Appscout ZiffDavis Best/Worst Software
| Get Your Grill On: A Blog for Your July 4 BBQ
Tired of the same old hamburgers and hot dogs on the BBQ every Fourth of July? If so, you may want to try Get Your Grill On, a blog dedicated to all your barbecuing needs. The blog is updated every day with posts on grillable food, recipes, aprons, sauces, marinades, wine, and even BBQ restaurant reviews.
Looking through the site, I found many recipes looked gourmet-level delicious, and many don't require a big investment. Grilled scallops, grilled Tuscan steak, pork char sui, grilled basil haddock and zesty mango chicken, anyone?
These gourmet-style recipes are no surprise after you read the bio of the blog's editor, Robert Fernandez. He is an official BBQ judge certified by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. Fernandez also regularly competes in the KCBS barbecue circuit and is currently putting together a new cooking team.
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Judge: Google Must Hand Over YouTube User Histories to Viacom
Should Viacom be privy to the fact that you've watched "Cat Playing Piano" 57 times on YouTube since March?
Yes, according to the U.S. District Court for Southern New York. Judge Louis Stanton on Wednesday ruled that Google must provide Viacom with YouTube user histories in Viacom's ongoing $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against the video Web site.
Google must hand over all the information contained in its logging database, including the login ID of the users who have watched videos, the time they started to watch the video, users' IP address, and the video identifier.
Viacom claims that it must have access to the entire database in order to see whether users are watching infringing videos more than they are watching non-infringing content. If they are watching more videos with copyrighted data that might prove that Google had an incentive to keep them live on YouTube and did not actively work to remove them, according to Viacom.
Google balked at the request. Turning over the data - about 12 terabytes - would be time consuming, expensive, and a violation of user privacy, the company argued.
The court dismissed the notion that turning over the information was too burdensome since "all of its contents can be copied onto a few 'over-the-shelf' four-terabyte hard drives," Judge Stanton wrote.
The judge was also skeptical that the data contained in YouTube's logging database would allow Viacom access to personally identifiable user information.
Google's own musings on the subject of IP address privacy were actually used against them, with Judge Stanton pointing to a Google Public Policy blog post from February that said "IP addresses recorded by every Web site on the planet without additional information should not be considered personal data, because these Web sites usually cannot identify the human beings behind these number strings."
The court "erroneously ignores the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and threatens to expose deeply private information about what videos are watched by YouTube users," Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argued in a blog post.
The VPPA was passed in 1988 after the video rental history of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was published in a newspaper during his nomination process. Congress found that the videos one chooses to watch is deeply personal and should not be made public without permission.
Arguing that the logging database does not contain personally identfiable information is insufficient, Opsahl said.
"If any single one of the YouTube users in the Logging database picked a login ID that does identify that user (i.e. if my YouTube login was kurtopsahl), then the logging database' information about viewing habits is protected by the VPPA, even if others pick anonymous pseudonyms."
Viacom did not get everything it wanted, however. Find out what the company will not get its hands on pcmag.com.
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| Google Intros Talk for iPhone, iPod Touch
 Google's mobile wing today announced the launch of a new version of Talk for iPhones and iPod Touches. Users with one of the two Apple devices can point their Safari browsers to www.google.com/talk to access the specially tailored version of Google's instant messaging app.
According to Google, the new version of the app stays largely loyal to its desktop-based counterpart. The primary difference is that when users open up a non-Safari browser on their phone, they will appear Unavailable in Google Talk.
Most of the other features are still intact, however. Users still get a quicklist featuring the people the contact the most, contacts are still searchable, and they can have multiple conversations at once.
For more information on the app, check out Google's Mobile blog.
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AOL, Weblogs Launch Gaming Site
 Watch out gamers, AOL has you firmly in its sights. AOL Games, Weblogs (publishers of Engadget and Joystiq), and Games.com announced the joint launch of BigDownload.com, a site aimed at PC gamers. The site is set to offer game reviews, free downloads, and gaming news.
There are plenty of gaming sites out there, sure, but Barbarba Dybwad of Weblogs, Inc. assures the world that theirs is different, "Unlike competing sites, BigDownload.com offers fast and free file downloads with no required sign-up process, subscription fees or lengthy queues. Our staff of writers eats, breathes and sleeps PC gaming so they can bring readers a deeper level of analysis. They're also committed to a diverse range of original and community features, exemplifying BigDownload.com as a participatory media where the 'audience' is encouraged to be a part of the site."
