contacts, and Calendar - will all retain the same look and feel.

Apple has been working with Nike and Disney to test the new Exchange Server support.

Hi Developers, Come On In

Before today the iPhone was a closed platform that only gave third party applications access via the browser (or though hacks). The company says that over 1,000 iPhone specific websites have been created.

Now Apple is opening up all of its internal APIs and tools for 3rd party software developers. These include a version of the Cocoa programming environment called Cocoa Touch that focuses on the idea of touch as an input. It allows for multi-touch events and controls, use of the built-in accelerometer and camera, and other things like hierarchy views, localization, alerts, web views, people pickers, and image pickers.

There is also now a version of Xcode that can be used to build applications for the iPhone. It can code completely to the APIs in the iPhone SDK, and it can handle both project management and source control management. It has a debugger that can be used remotely on a Mac (plug your iPhone into your desktop and debug from there).

There are also three other new tools: Interface Builder, Instruments, and iPhone Simulator. Interface Builder lets you drag-n-drop an interface together for your new iPhone app. Instruments is a suite of performance analytics tools. And iPhone Simulator simulates the entire API stack of the iPhone letting you test an iPhone app from your Mac.

The SDK kit is available immediately. Go here to learn more. You have to join the Apple developer program ($99) to start making iPhone apps. Or iPod touch apps, for that matter, since the SDK applies to that device as well.

Application Demonstrations

Both Apple and its launching partners demonstrated new applications for the iPhone. Apple demonstrated a program called Touch Effects that let you easily distort photos you have taken and even erase them by just shaking your phone (think Photobooth for your handheld). A game called Touch Fighter was demonstrated to show how the accelerometer could be used as controls.

Among the launch partners, Electronic Arts debuted the highly-anticipated game Spore on the iPhone. Salesforce showed how iPhone users will be able to track sales leads, AOL showed off an instant messaging client, Epocrates demoed a drug lookup application, and SEGA played a Super Monkey Ball game.

Application Distribution

Apple confirmed the rumor that iTunes would be the only way for users to buy and download iPhone applications. Customers will be able to browse and search for applications, some of which will be provided for free. Developers will get 70% of the sales revenue paid monthly and with no credit card fees. Restrictions, however, have been placed on the type of applications that can be sold: no pornography, nothing illegal, no bandwidth hogs, and nothing that could cause “unforeseen” problems. VoIP will also not be allowed over cellular connections, just WiFi.

Even though application development starts today, users will not be able to download them until June. And companies who want to distribute applications internally will have to wait for Apple to come up with a solution for that.

iFund

Jobs’s “one more thing” today was the announcement of a so-called iFund by Kleiner Perkins that will dedicate $100M to companies who want to develop new applications for the iPhone or iPod touch. John Doerr called Jobs the “world’s greatest entrepreneur” and “supreme commander of the rebels” from onstage. See our post about the fund for more details.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/247021356/

Social lending site Zopa is to launch in Japan, following its expansion to the US and Italy from its UK base. The site, three years old today, has attracted around £18 million of funding, including that from Benchmark Capital, which has also invested in US competitor Prosper. Zopa is an online marketplace where people meet to lend and borrow money. With no bank in the middle, both parties can potentially get better rates. Since March of 2005, Zopa has handled more than £20m in unsecured personal loans in the UK. However, although Zopa was the first, there are now more than 20 person-to-person online social lenders around the globe. GlobalFunder is a yet-to-launch competitor. Gartner predicts that by 2010 social banking will make up 10% of the banking market. More on TechCrunch UK.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/247021357/

2:06: Apple has licensed Activesync for exchange on iPhones, pls comment SB: we license Activesync to lots of companies, it’s in Microsoft’s business interest to license to Apple for exchange

2:05: Q: costs of Mix too expensive for students SB: look it up using Microsoft search, stuff online etc. The conference format works etc…

MONKEY BOY!!!!@!!!!!!!!! Ballmer does the monkeyboy demo when someone asks for some love for Web Developers.

