/ Internet

Zeep Mobile: Free SMS Gateway For Developers

While SMS has already become one of the most important forms of communication in many parts of the world, the U.S. is only catching up to this trend slowly. Part of the reason for this is the high cost of using SMS, not just for users, but also for developers who want to use SMS for their applications. In contrast to other SMS service providers, Zeep Mobile offers developers a free SMS API without volume restrictions, though in order to monetize the service, it will insert ads into the SMS messages.

Advertising

While having random ads inserted into their messages might not work for some developers, having access to a free SMS gateway is a very seductive proposition, especially for small developers who don't have the resources to either establish relationships with the big mobile carriers, or who simply don't have the money to pay a commercial provider for access to their SMS gateway.

We asked Zeep Mobile if it had any plans to share revenue from these SMS ads with developers or if it was going to give developers any influence over which ads it would display. However, as of now, Zeep Mobile is not planning anything in this direction, though it would seem reasonable to assume that they might start sharing revenue with developers at some point in the future.

API

Besides the standard web API, Zeep Mobile has also developed Python and Ruby libraries, which developers can use free of charge. As far as we can see, this API is pretty straightforward and well documented.

Still in Beta

It is important to note, though, that the service is still in beta right now and that developers are limited to sending out messages to no more than 10 recipients at a time. Also, while Zeep Mobile has plans to expand beyond the U.S. in the future, the service can only send messages within the U.S. for now and is also limited to a select number of carriers.

Overall, though, this seems like a service worth looking into for developers who wants to start adding some SMS functionality to their applications without having to pay some of Zeep Mobile's competitors like SMS Everywhere, Clickatell, or Celltrust.

Does Apple Really Want To Be An Internet Censor?

I am sure that the folks in Cupertino thought the whole idea of the App Store for the iPhone would be a great idea and in fact has proven to be a great money maker. At the same time though it has also turned out to be one of their biggest headaches that just doesn’t seem to want to go away. While some developers have been making money hand over fist others have been dealing with long approval wait periods or just having their applications pulled. Often those being pulled are being left in limbo as to why and what needs to be done to get back on the marketplace.

The most recent incident of an application being pulled though is raising the specter of Apple censorship; or at least applying their own moral judgement of whether an application can be listed. Such is the case of Infurious Comics and their Comic Reader that was meant for easier distribution and reading of web comics on the iPhone. Where they got in hot water with Apple though is that the application comes with a free issue of Infurious’ web comic Murderdrome an admittedly dark and bloody comic.

The big problem I have with this whole thing is that I am torn on how to re-act to this kerfuffle because on one hand Apple is totally within their legal right to have pulled the application. As it states right in the iPhone SDK

Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.

Where Apple is going to have a really hard time with this is because of the ambiguity of the statement. Who is going to decide what is obscene or offensive? Does Apple in its role as a hardware and software provider have the right to dictate what a 3rd party creates for sale with their software to be played back through their hardware which they have sold. I am sure that one could say that as the provider of the store by which these applications are sold they have the right to set the conditions of any sale.

That said though the only reason that the Comic Reader application was pulled was because of the free comic that came with it. so in all reality Infurious Comics could put the application back for sale but without the comic and it should be acceptable. However this is where come to the second part of the problem – the distribution of the comics produced by Infurious of which I imagine Murderdrome would be one of many. From what I have gathered once the Comic Reader is installed then the user would be able to buy more comics from the iTunes stores but this would then raise the possibility of the comic begin banned from there as well.

During all this Apple is also having to deal with people who are not happy about the idea that the company has built in a kill switch into the iPhone software that would allow them to remotely remove software on the iPhone for whatever reason they deem fit. Now you tie in this possibility of becoming a censor of material available via iTunes and Apple could be facing some serious backlash from its customers. Especially considering as pointed out by Philip Elmer-DeWitt in his post Apple 2.0 on Fortune that iTunes already carries movies that would technically run hit this censorship wall the same way that Infurious has

By Wednesday morning, the post had drawn dozens of responses — all sharply critical of Apple — and PJ Holden’s cause had been picked up by half-dozen sympathetic bloggers (see Techmeme).

