Released quite recently by Oddcast, Voki is a free animated avatar designed to assist with more “personal” uses rather than its corporate sister, Sitepal. I recently stumbled on this site/software through another corporation’s site I visited; although it could be annoying sometimes, Voki is definitely an interesting web software.

Voki was first designed to appeal to bloggers and myspace users. As I just mentioned already, it is supposed to be used on only personal websites (which Herb’s Blurbs is, technically speaking); if you are a corporate customer you might want to consider investing $10/month into its more sophisticated sister Sitepal.

I would describe Voki as an animated avatar – although it is so much more. I could describe it as a welcomer, a website guide, but oh well. Voki’s actually not too hard to use – although I think it’s much better to simply register for it in order to save your Voki avatar. It’s got a pretty numerable variety of features – everything that I expected to have; and a bit more.

Well, to start off, you can customize your Voki character; there are a myriad of options for you to choose between! From more “classic” humans to “random” animals, you can decide on what character to use – of course, you should take into consideration the appropriateness of the situation. The character’s heads are also very changeable – from height, to length, to nose size, and mouth size (and colour), there are all sorts of variations. You can choose to dress him/her/it into the funkiest of clothes, although I do think the choices might be a bit limited, Voki is still in it’s Alpha stage.

After the character customization, the most interesting part – making it talk. You can import a preloaded .mp3 file, record using a mic live, type up what you want the character to say, or (for all who don’t have microphones and hate the preloaded voices like I did), you can call in by telephone to record your voice which is a feature I think is amazing. I first tried typing what I wanted my Voki to say, but unfortunately, the voices are very mechanical (to say the least). They are also limited to very regular words, and couldn’t say the word “blog” for example. So, I decided on recording live; I don’t really have a sound studio, so I saw no point in recording a .mp3 first. The recording was easy, but it had a limit of sixty seconds which should be more than enough to welcome your guests. But, don’t expect to tell a (long) story with the Voki (by voice anyway). According to a friend, the Voki service took longer than expected to upload a .mp3 file – presumably, a song. I can say that’s kind of disappointing to hear, but there will be plenty of time to remedy these changes. I have not tried the telephone service yet, but I do think I can safely assume that it’s pretty similar to the mic-recording experience but perhaps with no time limit (or a longer one).

Then, the more minor changes; the third stage requires you choose a background. This can be an uploaded background from your computer, or one of the included default ones. There is a decently-sized selection of a variety of different backgrounds to choose from – there are also (interestingly enough), animated backgrounds.

The last option is to customize your player; the border surrounding your avatar. This really disappointed me – even though I had expected less professional options, I could only choose one that looked halfway decent. The rest are very useful, but only for personal uses. There are a lot of selections that are quite comical, but we are here to make a tech statement, not to milk a cow!

The most unexpected part; the mouth movements are synchronized to the speech! I think it’s pretty amazing what the Voki avatar can accomplish – it actually seems halfway realistic (well, for an animation).

Overall, I think Voki avatars will be an excellent selection to the internet – especially for personal use. As for me – I’m not sure whether or not I will use it yet…perhaps in the near future. It’s not that I don’t like it, because I really do, but I’m just not sure whether it belongs to my blog. If you’re looking for a way to greet your web site’s visitors though, I suggest you take a look at Voki avatars. I would post an example of an avatar I created in the same post, but there were some layout issues which I had to fix. It will be in the post below this one!

Well, apparently I got it to work. Click the pink triangle to play it!

Get a Voki now!

Alright, remember when I promised I wouldn’t write a second take on the iPhone until I got a personal experience with it? I apologize for the fact that I couldn’t hold back, it’s just much too fun to predict these trends.

First off, the iPhone has now sold over 700,000 units. I can’t truly compare it to the most popular handhelds like the Motorola Razr, given the difference in time (the Razr was released when, like three years ago?). With the Razr selling well over 50-million units though, I’m not sure the iPhone can match that; we will really have to wait for the two major booms – the school season in fall, and the Christmas present season in winter (although I’m not sure that’s the correct professional vocabulary).

