Ajax Girl

Once again I’ll be speaking and giving a three-hour workshop at Future of Web Design in NYC this November 3-4. The workshops especially are a lot of fun.

What would you like to hear me talk about? Please post your ideas here or email ryan at you-know-where dot com.

I’d love to see you in New York, and especially hear your questions and ideas.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1273-ryan-speaking-at-future-of-web-design-in-nyc-november-3-4

Netvibes, the site that lets users customize their homepages with a variety of widgets, has partnered with Rambler.ru to bring its widgets to the massive Russian web portal. Rambler is the Yahoo of Russia, with an estimated 40 million users and 3 billion monthly pageviews. The deal is being described as “multi-year” and worth “multi-millions”, but further details haven’t been disclosed. Netvibes availability on Rambler.ru is expected to begin in November.

This marks the first time Netvibes has licensed its platform for installation and distribution to an independent third party, and probably won’t be the last. In order to stay competitive with other widget hubs like iGoogle, Netvibes would do well to spur its growth by offering its widgets to other region-specific portals (that said, Netvibes has been doing well, with a reported 500 billion widgets served montly). According to the press release, the Rambler homepage will include Google Search, Blinx video search, and a number of Russian services like Price.ru.

In July Google acquired Begun, a contextual ad service, from parent company Rambler. As part of the $140 million deal, Rambler has been using Google for some of its advertising and search functions.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/y7ahUf8UYoo/

Sugar Inc, the company behind a network of popular women-focused blogs that includes PopSugar, is announcing two major releases tonight that take advantage of its fashion-hungry userbase. The first, dubbed PopSugar’s CelebStyle, is positioning itself as an IMDB for style, analyzing outfits from many of television’s most popular shows. Sugar Inc is also announcing a new ShopStyle API, which gives developers access to the site’s massive database of clothing and accessories which can be used in any variety of applications. Here’s a breakdown of both announcements:

ShopStyle API
ShopStyle, which Sugar aqcuired a year ago, is a search engine for fashion. The site indexes clothing and accessories across thousands of brands and stores, presenting them to users in a uniformly formatted grid of thumbnails, prices, and descriptions.

Sugar had previously made this data available to partner sites like In Style and People, and is now opening it up to developers. CEO Brian Sugar says that apps using the API could easily be deployed across a variety of platforms, including webpages (like SaleHabit, which Sugar developed in a weekend), Facebook, and the iPhone.

In thirty days, the platform will also allow developers to convert clicks from the fashion items they’ve displayed into cash. Sugar says the revenue split will vary by app, and will be determined by the success rate of the app’s lead generation.

Fashion may not be most developers’ cup of tea, but the market for this kind of application is huge - expect to see a variety of fashion-based iPhone and web applications hit the market in the next few months.

PopSugar’s CelebStyle

PopSugar’s CelebStyle will allow users to see exactly what their favorite stars have been wearing on some of the most popular shows on TV. The site is edited by a number of Sugar employees, who will pick some of the most prominent outfits from these shows and offer links to each accessory and piece of clothing. To build and help populate the site, Sugar is leveraging the technology and partnerships behind StarStyle, which it acquired in May. Through some of these partnerships (and PR representatives), Sugar editors will have access to lists detailing exactly what the stars were wearing, so users will be assured that the items presented are authentic.

Visitors to CelebStyle will also be able to craft their own outfits using Sugar’s database of clothing, which can be added as comments beneath any article. For instance, users could put together an outfit closely mirroring a fancy get-up shown in the latest episode of Gossip Girl, but with clothes that were only a fraction of the cost.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/oCm-qbjvjCo/

There doesn’t appear to have been an official announcement, but Twitter has begun soliciting spam reports to a “spam” user account via direct messages.

Are you a victim of Twitter spam? Just begin following @spam and send it a direct message with the username of your spammer. As the following email autoresponse to spam reporters instructs, you can send these direct messages from your mobile phone or opt for a public tweet as well:

Howdy!

Thanks for reporting spam- we’re working really hard on getting rid of it! Did you know: you can now easily report spam directly from your Twitter account? Visit:

http://twitter.com/spam

and follow the account. You can then send:

* a direct message to @spam: @moneybagsnow is a spammer!
* a direct message from your phone using d+ username + message: d spam @carmoney, @cashnow is spam!
* a reply to @spam like so: @spam this is a spam account: @bigmoney5

and we’ll take care of it. You can send as many spam user names as will fit in one direct message or @reply as long as they are designated like this: @crystal.

