BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180 http://www.bigblueball.com/forums BigBlueBall is the instant messaging supersite with tutorials, reference, news and forums for AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Trillian and other instant messengers. en Sat, 10 May 2008 20:47:12 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/images/bbbv3/misc/rss.jpg BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180 http://www.bigblueball.com/forums Why the WiMax Deal Is A Disaster, Part II (Or, How Craig McCaw Snookered Eric Schmidt http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42508&goto=newpost Fri, 09 May 2008 20:50:40 GMT The more I learn about the $3.2 billion deal (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/06/32-billion-wimax-deal-goes-through-take-cover/) announced earlier this week to salvage Clearwire’s and Sprint’s WiMax businesses by merging them together, the more I am convinced that someone got snookered. And that...
The more I learn about the $3.2 billion deal announced earlier this week to salvage Clearwire’s and Sprint’s WiMax businesses by merging them together, the more I am convinced that someone got snookered. And that someone was Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Maybe he just can’t say “No” to visionary billionaires like Clearwire chairman Craig McCaw. Or maybe McCaw got Intel CEO Paul Otellini to lean on his buddy Schmidt. Otellini himself pledged $1 billion of Intel’s money towards the venture because he has made a big bet at Intel on selling WiMax chips. He also happens to sit on Google’s board. I don’t know if any of the above happened or not.

What I do know is that Google came reluctantly to the table and that for a long time the deal was being blocked internally at Google for some very good reasons. The main reason is that WiMax as Clearwire is deploying it is not a very good replacement for mobile broadband services. It is, above all, a fixed wireless solution. What it replaces is wired broadband services to homes and offices delivered through cable and DSL. That is how Clearwire is selling it today.

But to get Google (and Comcast and Time Warner Cable) to put up the cash, Clearwire had to promise it would build out a richer mobile broadband service as well. This is why Google invested—to bring the broadband Internet to mobile devices (some of them hopefully running the Android operating system). And it is why Comcast and Time Warner Cable invested. They don’t need a replacement for cable broadband to people’s homes. They need a wireless offering to fend off AT&T’s and Verizon’s incursion into their television market. (It’s all about who has the better bundle). Everyone is enthralled with this idea of WiMax as a disruptive wireless mobile broadband alternative. Even Neal Cavuto couldn’t stop waxing about the wonderful wireless future that this deal represents.

I wish that it were true. But here are a few problems, in addition to the ones I laid out in my earlier post:
  1. Clearwire and Sprint have not yet proven that WiMax is a viable business even for fixed wireless. Clearwire lost $727 million last year, nearly five times more than its total revenues. And it is projected to lose increasingly more over the next couple years during the expensive growth phase of its business. Moreover, the uptake of the service in the 50 or so cities where it is available has not been so great. That is because, unless you live in a rural area with no other broadband alternative, it is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. At this point, most people in the U.S. can get broadband at their home just fine through cable or DSL.
  2. WiMax hasn’t proven itself elsewhere either. Even in Korea, which has had WiMax for two years and is supposed to be a broadband paradise, consumers are not clamoring for WiMax. There are only about 150,000 WiMax subscribers in Korea, well below initial expectations.
  3. Before you can turn Wimax into a mobile broadband service, you need mobile WiMax equipment. Cell phones, laptops, and other devices with WiMax chips in them are a long way away. Intel is ready to sell those chips, but device makers are not going to put them in their gadgets until enough consumers want them. And most consumers are going to wait for a WiMax network to show up that they can access both where they live and when they travel. So there’s a chicken and egg problem there.
  4. Clearwire doesn’t know how to act like a mobile company. It doesn’t have a mobile business plan. It has a fixed wireless business plan. In order to make WiMax truly mobile, you need to build out a network dense enough to cover subscribers as they move from one place to another. That is simply not the case today, even in the markets where Clearwire operates.
  5. Sprint is conflicted. To deal with roaming and coverage gaps, Clearwire would need to use Sprint’s 3G cellular network as a backup. That would require another chip in each device, which would make them more expensive than competing devices from AT&T or Verizon. Also, it would require Sprint opening up its 3G network to Clearwire and, by extension, Google. That’s not going to happen.
  6. WiMax is not a global standard. Here in the U.S., WiMax is built on 2.5 GHz spectrum. Overseas, it is built on 3.5 GHz spectrum. That makes it harder for equipment manufacturers to achieve teh scale they need to make money from WiMax devices and network equipment.
  7. McCaw may be a visionary, but sometimes he doesn’t see so clearly. Yes, he built what is now AT&T Wireless and sold it for $11.5 billion. But after that he also was responsible for Teledesic and XO Communications—two massive failures that cost investors billions of dollars. Clearwire was about to join those latter two before Schmidt & Co. came to the rescue.
More from TechCrunch... ]]> General / Other IM News TechCrunch http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42508 Facebook To Lift 5,000 Friends Limit http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42506&goto=newpost Fri, 09 May 2008 16:50:22 GMT (http://www.facebook.com)Facebook will soon remove a limitation that restricts users to no more than 5,000 friend connections, someone close to the company told us this week. There are stories...]]> Facebook will soon remove a limitation that restricts users to no more than 5,000 friend connections, someone close to the company told us this week.