Source: http://handcellphone.com/wp-content/themes/green-marinee/phonepic/Motorola-RAZR-V3-Lime-6.jpg

Many see the iPhone sales as disappointing, but I don’t think of it so much a disappointment – I wasn’t expecting the iPhone to sell like hotcakes. I am surprised that the legion of iPhone-killers haven’t been released yet; I figured that manufacturers would want to slay the beast before another iPod episode happens; which brings me to my next point.

The iPod had implemented a laptop hard drive with a unique GUI when it was first released – it was pretty much the best digital audio player on the market six years ago, with a massive five gigabytes of storage (wowzers, that was almost unheard of)! It claimed to fit “a thousand songs in your pocket”, and it probably could – as long as your songs were 2.5 megabytes or smaller (possible, considering it was back then..). The iPhone isn’t really the top dog of the market though – also it is quite commercially successful so far, its specifications can be easily matched or even overpowered by the muscle phones. In a modern english, it’s an “average” phone.

Ever since the iPhone launch, I’ve also been following another story, which involves Research In Motion (RIM), the famous designer of the ever-so-popular Blackberry devices. Surprisingly enough, the iPhone release hasn’t really dented their sales; in fact, a couple of weeks later, Blackberry sales began rising higher! Apparently, friends of iPhone customers wanted a device that could “show the iPhone up”. I don’t blame them – the iPhone isn’t too hard to beat, and the Blackberry series of phones could be the ones to do it. After all, with a solid customer core in the business industry, as well as pretty regular consumers eying the Blackberry Pearl or Curve with interest, RIM doesn’t need to worry about the iPhone due to the major difference in target audiences.

Source: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070503/070503_curve_front.widec.jpg

Apparently, the iPhone is also set for a debut in Europe – the delay is due to the integration of 3g technology (as European consumers rely heavily on). Alas, the sooner they integrate 3g into the iPhone, the better – the iPhone internet experience receives mixed reviews from their customers. I watched an interview on http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/video/vs?id=RTGAM.20070724.wviphone24 , where I also got a chunk of information, and the interviewee describes the iPhone EDGE experience as “horrific”, and the wi-fi experience pretty much likewise. Again, it’s not too surprising, but I’m mildly concerned at how many iPhone customers will be using their internet service (pretty much all of them, I’m guessing). I can’t say that this will be a major selling point of the phone.

This brings us back to RIM, whose Blackberry devices are built to surf the internet; the consumers of RIM are probably more keen on checking their email and such, due to the high-paced speed of the business world. When I thought about the Blackberry facing off against the iPhone, I couldn’t see the iPhone actually winning, mostly due to its semi-mediocre internet speed and technology.

So could RIM be the ultimate iPhone-killer? I might’ve hinted at it a bit, but again, I highly doubt it. Their target markets are quite different, with iPhone being appealing to the general public and the Blackberry gathering their business consumers. However, I will say that RIM needs not worry about taking the iPhone down as soon as, oh – say, Motorola or Sony Ericsson due to the increase in competition.

Speaking of Motorola and Sony Ericssson, I’m surprised that they haven’t released their next myriad of phones yet; with the Razr 2 and Rizr Z8 waiting on the Motorola bench, and the w960 and k850 holding down the Sony Ericsson sidelines, I really don’t know what to expect; will the iPhone be crushed? I doubt it – the marketing campaign for the two manufacturers hasn’t exactly started yet, but unlike the iPhone, these handhelds are practically at the top of the line (well, the Sony Ericssons are, anyway).

The iPhone’s still in a very vulnerable state – not to mention, it’s not even available everywhere yet. Unfortunately, it does not look like that the iPhone will be (officially) arriving in Canada anytime soon, although I have seen some sellers putting unlocked iPhones on the market. But, we have to let the sands of time pass before seeing how successful the iPhone really is.

