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Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:44:07 +0000

If you’re looking to stream your iTunes collection to up to 30 friends, a new app called SimplifyMedia from a company of the same name will let you do just that.

According to the company, SimplifyMedia will let Mac, Linux, and Microsoft users take all their songs and playlists from their iPhone or iPod Touch and stream it over a broadband connection to 30 preset friends. Even better, it’ll work over WiFi, 2G and 3G.

SimplifyMedia claims its new software is legal because songs are only streamed and not sent out to the entire population, but just a group of 30 friends. To further cover itself, it claims the app will not stream DRM-protected iTunes purchases.

But just because SimplifyMedia thinks it won’t need to worry about Apple or any other App Store headache, is that necessarily true?

There has been a glaring gray area so far with the App Store and developers and consumers alike have wondered how Apple decides which apps will stay and those that will not. The company has already removed NullRiver’s NetShare without giving any reason and BoxOffice was mysteriously removed, then replaced on the App Store with nary a mention from the Apple camp.

And although SimplifyMedia looks to be one of those apps that a slew of people will want to use, it doesn’t strike me as one that Apple will allow. Sure, it only streams songs that aren’t copy-protected, but it does so to 30 friends, and chances are, the music industry and even Apple won’t be too happy about that if there isn’t a limit to the number of times a song can be streamed.

Regardless, we’ve once again hit a wall in the face of the App Store. What will Apple allow and what will it not? What is fine and what is not? We just don’t know.

And that needs to change. Immediately.

Source:Mashable!

With the summer nearing its end and the school year almost upon us, teachers, tutors and students have a lot to prepare for. As with just about any profession nowadays, there all kinds of tools that can help you do most of your planning from your computer keyboard. We’ve put together a list of 35 tools to help you get your school year started right.

Here you’ll find resources for learning management systems, social networking communities for students and teachers, tutoring services and more.

Grading Tools

Engrade.com - Allows teachers of any subject, for any grade, anywhere to keep a free grade book, attendance chart and more that can be accessed by students, parents and administrators.

GradeNetwork.com - Another online grade book that really emphasizes the ability for parents and teachers to stay in touch with each other by allowing parents to see grades at a glance and message teachers.

MyGradeBook.com - Features grade books, attendance records, ability for parents and students to log in to check progress and more. Offers a free 30-day trial and then changes over to a cost per-license that gets discounted with the more licenses you purchase.

OnlineSchoolReports.com - OnlineSchoolReports allows parents to log in each day and see how their child/children are doing in school. They can use the internal messaging system to talk about any concerns they may have with the teacher. Currently the service is free of charge.

SnapGrades.net - Offers free and premium versions of a grade book that can include things like parent and student access, generating reports, Spanish translation and more. Also features scalability from a single teacher up to an entire school district.

Miscellaneous Tools

4Teachers.org - Offers multiple free tools for the use of teachers and students alike, such as online quiz generators, grading guidelines, educational video games and much more.

Blackboard.com - Pretty much a complete educational system that allows you to stay in touch with students, run tests, leave voicemails for students and much, much more.

TheClassConnection.com - Allows high school and college students to set up communities based around their classes to create flash cards, share information, message one another and more.

Digication.com - Teachers, students and administrators can set up e-portfolios to display work, assignments, resumes and more.

Haikuls.com - An online learning management system that allows you to create lessons for your class or eclass. Also allows embedding of major services such as YouTube and Zoho.

KEEP Toolkit - Teachers and students can set up visual representations of their work to share with others, entice new students, put them up for peer review, and more.

Moodle.org - An open source solution for a course management system that can be scaled from a single instructor to an entire institution.

Studeous.com - Allows you to set up extended learning with notes, messages, podcasts and more that lets the learning continue well beyond the classroom.

TeacherTube.com - An educationally focused alternative to YouTube for teachers and students to post videos and share them worldwide with other classes and instructors.

WiZiQ.com - A white board system that allows you to teach long distance with video and voice support that can be recorded for later playback.

Social Networks

Classroom20.com - A social network for teachers interested in using collaborative tools in their profession.

Classroomn.com - Use it to connect with other teachers, create a network for your class or even their parents.

