directivesdigest.com

Obviously, it never really caught on: Wallop was never talked about in the same sentences of even third-tier social networks. As we saw with the demise of Yahoo Mash last month,Louis vuitton Watches, big-tech backing is by no means a guarantee of success when it comes to social networking.

A would-be social network called Wallop has shut its doors, according to a message on the home page.

But Wallop wasn’t just another tale of crushed Silicon Valley dreams. The site,Pearl Jewelry, which once aimed to compete with the likes of MySpace, had backing from none other than Microsoft.

In 2005, the software giant announced an initiative to license the products of its research labs to select start-ups, one of which was Wallop. It launched Wallop at the Demo conference in 2006, offering a business model that echoed of virtual-world avatars: you’d pay for modifications to spruce up your profile.

“Thank you for being part of the Wallop beta social-networking site,” the message reads. “We really appreciate your feedback and support. The beta period will end on September 18th, 2008–after that date, you will no longer be able to access your account.”

Wallop had also raised a round of Series A venture funding from Bay Partners in 2006.

Microsoft hadn’t invested in Wallop in the traditional sense,Hermes Watches, but it was Microsoft researchers who built the technology that powered the site and then spun it off as a standalone business.

Custom-designed modules with more of great content from select publishers (such as New York Times, People, Wall Street Journal, etc.) New and improved Yahoo! modules, including Top Picks from Your Page, Flickr, Note to Self, To Do List, Movie Showtimes, Scoreboard, Stock Portfolios, TV Listings, Calendar, Yahoo! Buzz, etc. New modules that provide access to third-party services (i.e., Netflix, Gmail, POP mail, Facebook) New header with easier customization tools for adding content and choosing options, as well as tabbed browsing for multiple pages More control, with additional page layout options, a less intrusive advertising approach, and easy drag-and-drop functionality

On Monday, Yahoo will begin the weeklong roll out of the new My Yahoo to users in all markets. The start page service is graduating from the much-coveted beta status, and integrating improvements made over the last several months like new and third-party content modules, a streamlined header, and advertising that’s not as in-your-face as previous iterations. (See full list of updates below.)

The move paves the way for Yahoo’s open-platform strategy, which was announced in late April. It lets developers create widgets that work on other Yahoo properties and OpenSocial in the hopes of expanding how and where content can be used.

From the release:

All My Yahoo users should have the new version of by July 14.

My top 3

Social film going

My Movie Reviews My Movie Reviews is one of the least-useful apps in this roundup, but if you’re a frequent moviegoer, you might like it.

My Movie Reviews needs more movies to review.

LivingSocial: Movies LivingSocial: Movies is my favorite movie app on Facebook. It’s useful, unique, and effective at tracking film interests.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Overall, the quiz is quite difficult. Unless you’ve seen several movies and you can remember obscure scenes, you’ll probably have trouble answering questions. If the quiz isn’t for you, MatchFlick also provides information on the latest DVD releases, what’s playing in theaters, and reviews. It’s a full-featured app, but its design and menu system make it difficult to sift through all the extras it offers.

Flixster Movies is like having the full Flixster experience in Facebook. You can review films, take quizzes to test your knowledge, connect with other app users, and research films you’re interested in. It’s a full-featured product that works quite well.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

2. Flixster Movies: It’s a close second. Flixster Movies is a fantastic app for film buffs.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

A long name, but it's worth checking out.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

1. LivingSocial: Movies: With so many great features, LivingSocial: Movies is simply the best app in this roundup.

After you add the app to your profile, you’ll need to watch a full movie clip. When you find the problem with the scene, you can click on it on the area where the mistake is. You’ll start out with 3,000 MoviePoints. If you guess wrong, you’ll lose 100 points. When you accurately identify the problems, you’ll receive 100 MoviePoints back. It’s an addicting game, but it’s extremely difficult.

My Movie Reviews is a bit of a misnomer. You can’t review any movie you like. Instead, the app limits your reviews to the films that are currently in theaters. When you see those movies, you can use the app to write a review, choose a star rating, and post that to your Facebook wall. Creating the review is simple, but not having the ability to write a review on any movie detracts from the experience. My Movie Reviews is a great premise, but limiting reviews to only those films in theaters is a major problem.