Murderdrome’s most energetic defense was posted by blogger Mike Cane, who rattled off (with live links) several equally violent works of fiction published without fuss or warning on the iTunes store, including South Park, Reservoir Dogs and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

I can understand why Infurious ran afoul of Apple this way and why in some ways Apple is totally within its right to do what they have done consider the language of their SDK but are they really ready for the reaction? On top of that if they do stand by this action without finding a workable solution to the problem are they setting themselves up to become an Internet censorship board? Al I know is that this isn’t a position that I would want to find myself in.

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

1 Million iPhones. 74 Days.
800 Apple Employees Lose their iEmployment
Apple Tops $200 Per Share
Apple Making a Directory for iPhone Apps?
More Apple Tablet PC Rumors Hit the Surface
Apple Lands Deal with MGM
Woman Sues Apple For $1 Million - Over $200 Price Cut

The Case for an Apple iNetwork: Welcome to the Social

There has been a lot of speculation recently about an impending update to iTunes. Version 8.0, among other things, is supposed to finally bring a recommendation engine to the digital media player application. While that's interesting from a music discovery perspective, it is even more interesting to consider what this could mean in terms of an iTunes iPhone based social networking experience.

iTunes (launched 2001) and the iTunes music store (launched 2003) have come a long way since they were first launched. The application has gone through various iterations, gaining significant features such as podcasts (2005), videos (2007), games, and applications (2008) along the way. In the process, selling billions of songs, millions of movies, and over 10 million applications in the first week of the app store's launch. Needless to say Apple has built an experience that with all it's parts combined is unparalleled in both its features and the breadth of its catalog of content.

The Software Side

While most of that is common knowledge, what most people overlook is the glaring lack of any community aspect to iTunes. There are millions of people, many of them with similar tastes, flocking to the same destination every day, yet they never interact with each other... because they can't. If Kevin Rose is to be believed, however, (as discussed on TWiT 157) that all is about to change with iTunes 8.0.

He says, '... the one thing I hear about iTunes 8.0 is that it's gonna do something along the lines of, um, looking at your music, and, uh, kind of recommendations based on certain things.' In other words, the next version of iTunes will monitor your media purchasing and consuming habits and correlate them with everyone else using the system to figure out which songs you will probably like but haven't bought/listened to. If you're a fan of collaborative filtering systems or internet radio (Pandora, Last.fm, etc), you're probably familiar with the idea already and that iTunes may be considering implementing this doesn't come as a surprise (I found myself wondering why this wasn't introduced 2-3 years ago).

While this feature itself isn't social and can be implemented entirely on the back end, the implementation required for that functionality is so close to a networked experience (monitoring of habits and correlation across users) that they might as well take a small next step and add a visible social layer with which those users can interact. In fact, if you look at the results from a 2006 iTunes survey, you will see the people want to be able to see what people with similar interests and tastes (i.e. friends) are purchasing and consuming, so they can experiment with and pick from the same selection. More specifically, consumers want:

1. The ability to view a friend's wish list, with permission.
2. The ability to view what a friend is currently listening to, with permission.
3. The ability to view a friend's playlist, with permission.
4. The ability to view a friend's recent purchases, with permission.
5. The ability to view a friend's favorite artists, with permission

What's also interesting about this approach is that it reaches the exact opposite conclusions of EMR's UK social networking study [PDF]. The study implies that social networks will be the content distribution channels of tomorrow, but the relationship may actually work better in the other direction. With the addition of networking and recommendation features to iTunes, the application could become the most efficient, most engaging, stickiest (always-on), and most profitable social network almost overnight.

But Apple's social networking potential doesn't end there. Remember Microsoft's 'welcome to the social' campaign that centered around the launch of its Zune digital media player? If you don't, you're not alone. The goal behind the campaign, 'to create a shared, social experience that will be shaped by the collective imagination of consumers and will inspire discovery of new music and artists,' was actually a formidable one. Unfortunately an inferior device, coupled with disasterous software integration made the campaign a $100 million failure.

Enter Apple.