Much of the site's content will be "powered" by Weblogs-owned Joystiq. The site will also feature addition content like HD game trailers, and more importantly, a mascot that looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy's sumo wrestling uncle.
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| Firefox Nabs 19 Percent Marketshare
 Thanks in part to the Guinness Book-making Download Day debut of Firefox 3, Mozilla's popular browser has managed to secure an overall marketshare of 19 percent.
According to numbers released by Web survey company, Net Applications, the third major revamp of the open-source browser has scored a four percent global share since its mid-June release. That number got bumped by a full one percent in the first hour after the browser lost its beta tag.
The majority of Firefox 3's jump came from upgrading Firefox 2 users rather than first-time Internet Explorer defectors. Microsoft's browser still clings to the lion's share of the browser market, though its numbers slipped slightly from 73.17 percent at the beginning of June to 72.90 percent the week of June 22. The numbers are slightly more dramatic on a larger scale --back in August 2007, IE commanded 79 percent of the market.
A Beta 2 version of Internet Explorer 8 is being slated for an August release. Firefox 3 currently holds our Editors' Choice for browsers. For a full review of the app, check out PCMag.com.
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After 140 Years Wagner Becomes PC Compatible
Sometimes it seems everything is on the Internet. It's one huge, highly organized, basement full-of-stuff. But the deeper you dig, the more you realize there are parts of our culture wholly unrepresented on the web. For instance, the Internet's been missing live opera. Oh... hold on. This bulletin just in: "Wait a few weeks. It's coming."
Germany's annual Bayreuth Opera Festival is coming to the net--streaming live, just like Major League Baseball and hot webcam chat girls who really want to meet you. Actually, this webcast is as big a deal as streaming baseball or porn, because this is no run-of-the-mill opera festival. Bayreuth is the iPhone of opera and composer Richard Wagner its Steve Jobs¹.
On July 27th Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg will be performed live. At five hours it's even long by even Wagner's standard! It's a comedy about 16th Century Nuremberg. What says comedy more?
Bayreuth is charging $77 for the broadcast. Has the dollar shrunk that much? Granted, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes and other peripheral material being offered, but that's nearly three times what The Met in New York charged for it's high def online performances!
Eight remote control cameras will be used to capture the performance. They're remote to save on space. You can't remove seats or block sight lines since this festival sells out years in advance. Subscribers will have until August 3 to replay the show.
If you believe Google's often flaky translation, "Richard Wagner dreamed of festivals for everyone - open and affordable. We take his idea seriously and implement them with modern means." In other words, this is just a logical extension for a work first performed in 1868.
¹ - Steve, Wagner's later years were spent roaming Europe, trying to avoid creditors. I'm not saying life will imitate art, but be careful.
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| Firefox 3.0 Awarded Guinness Record for Most Software Downloads
Aaaaand ... done.
Firefox 3.0 is officially in the Guinness Book of World Records. The browser secured more than 8 million downloads on its June 17 release date - an accomplishment now known as the greatest number of software downloads in a 24-hour period.
"As the arbiter and recorder of the world's amazing facts, Guinness World Records is pleased to add Mozilla's achievement to our archives," Gareth Deaves, records manager for Guinness World Records, said in a statement. "Mobilizing over 8 million Internet users within 24 hours is an extremely impressive accomplishment and we would like to congratulate the Mozilla community for their hard work and dedication."
In the weeks leading up to the release of Firefox 3.0, Mozilla launched a campaign to secure the world record. Technically, there was no actual record for software downloads, but that didn't stop Mozilla. Initially, they wanted to best the 1.6 million downloads that Firefox 2.0 got, but ended up a total of 8,002,530.
The Firefox site was so inundated with users trying to download 3.0 on release day that Mozilla had to delay its release by two hours in order to handle the excess traffic.
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VideoCrawler: All Your Videos in One Place
VideoCrawler, an online video-viewing management tool from AT&T's Business Development Group that's currently in closed beta, is basically a hub that provides users with a platform to search, play, rate, comment, organize, and share videos from across the Web.The tool manages other types of media as well, including audio files, slideshows, Web radio, Web TV, feeds, online games, and ringtones. It's similar to QPlayer, except that VideoCrawler is not downloadable--it's all online.
