Recently, I’ve seen tons of news articles on something called OpenSocial.  This didn’t really jump out at me till I saw it associated with Google.  Then Friendster.  Then Myspace.  And then, I discovered it was rivaling Facebook’s developers’ applications.  What’s OpenSocial got to do with this?

OpenSocial is a united way to develop applications that will work with social-networking sites.  Think Myspace, with those funny Facebook applications like Free Gifts and whatnot.  Either way, since these sites will all be united by OpenSocial, would the possibility of an application working on all the sites be likely?  And even with Facebook 7,000 applications ahead, will OpenSocial be able to catch up?

If you ask me, I think OpenSocial is just another way Google’s fighting back against Facebook and Microsoft (they’re business partners now) by joining forces with various social networking sites, namely Myspace.  All I’m going to say is this gets more interesting by the second!

Now I know many of you readers use GMail, as do I. Originally, I enjoyed it’s storage and it’s overall GUI, as it was probably the first free e-mail service to offer 1gb of storage (this was when Hotmail still only offered a measly 25mb). Thus, when I discovered GMail 2.0, the new revamped GMail service from Google, was to be released later this year or early the next, you can imagine I got quite excited.

So far, I’ve learned that GMail 2.0 has two goals: faster service and better contact management (courtesy of Dailytech). Both will be greatly appreciated – as the storage grows and more mail is being collected, there will certainly be more to sort through, so faster service would be much appreciated. As for contact management – GMail had a contact management aspect? I never knew about, nor used, such a service, but perhaps I will in the future. I do prefer to keep such information on my phone which is less accessible or my hard drive, but maybe I’ll give the internet a shot.

Again, patience is the key here. If you’ve already got the newer version running, great! Why not write a comment as to how it’s functioning? If not, then we’re in the same boat, and all we can do is wait. Sadly.

To learn more about GMail 2.0, visit:

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/09/gmail-20.html

Update: It is now November 2, 2007. I logged in to my GMail accounts and discovered two of the three made the transition to GMail beta.  I am guessing they are doing this through alphabetical order, so it’ll only be a matter of time until my third one gets transformed.  This is strictly a guess.

Hulu launched two days ago – so why am I already posting about it? Well, this isn’t so much a review (or me-view) of Hulu as it is just a news update. Haven’t you been upset that your favourite shows, like Journeyman or Family Guy, have been stuck on the tube (officially speaking)? Be upset no more.

Hulu is a video-on-demand site that airs many of Fox’s and NBC’s shows as it is supplied by NBC Universal. Thus, many shows from NBC, like Journeyman as mentioned earlier as well as the possibility of Heroes, will be aired online. Popular shows from Fox network will also be aired – shows such as The Simpsons or the more recent hit Family Guy.

So why not sign up for the private beta? I have, and I’m hoping to receive a response soon, however unlikely it seems. To learn more about Hulu, why not visit it’s home page? Hopefully we both get in and can start watching those shows!

Recently, I took a look at Tafiti, a search engine powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight. I was pretty impressed (you were too, I’m sure) with it’s graphical power and its ability to possibly make tedious searching less monotonous, if not more enjoyable. I guess I was a bit hard on Google though, seeing as how I bagged on it pretty often. Looks like they got pretty upset and started working harder on iGoogle – and came up with a few themes? Could it be true?

Yep. I’m sorry if this is old news to you, as I discovered this very early this morning, but I was actually pretty surprised by Google’s new theme implementation. However, the excitement was short-lived as the themes were just static images and not exactly a constant part of Google (they only appeared on the homepage of iGoogle, and not in the results as well). Nonetheless, I’m still glad for the improvement.

Just when I thought Microsoft had Google by the neck in a chokehold with Tafiti, Google came and did something like this. Pretty amazing reaction time, unless it was just plain ol’ coincidence acting up.

For the millionth time, you’re loading up the Google search engine and you’re growing more and more tired of its dull, simple design. Isn’t this supposed to be the golden age of the web? If it is, then what is with all this text-based garbage that you’re looking at? Where is the powerful animation, the ability to save your searches, the visual representation? And for Pete’s sakes, where is the colour? No need to fret, because the solution is here, courtesy of Microsoft’s Silverlight.

