There’s a lot to like about Seesmic, the so-called video equivalent of Twitter, besides the charismatic founder Loic Le Meur, “in cloud” talent like Sukhjit and Giselle, and the people you meet “face-to-face” through video posting and commenting.

But there is one thing not to like: the lack of take-it-with-you mobility. To use Seesmic you’re mostly tethered to a desktop or laptop computer with a Webcam. You can use a cell-phone workaround like Shozu, but it can be cumbersome, working for some, not for others. Many people are hyper-mobile and participating in Seesmic is difficult, at least during the day.

This is all about to change. Over the next four to six weeks, Le Meur said following the Supernova conference, Seesmic will release its own bi-directional client for the Nokia series-60 phones including the N95. A hack for the iPhone 3G (jailbreaking it) will soon follow, as will a client for phones running Windows Mobile (and, it can be assumed, Android when they become available).

“In a few weeks we will have our own mobile client, which will let you have a full Seesmic experience,” Le Meur said.

The full Seesmic experience includes a two-way conversation. You record and upload video posts to the Seesmic Website (as well as other leading video sharing sites like YouTube and social network sites like MySpace and Facebook) that others can follow like Twitter. The community, including friends and strangers from all around the world, can comment on your post, and you on their’s.

Continue reading “Seesmic to release bi-directional mobile client in four to six weeks” »

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As with everything else iPhone, there’s been a great deal of speculation following the Worldwide Developers Conference regarding the App Store, where Apple intends to sell and distribute third-party applications.

There’s been talk of the grand opening being in July and at the end of June. Details continue to trickle out about how the store will operate. And “overnight” polls indicate the App Store will mean hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, perhaps even a billion, for Apple by the end of 2009.

One thing puzzles me, though: How can Apple potentially make $1 billion from the App Store by the end of 2009 when it’s estimated by some that 70 percent of the third-party applications will be free?

Go figure.

For now, here’s a quick look back at some of the App Store news following the WWDC keynote.

Continue reading “The App Store: Can it be worth $1 billion to Apple by 2010 with 70 percent free apps?” »

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There are only a couple of more shopping days left until Father’s Day, that once-a-year event when wives and kids all across the U.S. buy Dad ties, aftershave, and other things he — let’s be honest here — will never use.

So to make shopping easier this year, we’ve assembled a few digital lifestyle ideas for your husband or Dad. Most of these are more expensive than Aqua Velva aftershave but, since we’re being honest here, these are what Dad might buy for himself, including a remote control beer cooler.

The obvious

The most sought-after Father’s Day gift on the planet will be the new 3G iPhone from Apple, which isn’t available until July 11. Until then, a hand-written IOU redeemable for the iPhone will do. Thankfully, the price is coming way down: $199 for the 8 GB model, $299 for the 16 GB phone. And since it now supports the enterprise with Microsoft Exchange syncing and other business-place features, the grumpy IT guys at Dad’s office will be happy.

Alternatives: none. Sure, we could argue for a Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry, or HTC smart phone, but why bother? Until Google’s Android phones are available — long after this Father’s Day is over — the iPhone will head Dad’s wish list.

Continue reading “From an RC beer cooler to an ESPN remote, digital lifestyle gifts for Dad on Father’s Day” »

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A lot is being made of cloud computing these days, especially in light of Microsoft’s Mesh initiative and the various online products and strategies cooked up by Google.

With the rumored changes coming to Apple’s .Mac product, could a revamped MobileMe or Me.com — whatever it is ultimately called — eventually become my personal cloud?

I hope so. My digital life needs one, whether supplied by Microsoft, Google, or Apple, it doesn’t matter.

Continue reading “Will Apple develop MobileMe as my own personal cloud?” »

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Imagine a world where your computer, cellphone, games console, storage devices, media streamers and other hardware all play nicely together, so that, for example, music, photos and video can reach the television or Hi-Fi no matter where in the home it originates.

That world is one which the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), an industry consortium backed by big name consumer electronics, computer and mobile device manufacturers such as HP, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung, is aiming to create through support for the UPnP (Universal Plug ‘n’ Play) AV standard. For end consumers this means that any ‘DLNA certified’ device should, in theory, be able to share or access media on the same home network — a message that DLNA members have largely failed to communicate, which is especially sad considering that many people already own a number of compliant devices (see our recent guide to streaming media from a Mac to PlayStation 3).

