Mashable dug down deep and analyzed the new MySpace TV in direct comparison with YouTube. Result? MySpace copies a bunch of stuff. 12 things to be exact.
Does YouTube have the perfect interface for video or what? MySpace isn’t the first to copy the design, nor will they be the last. It seems that a large number of video portals are mimmicking the design.
Rumor has it that MySpace has begun talks to swap the site for 25% of Yahoo (a value of 12 billion). Is MySpace worth this huge price tag? Only if they are able to maintain their current traffic rankings for the long term which seem to be in question as of late.
An awesome rumor has been kicked off by The Times: News Corp is discussing a swap of 25% of Yahoo for MySpace. Yup: they think that MySpace is worth a quarter of Yahoo’s $37 billion value.
170 million+ users (some of them real) in exchange for a large chunk of one of the Internet’s biggest players, albeit a struggling one? That said, MySpace is no longer considered the hot thing in social networking among early adopters: Facebook has taken that crown, although its growth has yet to match the rate of MySpace’s.
Google has rolled out an integrated PowerPoint viewer for Gmail which enables you to view PowerPoint presentations as slideshows in your browser, without any dependency on PowerPoint or any third party app.
When you open an email which contains a PowerPoint Presentation (with .ppt extension), you’ll notice a new option “View as slideshow” along with other options like “View as HTML” and “Download” links. The down side is that the built-in viewer doesn’t support sound effects and transitions, you’ll have to manually move through slides using the keyboard or the on-screen arrow keys. Sadly, it’s also a bit handicapped because it fails to recognize the new Microsoft Office 2007 presentation format (PPTX filetype) as a PowerPoint file.
Although Google’s PowerPoint Viewer needs some polishing to be done, it’s still a reason to worry for Microsoft because most users, who purchase Microsoft’s Office Suite, use it to open the documents they receive and rarely to create new ones. Google’s Presentation App, which not just lets you to view, but also edit and create new presentations, is arriving this summer. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!
[via: Google Blogoscoped]
Local internet celebrity Vinny Lingham has launched his much anticipated Synthasite project into closed beta. Truly one of the first world class web 2.0 apps to come out of South Africa getting reviewed on the holy grail of web 2.0 news, Mashable.
The goal of SynthaSite is to bring the offline functionality of a WYSIWYG web site editor like Frontpage or Dreamweaver to the browser in a rich Internet application. Synthasite enables you and your team to collaboratively work on your website design using the tools available within its service, which easily arrange text, images, badges and buttons to create a professional-looking site. There are a few items available by default, such as a YouTube video or a Flickr photo search, which can be dragged and dropped into your design. The functionality is very easy to maneuver, enabling novice users to create feature rich websites and easily choose between a selection of professionally designed templates!
Mashable is reporting today on Kevins surprise visit (via video link) to the TheNextWeb conference in Amsterdam and his plans for the future of Digg. Here are my thoughts on Kevins plans and how I think it may not be the best decision for the Digg community.
Kevin essentially announced that Digg is working on something big that will possibly be released in the next 6 months to a year which will change the site in a significant way. Basically they plan to increase Diggs exposure by increasing the categories on the site to include everything from restaurant reviews, products, pictures and pretty much everything else you can get your browser directed to. Read the rest of this entry »
Its not often these days that you see a piece of technology that makes your draw drop, yet Microsoft have done that to me with Microsoft Surface. If theres a better piece of gadget eye candy Id like to see it
Microsoft Surface is a touchscreen computer that allows you to interact with pieces of digital content as if they were physical objects on the table – to move, expand and even transfer content between physical devices, to create a music play list through drag and drop using your fingers. It even recognizes physical objects on the table and allows you to interact with them, from a wifi camera to a beer glass (so you can order another).
Take a look at this video over on TechCrunch that shows how easy it can be to transfer a picture straight off of a digital camera to the table, then from the table to a smart phone, without using any wires, just regular wireless network technology.
First users of the $10,000 device are retail outlets, restaurants and bars, and casinos. The device will be available later this year, and as manufacturing ramps up, it will most likely drop in price to a point where it could be a realistic addition to your living room. Imagine controlling your TV/Home Theatre through the table touch interface, rather than looking for a remote control.
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