There are stories around why the limitation exists at all. The official reason is that Facebook wants to make sure that people only add “real” friends to their account, and the restriction is on the high end of the number of friends that any one person could reasonable have. The unofficial (and actual) reason: scaling problems made this necessary. I’ve heard this directly from Facebook employees, as have others.
But those scaling issues have been resolved, we hear from our source, and the cap will soon be lifted.

Facebook says that “less than 1,000″ users have 5,000 friends today. There are around 70 million active Facebook users, so the number of users who are affected is around one thousandth of a percent. But a disproportionate percentage of bloggers and press are at the limit, so the issue tends to get a lot more attention than it otherwise would.
High profile blogger Robert Scoble is among the 1,000 Facebook users who’ve hit the cap, and has complained about the restriction in the past.

Facebook says that they “Pages” feature is meant for people and brands that want to have a lot more “friends” than are allowed via normal accounts. An example is Barack Obama’s Facebook page, which currently shows 820,000 supporters.

But for many people, being a friend is much different than being a fan, and the level of interaction allowed is also significantly different. And the new Friends List feature, which allows users to classify and group friends, makes organization easier anyway.

More from TechCrunch... ]]> General / Other IM News TechCrunch http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42506 Early Adopters Still Spend More Time With Microsoft Than Google, Facebook, or Skype. http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42502&goto=newpost Thu, 08 May 2008 22:10:14 GMT (http://www.rescuetime.com) When early adopters sit at their computers, what applications and websites do they use the most? The answer: Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office, and MSN Messenger—just like most...]]>
When early adopters sit at their computers, what applications and websites do they use the most? The answer: Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office, and MSN Messenger—just like most everyone else. At least according to data from RescueTime, the productivity app that monitors the amount of time a user spends on every application on his desktop. The Y Combinator-funded startup has given us an exclusive look at the usage data they’ve compiled from over 30,000 users (most of whom are early adopters). This data represents real-life usage on a huge scale, totaling 475,190 man-hours.

Gmail, Facebook, and Skype make strong showings, but still lag behind Microsoft’s desktop apps. Microsoft Websites, however, are nowhere to be seen. All of this suggests that among early adopters, desktop apps still rule, but Webtop apps are gaining ground in terms of what they use every day. After Outlook and Word, Gmail is the third most-used application, Facebook is No. 6, Google search is No. 10, iTunes is No. 11, and Skype is No. 16.

If you add up all of Google’s apps and sites, they take up 17 percent of the time this group spends on their computers. But Microsoft’s apps collectively take up 41 percent of their time, so Google still has some catching up to do.

Here’s the disclaimer: This data is by no means scientific. It represents mostly early adopters, but these are the people who are supposed to figure out what’s useful before the rest of us do. They are the canary in the coal mine. The data also has an international slant, with only 40% of users in the US (a total of 60% are English-speaking). About 35% of the users are on Macs, a rate over three times higher than the international estimate of 10% Mac market-share.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 20 applications and Websites, ranked by the overall time spent in each.

The Top 3


The top of the list is dull. Outlook stands tall with 12.4% of all the time spent on a computer, with MS Word(9.4%) and Gmail(6.6%) rounding out the top three. No surprises here.

Chat


In the battle for chat-client supremacy, MSN Messenger comes away with a whopping 4.14%, more than twice as much as the next leading client. Adium’s high performance is indicative of the high proportion of Mac users (it is easily the best client on the Mac).

