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The 404 1,067: Where tweets look better from behind (podcast)

Years from now, when our children are grown, we'll tell them we were all online when a single Web site changed the way we use the Internet. Unfortunately, Chatroulette stumbled after racking up more than a million users thanks to a certain part of the male anatomy, but Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning have teamed up again for a video-chat pivot called Airtime.

Though it's not ready for deployment yet, Airtime is already getting support from celebrities like Jim Carrey, Alicia Keys, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus who can't wait to start a random conversation with a Facebook user online. The service is different from Chatroulette in that it actually protects the eyeballs of its users from "vulgar behavior, sexually suggestive behavior, violence, and animal cruelty". In other words, nobody associated with The 404 will receive an beta invite.… Read more

Airtime: Chat with strangers about wolves and time zones

I have to admit, the new Airtime video chat service looks and feels cool. Certainly, that can be traced to its founders, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning of Napster fame, among other things. Parker wasn't just the cool guy who lured Mark Zuckerberg to the West Coast in "The Social Network." His playlists on Spotify have also become one of my favorite places to find new music, and his spectacles are... well, I'm sure some people like them.

Given this duo's trend-setting credentials, it is with much trepidation that I express my utter bewilderment at how Sean/Shawn could think that anyone actually wants another video chat app trying to force random people to stare at each other and discuss the latest episode of "Mad Men." … Read more

Sean Parker's Airtime not ready for prime time

NEW YORK--To launch his new start-up, Sean Parker should have spent less of his billions on celebrity guests and more of it on fixing his technology.

Parker and Shawn Fanning, his ol' partner from the Napster days, today unveiled Airtime, a Web video chat service designed to take up where Chatroulette left off. The launch event was a glitch-filled disaster -- or a marketing coup by Parker.

As he addressed a crowd of journalists and celebrities, Parker's attempt to demonstrate the service was foiled at every turn. Numerous attempts to connect with celebrities via the Web service failed. Not … Read more

Sean Parker's Airtime video chat service launches

NEW YORK -- After months of hype, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning's latest venture, a video chat service called Airtime, launched today.

Airtime has been described as an evolved version of Chatroulette, a video service that randomly matched up people for chatting. The new venture matches people with common interests and social connections in video chat sessions.

It is the latest undertaking from the co-founders of Napster, which helped revolutionize how music was obtained over the Internet. While Napster ultimately faded away, it fundamentally changed how the music industry operated and viewed online content. Parker and Fanning are hoping … Read more

Sean Parker books 'Airtime' to talk about his latest startup

The boys who brought Napster to the world -- Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning -- are getting ready to reveal details of their next, still stealthy startup.

It's called Airtime, although a year ago the project apparently was going by the name Supyo, and it has to do with live video. And, naturally, social media -- a familiar world for Parker, who was Facebook's founding president and is currently a backer and board member of Spotify.

Few details exist yet, but last year TechCrunch reported that the startup is a Web-based video chat service that aims to connect … Read more

Facebook inserts 'listen' button on musicians' pages

The ways to listen to music on Facebook continue to grow. The social network launched a "listen" button on music artists' pages today.

On the top right corner between the "like" and "message" buttons on musicians' fan pages, users can click "listen" and be guided to songs on any of the music streaming services the user has signed up for, such as Spotify and Rdio.

This is different than the "listen with" buttons users can click when they see what their friends are listening too; those buttons were created by … Read more

Parker, Fanning: Napster was still better than what we have now

AUSTIN, Texas--Despite the success of Spotify and its competitors, music sharing still hasn't caught up to what Napster offered before being neutered by the courts, that service's founders, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, said today.

During a on-stage discussion at South by Southwest here, Parker and Fanning argued that though new technologies and licensing models finally allow music lovers to legally access and discover vast collections of songs online, even the best new services are still philosophically behind what Napster originally offered its users.

Parker, who appeared earlier this week alongside former U.S. vice president Al Gore … Read more

Facebook readying new premium ads?

Facebook is expected to launch an upgrade next week to its premium ads program that will target the friends of advertisers' fans.

The new ads, which will launch February 29, will be created from content posted organically to pages, according to a purportedly leaked document (see below) obtained by GigaOm.

"Anything you can post to on your page, you can turn into an ad," the document says. "Upgraded ads can be targeted to anyone you want."

When the users seeing the ad are friends with fans of the page, Facebook will automatically expand the ad and … Read more

Shine a light on this grill fan

Standing over a hot grill isn't a bad place to be, especially when faced with your own personal fans.

The powerful scent of barbecue wafting through the air is a surefire way to attract the attention of anybody and everybody within a reasonable distance. Adding a little breeze to a cookout has an additional effect aside from being able to easily meet the neighbors.

Directing smoke toward where it's desired, the Sharper Image BBQ Grill Light & Fan attaches to the grill, making life easier for the grill-master. Designed to not only cool down the cook but also … Read more