After you add the app to your profile, you’re immediately presented with several films. You can choose the film you like and request them to rent it at the movie store. It might sound rather simplistic, but the app can be an effective movie-recommendation engine, since friends’ opinions matter so much. A larger listing of films would have been nice, but the app is still worth checking out.

Flixster Movies provides a full social movie experience.

Movie Expert MovieExpert is a neat game that lets you watch clips from different movies to find their “goofs.”

Once you find what you’re looking for through the app’s search field, you can add it to your listing. Those movies can then be viewed by other app users. The app lists over 1,000 films. And since you can rate your listings, you can see how much you liked a movie, compared to your friends.

If you’re a film buff, you might be happy to know that Facebook apps are available that will help you stay up-to-date on the industry, while giving you the option to tell all your friends what movies you love. Some of the apps are better than others, but one thing is certain: if you’re a real movie fan, you need to add at least some of them to your profile.

LivingSocial: Movies starts by requiring you to add movies to your listing, saying what you have watched, what you’re currently watching, or what you will soon watch. You can also rate each film out of five stars. From there, LivingSocial: Movies provides you with recommendations of films you might like based on the movies you rated highly. The app even lets you create a top 10 list to let all your Facebook friends know which movies you love. LivingSocial: Movies is a must-have.

Blu-ray Collection Blu-ray Collection provides an extremely useful way to track and share your Blu-ray collection.

Movie Expert asks you to find the problems with each film scene.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

If you go to the Video Store buy something for me It might have a long name, but If you go to the Video Store buy something for me is a neat app that lets you share your movie interests with all your friends.

LivingSocial: Movies has a great recommendation engine.

Flixster Movies Flixster Movies connects you with other movie fans to talk about your favorite films. The app also lets you update your Facebook status with the movies you want to see in theaters.

MatchFlick MatchFlick’s chief function is to provide you with a quiz that, so far, has over 7,000 questions. The more questions you answer correctly, the higher your global rank on Facebook.

Blu-ray Collection keeps all your movies in one place.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

3. Blu-ray Collection: There’s no better way to track Blu-ray films.

MatchFlick quizzes you on your movie knowledge.

Richard T. Stuebi is the BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement at The Cleveland Foundation, and is also the founder and president of NextWave Energy.

Interesting watching; have a look.

For a while now, I’ve been reading bits and pieces about the concept of geo-engineering: undertaking macro-scale actions in the atmosphere to counteract the impact of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. From what little I’d read, it seemed like the ideas of crackpots.

No kook, professor Keith argues that it’s very possible to inject large quantities of sulfates high above the stratosphere, and in so doing put a brake on climate change far more rapidly than can be accomplished by shifting our energy system to reduce emissions.

That was until my Cleveland Foundation colleague Kathleen Cerveny sent me a most intriguing link to a videoed lecture by David Keith from the University of Calgary on the Web site TED.

He also points out how dangerous this Pandora’s box of geo-engineering would be to open. It seems akin to the dilemmas associated with the discovery of how to harness atomic energy: once you know about it, it so profoundly affects the future fate of the human species that it becomes imperative to institute a global approach to controlling this knowledge for the forces of good rather than evil.

In this talk, he leaves unstated the technological approach for accomplishing this task, though he claims, interestingly, that it could be done at relatively moderate costs of a couple percent of world GDP.

• David Carnoy wonders, “Is Microsoft finally in the Blu-ray camp?”

• Fujitsu gets all its best ideas from “Mission: Impossible.”

• The zombie herd of dead retailers brought back to life grows, thanks to Systemax.

• CNET Reviews takes a gander at Acer’s new 13-inch slim laptop.

• Microsoft acknowledges the widespread E74 Xbox problems and guarantees warranty coverage. Let’s hope they learned from the RROD repair fiasco.

(Credit:
Photobucket)

• A new, updated
Zune may or may not look like this.

