Muxtape Shuts Down

Muxtape, a New York-based online-music startup much favored by the Tumblr set, has shut down its website, citing a "problem" with the RIAA, a music-industry organization which polices copyright. Could it have anything to do with the ease with which users can download music files from the site, despite founder Justin Ouellette's efforts to block them? The company blog elaborates, barely: "No artists or labels have complained. The site is not closed indefinitely. Stay tuned."

Muxtape is relaunching as a service exclusively for bands, offering an extremely powerful platform with unheard-of simplicity for artists to thrive on the internet. Musicians in 2008 without access to a full time web developer have few options when it comes to establishing themselves online, but their needs often revolve around a common set of problems. The new Muxtape will allow bands to upload their own music and offer an embeddable player that works anywhere on the web, in addition to the original muxtape format. Bands will be able to assemble an attractive profile with simple modules that enable optional functionality such as a calendar, photos, comments, downloads and sales, or anything else they need. The system has been built from the ground up to be extended infinitely and is wrapped in a template system that will be open to CSS designers. There will be more details soon. The beta is still private at the moment, but that will change in the coming weeks.

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Add Bling to Your Graphics With Blingee

Blingee is a graphics tool that lets you add ridiculous bling to your photographs and graphics. You can find the help page here. Here's a Michael Bolton image that has been blinged up with Blingee.

Blingee's tools are a lot of fun but it can be overdone as you can see here.

Posted on September 26, 2008
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Google Launches a New Browser Called Chrome

Google has launched a beta version of a new browser called Chrome. Google is pushing the security aspects of Chrome. The Chrome has a feature called the omnibar that pulls in the top three or four search results from Google. PC Magazine compares the Omnibar to Firefox's "Awesome Bar." Other features with Chrome include tabs and desktop shortcuts.

Topher Kohan handles search engine optimization for CNN.com and discusses Google's new Web browser in the video below. He calls the browser fast, quick and secure. Kohan mentions one problem - there is no "Home" button. You can add a home button though by changing the preferences. You can also configure Chrome to bring up several of your favorite sites upon launching.



Posted on September 4, 2008
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Iterasi Lets You Bookmark Dynamically Generated Pages

Iterasi is a new bookmarking website that let's you save dynamically generated pages and Flash pages. You can see a video about the new service here.

At iterasi, we love the Web. So much so, that we want to keep it. Forever.

That's why we're taking steps to move beyond traditional bookmarking. Because, these days, saving the address of a page isn't half as important as being able to save the page you created.

Our first product, iterasi, makes it simple for any Web user to save the dynamically generated pages that are increasingly becoming the bulk of today's Web experience. With iterasi, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, and database driven technologies, like PHP and ASP, can all be saved—in their current state—with the push of a button.

You can see up a scheduler to bookmark pages for you. You can also share the pages you have saved with others using a shortened URL.

Posted on September 2, 2008
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Survey Finds Centenarians Use Email, Google and Online Dating

The third annual Evercare 100@100 Survey polled 100 centenarians. The poll shifts conventional stereotypes on aging by revealing that some of the oldest Americans are using the latest technologies to keep up and stay close - talking on cell phones, sending emails, "Googling" lost acquaintances, surfing Wikipedia and even online dating.

Here's some of the results from the survey that found some centenarians are web savvy.

Surveyed Centenarians are no technophobes: 19 percent say they use cell phones to keep in touch with friends and family. Other technology used to stay in touch includes: e-mail (7 percent), sending or receiving digital photos by email (4 percent), and text messaging (1 percent).

Love 2.0: As many Centenarians as Baby Boomers (3 percent) say they have dated someone they met on an online dating site. Twelve percent of Centenarians surveyed say they have used the Internet and some have "Googled" someone they have lost contact with (2 percent) or have visited someone's personal Web site (2 percent).

Use the online encyclopedia "Wikipedia" (3 percent)

Purchased a gift online (3 percent)

Used the Internet to research a health topic (2 percent)

Have visited a political Web site (2 percent)

Have made travel arrangements and plans online (1 percent)

Posted on August 11, 2008
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Xobni Microsoft Outlook Plug-in Getting High Praise

Xobni is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook that has been garnering a large number of positive reviews. The plug-in helps you organize your Outlook inbox with features like fast email search, email analytics, social network type features and threaded conversations. Newsweek reports that Bill Gates, speaking at the Microsoft Office Developer Conference, called Xobni "the next generation of social networking." Here's a review of Xobni from the WSJ's Walt Mossberg.