The Hardware Side

With a formidable install base, great hardware and one of the most versatile mobile operating systems around, the iPhone is ready to herald in the future of mobile social networking. Furthermore, with 3G/EDGE/WiFi/GPS capabilities, the iPhone is a great tool for both networking as well as wirelessly sharing digital media like the Zune promised (but failed miserably at). Not only does the device work seamlessly with the iTunes software, but Apple's DRM is more consistent and perhaps more forgiving that Microsoft's (which was partly responsible for crippling the Zune's ambitions).

The Cloud

With a firm grasp on the software side with iTunes and on the hardware side with the iPhone, Apple is in good shape. Their killer app, however, could end up being the cloud. Apple already operates MobileMe (previously .Mac) which faciliates the management of contacts, calendars (events), email, photos, and any other files or digital media. Admittedly the service has been an utter failure since launch, but Apple has acknowledge the failure and is on the path to fix its shortcomings.

The previously discussed iTunes social networking and collaborative filtering (recommendations) system, coupled with the iPhone's versatile wireless communication and media sharing capabilities, topped off with media and information management (and sharing) in the cloud, the combo is no doubt ready to be our digital life (and relationship) manager. The only limitation of the network, however, (and it will be a deal breaker for many) is that unlike every other social network today, the experience will come at a steep cost. Knowing Apple though, I have no doubt it will be an experience worth the cost (especially considering what they had to deal with at the MobileMe launch).

This is a guest post by Muhammad Saleem, a social media consultant and a top-ranked community member on multiple social news sites. You can follow Muhammad on Twitter.

4 Questions for Every Early Adopter

The battle lines have been drawn today. You’re with us or you’re against us. You’re cool and hip or lame and square. No, I’m not talking about political lines (for once), I’m talking about the early adopters versus the mainstream, or as Robert Scoble framed it: the passionates versus the non-passionates.

What, though, is a passionate (sometimes referred to as an ‘evangelist’)? What is the definition of an early-adopter?

Quite simply, and perhaps obviously, it’s a person who embraces new technology before most other people do. Early adopters tend to buy or try out new hardware items and programs, and new versions of existing programs, sooner than most of their peers.

Remember, I’m Describing the Stereotype…
Early adopters in the Web punditry sector, though, have a particularly precise stereotype. Just like all stereotypes, it’s not perfectly accurate across all examples, but it exists for a reason.

What is the stereotype then? Well, your typical Web early adopter has more logins and passwords than they could possibly ever keep track of. They’re in a constant race to have the most followers of any kid on their block on the website du jour (even while they may proclaim how against the idea of follower-collection they may be). Their patron saints are Robert Scoble and increasingly Louis Gray.

They voted Democrat in the last election (assuming they were old enough to vote), and are filled so full of party unity that every fifth message for the last three months has been something concerning Barack Obama. They currently have a manga avatar on at least one website they visit regularly. They love FriendFeed, and publicly denounce Twitter while secretly loving it. They hate Facebook, because it’s sooo six months ago. The dividing hot-button political issue for this group of folks isn’t abortion, homosexual marriage or the war on terrorism (or any other petty Red/Blue issue that affects the real world) - it’s whether or not they support Loren Feldman or Shel Israel.

Most importantly, though, they gravitate towards whatever tool suits their hyper-connected, always-on lifestyle (rather than the tools that fit into the everyday lives of the regular folks of the world).

How Is This Good For The Company?
Remember that wonderful movie Office Space, and that scene with Luhmberg and the Bob’s where they asked everyone at Innetech to ask themselves: “…for every decision you make, is this good for the company? Am I helping with the company’s strategic vision?”

Early adopters should be asking themselves a similar question as they try out new technologies and stay on the bleeding edge of the pretty, shiny tools we talk about every day here at Mashable. Failure to do so can result in being considered largely irrelevant, both in the calibre of advice and review the early adopter provides, as well as in general as a person (at least in the view of the average, mainstream Internet reader).

For instance, ask yourself why you take to tools like Twitter and Friendfeed.  Is it because it suits your always on lifestyle and constant need to be in communication with other early adopters like yourself? Or is it because the tool has a genuine ability to make a normal person’s life easier, and you see the value in that.

