Monday, November 2, 2009

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Sorenson's Squeeze 6: A Connected Media Encoding And Distribution Platform Top
A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine came to me with a problem. The British distribution company handling his music video for was shockingly backwards in its formatting, and was asking for a Real Media encode of the video. They didn't specify bitrate, resolution, where it would be shown, or anything like that. Quicktime was being a bother, and we needed to use my PC to do a few encodes at this or that specification. We ended up getting it to go through in Vegas, and going to grab a coffee while it churned out the frames. Now, the point is not that you need a PC to encode heinous old formats, but rather that digital distribution is a weird, complex process that could use a bit of simplification. Sorenson's Squeeze 6 appears to go to some lengths to make this happen. It's far from the only encoding platform out there, but I think they're moving the right direction with this version, which not only integrates tightly with your Mac, but also with SMS, Twitter, and other popular services. After all, there's no guarantee that you're going to be working in the same office, or even the same country, as people who need to be informed every step of the way. (link fixed)
 
Twitter Reveals More Lists Power With A Widget Top
Since it was turned on for all users late last week, everyone is talking about Twitter’s new Lists feature. Most people seem to like it, but some have no idea what it’s good for. Perhaps those people will understand a bit more about Lists potential with a new widget that Twitter has launched today. The List Widget is exactly what you’d expect: A widget that you can place on your blog that displays a list of your choosing. One nice thing is that this can be a list you made or one any user has made (that is public). If you simply type in a user’s name, it will show their lists in a drop down menu. You then give the list a title, a caption, customize its look and feel, and you’re good to go. But here’s why this widget is pretty cool: It basically is a way for you to create your own curated Twitter stream anywhere on the web. Obviously, you won’t be able to do things like tweet from it (though there is a reply button that comes up when you hover over a tweet — this directs you back to Twitter), but people are already making some great Twitter lists (like us and Scoble ) and this is a great way to put them to work without having to go to Twitter itself. You can choose how many tweets to show, set the intervals, hide hashtags — there are a good number of options. Best of all, these widgets offer something that Twitter itself doesn’t: Realtime auto-updating . Basically, this widget is kind of like a better, more customizable version of Twitter.com. The List widget joins Twitter other widgets for profiles, search, and favorites. Find them all here . I’ve embedded our TechCrunch team list below. CrunchBase Information Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
Google's Chrome Browser Is Now 30 Million Users Strong Top
There is a perception that Google’s Chrome is a rounding error when it comes to browsers. And maybe it still is, but Google is now fighting that perception in a very public way. Today, it announced that the Chrome Team won a Founder’s Award for their achievements so far, and for the first time revealed how many people are using the Chrome browser: 30 million active users. Update : I guess I jumped the gun here. Google has been using that 30 million active user number since July . Now, 30 million is certainly a big number, but it is still a tiny fraction of Internet Explorer or Firefox (which has 330 million users ). NetApplications shows Chrome with only a 3.58 percent market share at the end of October, compared to 24 percent for Firefox and 65 percent for IE. But remember, Chrome only launched a year ago , so that is a fast ramp by any standard. Nevertheless, Google is signaling with this award (which was previously won by the teams which created Gmail, Google Maps, and AdSense) and this figure that it is dead serious about Chrome. A few weeks ago, at a press conference I attended, CEO Eric Schmidt was asked about how Chrome was doing. Here’s an excerpt from that part of the Q&A : Q: You keep adding to Chrome and nobody seems to be paying attention. If that is one of the places where the battle is fought you seem pretty far behind. Sergey: Perhaps that is true in media . . . Schmidt: let me, some of your assumptions about Chrome adoption are wrong. The adoption rate of Chrome is [very strong]. We are going to do a better job of getting that message out. Schonfeld: Steve Ballmer calls it a rounding error, is it? Schmidt: I don't respond to Steve Ballmer questions. Next question? The messaging has begun. Google generally doesn’t reveal user numbers for anything, so this is significant. And now it sets a precedent for Google to update the number in the future. Will it grow, and how fast? Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
 