Websites


Facebook holds a surprisingly strong lead over other websites, with nearly three times as much usage as Wikipedia’s English site. Also notable is Twitter.com’s usage (this is the site itself, not the API, which reportedly sees ten times more action). Digg is more popular among this group than the NYTimes.com, and gaming site Kongregate makes a strong showing as well. TechCrunch comes up right beneath YouPorn (NSFW), which isn’t such a bad place to be in.

In all, RescueTime users spent 44.6% of their time using communication services, beating out work-related apps by a large margin. The trend is probably much worse for the typical user, as RescueTime users are more likely to try to stay on task (in theory, at least).



More from TechCrunch... ]]> General / Other IM News TechCrunch http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42502 <![CDATA[AOL Offers Free Phone Calls on Mother’s Day Weekend]]> http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42487&goto=newpost Tue, 06 May 2008 16:00:07 GMT Call Your Mom, Call Your Friend’s Mom, Even Call Your Mother-in-Law, All for Free Using the AIM Call Out Service 1331DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE (http://www.businesswire.com/))--As a special gift this Mother’s Day weekend, AOL announced that calls made using the AIM Call Out service... Call Your Mom, Call Your Friend’s Mom, Even Call Your Mother-in-Law, All for Free Using the AIM Call Out Service

DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As a special gift this Mother’s Day weekend, AOL announced that calls made using the AIM Call Out service (http://call.aim.com) on Saturday, May 10 and Sunday, May 11 will be free. Users must set up an AIM Call Out account and add at least $5 in non-refundable call credit to get started. Users can then make as many calls as they want to more than 200 countries and will still have $5 to spend at the end of the free calls weekend.

WHEN: Users can make free calls between 6 a.m. EDT on Saturday, May 10th and 4 a.m. EDT on Monday, May 12th.

HOW: Users must have a free AIM screenname and use version 6.5 or higher of the AIM service which can be downloaded for free at http://www.aim.com. Once users launch AIM they just click on the telephone icon at the base of the AIM Buddy List to get started.
Users can talk with their moms using a headset or with a microphone and speakers. Users can also make phone-to-phone calls using the Web Connect feature within AIM Call Out. Users simply enter their phone number and then the phone number of their mom. In a few seconds, their phone will ring and then connect them to their mom’s phone.1

RESTRICTIONS: Users will not be able to make free calls for the duration of the promotion to Myanmar, Ghana, Egypt, Brunei, Comoros, Croatia, Morocco, Oman and Zaire. Users will continue to be charged for calls to satellite services including Inmarsat, Thuraya and Iridium.

About the AIM Call Out Service
AIM Call Out is a pay-as-you-go outbound voice calling service built right into AIM that lets users make calls to landline and mobile phones. AIM Call Out offers low per-minute rates with no connection fee or monthly charge. Users pay for call credits in increments as low as $5. For a listing of long distance rates AIM users can visit http://call-out.aim.com/rates.
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]]> AIM News Jeff http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42487 Hotmail Users Can Now Improve the World Effortlessly http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42480&goto=newpost Mon, 05 May 2008 21:20:21 GMT Microsoft’s i’m Initiative (http://im.live.com/Messenger/im/Home), which launched in March 2007, has expanded to include Hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com/). The program donates a portion of the ad revenue generated through Hotmail and Messenger to any of ten worthwhile causes... Microsoft’s i’m Initiative, which launched in March 2007, has expanded to include Hotmail. The program donates a portion of the ad revenue generated through Hotmail and Messenger to any of ten worthwhile causes.

I like the basic premise behind the i’m initiative - it’s an opt-in and fairly unintrusive service that just puts an extra i’m-specific advertisement at the end of your emails, or an i’m icon next to your buddy list name. The more email and messages users send, the more money Microsoft donates to the charities of those users’ choices.

Microsoft so far attributes more than 20 million new downloads of Messenger to the campaign, in addition to increased usage of all Windows Live offerings such as Live Search and Hotmail. Since March 2007, the campaign has donated about $1.4 million to charity.

