Mind control

The human brain could become a battlefield in future wars, a new report predicts, including 'pharmacological land mines' and drones directed by mind control.

Analyst Predicts September iPod 'Surprise'

Analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, is predicting a September refresh of the iPod lineup. From where did he pull this information? Well, perhaps he cheated and took a look at last years' calendar. And the year before that. And yes, the year before that.

More on the iPhone 3G

Here's a follow up article regarding the iPhone 3G's performance.

Invisibility materials can speed up the web

A new kind of light-warping material could boost the speed of the internet at least ten fold by, strangely enough, slowing bits of it down.

Best desktop search applications


In a world where a search box puts the entire internet at your fingertips, it seems more pointless and inefficient than ever to drill down through your file structure when you're looking for a specific file on your hard drive.

Is it finally time for electronic ink publishing?



First it was the Kindle from Amazon. Are newspapers and packaging next?

Web-based video chat application



TokBox is a web-based video chat application that lets you set-up video chat channels with unregistered users in seconds. The application has a simple user interface with controls for volume, muting and camera off. When you want to invite some to a video chat all you have to do is send them an email link or direct them to your user page. You can also add their Facebook application or embed your video chat channel on your website or MySpace page.

TokBox also has social-networking features so you can add friends you video chat with often. The product also detects installed cameras and microphones, which is helpful in cutting out technology barriers for mainstream users.

Oh, there's one more thing...it's free.

Yahoo's geolocation service now open to all

Fire Eagle is a site that stores information about your location. With your permission, other services and devices can either update that information or access it. By helping applications respond to your location, Fire Eagle is designed to make the world around you more interesting! Use your location to power friend-finders, games, local information services, blog badges and stuff like that...

Upward mobile

By 2012, UK sports fans will be watching live action on their 'TV-phones'.

iPhone 3G issues

Apple and AT&T are staying quiet about issues with the new iPhone 3G.

ClipBlast!



ClipBlast! is the Internet's fastest growing Web-Wide Video Index, Search and Navigation Platform.

Their patent-pending technologies have been designed to organize and simplify the "Video Web"; the fastest growing video distribution platform in history. ClipBlast! technology helps Viewers search, navigate, watch and personalize their experience with the Video Web, and helps Video Content Providers, Advertisers and Marketers monetize their investments.

Will the next Wii take us into the future?

Speculations on what Nintendo would release as a Wii 2 are manifold. Nintendo could just release a Wii with more CPU power that is able to handle media and games at higher resolution or they could just break the rules again and deliver something outlandish like a body-suit or brain interface.

Harry Potter would want one

We're getting closer to having an invisible cloak thanks to our boys in the research labs at Cal.

Why Twitter hasn't failed: The power of audience

Ok, Twitter is not a must have for a lot of people, but you have to admit, it's a phenomenon you can't ignore.

A wikipedia search engine


Similipedia is one of the best Wikipedia search engines available. Not only is it extremely accurate and effective, it has a completely different approach to search. Instead of typing in a query, e.g. computers, you are asked to copy and paste a URL or a paragraph containing at least 100 words. Just press “enter” and let it go to work.

25 enterprise social media companies to know

Taking into account where we're going as a society today, thought you might find this list of social media companies of interest.

Blogtronix

Blogtronix is a social media platform for Enterprise 2.0 communication. We provide a single, unified system that includes blogs, wikis, and social networking. Unlike other companies, we are able to offer a product that’s easy to use, scalable and can be delivered either on-demand or as a software.

Edison, a different type of light bulb

The Edison software lets people set dials for putting a PC into energy-saving mode.

2011: Looking for the next trend

Everyone is always looking for that 'next trend'. In Richard Laermer's book 2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade, he talks about how to find the signal in the nosie.

SummerMash



Mashable just completed its sixth stop on the U.S. Summer Tour with the folks in Boston.