Source: http://www.connexion.be/blog/user/files/iphone_home.gif

I’ve used an older version of the Gigabeat before, and I can genuinely say that I enjoyed the experience; it had a lot of features that many digital audio players don’t have nowadays, and I really appreciated them.

As I went through my initial stages of research, I realized quite quickly that the most shocking part of this digital audio player would be its colour palette; oh my, the Gigabeat U103 comes in twenty-four different colours! That’s already a big plus in my book; although it might be a bit much, it means that I wouldn’t have to purchase a Gigabeat that looked as colour-unfriendly as my previous one (a navy blue).

This variant of the Gigabeat is available with a single gigabyte of storage, and a 1.1-inch screen; it is not as aesthetically-pleasing as many of its competitors, and lacks storage when compared to digital audio players such as the iPod Nano and the Zen Vision Plus.

Asides from that, I don’t think I need to say too much; this might be the first digital audio player that I would not recommend getting. It doesn’t have ample storage, and looks quite ugly (when put bluntly). The only thing I say it has going for it is the almost ludicrous amount of colour-selection; I guess its consumers (whoever that could be) would be able to have an exceptionally decent selection, but I greatly doubt that retail stores will have all the colours in stock.

A year (or so) ago, iRiver released what I would consider a decent digital audio player, by the name of Clix.

The original iRiver Clix was described as “looking like a television,” in a CNet review. It featured a disappointing two gigabytes of storage, but the navigation system made up for it. In order to move up, down, left, or right, you would simply touch your finger to the respective side of its black frame; the Clix would then move, with a “clicking” noise (hence the name). It featured then-rare video capabilities, but with such storage limitations, what, and how much would you be able to store?

Source: http://blogs.pcworld.com/digitalworld/archives/iriver-clix.jpg

The 2nd generation of the Clix features a rounder, smoother-looking body, and also two-gigabytes or four-gigabytes of storage, with eight-gigabytes of storage to be made available soon. It’s still featuring the nice little clicking navigation system as well. It is, to say the least, very aesthetically pleasing; much more so than its predecessor.

Source: http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/04/16/iriver_clix_2_1.jpg

But what makes me think it will be more commercially-successful than the first generation of the Clix? Well, to be honest, I don’t. I mean, sure, it has a lot of things going for it, but so did the Clix. I think if more people knew about it, then perhaps they would consider investing in one; this would require a much more aggressive marketing campaign on iRiver’s part. I do hope that iRiver quickly releases an eight-gigabyte variant, because even with four gigabytes, storage is not going to be considered a major selling point.

I will admit that I think I saw a Clix commercial, but it did not really create the impact that the dominating Apple iPod did with their silhouettes dancing and singing in various colourful backgrounds. I mean, the iPod advertisements practically created a new type of ad (now known as iPod ads, my communications technology class created a few). I think iRiver should try for quantity though, as it just needs to get it’s product publicity, not revolutionize the digital audio player game.

Not a single person that I know uses an iRiver Clix; although that could be due to my lack of friends (just kidding…right?), it could also be because no one knows about it. I do think I’ve seen one in Future Shop, but then again, my memory’s a bit fuzzy. iRiver should make its products, especially lovely products like the Clix, more available to the public, by supplying the major retailers of the tech game (The Source, Best Buy, Future Shop) with more products for cheaper prices. I do realize this will result in a smaller profit, but it will result in more purchases! And publicity, and referrals, and then more purchases, if everything goes according to plan.I realize that this marketing scheme is much easier said than done, but iRiver really has to do something about it! I just hope that iRiver’s much more successful with the Clix elsewhere around the world than it is in Toronto (I think I know a few people with other iRiver products though).

With such a plan, this should layout a stronger foundation for iRiver purchasers. With successful marketing, I don’t honestly see a reason why this product could not succeed (except for the storage issue).

