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Apple pulled their automated online storage solution, iCloud, out of beta today.  It allows users to effortlessly gain safe storage for all their files.  Like Dropbox, iCloud seamlessly backs up and restores your important pictures, video, documents, email, and music.  It apparently is being reported as some sort of replacement for iTunes.  Let’s chalk that flawed idea up to the godawful media hype around anything Apple.  More likely, iCloud will be the behind the scenes method by which users store all iTunes content (similar to Amazon’s Cloud Drive), but it won’t outright replace iTunes.  Hell, at this point, iTunes is a really horrible yet popular gold standard for media management. People have convinced themselves to enjoy the torturous exercise in bloatware that iTunes has become.  Like Acrobat, really.

Anyway, there is one seemingly innocuous feature that blew me away.  If you have existing mp3 files, you can upload those to iCloud under the auspice of backing up your files.  In order to prevent users from driving iCloud’s server and bandwidth resources into the ground, iCloud performs some sort of comparison — perhaps bit matching or ID3 tag parsing — to see if that song already exists in iCloud’s database of music files (which is really just the iTunes catalog).  If it matches something in there, the file is not uploaded.  Instead, a DRM-free 256 kbps AAC original is copied from iCloud’s servers and added to your iCloud folder.

The end result is that if you have 20 gigs of low bitrate dodgy, crackle-prone pirated music, iCloud is going to replace that with high quality retail files.  And it is all going to be automated and free.  Yikes!  Apple better rethink this, otherwise the RIAA is going to be circling it’s greed-based wagon train around Steve Jobs’ skinny butt and extracting a pound of flesh that the Turtlenecked Scarecrow can’t spare.

Firefox 4 was released today.  It’s pulling a lot of interface elements and cues from Chrome … but then so does IE9.  Chrome may very well represent the new standard for application interface and usability.  There certainly is elegance in simplicity.  App speed is really the new goal, so the less buttons and toolbars and other stuff that your computer is rendering, the lighter the app is on resources, and the snappier it responds (with new tabs, setting bookmarks, etc.).  Download here.  I’ll let you know in a few days whether it handles Flash in an intelligent manner.  That has been the Achilles’ heel of Firefox since version 2.

Netflix optioned the rights to first broadcast (and probably syndication) for a BRAND NEW tv series with Kevin Spacey.  Looks badass.  And like all things that Netflix does, it seems soooo sensible and timely.  Of course their stock jumped up the next day.  I’m not a knowledgeable investor, but a 24% increase in value in one day seems outstanding.  The Blockbuster down the street closed … good riddance.  Next in the Internet Conquests of the Real World, I want Amazon to take out Best Buy.  Evolution is decisive.

Speaking of the big bookbeast, I see they have added an app store for Android.  You have to tweak a technical switch in your Android settings.  Will this be a monster barrier to entry?  Amazon’s enticement (and a nice twist on an app store) is that they offer a free paid app every day.  Still not enough?  Well, if you install, you get a sequel to the hugely addictive Angry Birds for free.  That got me to make the leap.  I’m sure most others will too.  I like Amazon’s mp3 Store a lot.  It is really easy to use and not as mind-numbingly possessive as iTunes.  Apple’s iTunes is like a horribly possessive hipster friend.  Fun at first, and sleek enough to get your geeky butt a ton of attention, but then you realize you are locked into a huge a time commitment … and whenever you try to move on (to another app or mp3 player or friend), iTunes/hipster says, nope, I own your music and videos (and social connections).  Messy analogy, but you get the point.  Amazon’s mp3 Store is better than iTunes, so I assume that Amazon’s Appstore will blow the Android Marketplace away with superior usability.  It already has one or two less clicks for all actions.

There’s been quite a bit of buzz around HTML5 and what it means for founders, project architects, and web developers. Relevance of HTML5 has be fueled by (1) rapid browser adoption of the as-yet-to-be-finalized standard and (2) the huge implications of media delivery through the video, audio, and object tags. HTML5 is a good thing, no matter how you slice it.
The revolutionary impact that HTML5 will make will be at the mobile browser level, especially for content delivery.  This goes way beyond having your YouTube videos and movie trailers load and render way faster.  No, this is a new application delivery system that moves us a little closer toward using the web as the OS.  It definitely moves apps off the device and into the cloud.

