Filed under: Audio, Fun, Social Software, Beta, web 2.0

A lot of web apps seem to be targeted at problems that nobody actually has. SoundCloud is smarter than that, focusing on a problem we have at least once a week: what's the best way to send a song to a friend? E-mail is a pain, you might not have ready access to an FTP server, and those weird Rapidshare-style upload sites can be more trouble than they're worth.

SoundCloud basically does two things: it sends music, and it receives music. It's the ideal setup for sending around demo copies of that new album you just finished mastering, or sharing the latest hit single (that you would never pirate because you're a law-abiding Internet citizen). There's great control over email notifications for new tracks sent to you and new comments on your songs, and you can play a song right from your SoundCloud account before you download it.

In terms of comments, the SoundCloud system is awesome. You can drop in a note at a specific point in a track -- Viddler users might be familiar with this feature for videos -- and follow your stats to see how many people are listening to your stuff. This just scratches the surface of SoundCloud's features, so be sure to check it out and apply for an invitation if it sounds interesting to you.

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Filed under: Audio, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

XBMC is a media center suite that was originally designed for the original Xbox. But over the last few years XBMC has taken on a life of its own and has been ported to run on OS X and Linux. And if you don't happen to have a PC running either operating system or an Xbox lying around, now you can check XBMC out by creating a bootable flash disk version of the media center.

Theoretically, you should be able to boot XBMC on any PC no matter what operating system you're running. In practice, you'll need a PC that can boot from a flash disk and a supported graphics card (or some Linux hacking skills). NVIDIA drivers should be supported out of the box, but ATI and other graphics cards, not so much. The LiveUSB is based on Ubuntu Hardy Heron, so if you're up to the challenge, you might be able to add support on your own.

Creating the bootable media using Windows takes just a few moments. Just download the LiveXBMC image and builder files, unzip them to the same directory, insert a 1B or larger USB flash drive (which will be reformatted), and click the LiveUSBBuilder.exe file to get started. A few moments later you should have a bootable version of XBMC. Or a flash drive that will start to load the media center suite and then crap out about halfway through the process. But definitely one or the other.

[via Lifehacker]

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Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Social Software, Beta, Search

Microsoft's SearchTogether plugin for Internet Explorer 7 lets you share your search history with others. The plugin also provides tools for leaving comments and voting on search listings.

Why exactly would anyone want to use this service? Say you're planning a vacation and you're looking up air fare, hotels, tourist destinations, and restaurants where you might want to eat. As you search, you can save your history and share it with other members of your family who you'll be traveling with. You can also see the searches they've conducted and let them know what you think of the results. Of course, this is just an example. You can also work on group projects, plan a dinner menu, or look for birthday presents for your dad.

You need a Windows Live ID to run SearchTogether. But Microsoft doesn't require you to use Windows Live Search as your search engine. You can use Google, Yahoo! or Live Search, or select multiple search engines.

[via TechnoSpot]

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Do you have an idea for a widget or Facebook app? Maybe you either don't have the time or the full knowledge to actually make it?

You reallllly want to make Wolverines vs. Dracula Part 8 for Facebook, and it frustrates you. Well be frustrated no more, in steps Zembly.

As you know, companies have been formed around building Facebook apps, some of them have become wildly successful AND profitable. Now it's our turn.

Zembly is funded by Sun Microsystems and targets easy creation of applications for Facebook, OpenSocial, meebo, and other social platforms. Not to mention, they're blowing open the barrier to entry on creating these things, and starting a community around doing just that.

Today, Zembly has opened a private beta of their site which lets you very easily create widgets and apps in your browser. Check out their blog for more details.

Continue reading Zembly - Helping you widgetize, one app at a time

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Filed under: Internet, Kids, Utilities

ZAC (Zone for Autistic Children) is a Windows-only web browser designed specifically for children with autism (and other developmental disorders). The browser acts like a sandbox to isolate the children from things like Youtube, lolcats, and NSFW content, while providing access to educational games and resources that are particularly helpful.

ZAC has 5 main sections. It opens with a comforting, screensaver-like aquarium complete with fish, coral, and bubbles. There is a television section that lets the child select from video clips that come from Disney, Sesame Street, Pink Panther, etc.

The games section has a wide array of interactive (and mostly educational) games like Artbot Jr. where we were able to make a dazzling colored picture of a princess. A music area allows children to do things like play virtual instruments and listen to Wiggles songs. A story section rounds out the browser where children can listen to a birdie read nursery rhymes (with interaction) or make a lemonade stand with Elmo.

The ZAC browser is available as a Windows installer or a Windows .exe that requires no install (good for a portable drive).

