Just to refresh your memories, CloudFire aims to let you share photos, movies, music, from your desktop right to the web. And not just to the web, but in a very lovely and seamless way based on the screens we've seen. They really want to make P2P mainstream. This is quite a hurdle to jump.
Their "manifesto" states that media shouldn't be a chore. It should be easy to create and share everything that you make to show other people. They want to make the act of uploading media files to outside servers extinct.
Rock on!
But when will we get to see it and play around for ourselves?
Now's the time. We were able to sleuth some invites to their private beta. Ok, they emailed them to us.
Just for you guys, the DLS faithful.
"But what do we have to do to get such an invite" you ask?
Well it's quite simple. Be one of the first 5 people to correctly answer the following question and you get the invite.
Who wrote a parody of a manifesto in 2001 that also has their hand in P2P?
UPDATE: Wow, that was fast. All 5 invites gone. Correct answer? Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent! We'll let you know if we get some more invites.
Note taking and organization application Evernote comes in a few forms. There's a Windows Desktop application, a mobile cleint, a web client, and a beta Mac desktop client. The Windows app would normally set you back $50, while the Mac version is in private beta, meaning you can only download the software if you have a beta invitation.
While we have a few invites to give away, Giveaway of the Day has an unlimited number of beta invites. But you have to sign up today. You probably figured that out once you read that the site was called Giveaway of the Day, but we thought we'd make it clear.
Oh, and if you're a Windows user, you can download and install a full version of the Windows desktop client for free today only as well. Just makes sure to follow the download links and instructions available at Giveaway of the Day.
We're suckers for all-in-one applications. That's why we were excited to check out Digsby, a new all-in-one utility for managing multiple IM, e-mail, and social networking accounts. Digsby just launched in private beta this week, but we've got 5000 invites to give away to Download Squad readers. Keep on reading to find out how to get yours.
Digsby is a desktop client that lets you chat with contacts no matter which IM service they use. It also includes an e-mail notifier, and a pop up screen for keeping track of Facebook and MySpace updates. You can even add a Digsby chat window to your Facebook page so that anyone viewing your profile can send you instant messages which you can reply to using Digsby.
We've been talking about Hulu a lot over the last few months. The online video site is a partnership between NBC and News Corp, and contrary to our expectations, it actually doesn't suck. The videos are high quality, there's not too much advertising, and most importantly, there are a ton of shows, both current and older that you actually might want to watch. Hulu also manages to avoid one of our pet peeves with many online video sites. If you're watching a video in full-screen mode, the screen doesn't shrink every time a commercial comes on.
The biggest problem with Hulu? It's still in private beta, meaning many people haven't been able to try it out yet. We can't give out an invite to everybody who wants one... but Hulu has given us invites for the first 2500 Download Squad readers who sign up.
Just visit our Hulu landing page, enter your email address, and you should be all set. And before people start complaining to us, yes we know, Hulu is only available to US residents at the moment. But those of you who are clever enough to know what a proxy server is might be able to get around this limitation one way or another.
A few days back we gave away a handful of invitations to DocStoc, a new online document sharing community. It's sort of like Scribd, but with more an emphasis on professional documents like contracts, budgets, and leases.
The site is still in a closed beta, and our first five invitations disappeared pretty quickly. But DocStoc CEO Jason Nazar has agreed to give Download Squad readers a chance to check out the service. Just enter the invitation code "downloadsquad" on the registration page.
If you missed out on yesterday's launch of Invite-a-palooza, don't worry. For the next several days, we'll be handing out private invitations to let you access some really exciting Websites and services that aren't available to the public yet. If you know of a site you'd like us to consider for the Invite-a-palooza, drop us a note.
Earlier this week we told you about the neat new social networking website 8apps. Not only does this site provide a way for people to meet and connect, it also offers users the tools they need to collaborate, brainstorm, and follow up on any ideas they come up with. We're thrilled to be able to offer private invitations to the first 88 people who leave us a note in the comment section (be sure to activate it if you get an email confirmation). Thanks, and good luck!
UPDATE: We've given away all 88 invitations for today's featured site but check back tomorrow to see who's up next!
Invites are all the rage at the moment, here on the internet. They're such the rage that rarely a day goes by without DownloadSquad bloggers getting a pleading email for an invite to the latest service. Sure, you could use services like InviteShare, which has just been bought by TechCrunch for $25,000, but we understand that folks don't want to be waiting for folks to trade with. So we sat down and thought, "How can we feed our readers addiction to the latest invite-only services?" and after some discussion, the Invite-a-palooza was born. Each day from today until we run out of services to invite folks to, we're going to offer our readers the chance to join the Web 2.0 fun, with some exclusive invites. We're always open to suggestions too, so if there's an invite-only beta site you'd like us to look into, simply drop us a note!
Day 1: Gleamd
Gleamd is for people, just as Flickr is for photos. With so many people online, Matthew McInerney decided that there really ought to be a way to find interesting people out on the net - and so Gleamd was born. The idea is simple - you vote for people you think are interesting, and then Gleamd will show people depending on their popularity - a Digg for people would, perhaps, be the easiest way to explain it.
I dropped the creator a line, to find out what inspired him to create the site: "The reason I created the site comes from my own frustration in trying to find really interesting people on the net, and while resources exists to find interesting news stories, pictures, or videos, I still haven't stumbled across a place to highlight people. Browsing through Facebook or Myspace really isn't a reasonable option, so I decided to create a place to solve the problem."
Gleamd has been growing quickly since its launch a mere two weeks ago, and has already attracted investment. We've been using Gleamd for a little while, and the continual improvements have made it yet easier to find interesting people on the net.
So how do you get in on Gleamd? It's simple. Leave us a comment here and be sure to activate it! We've got 50100(!) invites for folks to get their hands on, so get commenting! Each person who nabs an invite for themselves also gets 5 invites to share the Gleamd love.
We're out of invites! If you're willing to share your 5 invites with another reader or 5, that would rock!
Everyone has a bone to pick with MySpace - some people even have 30 days worth of 'em! - so we say: switch to Virb! We sure did. With AJAX layout tools, Flickr streams, iTunes plugins and upcoming features like blog RSS importing and multiple layout saving, Virb is social networking done right, and it's already a hit. There's just one problem: Virb is currently in beta and only accepts a limited number of public signups each day. So instead of trying your luck, why not score an invite from Dowload Squad! We have 100 shiny new Virb invites to give away, and all you need to do is leave a comment on this post with a good idea on how to improve social networking. Tell us what's missing and what feature(s) you think will help Virb take the web by storm, and we'll reward you with an invite! It might take us a few days to get all the invites out, but if you hook us (and Virb) up with some quality feedback, we'll get you into the site that gives social networking a good name!
A while back we wrote about a new super sekret stealth P2P file sharing for the masses service called CloudFire. 