Some Quick Question to Help You not be a New Media Douchebag

Will your mom use it? Think less about whether your other early adopter friends will like the product or service - think about your mom. This is obvious - your mom doesn’t need another way to gossip about politics and the neighbors online. Your great-uncle doesn’t need another way to share jokes. They both have email for that.  They probably won’t enjoy lifestreaming the way FriendFeed works. They will, however, get into lifestreaming if it means there’s an effortless way to maintain a website that showcases their likes and dislikes on the web. Consider introducing them to Tumblr, MyBlogLog or FriendFeed as a way to effortlessly update their home page.  Call it “low-impact blogging.”

Is it truly a time-sink or a time-saver? Most professionals don’t need distractions from their daily routine. The only way you can sell addicting tools like Twitter or Facebook to someone who actually works for a living is to show them how they can add to their productivity with them. Saying “this is the most fun thing in the world - I spend all day chatting there” makes it look as pathetic and useless as a subscription to World of Warcraft.

Is the tool an intrusion or an integration? Similar to the last question, ask yourself if this tool is a “configure-once and forget” or the type of tool you have to constantly maintain, tweak and engage with. The beauty of automation and technology is that tools (think I Want Sandy) can be set up once and can run as background processes. People are looking for ways to offload mundane tasks from their plate, not add to them.

Will it increase their bottom line? We like to get excited about new distribution technologies quite a bit in our world. YouTube, RSS, podcasting, and blogging… these things are great, as we’ve learned, but it’s taken quite a bit of development and innovation after these concepts have been in existence for them to become seamless parts of our daily lives. Tools like Utterz, UStream and Qik make creating video and audio a snap. How long did embedded video, RSS and podcasting exist before it was so easy a six year old could do it? Quite a while. Likewise, when you come across a bleeding edge technology - it’s important to recognize the potential but be careful in your evangelism. Chances are the mainstream might take your advice, try it out, and wonder what you were smoking when you thought it was a good idea.

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

The Early Adopter vs. The Harsh Reviewer
BugLabs To Slash Prices at CES
TotSpot Adds New Features, Still Making Your Kids True Early Adopters
Will Aggregation Ever Go Mainstream?
Woman Sues Apple For $1 Million - Over $200 Price Cut
Zune Marketplace to Accept Podcast Submissions
Mosio Launches Mobile Q&A

Transcoding Is Not A Crime, Says Court In Veoh Porn Case

Finally, a judge who may have actually visited the Internet once or twice before deciding a case. Judge Howard Lloyd, a judge on the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, threw out adult entertainment company IO Group’s 2006 copyright infringement case against Veoh today. At the time Veoh had some user-uploaded porn on its service that belonged to IO Group. Despite quick takedowns from DMCA notices, IO Group sued anyway.

A key issue of the case turned on whether or not Veoh should lose DMCA safe harbor protection because they transcoded user uploaded videos to the Flash format, something every online Flash video site does as a matter of course.

IO Group argued that the transcoding made Veoh a direct infringer and that the materials were under their direct control. Lloyd disagreed, saying “Here, Veoh has simply established a system whereby software automatically processes user-submitted content and recasts it in a format that is readily accessible to its users. Veoh preselects the software parameters for the process from a range of default values set by the thirdparty software…ButVeoh does not itself actively participate or supervise the uploading of files. Nor does it preview or select the files before the upload is completed. Instead, video files are uploaded through an automated process which is initiated entirely at the volition of Veoh’s users.”

In other words, nice try but no dice.

Viacom-YouTube and a host of other Internet video related lawsuits continue to rage on, but the good guys won this one. But those of you thinking you’ll find a little adult content on Veoh now that they’ve won the case will be dissapointed. Veoh banned it permanently back in 2006. This case was about nothing but money.

The full order is included below.

Veoh v IO Group - Free Legal Forms

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

We Need To Kill The Business Card Once And For All

The business card needs to die, and everyone knows it. They’re clumsy, easy to lose, and virtually useless as one of the last bits of information that we pass non-digitally (they kill trees, too). The cell phone market could easily put business cards out of their misery, but instead of conforming to a single standard for contact exchange, handset manufacturers offer proprietary solutions or none at all.