I’ve recently just joined Payperpost. And I hope to continue sharpening my writing skills while providing you readers with material that you want. If you would also like to join Payperpost, just review my post; we’ll both get paid $7.50!

Payperpost is basically a program that will allow me to post sponsored reviews about products of my choice; in this case, it will continue to be technology and internet products and/or services. If you’re a blogger, I highly recommend giving it a shot! Just click on the “Review my Post” sign right at the end of this post.

Just wanted to keep you dedicated readers posted; have a nice day!

Wow, a quick makeover really impressed me; Pageflakes’ once caterpillar of a GUI has morphed into a beautiful butterfly. With preloaded themes, and options to create your own theme, its a wonder how Pageflakes finished this upgrade within a good half day. With that said, asides from the quite major GUI change, there’s really little difference in how Pageflakes works.

First thing I checked, and was pleased to see was that deleting a page is now much simpler of a process; there is now just a regular close button. It’s a much simpler and intuitive move, especially when compared to the previous more “complicated” method.

Navigation has changed a bit too; prior to this upgrade, the links leading to customizations were in regular words; now, all these links can be accessed via a click of the Pageflakes orb logo. In my humble opinion, it’s a very nice move, and it has definitely paid off. Kind of reminds me of a simpler version of the Microsoft Office Ribbon though…not that it’s a bad thing, mind you.

The themes now include a background in the body of the page as well as a header graphic; it seems a bit more powerful than before. However, sometimes, it can be quite overwhelming. I decided to stick with a plain Aqua theme, for now.

There are now also many more preset layout options; Pageflakes will automatically resize your columns for you! I decided this was a good thing, as it added a nice touch to my own page.

As I’ve said for the umpteenth time, asides from the major GUI upgrade, there really isn’t much difference; however, I thought that Pageflakes was already pretty decent in terms of everything. The GUI upgrade I would consider a definite plus! Well, what are you waiting for, go try Pageflakes now!

This isn’t so much a take, as it is an update; I awoke this morning to find Pageflakes had been replaced with an inanimate sign. Apparently, it’s going through an upgrade; oh boy, take 2 here we come!

Ah, it’s nice to see that something great in the name of music blossomed on the internet.

Although Last.fm is far from new, it’s still evolving; compared to the last time I logged on, it’s stats are a lot more based in real-time, it’s radio program has evolved, and certain features are now just for “subscribers”. Last.fm describes itself as “the social music revolution”; a couple of years ago, I would’ve been skeptical. Now, I can see it’s grown into just that!

I first re-discovered Last.fm when I was exploring the world of internet radio. My friend had recently introduced me to a station called Hot108 Jamz, but after a while, I realized I wanted something more diverse. I enjoyed listening to some of the radio stations streamed through iTunes and Windows Media Player, but I grew tired of those as well. I found myself switching stations frequently; I figured it was way too often. I wanted more; perhaps, a music explorer which would grow to suit my tastes.

As I grew more and more desperate, my ever tech-savvy uncle introduced me to Pandora. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize the service was restricted to the United States; and therefore I had no access to it, as I have live in Canada. However, he left me with a back-up site: Last.fm!

What is Last.fm? Well, Last.fm is essentially a music exploration service; it requires that you download its audioscrobbler plug-in to record the songs you play, and helps you to meet people with similar music tastes. There is a plug-in for each respective media player (one for iTunes, one for Windows Media Player, one for Winamp, etc.). It doesn’t matter how many media players your computer has; Last.fm will automatically detect and install a plug-in for each respective one.

Last.fm also has its own software, which is essentially a smart radio; you type in the name of your favourite artist(s), and then generates a playlist based off the artist’s genre. If music is playing in a media player on your computer (such as iTunes or Windows Media Player), it will also display a biography of the artist in a frame on its software. When playing music through the Last.fm software, you can choose to “love” a song, or “ban” a song (which ensures the Last.fm radio will never play that song again).

