Mosoto is a Web-based app for Facebook, giving you a virtual desktop with chat, music, and file sharing built right in. Mosoto allows you to chat with other Facebook friends and swap photos, music, and videos using a shared storage folder from Box.net. As a service, Mosoto is meant to replace desktop applications for chatting and music.
The music player's user interface takes a design cue from iTunes. Double-clicking a song starts playing it instantly, almost like it's running off your hard drive--a good use of streaming. You also can quickly make playlists with simple drag-and-drop functions. There's no album art for music tracks, which is a little disappointing. Adding your own files is intuitive and handled through the centralized uploader. Again, this is linked to your storage from Box.net.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Unlike the glorified message board that is Facebook, Mosoto enables you and your friends to interact live. The interface is reminiscent of Meebo, with hierarchical buddy folders, and features that let you set your online status and check buddy information. The chat windows themselves give you Facebook-centric options like poking, viewing user profile, sending a message through Facebook's e-mail, and adding people as a Facebook friend. You also have the option to check out users' shared media folder to view their content.
As a Facebook user I can see the use of Mosoto, but I wouldn't necessarily pick it as a replacement for iTunes and Trillian (the two apps I use for chat and music). I see elements of Mosoto fitting in as widgets, or something to be added to Facebook as a feature. Mosoto still ties into your Facebook universe, but in a way it feels somewhat distant and removed. Despite this, Mosoto is still slick and a smart application of Facebook's API, not to mention it's the first real IM for Facebook users. It will be interesting to see whether people will use it instead of their chat and music apps.
Mosoto is currently in private alpha, with the intent on a public launch next month. In the meantime, you can sign-up for Mosoto testing here.
You may have noticed that posting is a bit light here on Webware today, but it's not for lack of trying. Let me tell you what I've tried so far today, and why there are no good hands-on reviews.
Titanize, an online backup system that competes with Mozy and Carbonite: I installed this service on my father's PC, and it seemed to be working fine. Today I wanted to check out its advanced features (publishing, online access, and so on) so I could write up the review. Sadly, they didn't work. I can't get a backup to run on my own system, and trying to view files on another account gives me "file has been deleted" and other error messages. Update: A few hours later, everything seems to be working fine. Backups are running on my machine, and I'm not getting error messages anymore from the Web site.
PDFescape, an online PDF file viewer: An interesting idea, since it could add easy collaboration to PDF files. But the demo is limited to files under 512KB or 10 pages. That's a stopper, since the free Acrobat reader has no limitation. I tried a random assortment of six PDFs from my system. All of them busted one or both of those limits, so I gave up. Update: The developer is increasing the system's limits.
Peekamo, a potentially very interesting social network for mobile users: Claims to offer free SMS, even for people who usually have to pay for each message they send. But the interface and setup stymied me.
Mosoto, which looks like a very cool real-time accessory for Facebook: It lets you see which of your buddies are online and share music playlists. See TechCrunch's review. The founder e-mailed me to pitch it, but he didn't send a way to get access, so I can't try it.
Finally, Wishood. Good Valentine's Day angle here: This service lets you collect wishes (like an online gift registry) or give wish "grants" to other people. But, basically, it looks like a fancy online greeting card site, and it doesn't float my boat.
I am heading out to lunch now to clear my head and wish (hello, Wishood?) for some good Webware that I can actually cover. Later today I am meeting with the new CEO of Pageflakes and hope to report some interesting news from that.
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