Note: it’s better to send a direct message over an @reply. Direct messaging keeps @replies reporting spam out of your followers’ time lines. Sending direct messages also keeps the spam account’s user name out of all search results. Because the message is private, you prevent them from benefitting from publicity. Thanks again for helping us track down spammers!

Twitter Support Team

So far 213 members have begun following @spam, which oddly has decided to follow 179 members itself. It will have to gain a much larger following to make a dent in Twitter’s spam problem. The Twitter Blacklist, a website that tracked all banned Twitter accounts before its owner lost faith in the service, lists 561 blacklisted users as of July 12th.

Read more about Twitter’s spam efforts here.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eyWYQskgFZU/

Tomorrow Mozilla will launch a new geotagging project called Geode into Mozilla Labs that promises to leverage your physical location to enhance your overall browsing experience. More details will be provided in an official post tomorrow, but this is what we know already:

Geode is a Firefox add-on that understands location, enabling enriched, personalized, and localized content.

For example with Geode, a user who is looking for restaurants while they are out of town will be able load up their favorite review site and find suggestions a couple blocks away and plot directions there.

It’s unclear how Firefox actually intends to determine a user’s location, especially since Mozilla doesn’t have a mobile browser that could provide GPS data. How web apps are supposed to leverage the plugin is also yet to be seen.

Geode joins the recently announced Labs projects Ubiquity and Snowl. We’ll post more details as soon as we get them.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/zFpiXyOyias/

As Research in Motion prepares to open its Blackberry Application Center to answer the iPhone’s App Store, an unaffiliated startup called the BerryStore has already launched a competing app store for Blackberry Apps. What makes it better than the official BlackBerry App Center (besides the name), is that apps in the BerryStore work across both old and new BlackBerries alike (not just the upcoming BlackBerry Storm), and across carriers. The BlackBerry App center, in contrast, is designed to be a carrier-specific store, with different apps for different carriers.

AYou can download the BerryStore as an app itself by visiting www.berrystore.com on your BlackBerry. (The App Center will require users to download apps through their Blackberry browsers, which is not the best experience). Already there are about 40 apps in the store, ranging from Loopt, 3Jam, and TwitterBerry to Obopay, Citysense, and Google Mobile. All of them are currently free, although the company plans on offering paid apps in the future. Developers can get more details about how to submit apps or the BerryStore here.

Below is a list of each app currently in the BerryStore with a short description:

Books & Reference
NeoReader: Turns your Blackberry into a barcode scanner.
Blackberry Wiki: Wikipedia reader.
Beyond411: Yellow pages, maps, and directions.
MobipocketReader: Mobile e-reader.

Business & Finance
Obopay: P2P payments.
Bank of America: Manage your dwindling bank account.
NyTimes DealBook: A bookmark icon to the popular blog.
E-Trade Mobile Pro: Manage your dwindling stock portfolio.

Lifestyle
Google Mobile: Search, Maps, Gmail.
Opera: Opera Mini Web browser.
Zumobi:Mobile widgets.
Google Mail: As in Gmail.
Poynt: Local search.
Maufait InstaFind: Al-in-one 411, flight tracker, movie showtimes, stock quotes, weather, news.
Puretracks:Mobile music store.
Tellme: Voice-enabled GPS info.
reQall: Voice-to-text recorder, to-do list, and idea manager.
Nobex Radio Companion: Shows you the name of the songs playing on the radio.

News & Weather
Viigo: News, sports, entertainment, weather, stock and traffic alerts.
New York Times: Bookmark icon.
ABC News: Bookmark icon.
The Washington Post: Bookmark icon.
CNBC Mobile: Bookmark icon.
USA Today: Bookmark icon.
Slate: Bookmark icon.
PinStack.com: Forums

Social Networking
TitterBerry: Mobile Twitter client that avoids SMS charges.
3jam: Group text messages.
eBuddy: Instant messaging app
Dexrex: Archives your text messages.
Pinger: Voice IM.

Sports
Sports Illustrated: Bookmark icon.
ESPN Mobile: Bookmark icon.