CrunchBoard Jobs: Digg, AOL, TheStreet.com and More! Top
If you're on the hunt for a new job, check out our CrunchBoard . We've added nearly 50 new jobs from leading internet businesses in the last two weeks, including two jobs here at TechCrunch. Here's a quick sample: Sr. Front End Developer / JavaScript Guru Digg – San Francisco, CA Health News Editor AOL – New York, NY Director, Audience Development TheStreet.com – New York, NY Senior Creative Developer (Flash) Modea – Blacksburg, VA Development Manager, Front End WhitePages – Seattle, WA Also, don’t forget that we’re looking for an Account Executive and CrunchBase interns here at TechCrunch! For job hunters in Europe, check out our Europe CrunchBoard. Click here to see all the jobs on CrunchBoard. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
 
Seesmic Desktop Adds Twitter Lists, Hits 3 Million Downloads Top
Now that Twitter has officially unveiled its Lists feature to all users, the frenzy has started. But while Lists are available via Twitter’s site, the feature has been slower to come to Twitter clients. Today, Seesmic is announcing the availability of Lists on its desktop client, Seesmic Desktop. The new, downloadable version of Seesmic Desktop will display your Twitter lists in the left sidebar from any Twitter account you have (Seesmic lets you use one client for multiple accounts). The new feature also lets you add any Twitter user to any user list from any of your account. Right now, list functionality is limited. You cannot see lists that list you, only lists that you follow. And you cannot create lists from the client; this must be done within Twitter’s site. But, Seesmic’s founder and CEO Loic Le Meur told me that both the ability to create lists and see lists that follow you will soon come to Seesmic Desktop in the next few weeks. The list feature will also come to Seesmic Web shortly, says Le Meur. He also said that lists took so long to incorporate into the clients because the updated, comprehensive API wasn’t available until a few days ago. Le Meur and his team have scrambled to launch a new version of the desktop client over the weekend and will unveil it to Seesmic members today, and to the general public within the next few days. Other third party sites have also tapped into the Lists API, Listorious , a Lists directory . List descriptions, which will be coming in the next week or so according to Twitter’s Vitor Lourenco confirms , would also be a valuable addition to clients like Seesmic. TweetDeck, one of Seesmic’s main competitors, is also adding list functionality very soon, according to TweetDeck’s founder and CEO Iain Dodsworth. While the nature of TweetDeck’s lists feature is still a secret, he told me that “integration will be extensive and offer complete flexibility to TD users with particular emphasis on curation, consumption and portability of lists and existing TD groups.” Seesmic Desktop, which integrated with both Facebook and Twitter, has also hit 3 million downloads, with the last 500,000 downloads taking place within the past month and a half. The client was recently upgraded to add Facebook fan pages, yFrog integration, a "reply to all" button for messages and a favorites timeline. Earlier this summer, Seesmic recently launched its browser-based Twitter client at TechCrunch's Real-Time Stream CrunchUp. Seesmic Web will also be integrated with Facebook within the next month as developers are currently tweaking the application's functionality on different browsers. Disclosure: TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington is an investor in Seesmic. I am not. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
 
TechnoBuffalo Launches Tech Blog Social Network (With Videos!) Top
User generated content has been the rage for quite some time now, but there have been few sites that nail the process of getting users to create quality content on the web. Launching today is TechnoBuffalo , a new site that is aiming to bring user generated content to a new level of sophistication. TechnoBuffalo features original tech content, a social network, and tools to build and monetize your own tech blog. TechnoBuffalo is built on a customized version of WordPress Multi-User . TechnoBuffalo gives users the option to create their own blog with a custom URL (TechnoBuffalo.com/username) complete with full WordPress content management. Users can add writers, and customize the layout of their tech blogs. Users then have the option to manage their own advertising, or have TechnoBuffalo supply advertising on the site. To encourage users to create sub blogs, TechnoBuffalo offers a full library of training videos that teach them how to effectively run a tech blog. Videos include tutorials on how to find items to review, how to act confident in front of a camera, and more. If videos and content is good, TechnoBuffalo will feature the content on the home page. TechnoBuffalo is monetized through advertising. It was started earlier this year by two journalists; Jon Rettinger and Brandon Miniman . Both Rettinger and Miniman have a strong YouTube presence, and have a high number of subscribers to their channels. Besides offering the blogging network, TechnoBuffalo also adds a social network on top called BuffaloNet . BuffaloNet allows users to talk, make friends, groups, and send messages within the tech space. And unlike other social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace which ask for private information when registering, TechnoBuffalo does not require much of that. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
 

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