Microsoft socl Facebook rival resurfaces

Microsoft has quietly moved its “socl” social network while it continues to dogfood the new Facebook and Google+ rival, after the site was spotted in the wild back in November. The company dismissed socl – which builds interaction around Bing searches, among other elements – last month as “an internal design project from one of Microsoft’s research teams which was mistakenly published to the web”; however, Fusible spotted that the site seems to have reappeared at a new, even shorter domain, so.cl.

That move is unconfirmed, since Microsoft has been careful to batten down the hatches on so.cl and make sure nobody unofficial can gain access. The site presents nothing more than a message saying “We are in private beta” and a password-protected login; however, according to a check on the domain itself, Microsoft Chile registered the URL as far back as 2009.

According to Fusible, incoming web traffic had been spotted to their servers from cancun.cloudapp.net, and this week the URL began redirecting to so.cl/privatebeta. It’s unclear if this means Microsoft is nearing a point in time where it might launch socl officially, or that internal testing of the system has been ramped up a notch with broader participation. Alternatively, of course, it could all be an elaborate URL shortener, using the so.cl domain with some sort of link tracking system, though given the previous leaks that seems unlikely.

Microsoft is keen to downplay any suggestion that it hopes to rival Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Nonetheless, put together with the UI and feature leaks from November, and this new development, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to take the company at its word.

Google Music Opens For Everyone In The US, Features Full-Song Sharing To Google+

Today at its ‘These Go To 11‘ special event, Google just announced that Google Music — which launched over the summer in a private, invite-only beta —  is open to everyone.

The service allows you to upload your music library and stream it to all of your other devices. And while Google had initially stated this would be a premium service after the Beta ended, it has some good news: it’s going to continue free of charge. You can upload and store up to 20,000 of your songs without having to pay anything.

Google is also fixing Music’s biggest issue: you’ll now be able to purchase music via Android Market, which will let you purchase ‘millions’ of songs. Users can listen to 90 second previews before they buy.

There’s also some deep (and siginficant) Google+ integration: buy a song, and you’ll have the option to share that song to Google+ — and your friends will be able to listen to the entire song without having to leave their Google+ stream. They won’t have to buy anything and they won’t need to sign into a different account. This is big.

Update: I just shared my first song to Google+ using this feature, and there’s one catch Google didn’t mention: only people who are in your Circles can listen to the full track — if someone has Circled you (i.e., they’re following you), but you haven’t Circled them back, then they’ll only get a sample of the song.

Google Music’s new features are available immediately via music.google.com, and updated Android apps will be released in the next few days.

The labels who are on board: Universal, EMI, Sony Music (the holdout from the ‘big 4′ is Warner). Also includes numerous indy labels, ioda, The Orchard, and others.

To help get people to check out Google Music, Google has secured exclusive music from major artists, including some free tracks. Among the bands offering exclusives: The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Busta Rhymes, Shakira, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band.

The Stones will be releasing 6 live concert albums, which haven’t been released before.They’re launching one concert album initially, and will release the five others over 2012. Busta Rhymes will be debuting his new album exclusively on Google Music.

YouTube Confirms Plans To Take On Cable With ‘Channels’, Names Dozens Of Partners

YouTube’s ambitions to challenge cable television head-on are getting a big boost tonight: the world’s largest video site is announcing that

it’s lined up a slew of new content partners who will be developing shows for the site, covering everything from sports to comedy to music.

The news had been rumored for some time, including a report last week in the WSJ.

In a blog post announcing the news, YouTube says its goal with these channels is to “[give] you more reasons to keep coming back again and

again”. The post references the so-called “defining channels” born out of cable, like MTV, ESPN, and CNN, and says that the next generation of these will emerge on YouTube.

These channels will start coming online next month (“continuing over the next year”, so some will take a while), and will be available anywhere YouTube is.

There are some big names on the list. But there are still a lot of questions: Will this content really rival the premium production values seen on cable? Will the shows be exclusive to YouTube? And how exactly is YouTube going to tweak the site’s user experience as it looks to shift users from funny cat videos toward these shows (which advertisers will be able to more effectively monetize)?