2:00 HD format wars over, Bluray won, what’s Microsoft’s plans SB: we don’t make drives, we believed that HD DVD was a good solution, but moving forward we’re going to support Bluray, in Vista, in ways “that make sense.” Long term: will it be physical or digital delivery

1:57 Silverlight on Microsoft web sites, like AOL has done with mail SB: over time, doesn’t make sense to abandon sites overnight, but over time they will switch

1:56 GK what phone do you use: SB: switch regularly, looking for larger keys as he gets older.

1:55 Q: silverlight for iPhone + Danger acquisition SB: looking at it, Apple is charging 30% of revenue via runtime, “Apple isn’t welcoming”. Danger acquisition: application asset on top of Windows Mobile platform, part of a strategy of consumer applications on mobile

1:54 Reporter from the Seattle Times asks about a sports team. WTF. Ballmer says he wont talk about that today.

1:53: Q about virtualization, not as good as Amazon, need better MS apps for the cloud A: moving forward, we’ll have more to say in the future.

1:50 Q: talk about Fastsearch, one of Microsoft’s largest acquisitions SB: tech is fantastic, great team, building better searh apps within corporations. More to say post regulatory review

1:49 Q: how to get Yahoo through anti trust, SB: pass Q: synergies SB: about numbers, more search, more advertisers. Google has a larger body of ads, obvious for us to scale for synergies. 1+1=2 1/2 (MS+Yahoo), best of both

1:48: what will happen to php apps post Yahoo SB: obviously we cant have two of everything, they’ll pick the best from both.

1:45 Q: how did IE get left out of the .Net development path SB: it happened, there are things to learn from it etc…

1:43 audience questions: what about Adobe. SB: big competitor of ours, Silverlight v Flash/ Flex etc

1:41 GK Microsoft is a different company today, arrogance is gone, great to work with, I want to complement Microsoft on that, no bullshitting on that (and yes, he used that word) SB: thanks GW: where as MS was an evil company, now it has nice facilities (why he’s talking about the buildings is beyond me). Starts talking about touching things.

1:40 GK why not just use MSN SB: we have 100’s million of users GK: why not open it up, offer API’s so it can be built on.

1:39: GK: Microsoft and social networking, SB: the way people interact has changed for ever. Xbox live people interact, form of social networking, Social networking is not a fad, Zuckerberg has done a great job. Fox/ MySpace….

1:38 GK: lets talk about Firefox and IE. SB: we’re heavily investing in the browser. We still have the biggest marketshare. Expect to see a lot of browser innovation from us. GK: how bout IE/ Mac development? SB: that “lower volume” machine…we feel like we should be doing new things other than bringing another browser to the Mac

1:36: GK you dodged the Vista Question SB: been very popular, there has been feedback, issues with compatibility, drivers etc, MS has listened, SP1 shipped etc.

1:34 GK what do you say to Microsoft losing its focus, doing to many things SB: we’ve built two skill sets, enterprise and desktop. Building two new ones, mobile/ devices + online. Most companies only have one core skillset

1:32: GK: what’s the issue with Vista (laughter) SB: it’s the second most pop OS. SB spots GK’s Apple Air, lots of joking, Ballmer says the Air is twice as heavy as his Toshiba and lacking parts.

1:30 GK: tell us more about Silverlight, SB: 1.5m downloads a day, lots of opportunities to fan out and broaden presence

1:29: SB: 10-11m Xbox live subscribers

1:26 GK: tells a story about his kids winning a halo tournament. Then goes on to say that his kids think Microsoft is a cool company that makes Xbox + Halo. Not enough people know that Microsoft makes cool stuff. There’s a marketing opportunity. SB: the key is to keep making great products. Kids don’t know about the OS wars, they simply use what’s cool, doesn’t matter who it comes from. 25m Xbox users, 1b Windows users

1:24 Gk: what’s the pitch to get new employees given the stock is now high, no startup like growth ahead of it. SB: pitch is still pretty much the same, the stock/ get rich angle has never been big at Microsoft

1:22: GK what’s the story with Bill (Gates): SB: transition in June, goes part time, not sure how that will work until that happens

1:21: GK: so you have no one filtering you email, no secretary, no VA? SB: no, and I answer my emails

1:20: GK how many emails do you get SB: not alot, email address is steveb@microsoft.com, jokes that he’ll have a lot more email tomorrow

1:18pm GK: describe your day (more softball questions). SB: days outside of Redmond, excited talking to customers. GK: do you fly Southwest? SB: smiles, no, definitely no GK: why hasn’t Microsoft bought you a G3 SB: that’s another company

1:17: GK: what motivates you? SB: best company in the world, innovating. Enjoys a challenge

1:14 GK: what’s the deal with the FB deal. SB: it’s all about advertising, partnering sites, big partners are very important

1:13 GK suggests Microsoft should sue Google for anti-trust. laughter. GK then asks whether Microsoft treats apple like a yapping dog that can be kicked out of the way. Ballmer makes a dog yelping sound, then says that Apple is doing a great job.