We had a chance to check out the site, and it's definitely promising.
Unlike other video-sharing sites, where users can manage only content that the sites host, VideoCrawler lets users create channels that organize and syndicate videos across numerous platforms.
Videos are viewed in the tiny window on the left-hand side. That means that if any videos are bigger than the window (such as the HD videos from Vimeo.com), they'll be compressed. (Videos cannot be viewed full-screen yet, but according to Jim Stapleton of AT&T, that is being worked on.) In fact, I wasn't able to view any videos in full HD (1,280 by 720). After further searching, the site let me know that the video can be viewed in full HD at vimeo.com. So essentially, VideoCrawler is running embedded material, but organizing it for you in one convenient spot. To that end, if any ads are within the video (such as with Youtube), they will be carried over to VideoCrawler as well.
VideoCrawler lets you customize the appearance of your pages layout to suit your needs. So, for example, the Results table and Hottest tables can be moved around, display a custom number of videos, and so on.
Searching on the site is easy, and results derive from videos from 3,300 different Web sites. VideoCrawler also has an Advanced Search option, so you can filter by media type, source, and rating, and even choose the order that your search results appear in. For parents, there's a Safe Search feature; but it didn't seem to work all that well, at least for me. For instance, when I searched on the term "Family Guy" with the feature on, the results include various clips--including an entire episode from Crackle.com in all its controversial glory. But parents can flag any specific video as inappropriate if they so choose. Safe Seach is on by default when you are not logged in as a user.
You can Favorite anything you find, and store in your collections. Your collections can then be shared across VideoCrawler if you choose to make them public. Videos can also be shared (emailed) in the same way that other video Web sites allow.
For gamers, VideoCrawler is convenient for finding videos of games they want to preview before buying: VideoCrawler can pull together all the available media from hot games such as the upcoming Diablo 3. However, I found that some of the videos (such as from sites like GameTrailers.com) did not play for me.
The site is also great for finding how-to videos. If YouTube doesn't have the exact video you need, VideoCrawler provides the convenience of searching multiple other sites for you. YouTube videos, though, seem to play best on this site.
While still in beta, VideoCrawler is impressive so far. I would like to be able to resize my Hottest and Results tables, as they aren't as important to me as the video itself. I also am eager to see full-screen viewing. And when searching for specific audio from one of my favorite bands, Breaking Benjamin, I wasn't able to adjust the volume--the music simply streamed. Also, I ran into a couple of dead podcasts while searching for audio from the band (these were flagged and should be removed by the creators.)
VideoCrawler has incredible potential, and if accessed on something like an iPhone or EEE PC, it would be very satisfying for users that want to use as little memory as possible. VideoCrawler is expected to be in open public beta within the next two weeks. However, you can try it out yourself early if you head over to VideoCrawler.com. Username is mediorite and the password is beta0529.
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| Xandros Buys Linspire
 Xandros confirmed Wednesday that it has acquired Linspire, the developer of the Linspire Linux-based OS as well as the Click-n-Run (CNR) shop and business model.
Terms of the deal were not announced. Linspire will remain intact as a wholly owned subsidiary of Xandros.
Surprisingly, the acquisition appears to be more about business models than Linux distributions. Statements made by both companies emphasized the combination of the CNR model with Xandros' own online software warehouse, indicating that perhaps the two might be folded into one. However, the Linspire Linux distribution will not go away, at least for the moment. Freespire will also continue to be maintained as an open-source project.
Linspire was founded by serial entrepreneur Michael Robertson, who indicated that the combination was a true partnership. "Xandros has emerged as a leader in the OEM, mobility, desktop and PC management and application business, so I'm excited to see the Linspire technology, including CNR, go to a worthy competitor that shares our vision," Robertson said in a statement. "The Linux business is going through some healthy and necessary consolidation, which will give resulting companies greater assets and size to deliver on larger initiatives so Linux can touch more people."
