vello

Equals Party Line: Instant group voice chat for your Facebook pals

Equals' Party Line is a new, free voice conference app that lets you instantly connect with up to five of your friends in a voice conference. Unlike the business-focused Vello, which we also like, Party Line is limited and designed primarily to connect you with Facebook buddies. However, you can cram non-Facebook users into it and it could easily be used in work settings.

Once you set up your "party lines" and invite friends into them, kicking off the voice chat is a snap. You can either initiate the conference from the Facebook app, or just call the … Read more

5 impressive new business Web apps from Under the Radar

Josh and I spent a day working the Under the Radar conference last week (see all stories). Actually, Josh was working; I was onstage hustling start-ups on and off the stage. We saw about 40 business-related Web 2.0 companies. Most of them were very early-stage, so you might not want to entrust your business to them. But there were several apps that were more developed, and a few that are worth looking at even though they're not.

As I wrote after the Demo conference, I am amazed by what people are doing with Flash and AIR apps. Two … Read more

Under the Radar: Making the phone more Web 2.0

The Under the Radar conference kicked off this morning with one of my favorite panels: three video and voice companies that are trying to take services we're already using and make them better.

First up was Eyejot, which we've covered several times. The core service revolves around video e-mail, although it has recently moved into other areas like Eyejot This, which lets you annotate Web pages with video clips from your Webcam (and even share them via Twitter). There's also a platform that lets site owners add video notes and mail to their service.

There are two … Read more

Meeting up made easier

This morning at DemoFall, we jump right in with applications to schedule and conduct meetings.

Tungle (previous coverage) is a plug-in that works with Outlook, and soon, Lotus Notes, Google Calendar and iCal. It's basically and IM client, a download that's preloaded with Outlook contacts. The other person you invite that doesn't have Tungle will get asked to join if you message them to set up a meeting. (Hmm, that could be annoying.) The company says to think of Tungle as your "private Exchange server to the outside world." We first saw Tungle at Under … Read more