In between the blanket coverage of Ashton Kutcher and CNN’s (befuddling) race to a million Twitter followers, and the service’s giant step into the mainstream with the endorsement of one Oprah Winfrey, there was other tech news. Here’s what you may have missed this week:

See anything we missed? Write to us at crave dot cnet dot com.

We think? We think? This might be a U.S. assault on Iran. And all they can say is “We think”?

If this commentary had appeared on NBC TV, the commentator in question would have been removed from his post quicker than persons of color and Mongolians have been asked to be removed from the bars of Beijing by the authorities. This commentator would have been sent to televisual Siberia.

Meanwhile, the NBC livestream commentary is now telling me this: “Apologies for the data stream in the play-by-play window. We are trying to remedy the situation.”

Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.

I am sure that you were fearing censorship at these Beijing Olympics.

Looking beneath the screen, I see that his name is Zhang and he is in 135th place. Who knew there would be that many riders in this, um, race over some sort of distance along misty roads that resemble London at six o’clock in the morning (except that there are no drunks visible)?

I am tired, however. This has been live, uncensored (by NBCTV) online footage from the Olympics. I am comforted to know that I will slide beneath my comforter still a free man.

There is a wonderfully eerie quality to the live online footage of this Olympic Some Sort of Cycle Race Along Roads.

Censorship by those folks at NBC who would prefer you to watch what they want you to watch and, most specifically, when they want you to watch it.

Well, here I am live on a Friday night, freely watching NBCOlympics.com, and witnessing the quite glorious sight of a Chinese cyclist trying to mend his bike.

No, I don’t think they are four feet, eleven inches down. I think those are minutes and seconds. But all I can hear is the silence of a few rubber tires passing through a tunnel.

(Credit: CC Tama Leaver)

No voice is there to lead me through my bewilderment. No words of wisdom help to create excitement. Just the vague whistle of a spoke in the wildnerness. This is the live NBC Olympics.com experience.

Ah, NBC has heard my pleas and an overlay has appeared to tell me that we are watching a men’s road race. The overlay, however, only stays on for a few seconds. Then it disappears again. So now I must rely on the official NBC Olympic online commentary.
Here is the latest:

The riders, however, ride on. To the muted shouts of spectators who bang thunder sticks against the roadside barriers, as if they were praying for Kobe Bryant to miss another free throw.

I continue to ponder these words, watch the struggling bottom of the Iranian cyclist, and listen to the echoing nothingness that accompanies these besottingly shiver-making live images.
It is as if NBC has hired John Carpenter to direct their online Olympic coverage.

It looks to me as if his back wheel has suffered a case of the bends.

The picture quality is quite spectacular. The mist is so real it could not possibly have been photoshopped in there by the Chinese authorities to provide some extra menacing ambience. This makes YouTube seem like student video. (Which I know some would contend it is.)

The Beijing Olympic mascots. One from the right, The Tibetan antelope. Really.

Free from the tyranny of NBC TV and happy in the otherworldly bosom of NBCOlympics.com.

They cannot get a handle on the data. They are out of control. We have a situation here, people.

The scrolling commentary has political news: “Iran, USA detente at the head of the main peloton as Iran’s climber Hussein Askari takes a flyer and is joined by (we think) USA’s Jason McCartney.”

This is how he has just spoken to me in writing: “The first time up the major climb of the finish circuit has substantially damaged the peloton, but we are still waiting on names and time gaps.”

No, not censorship by the Chinese.

Wait, wait.

And I can barely wait to see what he will do with the Romania versus Kazakhstan women’s handball game.

“The leading pursuit has shed some riders as they press towards the finish line 4′11″ down on Patricio Almonacid.”

So this commentator is telling me he has no idea who is winning, no idea who is second, no idea who is third, and no idea of the time differences between the riders.

Here’s what is strange about NBC’s online coverage: I have no idea what I am watching. Yes, I have clicked on the commentary, which takes the form of a live blog stream–except that the writer is endearingly honest about his predicament.

Although the ads are unlikely to mention Apple by name, they will target some of the
Mac’s limitations and highlight the breadth and choice that Windows allows.