More from TechCrunch... ]]> General / Other IM News TechCrunch http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42480 911 tragedy in Calgary reveals perils of VoIP http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42472&goto=newpost Sun, 04 May 2008 16:52:12 GMT 1326TORONTO AND CALGARY — An ambulance was dispatched in response to a 911 call about a toddler in distress, but the Internet phone service said paramedics went to the address it had on file – a home in Mississauga – not the new home in Calgary where the distraught family waited in vain for... TORONTO AND CALGARY — An ambulance was dispatched in response to a 911 call about a toddler in distress, but the Internet phone service said paramedics went to the address it had on file – a home in Mississauga – not the new home in Calgary where the distraught family waited in vain for help.

The child died before an ambulance sent to the right place could get him to hospital Tuesday night.

The family of 18-month-old Elijah Luck spoke out Thursday about their ordeal accessing 911 emergency services with their telephone company Comwave, which uses voice-over-Internet-protocol technology.

Their nightmare highlights the sometimes serious problems that can occur with VoIP providers' emergency services.

“We lost our little baby,” Elijah's aunt, Sylvia Luck, said Thursday. “We can't get him back. But we want to give this awareness to people so this doesn't happen to them.”

VoIP is a relatively new technology that many companies ranging from small upstarts to large cable operators have used to break into the phone market. While it has similar features to phone service from a conventional provider such as Bell Canada or Telus Corp., 911 on VoIP works differently.

The “basic 911” service that many VoIP customers have puts them in touch with a call centre that takes down their address and contacts the closest emergency response centre. That's because subscribers are identified by an IP number rather than geographic location. If calls are disconnected, the VoIP provider gives the customer's last known address, which, in the case of the Luck family, was in Mississauga.

Traditional phone providers' enhanced 911 service sends location information on customers directly to emergency services.

The family's ordeal shows that more work is needed to educate consumers about how VoIP emergency services work, said Mark Goldberg of telecom consulting firm Mark H. Goldberg and Associates Inc.

Read the full story here.
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]]> VoIP News detn8r http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42472 AIM Advanced {FB} Beta Release http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42468&goto=newpost Sun, 04 May 2008 08:58:05 GMT Hello Everyone,

I would like to say hello and introduce myself a bit. My name is Tuankoi, I am new to this forum, decided to sign up since I've viewed a few cool threads on "aim" related content. I am an avid aim user and I have become more actively involved in aim related content since I've recently had more time available.

I have been working on and off on a plugin of mine called AIM Advanced which adds a ton of cool new features to AIM, started it and finished up a lot in mid Feb. but unfortunately, I have only recently been able to finish up a proper installation app. and testing. Originally, I started it as a plugin for a few friends with the first feature being my "Fight Bot" in an attempt to add a better alternative to aim fight. But now I have decided to let everyone enjoy the laughter as there may be plenty of people who would enjoy this and a lot more of the features I have developed.

Attachment 1323

Above is a screen shot of the FightBot feature which I have developed, more info can be found here or at my storage site at tuankoi.com.

Anyways, I like this site and what I've read and I am looking forward to contributing much more interesting work for the aim community, and I hope you also enjoy the plugin :)
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]]> AIM News Tuankoi http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42468 100% Unbootability on YMSG http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42453&goto=newpost Sat, 03 May 2008 02:50:15 GMT YTK Support Forum :: View topic - How To Be Unbootable On ANY Chat Client Or ALG!

Well guys, now that a guy named LegendKiller (from Y!TunnelPro's forum) was so nice as to attempt to "Reverse Engineer" our BDP option in YTK Pro beta build 430 I'll tell you what's going on here (he looked at our external event logger and was able to figure it out).

Over the last several weeks Yahoo! has started "patching" their servers against the buffer boot exploit. Their "patch" consists of getting rid of the disconnection rule entirely when packet data is pending against you in the buffer. Nowadays if you were to be bombed with a booter you will NOT be disconnected regardless of what type the booter is (even if it's some hot new exploit it won't matter).

What does this mean? This means that of the 61+ servers to chat on 6 of them I've found to be protected against all boots. Here is the following list of them (I tested all of them and here are my results at the time of this post):

Unbootable Servers:

- cs1.msg.dcn.yahoo.com
- cs2.msg.dcn.yahoo.com
- cs40.msg.dcn.yahoo.com
- cs50.msg.dcn.yahoo.com
- cs55.msg.dcn.yahoo.com
- cs58.msg.dcn.yahoo.com

Now that the cat's out of the bag you can use one of these servers on ANY chat program for Yahoo! Chat and be completely unbootable only as long as there's no local program flaws in your choice of chat program. Our BDP option is a TCP window scale option (at the socket level) plus a randomization of these servers (from the pool of protected servers).

