network

Mix faster, MixerCast

MixerCast is a new Web based tool for creating sharable slide shows. It pulls media from several different popular Web services like flickr, YouTube, MySpace, and Getty images, and lets users customize the look and feel with basic design templates. The show can then be shared with others through a direct URL or embedded into several social networks.

I've played with a ton of these tools since I started on Webware, but this is one of the few that actually emulates the feel of a desktop application. In this case, it feels a lot like one of Apple's consumer applications from the iLife suite. You can pick various elements to drag and drop into the template, like photos, videos or even a map from Yahoo (which, by the way, I found to be a little buggy).

MixerCast is definitely aimed at the social networking crowd. A few of its themes and templates, including one that's a full-on Pepsi advertisement, forgo a slick, clean look as you can get with a competing, mixed-media sharing tool like SplashCast. It's still really simple to put together a rich slide show, and share it with others, which makes it worth a try.

I've embedded a MixerCast module below, with pictures from last night's Digg 1 million-user celebration here in San Francisco. More screen shots of the user interface are shown after the jump.

BuyYourFriendADrink update: It works!

I'd initially been skeptical about BuyYourFriendADrink.com (BYFAD), the Web site that just opened today (see previous coverage) in which you can remotely order drinks for your friends that they can redeem at participating bars by showing the bartender a code in a text message. It's available at about 40 bars in New York City and the surrounding area, and the company plans to gradually expand to other urban areas over the course of the year.

I'd been pretty confident that the site itself would work, but I hadn't been entirely positive that the bars involved … Read more

Happy hour by SMS, with BuyYourFriendADrink

How many times have you been IMing with a friend or co-worker across the country, placed a bet ("If that Sanjaya guy gets the boot tonight, you owe me a beer!"), completed said bet, but had no immediate way to fulfill it because the other person involved was miles away? Well, now there's a brand-new solution--but just for New Yorkers, for the time being.

BuyYourFriendADrink.com was launched today and announced on the New York edition of e-mail events service Thrillist. BuyYourFriendADrink, or BYFAD, is a way to purchase libations for your friends online, which they can … Read more

Piczo goes multilingual

Piczo, which is a San Francisco-based social networking site for teens that touts extensive, parent-friendly safety features, has started to reach beyond the U.S. and U.K. The company announced an initiative to expand into other countries by introducing international versions of the site, and today, Piczo announced the first phase of this expansion: into Germany, France, and Spain. There are already sizeable chunks of Piczo's 25-million-member base from those three countries, according to an official release (including 1.2 million in Germany), but now they'll be able to opt into using the service in their home … Read more

eSnips launches Radio widget

Social networking and content-hosting site eSnips has rolled out a new feature in time for Web 2.0 Expo: eSnips Multi-Channel Radio plays music uploaded to the site by users.

Currently the channels are organized by music genre, but eventually users will be able to create their own personal radio station, which can include material across multiple genres of music.

All original material hosted on the site is eligible to be played on the channels. Users can "favorite" a song and rate whether they liked it or hated it. Each channel in a genre plays the 40 most … Read more

$3,000 for a cuddly social-networking toy?

In the '80s, it was the Cabbage Patch doll. In the 1990s, Beanie Babies.

What better toy to rule the millennium age than with a social-networking stuffed animal? A relatively Web-savvy concept by gift company Ganz, these plushies hope to usher in elementary-level children into the Web 2.0 realm.

Webkinz--stuffed animals that also live virtually through avatars that interact with others in their own online world--have become increasingly popular since their introduction in 2005. Like Beanie Babies, certain they're available for a only limited time, then retired. On eBay, the retired Webkinz Cheeky Pet Dog and Cat … Read more

DivShare adds video to file-hosting service

File-hosting service DivShare quietly launched a video-hosting service this morning. Designed to help users share short video clips, DivShare is taking a slightly different approach, letting people upload video files, up to 200MB, which can then be shared on social networks, blogs, and Web sites. Users can upload files anonymously or register so they can keep track of every file they've ever uploaded to the service. (Those file, according to DivShare, will "never" be removed.) Each time you upload a file, you're also given a direct download link that can be shared with others.

I wouldn'… Read more

LinkedIn rival Xing embarks upon a transatlantic trek

Here in the U.S., there's really only one big player in the sector of social networking sites geared toward professionals eager to make business connections: LinkedIn. Other business-oriented social networks have emerged, but none have shown signs of really eating into LinkedIn's stateside market share. That, however, is what Xing is trying to change.

Xing, formerly known as the less catchy OpenBC (BC stands for "Business Club") got its start in Germany and now boasts 1.69 million members. The company's moved beyond Germany largely through acquisitions and partnerships; when it expanded to Spain, … Read more

Coop for Firefox imagines browser-based social networking

Earlier this week, Mozilla Labs made news with its announcement of a social networking add-on called The Coop. According to the official post on the Mozilla Labs blog, The Coop is "a Mozilla Labs project to experiment with adding social tools to the Web browser." For those of us who know about Flock (download for Windows)--a Firefox-based browser with added "Web 2.0" features--that sounds like a very familiar concept. So what does it all mean for the future of Firefox and Flock?

Yesterday, I had a chance to briefly discuss The Coop with Chris … Read more

JVC's Sophisti DD-3 Network Media Player set to ship

Back in November of last year, our U.K. sister blog reported that JVC would be releasing a new line of sleek, flat-panel-friendly, virtual surround home-theater systems that also featured streaming media capabilities in a couple of the models. Well, word is that one of those systems, the Sophisti DD-3 is actually shipping--or about to ship--in the U.S. It carries a list price of $999.95 and seems semi-intriguing on paper.

JVC calls the 3.1-speaker system, "A new type of home theater system, featuring a Network Media Player that serves as the nerve center of the home … Read more