Drop.io, the file hosting and sharing service of considerable renown in Web world, particularly among those who espouse the need to keep things simple and easy and cheap without excess baggage, is moving along with another upgrade to its feature set.

We previously noted the company’s release of a browser plugin intended for faster access to one’s drop(s). Now, according to Allen Stern of CenterNetworks, Drop.io has brought geography to its file management equation. So you upload. You tag with a location. Then you let others find it. Talk about putting a literal spin on concept of a digital drop box.

It may be too fantastical to think this can be manipulated into some sort of geo-caching mechanism for the entirely-Web-based set. A bit too easy a treasure hunt that would be, no? Some immensely inventive folks out there in Mashable land might think differently. If so, let us know. Meanwhile, location-based services are gaining considerable momentum as of late, particularly in the mobile arena, and Drop.io seems a fitting instrument to use to involve longitudinal and latitudinal details to better broadcast items to the public or to specific people.

The service taps Loki’s JavaScript API, developed by Skyhook Wireless, to detect one’s position on the map and affix one or more files accordingly. And hey, if photos are going to be geo-sensitive the world over, we might as well put some north-south-east-west on files pushed to the cloud. The non-copyrighted stuff, anyway.

In order to access the location feature, just click the ‘Edit Drop’ link at the top right portion of the drop window, and find the option for ‘Location’ in the Access Control menu on the following page.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Drop.io Chooses Scribd for iPaper PreviewsDrop.io Funded for $1.25MTwitPic Upgrades Make Twitter PrettierJuiceCaster Makes Mobile Videos Location-Friendly With Geo-TaggingComedian Lewis Black Drops into Drop.ioTownKings Offers Location-Based NetworkingAT&T Offers Buzzwire, JuiceCaster To Mobile Users

Source:Mashable!

Net4Mac released its exclusive social networking service for Mac users about 6 months ago to mixed reviews. It has now released a version for the iPhone, according to Macworld. It is available from the iPhone App Store [iTunes URL] for $4.99.

The fact that Net4Mac is charging for the iPhone App has left some cold. It seems that charging for the iPhone App is repeating the same theory of exclusivity the company created with its Mac-only social network initial release. When I tried Net4Mac back then I was underwhelmed with the need to download an application to my desktop in order to use it. For someone as busy in the social media space as I am, I can’t waste focus on an application that is shut away from the rest of the internet.

Also, Net4Mac requires users to go through an initial “credential” phase. During this phase you are immediately required to list your Apple gadgets, almost as if you had to establish some sort of Apple “cred” within the community.

The application gives users a place to post or join groups and events, complete with a front page time line showing recent user activity and new events and groups posted. It also offers a profile you can edit, a way to make friends and socialize with them, groups, events (it would be nice if these integrated with iCal, but they don’t), classified ads, a way to send and receive messages, a chat interface, and search.

On the one hand, it is nice to have a place to talk nothing but Mac with people who love Macs as much as I do. On the other hand, I don’t like the exclusivity or the cost for the iPhone App. I can see this being useful for some. Still, I think I’ll stick to the tools I already use for social networking on my iPhone: Hahlo, fftgo and others.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:World’s Simplest iPhone AppiPhone to Launch in Germany on T-Mobile3G iPhone Confirmed for 2008Mundu Optimizes Multi-Client Chat Tool for the iPhoneApple Making a Directory for iPhone Apps?European iPhone to be Offered on Multiple CarriersiPhone. Europe. September.

The app, which we first wrote about in May, puts a little globe in your pocket that you can spin around and zoom in to specific locations. It shows where you are based on your GPS coordinates, highlights locations with Wikipedia entries (and lets you read those entries as well) and flickr photos. Users can also take their own photos and add them to the application’s database. They are then optionally displayed to other users with the geotag information (see if you can find the TechCrunch image I uploaded to Atherton, California).

Postcards can be found at nearly every tourist destination around the world. And while they’re always a popular and cheap way to keep in touch with friends, they also suffer from being incredibly generic - every shop seems to sell the same dozen postcards, no matter where in a city you go.

A new startup called Hazel Mail is looking to give postcards a more personal touch, by helping users design and send custom cards. The process is simple: after uploading an image to the site, users add a brief message and the recipient’s address. Hazelmail then prints and ships the card from one of its globally distributed printers.
Source:TechCrunch
photos into works of art that Monet would be envious of, check out iGolf, a minutes-old app created by Palo Alto-based Social Gaming Network.