FriendBook, an iPhone application from Tapulous, looked like it might hold the answer. The app uses a physical “handshake” to swap information - users simply put their iPhones next to each other and shake them. Granted, this would only work on iPhones, but it could have paved the way for similar apps on other phones. But as of yesterday the fate of FriendBook is now in jeopardy due to the departure of its lead developer (and Tapulous cofounder) Mike Lee. So is all hope lost?

Gabe Zichermann, CEO of rmbrME (”remember me”), thinks that his startup holds the answer. The service uses standard SMS or a web app to initiate the transfer of contact information, so it should work on nearly any phone. rmbrME initially launched last spring under a paid model (you’d have to pay around 50 cents every time you wanted to add a new contact). But because of an immediate poor response to the model, rmbrME is now free, though it plans to offer a premium service in the future.

To begin using the rmbrME, you first set up a profile including your standard contact information as well as links to your presence across various social networks. After meeting a potential new contact, you send a text message containing either the contact’s email address or phone number to a designated rmbrME shortcode. rmbrME then sends your new contact a SMS or email message with a link to your details, and asks them to create their own profile so that you can receive theirs.

Zichermann says it only takes about 3 seconds to initiate the process - just send your contact’s email to rmbrME, and you can complete the rest later. That may be the case, but each user still needs to create an account, logon to the site, and download the contact information from there. People may be willing to jump through a few hoops for essential contacts, but the process is still too involved, especially when meeting a large number of people at once. rmbrME is a step up from the antiquated business card, but at this point it isn’t the ultimate solution.

So what is the answer? Handset manufacturers need to agree on a format for proximity-based exchange over the air between devices - whip out the phones, detect nearby acquaintances, and hit accept. Palm was doing this a decade ago (albeit with a proprietary format), yet we’re still fumbling with Email exchanges and workaround solutions.

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

WiiWare Finally Gets Some Rhythm!

It’s about time. Last Spring, Nintendo launched WiiWare, a downloadable game service on the Wii, but I haven’t been all that impressed by the scant titles they’ve made available since then. This week’s offering is different: Helix, from indie developer Ghostfire Games. In my view it’s the first WiiWare title to truly capitalize on the game console’s unique functionality and diverse audience. More crucial, it’s WiiWare’s first music/rhythm game, an entry in the seemingly unstoppable genre which accounts for 32 percent of the industry’s growth so far this year.

Plus, it’s pretty freaking fun.

Think Dance Dance Revolution, but for the upper body. Holding two Wii remotes in either hand, you imitate an on-screen robot in a fast routine of arm swinging, swaying, and waving your hands in the air like you just don’t care. As with DDR and all the many games it’s spawned, you need to time your movements to synch up with the glowing symbols that fly across the screen.

All this is accompanied by fairly decent electronica dance music, though Helix is too frenetic and choppy to feel like dancing. Still, it’s a good workout. For the Wii’s future outlook, that’s another important plus — it’ll easily appeal to the 6 million who bought WiiFit, and prime them to look for more downloadable content on WiiWare.

Image credit: www.ghostfiregames.com

Oriango Puts the Web in Alphabetical Order (The Startup Review)

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: Oriango

20 word description: Oriango is a Dictionary Style Search Engine. With Oriango you can perform searches, add and share the Web alphabetically.

CEO’s Pitch: Oriango was created to present a new search tool, making the users its only concern. The user chooses the content, and the editor makes it relevant throughout the quality of its content description.

All the information added to Oriango is arranged alphabetically, as in a dictionary, this way it is certain that only the name or the title will matter, allowing independence on their choices. Therefore it’s the user that chooses what is cool, not a group selection, votes or PageRank. The search is performed only on the information added by the users, not showing irrelevant or external content.

Mashable’s Take: Does it make sense to organize the Web in alphabetical order? A new site called Oriango seems to think so. Such an organizational strategy has been set forth by Oriango in order to put control back into the hands of the consumers when it comes to search results. I know what you’re thinking… no, it doesn’t make sense. Especially in this day and age where a website name may have little indication as to the site’s function, and may not even be a real word.