[Via NPR Bryant Park Project]

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Filed under: Internet, VoIP

VoIP provider Skype lets you make PC to PC calls or make calls from your computer to a telephone. But if you live in the US, up until now when you made a call from Skype to a telephone, ther person you were calling wouldn't see your number on the caller ID. They's see some random string of numbers like 000123456.

Skype has now added a Caller ID option that will let you use your SkypeIn phone number or your cellphone number for Caller ID purposes. To activate the feature, just log into your account through the Skype web site, and select Caller ID from the Account menu. If you have a SkypeIn number to receive phone calls, that will automatically be selected as your new ID. If you'd rather use your mobile phone number, just enter the number and Skype will send you an SMS with an activation code. Note that it could take up to 24 hours before the changes take effect.

If you have multiple SkypeIn numbers with different area or country codes, you can also select an option that will automatically display a number that's local to the call destination when available.

Skype has offered a similar Caller ID feature for European customers for a while now.

[via Skype Journal]

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Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Video, Windows, Web services, Microsoft

Live video is all the rage with the kids these days. Some of us even hop onto the webcam. It feels like 1998 all over again. But Videoskin has tossed a wrinkle or two in there.

So you know about Camtwist, right? It is an application that lets you add effects and elements to your live video. Neato stuff. But Videoskin is more about fun and presentation and also has advanced technology that Camtwist lacks.

Videoskin lets you basically "skin" what you're showing to the web, and they've put out some free skins for you to try too.

Want to have a business meeting while in the Matrix? No problem.

The program can add a type of "blue screen" effect that removes you from the foreground and background and then tosses in some nifty animations. All on the fly.

You don't need a blue screen though. There's an intellectual algorithm that splits the video image into three parts and separates you from your environment automatically.

VideoSkin warns that the "blue screen" effect is very CPU intensive, but then says that the CPU stands idle a lot, so it shouldn't affect performance. We're not entirely sure what that means, but your experience will probably depend on what type of computer you're using.

Right now Videoskin is only available for Windows on XP or 2000. Good call, don't waste time on Vista.

Sounds super complicated to us, so let us know what your experiences are. Give it a download!

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Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Browser Tips, Unix

It's been a few years since the Opera web browser's interface got a major overhaul. But now the Opera Desktop Team has posted an updated version of Opera 9.5 beta which features a shiny new theme.

The new theme is a bit closer to what you'll find on Opera's non-desktop browsers, including Opera 9.5 for Windows Mobile and Opera for the Nintendo Wii. Aside from a darker look, there are a few nice features, like an animated stop/refresh button that turns red when a page is loading, and green when it's finished.

There's also a new settings icon in the main toolbar that lets you open the side panel to launch the Opera Widget engine, bookmark sidebar and other tools.

The updated version of Opera 9.5 beta is a development snapshot, so there are some known issues. But there's an option to install this version side by side with an existing version of Opera so you don't lose your settings.

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Filed under: Audio, Internet, Photo, Video, Windows, Macintosh, P2P

So in our last post about the P2P media sharing site CloudFire, y'all jumped in and answered our question about BitTorrent's Bram Cohen.

This time around, there are no questions to answer. It's first come, first serve.

We have 100 invites to the first lucky folks who use "downloadsquad" without quotes naturally to sign up here.

We've had a bit of a play with CloudFire and the things that jump right out to us is that it seriously is easy to share media files with people who might not be as geeky as a lot of us are. And you know what, us geeky people like easy things too, that's why a lot of us use Macs.

There are some random issues as expected, and you have to make sure that the person connecting to your media has the most updated version of Flash, but other than that it works nicely. A good amount of bandwidth on your end doesn't hurt either.

They're completely open to your feedback and have been asking us what we think.

It's still very pre-beta and stealthy so here's your chance to join in!

UPDATE: If the code doesn't work then you might not have gotten in on the 100 invites. If we get more, we'll pass along the word!

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Filed under: Blogging, Productivity

If you love writing, but hate the grunt work of blogging - like inserting relevant links, tags, and images, Zemanta might be for you. It's available as an add-on for Firefox or Internet Explorer, and a plug-in for Wordpress or Movable Type, and it automatically adds some useful stuff to your blog posts in progress on most of the major blogging platforms. It suggests links and applies them to the relevant words in your post with one click, and it also provides tags and a gallery of Creative-Commons-licensed Flickr photos you can drop in.

Zemanta currently supports Wordpress, Movable Type, LiveJournal, TypePad and Blogger, so the majority of blogs should be able to make use of it. It might be too blunt an instrument if you've got a really specific linking scheme going on at your blog, but for a post like this one, it came in handy: it automatically linked the word Zemanta to zemanta.com. Hey, we were going to do that by hand anyway. More importantly, it also grabs links to stories from places like CNN, the New York Times, and Technorati.

[via WebWare]

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