1:12 SB Microsoft has four core businesses: desktop, no Google, enterprise, no Google SB makes a sound like neh neh neh neh neh. Mobile: Google is an aspirant, but no presence. 4th is online, and its all Google. Ballmer is cracking jokes, he’s certainly animated

1:10 GW asks about “The Big G” SB responds that ultimately search is where it’s at. GK jokes that Ballmer won’t say the Google word. SB responds to laughter

1:09 Yahoo provides the critical mass. GK asks what’s the current status of the deal. Ballmer jokes “we’ve made an offer” lots of laughter. GW says to Ballmer don’t go monkey on me

1:08: Balllmer responds: we want to be big online, advertising is THE next big thing, the only thing. Search is the key to advertising. Microsoft isn’t where they’d like to be now

1:07: some friendly Apple/ Microsoft banter with laughter. Kawasaki says he’s suppose to be a shill and ask soft questions. Then asks “why does Microsoft want to buy Yahoo”

1:05: running slightly late, Kawasaki and Ballmer come on stage

Join us here from 1:00pm PST for a live blog of Steve Ballmer & Guy Kawasaki delivering the second keynote from Microsoft’s Mix conference in Las Vegas.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/246976138/

If you’re at SxSW this weekend and next week, you can see both Jason and Sam present.

Jason’s 10 Things We’ve Learned at 37signals presentation is at 3:30 pm on Saturday, March 8th in Room A.

Sam’s Secrets of JavaScript Libraries panel is at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, March 11th in Room 9.

We hope to see you there.

Oh, and… After my talk stick around to see Jim Coudal’s A General Theory of Creative Relativity starting at 5 in the same room. It’ll be the perfect way to finish the day.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/899-come-see-37signals-at-sxsw

John Doerr took the stage today at Apple’s announcement of its iPhone software developer kit and announced a $100 million fund to invest in startups that create apps for the iPhone. “”I can’t wait to see the great new companies that we build together,” he says. The fund will be led by Matt Murphy at Kleiner and will be called the iFund. From the the Kleiner Perkins Website:

KPCB’s iFund is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, and entertainment. The iFund will back innovators pursuing transformative, high-impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies atop the iPhone / iPod touch platform.

This is in line with similar, if smaller, funds announced to invest in Facebook apps, the $10 million fbFund and a Facebook-only fund from Bay Partners.

Steve Jobs truly wants to turn the iPhone into an industry, and he got Kleiner to jump start it with $100 million. That should get the ball rolling on iPhone-only startups. Some ideas we’d like to see get funded: an iPhone-only social network and a company that can make Flash work on the iPhone (that would be huge). Pictured to the left is Electronic Art’s Spore on the iPhone, which will be released in September.

The iPhone does have many unique features (you could base a whole startup on just creating accelerometer apps), but those features also become quickly copied. Everywhere you turn there is another touchscreen phone these days. Does it make sense to start a company that produces apps only for the iPhone and no other mobile device? Maybe what we will see are startups that develop for the iPhone first and then port to other mobile phones.

But you don’t need a new $100 million fund for that either. We are seeing that already as the iPhone is becoming the de facto mobile platform for mobile Web apps. Actual third party applications won’t be available until June, but developers can start building today.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/246923228/

Head on over to CrunchGear to follow our live coverage of the Apple iPhone SDK event, which is being held at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino and will begin at 10am PT.

We’ll be sure to report back here about all the juicy details once things are all done, but CrunchGear is the place to follow the minute-by-minute action.