Who deserves to be credited solely for this discovery? Venom, Brock and myself. Venom/Mike made me aware of the fact that certain people weren't affected by the buffer boot exploit. After looking into a couple of things I logically deduced all the complexities down to the chat servers themselves that are providing this type of protection for you.

The rest is history...
This can be done with any ALG (YTK Pro or Y!TunnelPro) or any chat clients (YahELite, Yazak, Yahaven, Y!mLite, etc.) that allows you to select which server to log in with. All you have to do is set it, and log in. :)
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]]> Yahoo! Messenger News Ven0m http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42453 Sending text messages that really stink http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42449&goto=newpost Fri, 02 May 2008 17:27:43 GMT Two German companies have patented technology for sending scented text messages between mobile phones. The chip, which carries a range of around 100 pre-defined scents, has been developed by the Institute of Sensory Analysis and interactive services firm Convisual and will be on the market in one... Two German companies have patented technology for sending scented text messages between mobile phones. The chip, which carries a range of around 100 pre-defined scents, has been developed by the Institute of Sensory Analysis and interactive services firm Convisual and will be on the market in one to two years.

Naturally, the makers think that the chip will be used for sending pleasant odors to friendsand family — vanilla, rose and Christmas cinnamon are on the list — but surely the claim to be able to send 'the smell of the beach and sunshine' is a little optimistic?

SMS stink bombs cannot be far away.

Source: The Local via Slashdot ]]> General / Other IM News Fanatic http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42449 Digsby adds Facebook Chat http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42443&goto=newpost Thu, 01 May 2008 21:41:59 GMT 1320A relative newcomer to the multi-network IM list, Digsby (http://www.digsby.com) has been on a tear! Digsby not only allows connectivity to AIM, WLM, Yahoo, and Google Talk, but also your email and social networks like Myspace and Facebook. And today they rolled out their latest version (build... A relative newcomer to the multi-network IM list, Digsby has been on a tear! Digsby not only allows connectivity to AIM, WLM, Yahoo, and Google Talk, but also your email and social networks like Myspace and Facebook. And today they rolled out their latest version (build 28), becoming the first IM program to add support for Facebook Chat.

Digsby's Facebook Chat support is separate from the Facebook notifications, so you'll need to download the latest version and then add Facebook Chat to your IM accounts in Digsby preferences to use it.

Normally, Digsby will automatically check for updates and install them when you sign-in, but I found that even after auto-updating, I was still a few builds behind (probably due to my proxy configuration). You can jump straight to the latest by simply downloading directly from the Digsby website. All your settings will remain intact.

Also in this version is improved support for Yahoo Mail and (thankfully) improved proxy support.

Kudos to the Disgby team!

Read more from the Digsby blog.
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]]> General / Other IM News Jeff http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42443 First Look at Facebook Chat http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42439&goto=newpost Thu, 01 May 2008 17:28:55 GMT Last week Facebook officially unveiled their much-anticipated instant messaging service. Called *Facebook Chat*, it works without installation of a separate software program. Instead, it uses a DHTML interface that works automatically when you access your Facebook account from most web browsers. ... Last week Facebook officially unveiled their much-anticipated instant messaging service. Called Facebook Chat, it works without installation of a separate software program. Instead, it uses a DHTML interface that works automatically when you access your Facebook account from most web browsers.

When you sign-in to Facebook, you will see a status bar on the bottom of the Facebook page. This status bar shows how many of your Facebook contacts are currently online, the number of notifications pending, and your current status.

The interface overlays whatever Facebook page you are viewing, but if you browse away from Facebook.com, you'll be automatically disconnected. Also, if you use multiple windows or tabs to view several sites at the same time, there is nothing to notify you of new messages if your Facebook window is in the background.

What I like about Facebook Chat is that it is simple. It doesn't require installation of additional software, and it is easy to understand and use. Not a lot of bells and whistles, but I like that.

It would be nice if they provided an interface that worked on mobile devices like my iPhone, but I suspect that will come in due time.

Third-party Connections?
There are rumors that Digsby may be coming out with an update that will support Facebook Chat very soon. Stay tuned...