Here’s a list of content partners that are part of this announcement:

Electus Channel – Pop Culture (name TBD)
PMC PMC Entertainment News
WWE WWE
Young Hollywood Young Hollywood Network
DanceOn DanceOn (Madonna)
Fine Brothers Films MyMusic
Everyday Health, Inc. Everyday Health TV
TakePart™ TakePart™ TV
Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG) Spaces
Uncommon Content Partners The Conversation Channel
Demand Media eHow Home
SB Nation SB Nation
Magical Elves and InStyle magazine Little Black Dress
Hearst Magazines Channel – Fashion & Beauty Channel (name TBD)
Emil Rensing International Channel – Auto (name TBD)
My Damn Channel My Damn Channel: Live
Uncommon Content Partners Taste & Access
Red Bull Media House North America Red Bull
Machinima Machinima
Katalyst Thrash Lab (Ashton Kutcher)
Steve Spangler Science The Spangler Effect
New Nation Networks New Nation Networks
Smart Girls at the Party Smart Girls at the Party (Amy Poehler)
Bedrocket Media Ventures and Full Picture Productions Look TV
BermanBraun theLOGE
The Young Turks Town Square
BermanBraun & Rodale Inc. Vigor
Electus NuevOn – Latin Channel (Sofia Vergara)
Clevver Media ClevverStyle
ModernMom.com ModernMom Channel
Brady Haran DeepSkyVideos
IconicTV 123UnoDosTres
The Wall Street Journal The Wall Street Journal
Pharrell Williams i am OTHER
SoulPancake Productions SoulPancake (Rainn Wilson)
Chopra Media/Generate The Chopra Well (Deepak Chopra)
Clevver Media ClevverNews
The Bowery Presents The Bowery Presents
Clevver Media ClevverTeVe
Seedwell American Hipster
Hearst Magazines Car and Driver Television
Alchemy Networks Alchemy Networks
CafeMom CafeMom Studios
Bedrocket Media Ventures Channel – Comedy (name TBD)
Demand Media LIVESTRONG
Bedrocket Media Ventures Channel – Action Sports (name TBD)
FremantleMedia Channel – Pets & Animal (name TBD)
Big Frame BAM
IconicTV myISH
Electus Channel – Food (name TBD)
Soccer United Marketing & Bedrocket KickTV
Lionsgate Lionsgate Fitness Channel
East of Center Productions LLC YOMYOMF
EQAL u look haute!
Philip Defranco Sourcefed
Meredith Corporation and Meredith Video Studios Digs
Vlogbrothers CrashCourse
Walter Latham Digital Walter Latham’s “Kings of Comedy”
Tony Hawk’s production company, 900 Films, Inc. RIDE Channel
JON M. CHU Channel – Dance (name TBD)
Vuguru & POW! Entertainment Stan Lee’s World of Heroes
FAWN by Michelle Phan Fawn
DECA KinCommunity
Source Interlink Media Motor Trend
The Nerdist Channel The Nerdist Channel
Comedy Shaq Network The Comedy Shaq Network (Shaquille O’Neal)
Demand Media eHow Pets & Animals
Brady Haran numberphile
Cooking Up a Story Food Farmer Earth
Bleacher Report Bleacher Report
TED Conferences TEDEducation
Intelligent Television Intelligent Channel
Pitchfork Pitchfork TV
Vlogbrothers SciShow
EYEBOOGIE POP SPOT
Roadside Entertainment/BAC The NOC
Alli Sports Alli Sports
The Onion Onion Broadcasting Company
VICE VICE
Smosh/Alloy Digital Smosh Animation (name TBD)
VICE Noisey
Knights of Good Productions Geek & Sundry
Mondo Media New Animators
BermanBraun & Rodale Inc. Taste
Varsity Pictures Awesomeness
Black Box TV Black Box TV (Anthony Zuicker, founder of CSI)
IGN Entertainment / Shine Group START
@radical.media Channel – Education (name TBD)
Frederator Networks Channel Frederator’s Cartoon Hangover
monotransistor werevertumorro
Thomson Reuters Reuters.com
Slate Slate News Channel
Maker Studios The Maker Music Network
Maker Studios The Moms’ View
Maker Studios Tutele
Noisey VICE
Iconic Life and Times (Jay-Z)

 

Google eyes bid for Yahoo!

“But the search company’s interest in Yahoo could be an attempt to drive up price for archrival Microsoft”

The pursuit of Yahoo seems to be heating up as a report Monday added Google to a list of interested suitors that is already said to include Microsoft.

It’s been widely reported in recent weeks that Microsoft is considering a new bid for the Internet pioneer. And this morning, the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that Google has met with at least two private-equity firms to discuss making a bid for at least part of Yahoo.