Update: Here are some highlights as they come in. (Read the full coverage on Crunchgear, where Michael Arrington is literally phoning it in, sending us updates via SMS messages from his iPhone). Update 2: Because of caching delays at CrunchGear, we’re posting most of the liveblog below. From Arrington:

————————————–
11:37: Q - how can companies distribute internal applications to iPhone users? A - “we’re working on a model for enterprise to distribute to end users in a private way”

11:29: can only have one exchange account set up at once

11:28: q - can people choose multiple sync methods for iPhone? use iCal and mac sync as well? A - yes

11:27: q - will there be a VOIP app? how will partners react?, a - jobs - will only limit VoIP over cellular network, but they’ll be open over WiFi (no VOIP over cell data)

11:25: q - what about bad apps?, a - we’ll notice it fast and turn off the spiggot

11:22: its steve plus the first two guys to talk on stage after him; first question: “should RIM be worried?”. Jobs - “go ask them”

11:20: next: Q&A

(11:18: clarification: looks like no apps will be released until June, but developers can start building now)

11:17: Steve jobs back on stage, asking press to stay a few minutes but asking everyone else to leave

11:16: Doerr: “i can’t wait to see the great new companies that we build together”

11:15: Doerr: “the iPhone knows who you are and where you are” - revolutionary new platform, wants to fund amazing new companies; iFund is led by Matt Murphy at Kleiner

11:14: “best way to predict the future is to invent it. At Kleiner, we say the second best way is to fund it” — Announcing iFund — $100 million fund

11:13: Dorr just called Steve Jobs the supreme commander of the rebels; “please join me in a salute to the world’s greatest entrepreneur, Steve Jobs.”

11:11: wait a minute, Jobs just said you can download the SDK in an hour and join the developer network (a bit confusing here from earlier statements); $99 to join the developer program at developer.apple.com

11:11: everything they discussed today works with iphone touch too; How to become an iphone developer: in an hour you can download the SDK for free

11:09: software SDK is going out today to some developers and companies; this is not shipping until June (unclear when app store will be generally available)

11:08: a lot of applications will be free. developers are not charged anything for free applications. limitations: no porn, nothing illegal, no bandwidth hogs; they also include “unforeseen”

11:07: business deal: developer picks the price to sell to the user. Developer gets 70% of revenue. No credit card fees. paid monthly

11:06: applications notify you automatically of updates, you can review information and update if you like; The app store is the exclusive way to distribute iPhone applications

11:05: can browse applications, or search - wirelessly download any app to the phone; they have also built a section into iTunes and sideload apps into the iphone; “this is pretty cool” steve says11:04: Steve Jobs is now back on stage, talking about getting the applications in front of users. Announcing the App Store Will go on every iPhone on next software release

11:00: next: SEGA; Ethan Einhorn from sega now on stage, showing Supermonkeyball game; controling thru accelerometer

10:57: using SQLite database; and enhance screen resolution to show pills

10:56: next: Epocrates; they create products used by half a million health care workers, including 25% of physicians; Glenn Keighley is on stage; showing a drug lookup application that is linked to their main application to information on show thousands of drugs.

10:53: next: AOL. AIM on the iPhone; Rizwan Sattar from AOL on stage; showing a live conversation on AIM through the app, switch between active chats by swiping

10:52: the SDK can speak to the force.com API; when new leads come in, will see them right away; showing integration with iphone mapping functionality as well; they did all this with one developer, in less than two weeks

10:49: next up: Chuck Dietrich from Salesforce; showing basic sales pipeline application for the sales person

(Photo below courtesy of Engadget)

10:47: It took EA two days to get cocoa touch up and running, then they brought in their game code and put in all 18 levels.

10:46: first - Electronic Arts. Travis Boatman from EA is now on stage to talk about experience with iPhone SDK; showing a game called Spore

10:45: “a few weeks ago we contacted a handful of companies and asked them if they could send out a couple of engineers for a couple of weeks to build apps on the new platform”

10:42: space fighter game that users accelerometer; move phone around to steer; oh wow this is cool

10:40: he is showing off a new demo/test application called touch effects, users choose a photo or take a photo. using open GL mesh distortion. its like mac photobooth to distort photos - but this is cool, if want to undo, just shake it like an etch a sketch - uses accelerometer. This took two days to code; more advanced - two week project, less than 10k lines of code

10:36: he is now building a simple application on Xcode and running it on the simulator

10:34: next tool: iPhone Simulator; simulates the entire api stack of the iPhone OS; wow, i want this on my mac - he’s now demoing the iPhone simulator

10:33: next tool: Instruments; This is the comprehensive suite of performance analysis tools. It runs live connected to you iphone.