One deficiency of Linux is that it's difficult to find and install new software," Robertson added on his blog. "To address this shortcoming, Linspire built CNR Technology which I'm more excited about than ever. CNR is a marketplace where users can browse for software programs (free and commercial), download and install with a single mouse click. More than 10,000,000 Linux software programs have been installed via CNR which now works for Ubuntu, Debian and other Linux versions. New systems like eee PC need CNR which is why Linspire marrying Xandros makes sense. "
However, Kevin Carmony, the ex-chief executive and president of Linspire, was outraged over the apparent lack of shareholder input into the deal."Why would Linspire pull off a midnight, back-room sell-off without a shareholders meeting? I'd ask them myself, but they haven't returned emails from me in the last ten months, and since they didn't hold a shareholders meeting in this matter, one is only left to speculate.
"This will end up being a completely insignificant event for Linspire shareholders and the end for Linspire customers," Carmony wrote.
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Chrono Trigger Coming to Nintendo DS
 Game designer Square Enix today announced the long-awaited release of their perennial favorite role playing game game Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS. Originally designed for the Super Nintendo, this release is the first time that the game will be available on a handheld system.
The original Chrono Trigger was released in 1995. The game went on to sell some 2.5 million copies, and has since become regarded as one of the .greatest RPGs of all time. The remastered DS version will remain fairly faithful to the original SNES version, though this time out the gameplay will make special use of the DS's dual-screen and touch-screen functionality. Also on-board is a brand new dungeon and a wireless gameplay mode.
A release date, price, and ESRB rating have yet to be announced.
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| Porn Study: George Bush Stimulating More Than the Economy
I'm not sure how much stock to put into this. In fact, a Google search for the words "adult Internet market research company" yielded various versions of the same release but nary an official page was to be found. Clicking on the URL provided in the release reveals that the foundation's official e-mail address is actually a Gmail account. It's just that there's a part of me that wants to believe in AIMRCo's supposed study, which suggests that Bush's economic stimulus plan is helping to fuel the online porn industry.
According to the study by the Google mail-loving company, porn sites have experienced a big upswing over the past couple of weeks--a fact that they attribute, in part, to that recent rash of $600 government checks that have been (at least in theory) arriving at taxpayers' homes.
Said Jillian Fox, the spokeswoman for one of the surveyed sites: ""In a June 15, 2008 survey to our members, thirty-two percent of respondents referenced the recent stimulus package as part of their decision to either become a new member, or renew an existing membership."
Now we know how at least some of America's taxpayers will be spending the 4th...
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GMX: Meet a New Mass Email Service
Google Mail and Hotmail may have some competition from a new free email service: GMX (Global Mail Exchange), a free email provider with over 10 million users, boasts features and convenience that may rival its competitors. About 100,000 new GMX accounts have been created over the past few weeks.
"We are delighted with the enthusiastic response to our US beta," says Eva Heil, managing director of GMX. "With this second round, we are confident that even demanding users will find their expectations surpassed. We'll continue to develop GMX.com, and in fully exploring our users' desires for email, we will redefine the standard for free email services."
Some of the features of GMX include 5GB of email storage, high mail security with seven layers of anti-spam modules, a large selection of available addresses, and customer support forums where developers of the service can ask consumers what they want. One of the highlights of GMX is its mail collector feature, which manages all email accounts (Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) in one interface--and you can also send email from those accounts while in GMX. This makes it easier for people comfortable already with other free email services to make the switch to GMX. All of the features of the free email service are developed with AJAX 2.0 technology.
GMX requires installation on your computer. Those interested can download the service for free here.
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| Microsoft Intros Online Office/Security Subscription Service
Microsoft this morning announced the release of Equipt, a subscription-based combination of the company's popular Office suite and Live OneCare security solution.
The new suite, initially codenamed "Albany," combines a number of Microsoft applications into a single installation, including Office programs Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote; Windows Live apps Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery; and the new online document sharing program, Workspace.
"With Microsoft Equipt we're improving our customers' computing experience by giving them essential software in a package that offers an easy install and setup experience, as well as a convenient and affordable way to stay updated with the latest versions of Office and Windows Live OneCare," said Office's group product manager, Bryson Gordon.
The new suite, which will be available in some 700 Circuit City stores by the middle of July, will run $69.99 for a one year renewable subscription. That price will let users install the suite on three home PCs.
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Digg Intros New Recommendation Engine
Digg announced the beta roll out of their long promised Recommendation Engine. Later this week, the social bookmarking site will be giving selected access to the new feature, beginning with registered Digg users, and then rolling out to a random selection of logged-in users, according to a post by Kevin Rose on Digg's official blog.
