Rojo

Sen. Barack Obama scrapped plans to visit wounded members of the armed forces in Germany as part of his overseas trip, a decision ...

 

Some people think that Seesmic is the video Twitter. They are wrong (even if they are investors in the company???Mike). The real video Twitter is 12seconds.tv. On Twitter, you have 140 characters to make your point. On 12seconds.tv, you have, well, 12 seconds. (On Seesmic, you can drone on forever or for 10 minutes, whichever comes first). We have 500 invites for the alpha launch.

The idea is to share moments of your life: sunsets, deep thoughts, funny faces. Or just broadcast your current status. You can upload the videos via a Webcam or your mobile phone, follow video updates from your friends, and even import contacts from Twitter. You can even link your 12seconds account to your Twitter account and it will automatically send a Tweet with a link your videos every time you put up anew one.

Is all of this pointless? Maybe, but no more than Twitter. Although, as a communications platform, text will always be more immediate and accessible than video.

The startup was founded by David Beach and Sol Lipman six months ago. They are bootsratpping it with 10 employees working for burritos. Besides Seesmic, 12seconds.tv also competes with the UK’s Phreadz. Here are a couple sample videos.

Why 12? on 12seconds.tv

New Glasses on 12seconds.tv

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Twitter Anti-Spam Bot Punishes Community Managers and Causes Follower Counts to Drop

Did you notice a big drop in your Twitter follower numbers yesterday? It seems that the Twitter team recently decided to step up their Twitter spammer detection, and, in typical Twitter fashion, their algorithm sent the service haywire, leading to yet another sighting of the Fail Whale while the issue was resolved. Meanwhile, Twitterers everywhere were in an uproar over their lost follower counts.

Spam Detection Goes Too Far

Earlier this week, ZDNet reported that many Twitter users were no longer able to add followers thanks to the new limits put in place to discourage spamming. Unfortunately, this action caused some major trouble for community managers, like Pandora's Lucia Willow, for example, who stated her case over on Get Satisfaction. In addition to Pandora, Comcast, Jet Blue, and several others were also affected. In order to add new followers, they had to delete older ones - not a good idea for those that want to stay tuned into their community.

In addition to causing problems for community managers, there were even some cases of follower limits placed on those that had a 1:1 Twitter ratio. And although Twitter has not confirmed the cause of the dropped follower counts, it's likely that the the new anti-spam bot is to blame.

As we wrote earlier this year, many companies are using Twitter for customer service, meaning that they will be following people at higher rates than regular Twitter users due to the fact that they follow back those that follow them. This is certainly a legitimate way to use the service and one that should not be punished through a blind algorithm that can't distinguish a community manager from a spammer.

While we appreciate the fact that the Twitter team is fighting the spam problem (an "ongoing battle," says Biz Stone), you would think that they would have considered this potential ramification to implementing their new pattern-detecting technology. It's almost as if Twitter themselves do not even know what would constitute someone being a spammer. If that's the case, they should ask the community for guidance before rolling out a brand new anti-spam bot.

Ironically, in the midst of these issues, a post on the Twitter Blog on Wednesday was about a new Twitter app, TwitterCounter, that lets you track the number of followers you have on Twitter.

All we can say about that is...well...this may have not been the best time to release that news.

Were you affected by the follower limits? Tell us your story in the comments (or just share your thoughts on this issue!)

 

On the iPhone, even the ads are cool. Mobile advertising network AdMob is launching a whole new set of customized ads for iPhone apps. As CEO Omar Hamoui explains in the video above, the ads are specifically designed for iPhone apps. Rather than the static text or image ads that make up most of its mobile ad inventory today, these take advantage of specific features of the iPhone.

For instance, an ad for a song can stream the audio or launch the page on iTunes where you can buy it. A movie ad can open up YouTube so you can watch the trailer. An ad for a retailer can find nearby stores on Google maps. Others call a number through the phone, or can take you to a specific Web page. And just like on Facebook,where many of the ads on apps are simply promotions for other apps, an ad for an iPhone app will launch the App Store. (See video below).

To get iPhone app developers to sign up for his new ads, Hamoui is giving away $1 million worth of advertising to the developers with the most compelling apps who apply here. Each developer who is selected will recieve $5,000 worth of free ads for their apps.

Admob already serves up 34 million mobile ads a month on the iPhone’s Safari browser. But that is a mere one percent of the total that AdMob serves across all phones. Hamoui, however, believes that the new type of ads he is launching today will quickly make up the majority of his inventory. Some of the advertisers he’s already lined up include Ford, Electronic Arts, Land Rover, Jaguar, “The Mummy,” Loopt, AccuWeather.com, and MovieTickets.com.