[ Get your websites up to speed with HTML5 today using the techniques in InfoWorld's HTML5 Deep Dive PDF how-to report. | Yahoo's would-be suitors Microsoft and Google respectively post better than expected revenues and battle with Oracle in court. ]

Discussions are still in the “early stages” and a formal proposal has not been put together, the Journal added.

Analysts say Google could be either trying to scoop Yahoo up for itself or to drive up the cost of Yahoo.

“For the right price, and if it can get past the regulators, yes Google wants it,” said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Reserach. “Google is a machine that turns its users into profits. This is an acquisition that makes more sense for Google than Microsoft.

“I don’t play an antitrust expert on TV, but I’d imagine this one would get some scrutiny,” he added. “But it’s a good idea. Yahoo has users and subscribers. It fits Google’s business model. The single largest asset is the Yahoo mail and group users.”

In fact, he said, buying Yahoo actually makes more sense for Google than it does for Microsoft.

Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, disagrees.

“My guess is that Google is driving the cost up for Microsoft,” Kerravala said. “I don’t think Yahoo does anything that Google doesn’t, so they don’t need them. And anything that causes a delay to Microsoft executing on something is good for Google.”

He added that anything that causes Microsoft to spend more money buying Yahoo — money that then could not be used to compete directly against Google — would be a big plus for Google.

Yahoo, which has fallen from its once lofty position as an Internet pioneer, has been in a state of flux. Just last month, Yahoo’s board fired then-CEO Carol Bartz.

Since then, speculation has blossomed that Microsoft, which made a failed bid for Yahoo back in 2008, is back in the hunt.

Last week at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said it was good fortune that his company didn’t buy Yahoo for a lofty price three years ago. It’s widely believed that if Yahoo sells now, the price would be considerably lower than Microsoft’s initial $44 billion bid.

Ballmer, though, did have several very good things to say about Yahoo, noting, “There’s a lot of great things at Yahoo. Our alliance is important. They have one of the biggest, most vibrant audiences on the Internet.”

Wikileaks Is Running Out Of Cash

Wikileaks is running out of cash. Or, rather, it can’t get its cash because of an economic blockade by Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and other financial institutions. The credit card companies started blocking payments to Wikileaks last year, and the inability to collect donations from the public via credit cards and other electronic transfers is taking its toll on the organization.

In a message on its website, Wikileaks announces that it will cease publishing new leaks until it gets its finances in order:
We are forced to temporarily suspend publishing whilst we secure our economic survival. For almost a year we have been fighting an unlawful financial blockade. We cannot allow giant US finance companies to decide how the whole world votes with its pocket. Our battles are costly.

Then it asks for a donation to help fight the evil banks. Of course, most people will find it difficult to donate if Wikileaks cannot accept credit cards. But there are other ways to get money to the leak-gathering organization, including bitcoin, Flattr, and, of course, direct deposit. Only about 5 percent of donations come through these alternate means.

Below is Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a smart-looking sweater explaining the dire financial situation Wikileaks is facing (and, of course, asking for money).

Crazy yet amazing photos

Amusing pictures from around the world – Posted in Yahoo!

ASIMO, a humanoid robot created by Honda, serves tea to a visitor during the Johannesburg International Motor Show at Nasrec in Johannesburg, October 6 2011.REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

 

Penzu – Your Online Diary

Write in Private.
Your own personal journal and online diary

Visit : http://penzu.com/

Penzu is unlike other services, especially blogs, in that your entries are private by default. This is true for writing on a pad of paper or in a paper-bound
journal–your work is private unless you decide to share it.

Taking that concept one step further, Penzu allows you to individually password protect each entry. Since your Penzu account is already password protected, entry locking acts as a second safeguard.

In order to ensure your entries are secure, sign up for Penzu Pro. Benefit from military-grade encryption and an unparalleled distributed security process

The Benefits of Dual Monitors

Honestly, I would rather just hire another employee to help me instead of getting another monitor. But it isn’t my call so I will take what I can get. I have quickly adapted to this dual monitor thing and have already increased my productivity.

Some basic examples of multi-tasking situations on a PC:

- Analysing spreadsheet data while compiling a report
- Emailing colleagues and clients while researching online
- Talking via instant messenger (MSN, Skype, etc) while browsing the web

By using a dual-monitor setup, you can easily and efficiently split the tasks into separate monitors and monitor/action them accordingly, while still having one main point of focus.