…

10:31: next tool: Interface Builder; this is the tool you use to build the user interface for the iPhone application. Wow, drag and drop tool to build the user interface

10:29: Xcode is a source editor and already knows all about the iPhone SDK. It will code complete to the APIs in the SDK. Handles project management and source control management

10:28: “we are years ahead of any other mobile device platform”; launching framework, APIs and tools to build/debug/optimize; talking about tools now. Xcode: started with OSX version, now use for building apps for the iPhone

10:27: Cocoa Touch details: built all around the idea of touch as an input; multi touch events, multi touch controls, accelerometer, view hierarchy, localization, alerts, web view, people picker, image picker, camera; accelerometer is a “full three access sensor”

10:24: The core OS is almost identical to other Macs; customized power management; Core Services: there are a lot of different pieces to this. APIs to talk to contacts, SQLite, Core location, file access, collections, net services, etc.

10:22: Cocoa is the best application framework out there; but based on mouse and keyboard; Apple took the Cocoa framework and added the touch UI and built Cocoa Touch

10:21: but today opening up the same Apple internal APIs and tools that Apple uses to build their own applications. Available today

. . .

10:18: next up is Scott Forstall to talk about the native iPhone SDK; Scott first giving an update on web applications, available at launch of iphone; there are now over 1,000 iphone web applications.

10:18: says they’ve been working with Nike and Disney to test the new iphone + exchange server; says the iphone is now the best enterprise mobile device

. . .

10:10: mail, contacts, calendar all remain same look and feel

10:09: support for exchange is built right into the iphone, users will now have push email, push contacts, push calendar, a global address list and the ability to remote wipe the phone; all the applications on the iphone will remain the same though

. . .

10:07: They are building Microsoft exchange support right into the iphone — iphone now works with exchange server

10:07: with those things, adoption will be huge in the enterprise; Phil says they are doing ALL of these things in the next release of the iPhone software

10:06: [Phil Schiller] needs: push email, push calendar, push contacts, global address list, want VPN - most requested is Cisco IPsec VPN; want certificates and identities, enterprise wife APa2/801.x; enforced security policies, device configuration; and finally, they want the ability to do a remote wipe (kill data on the phone)

. . .

10:02: for the first time you really have the internet in your pocket; the iphone is 71% of U.S. mobile browser usage; if you’re surfing the net from a phone, its probably an iphone

10:01: Steve Jobs just walked on stage; says apple has come really far in 8 months since launching iphone; in 8 months has garnered 28% market share, second only to RIM, of smartphone marketshare

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/246864122/

I’ve recently had the chance to preview two new websites that promise to significantly advance the quality of social gaming as delivered through the browser.

The first is a project led by GarageGames and backed by IAC called InstantAction that brings straight into the browser graphically complex games that appeal to competitive gamers.

The second is a site called Cafe.com by an international company called Boonty. It is intended more for casual gamers who want to use gaming more as a way to meet people and socialize online rather than compete.

InstantAction is going live today so anyone can go and check it out (they’ll have four games available to start and more coming soon). Cafe.com will remain in private beta for awhile longer, but the company has given us 10,000 invitations - just go here and enter “techcrunch” as your invitation code. You’ll also start off with 10,000 CafeCoins, the site’s virtual currency, which are worth about $10 and can be used to buy virtual goods.

InstantAction

With InstantAction, you can play games in-browser that look more like Xbox or PC games. To fully appreciate the quality improvements, you have to see them for yourself:

What’s especially impressive is that these games are not even based in Flash or Silverlight. Rather, they run on top of a cross-browser compatible, 150k custom plugin that only has to be downloaded once. The plugin, which has been developed for two and a half years, works with games that are programmed in pretty much any language (C++, Java, Python, etc.).