Link: Facebook.com
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]]> General / Other IM News Jeff http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42439 Yahoo! Messenger for Vista Beta Adds Voice and SMS http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42435&goto=newpost Thu, 01 May 2008 05:12:17 GMT It's a new month, and Yahoo has just released a new beta of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista with support for voice calls (both PC-to-PC and PC-to-phone) and free text messaging (SMS).

The voice calls support their free PC-to-PC calling, but to make calls to a landline or cell phone you'll need to purchase a Phone Out account. The rates are really competitive though, starting at 1 cent/minute.


Free SMS text messaging is a real deal. Just type in the cell phone number for your friend and send them a message. Note that though this is free to you, your friend may incur charges to receive the text message, so check with them first. I tried it and it worked. I might even use this instead of my phone, at least when I'm sitting in front of my PC. I can type a lot faster on my PC keyboard than on my cell phone!

Here's a brief video from Yahoo showing the new features:



Download Yahoo! Messenger for Vista Beta ]]> Yahoo! Messenger News Yahooligan http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42435 Meebo Closes Big Funding Round http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42432&goto=newpost Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:30:17 GMT Web chat startup Meebo (http://www.meebo.com) has closed the funding round they’ve been working on (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/18/is-meebo-worth-half-a-slide/) with investment bank Montgomery & Co....]]> Web chat startup Meebo has closed the funding round they’ve been working on with investment bank Montgomery & Co., a source tells us. Expect an announcement shortly.

The best information we’ve been able to gather says the company raised $20 million or so on a $200 million valuation. Earlier this month they abandoned efforts to sell the company, focusing instead on raising money.

Meebo was negotiating with strategic partners to join the funding round as well, including eBay, Fox/MySpace and AOL. From what we’ve heard, none of those companies invested.

To date Meebo has raised $12.5 million from Sequoia Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

More from TechCrunch... ]]> General / Other IM News TechCrunch http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42432 Panedia Offers Georeferenced Panoramic Images http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42429&goto=newpost Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:01:06 GMT Panedia (http://www.panedia.com) is a content creation and licensing company, specializing in high quality georeferenced photography using immersive panoramic technologies. Panedia offers three core...]]> Panedia is a content creation and licensing company, specializing in high quality georeferenced photography using immersive panoramic technologies.

Panedia offers three core services. Panedia panoramas offer 360 degree immersive images of “amazing places.” The service is completely web based, so users choose a location and can move around each position. Panedia’s Map service offers over 3500 panoramic tours cross referenced by Google Map. Panedia’s Wallpaper service is offered for $25/ year and provides (as the name suggests) panoramic wallpapers.

All Panedia work is shot individually by company selected professional photographers, with content focused on providing superior quality over mass produced quantity.

The Gold Coast, Australia based company currently only offers panoramic imagery from Australia and some parts of San Francisco, but will be expanding into Europe later this year, with the rest of North America to follow some time after that. The business model relies on licensing access to the content: all but the wallpapers are offered on the site for free, but the company is already in negotiations to license the content for use on third party sites, including tourism sites.

Immersive panoramic imagery isn’t new, however Panedia’s emphasis on quality is evident on the site, and some of the imagery is amazing.



More from TechCrunch... ]]> General / Other IM News TechCrunch http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42429 EA-Land (The Sims Online) Joins The Deadpool http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42428&goto=newpost Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:50:52 GMT (http://ea-land.ea.com)EA-Land (http://www.ea-land.com), the service previously known as The Sims Online will shut August 1, despite a much hyped revamp announced late February...]]> EA-Land, the service previously known as The Sims Online will shut August 1, despite a much hyped revamp announced late February.

The Sims Online was generally regarded to be a failure for EA, with the company unable to turn the success of The Sims franchise into an online hit. The service wasn’t helped by a complete lack of customizable features (outside of the usual Sims customization tools) and EA charged for access.

The new (but now never to be launched) EA-Land was to be EA’s second shot of success, and promised Second Life style customization and land ownership, with a free client and free to use service.
EA didn’t provide a full explanation for the shutdown, only saying that “The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena.”

Paying users of the Sims Online are being offered a $15 gift voucher and three months premium access to Pogo.

More from TechCrunch... ]]> General / Other IM News TechCrunch http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42428