If you need industry reinforcement of this trend, look no further than Disney’s recent acquisition of Rocket Pack for the usual  20 million.  Rocket Pack is an platform for building and delivering games that is rendered through HTML5.  In fact, in that small arena, they are the massive industry leader.  It’s a real bleeding edge acquisition for a behemoth like Disney, but it’s a big picture move.  [The tech "behind" the tech, so to speak.]

All of a sudden you can play standard def graphic games (comparable to a Wii) directly in your phone’s browser without Flash!  Realtime and networked, no less.  Despite my reliance on sunblock to setp outdoors, I’m no gamer, but, on the tech level … wow.  So for all you biz people that are concerned with applications, there’s an under-exploited (for now) technology in HTML5 called Web Storage.  This will essentially allow instant data manipulation, similar to working with a local database, but over the web.  This is achieved by dynamically caching large chunks of data using a really huge cookie.

This caching serves the double purpose of speeding up your data interactions AND allowing you to use data-intensive apps across spotty mobile networks.  Imagine having a local copy of your entire Salesforce CRM sitting on your phone.  Oh, it’ll be encrypted, of course.  Now when you are at a client’s site just before a meeting searching for an old proposal, it’ll take a few seconds to view, rather than a couple of minutes.  This tech will greatly accelerate sort, indexing, and searching data on low power devices.  I really like the possibilities and I’ll expound more in the future.

A client of ours for the last year or so, CubeCheck, just got profiled on the The Street’s biz news site, MainStreet.com.

Read the article here.
CubeCheck is a service that allows users to rate current or former employers. I imagine that occasionally somebody will enter a positive review … but we all know that this is a great avenue to vent on what a lamebrain your old boss was. And, no, topLingo is not on there (we programmed in a filter to auto-remove and posts with the word “topLingo” in them, of course <– joking!). Anyway, users can enter these reviews either anonymously or — if they are especially brave — as verified, non-anonymous users. In the profile, CubeCheck is described as Yelp for your employers.  It’s super easy to use … a stellar example of usability.

Go ahead, see if your company is in there … http://www.cubecheck.com

What a difference a day makes.  It’s been a mere 24 hours and the overly-hyped, poorly-named Cuil is already a footnote. They are the latest unexciting contender to challenge Google in the search arena (deja vu with both LOUD3R and PowerSet).  And yet again, the challenger has been deservedly crushed. Why? Because their search results were simply not that good. In an industry where the bar for search methods & results is very high (Yahoo, MSN, Ask), you can’t launch with a sub-par product. It has to be “better” somehow. And Cuil was not better … In fact, it was vastly worse. On Cuil, a search on “cuil” did not bring them up on the first page. Wow. A search on “topLingo” puts us as last place on the first page. On any other search engine we rank in the number one spot. And it went down on it’s inaugural day. Did they expect light traffic when they were calling out Google and press-releasing to every blog and reporter on the planet?  Amateur hour.

Google reminds me of those boxers at the turn of the century that would challenge everybody in town to 3 minutes in the ring with them. One guy after another would get pummeled mercilessly. You better get a real badass in the ring if you want knock out the 800 pound Googlrilla.

Cuil is just the latest casualty in what will turn out to be a lot of attempts to unseat the big G.

This weekend, WordPress released version 2.5 of their top-tier open source blogging software. This release sets the bar high for intuitive admin systems. I could write on and on, but nothing compares to actually using it. I’m composing this entry, for instance, using the new full-screen editing mode. This allows the writer to focus solely on his writing, without any clutter. I love it!

Go get it (or view demo) at WordPress.org. If you’re running an existing WordPress installation, this is a must-have upgrade. The 2.2 to 2.3.3 upgrade added incremental improvements to the front-facing app and some advanced SEO features. But this upgrade is 90% geared toward admins … thank you, WordPress … and, at the same time, sets a whole new standard on usability.

Bonus geek fact: This weekend, I found out the origin of the word “bLog” and why it employs that odd capitalization. It’s short for “WebLog”, a term coined back in the first dotcom bubble.

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Check out their 2 minute demo: http://www.brightcove.com/products/index.cfm

The hot buzzword in 2008 will be social platform. Rising social network star Facebook got the ball rolling this year when they announced their open development platform which allowed software developers to create custom applications to run inside Facebook. This has turned out to be wildly popular and other social network sites are following the leader. Myspace has been working on a platform and more recently, news that LinkedIn, the popular social network for business professionals is also creating an application platform.