In this post we’ll explore the UPnP AV standard a little further, and pick out a few of our favorite supporting devices.

Continue reading “DLNA certified: how your computer, cellphone, games console, media streamer and other devices can play nicely together” »

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It’s a bank holiday here in the UK and Memorial Day in the U.S., therefore posting on last100 will be a little lite today. However, the ‘interweb’ never takes a day off and so without further ado here are three of this morning’s more noteworthy stories:

TV becomes social again

The BBC’s Darren Waters has an interesting post talking about the return of TV’s ‘water cooler moment’. In the age of multiple platforms, on-demand, Internet TV, PVRs and the like, people no longer watch television ‘together’. Or at least not as much as we used to. However, potential ‘water cooler’ moments still exist, such as this weekend’s Eurovision song contest, which can be discussed around a virtual water cooler, and in near-realtime, thanks to the messaging service Twitter. “Last night I was watching Eurovision with Twitter running on my laptop. In real time, my Twitter friends and I shared comments and made observations about the event as it was happening. Twitter was being used to extend the experience of watching the event together, but also for people to share links to sites with backstory, or explainers etc.”

Also see our post from last year: Television networks seek connections to viewers through Twitter.

Continue reading “Monday’s links: TV becomes social again; Solar powered iPods; iPhone Earth” »

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We now have a winner for our super duper giveaway. The HP HDX Dragon Entertainment Notebook and assorted goodies goes to JuanE from Mexico who named his five favorite digital lifestyle products and services as:

1. iPod 30 GB 5.5G (Portable music and video player. Can’t leave the house without it.)
2. Winamp (Faster and more customizable than iTunes.)
3. Motorola SLVR L7 (Multimedia phone. A little dated, but still great.)
4. Nintendo Wii (Great videogame console. Yes, I’m a Nintendo fanboy.)
5. Windows Media Center (A very nice home-entertainment center. Wish there were more features for it in my country.)

Thanks to all the other entrants and don’t despair if you aren’t a winner as the following blogs are still running their own The 31 Days of the Dragon contests:

19 May - 26 May www.slashdotreview.com
20 May - 27 May www.neowin.net
21 May - 28 May www.geek.com
22 May - 29 Mau www.lockergnome.com
23 May - 30 May www.planetx64.com
24 May - 31 May www.thegreenbutton.com
25 May - 01 Jun www.istartedsomething.com
26 May - 02 Jun www.bleepingcomputer.com
27 May - 03 Jun www.hardwaregeeks.com
28 May - 04 Jun www.geeknewscentral.com
29 May - 05 Jun www.geekzone.co.nz
30 May - 06 Jun www.thetabletpc.net
31 May - 07 Jun www.gearlive.com
01 Jun - 08 Jun www.gottabemobile.com

This competition comes to you thanks to HP and BuzzCorps.

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It’s no secret that we’re fans of the PlayStation 3. And with the news that Sony’s next-generation console will now offer game developers an easy way to integrate YouTube uploads, we’re gushing once again.

By taking advantage of YouTube’s recently updated API and tools, Sony has added support for the video sharing site to its Software Development Kit to allow developers “to create games that enable direct upload of in-game video captures to YouTube”. While a few titles on both Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s XBox 360 already offer the ability to save game replays and share them over the Web, it’s the first time that a games console has offered YouTube support as a built-in and officially supported developer feature.

Continue reading “PlayStation 3 games can now offer YouTube uploads” »

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Please note: the competition is now closed. The winner has been announced.

The 31 Days of the Dragon giveaway continues, and today it’s our turn.