The application uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to detect a golf-swing like motion with the phone. Choose a club and swing the iPhone just like a golf club. Save your high scores and challenge your friends to beat your distance. Our best score with the driver so far is 406 yards.

The app is free, which will be appreciated by those of us who’ve spent untold numbers of quarters playing Golden Tee at the local bar. TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid tests the app - see the video below.

Try not to throw your iPhone through the window while playing. But if you do throw your iPhone through a window, please send us a video of you doing it.

For a good while JuiceCaster has allowed users to share photos and videos with friends via the Web and through third-party services like MySpace, Facebok, Blogger, Xanga, and others. And it’s made a decent share of news with releases associated with these functions. It’s been featured in AT&T’s MEdia Mall. It was updated in May to include geo-tagging. It’s even got an application custom-built for use with BlackBerry devices. And just days ago it was added to the Nokia Download store. The next device on the list: the iPhone.

Sharing photos and videos with friends via the iPhone of course already possible, through both standard applications provided by Apple and third-party solutions. But the function that has generally eluded iPhone users, often to their irritation, given the power that is packed into the slim, multi-touch device, is the very basic and nearly universal MMS, or multimedia messaging. Pictures sent directly to other mobile phones. This is what the JuiceCaster Flutter application, a free offering in the App Store, promises to accomplish.

You may have seen with many other App Store downloads the features delivered through Flutter things like basic text input, photo capture and uploading, and location-spotting. Much more than this, in fact. What’s more, iPhone users, even equipped with Flutter, can’t exercise the full potential of the JuiceCaster service for the fact that video recording is not possible through Apple-approved means. Still, the ability for Flutter to send text and images and location together to mobile phone numbers in one’s address book in what JuiceCaster’s engineers dub a “virtual multimedia message” is something that will likely appeal to many.

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:$6 Million More for JuiceCaster Mobile NetworkJuiceCaster - Mobile Social NetworkAT&T Offers Buzzwire, JuiceCaster To Mobile UsersJuiceCaster Makes Mobile Videos Location-Friendly With Geo-TaggingCollege Tonight Goes MobileTwo More Guba Executives Leave To Start a Video Site of Their OwnGroovr Launches Impressive Mobile Social Network

If you think the new Mashable site rocks, vote ROCKS below or Twitter “@mashable design rocks”

If you think the new Mashable site sucks, vote SUCKS below or Twitter “@mashable design sucks”

So apparently I’ve been dragged, kicking and screaming, back into the editorial department of this humble blog.  First assignment: review the freshly redesigned Mashable.com from an objective perspective, in less than 400 words…

Rocks: Out With the Old

It’s better than the old one.  Mashable’s layout was, up until this facelift, full of fail; a veritable bastion of bloat.  A 3-column design crammed a narrow content column between two pillars of ads, topped by an utterly nonsensical navigation bar.  Load times were laughable: anything between 8 and 12 seconds before the content popped into view.

The new version clearly takes a stab at improving the speed issue: a relatively lightweight design that emphasizes the blog’s core asset: its content.

Sucks: A Touch Too Much?

And yet the homepage, while undoubtedly cleaner than the old one, could be further refined.  Why not standardize image sizes and their alignment?  Why so many font sizes and styles?

Rocks: Tag Pages

These delicious tag pages, for exploring archived content on a certain topic, are carved from slabs of the purest Awesome.  See for yourself: browse stories about Google, YouTube or Facebook.

Rocks: Related Posts

The related posts feature automagically serves up content from the Mashable archives, accompanied by a pretty little thumbnail image. Great for digging deeper into a topic, with a tempting visual prompt.

Sucks: Overshare?

I know every Mashable reader is on a zillion social media sites, but is it overkill to have this many sharing options?  You tell me!

Rocks: Search!

Easy-to-find search box.  Good search results.  Finally!

Rocks: Comment Cleanup

It took a brave soul to venture into Mashable’s previous, haphazardly arranged comments system: glad to see this has improved.  Keep it simple, stupid!  (And they did.)

Ribbon Rocks!  Ribbon Sucks?

Somewhere on the ROCKS / SUCKS borderline lies the “Ribbon,” an expandable content selector along the top of the site.  While extra javascript on a page sometimes feels like extra baggage, I’m finding I love to browse stories in this way.  A somewhat hesitant “Rocks” from me - how about you?