But Oriango hasn’t exactly organized the Web in alphabetical order by the site name - the actual site results are broken down by alphabetical order, and can be filtered by media type. Say you do a search for “wedding.” The search results, which span blog posts about The Knot, home loan advice, design agency websites and funny clips from Metacafe are organized according to alphabetical order, based on the name of each URL. From there, user interaction determines the relevance of each search result to a certain extent, by sending the search result to a bookmarking site or a friend, as well as sending a message to Oriango or reporting the link.

This still resolves most of the search results’ relevance to the hands of the Oriango editor, and may not be the most conducive way for you to search the Web. Additionally, Oriango is relying on user-submitted links to make up the bulk of its search results, meaning that the amount and quality of the links you’ll receive for a given search will be minimal until Oriango gains some traction. For the time being, there’s little incentive for users to submit websites to be included in Oriango’s Web “dictionary,” though bookmarking integration by way of user accounts could help on this front.

Sponsored by Sun Startup Essentials

BackType, A Twitter For Comments

BackType is the newest YCombinator startup to launch from their summer program. They’re a blog-comment focused startup - founders Christoper Golda and Michael Montano are for the first time aggregating all comments from millions of blogs into a single, searchable, parsable stream. Think Twitter for all comments on the web.

They are not like the recent barrage of startups focusing on cleaning up the comment experience on blogs - see Disqus, SezWho, JS-Kit, etc. Blogs (and even commenters) don’t have to actively participate to be included. Instead BackType is grabbing all comments from millions of blogs and adding them to the site.

Like Twitter it’s a gold mine of information. I tried searches for TechCrunch50, Obama and Olympics and got back all kinds of content that I would normally miss. RSS feeds for searches are also available.

You can also track by commenter. BackType aggregates comments made by a name that matches to a linked URL. So if you, like most people, leave comments with the same URL across multiple blogs, they will be aggregated. You can also claim an account, like i did, and have your comments aggregated even if you use different URLs. Since there is not authentication other than what people type into comment boxes, there’s a big fake comment problem. That can be fixed by turning moderation on so that you have to approve anything that goes under your name.

I like this one a lot.

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

Two Time-Saving Firefox Extensions Get Nods from Mozilla

The other day, we covered the winners in this year’s Extend Firefox contest, which is Mozilla’s annual effort to recognize the best extensions for the Firefox browser. In addition to the new ideas that won, though, Mozilla has also recognized a couple of strong updates to well-known Firefox extensions. Two of them can be very handy for web workers.

Read It Later is a quick way to save web pages of interest to read later, for when you don’t have time to stop, including offline reading. Many Firefox users simply bookmark pages they want to read later, but that can quickly turn your Bookmarks list into a giant mess.

When you access “Your Reading List” with ReadItLater you get a list of the pages you’ve flagged, and you can also see when you flagged them. You can also sync your reading list with other computers. Read It Later initially had some problems with cookies and JavaScript, but the developer has addressed these with a recent update, and Mozilla liked what it saw. I haven’t experienced any problems with Read It Later, and it is definitely a fast way to save a reading list.

Since we just mentioned how easy it is to clutter your Bookmarks menu in Firefox, Bookmark Previews is also worth a try. If you’ve ever used an iPod with Cover Flow enabled, you’ll instantly recognize how Bookmark Previews lets you see an album-like animated view of thumbnail versions of the web pages in your Bookmarks menu. You can also choose to just view thumbnails of the sites.

I happen to have a very long Bookmarks list in Firefox, including macros that I store there with iMacros. How useful you’ll find Bookmark Previews depends on how many bookmarks you tend to have. If you have a lot, it’s a useful way to scan them and get alternative views.

For many more good Firefox extensions, see the Firefox Superguide over on OStatic.

Share/Send

FriendFeed Releases New Set Of Customizable Widgets

FriendFeed, the social activity aggregator, has released a set of customizable widgets that will allow bloggers to make sure their readers can follow all of their activities across the web. While the site has provided some widgets in the past, this set includes some new widgets to facilitate story sharing and allows for more tweaking than was offered before.