HotChalk.com - A mixture of a learning management system and a social network where teachers can share lesson plans with one another and interact with parents and students. Be sure to check out HotChalk on an episode of Mashable Conversations.

TeachAde.com - Besides giving teachers a social network, you can also set up a blog and site about yourself to share with others.

TeacherEvents.com - A social network for teachers that also focuses on allowing teachers to discover who is going to be at upcoming teacher conferences so that they can connect while there.

Teachers.Yahoo.com - Not yet completed, Teachers.Yahoo.com will allow teachers from all over the world to save lesson plans and share them with other teachers, saving all those involved a lot of preliminary legwork.

Teaching & Tutoring Jobs

AtoZTutoring.com - An in-home tutoring referral service which focuses exclusively on bringing tutors into students homes.

Jobs4Tutors.com - As the name implies, it is a service for tutors to find work and for parents to find tutors that suit their childrens’ needs.

SeriousTeachers.com - Locates jobs around the world for teachers who specialize in ESL (English as a Second Language).

TeachStreet.com - A way for local teachers and students to connect to find tutors and tutoring jobs, as well as things like musical lessons and more.

TutorLinker.com - A place for tutors and students to locate each other, available in multiple countries such as the USA, UK, New Zeland and more.

TutorNation.com - A tutor referral service that also provides training and certification for their tutors.

Tutorz.com - A site with the goal of building a national network of tutors in the United States. It currently allows tutors to register for free.

Teaching & Tutoring Jobs - Online

Aim4a.com - A company that provides online tutoring opportunities. It uses services such as Skype to allow you to tutor anyone, anywhere from the comfort of your home.

BuddySchool.com - Set your own payment level, methods of payment, form of teaching and more with this online tutoring platform.

Educate-Online.com - The popular service has gone online with tutoring options at their Educate-Online site.

GlobalScholar.com - Students can ask questions or take full classes. Tutors’ level of involvement is flexible as well.

OnlineLearning.net - Allows you to teach full online courses in a variety of subjects.

Tutor.com - Provides 24/7 online tutoring that even records the session so you can review what you went over with the tutor while engaged with them. Offers things such as proof reading of papers, help with math and more at all hours of the day or night.

TutorVista.com - Allows you to work four hours a day. Students can request sessions with you as they build a relationship with you.

Source:Mashable!

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mediaman is an organizer for the media files on your computer. It helps you to manage your music, videos and pics to make your life easier!

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Userplane is the premier communication platform for online communities. The company’s hosted applications enable instant community and communication for websites of any scale and audience. The combination of instant and elegant with robust and powerful has made the platform a must-have for thriving sites worldwide - supporting millions of daily users.

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Thanks to This Week’s Sponsors

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:37:58 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Because they’re typically steeped in subjectivity, product reviews tend to be more effective when grouped together. This is generally why you, the consumer, often want to consult with multiple sources and individual perspectives in order to make an informed decision before you proceed to checkout. So, just to make things a little easier for you, we’ve put together a brief list of places on the Web you might like to go to stock up on opinions about a myriad of products, from gadgets to vehicles to attire to the miscellaneous, before laying down your hard earned cash.

Perhaps the most abundant catalogue of product reviews on the Internet, Epinions, a Shopping.com property, is a megaplex of pretty much everything under the sun that pertains to human lifestyles of all sorts. Indeed, its supply of notes about electronics is vast, but it is also holds its fair share of opinions on travel, restaurants, and food and drink. Suffice it to say that its variety is as much a strength as is the sheer volume of information it manages today.

A bit more rough-cut, but supported by Web-based heavyweights (About.com, NYTCo), ConsumerSearch is touted as a reviewer of reviews. While not the prettiest player in the market, the quantity of information found on its servers is quite large. If you’re willing to forgive its bland interface, you might find it a resource worth visiting and revisiting once in a while.

This one’s an oldie for sure, but still relevant. Some might pass it off as a review source too focused on detailed research and less about connecting consumers with the broadest product list possible, but ConsumerReports has been trusted by a large number of readers for many years, and continues to play a very active role in the field. If nothing else, it’s one more place to go to achieve that well-rounded view you’re seeking.

