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Skype, the darling of software based VoIP products, maybe down right now; but I love what they ARE doing.  They’re communicating to their users.  On their blog they have updated their status multiple times.  After being a victim of Sunrocket’s demise, it’s refreshing to see a company doing it right.

Bravo Skype!  Thank you for being up front with us!

Flickr has added 7 new languages to their site including French, German, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and traditional Chinese, with other languages to follow. 

On another note - Zooomr just launched Mark III, their new user interface loaded with 250 new features.  It’s no secret that Zooomr has a very excited and fanatic user community.  One facet about zooomr that people love is that it’s been localized to so many different languages.  I think Flickr’s internationalization is, at least in part, a response to zooomr.

Congrats to Kris and Thomas for keeping them on their toes!

In the spirit of Scott’s recent blog post, here are the tech
items that have changed the way my day-to-day life goes.

Tivo (DVR) – I know this may be a little redundant but it’s
impact has been pretty powerful. It’s so
nice to be able to free yourself from the TV schedule and being able to watch
YOUR content when YOU want to. Yeah it’s
nice to be able to skip through some commercials, but just having the show
ready when you want to watch it is so valuable.
In fact, I just recently switched from DirecTV to cable and if Comcast
dind’t have a DVR, I wouldn’t have switched.
Actually I *hate* the Comcast DVR and when Tivo actually comes out with
an HD Tivo that isn’t $500+, I’ll buy one and kick Comcast’s piece of crap to
the curb.

VoIP (Internet telephony).

VoIP replaced my conventional landline about 2 years ago. I have had both Packet8 and Sunrocket. I was lucky enough to get Sunrocket last year

for $199 for 2 years. That works out to
be like 8 bucks a month. It’s so
liberating to be able to call someone whether they’re across the street, a
couple of towns away, or across the country.
No toll charges, included CallerID, Call Waiting, etc – sign me up!

iPod. The only reason I even listen to any radio nowadays is for news and traffic when I’m driving. Otherwise I have my iPod on. Again it’s awesome to have *my* content on *my* schedule.

Technorati Tags: tivo, iPod, apple, voip, sunrocket

I was riding my bike around yesterday and I came across this sign. You know how many real estate agencies have automated call-in where you can enter in a code and get information on a specific property? Well this Realtor is smart enough to allow us to txt for more information! Brilliant!

This is kind of like in Europe where if you’re waiting for a train, you can txt a code with the Stop ID and find out when the next train is coming. I wish Tri-Met would employ this in the Portland area, rather than they’re little call center that’s only staffed part of the day.

Technorati Tags: sms, realtor, real estate, txt, biking

My buddy Josh told me about a great new program called PictureSync for the Mac.  It’s an application that assist you in uploading your photos to a bevy of online services including Flickr, WebShots, Kodak, etc.  And yes, it is Universal.

From their website:

“PictureSync is a convenient utility that simplifies annotating and
batch uploading your photographs and video clips to online
services—directly from your albums in image-management applications, or
files, and whilst preserving metadata.”

I’ll be trying this out tonight on my MacBook!

Technorati Tags: picturesync, tinyscreenfuls, webshots, flickr, macbook, apple

Wow this is a great video. There have been a few times where I’m looking for a great way to explain what RSS is to a non-tech savvy person. From now on, I’m going to just point them to this video.

thanks leefeever!

Click To Play

Most people are probably still used to dialing 411 on their cell phone or landline to get a business or residential phone number while on the go.  For a few years, I have used Google SMS.  Basically you sms their short code, which is 46645 (GOOGL), with your search string and they answer back with the listing.  So if you enter “Baja Fresh 97201″ it will come back with the Baja Fresh locations in that area code.  This is great if you can SMS, but what if you’re in the car and you don’t have two free hands?

Google Voice Local Search is great because it will actually connect you to the business if you desire.  Also, you can have them txt your phone with the information.  To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.

Tellme is brand new.  Dial 1.800.555.Tell and they’ll give you the info you need.  They’ll also SMS you the number.  You can use Tellme by voice, mobile web, or sms.  They get props for being veriy flexible.

Free 411 is the one I’ve been using for a long time.  There’s a short ad when you get your result that is there, but not in the way.

So here are three services you can use.  There is NO reason to use your Verizon Wireless or Cingular or whoever Teleco for 411 service at $1.75 per call.  This information is out there in more desirable ways that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Technorati Tags: sms, 411, google, free, verizon wireless, vzw, cingular, ads

Apple Fanboys and everyone else will love to learn this. A Cingular customer service manager has announced that the iPhone will be available for purchase on June 11, 2007!

Very Cool!

for more info, click here

Technorati Tags: apple, puppy

In reading this article on TechCrunch about Jaxtr (whew that’s a lot of links), I saw something that caught my interest.

I’ve been very interested in a company that is similar to Jaxtr called GrandCentral. One of the complaints and major barriers to major adoption of GrandCentral is it’s inability to process text messages (SMS).

Then I read this about Jaxtr on techcrunch:

“Jaxtr also allows people to send the publisher a text message or just send them a voicemail directly (text messages and voicemails are administered on the Jaxtr site, not on your phone). Jaxtr never discloses the call recipient’s phone number so you can install a widget without ever exposing personal information. Users can also block callers or specify on a per-caller basis which callers can reach them live and which get routed to voice mail.”

It would be cool if we could do this with GrandCentral. One way to implement this would build some functionality where if a text message was received, GrandCentral would forward the txt to a mobile that the user specifies in their user profile (the same place where numbers are put in on the back end now). Basically GrandCentral would act as a gateway for the SMS message.

Just an idea!

Technorati Tags: grandcentral, jaxtr, sms, voip

I was reading this guy’s blog and found the following excerpt:

“I exist at Blogger, del.icio.us, Flickr,Facebook,Twitter,Reader,and Dodgeball (update frequency/abandonment rate varies).”

“Update frequency and abandonment rate varies”! That’s classic!

How many times have you made an account to check out a website or web service and abandoned it? for me it’s probably hundreds.

hopefully more sites adopt OpenID soon

Technorati Tags: openid, web2.0, abandonment