Right now the following four titles are available - Marble Blast, Screw Jumper, Think Tanks, and Cyclomite. The first two are actually popular Xbox games that have been ported over to InstantAction’s platform. While these games have single player versions, the focus is on competitive multiplayer games. And inviting your friends to the service is easy; you only have to give them a URL and they can join you quite quickly, even if your game has already begun.

The site does use a good deal of Flash and Ajax to manage game lobbies, friends lists, and chat. When playing games, you’ll always see a list of the people in your party and a chat room on the right-hand side of the screen. You can use this area to communicate with others and quickly switch over to new games while keeping the same group of people participating.

The games to be included on the site will come mostly from smaller game studios run by veterans of the bigger studios who have escaped their more corporate environments. These include Wideload Studios, run by the same guy who founded Bungee and came up with Halo.

Among the advantages of running games from the browser is the ability to make updates and fixes without imposing downloads on users. Producers can also make money from new revenue sources such as the sale of virtual goods, subscriptions, and tournament fees.

I suspect that over time we’ll see even more advanced games run through InstantAction; ones that appeal even more to hardcore gamers who just don’t have the time to buy, install, and learn new games anymore. The next game to be added - Fallen Empire: Legions - is particularly impressive and will certainly take the platform in that direction (see a sneak preview of the game here).

Cafe.com

Browser-based casual gaming is nothing new (see Kongregate, the gaming networks on Facebook, and the astronomical popularity of Scrabulous in particular). But Cafe.com is the most developed social networking-gaming hybrid that I’ve seen so far, both in terms of the integration of social features and the quality of gameplay.

In contrast to InstantAction, Cafe.com will appeal to a broader audience that includes housewives and females in general (who actually make up the primary audience for online casual games). CEO Roman Nouzareth says that the target demographic is Generation X, which consists of 25-40 year olds.

The design and functionality of the site reflects that it was designed for a less “gamer” audience in mind. The tone is lighthearted and only mildly competitive. Games include pictionary, chinese checkers, Sodoku, and billiards.

As with InstantAction, the focus is on multiplayer games that can be played instantly with friends (Cafe.com bases its games primarily in Flash and HTML). But Cafe.com has also been constructed with an emphasis on member reputations and personas. Users can build out profiles with highly customizable 3D avatars (called “MiniMes”) that will be loaded into games themselves to represent characters there. As with other social networks, you can make friends with other members and message them. Nouzareth says that he wants Cafe.com to be the place where people manage their online gaming personas, while they go elsewhere to manage their more generic personas.

Virtual currency and the purchase of so-called “boosts” are particularly central to Cafe.com’s ecosystem. Members can purchase CafeCoins using real money and then use them to buy three main types of goods: attacks, defenses, and social items like virtual flowers. Gaming-specific goods can be purchased outside of gameplay and added to one’s collection for use when the time comes during gameplay. CafeCoins can also be used to buy things like new clothes for your avatar.

Two APIs are being worked on for Cafe.com: one that allows for the integration of games into the site, and one that will allow for the exporting of data elsewhere. The former is already available and being used both by the company’s own developers and by the handful of outside developers that it has worked with so far. The idea with the latter API is that users eventually will be able to export their Cafe.com profile information elsewhere, for example, to display their gaming reputations other social networking profiles.

Nouzareth says in reference to Pogo.com, one of the biggest social gaming sites in the United States: if Pogo were to have a baby with Facebook, that baby would be named Cafe.com. Grab your invitation and CafeCoins (see above) to find out yourself how that comparison holds up. This will give you a taste:

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/246853577/

Yahoo released an update to Yahoo Maps with more data at the neighborhood level. The Yahoo Maps team added 12,000 new neighborhoods in 300 cities. The maps now denote neighborhood boundaries with subtle changes in the background color. And points of interest such as schools and subway stops are marked.

Yahoo Maps has always had a different look than Google Maps, but these changes help define that difference even more. The background colors are lighter and there is an attempt to provide a lot of information visually. I like being able to see the neighborhood boundaries, but there is a risk of being presented with too much information. The best UI for maps is to keep it simple and then offer different layers of information that can be turned on or off depending on what you are looking for. That said, too much information is better than too little. I’ve become completely addicted to online maps, even in my car.

What can Yahoo (or Google) do next to make their maps even more indispensable?

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/246845500/