Amazon is a retail giant, for sure, but its product reviews are a massive resource in and of themselves. Some items will show pages of feedback, while others will show less, or maybe none at all. But taken as a whole, Amazon is a destination as valuable for its convenient shopping mechanisms as for its consumer commentary.

If electronics are your focus, CNET carries some merit among review sites. The in-house review staff at CNET regularly put out text and video reviews of gadgets built for business and personal use, and user input helps to complete the picture. CNET was purchased by CBS not too long ago, and some are expecting the adoptive parent to focus more on the TV-style projects being produced at the technology site, but for the time being, CNET is still a decent choice for aggregate opinion.

We covered Sazze earlier this year when it introduced itself as product review site with a social component, and it continues to look like a solid place for reviews. Its home page highlights a select number of products, and beneath the cover there are thousands more. There’s a good chance you’ll find what you’re looking for here, and each page is laid out intelligently, so it’s all very easy to browse.

Reevoo launched last summer, and in that time it has built itself a bit of an international name with the debut of a French adjunct in March of this year. Simple enough to use, with a database fronted by five main categories - ‘Phones & Computing,’ ‘Entertainment,’ ‘Photography,’ ‘Home & DIY,’ and ‘Toys & Baby’ - Reevoo has quite a lot of reviews and ratings beneath the hood. Take a look, we say. You might like it.

Not to be confused with the option above, Retrevo is sort of a hybrid of reviews and general product information (product manuals, etc.). The site is completely intuitive, and while its presentation of data might not be everyone’s favorite cup of tea, its gets the job done.

You might like it for its name alone, Buzzillions, but past the title, it’s actually a good piece of kit. It has a wide reach across the product realm, and everything is pleasantly wrapped. It is for sure one of the better places to visit among sites listed here.

Another product search and review engine that presents itself as infused with expertise, Crowdstorm is low on material on its front page, which might be a touch disappointing for some visitors, but its method of delivering information is rather interesting. You can browse for products manually, or ask for “expert” advice on stuff you seek to buy. Crowdstorm operates sites for both US- and UK-based audiences.

PEbuzz is one part social network and one part gadget review joint. We offered a few thoughts on the site some weeks back, and while it could definitely use a nicer, more modern exterior, it may well be what you’re after. For what it’s worth, PEbuzz is free to join.

Photo enthusiast are you? Look no further than Digital Photography Review. Covering everything from the latest industry news to detailed - and we mean detailed - product reviews and comparisons, DPR is the place you want to go for anything to do with digital imagery.

RateItAll has some decent offerings. It likes to tout lists having to do with anything deemed culturally or consumeristically (not part of the official lexicon, but we’ll go with it all the same) significant by the populace. Will this serve you well? That depends. If you’ve read this far, it’s safe to assume you’re privy to lists. And RateItAll is right down that alley. The site also offers applications for Facebook and MySpace users.

Omgili covers more than just product reviews. Or, as it describes them, “consumer experiences.” But part of the puzzle has to do with stuff you buy, so what they hey, it gets the final spot here. Enter a search term, and you’ll get back a search page with product results along with ratings bars that manage five degrees of buyer approval/disapproval, from “excellent” to “miserable.” Omgili pulls reviews from about seven independent sources, including Amazon, PriceGrabber, NewEgg, CNET, Target, Yahoo Shopping, and Edmunds.

Source:Mashable!

This is a guest post written by Chris Brogan, who blogs about social media for business at chrisbrogan.com.

There are only so many hours in a day, and you’ve got to determine which social media tools drive business, which ones build community, and where you can learn the most in the process. Maybe you’ve built a blog or a home page or some other starting point for your online presence. How do you manage the rest of your online presence, and how do you keep track of everything? I have some ideas for you. Let’s start by building the following:

Listening Post

Get a Google account and get Google Reader. Go to Technorati and Google Blogsearch. Find the search bar and put in:

-Your name in quotes.

-Your company name (if that matters).

-Your competition’s name.

-keywords to your industry.

Every time you do a search, look for the orange RSS subscription button on Technorati, and click it. Look for the RSS subscription link to the left on Google Blogsearch. Click it. Add all of these to your Google Reader (upper left area of the left sidebar).