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AddictingGames, a popular Flash game portal, has announced plans to hold a large-scale awards show pertaining to casual games. The show will take place in 2009, with a series of voting rounds conducted on the site that will allow AddictingGames’ users to decide the final outcome (though judges will have some say).

The show will be open to any casual game on the web, but the results will likely be heavily skewed towards games on AddictingGames, since that’s where voting will actually take place. Few details have been released, but the Nickelodeon-owned site promises content spread on websites and television programs across “the entire Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group”.

While the execution is flawed (the voting will be totally biased), developers could use an incentive to create casual games that are more involved than the mind numbing junk games that litter countless sites and development platforms across the web. Alongside a compensation program that AddictingGames will be rolling out for its most popular developers, this could at least help gamers pick out the best of the crop.

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

 

I agree with Sam Gustin when he says that yesterday’s Facebook Developer Conference in San Francisco was in the end a snoozer, but not because CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed on stage.

First of all, saying the event itself was sleep-inducing is just factually incorrect. Before and after the keynote they played music so loud that a deaf person would complain. I was alarmed and somewhat panicked by the noise, but certainly not sleepy. And on a more serious note, Zuckerberg himself was much more at ease and charismatic on stage than I’ve ever seen him previously. He’s no Steve Jobs yet, but he’s no slouch, either.

I left the event feeling fairly upbeat about Facebook. They sent a clear message to developers that they need to build compelling apps and learn to play nice. And they created a clear reward and punishment system to deal with both ends of the spectrum.

But I’ve learned that I need period of reflection after these super-shows before I can really digest what happened. And after reflecting, I’m feeling more than a little let down by Facebook’s product focus and ability to execute.

Snatching Mediocrity From The Jaws Of Victory

A year ago Facebook set the Internet on fire with the launch of Facebook Platform. Competitors rushed to respond, and since then Facebook has been on a tear.

Facebook has all the momentum as the worlds largest social network (if not the most valuable), and they’ve always been willing to launch bold and controversial new products that change the way people perceive the company (News Feeds, Platform, Beacon).

Everyone looks to them to see what comes next. When rumors surfaced in May that they were going to announce Facebook Connect, a way for third party sites to integrate their services with Facebook profile data, Google and MySpace rushed to announce their own versions of the product, with nearly identical features and, in the case of Google (Friend Connect), a suspiciously similar name.

But today they were not bold, and they did not act like thought leaders. There was no controversial but exciting new product experiment unleashed on a gushing audience. Instead, there were minor tweaks to a platform that needs a major overhaul.

Facebook Connect, the most exciting new product on the agenda, is still vaporware. A parade of partners came out on stage to talk about all the great things they’ll do when it eventually launches this Fall. Meanwhile, Google’s product is in working alpha, and MySpace has fully launched Data Availability.

The new three tier ranking system for apps, which we first wrote about in March, addresses the problem of black hat developers, but it may create more pain than it’s worth. Developers have long complained that Facebook plays favorites.

More disappointing is what Facebook didn’t announce today. No payments platform, even though developers are begging for a way to make money beyond pitifully-low (and falling) CPM ads.

Nor did Facebook address their now quaint and basically unusable messaging system, even though MySpace paved the way for them by implementing Gears nearly two months ago.

Facebook also didn’t take the opportunity today to make amends with Google and cross-integrate their products. Competition is fine, but users are best served with interoperable products. In effect, Facebook is continuing to tell their users exactly what they can and cannot do with their own data.

Finally, Facebook chastised developers who build slow applications, telling them that they need to speed things up and think about scaling. But user complaints about the slowness of Facebook in general are on the upswing. Perhaps its time for the company to listen to its own advice.

Suddenly Facebook is acting more like a company with lots to lose (and therefore defend) rather than a scrappy young underdog startup looking to shake things up, capture our imagination and change the world. It’s time for them to be audacious again, and take some risk. Otherwise, they risk becoming simply boring. And that’s the fast lane to mediocrity.

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Every few years the press gets excited about the potential for fuel cell-powered laptops. And then the concept goes away. We wrote about in 2003, explaining why it wasn't a big deal, and again in 2005. So here we are in 2008 and, once again, we're hearing stories about new fuel cells for laptops that are going to be demoed (not, of course, actually put into production). The benefits of a fuel cell-powered laptop are that on a single cell, a laptop can last a lot longer (usually the estimate is about 10 hours). That sure beats the 3 to 5 hours most laptops get on traditional lithium-ion batteries today.

