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The Jonas Brothers totally want to add Mark Zuckerberg as a friend now.

The Jonas Brothers, that family of mop-topped teen pop-rockers who seem to be just about everywhere these days, are going to be debuting their new single on Facebook this Thursday.

They'll be performing the new song, "Paranoid," in the first of four Webcasts created with a Ustream app for the Facebook platform. Fans can access it by navigating to the band's Facebook fan page. The Jonas Brothers, who also were poster boys for the debut of the MySpace Music service, also will answer questions from fans and talk about their upcoming tour. That's at 5 p.m. PDT on Thursday; they'll host three more Webcasts on May 14, 21, and 28.

Over a million people have signed up as Jonas Brothers "fans" on the band's official Facebook page, but considering Facebook has over 200 million active users, that's a fairly small number. This promotional effort will undoubtedly shine a brighter spotlight on Facebook fan pages, which the social network has been hyping up a lot with a fresh redesign and prominent placement in the "streams" of members' home pages.

There is, however, a more significant impact to this announcement than just the synergy of one of this decade's biggest music sensations (I guess they're kind of like this generation's Hanson, right?) and one of its biggest tech sensations. "This marks the first time a U.S. musical artist is debuting a new song via a live Webcast series on their Facebook Page," a statement from Facebook read.

Yet song debuts are nothing new to the social-networking world: Debuting the stream of a new single or album on a social music site like MySpace Music, iLike, Imeem, and Last.fm (owned by CNET News publisher CBS Interactive) has become a regular promotional stop for artists looking to spread the buzz about new releases. Many of these services have a heavy presence on Facebook's third-party application platform, and Facebook even partnered with one of the most popular, iLike, to debut a Thievery Corporation album last year.

There have been rumors over and over again that Facebook was looking to start a music service of its own, or maybe to acquire one of the popular music apps on its platform. That hasn't come to fruition. But does this new move mean Facebook is starting to compete directly with some of the music applications that have made its platform so popular? Maybe.

We'll see when those totally dreamy Jonas Brothers show up there on Thursday.

First announced last week, live video streaming service UStream.tv's iPhone app is finally out and free for downloading. It lets you view live and pre-recorded UStream content from the comfort of your phone. I was using it to watch some of the inauguration coverage earlier this morning, however for most it will simply be a way to get at pre-recorded content from their device.

The app lets you both search and browse through UStream content, and will begin playing shows almost immediately. Included is live user chat, which is displayed below or to the side of the video, depending on how you're holding your device. You'll need to be logged in to see and leave comments, otherwise the space simply stays grayed out.

Watching shows on UStream on the iPhone is a breeze, the connection drops and Wi-Fi requirement might kill some of the fun though.

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET Networks)

The one big caveat with this app is that you need to be connected to Wi-Fi to use it, as the app does not yet work over 3G or slower EDGE networks. Attempting to use it without being connected to Wi-Fi simply kicks you back to your phone's home screen. The same thing happens if you go too far out of range of that Wi-Fi network. I see this as the one big deal killer, since you may not always be near a Wi-Fi connection when wanting to access UStream programming.

Besides video, the standout feature is the audio quality, which is comparable to what you'd get on your computer. This is no doubt due to requiring Wi-Fi. The audio I was getting from CNN's inauguration feed came in loud and clear.

Not so hot were the frequent stutters and dropped connections that made me miss several chunks of live footage while watching a buffering screen. If UStream can iron out some of these kinks and let users get a more lightweight stream over 3G, this app would be a real keeper.

Swedish search engine Twingly announced Tuesday that it has launched a new microblog search that will allow users to find information and users on sites like Twitter, Jaiku, Identi.ca, and others. Twingly's search service includes a widget that can be embedded into a blog. The company's executives say verbs like "save, retweet, reply, comment should be implemented in the search result."

WeFi, a company that provides information on where to find Wi-Fi hot spots, announced Tuesday that it has launched an online directory to find over 1 million different hot spots. More compelling, the company also announced that users will now be able to send a text message with their location to WeFi, and it will return a complete list of nearby hot spots. Unfortunately, the service charges 50 cents plus standard text-messaging rates. It's available now.

TechCrunch is reporting that online photo sharing site Flickr hasn't been serving ads properly over the past few days. When an advertisement is clicked, it's displayed in a frame inside the window instead of redirecting the user to the advertiser's site. Flickr has yet to comment on the issue.

Yammer, an enterprise microblogging solution, announced Tuesday that it has raised $5 million in a Series A round of financing that was led by the Founders Fund and Charles River Ventures. Yammer executives hope to use the funding to expand its presence in the enterprise space.