Last.fm has a huge database of information about artists; biographies as I mentioned, and now including a few videos and whole lot of user-posted pictures. Unsurprisingly, Last.fm also records information on which of its users listen to that artist, and displays it in the listeners tab. It also has a list of similar artists (measuring in order of genre similarities), which is excellent for music exploration! Last.fm also contains a vast amount of information of upcoming concerts about an artist; did I just hear somebody call out “convenient”?

Wait, didn’t I mention something about a “social music revolution”? And, that it is. On the Last.fm website, you are given an option of importing an email contacts list, so you can encourage other friends to sign up. Frankly, I’ve never been a fan of these “encouraging emails”, as they kind of tick me off; they’re usually for social networking sites that I’ve already avoided joining. Needless to say, I decided against it, and went into the now old-fashioned method of just asking around.

Last.fm also has what I would consider a pretty interesting feature; it would record the songs you played, but then it will now also display users with similar music interests to you (known as “neighbours”). If your heart’s desire is to meet people with similar music tastes, look no further; and, the “neighbour” feature only gets more accurate with every song listened to (not too great for now though; however, considering they usually took a week to update, I’d consider it somewhat of an improvement).

The forums on Last.fm mainly contain support and development subjects; however, there is a “News” section and “General Discussion” forum. However, for a “social music revolution”, I do believe that the forums could focus more on the community while still recieving feedback on support and development issues.

Last, but not least, Last.fm is a Godsend for up and coming artists; almost anyone can choose to upload their own songs onto Last.fm. I do remember a few of my friends uploading their own .mp3 files onto Last.fm of modified Linkin Park songs, just as a joke. I was actually surprised that it worked!

I remembered being prodded by my cousin to sign up a year or so ago, but the plug-ins slowed my old machine down, and I grew sick of that horrible radio that played the worst songs ever (now I wonder if maybe I just listened to the worst type of music ever?). Last.fm has definitely matured into a much more user-friendly website/software, and I can’t say that I’m still a skeptic.

I highly recommend that you give Last.fm a try. Take a look around, and who knows, you might be fond of it, and grow to even love it!

Sick of that boring ol’ MSN default home page? I was, too. And now, Pageflakes is there to remedy that.

Pageflakes is part of a new wave of websites; it is a personalized web page which is capable of delivering RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndicator). Of course, that’s just a really vague description; in reality it can deliver live news, give you a new comic strip of your choice everyday, give you the weather, save notes that you type up, and much, much more. Asides from its RSS abilities, it can also broadcast podcasts, allow you to play simple games, and a lot more. Move aside, MSN. Heck, move aside, Toronto Star.

Pageflakes focuses on you. Or me. Or whoever the user happens to be; and I like that! The material on its website can be modified to suit the user’s needs, which is what it needs to survive in this new web. And you can take it with you everywhere you go, as long as you register on its website. Alas, if you have a laptop you might not have that problem, but it’s still a convenience for many users.

Pageflakes is pretty user-friendly; deleting a page turned out to be surprisingly tough though (go to share, then delete page). It’s a minor problem, and besides, all websites have its flaws (err…most of ‘em anyway).

Pageflakes also has an RSS reader integrated into it. Wait, what’s an RSS reader? An RSS reader is a program that is capable of receiving live news feeds called RSS feeds. Not all websites have RSS feeds though; a website will have a bright orange RSS button; click on that, and copy and paste the URL from that page into your RSS reader to add a feed. Anyhow, usually, these RSS readers are standalone programs, so imagine my pleasant surprise when I realized that there was a RSS reader that could be available via any web browser. Now, that’s convenient!

Pageflakes is a decent addition to the web; I highly suggest taking a look and playing around with the “flakes”, which are little programs that do simple tasks, such as calculate or save notes, or even play games (they’re much like “gadgets” at live.com). Heck, before you know it, Pageflakes will be set as your homepage too.