Posted on August 8, 2008
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Beijing Olympics Search Tools and Resources

The main resources for the Olympics this year are the official website and NBCOlympics.com. There are also a large number of Olympic blogs and Twitters.

The search engines this year are also useful. Google is providing some useful one box results. If you search something like beach volleyball olympics you will see scores pulled in from the beijing2008.cn website. Google Maps has also added new feautures for the Beijing Olympics. There is also a downloadable Olympics Countdown Gadget.

Yahoo is also providing box scores if you type in searches like usa medal count and diving + Olympics. You can also quickly obtain athlete information. For example, if you type in Jingjing Guo Olympics you will get an athlete information box that looks like this:



Posted on August 7, 2008
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Web Humor: Baby's First Internet

Baby's First Internet by Kevin Fanning and Kean Soo provides a hilarious look at some of the trends, habits and absurdities of today's online culture. From having to be the first to add a comment underneath a new blog post to the urge to photograph every single thing you eat this new baby book (that's not really for babies) covers a great deal with it's short insightful rhymes.

Metafilter connects the book to larger concerns about where the Internet may be headed. (via Babyosphere)

Posted on August 5, 2008
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Show Off Your Inbox Zero Victory

An iniative called Inbox Victory from the F.A.T. (free art and technology) website is encouraging people to take pictures and screenshots of when they have managed to clear out their email inbox.

Have you ever been in the situation where you spend days trying answer all of your email only to accomplish your goal and have no one to share in your victory? All you want is a high five, a pat on the back, and a "job well done soldier!", and yet most likely all you are left with is an empty room and a cold cup of coffee. Inbox Victory is an initiative that says, "you deserve that high five!" And here is how you get it:

1) Get your email inbox down to zero. People have various methods for dealing with their email so 'inbox 0' is going to mean different things to different people. A basic rule of thumb, however, is getting it to a point where no further action can be taken.

2) Open up your webcam software and take a screenshot of yourself profiling in front of your defeated foe (See examples below).

3) Leave your screenshot in the comments of this post.

It can be very difficult and time consuming to get your email inbox down to zero. It is also usually a very short-lived experience because it isn't long before new emails come rolling in. This is a great way to keep a momento of your inbox success story. (via Boing Boing)

Posted on July 30, 2008
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China Has More Web Surfers Than U.S.

China has more people surfing the Internet than the United States does according to an AP news story. China has about 30 million more web surfers than the U.S.

China's booming Internet population has surpassed the United States to become the world's biggest, with 253 million people online despite government controls on Web use, according to government data reported Friday.

The latest figure on Web use at the end of June is a 56 percent increase over the same time last year, the China Internet Network Information Center said. It said the share of the Chinese public using the Internet is still just 19.1 percent, leaving more room for rapid growth.

The United States had an estimated 223.1 million Internet users in June, according to Nielsen Online, a research firm. The Pew Internet and American Life Project puts U.S. online penetration at 71 percent.

"This is the first time the number has drastically surpassed the United States, becoming the world's No. 1," a CNNIC statement said.

China is also well known for having strict filters that block China's citizens from viewing many of the world's websites. During the recent situation in Tibet, China reportedly even blocked news websites like CNN and the BBC. U.S. organizations doing business in China - including MSN, Yahoo and Google - have been blamed for complying with China's filters in order to do business in the coutnry. You can read a couple older articles about how China filters the Internet here and here.

Posted on July 24, 2008
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20% of U.S. Population Has Never Sent an Email

Not everyone is using the Internet. About 20% of the U.S. population has never sent an email or looked up information online according to a recent study by Parks Associates.

Age and education were significant factors cited in the study, which was conducted by researcher Parks Associates. Half of those who have never used e-mail are older than 65 and 56 percent had no formal education beyond a high school level, the telephone survey found.

"Nearly one out of three household heads has never used a computer to create a document," John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates, said in a statement. "These data underscore the significant digital divide between the connected majority and the homes in the unconnected minority that rarely, if ever, use a computer."

Just 7 percent of the 20 million households without Internet access indicated during the survey that they plan to subscribe to an Internet service within the next 12 months. However, the study noted a steady decline in the number of disconnected households when comparing findings with previous years; the 2006 survey found that 31 million households, or 29 percent, of all U.S. households were without Internet access.

20 million households with no web access is signicant. It would be interesting to know how many are going without because they can't afford it and how many are simply uninterested. It would also be interesting to know whether there are still areas in the U.S. where it is simply unavailable.

Posted on May 19, 2008
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