But... there's a huge problem with fuel cells that almost never gets discussed in the press: you need to keep buying replacements and then you need to carry those replacement fuel cell cartridges with you. It's like back to the bad old days when your consumer electronics products all had non-rechargeable, disposable batteries. It was a huge pain. That's why everyone switched to rechargeable batteries. When you switch to disposable fuel cells, then you're adding an ongoing expense (much greater than electricity) and forcing users to keep carrying around spares. Yes, for some folks that ability to go for a longer time without plugging in will be worth it -- but for plenty of people it seems like the "cost" is a lot worse than the benefit.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped the ax today, and it landed on Kevin Johnson’s neck.

Johnson, Microsoft’s soon-to-be ex-President of Platforms & Services, has been with Microsoft since 1992. He was in the unfortunate position of leading the recent Vista effort through its very troubled launch, and running Microsoft’s online efforts while watching their lunch be eaten by Google. He takes a consolation prize: He will become the CEO of Juniper Networks, a $12 billion network hardware manufacturer.

So what’s next for Microsoft? The Windows and Windows Live products now report directly to Ballmer. All the online stuff, including search, advertising and most MSN/Live.com services will be headed by a new executive. Ballmer says they’ll look for the person to lead their Google-killing efforts both internally and externally.

Putting Johnson aside for a moment, It’s damn well time Microsoft put someone in charge of its online efforts. Johnson had to split his time with the Windows cash machine and the results have been somewhat predictable. A half time executive running a product that doesn’t even have a brand (Live? MSN? Microsoft?) can’t win against Google.

The truth is that the next guy (or gal) isn’t going to make any fast gains on Google, either, no matter how awesome Mesh and Silverlight are. Ballmer seems willing to spend as long as it takes, though, noting that the war with Google is over the long term, not the short: “In the coming years, we???ll make progress against Google in search first by upping the ante in R&D through organic innovation and strategic acquisitions. Second, we will out-innovate Google in key areas…”

That sounds like Microsoft will channel yet more Windows and Office profits into their Internet startup. There’s no question that they intend to compete in search and advertising any more. The only question is whether they have any chance of winning.

Even if Microsoft concedes that they have a years (decades?) long war on their hands, they have to face the fact that Google’s commanding lead in search, and the network-effect driven advertising wealth that comes with it, will be hard to beat. And all those client software profits won’t last forever, particularly since Google is eating away at that via their suite of free Office products.

The first thing Microsoft needs to do is buy Yahoo - all of it. That brings them to half of Google’s market share in search, and at least they’re in the game.

Another thing Microsoft needs to do is simply pick a brand name for the Internet side of things, and stick with it. Microsoft. MSN. Live. Whatever, just name it something a little catchier than “Online Services.”

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There has not been a more provocative album title in recent memory than Hip Hop Is Dead. On one hand Nas hit the head on the nail as the ringtone rappers killed off the genre that had been slowly dieing all decade. But on the other hand, that album actually proved otherwise and that hip hop still had a couple more breathes in it.

So how do you follow-up a controversial title album? Well name it something that usually reserved for Jesse Jackson spoken on Fox News. But when it looked like the album wouldn’t be getting shelf space almost nowhere, Nas decided to change the album to, well, nothing. Or as Nas says himself in Hero: “Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel they can’t sing what's in their soul! So "Untitled" it is. I never change nothing” This begs the question was naming it months in advance all a publicity stunt to get people talking without hearing a note?

Where Hip Hop Is Dead was a loose concept album on how and why the genre needed a funeral and who killed it, the new album is a loose concept album on race relations. Throughout the album are thoughts about how blacks are perceived in the media (Sly Fox), stereotypes (Fried Chicken), and a half hearted endorsement of Barack Obama (Black President), and even though it is no longer the title, a certain six letter word shows up in two song titled claiming that n*****’s are not black people but the uneducated.

Throughout the album, Nas is on point when not inexplicably name dropping Jessica Simpson or giving props to ringtone rappers he put on blast less than two years ago. The album falls flat thanks mostly to the company he keeps. You have to do a double take at seeing Chris Brown on the guest list and the song is about as juvenile as Brown’s age suggest.

Aside from the Polow da Don produced Hero; the production value is moderate at best. Even Mark Ronson, who had been batting 1.000, had a rare misstep on the snare heavy Fried Chicken that is too downtrodden than his usual upbeat horn infused throwback. Nas recently stated that he wants to drop two albums on the same day. One exclusively produced by D.J. Premiere who he hasn’t work much with since Illmatic, the other by his The Firm associate Dr. Dre. With the mediocre at best beats that pepper this album, that drop date cannot come soon enough.

Song to Download - Hero

[Untitled] gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

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