Now Talk Gmail

From viewing videos on YouTube to screening family events, people love being able to watch something exactly as it happened. And as webcams have become popular, more and more of us are realizing that video is the next best thing to an in-person conversation. Today we're introducing Gmail voice and video chat, which lets you have free voice and video conversations right from within Gmail.

Video chatting from Gmail is as easy as sending an instant message. With our team spread out across Google offices in Sweden and the U.S., it's been really handy in helping us work together. Just click on the new "Video & more" menu in a Gmail chat window and select "Start video chat" or "Start voice chat." You can switch to a full screen view or pop out the chat window and change the size and positioning as you wish. Of course, not everyone has a webcam, but even if you don't, you can still have voice conversations alongside your email and regular chat. Take a look at this short video to see more:



Gmail voice and video chat will be rolled out globally over the next day or so for Macs and PCs. The first time you use this feature, you'll be prompted to download and install a small plugin. To get started, visit http://www.gmail.com/videochat or click on the "Options" menu in a Gmail chat window and choose "Add voice/video chat." Find out more on Gmail Blog.

[via googleblog]

Cyber Terrorisim will be Dead

With reference to cyber terrorism, American officials can have pretty strong reactions. For example on one occasion Kevin Poulsen was being compared to Osama bin Laden and Pablo Escobar. But when it comes to cyber terror paranoia, the U.S. has nothing on Pakistan. Though recently the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari signed a law (that was put forward an year ago) making cyber terror a crime, the punishment for which is death. The punishment will go through if the cyber crime causes death of any person, as the law states. An extract from the law:

"…any person, group or organization who, with terroristic intent utilizes, accesses or causes to be accessed a computer or computer network or electronic system or electronic device or by any available means, and thereby knowingly engages in or attempts to engage in a terroristic act."

[via startupmeme]

LinkedIn Launches Events, Now Competes with UpComing.org and Eventful

LinkedIn has now launched Events, a way for people to create, recommend, and subscribe to events. In addition to this users could also search sophisticated information about who else would be attended the events and receive updates about the events via an update feed for each event. And in little time, thousands of events have already been posted to the network, talk about right tools for the right people

Swaptree: Trade online with others

Swaptree an online community of users build specifically to let its members trade with each other. We aren’t talking about some billion dollar online business but simple trading of items that might be useless for you now but can mean a lot to others. The service lets you trade games, DVDs, books with others in exchange of items you might want to have and others are willing to get in the deal. Users simply need to hit in the ISBN or the UPC code for items they need to trade, Swaptree then let you print out relevant details right from your browser.

So if you have some old game you need to trade for some book then its the right place for you.

Droppe me

Creating avatars for the web world has become quite a common thing, with people getting a chance to put out a comical touch to their online presence. No matter how many of such services you offer they are always less and users are looking forward for one more to try out. DoppelMe is another place for giving your identity an avatar.
The process isn’t rocket science and those of us who used other alternate services would have no problem at all creating their own avatar. There is no need to register if you are there for a quick make and don’t feel like visiting the site again. Registering lets users enjoy added advantage like having more options to choose appearance, accessories, etc from.
DoppelMe has its applications for various social networks, meaning that your avatar can be used with your Facebook, MySpace accounts. And these aren’t the only places where your avatar can appear; use it in forums, messengers or anywhere across the web. DoppleMe offers ‘I need avatar’ crazy fans a free and easy to use platform to make a graphical you, using your browser alone.
Should this have more to say? I don’t think so for one cant expect hi fi effects to decorate the site when its purpose is very appropriately filled. Though it could have done better with more variety (hairstyles, outfits etc). To cut it short, it’s fun to spend some time at such sites.