Just to set things straight, Silverlight is basically a runtime that brings more animation and graphics to the world of the internet – very similar to Adobe’s Flash and Sun Microsystems’ Java engine. After installing the plug-in (which was very smooth), you can load up Tafiti and try for yourself the power of Silverlight (watch out, Flash)!

Tafiti brings in many aspects to searching made possible through the graphical power of Silverlight. For one thing, there are a lot more animations when the page itself loads. Although it seems very simple-looking initially, there are actually a huge number of those “index cards” that you can use. With every new search, you get a new card (er, gotta figure out how to back up to the previous result without getting rid of the present one though).

Also, with Tafiti, you can choose to view the results though a Tree View, which provides a very unique experience. Although I’m not sure how useful it will be, it does put some fun back in searching for things, and it actually is quite interesting to watch. The size of the tree itself is adjustable (the little scale at the bottom makes sure of that).

Last, but certainly not least, is the Stacks feature that Tafiti sports. On the right hand side of the Tafiti window, you will be able to see several slots. You can use your cursor to drag your search results into those slots (similar ones in the same slot) and save those search results if you are logged in with your .net passport. Otherwise, they will save, but only for the session until the window is closed.

Tafiti shows just an inkling of the promise that Silverlight holds for the future. I, for one, am really excited about the possibilities – even the slightly overlooked ‘Filter’ feature came in handy for my first Eagles search. However, I think it has a bit of work to do in order to catch up to Google – for example, why not add the number of pages at the bottom of the search results display instead of just a “more” button? Or perhaps a more graphical arrow or page flip would be more effective?

Don’t let my nit-picking throw you off though, because Tafiti is still just in it’s beta stages. Perhaps when 1.0 is debuted, Tafiti will have a whole slew of skins (it has a temporary Halo 3 skin as well as a regular Tafiti skin) – and hey, I wouldn’t mind having more skins to my search engine.  In case you’re interested, here it is: http://www.tafiti.com/.

Those Sony Ericsson default themes sure look great, right?  Alright, so they do have a bit of quality (not to mention variety) to them – that’s beside the point.  The point is you’d love to customize your phone, wouldn’t you?  Of course you would.  So plug in that USB adaptor and connect it to your computer.  But where would you find themes?

Enter Lasyk, a community-oriented fountain of themes that will never stop flowing.  I’ve had a Sony Ericsson product for a couple of years now, and I continue to use Lasyk as a primary source of decent themes.  Lasyk sorts themes according to categories (for example, a theme emulating Windows Vista would go under Technology).  Unlike many other theme sites, Lasyk does not have a download limit nor does it require registration prior to downloading themes.  But what’s the catch?

Nothing, but perhaps the fact that it contains too many themes to sort through might be a bit annoying.  Altogether, it can be a bit time-consuming and tedious, but I’m still sure that Lasyk is a great source of themes for your Sony Ericsson device.

Out of the three combatants in the console war, the Wii would definitely be out-gunned in the media department. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 have blu-ray and hd-dvd functions respectively, and have hard drives that seem like behemoths compared to the Wii’s simple SD card storage. Not to mention MP3 playback and functionality that the Wii just can’t seem to match. Right?

Wrong. Introducing Orb 2.0, a software client that will allow you to stream your uploaded media to your Wii via the internet channel.  The software itself is free, but the internet channel will cost a meazly 500 Wii points (I suggest you put another 1000 into Mario Kart 64, and save the 500 for some thing worthwhile).

I have yet to purchase a Wii Points card, so I can’t say from personal experience that this is THE media centre.  However, from a little research and forum lurking, I can definitely see that people have benefited from this piece of software.  Why not give it a shot?  There’s hardly anything to lose.