The software maker also has a new engineering team that Brooks said is working “hand in glove” with computer makers to reduce the time it takes Windows PCs to boot, wake from sleep and to initially get up and running out of the box. Systems that have gone through Microsoft’s new process will start showing up this fall from all the major computer makers and get highlighted on Microsoft’s Web site. Microsoft considered having some sort of logo to highlight the machines that got the extra attention, but opted against such a move, Brooks said. The company has also revamped its Windows.com site.

Brooks acknowledges it will take more than just ads to improve Windows’ image. The key, he said, are the substantive changes the company is making, such as trying to improve the experience for buying Windows PCs as well as getting machines up and running. Here, Microsoft appears to be taking a page or two from Apple’s playbook.

Microsoft is setting up store-within-a-store locations at major retailers like Circuit City and Best Buy, a concept that Apple employed at both Best Buy and CompUSA. Microsoft is also hiring between 100 and 200 “Windows Gurus”–Microsoft employees that will be positioned at retail stores to help customers learn more about the operating system. Like Apple’s Geniuses, Windows Gurus won’t be paid commissions. Instead, Brooks said, they will be compensated in large part based on customer satisfaction.

“We don’t get to come in after being silent in the marketplace for so long and just start saying, hey, here’s what Windows is, and here’s what it stands for, and here’s the specific products we want you to try.”

Microsoft has set up this "retail experience center" at its Redmond HQ as a means to learn more about how people shop for Windows PCs.

On the advertising front, Brooks said Microsoft’s pitches will start to get more concrete in about a month, centering on the notion that “Windows stands for living on your own terms.”

If you want more from CNET News’ Ina Fried, check out her Twitter feed at twitter.com/inafried.

“It’s got a lot of people talking and that’s exactly what we wanted,” said Brooks, Microsoft’s vice president of consumer marketing for Windows. For too long, he said, Microsoft has been silent. And as a result, the only dialogue has come from competitors, namely Apple.

Microsoft’s efforts come at a critical time for the software maker. It has seen its still-dominant market share slip amid strong gains by Apple. At the same time, the ever increasing power of Web applications has increased the threat from Linux-based machines, seen most poignantly with the appeal of cheap, low-end portable computers like Asus’ Eee PC.

It’s been about 18 hours since Microsoft started running its Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld ad and the negative comments continue to pour in.

As for the rationale behind the teaser ad, Brooks said it would have been a mistake, after being silent for so long, for Microsoft to have just come out swinging with a bunch of shop talk.

But Microsoft’s Brad Brooks looks at it this way: Even if people aren’t talking kindly about the new Windows ad, at least people are talking about Windows.

“You decide what color of PC you are going to have,” Brooks said. “You decide what services you are going to use. That was the vision that we had behind our entire model over two decades ago.”

(Credit:
Microsoft)

“This issue appears to have been related to an unexpected event which caused device overload and failure,” McManus said.

Microsoft was far less detailed when it comes to what the problem actually was.

Although a large number of Windows Live servers are running on Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008, which is due to be launched Wednesday, a representative said the problem is not a glitch with the new operating system.

LOS ANGELES–After a day of problems, Microsoft says its Windows Live log-in issues are now a thing of the past.

“We can say with certainty that Windows Server did not contribute to this incident,” Windows Live Product Manager Samantha McManus said in a statement to CNET News.com.

WiiWare
Midnight Bowling (Gameloft, 800
Wii points): Midnight Bowling offers various game modes and a brand new physics system allowing for realistic bowling action. Play with up to three friends in various bowling alley environments.
MadStone (Riverman Media, 800 Wii points): In this puzzle game, you must control the path for elemental MadStones as you attempt to restore peace to Earth. Enjoy the game alone or co-op with a friend.
Virtual Console
Mario Golf (1999, Nintendo 64, 1,000 Wii points): Mario and company hit the links in the fantastic golf game from the Nintendo 64 era. Tee off through six different 18-hole courses and choose any of your favorite Nintendo characters.
Shining Force II (1994, Sega Gensis, 800 Wii points): Two missing jewels from the Tower of the Ancients has lead to the resurrection of the Devil King. You must take on the role of Bowie and must find the missing jewels, ending the Devil King’s reign.