Online streaming service Ustream has launched its iPhone app that allows users to watch streaming Ustream channels from Apple's mobile device. The free app requires a Wi-Fi connection to work. It was launched in tandem with the presidential inauguration so users could watch all the festivities on their iPhone.

Today we have a new president to lead a new American path through what will be a tumultuous time. But President Obama won't be able to do it alone. He and his administration need to work together, and communicate with one another and the country, to ensure everything is running well.

That's why I've compiled a "cheat sheet" for the Obama administration, listing five services it should use in the White House. Sadly, it probably won't. Record-keeping laws and security concerns will ensure that none of my suggestions take effect.

AIM for White House staff

Why shouldn't the White House staff be able to communicate with one another over AIM? I'm sure many of them use it in their daily lives and bringing it to the White House to communicate quickly is, in my estimation, a pretty good idea.

Instead of forcing his staff to walk back and forth between wings and offices, what if President Obama was able to instant message his staff from the Oval Office. I can see it now: PrezObama312: "Where's the dossier on the Russian spy we've been tracking?" WHStaffer35: "IDK. BRB." PrezObama312: "K. G2G. L8r."

Wouldn't that be great?

BitTorrent for distributing government documents

I know BitTorrent has been the target of the RIAA and MPAA over the past few years due to its huge supply of copyrighted material, but why shouldn't the government embrace the technology and use BitTorrent to distribute information to the public?

Sure, there's always that issue of "pirates" running the service, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. Who will they tell? President Obama should look to BitTorrent as an ideal way to get the word out. The distributed network reduces the cost of running data centers by allowing all the network's users to share the load.

It makes sense to me.

Present.ly for internal microblogging in groups based on level

Aside from AIM, I think the Obama administration should use enterprise microblogging service Present.ly to allow White House staff and the president to communicate.

The real beauty of Present.ly is its ability to allow users to create groups. A top-level aide can put the president, vice president, and cabinet in one group so they can discuss world affairs in a Twitter-like format, and the rest of the staff can have their own group to take care of their own work.

Sure, someone might be able to hack their way into the president's Present.ly group ("Michelle10" is an easy password to crack, Mr. President), but it still would help the staff communicate far more effectively than walking back and forth between desks.

Did you see 24 Monday night? That's all they do.

Stickam for White House room streams

I don't know about you, but I'm not always convinced that White House staff is really working. I'm not even sure President Obama would ever really know if his staff is working. How could he? He's busy.

That's why he needs to install cameras throughout the White House and use Stickam to monitor his employees. At any given time, he can log in to Stickam, find the White House channel, and start viewing all the different rooms in the house.

I'll bet that would get everyone working.

Ustream with moderated chat for country-wide town hall meetings

Ustream is a fine video-streaming service that makes connecting with others simple and fun. It's also ideal for a White House town hall meeting where President Obama would be on camera and citizens from across the U.S. would have the opportunity to ask him questions in a moderated chat room.

I don't see any reason why the president shouldn't exploit Ustream in this way. He has shown time and again that he has a real desire to use technology to connect with the populace and capitalizing on Ustream to give citizens a voice would be just another example of him doing just that.

I realize that allowing citizens from across the U.S. to comment on the president's policies could be troublesome, considering millions would probably want to join in, but if the room had a cap on the number of people who could join, or an effective team that could moderate comments, I doubt it would be a problem.

I'd certainly like to join in on that chat.

Check out Don's Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.

Correction, 12:10 p.m. PST: This story misspelled the name of one of the private investors in Snooth. His name is Kevin Fortuna.

Apple announced Friday that over 500 million apps have been downloaded from its App Store. Amazingly, the company only reached 300 million downloads on December 5, meaning its App Store has enjoyed accelerating growth since the holiday season. The announcement, which was made in the form of an advertisement on Apple's home page, also claims that the App Store now features more than 15,000 apps.

A new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project says that more adults than ever are using social networks. That said, from a percentage perspective, there are still more teens using individual networks. According to the report, 65 percent of teens in the United States are using social networks, compared with just 35 percent of all the adults. But because there are more adults than teens in the country, the younger crowd is still outnumbered. Pew found that only 6 percent of adults in the U.S. use LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, and the majority of adults become part of social networks to "stay in touch with friends." The full report can be viewed here (PDF).

Web streaming service, Ustream, will allow its users to stream President-elect Barack Obama's Inauguration Day through their iPhone, a report from TechCrunch says. The iPhone app will be made available before the inauguration, and, once downloaded onto Apple's phone, users can stream any channel on Ustream directly to their iPhone. Ustream's iPhone app will be free and made available in the iTunes App Store.