My apologies for being so inconsistent for the past several days, I had a bit going on.  During the Saturday of the last weekend of September, I was able to finally find a Wii at Future Shop!  Imagine my pleasant surprise and excitement.  And don’t turn green with envy yet – apparently, Wiis are finally in stock and are widely available (heck, if I could get my greedy little hands on one, you certainly can).  And today, Sunday, I was volunteering in the Run for the Cure and then attended the University Fair being held downtown.  Overall, a very exhausting day; but just because of my love for you readers, I’ve dragged up the motivation to write this short post.

Now I know for a fact that many people are still using the boring ol’ Bliss or Doggy wallpaper that came with their Windows XP, or the Aurora wallpaper for Vista.  Now I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with it, but it does get a bit dull doesn’t it?

Don’t worry about it – if I brought it up, I’ll have you covered.  I introduce you to InterfaceLIFT, my personal favourite site to collect quality wallpapers.  There are several new wallpapers being published on a weekly basis, with a wide variety ranging from nature shots to rush hour, all seemingly professionally shot with excellent quality.

All I can suggest is that you don’t go crazy downloading wallpapers; I’m not too sure that would be a wise use of your storage (if you’re lacking in hard drive space) nor would it be necessary, as InterfaceLIFT won’t go offline anytime soon (I say this with acknowledging that there might be a fraction of a percent that I might be wrong).

So you can finally change the wallpaper on your computer at work?  I’d suggest recommending the site to your supervisor or boss first, and see their reaction before doing anything yourself.

Amazon’s been a provider of many goods; CD’s, DVD’s, electronics, and the like. So everybody knew that it was just a matter of time before it expanded into the field of digital music. And this time, I can surely say that I might seriously consider purchasing from Amazon now. Why such a hasty decision?

I assume that you, dear reader, would have heard or read about what Digital Right Managements protection is and how it affects music files (it severely limits the number of computers or digital audio players that your music can be transferred to). And it was only till recently that major online music stores began shying away from using DRM (for example, iTunes with the launch of iTunes plus). I’m very pleased to see that Amazon’s decided to fight DRM as well, because it’s a very ridiculous system if you ask me. It’s practically punishing the customers that support purchasing music for the consumers that choose to pirate or illegally acquire their music. Sound unfair?

That’s why I’m so eager to jump onto Amazon’s bandwagon! I’m sure that this will not be a passing fad – with music price at $0.89 apiece, a very flexible .mp3 format, and a higher than standard bit-rate of 256 kbps, it’s an excellent price for high-quality music. Much cheaper than iTunes, and appealing to a greater market, I find it difficult to believe that Amazon might be able to fail.

What are you waiting for? Well, if you don’t live in the USA, then you’ll be (like I am) patiently waiting for Amazon’s music store to debut in my country. I sure hope that it doesn’t take long, but in the meantime, there’s always Spiral Frog.

Amazon’s store can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=gw_br_mp3/002-0866464…

As a regular user of blogging service MyBlogLog, I was shocked to discover as I tried logging in today that it wanted me to sign in with a Yahoo! account. So, armed with Google in my right hand, I decided to find out what was really going on.

Yahoo is not saying what it paid for Mybloglog, but knowledgeable sources said it cost a little over $10 million for the company, which first offered the service in July. Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product strategy at Yahoo, said Mybloglog will likely remain branded as a separate entity, but Yahoo users will be able to register on it with their Yahoo password. The reader communities will soon be able to access Yahoo services, like the Flickr photo site or the Yahoo Answers information service, to their groups.

Source: http://blogs.forbes.com/forbespecial/2007/01/yahoo_snaps_up_.html

My first thought was – ten million dollars?  I never even knew MyBlogLog was popular enough to strum up half that amount (no offense meant – after all, I do use the service)!  Now that I think about it, there are quite almost a few thousand popular communities out there (every user has the opportunity to create their own community for their own blog, but relatively few were successful).

I think that there are a few kinks to be smoothened out for now (I still can’t login even after creating a Yahoo! account), but I guess that it shouldn’t affect the service too much (I could be very mistaken, to be honest).

Interested in MyBlogLog?  Click the link – and don’t forget to find the CutEdge community (still a bit sparse, I know)!