If you’re in business where your staff are actively using computers all day, try becoming more efficient with a dual monitor setup, which will aid productivity all round.

Multi-Monitor Support (VS 2010 and .NET 4 Series)

Visual Studio 2010

Taking advantage of the multi-monitor feature is really easy to-do. Simply click on a document tab or tool-window and drag it to either a new location within the top-level IDE window – or outside of the IDE to any location on any monitor you want:

Code source file support:

Demonstrates how code files can be split up across multiple monitors. Below I’ve kept a .aspx file in the main IDE window and then moved a code-behind file and a separate class file to a separate screen:

Designer support:

Demonstrates how a designer within VS can be split across multiple monitors. Below I’ve moved the WPF/Silverlight WYSWIYG designer and the property grid to a separate screen (the code behind file is still in the main window). Note how the VS10 property grid now supports inline color editors, databinding, styles, brushes, and a whole bunch more for WPF and Silverlight applications (I’ll cover this in later blog posts):

Google Music Store coming soon

Google has been in talks to offer its own MP3 music store for some time, but Android head Andy Rubin shed a little more light on the upcoming service today at the AsiaD conference, saying the service was “close” to launching.

Google couldn’t launch a full-service music offering earlier, so it launched a music locker that lets users listen to their music from the cloud. The record labels weren’t happy with that move, but Google has been persistent in wanting its own MP3 music offering to challenge established players like Apple and Amazon and willing to do whatever it takes.

Android boss Rubin didn’t reveal too much about the upcoming service outside of the fact that the service was “close” to launch. But he did indicate the service would be a little different from Apple and Amazon by offering “a little twist – it will have a little Google in it. It won’t just be selling 99 cent tracks.”

Google is in an increasingly challenging position because now Apple has iCloud for music storage and will soon have iTunes Match, a $25 a year service that lets people legally access almost any song in their iTunes library. And then there’s Amazon, which already has a strong MP3 sales catalog, its Amazon Cloud Drive for music storage and the upcoming Amazon Kindle Fire tablet that will have an emphasis on media consumption.

While Google launched Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich last night, we’re not sure at this point if the major software update will help the music experience. There’s no doubt Google will try to take advantage of the number of Android devices used around the world in selling music. But until Google can complete deals with the major music labels, we’ll have to wait and see what Google launches.

Would you like to use a native Google MP3 store on your Android phone or tablet?

Google introduces “Infinite Digital Bookcase,” acts as virtual librarian

Google introduced the newest form of bookcase to your browsers today — what it calls an “Infinite Digital Bookcase,” and damn does it look cool.

The company announced the bookcase in an official blog post.

With tablets and eReaders offering a number of new ways to experience books, the browser has been relatively ignored. However, not a lot of people consider getting into a bubble bath with their nice glass of wine and a laptop book to wind down the day, but you never know. To that end, the virtual bookcase may not be a competitor to the Kindle, but rather to the book discovery service overall. It could also simply be a way to funnel people toward purchasing Google Books, but it’s still pretty cool.

Google created the bookcase to act as an infinite loop of reading options. You can use your mouse to scroll through shelves of over 10,000 books available on Google Books that coil like Trajan’s Column. The column spins left, right, up and down. It uses WebGL, or a web-based graphics library, which interacts with Javascript programming language to allow for interactivity. WebGL can be found on most updated browsers.

Books on these shelves are separated into 28 different categories, bestsellers, and free books, which when clicked on, act as a virtual librarian taking you to the right section of the bookcase. It almost feels like something out of Harry Potter, being magically taken to your section on the column that seemingly goes on forever. The interactive bookcase also uses the Google Books API (application programming interface) to show title, author and a short synopsis of specified books.

Choosing a book is also visually tasty. Once you click on a book, it bounces similarly to how an icon bounces on an Apple Mac application dock. After loading, a 3D version of the book pops off the shelf and opens to show you the above content. In order to read the book you have the option to purchase it from Google Books or take a picture of the QR code with your mobile device to read it on the go.

The bookcase is available now to interested readers with an updated browser, but is still a little buggy given it is in experiment mode. Check it out here.

Bookworms using a modern browser can try the WebGL Bookcase today.  We recommend using Google Chrome and a fast computer with a powerful graphics  card. Even with new hardware, this interface is experimental and may not work on some machines. For more creative browser experiments, check out Chrome Experiments, a gallery of more than 300 creative projects made by developers and artists from around the
world, many utilizing WebGL.