To qualify for a chance of winning a top of the line HP HDX Dragon Entertainment Notebook loaded with features and software — 20.1″ display, Intel Core 2 Extreme x9000, 4GB of Ram, Blu-Ray drive and lots more including a good few games and Blu-Ray movies to get you started (total retail price approx $5,000) — you’ll need to do the following:

1. Leave a comment on this post listing your top five digital lifestyle products and/or services. They don’t need to all be products you own, and they could be digital lifestyle services you use, but they must all be currently available. It would also be useful to add in brackets what they do (see example below).
2. Make sure you leave a working email address in the ‘email’ field of the comments form.
3. You may only enter once.
4. If you are the winner and based in the U.S. you must be willing to file a tax return form with Buzz Corps who are administrating the competition. However, they will issue a check to offset the taxes in the U.S. relating to the prize.
5. After seven days from this post, the winner will be chosen randomly from all complete entries.
6. Our decision is final and we reserve the right to change the rules if there has been an omission on our part or we suspect unfair conduct on the part of an entrant.

As an example, my top five current digital lifestyle products and services are:

• iPod touch
• BBC iPlayer (for iPhone/iPod touch)
• PlayStayion 3
• Zattoo (Live TV on a PC)
• Pandora (Internet radio)

Good luck!

Other sites where you can still enter the Dragon…

09 May - 16 May www.thedigitallifestyle.com
10 May - 17 May www.digitalhomethoughts.com
11 May - 18 May www.windows-now.com
12 May - 19 May www.windowsconnected.com
13 May - 20 May www.geekstogo.com
14 May - 21 May bink.nu
15 May - 22 May www.mediablab.com
16 May - 23 May www.last100.com
17 May - 24 May www.labnol.org
18 May - 25 May www.notebooks.com
19 May - 26 May www.slashdotreview.com
20 May - 27 May www.neowin.net
21 May - 28 May www.geek.com
22 May - 29 Mau www.lockergnome.com
23 May - 30 May www.planetx64.com
24 May - 31 May www.thegreenbutton.com
25 May - 01 Jun www.istartedsomething.com
26 May - 02 Jun www.bleepingcomputer.com
27 May - 03 Jun www.hardwaregeeks.com
28 May - 04 Jun www.geeknewscentral.com
29 May - 05 Jun www.geekzone.co.nz
30 May - 06 Jun www.thetabletpc.net
31 May - 07 Jun www.gearlive.com
01 Jun - 08 Jun www.gottabemobile.com

Please note: the competition is now closed. The winner has been announced.

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I’m going out on a limb here because I’m more of a casual gamer than hardcore. But lately I’ve been wondering, with the coming iPhone 2.0, third-party applications, and expected mobile games, might Apple return to the game-console market?

I know: That’s crazy talk. Apple’s last foray into console gaming was 1996’s Pippin, named as the 22nd worst tech product of all time in a 2006 story in PC World magazine. Since then, we’ve seen the advent of Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox, a slew of Nintendo consoles, and no new attempt by Apple to introduce a game console.

But Terrence Russell of The Industry Standard wonders, like I have, that maybe Apple might be following a different path into gaming — through the mobile market.

“Consumers are already ga-ga over Apple’s mobile devices to begin with,” Russell writes, referring to the success of the iPhone and iPod line of products, “so whether they should be re-imagined as gaming gadgets is more of a marketing issue.

“But with the developer community in a tizzy to create the next great Apple-friendly game, it’s only a matter of time before Cupertino announces that it’s ready to connect the dots.”

Maybe.

Continue reading “What if Apple re-enters the console gaming market through the iPhone?” »

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Piece by piece, Sony’s PS3 has the potential to be one of the best, if not the best, media centers on the market.

Ability to stream content from a Windows PC (or Mac) to a television? Check.

DivX support? Check.

Blu-ray player? Check.

USB device support? Check.

Portable integration? Check (via the PSP).

DVR functionality? Announced.

Movie download store? Coming soon.

It’s just that most consumers don’t know it.

Perhaps that will change this September, in Europe at least, when the PS3’s DVR add-on finally goes on sale.

Continue reading “Sony’s PS3 DVR PlayTV launch date and price confirmed” »

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Less than 24 hours later, we find that there’s more to the new-release movies-on-iTunes story.

Today Apple announced that new movie releases from major film studios are available for purchase on the iTunes Store the same day as their DVD release.

The day before, Jeff Bewkes, the Time Warner chief executive, let slip on a conference call that Warner Brothers studio will now release movies for video-on-demand systems the same day they are released on DVD.

Joining Warner Brothers are 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment, and First Look Studios.

Continue reading “More to the story: Apple announces new movies available for purchase from all major studios” »

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