Mashable is rocking the U.S. SummerMash Tour in New York City for our final stop on the tour. We’re at Touch and are ready to party with a crowd of 600 tonight. We have some exciting things in store and you won’t want to miss out. We’re also joined by our sponsors, Sun Startup Essentials, Yoono, mySites, MoneyStrands, Kickapps, ffwd and special friends Social Radi.us and Stickam.

Can’t make the event? No problem. Check out the live stream from exclusive video partner Stickam (after the jump). They’re conducting interviews throughout the night and reporting on the happenings at the event.

Want to join us on tour? Check out the other upcoming stops on the U.S. Summer Tour:Boston | New York City

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Qik Mobile Live Streaming Straight to Mashable Events PagesGet Your Startup on Mashable (If You’re in a SummerMash City)Swarmcast Moves Into Live StreamingSummerMash San Francisco Streaming Live [SummerMash Tour 2008]Streaming Live from SummerMash AustinStreaming Live from SummerMash LA [video]SummerMash Boston is Streaming Live

Source:Mashable!

Facebook’s new profile design and initiatives for developers promoting their apps within the improved Facebook navigation has led to none other than more tweaks on Facebook’s part. In this never-ending journey of improvement, Facebook is going to offer a new option for developers that displays their application’s metrics. This is being offered in direct response to th developer community, which is seeking better ways to understand their application’s performance.

The new section for developers will be a new Features tab in the Insights area of your application, which will show additional user stats pertaining to specific features within Facebook. Total counts for actions like canvas page views, clicks on profile boxes, confirmation on Feed forms, and the adding and removing of bookmarks lets developers gain more perspective on the activity occurring around their application. Better trend analysis allows developers to better their apps for future releases, and truly leverage the Facebook platform. The additional stats also allow Facebook to further differentiate its platform from other networks’ platform offerings, in hopes of providing a better experience for both the developers and the users.

Such a desire for additional information on the developers part isn’t entirely surprising, however, as Facebook spent the better part of the last 12 months rolling out new regulations for developer apps in an effort to curb any negative affects that could result developers taking advantage of the marketing capabilities of Facebook’s platform. As Facebook has also instituted some very stringent programs that encourage “well-behaved” apps in addition to more subtle incentives set up throughout the platform, it’s increasingly clear that Facebook needs to ensure a controlled environment for applications and user experience.

So with all these modifications that have taken place over the past year, the developers that have apps on Facebook’s platform are certain to want to know more about their performance, especially as there have been cases of apps being disabled for what seems to be no apparent reason.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Facebook Pulse KilledTripAdvisor: Facebook App Acquisition “Untrue”How to Spy on Your Customers: Networked InsightsYouTube Insights: Now With Demographic StatsBuild Your Own MySpace…Using MySpace’s Technology?YouTube Insights Gives Users Metrics for Their VideosFacebook Makes More Changes to App Notifications

Akamai is out today with their first "State of the Internet" report. The report is well worth a read as it covers a variety of topics including: security, connection speeds, geography, network access, and Internet penetration. Some of the interesting stats include:

• China leads the world in attack traffic including denial of service attacks.
• Nearly 30% of attacks are to port 135 which is used for remote procedure calls on Microsoft operating systems.
• In March 2008, more than 10,000 Web pages on hundreds of Web sites were infected by hackers looking to steal passwords used in popular online games.

Here are a couple of the charts from the report.

High Broadband Connectivity: Fastest International Countries

As you can see in the chart below, South Korea leads the world as the fastest country with nearly 64% of connections to Akamai occurring at over 5 Mbps. Japan ranked second and the U.S. came in seventh.

Slowest International Countries

For those countries on some form of broadband, here are the countries with the slowest (less than 256k) connections. Rwanda came in first with nearly 100% of connections on these slower broadband connections. The U.S. shows nearly 8% of all connections at this speed - my mother is one of those 8% as she is still on a 56k modem.