Travel & Navigation
Google Maps: What it sounds like.
GPSed: Map your GPS tracks, save them, and share them. Also geotags your photos.
Citysense: Live hotspot tracking.
WorldMate Live: A personal digital assistant for travelers

Utilities
Box.net: Access and share files on your BB.
AutoLock: Locks the keyboard.
MidpSSH: Connect to remote servers.
MiniMoni: Monitor IP traffic.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/FaWbaEcUF_s/

With news of doom and gloom coming at us from every side I would like to take a moment to look at the market as it stands and asses what a slow-down/recession will mean for us, the gadget obsessed.

To recap, we are in this mess because of what amounts to a credit freeze. Companies that once could request “cash” to cover overnight expenses - we’re talking millions and billions of dollars worth of cash - are now told they can only withdraw a significant percentage less than they were previously allowed to access. This, in turn, reduces capital expenditures and slows hiring - if you can’t get a quick loan you can’t cover a new factory or a make a bigger payroll. This, in turn, slows large purchases and raises unemployment which, in turn, makes us all freak out.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/CHADQnR-Zow/

By using some fairly interesting IMEI collection, the folks at Mac Observer have found that Apple sold 10 million iPhones in 2008, reaching and potentially surpassing Steve’s original stated goal. By looking at phones sold over the last few months, Mac Observer’s “Apple Finance Board” found that the phone has gone through nine 1 million unit runs. Adding this to the known sales they found the total number was far above analyst expectations.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8BxBooZ5huw/

Attention all TechCrunch readers in Munich: here’s your chance to meet Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. (Hmm, I wonder if he’ll be making some sort of announcement). He will be giving a speech at a closed, invite-only event on Tuesday evening, October 7 at Amiando headquarters. Amiando CEO Felix Haas is offering to give admission to one lucky TechCrunch reader. (That’s right, only one). Explains Haas in an e-mail:

Mark will give a speech to the selected guests about Facebook’s plans for Europe and Germany. After the speeches and an extensive Q&A session with Mark Zuckerberg there will be plenty of time to get-together with Mark at dinner & drink. I want to offer admission for one of your readers.

All you have to do to apply is explain why you want to meet Zuckerberg in comments. The person with the best reason gets a ticket. (Put in your real e-mail address so Felix can contact you in case you win).

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/GwM1nZcgZXU/

Web bookmarks are badly in need of an overhaul. Sure, they’re fine for jumping to the dozen or so sites you visit on a daily basis, but they quickly become unwieldy whenever they’re used for research purposes. Folders of bookmarked job listings or apartment openings on Craigslists become practically useless as you frequently need to revisit them to remind yourself why you bookmarked them in the first place.

Tonight sees the launch of SimplyBox, a San Francisco-based startup that allows users to clip portions of websites in a visual way, overcoming some of the shortcomings of traditional bookmarks. SimplyBox is currently available as plugins for Internet Explorer and Firefox, with a Safari version on the way. The site will go live at 6 PM PST tonight.

To use SimplyBox, you hit the “Box and Save” button in the browser toolbar, which turns your mouse arrow into a targeting cursor and displays a series of “boxes” at the bottom of the screen. After highlighting the portion of the page you’d like to save for later, you drag it into the box you’d like to store it in. The whole process is very intuitive and only takes a few seconds.

Clicking on the toolbar’s SimplyBox logo brings you to your profile page, where you can access and sort through each of your boxes. Clippings appear as large images that clearly show their contents, and can be displayed in a desktop view (where you can drag them around), a list view, or a grid. Users can also add comments to each of the snippets.

In practice, the plugin seems to work well, especially when conducting research across a number of sites. For example, house hunters could easily use the service to keep track of the homes they’re interested in, clipping photos and summaries for future reference. The site also allows users to share their boxes with friends, so they collaborate on a single project. Finally, the toolbar includes a “box and send” function that sends snippets in Emails as image files.

SimplyBox’s biggest flaw is that its snippets are simple images - they don’t retain any of the functionality of their original source. If you were to snap a clip of a YouTube video, it would only appear as an image, and you’d have to visit the linked page to see the video itself. That said, it’s still a big improvement over simple bookmarks.

There are a number of other “clipping” tools available, including Sazell, Diigo, and to some extent, Safari’s Webclip.

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Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/RyCRKMgdZqI/