Microsoft has pushed out an update for its Live Mesh suite, including Live Mesh for Mobile (as well as the Windows and Mac desktop clients). Nothing major to talk about, but it’s worth grabbing. The Fixes: Server-side performance and reliability enhancements. Minor usability improvements. You’ll be informed of the update as soon as you log in to Live Mesh Mobile on your phone. Kinoma Play: We could be accused of overdoing it on the Kinoma Play updates, and maybe we are. But that’s how impressed we are with the frequency and manner in which they’re being rolled out. And there’s...
Over the weekend, Tim O'Reilly wrote a post Why I Love Twitter where he talks about some of the things he finds compelling about Twitter. Here's my list Thanks to APIs, Everyone Experiences the Service Differently: Great social software fits itself into the lifestyle and personality of its users instead of the other way around. Whenever I talk to Twitter users I am surprised to learn how differently they use the service. For example, I primarily read and write to Twitter from a Vista sidebar gadget (Twadget) which to many of my coworkers seems weird. Every time I talk...
Lets start with the fact that if you're using Twitter with one of it's desktop clients, this post is probably not for you. But, if you're using Twitter simply from the Web, here's how to create yourself a better, and much useful Twitter.First you need a Firefox browser, and in some cases, a Greasemonkey addon.Ok, now all you need to do is to download these 5 great Firefox plugins/Greasemonkey scripts:Twitter Aout-RefreshThis script checks for new tweets every 3 minutes and adds them to the top of the Timeline, plus it shows you how much tweets you missed since your last...
When I am in my office I am connected to most everyone I need to work with through some sort of Instant Messaging service. I find it convenient to be able to stay connected and have quick discussions. It is outside of the office where things can get a bit tricky. I’ve never really been a fan of text messaging on my mobile phone. While it can work well for an occasional status update or a quick message, using it as a conversational tool has never seemed all that efficient to me. And while IM on the mobile phone exists,...
Gmail Labs keeps cranking out the hits — this time the experimental project is a collection of Advanced IMAP Controls. The most useful of the new features is a way to selectively control which of your Gmail labels are available to your IMAP mail client. Of course controlling which IMAP folders show up in your desktop e-mail reader is something most mail clients already handle using a subscribe/unsubscribe option. But Gmail’s new controls are handy for mobile clients, many of which lack the per-folder subscription tools that desktop clients offer. The ability to set your IMAP folder subscriptions on the...
IPEVO has lots of experience at making hardware for Skype and they’ve been there from the start. Over the years they’ve slowly branched out into other venues to satisfy the masses with POV web cams, VoIP handsets and products specific to the Mac (Not yet announced, but available in Apple stores, pictured below), which have also been well received and readily available. Beginning next year we can expect them to branch out even further and take gadgets that are already available now and tweak them to be more unique. We’ve got the inside scoop so read on, dear friends....
Everyone has an email address these days. Most of us spend more time dealing with emails then on any other website. So the poll question for today is How Do You Check Your Email? Do you check it online or do you use a desktop client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird? Since most MakeUseOf readers are likely to have tried different email programs and desktop clients the resuts should be rather interesting. So make sure to vote! Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Why...
Trion World Network announced it has raised $70 million in a third round of funding to finance its massively multiplayer online games for the PC. The amount is a big haul for a game company and, coming off the heels for an $83 million round for Big Fish Games earlier this month, shows that video games are in favor among investors despite the tough economy. To date, Redwood City, Calif.-based Trion has raised more than $100 million. Trion is making server-based games, or ones that are stored and operated on servers more so than they are on desktop clients, as...
Joost, the video streaming service, has rolled out a revamped website designed to shift Joost from desktop client to web-based video service. Starting today you can now watch Joost video directly in your web browser. It’s been a while since we last checked in with Joost, and quite a few things have changed. You can of course still access Joost’s content through the old desktop clients, but the far easier way is to watch Joost video through your browser. Although the transition isn’t complete, Joost plans to be completely web-based in very near future. At the moment you’ll need to...
Yesterday evening, at a panel on lifestreaming put on by the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab, Seesmic founder Loic LeMeur introduced the video conversation site as seeing significant growth and part of the real-time Web, utilizing video, for the first time, in an active way, rather than a passive way, as YouTube does. The result is a site that he says is used in more than 40 countries and sees a new video posted every minute, a number which has now reached more than half a million since May, from 30,000 different users. Also, he dropped hints to a new Seesmic client...
The cloud is raining down web services these days. The next company to abandon desktop clients and go web-only is Joost, the content streaming service developed by the the co-founders of Skype. It sounds like Joost work work with a browser plug-in, but details are scant at the moment. Sure would be nice if it worked with mobile browsers, but I'm betting that the Joost folks will want to get going with desktop browsers before they even entertain the thought of mobile handset support....
Joost, battling for relevance in the online tv world against Hulu and others, will soon no longer require users to download separate desktop software to access the service (its existing software is based on Xul). Instead users will be able to access Joost via a small browser plugin that will continue to use Joost’s P2P technology to distribute video among users quickly. The service launched to considerable fanfare but has fallen off the radar as of late as the company has been plagued by a shortage of content and, well, users. And as the inertia of the online video...
We all sure do love our online file-sharing services. It’s one of those things which we cannot live without. How is life sustainable if I’m not able to send my freshly snapped, high-resolution photos of my brand new BlackBook to all my friends? If you’re not familiar with the most popular online file-sharing services, I’d suggest you start here. Now, I’m only going to cover the services with desktop clients for Mac. Luckily, most are also available for Windows. These desktop clients make uploading and sharing files so much easier without having to leave your browser open for the transfer...
Apple’s MobileMe provides mobile device push and an innovative Wide-Area Bonjour push sync mechanism for securely updating desktop clients over the Internet. There’s currently nothing identical to the service on other platforms, but there is some feature overlap with Microsoft’s Exchange Server in corporate settings, RIM’s BlackBerry mobile push messaging, and web-based service offerings from Google and others. Here’s a look at how MobileMe compares in price and features. Continues: Inside MobileMe: Apple’s Push vs Exchange, BlackBerry, Google...
Despite the occasional late night hiccup, micro-messaging service Twitter has been largely stable for the past few weeks. It’s been refreshing to have the service working, some would say downright boring (as indicated by the calls for the Fail Whale) — so what’s next? I’ve argued that it should be a serious move into the mobile sphere, while others are clamoring for monetization. Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey sat down with Vator.tv’s Bambi Francisco to talk about Twitter’s present and future. He revealed some interesting things, including: Dorsey wouldn’t put a number on the Twitter/Summize deal or on Twitter’s valuation...
Sometimes error messages can reveal more than they were supposed to. Rahul Bansal writes about a simple trick that helps you find out if one of your Google Talk contacts is offline or uses the invisible mode. The trick takes advantage of Google's off the record feature which lets you chat with your contacts without saving the conversations in Gmail."Chats that have been taken off the record aren't stored in your Gmail chat history, or in the Gmail chat history of your contact. You and the person you're talking to can both see when a chat is taken off the...