If you hadn’t noticed, I got married and went on a honeymoon. Did you miss me? Apparently so. Gizmodo gets banned from CES. Golson asks Calacanis for a job. Our very special correspondent pickets against the new pay system. Where’s was Denton with the “too insidery” warnings? Oh that’s right, blogging for Gawker. Here’s what really happened during the first two weeks of 2008, according to a speed-read of my feeds. On my next honeymoon, I’m bringing a laptop.

• Facebook is slower than a bunch of social networks you’ve never heard of, according to Watchmouse. Yes, Zuck’s baby is slower than RateItAll, Infield Parking, Buzznet and most especially, Consumating. Which is of course everyone’s favorite. MySpace is not on the list.

• The Pew Internet & American Life project discovered that Web video was more popular in 2007 than in 2006.
• Robert Scoble appeared on television. Twice.
• Iminlikewithyou founder Charles Forman told an audience of 450 that, despite what you’ve heard, he’s not actually an asshole.
• Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler posted seven times. 6-word version: Things are great. Ignore stock price.
• Jason Calacanis has 11,900 friends on Twitter, LinkedIn, Mahalo and Facebook. And 495 on Mahalo. By the way, he wants to have dinner with all of you.
• Yahoo’s CEO unveiled a new mobile Web platform at CES that will save the company. Just like it did last year.
• And, most notably, the Flight of the Conchords performed at CES:

(Photo by ThrasherDave)

Comcast announced today that it has surpassed Sprint to become the country’s fourth largest residential phone provider. Comcast currently has 4.1 million VoIP customers, all signed up in the past 30 months. [Epicenter]

Source:Valleywag

Apple’s iPod doesn’t just dominate our pockets. It’s reshaping how we listen to music in the home. The Consumer Electronics Association forecasts that speaker systems with iPod docks — everything from clock radios to fancy Bose players — will exceed sales of traditional compact shelf systems and home-theater-in-a-box systems (those fancy surround-sound stereos the Best Buy salespeoople keep pushing on you). The iPod speaker system market will grow an estimated 23 percent in 2008 to $1.07 billion, while the market for non-iPod stereo systems will slide to $1.04 billion. Since most stereos have built-in CD players, this sounds another death knell for the once-ubiquitous music disc. (Photo by Señor Codo)

There are plenty of conference events and parties to go to at CES 2008. The bloggers here never stop working, but what are bored mainstream-media hacks to do after they’ve filed their perfunctory handful of stories? Our short list of things to do in Vegas after the jump.

• Shopping: Your wife and kids want you to bring them back some Vegas goodies. Head to M & M’s World by the MGM Grand. You can get all kinds of M&M’s merchandise including clothing and every color of M candy imaginable. Not into M&M’s? Everything Coca-Cola is next door. Lots of classic Coke gear to purchase or head upstairs to the soda jerk and try the Tastes of the World, a taster kit of 16 different Coca-Cola products from around the globe.



• Free entertainment: Vegas is expensive, especially during a big conference like CES. Luckily for you, there are plenty of free attractions that are worth seeing. Head to the Bellagio after 8 p.m. The famous fountain show goes off every 15 minutes until midnight. Head to the entrance just to the right of the fountain and grab some gelato before the show.



• Strip shows: Besides gambling, Vegas is famous for its amazing shows. At Wynn, which has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive hotel on the strip, pick up tickets to Le Rêve, a Cirque du Soleil-esque production set in a very-impressive circular water tank. Beware, the show is dark Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan accordingly.



• Gambling: What would Las Vegas be without some gambling? Head to the Sahara for the lowest minimums on the Strip, including $3 blackjack. Make your gambling budget last longer while collecting as many free drinks as you can stand.
• Got your own tips? Put ‘em in the comments.

(Las Vegas Sign photo by fadedpictures, M&M store photo by Alaskan Dude, Sahara photo by Pocheco)

Source:Valleywag

Having plenty of time on my hands while my compatriots at Gizmodo blog blog blog it all at CES 2008, I took a walk around the press lounge to check the ratio of Macs to PCs. The latest numbers peg Apple with a 7.3 percent market share in the world at large. Will the the press lounge be full of fanboys or stodgy old corporate types?

