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Yammer: A 'Twitter for the enterprise'

I recently covered Socialcast, a "Friendfeed for business," and liked it a lot. It takes emerging social interaction models that people are just now getting accustomed to and adapts them for business.

Here at TechCrunch50, the idea is also in evidence with Yammer, more of a "Twitter for business" than Socialcast, since it doesn't seem to be able to pull in external feeds the same way.

However, users can have threaded discussions, as they can on FriendFeed. Users can also use "hashtags" for tagging topics, and they can follow just those tags. Useful … Read more

G.ho.st gives users way to access their virtual computer on iPhone

SAN DIEGO--Why carry a computer laden down with data and applications with you everywhere when you could access all that information from any browser?

That's the proposition behind an Israeli company known as G.ho.st, which presented at DemoFall here Monday afternoon.

Already, the company, whose name is also their URL, has a browser-based version that allows anyone to access all this data from anywhere. The idea is that by doing it this way instead of through traditional virtual computer software, which requires a lot of configuration, you can access your data from any computer.

Now, G.ho.… Read more

Message Sling offers voice-to-text message service

SAN DIEGO--A new service announced at DemoFall on Monday allows people to use voice commands to retrieve and send e-mails and text messages over their mobile phone.

Message Sling's hands-free messaging service also lets people send dictated text messages, use voice to reply to e-mail messages, and listen to text-based messages.

The service lets people manage all their contacts, greetings, and messages into groups. Users can edit a caller's contact info and forward messages in e-mail.

For every message, the caller's number is automatically added to the contact list.

Asyncast delivers custom news to hands-free mobile devices

SAN DIEGO--We all spend a lot of time with our hands too busy to handle and manipulate mobile devices. That, for example, is one of the reasons many states now require drivers to have hands-free headsets for making phone calls.

But what if you're riding a bike and want to get news updates without having to play with your device in order to hear what you want?

That's the premise behind Rocketron, a new service from Asyncast unveiled at DemoFall Monday.

The idea is that users can speak commands into a headset, for example, "Sports news," … Read more

Maverick Mobile secures lost or stolen phone data

SAN DIEGO--For most of us, if we lose our cell phones our mobile data is at risk of exposure by whoever finds or steals the phone.

Maverick Mobile announced a new application at DemoFall on Monday that helps people locate their lost or stolen phone, as well as track the phone, retrieve the phone book, and disable the device remotely.

If the SIM card is replaced, the application sends information about the new account, as well as call logs and messaging history, to a remotely controlled reporting device that helps the owner track down the phone.

All the contacts can … Read more

SkyData puts all contacts on your phone

SAN DIEGO--Wouldn't it be nice to have access to the contact information from all your friends, family, and business associates in one place on your smartphone?

SkyData Systems announced at DemoFall on Monday a new mobile application that combines corporate and personal contacts and puts them one click away on a smartphone.

The mobile "mashup" allows easy access to information from a variety of sources, including contacts in Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others.

It also searches across structured and unstructured sources, offering targeted news feeds, data from the Web, and from back office apps. … Read more

Photrade lets photographers control their pictures, get paid for them

SAN DIEGO--These days, I hear about new photo sharing sites just about every day.

That's especially true when you go to a conference like DemoFall or its winter version, Demo, where over the years, I've seen more photo sharing sites than I could ever care to count.

At the same time, the stock photography business has been turned on its ear by the emergence of Web 2.0 and phenomenons like crowdsourcing.

On Monday here, a startup called Photrade took the stage to show off their new service, which combines both photo sharing and stock photography in a … Read more

UsableLogin lets you use one password for all sites

SAN DIEGO--The password problem may finally be solved!

Usable Security Systems announced here at DemoFall on Monday a new service that will let people use one password on any site on the Web.

Basically, you will only have to remember one codeword for all the sites you log into, once the UsableLogin service launches in early 2009, says Rachna Dhamija, CEO and founder of Usable Security Systems.

The authentication service strengthens the codeword you choose by cryptographically combining it with additional random bits of data. The additional data is different for each site accessed and is dispersed on your PC … Read more

TechCrunch50: New ways to read and react to news

The second session at the TechCrunch50 event was called, "Memes and News," and the companies presenting were all about mining the Web for information that's relevant to you. In other words, they are trying to reduce information overload. They approach the problem in different ways:

DotSpots is a "semantic annotation system." It lets users reading content on any site add their own text or media to the story. That's nice, but who will see the notes? DotSpots hopes that publishers will add the include to their services so they can take advantage of this &… Read more