Among the widgets offered are a new profile badge, a list of the most recent items in your feed, and a “Share on FriendFeed” chiclet that allows users to add an item to FriendFeed without leaving your site. You can grab the widgets here.

Here’s an example of the badge:

The new status widget:

The new features come only two days after FriendFeed rolled out support for photos and Friends List which have enabled the “Fake Follow“.

For more details, check out the FriendFeed blog.

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

Mark Cuban Joins TechCrunch50 for a One-On-One Interview with Jason Calacanis

Mark Cuban will be joining the TechCrunch50 program on Tuesday, September 9 for a one-on-one interview with Jason Calacanis from the main stage. You probably know Mark as both the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a serial entrepreneur who co-founded Broadcast.com with Todd Wagner. They then sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo in July of 1999 for $5.04 billion. Before Broadcast.com, Mark co-founded MicroSolutions, a leading National Systems Integrator, in 1983, and later sold it to CompuServe.

Mark has continued his work with Todd Wagner in another venture, 2929 Entertainment, which provides vertically integrated production and distribution of films and video. Additionally, Mark is a co-founder (with Philip Garvin) of HDNet, the first high-definition satellite television network.

Even with all of his entrepreneurial, sports and corporate experience, Mark recently found time to participate as one of the 12 contestants on the 5th season of the ABC Show Dancing with the Stars. Mark and his partner, Kym Johnson, were the fifth couple to be voted off of the show after welterweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather and professional partner Karina Smirnoff.

You will not want to miss this live interview with Mark Cuban from TechCrunch50. Stay tuned for additional content updates – as we have a number of surprises yet to announce.

TechCrunch50 is right around the corner. Please register for your tickets before we sell out!! You will not believe what we have planned for you this year (September 8, 9 and 10).

As we move closer to the conference, we are encouraging everyone to book their hotel reservations (many hotels are already sold out) and register for the conference before we sell out. For companies seeking to launch and showcase products at TechCrunch50, please take a look at our Exhibitor Package. If you have questions about sponsorships, please reach out to Heather Harde or Dan Kimerling. All media inquiries should be sent to Sarah Ross.

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

No, Seriously: Microsoft Patents Page Up & Page Down

Put this in the category of “you gotta be kidding me.” Microsoft has applied for and received a patent (U.S. Patent #7,415,666) that essentially patents “Page Up/Page Down” functionality. The patent (Timothy D Sellers, Heather L. Grantham, Joshua A. Dersch) that was filed in March 2005 is yet another proof that our patent system is as (if not more) dysfunctional as Britney Spears.

Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments

A method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed. In one implementation, pressing a Page Down or Page Up keyboard key/button allows a user to begin at any starting vertical location within a page, and navigate to that same location on the next or previous page.

For example, if a user is viewing a page starting in a viewing area from the middle of that page and ending at the bottom, a Page Down command will cause the next page to be shown in the viewing area starting at the middle of the next page and ending at the bottom of the next page. Similar behavior occurs when there is more than one column of pages being displayed in a row.

That Dell-Facebook News…More Like Non-News

Last week, Dell’s PR team was busy emailing us about a joint announcement they were going to make in tandem with Facebook. They were going to announce a partnership, they said,

…around the next generation of Cloud Computing. In addition to the joint announcement, the companies will also be discussing their perspectives, insights and future plans surrounding the Cloud Computing space.

Since it conflicted with some of my other commitments, I couldn’t go. I am actually glad I didn’t go, for it turned to be much ado about nothing. According to a post on the WSJ’s blog, the only piece of news that came out of the event held at the top of a posh office tower in San Francisco was that Facebook has 10,000 servers — and not all are made by Dell. Dan Farber has a more elaborate report but essentially it says the same, except it also has Dell re-hashing the news that Dell is now working with Salesforce.com, replacing Sun. Facebook’s Jonathan Heiliger, according to the WSJ, said the company was:

… tired of all the high-cost features companies pack into servers – on a slide, he pointed to extra USB ports and unnecessary graphics capabilities as examples. Most server makers are selling what, in automobile terms, would be the equivalent of a Lexus “at a Toyota price,” he said. What Facebook wants “is the Scion product at the Scion price.” He said Dell seems to be ahead of other server makers in selling inexpensive servers that reduce power and cooling requirement.