Issuu has released a new publishing platform that could very well change the rules of the game when it comes to creating online publications. The platform is a place where developers, designers and companies can work together in collaboration to customize their Issuu distributed publications such as magazines, newsletters, etc.

5 books on corporate social media

If you're looking for some books to improve your knowledge about the blogosphere, check these out.

Rejaw..another Twitter?

Rejaw is a new way to communicate in real-time with friends, family, and co-workers. You can shout messages to your followers, or whisper to your friends. Monologue or dialogue, micro-blog or status update, soliloquy or dialectic.

Make slick Web 2.0 site backgrounds with BgPatterns

Want a cool looking background for your site or favorite nanoblogging service like Jaiku, Pownce, or Twitter? Check out BgPatterns, a site that's not unlike the Web 2.0 stripe generator in that it lets you put together really slick looking repeating backgrounds with a simple builder.

A new view for documents

A new tool for embedding documents on Web pages is cropping up on sites as diverse as the storage service Drop.io; LabMeeting, a social network for scientists; and the Obama campaign's official blog. Launched earlier this year, the format, called iPaper, is technology from Scribd, a company that hopes to become the sort of clearinghouse for documents that YouTube is for videos. With iPaper, the company offers a browser-based system for viewing documents that retains their original formatting and can be employed by the 98 percent of Internet users who have installed Adobe Flash.

Twitter has growing pains

Plagued by service outages, the microblogging site rebuilds its infrastructure.

Architecture of the brain

Traditional magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, can detect the major anatomical features of the brain and is often used to diagnose strokes and brain tumors. But advances in computing power and novel processing algorithms have allowed scientists to analyze the information captured during an MRI in completely new ways.

11 iPhone tricks you might not have known

Whether you're an iPhone rookie or a weathered pro, take a look at these quick-and-easy iPhone tips and tricks which not only save you time, but ease your overall iPhone experience.

Six degrees of separation

Microsoft has studied a total of 30 billion instant messages sent by over 250 million people in June of 2006, and determined that we are in fact, all linked by only 6.6 degrees of separation.

Have you checked your DNS lately?

See if your system is safe by selecting the 'DNS Checker' on the following page, located in the upper right hand side.

PulpMotion

PulpMotion's got a full menu of visual themes that incorporate your media into clever animations that will wow your friends and family, impress your clients.

Hard copy or digital copy?

Is it time to finally accept digital versions of books? You decide.

Wordle

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

Big Brother in China

Better watch what you say and do during the Olympics.

Digg Meetups & a pint

Digg is coming to a city near you! Come raise a frosty pint with fellow Diggers and meet some of the Digg crew.

Proposal 2.0

In the true spirit of Silicon Valley, a self-described geek proposed to his girlfriend using Street View, Google Maps' online gallery of street-level panoramas.

Loaded with gadgets, rower halfway to Hawaii

Checking in with Roz Savage to talk tech and self-sufficiency as she aims to be the first woman to row solo across the Pacific.

Zembly is the place to create social applications, together.

With zembly, you easily create and host social applications of all shapes and sizes, targeting the most popular social platforms on the web. Using just your browser and your creativity, and working collaboratively with others, you create and publish Facebook apps, OpenSocial apps, meebo apps, iPhone apps, Google Gadgets, embeddable widgets, and other social applications.

Why let a Flash developer squeeze you for an extra payday when you can repurpose content for free? That's the idea behind Flypaper.

Read the CNET article.

Google Street goes live down under

Street View, the driver's-eye-view on Google Maps, made its debut in the United States, but it's now available in Australia and Japan, too.

Resnooze puts helpful email nags


If you're wary of using silly things like calendars to keep track of to-dos and reminders, Resnooze is worth checking out. This tool lets you schedule in weekly, daily, and monthly reminders to do something. Every time you get said reminders delivered to your in-box there are three simple options to get rid of it, or be reminded yet again--either a week or month from then.

San Jose: Hub for a green-tech gold rush?