You’ve just built a rudimentary listening post.

A Social Hub or Two

Go to FriendFeed. Build an account and add your blog, your Flickr photos, your Upcoming.org, and your whatever-you’re-doing-on-the-Web into it. This is another way to share out what you’re doing, but also another place where conversations are happening that you might not see if you’re not there with another kind of listening post.

You might also check out Lijit, a service that offers a different spin on a similar thing.

Some Social Network Outposts

At this point, my top 3 choices for social networks are:

-LinkedIn - for professional networking.

-Facebook - for social circles.

-Twitter - for everyday conversation and networking.

I belong to and use several other networks for different things, including Utterz (I’m on their advisory board), Flickr, several Ning sites, and a few other niche things. The three listed above are the ones I think have the most resonance. You might substitute MySpace for Facebook. You might like Jaiku more than Twitter. The details don’t matter. I just listed what I feel are the best choices at present.

On those sites, amongst other things, be sure to point links back to your primary site or your blog. Thread the needle for people.

Note: several of these sites also have RSS subscriptions for comments and other updates. You can add those to your Google Reader, too, to keep track of it all.

What to Do With It All

This is partially difficult to answer, as it’s up to you what your goals are for using social media. But some of the things you can do once you have this all in place are:

-Learn who’s talking about you (or your company, or the other keywords you put into your reader), and engage them in conversation on their site.

-Make relationships with others before you need them on social networks.

-Find other professionals in your field, or in unrelated fields on social networks.

-Connect with old friends and business colleagues.

-Discover new people through reading and learning, and follow the media they make on the various networks, and/or in Friendfeed.

-Learn more about your competitors through the media they make, and discover where you can build more value.

Obviously, there are dozens more possibilities. If nothing, I hope to have provided a potential starter kit for managing some of the elements of online presence around your primary blog or website. You might have some different experiences along the way, and some parts might not work, so feel free to adjust. Your mileage may vary.

Would you add anything else to this premise?

Source:Mashable!

Thanks to this week’s advertisers and partners for helping us grow to be the #1 social news blog in the world.

Advertise with us and get noticed.

This week, our valued sponsors are EdgeCast, IDrive, Clickatell, and Userplane.

Social Networks and Applications are the bread and butter of the new age Internet, commonly referred to as Web2.0. Clickatell believes that using SMS to bind the two worlds together is the most cost effective, reliable and simple to implement method available. With Clickatell’s truly global reach, your social application can now extend its mobile communications channel to 750 networks spanning 212 countries

IDrive is a leading Consumer and Small Business focused Online Backup service. IDrive is a simple and safe way to back up all the important stuff on your computer. A copy of user data is stored in a secure, remote location for safekeeping, so that in the event of disaster user data is retrievable from anywhere via Internet. IDrive’s features include automated critical data selection and scheduling via web as well as desktop agent, fast search to backup data, central console to manage multiple accounts, Continuous Data Backup, Open File and Locked file backup, Virtual Drive access and many more.

Additionally, thanks to the following partners for making Mashable happen:

Thanks to ConVerdge for implementing our My Mashable social network and W3 MARKUP for the development and maintenance of Mashable.com

We can get your name out there.

Contact us for more information on supporting Mashable’s growth and development. Alternatively, visit our advertise section for more details about:

-Competitive direct ad sales

-Sponsorship Opportunities for Events, The Daily Poll, and other channels

-Sponsored giveaways and contests

-Custom ad deals and partnerships

CPM-based advertising is available through our partner, Federated Media, but contact us for information and unpublished discounts.

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CDNs Are Big Business, EdgeCast Get $6 Million

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 05:30:05 +0000

Source:Techcrunch
Ad-supported music streaming is now officially legit. Music social network imeem has inked a deal with the fourth and final major label, Universal Music Group, to make its entire digital catalog available for free to imeem members. Music from EMI, Warner Music, and Sony-BMG is already available on the site. Now members can […]Source:Techcrunch
When we watch movies or play music online, there’s a flurry of unseen activity making sure that data arrives when and where it’s supposed to be. This is the job of the high speed fiber and computer systems of the internet’s content distribution networks (CDNs).
Every website that streams content (live video, music) needs a […]

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