OMG, it’s the Conclusion

The “New Mashable” deftly avoids the fate of New Coke; it’s a return to focus, rather than a bloated feature-fest.  If anything, I long for even less: with html websites becoming one of many outlets for the content they house, there’s little need for added extras. 

And yet, there’s also ample room for innovation: blogs breaking away completely from the template format; re-finding themselves in an era of ever-shorter attention spans and increasingly fragmented media consumption. What would you like to see here? What is the future of the blog format?

Does the New Mashable ROCK or SUCK? ( surveys)

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:Mashable Writers UpdateMashable Rocks: Announcing the Winner of Rock BandMashable Relaunches - Like Our New Look?Wordpress DevelopersSubmit News10,000 UsersAuthors at Mashable

Source:Mashable!

When I first saw Koollage, I thought its concept of gathering content you want online and on your iPhone in Pods (Packages-On-Demand) was interesting, but sounded vaguely familiar. Then it hit me - it sounded like Squidoo and its concept of Lenses for content. The other site Koollage reminded me of with its Klubs, Koollage Krew and Kool Factor was MySpace, and its content aggregation properties smacked of a prettier FriendFeed.

The idea behind Koollage is simple. Find content you want to pull together into a Pod, and make that Pod into your personal “podspace.” You can have more than one Pod, which means that Koollage actually has some interesting possibilities as a content aggregator with a different look and feel than something like FriendFeed, and it is already designed for the iPhone in addition to the Web - an improvement over the more vanilla look and feel of FriendFeed for those who find FriendFeed unattractive and difficult to use.

In spite of its similarity to Squidoo (right down to the color scheme and the idea of content widgets), I think the win goes to Koollage for getting to the iPhone first. It won’t be doing much that is different than Squidoo in the online space, but Squidoo has so far lacked a mobile presence, and now will have to catch up to Koollage in the mobile social content sphere.

Koollage has an overall young look and feel, and while the service may not be intentionally marketing their application to the MySpace crowd, that is definitely the vibe I get from it. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing - a young and vibrant look and feel can pull people in to the social content arena that haven’t played in that sandbox before. The ease of adding multi-media to the Pods I think will especially appeal to the glitter-graphic lovers out there.

As with any social application, there is a way to add and track friends on Koollage. This social feature is a must to compete with any of the existing content aggregation sites, Squidoo, FriendFeed or any one of the dozen or so more out there. I like that Koollage has included the ability to socialize but hasn’t made it the focus of their application. The focus of Koollage is the content in the Pods.

Koollage has done something else right as well by offering an easy way to navigate a Pod or series of Pods on the iPhone with the thumb-worthy nav bar. If you are an iPhone user you know that less is more with the touch screen. Koollage lets you move around the Pod using a nav bar like a mini player for the Pod. A very simple concept that will save the mobile user a lot of time.

Koollage has also taken business applications into account. You can have purely fun Pods, or Pods geared toward business, products and making money. Those who use sites like Squidoo as an income stream will love this ability being brought to an iPhone-ready application.

Overall, I don’t see Koollage as having a new application or new idea. Even so, I don’t think that is a bad thing. They have taken our favorite parts of several existing sites and applications (Squidoo, FriendFeed, MySpace), and found a way to merge them into a bright iPhone and iGoogle ready and Web capable application. It isn’t my cup of tea personally, but I think there is a definite market for what they bring to the table.

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:World’s Simplest iPhone AppiPhone to Launch in Germany on T-Mobile3G iPhone Confirmed for 2008Mundu Optimizes Multi-Client Chat Tool for the iPhoneApple Making a Directory for iPhone Apps?European iPhone to be Offered on Multiple CarriersiPhone. Europe. September.

People often speak of old and new media as a dichotomy, with stodgy network television channels and traditional newspapers on the one hand, and hip, technologically sophisticated youth on the other. But recently, old media –- in particular, large television outlets -– have been catching on. A recent post on Mashable noted that CNN is using Twitter to interact with viewers. I commented that Fox News Channel is also using Twitter and Facebook. Many traditional newspapers, national and local, are also using Twitter and other social software to various degrees.

Because I use my Comcast Cable DVR to watch shows on delay about 75% of the time, I found myself this morning viewing a national news show and realizing that I couldn’t interact with the hosts via Twitter, because I was an hour too late. Show hosts asking viewers to “Twitter your comments” is clearly the modern version of “calling in with your questions for our guest.” The key question I asked myself was, as more television media master their new media brands, will we find ourselves more likely to tune into their shows in real time?