Mayor Chuck Reed says California's high-tech hometown can become the world's eco-capital. Calling all solar companies, and Tesla, too.

Is Cuil cool enough to be a threat to Google?

The much-hyped, heavily funded new search engine developed by a former Google whiz leaves users unexcited.

Making use of social networking sites

It's time your small business started to look at ways to leverage these and other social networks to boost business. "It's virtually low or no cost for entry," explains Adam Schwam of Garden City-based Sandwire, an information technology consultancy.

BT goes after Android and Skype

BT has bought Internet telephony company Ribbit, in a move that will bring the communications giant up against competitors ranging from Skype to Google's Android platform.

Facebook grows, but where's the profit?

They like to meet, chat, make friends and business connections. They post photos and videos. They share their passion for a celebrity, hobby, or cause. Show me the money.

Evite's makeover

The invitation service has overhauled its UI.

New 3.2Gbps Firewire

The IEEE 1394 working group has formally approved FireWire's next-generation standard. The new version defines transfer speeds of 1.6Gbps and 3.2Gbps, is backwards compatible with FireWire 800 and 400, and uses the same cable standard as FireWire 800.

Chat with friends who speak a different language

If you've been on the hunt for a tool that lets you chat with friends or clients that speak a different language, MeGlobe is a really simple solution that does all the work for you.

Sun throws JavaFX hat into Web app ring

Programmers now can start trying out JavaFX for writing rich Internet applications--and seeing if it's worth using over Adobe's Flash and other alternatives.

Emotiv's New Mind-Control Headset for PCs



Its wireless sensors help users run some programs with their thoughts.

With Security at Risk, a Push to Patch the Web

Dan Kaminsky has been urging companies around the world to fix a potentially dangerous flaw in the basic plumbing of the Internet.

While Internet service providers are racing to fix the problem, which makes it possible for criminals to divert users to fake Web sites where personal and financial information can be stolen, Mr. Kaminsky worries that they have not moved quickly enough.

See Dan Kaminsky's website

RollAName

Roll A Name is not a social networking site like any other. This is a site that focuses on visibility and self-promotion, and will help you promote just about anything you want.

By joining, you can maximize your network and your visibility. Use this visibility to start promoting yourself, your business, your website, your blog, your videos, your songs, your photos. Buy, sell and trade anything and everything. You can also find or post jobs... Be Creative!

Olympics enter the '2.0' era

This year's Summer Olympic Games have been seen as China's coming-out party, destined to be as significant for the host country as the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were for Japan.

The filing cabinet is about to become obsolete

Pixily is a cool scan-by-mail service that launched in early June of this year. The service is similar to Shoeboxed, however, Pixily is all about taking paper clutter out of your life by scanning it in for you and making it both searchable, and able to be organized into buckets. The big difference between the two services is that Pixily is focused less on receipts and finances, and more on day-to-day papers like insurance claims, long cell phone bills (with call lists on them) and little things like birthday cards.

Everything that's scanned goes through optical character recognition (OCR), so you can search for it in the built-in search tool. It also lets you tag, and make notations to documents for the sake of sorting. If you've got digital documents, you can upload them into the mix as well.

Think of this service as Netflix for the office or home.

Kallout

KallOut is the first application to bring "selection-based search" to any web page, email, presentation, document, spreadsheet or PDF. Unlike other search methods that are trapped inside the browser, KallOut serves up content from the most popular sites on the web inside floating information palettes (which we call KallOuts). Using only your mouse, you can now avoid the disruption of launching a browser and let KallOut bring you the best the web has to offer.

Check out the intro on YouTube.

12seconds

"But the shortest works are always the best," wrote the French poet, and video sharing start-up 12seconds is counting on that being true. The simple site, which launches an invitation-only alpha today (500 invites for Webware readers at the end of this post), places a 12-second limit on the videos its users can share.

