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Filed under: Business, Fun, Internet, Photo, Blogging, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Fotolog gets snapped up, with new plans to make some real cash

Fotolog gets snapped up, with new plans on making some real cashLeading photo blogging website Fotolog, has been bought up by the leading Europen interactive company Hi Media based in Paris, for a little less than the competition. But does it really matter when you can monetize the service better?

Fox acquired Photobucket for about $250 million earlier this year, and this deal with Fotolog was only for about $90 million. Sure Fox has deep pockets, but Hi Media might have scored big with this one. Now they only have to compete with Fox. The plans are to better monetize the current incoming traffic, as well as work a publishing element into the mix. So in the end, if Hi Media can easily make back the $90 million spent quicker than Photobucket, guess who is really in the lead. Look out for some interesting developments with Fotolog in the near future.

[via GigaOM]

Filed under: Fun, Macintosh

iSight Screensavers does interactive video


You can say what you want about the use or need for screensavers in today's computing world - but it won't effect the cool factor of these iSight Screensavers. Designed for Macs with iSight cameras (either built-in or otherwise), iSight Screensavers provides six different effects that can interact with video shot by an iSight, making for one cool screensaver. Effects like Fluid, Particles, Fire and Water are all sure to be a hit around the office and household, especially if your Mac is anywhere near a decent flow of traffic.

Check out the video for a full demo of what iSight Screensavers is capable of (note that some effects require dedicated graphics cards) or download a demo for yourself. A license costs a mere $10.

Filed under: Design, Fun, Internet

Web 3.0?

Red Interactive AgencyRed Interactive Agency, an internet website designing company, has seen the future and it's a whole new level of interactivity on the web.

On their little test site you're a randomly generated avatar with a generic username. From there, if you wish, you're able to choose an avatar of your choice as well as a username and your location. After all that, you can roam the site as you please. There is also a small chat window for you to talk to your fellow wanderers.

The true interactive fun is with the special keys that do other things. The home key makes your avatar do a little jig, and different avatars do different jigs. Press the up arrow key and you take off like a bat out of hell! Press the combo control along with shift and you break combo punches on nearby faces. Hold down the shift key while walking for a boost of speed, and page up/down to strafe up and down on the path. There are also built-in profanity filters to encourage others to be a bit more polite.

This level of interactivity could make visiting your usual sites much more fun. Just imaging flying around a tiny world, viewing pages within a site's structure!

Filed under: Internet, Web services

Weather.com introduces interactive maps

Weather.com introduces interactive maps
I admittedly don't spend any significant amount of time at Weather.com, but a little birdie who does just tipped us off to a new Interactive Weather Map beta that still has that new feature shine to it. The map offers full drag-able goodness, with the ability to swap between Radar, Clouds and Clouds + Radar coverage. On-the-fly transparency of said coverage is also present, as well as a slow-frame animation for those who want to get their amateur weather man on.

All of this is powered by Microsoft's Virtual Earth, and it is indeed an impressive piece of (beta) work, though I can't find any sort of press release or wiz-bang announcement. Now, if Weather.com could only introduce a new 'Reliable Weather™' option (even an alpha would be fine), we'll be in business.

Filed under: Design, Developer, Windows

Microsoft preparing to deploy Atlas AJAX toolkit

microsoft ajax atlasMicrosoft is busy developing its new AJAX toolset using the codename Atlas. There is a lot of excitement and interest in this new tool that Microsoft is expecting to release at the end of 2006, but is currently only available as a prerelease. The final release will depend on user feedback from a beta release version. Microsoft has said that along with Atlas, we will see the release of certified Atlas products that will work in conjunction with Visual Studio 2005, and ASP.Net. Atlas will be launched into two main categories. A JavaScript library called AJAX Library, and Server side components which will be called ASP.Net 2.0 AJAX Extensions.

[via zdnet]

Filed under: Fun, Video, News, Windows, Web services, Microsoft

Microsoft patents watching TV while chatting

microsoft patents chatting while watching tvThe scoop is on ArsTechnica. The patent is for a "multimode interactive television chat." Like Jeremy, I also worked for a company during the dotcom boom time that had the brilliant idea of embedding clickable links in QuickTime video content. Anyone seeing this today? I didn't think so. The holy grail of TV and interactivity may come to pass, however, if MS can figure out how to make it useful or at least fun. Personally I think it's boring enough to see "live" comments during a broadcast. Kinda like listening to the callers on QVC. I can't imagine it gets better interacting with the inane comments you're likely to see in the middle of a Cribs marathon. But I'm sure MS has plans to make TV chat a lot less annoying... right?

Filed under: Fun, Games, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware

Time Waster of the Day: Orisinal, a boat load of great Flash games

orisinalI am a huge fan of WarioWare. Little, goofy, quickie games are great diversions for the old-timey gamer in me. And Orisinal is a great example of these. Not only does the site have a bunch of 'em, they are all quite novel in design. For example, "Pocketful of Stars" has you directing a little girl to jump up and catch stars— in her reflection. Many of these Flash-based games originated years ago, back when Flash was at version 4! Don't let their age fool you though, like a fine wine they have aged well. Or maybe my thumbs just can't take the intensity of Metroid like they used to... Either way, be prepared for a high "cuteness" factor (think Hello Kitty on acid).

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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