Social networks will become much more than networks in 2008 as more social platforms arrive, allowing users access to more features and marketers access to more of the so-called “social graph“.

Google has been making some big moves lately, one of which is in the social network arena. Open Social is a set of API’s (application programming interfaces) which will allow developers to create applications that will run on a variety of social networks at once. Facebook applications can only run on Facebook, but Open Social applications can run on any platform that adopts the standard. At launch, some of the important partners include, Myspace, Linked In, Salesforce.com, Ning, and NetVibes.

Facebook currently dominates the social network space, in part due to their vibrant application platform. Open Social could serve to level the playing field. It will also make things easier for developers as they will only have to write one application for distribution across many platforms. This is one to keep an eye on. Will adoption grow and how will Facebook respond?

Top Companies

Only surprise on this list is Facebook and since Microsoft just invested $240 million their numbers are still to be determined.

Source and full article: Tech Crunch

Top Social Networks & RSS Readers

MySpace is still king for now, but for how much longer. Facebook is climbing up the ranks quickly.

Source and full article: Tech Crunch

Top Social Bookmarking & RSS Readers

WOW! Google dominating del.icio.us and My Yahoo was a surprise.

Source and full article: Tech Crunch

San Jose based Adobe Systems is a legend in Silicon Valley, most famous for their dominant Photoshop application. Adobe is also a leader in desktop publishing and has a strong competitor in online video editing as well. Now Adobe is stepping into a whole new world, the world of online Web 2.0 applications. Adobe has purchased Virtual Ubiquity and their online word processor Buzzword. This puts Adobe in direct competition with Google and Zoho for the online office productivity market.

Traditionally a master of the desktop, it shows a great deal of savvy and guts for Adobe to move into the online market. What makes this even more interesting in the Buzzword word processor is based on Adobe’s Flash technology. Adobe is playing up the benefits of Flash, saying it is more flexible and powerful than Ajax, which is the current favorite web 2.0 technology. Adobe’s AIR allows Flash applications to run offline or online, which will prove to be a critical factor as most web 2.0 apps do not work offline yet. The Zoho word processor does work offline but Google Docs does not.

A question everyone should be asking is, where is Microsoft in all this? As of yet, nowhere to be found. Microsoft clings to their venerable Office suite, continuing to bet on the desktop. It may be a long time before web 2.0 supplants the desktop application, but I am surprised to not see Microsoft at least put a toe into this water.

Sometimes technology uncovers things we have never considered before or shows us things we have not noticed. Such is the case with this Navy building and it’s unfortunate shape, only discovered and disseminated widely because of Google Maps and blogging. Now the Navy will spend $600,000 to redesign the landscape and buildings to change it’s appearance from the air and on Internet mapping systems. Another related post details the various rooftop advertising around the country also now visible on Google Maps.

VideoJug.com an online video resource for expert advice and professional know-how knows their niche market.

Thier tagline appropriately reads “Life Explained. On Film.” and have taken a business model from the likes of Ask.com whose approach to competition is not to worry about the 800 pound gorillas (Google and Yahoo for Ask and YouTube for Video Jug) rather serve their niche markets to the best of their abilities.

In VJ’s case their niche is education and to date they’ve recieved more than 30 Million dollars in venture capital, staff 50+ professionals and have produced 20,000+ high definition how-to-videos such as “How to be the perfect girlfriend” or “How to fold a t-shirt in 2 seconds.”

www.VideoJug.com

The geniuses from 37 Signals who brought you Basecamp (the web-based project management miracle worker) flex thier muscles once again with “Ta-Da List” an online To Do List manager bare bones in features … just as it should be.

Less is more these days and with tasks as simple as jotting down action items there’s no reason to convolute software with massive features. Ta-Da List is simple to access, simple to add to and simple to manage items quickly and efficiently. It also produces independent RSS feeds either per list or for all lists and allows you to share lists by giving others access via email logins.

www.TaDaList.com

Man I love Google! Not only are they buying up some very cool companies handsomely rewarding the owners, they’re hooking up the users as well by “Googlizing” the products.

For those of you using Feedburner, a new Google purchase, two critical features and reasons to pay monthly for the service are now free. MyBrand which allows you to remove the Feedburner URL and use your own, and TotalStats which gives you more analytics are now FREE! Here’s how to enable:

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/07/feedburner-give.html