The financial consequence of not using DVRs, or downloading the shows from a third-party website, or other new options, is that more people watching the real-time version means more viewer share, which in turn means more advertising revenue. People are more likely to engage the show in real time and therefore more likely to see traditional commercials. I don’t know if the gurus at television networks or advertising firms they work with are thinking about it this way yet, but it seems like a truism to me.

So what might be a strategy going forward? As an avid watcher of television, particularly political news, complex dramas, and reality shows, I could imagine many scenarios in which incentives are created to watch shows in real time – viewers pose questions for the guest, guide alternative dramatic scenes, or decide what challenge the players have to perform. How cool would it be to watch Donald Trump, Sr. using Twitter on a BlackBerry in the middle of the live Apprentice finale? And the advertising underbelly is that you are statistically more likely to purchase paper towels, basketball sneakers, or a dream vacation cruise.

With the increasingly “long tail” of niche television channels, magazines, and similar outlets only becoming more prevalent, it might behoove the “blockbuster” organizations like NBC to become the leaders in “old new media” to win some of that viewer share back. This summer, the startup social network and search site Searchles inked a deal with the venerable Washington Post to create social networks among people with common reading interests. Why not similarly network all the people who voted for Clay Aiken, are fans of Gossip Girl, or hate The View?

Mark Drapeau is an Associate Research Fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy in Washington, DC. These views are his own and not the official policy or position of any part of the U.S. Federal Government.

(Image via Flickr/ dailyinvention)

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:Pudding Media Raises $8 Million to Place Ads in Phone Calls. Yuck.TVTonic Launches Auto-Sync Videos On DemandGoogle TV Screws the Middleman (i.e. Apple)Save the Date for the New Communications Forum 2008Mashable Readers: Save 20% for O’Reilly Money:Tech Conference in NYCBrightcove Launches in UK with London OfficeSpactor Speech Technology Searches Radio & TV

Source:Mashable!

One of many companies launching at DEMO this week is Say Where from DialDirections. Say Where hopes to make its mark by offering voice input locations and directions generated by speaking an address or city into an iPhone 3G. By doing this Say Where brings basic pre-programmed GPS destination functionality to the iPhone 3G.

If you have used any basic GPS system, you know that pre-programmed destinations are par for the course. There is a selection included in any GPS worth its salt of nearby gas stations, movie theaters, restaurants and other points of interest. The drawback to these is that they don’t change dynamically as businesses succeed or fail. They could be outdated at any moment without real time data feedback.

If you have an iPhone, you already have all of the real time Web-based destination information you could want. Coupled with the ability to get directions and mark your place with drop pin and bookmark, iPhone users already have more flexibility than this program appears to offer at first blush. If I had to choose between getting more reliable and up to date information from the iPhone Web interface, or possibly outdated pre-programmed information from Say Where, I’m going to have to choose the Internet until Say Where includes real data.

One of Say Where’s pitch points is voice capability. It’s nice to speak into the iPhone and get results, especially if you have trouble with the touch screen keyboarding. in the end, what good is convenience or cool software if it gives you potentially useless data? This is a good idea, but it needs more.

Perhaps I am judging this application too quickly and should be more excited about having access to data like nearby destinations, points of interest, recommendations and reviews with simple voice commands. Unfortunately, I just can’t seem to get excited about it. If it offered a way to get real time data and merge it with true GPS functionality, I’d be more excited. however, with the availability of the DASH GPS, I’m not seeing a need for Say Where right now, since DASH already does pretty much everything that I want in a real time, Internet connected GPS interface.

However, if the most you can say about your new iPhone App is that it uses voice commands and won’t cost users a phone call when retrieving the data they request, I’d recommend adding more features to really make it noteworthy. As it stands, when I want unbiased data on the iPhone 3G from voice commands I’ll just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 and either get the answer on the phone or have them SMS me. If I want similar functionality I can use programs like Nearby or Infospace. Meanwhile, if Say Where were to introduce real data instead of canned data, it would become ten times more useful.

Install the application, browse of search the included companies, and select the one you want. Direct Line then calls the number and preselects the appropriate choices to get you to an actual person.

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 iPhoneBejeweled Optimized for the iPhoneGreystripe iPhone 3G API Lets Game Developers Earn Ad RevenueStill No iPhone? Adopt a Virtual One.iPhone Opening to Third-Party Apps; Not Other NetworksMundu Optimizes Multi-Client Chat Tool for the iPhoneGreystripe Offers Hands-On Mobile Games for Free