So essentially Dell is offering stripped-down, cheaper computers that may be consuming less power! Dan Apparently the company has been doing that for a long time, as per their founder. So how this redefines cloud computing, I don’t understand. What it seems like is an attempt by Dell to add some Facebook pixie dust and finish it all up with the latest, hottest lipstick shade, called “cloud computing.” I gotta be honest, a certain impromptu toga party definetely had more news value.

Want to know more about the rapidly changing Cloud Computing landscape? Preview our Cloud Computing Briefing or purchase the full version.

12 Great Free Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Why should you put a dent in your wallet when there are so many great free applications out there for the iPhone and iPod Touch?  There are tons of games for the devices, but the vast majority of them cost money, so we’ve sorted through and located 12 totally free ones for you to throw on your gadgets and entertain yourself throughout the day.

Unlike with Firefox or WordPress addons, where we always tell you not to load everything we list, there doesn’t seem to be any problem with loading lots of iPhone or iPod Touch apps.  Just make sure you have enough memory for the programs and you can easily load all 12 of these on your device.

Originally this list included Tris, but with yesterday’s news that it would be removed we took it off the list.  It’s really too bad as it was a great port of the game.

Blanks - A simple word game that gives you a definition and four choices as to what the word may be.  Fun and educational all at once.

Cannon Challenge - Made by the Discovery Channel, Cannon Challenge is based on their show Future Weapons, and firing a Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) cannon at targets of varying distance.  Equal parts addicting and challenging.  As you can tell from the screenshot, the game is played entirely in the horizontal position.

Crash Landing - This game uses the iPhone and iPod Touch accelerometer to control the descent of a starship, aiming to land on the platform on the moon.  If you have as much luck as I did, you’ll see the message in the above screenshot a lot.

Cube Runner - You use the accelerometer to pilot a ship through a landscape littered with mysterious polygonal cubes that have appeared.  Though the ship lacks any sort of gun, it feels a bit like the classic Starfox game from the Super Nintendo system.  New maps can be designed and shared with friends.

Dactyl - A fast-paced game of bomb diffusing that helps you practice your dexterity and frazzles your nerves as bombs explode.

Fire Drop - A puzzle game that tries to test your speed and your willingness to see how far you can push your luck.  The more cauldrons you burn at once, the higher the score, but make sure you don’t fill the entire screen!

Fit2Vote - Politics come to iPhone gaming with Fit2Vote.  You will be asked to name who said the quote, Obama or McCain, and tilt your phone to the left for the Democrat and to the right for the Republican.  Once you have gotten 50 correct, you are deemed “Fit2Vote.”

Frotz - An interface for playing text-based adventure games that harken back to games like Zork, Bard’s Tale and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy from the 1980’s.

Othello - Also known by the name “Reversi” on just about every Windows computer sold for years, it is the familiar game played on an 8 X 8 grid with the object of controlling the majority of the board at the end of the game.

SimStapler - Why risk dangerous stapler injuries by using a real stapler?  SimStapler provides you with all the fun and excitement of real stapling in a fun, safe, manner.  App has an old school Mac look, and with it being a red Swingline stapler, you can feel free to make Office Space jokes.

Tap Tap Revenge - The perfect free game for all of the Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution fans who need a fix whenever they are away from home.  A bit difficult to play on the iPod Touch as it lacks an external speaker, but works fine with headphones.

Warcraft Characters - Not so much a game in and of itself, but a way for you to look up World of Warcraft characters on the go and see their stats, skills and equipment no matter where you are.

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Knibble Offers Free Games for iPhone
Bejeweled Optimized for the iPhone
Greystripe iPhone 3G API Lets Game Developers Earn Ad Revenue
Still No iPhone? Adopt a Virtual One.
iPhone Opening to Third-Party Apps; Not Other Networks
Mundu Optimizes Multi-Client Chat Tool for the iPhone
Greystripe Offers Hands-On Mobile Games for Free