The new engine is an attempt to make new content more easily discoverable to Digg users, helping to sort through the 16,000-odd stories submitted to the site every day. Recommendations are based on your past Digging, culling "Diggers Like You" as a basis for finding new stories.
Digg hopes to make the feature available by week's end. Users will know that the feature is activated when a red beta flag pops up on their Upcoming tab.
More information on the new engine, including videos, is available on Digg the Blog.
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| FlipSwap: Trade in Your Old Phone for Cash or Charity
If you have an old cell phone lying around (and who doesn't), the last thing you want to do with it is toss it in the trash can. Cell phones can contain hazardous materials that can harm the environment if they're improperly disposed of. A number of organizations collect used cell phones and donate them to charity or promise to recycle them; even some wireless carriers promise to recycle your old phone if you drop it off with them.
FlipSwap, on the other hand, promises to send you a check for your used cell phone, and then if you'd rather donate the money to charity or plant a tree with the funds, you can donate the phone and the proceed from its sale at the same time.
FlipSwap accepts just about any type of phone, from brand new iPhones to an old Motorola v710s. FlipSwap allows you to get your old cell phone off of your hands in three different ways: trade it in for store credit at participating wireless stores, trade it in online for cash, or trade it in online and have the value of the phone donated to charity. FlipSwap powers its own online trade-in service at CellPhoneTradeIns.com, where you're directed if you choose to trade in your phone for cash or have its value donated to charity.
If you choose to trade in your phone online, CellPhoneTradeIns.com lets you look up your phone by manufacturer and model and shows you how much the phone is worth. The values under the phones represent maximum value, so if you have problems with your phone or it isn't fully functional, the estimate you receive may be lower. Additionally, if the phone is so old or out of date that it's likely not supported on any wireless network anymore, or isn't worth anything at all, the service lists "plant a tree" under it, which is what FlipSwap will do on your behalf if you trade in a phone of that type. The service will then recycle the phone if it cannot be sold.
You can browse CellPhoneTradeIns.com by manufacturer to see how much various devices may be worth if you traded them in, but if you're ready to trade in your specific phone and see how much you could get for it, you can select a specific model from the drop-down menu and answer a list of questions about your specific device. The questionnaire asks for your ESN, your device's cosmetic condition (rated between one and five stars), any accessories you might have for the device, and some basic questions like whether or not the device will power on, whether the LCD works, and whether there is any water damage. After you answer the questionnaire, you'll see a more precise value the service is willing to offer you for your device and instructions on how to redeem it. They even pays for shipping.
The service lists some of its recent trade-ins on the right side of the page. For example, one member traded in a Nokia 6030 for just under $7, another member traded in a Motorola KRZR for just over $70. At the same time, a number of devices are either so old or worthless that the service's charity options are the only way to go. If you would prefer to donate the value of your phone to your favorite charity, the service will gladly donate the value of your phone to the charity of your choice. Alternatively, FlipSwap will take the proceeds from your phone and use them to plant trees.
FlipSwap partners with thousands of wireless stores around the country, so if you choose not to trade in your phone online, you can go to a participating wireless store to get store credit towards the purchase of a new wireless device. The store then sends the phone to FlipSwap, and you walk out with a new (and cheaper) cell phone. If you want to donate the money or get cash however, you'll have to trade in your device online.
To bolster its green credentials, FlipSwap also promises that your donated phone will either go to a charity or non-governmental organization where the phone can be put back into wireless service and used by someone who needs one, and if it cannot be reused in any way it'll be properly recycled as opposed to dumped in a landfill. FlipSwap calls attention to the poor state of electronics recycling, where a number of gadgets are simply sent overseas to shady companies where any valuable metals, glass, or other reusable materials are extracted from used cell phones and any remains are tossed in landfills.
If you're concerned that your money may not really make it to charity or the phones aren't really properly recycled, FlipSwap spends several pages describing the organizations it partners and is registered with, and invites anyone interested to contact them so they can prove their green worthiness before you use their services.
FlipSwap reminds me a bit of SecondRotation and services like it that promise to take your old gear and give you cash, but with a green edge. If you're sitting on some old cell phones or thinking about replacing yours, FlipSwap is definitely worth a look, especially since you can donate the money to charity or use it to plant trees. Additionally, the fact that FlipSwap will keep your phone out of a landfill is a huge win.
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