The idea is to keep the focus on status updates, letting users share--via video--what they're doing in a single moment.

The simple concept of 12seconds is backed up by a simple interface: once you sign up you can begin capturing video directly from your computer's Webcam.

Dimdim

Open-source Web conferencing provider Dimdim has raised $6 million in Series B funding, the company is set to announce on Wednesday.

The funding round, which was led by current investors Index Ventures, Nexus India Capital, and Draper Richards, will enable Dimdim to introduce enhancements to the free service and expand its market reach.

Dimdim competes with fee-based services like Webex. Because it is open source, it could become a platform for real-time communications if it garners enough developer support.
Since its private launch 10 months ago, Boston-based Dimdim has attracted more than 500,000 users in more than 180 countries, the company says.

Zynga, a game network for social networking

Zynga, which specializes in games for social-networking sites, has received $29 million in a new funding round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Institutional Venture Partners.
The round, announced Wednesday, also includes funding from previous investors Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, and Avalon Ventures.

Out with the old, in with the new

Commuto is a smart swapping community that's been designed to undermine the in-person swap meet of the past with an online system that finds other people with items you want automatically.

Like Craigslist's wanted section you can list items you're looking for, be it electronics, text books, video games, or any other common good. You can also list items you own but are looking to pawn off.

Like Craiglist, Commuto is all about keeping things local, so there's no integrated payment system or way to auction off your goods. Instead, you just get in touch with the other person and arrange a swap. It's delightfully simple and will work great as long as there are enough users in your area. There were only eight items in my neck of the woods, so your millage may vary.

Look to the Clouds

Search Cloud is a search engine that uses weighted keywords to determine relevancy in its results. When entering search terms you can change which words or phrases need priority over others by changing their size from one to five.

Apple's next-gen Macs to have something special under the hood

A new generation of personal computers on the way from Apple Inc. may sport some of the most significant architectural changes since the Mac maker made the jump from PowerPC processors to those manufactured by Intel Corp., AppleInsider has learned.

Another snippet.

Baynote

It's a sort of social science of the mouse - the point-and-click kind.

Cupertino start-up Baynote has created search and navigation software that derives results from what people do on a Web site, including where the mouse moves.

Visit the site.

Sprout

Build web content in a flash. Sprout's mission is to make it quick and easy for anyone to build sophisticated rich media web content. We are based in Honolulu, HI and San Francisco, CA, both of which just happen to have some good surfing.

Cuil [pronounced COOL]

Cuil’s founders worked with other search engines and knew that tinkering with old systems wouldn’t work. A fundamentally different approach was needed. So they've developed new architecture and algorithms that can handle the exponential growth of the Internet and organize results that reflect its enormous complexity. See the site here.

Read the BusinessWeek article

Publishing 2.0

Publishing 2.0 is a blog about how technology is transforming media.

Doodlage

Ok, it's a warm summer day and thought I'd throw this one in for fun. Check it out.

Knol

Think you are an expert on a subject? Well, Google's got a proposition for you.
Google's Wikipedia competitor, Knol, is open.

Go2Web2.0

Orli Yakuel has put together the largest online directory for Web 2.0 applications worldwide, which is a labor of love for her. Check it out.

Let the guessing begin

Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer's decision to warn financial analysts Monday that Apple's fourth-quarter gross margins will be negatively impacted by a "product transition" should be enough to get the rumor wheels turning: of course, it doesn't take all that much.

Apple is roaring back!

Apple is moving up the charts, toppling Acer to become the third largest PC vendor in the U.S., according to a survey from Gartner.

Trouble in paradise

Apple continued to have problems with its new MobileMe service over the weekend and into Monday, with several users unable to access their e-mail.

Mixi

Japan’s biggest social network is called Mixi, launched in February 2004 by the company of the same name. Drawing in one in five web users in the country, Mixi now boasts over 15 million members. The site ranks sixth on Alexa Japan and racks up over 14 billion page views monthly.