What games do you think are missing from the Wii Virtual Console? Sound off here!

This week brings us a classic Mario Golf game and some bowling after dark.

(Credit:
James Martin/CNET News.com)

But the iPhone’s luscious touch-screen display and internal accelerometer seem to promise something more. I was first intrigued by the Touch Fighter game Apple developers whipped up to show off the iPhone SDK way back in March, and even more so by the scaled-down mobile version of Electronic Arts’ hotly anticipated Spore. Still, these were just demos, and I wasn’t sure if they would pan out to anything substantial. However, after the keynote at WWDC, I find myself suddenly excited about the future of the iPhone as a genuine gaming platform. Out of the 12 or so applications that were demonstrated, 4 of them were games. And these weren’t just simple Tetris-like games either (The one exception was Enigmo by Pangea Software, which is a 3D puzzle game). Sega’s Super Monkey Ball was especially a highlight, fully utilizing the iPhone’s accelerometer as a way to tilt the ball through various mazelike structures. Pangea Software’s Cro-Mag Rally also uses the accelerometer so you can drive simply by “steering” the iPhone left or right. Not to be outdone, Digital Legends Entertainment even promised a full-blown RPG in the form of Krull, a caveman adventure where you can fight off bad guys, swing from rope bridges, and more. Of course, you not only get all these games, you also get a cell phone, a media player, and a GPS unit, all in one device. Suddenly, my Sony PSP (which I haven’t touched in months) doesn’t seem so hot.

One of the more intriguing outcomes from the
iPhone SDK and the upcoming App Store is the notion of the iPhone as a mobile gaming platform. When the SDK was announced, game developers leaped on the chance to develop games for the iPhone, which seemed like an exciting new playground for mobile games. But frankly, I was skeptical. I have both a Sony PSP and a Nintendo DS; would gaming on a cell phone really be good enough to compete? We’ve all witnessed the debacle that was the Nokia N-Gage, and how terrible that turned out to be. It’s one of the many reasons the majority of cell phone games are still really simple, like puzzles and card games, with the occasional retro game like Pac-Man thrown in for good measure.

Sega's Super Monkey Ball will be ported to the iPhone

The true genius behind the iPhone’s gaming potential lies in the low introductory cost. Sure you have to cough up $200 or so for the device, but each game will sell for $10 while most DS games are $30 to $40. Now I’m not saying the iPhone should be seen as primarily a gaming device–it is first and foremost a cell phone no matter how you look at it. Also, the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS have dedicated controls and tactile buttons, which are very important for certain kinds of games–I certainly don’t think Tekken or Zelda will translate very well to the iPhone. That said, for those who are tired of carrying around multiple devices, or those who just want a casual handheld to play games on the train or on the bus, the iPhone could definitely be a serious contender in the mobile gaming space.

And man, if they ever introduce Mario Kart to the iPhone, it’s all over.

All you have to do to get any document cached for offline viewing is open it once. If there are any changes since the last time you accessed it, they’ll be download the next time it syncs back up with Google’s servers. If you’re worried about privacy you can also completely clear out the cache whenever you please.

(Credit:
CNET Networks / Josh Lowensohn)

I still like that you can grab something large like an expense sheet or eBook from Google Docs, then access it while offline. It makes for a handy utility if you’re willing to approach it as a middleman for your content. Developer Thomas Post (aka v1ru8) is also the creator or two other applications, iPhoneNotes and the upcoming Marks.

If you’re not satisfied with Google’s cute but data-sucking incarnation of Google Docs through mobile Safari, you might want to download MiGhtyDocs. This free application on the app store will pull down all of your documents and spreadsheets from the service, making them available to read and access even when away from a data connection.

Despite its charms, the application is missing a few things that would make it the holy grail of Google Docs tools. It’s lacking support for Google’s latest Docs addition–presentations. It also always remembers your account information, so if your phone gets stolen someone could get extensive access to your work. That said, you can’t create new items, rename files, or send anything to someone else through e-mail, so you don’t have to worry about people changing or distributing existing work.

Check out all your Google Documents at once, then open them to read later–even when offline.