Phone Data Manager

Microsoft launches the Phone Data Manager's Beta for its users. The application helps synchronize data from cell phone via computer. Some features made available are quite different from the earlier versions. These applications even work on platforms other than Windows Mobile devices. Handsets like Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson along with Plam Treo gets the support of Phone Data Manager. For further information you can check complete list of supported device you can get access from here


The new application is even valid for handsets which other than Windows Mobile devices. Different handsets from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson along with a model of Palm Treo is supported by the Phone Data Manager. To check out the complete list of supported devices click here.
This new application synchronizes the data with the services of Windows Live, which means that now you can get access your contacts, videos, snaps, etc online from any web browser. The handset can be synchronized by connecting to Windows XP or Vista supported computer through Bluetooth or a USB connection.

Google Moderator - A place for online discussions

Google drops another bombshell launching Google Moderator. It is an application used to discuss the tough and questions from the current situation regarding politics to technology. . There are always lots of hard-hitting questions to ask in a limited time frame, but to find which question grabbed user attention the most is a tough ask. Google Moderator allows adding frequent questions and cast your votes on the queries made others, so that’s how the app works.









Taliver Heath designed Moderator as a side project and it works on Google App Engine. The blog of the app engine describes the product.
To me this app engine worth a tryout.

Go Animate

Everyone in this world likes animated characters specially when it comes to portray one’s individuality. There are lots of websites serving the way discussed above. These sites give you a chance to generate animated cartoon characters of your desire along with custom design. According to me the sites I am talking about is may look like implemented for kiddies. GoAnimate provides you the same feature discussed above but in a way like no other. Start your day by using templates provided by GoAnimate. You can add animated series of scenes like a video clip






There lie a variety of characters that can be in line for your animation clip and they’re easy to customize. You can upload any photo over a character to add a little humor to it (like Elf-Yourself). To make things easy, you can search Flickr or your Facebook account for images. You can also add other media, such as sounds, music and your voice, to make your animation look more professional.

Animations are shareable across a variety of social networking and social bookmarking sites, as well as embeddable, so it’s easy enough to create viral content from your GoAnimate account, though I’m somewhat surprised to see YouTube missing from the distribution “share” list. What I find particularly interesting about GoAnimate’s site and business model is the fact that the team behind GoAnimate has also forged some deals with licensed animated content so that it can be used by animation creators on the site, and shared across the Web. This introduces some marketing potential on the part of many animators, both well-known and independent, not to mention other brands that would like to partake in user-generated animations as well.
Bringing such creation tools to the average Web user is part of a larger trend we’re seeing across a number of Flash-based spaces, including games and multimedia content-sharing from companies like EA Games. As such media becomes further integrated into the social media sites we already frequent, monetization will encourage even more feature development to simplify the creation and sharing process.

Planzone

There is a good old saying “It’s not the man who plan to fail but it’s the man who fails to plan”? To be honest planning at times may become very hectic and more sort of a headache. It becomes more sort of a headache. Take it from me who always fails to plan but maybe not any more! Planzone ; now that’s what I call “To be at the right place at the right time”. It’s an online zone for saving and sharing all your work/projects/wikis/data with your colloquies and clients by hosting on the web. The idea behind it is to plan and perform the work in simplest and easiest way possible.

Once considered the revolution for planning Microsoft Project may look like never existed. The difference between Planzone and so called Microsoft project was that you cannot share your projects to your colloquies and friends as it was never molded the way planzone is working i.e. for online collaboration. It was only a one man show rather than a team work.


Just signup for free, submit and share what you like with anybody .You will get following categories with it as follows:

• 25 MB workspace with 2 projects space and 5 users granted.
• If you are not satisfied then you can also signup for Beginner version costing costs 9,90 € with a work space of 1 GB along with 5 projects space and 15 users allowed.
• Medium version allows 2,5 GB with 10 projects space and 50 users allowed just for 19,90 € , mid version has 10 GB free space with 25 projects and up to 200 users allowed for 49,90 € .
• Still not satisfied why don’t try out pro version allowing a space up to 25 GB along with 50 projects space and 500 users costing 99,90 € respectively.

When you signup a wizard appears on the screen. Just click next and select a template enter your required information including start and finish dates. Invite users and assign them their roles and hit finish. You can create as many workspaces as you want but only one of them can be free at a time. Also share your images and videos through it according to the space available.