In an informal survey, I spotted 129 machines: 94 PCs and 35 Macs (disclosure: including my MacBook Pro). That’s a 27 percent share for Steve Jobs & Co. And you wonder why tech reporters spend so much time writing about Apple?

There are plenty of conferences and parties to go to at CES 2008, but what are bored hacks to do after they’ve submitted their stories? Our short list of things to do in Vegas after the jump.

• Shopping: Your wife and kids want you to bring them back some Vegas goodies. Head to M & M’s World by the MGM Grand. You can get all kinds of M&M’s merchandise including clothing and every color of M candy imaginable. Not into M&M’s? Everything Coca-Cola is next door. Lots of classic Coke gear to purchase or head upstairs to the soda jerk and try the Tastes of the World, a taster kit of 16 different Coca-Cola products from around the globe.



• Free entertainment: Vegas is expensive, especially during a big conference like CES. Luckily for you, there are plenty of free attractions that are worth seeing. Head to the Bellagio after 8pm. The famous fountain show goes off every 15 minutes until midnight. Head to the entrance just to the right of the fountain and grab some gelato before the show.



• Strip shows: Besides gambling, Vegas is famous for its amazing shows. At Wynn, which has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive hotel on the strip, pick up tickets to Le Rêve, a Cirque du Soleil-esque production set in a very-impressive circular water tank. Beware, the show is dark Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan accordingly.



• Gambling: What would Las Vegas be without some gambling? Head to the Sahara for the lowest minimums on the Strip, including $3 blackjack. Make your gambling budget last longer while collecting as many free drinks as you can stand.
• Got your own tips? Put ‘em in the comments.

(Las Vegas Sign photo by fadedpictures, M&M store photo by Alaskan Dude, Sahara photo by Pocheco)

Source:Valleywag

Drudge has the latest Hitwise report on news website traffic. Yahoo News tops the list with 7.75 percent market share, followed by Weather.com with 4.65 percent. Yahoo is the monster in the space: by combining Yahoo’s news and weather sites, the company almost a 10 percent share of news views. That’s a lot of traffic, considering the next most visited new media company is Google News with a only a 1.65 percent share. Snag the full chart after the jump.

Having plenty of time on my hands while my compatriots at Gizmodo blog blog blog it all at CES 2008, I took a walk around the press lounge to check the ratio of Macs to PCs. The latest numbers peg Apple with a 7.31 percent market share. Will the the press lounge be full of fanboys or stodgy old corporate types?

In an informal survey, I spotted 129 machines: 94 PC’s and 35 Macs (disclosure: including my MacBook Pro). That’s a 27 percent share for the fruit company. Not bad.

Loren Feldman, the transgressive online-video maker and would-be comic, slams Scoble’s “woe-is-me” posturing over his Facebook ban. Play the video, or read on for the choicest bit.

He’s fighting for himself … It’s dishonest and it’s wrong. Facebook has a right to earn money. You agree to give them your data. Everybody knew about it going in, and that’s not good enough for Robert, because he thinks … he’s above another company’s terms of service … For Robert to wrap it up under the guise of “I’m a freedom fighter for your data” is just completely dishonest.

Source:Valleywag

Blogger Om Malik could never have predicted he’d have a heart attack at the age of 41. But he did foresee one thing clearly: He would never build a business on a single blog so closely identified with one author. His spinoff blogs — Web Worker Daily, NewTeeVee, Earth2Tech, and FoundRead — have not matched GigaOm’s success; of the four, only NewTeeVee, in my opinion, shows promise of being a breakout hit like the original. But unlike Michael Arrington, who built TechCrunch solely on his startup cult of personality, Malik has sought to diversify his media startup in a way that it can survive him. Until December 28, this was merely wise in theory.

Source:Valleywag

Nick Denton likes his blogs a bit dark. But his readers seem to disagree. io9, Gawker Media’s sci-fi blog, has been its most successful launch to date, with 750,000 pageviews, followed closely by Jezebel. Shiny, happy futurism and go-girl feminism sell better than bleak wit and sardonic jabs at the powers that be.