Just in time for tax season, Intuit announced Friday that it has launched FreeLoader Nation, a marketing and social media campaign with MySpace. According to the company, FreeLoader Nation will offer access to TurboTax's free online federal tax preparation software, as well as other freebies like concert tickets. Once users sign up for FreeloaderNation, they will receive e-mail bulletins announcing updates and have the option of becoming friends with other members in the group.

Snooth, a social wine review site, announced Friday that it has raised $1 million in an angel round of financing. The round was led by private investors Joe Meyer and Kevin Fortuna. Company executives say they will use the funding to grow the service and improve site infrastructure.

Watch more than 100 live streaming video sites right on your desktop with StreamDesk.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If you've ever wanted to watch streaming video right on your desktop, and organize all your favorite streams in a single bucket, it's worth checking out StreamDesk. This cross-platform desktop application plays video streams from a variety of sources in a simple player that cuts out the browser completely and turns each show into a small, floating window.

Included are more than 100 various streaming video shows from a small handful of providers. If you come across one that isn't live, you're out of luck, otherwise live shows begin to stream in almost instantly. Shows you like can be bookmarked into a favorites list, and each has its own button that takes you right to its source page.

There's currently no way to add your own shows via URL, however the catalog is updated frequently and you can make suggestions for new streams by e-mailing the developer. Also, on StreamDesk, you're missing out on the integrated live chat on videos that are coming from UStream.tv.

If you're a Mac user you'll need to be running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) along with the latest version of Flash 10. Windows users need Flash 10 as well, along with .Net Framework 3.5.

(via FriendFeed)

There are seemingly more "livestreaming" services out there than people actually using them, but that hasn't stopped Ustream.tv from raising $11.1 million in Series A funding. The cash comes from venture firm DCM, as well as existing investors Labrador Ventures and The Band of Angels.

To be fair, Ustream has pulled away from the pack a bit: it's the streaming service of choice for some high-profile live Web events like the Digg Town Hall.

With the new cash, Ustream will focus on product development and "meet(ing) growing market demand for an interactive-broadcasting platform." In other words, it's to better compete as the space grows tighter.

New rivals such as Qik have more streamlined mobile capabilities built in, and big tech companies such as Yahoo have started introducing their own in-house streaming rivals.

Ustream cofounders Brad Hunstable and John Ham as West Point cadets in 1998

(Credit: The U.S. Army)

To many Americans with family members serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the most wished-for holiday gift is simply a visit with their far-off loved ones.

Ustream.TV, a start-up that lets people stream live video to the Web, is planning to help military families connect through the Internet this holiday season.

The company has given Webcams to people who have family stationed in Iraq, so they can access the Ustream service and take part in a video chat.

Ustream, headquartered in Los Altos, Calif., has a strong military background. Co-founders John Ham and Brad Hunstable met each other while attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The former cadets reached the rank of captain before leaving the Army.

Frank Caufield, co-founder of heavyweight venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is an investor in the year-old company and is also a West Point grad.

Wesley Clark, a former four-star Army general, is a member of Ustream's advisory board.

Ham and Hunstable last February

(Credit: Ustream)

"Having served five years and being separated from my family for a year, I know what it's like to be away from home during the holidays," Ham told CNET News.com on Thursday. "Military families sacrifice so much so their loved ones can serve their country. We're doing what we can to make a difference."

Initially, Ustream intended to send Webcams to soldiers in Iraq as well as their families. But Army officials nixed the idea for security reasons, according to an Ustream spokeswoman.

Soldiers already equipped with a Webcam will be able to broadcast themselves to their families at the same time their families will be visible to them. Service members without cameras can still watch on their computer monitors and communicate with loved ones through instant message or telephone.

On our weekly Real Deal podcast today, Tom and I discussed lifecasting (e.g., Justin.tv) and the live streaming tools ordinary people (as opposed to 24/7 exhibitionists) can use to broadcast their own cams in real time: uStream, Stickam, ComVu (review), and Veodia (review).

Here's the show:

Our discussion wouldn't be complete without a live demo of streaming, so Tom and I both streamed ourselves during the taping, using uStream. We had some problems (most related to the ancient laptop I used to record the show, I think), but I grabbed a recording of the stream.

We used uStream, by the way, because of all the live-streaming products I've tested, it's the only one with a good chat function. However, at the moment, the chat function uses IRC ports, which are blocked by many firewalls. A uStream co-founder told me that within a few weeks a new chat technology will roll out on the service, which will route around this problem.

Kyte.tv's (review) chat function actually comes close to uStream's, but it doesn't offer the real-time video, just timed snapshots.

If you want to join the ongoing discussion, come on over to the Real Deal forums .

Real Deal subscription links:
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