Nokia have outed two new budget sliders with a strong emphasis on media sharing, the Nokia 6700 Slide and the Nokia 7230.  The 6700 Slide packs a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, together with onboard editing software, while the 7230 gets a more modest 3.2-megapixel camera.

Both have 3G for high-speed uploads (though only according to the press release; the 7230 data sheet only mentions EDGE), and integration with various (unspecified) social networks that we’re expecting to include Nokia’s own Ovi system and probably Facebook and MySpace.  The 6700 Slide has a 2.2-inch QVGA 16.7m color display, FM radio, mediaplayer and microSD card slot, while the 7230 has a 2.4-inch display.

Both handsets are expected to arrive in Q1 2010, with the Nokia 6700 Slide priced at around €160 ($239) and the Nokia 7230 at €100 ($150) (both pre-tax and pre-subsidy).  Each will be available in various colors.

Press Release:

Fresh looks and smart features: new Nokia 6700 slide and Nokia 7230 unveiled
November 24, 2009

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today unveiled two new 3G slider phones, the Nokia 6700 slide and Nokia 7230, made for the design-conscious consumer and optimized for socializing and sharing with those closest to you.

Available in various fresh colors, with great imaging features and quick access to popular social networking communities, the Nokia 6700 slide and Nokia 7230 make a real style statement.

Both devices are expected to become available in the first quarter of 2010, and the retail prices before taxes and subsidies are anticipated to be EUR 160 for the Nokia 6700 slide, and EUR 100 for the Nokia 7230.

Nokia 6700 slide – Capture and share quickly and easily
With a choice of six fresh and vivid colors – pink, red, petrol blue, aluminum, lime and purple – this slimline slider is sure to turn heads. Its compact size, modern design and aluminum finish feels great in the hand, and fits perfectly even in the smallest pocket or bag.

The smart capabilities of the Nokia 6700 slide are beautifully easy to use: The 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics is perfect for capturing and sharing moments as they happen. Favorite images can be edited on the go and uploaded to the web directly from the camera menu. The device’s high speed 3G connectivity ensures your favorite communities are always as close as your Nokia 6700 slide.

Nokia 7230 – Share in style
Being connected has never looked so good. The Nokia 7230’s compact slide design, colorful looks and solid set of features are a package that offers great value for money.

Sharing special moments and joy with friends and family is effortless, thanks to the 3.2 megapixel camera, large 2.4″ display and fast 3G connectivity. With the Nokia 7230 in your pocket, you also have quick access to email, instant messaging and social networks on the go, and the subtle illumination indicates if you have missed calls or messages from your friends.

• Nokia 6790 Surge (aka Mako) caught on video
• Nokia 2700 classic, 6700 classic and 6303 classic announced
• Nokia 6760 Slide is Europe’s AT&T Surge
• Phlash, you’re on camera
• Nokia 12-megapixel cameraphones with optical zoom in 2010?

Continued here:
Nokia 6700 Slide and 7230 budget cameraphones outed

Apple’s new Core i7-based iMac might be a performance monster, but it looks like the whole family’s having some problems getting out of the gate: in addition to the previously-noted performance issues with the Core 2 Duo models, a quick glance across Apple’s support forums and on other Mac boards around the web reveals that some machines are showing up DOA and / or with cracked screens. We’re a little more familiar with the DOA issue, since the new i7 we just bought doesn’t boot at all, but the cracked screen issue seems to be equally common and mostly affecting the bottom left corner, from what we can tell. Now, our review Core 2 Duo 27-inch iMac is perfectly fine, and Chris Ziegler’s new Core i7 machine doesn’t have any problems either, so these obviously aren’t universal issues, but if you’re about to stick one of these under the tree for someone it might be wise to do some surreptitious testing first.

Core i7 iMacs showing up DOA — including ours originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At a time when publications targeting small business owners are in decline or dying (R.I.P. Fortune Small Business), the Web is thriving with experimentation.  One effort that is just getting off its feet is Bizmore, a site backed by former junk bond king Michael Milken and executive-coaching firm Vistage International.  Bizmore launched last summer as a Q&A site for business advice.  Today, it unveiled a new design with more magazine-like content, including a network of eight blogs, ranging from the Social Business to Workplace Trends and Creative Finance.

“I’ll have 25 blogs before the end of the year,” says editor in chief Jeffrey Davis, who used to work with me as an editor at Business 2.0 before he went on to help run Bnet. Earlier this year, Davis left Bnet to join Bizmore founder Alice Hill to try to build an online publication for small businesses from scratch. Each blog, he says, tackles “some important facet of running a small business (finance, social media, managing, etc), each written not by name journalists, but true experts who speak and consult professionally on their topic.”

Bizmore already has about 30 or so consultants, business professors and other business experts who answer readers’ questions in Q&A part of the site. The blogs expand that network of experts and give some of them a larger soapbox. They will start giving Webinars and live events as well, which is Vistage’s specialty. The original idea of the site was to have an online gathering place with real content for the tens of thousands of people who attend Vistage executive coaching seminars every year, but then lost touch in between events. It’s reaching way beyond that now, but Bizmore’s core audience still comes from this pre-existing community.

In addition to the blogs, the site has regular features, interviews, and advice on methods and tactics for running a small business. Davis is taking a page from the old Business 2.0 here by sending his journalists to find out what management tactics work in real companies and then package them up into easy steps any entrepreneur can follow. Bizmore spits out features such as “3 Essentials for Landing a Business Loan,” “CEOs: Careful Who ‘Owns’ Your Facebook Business Page,” and “The $100K Referral Bonus.”

Bizmore is not about breaking news or great narratives. Its aspiration is to be filled with tons of practical advice on how to run a business, and a network of experts and readers who help each other as well. Getting the right mix between community and content is tricky. But service journalism makes a lot more sense on the Web than in a print magazine. Features and posts can be whipped up on the fly in response to the immediate needs and questions of readers, who can also give each other advice.

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Bizmore Adds A Blog Network To Go After The Small Business Reader

Giant International has rolled out its Intouch IT7150 wireless Internet frame which could very well be one of the more suitable gifts for folks this coming Christmas season, regardless of how young or old they are. What makes the Intouch IT7150 wireless Internet frame special compared to other digital photo frames? Well, you can tell from the name itself that it is not only capable of displaying a bunch of your favorite photos captured digitally in a slideshow format, it is also connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi for added functionality. This is the first all touch multimedia wireless Internet frame from the manufacturer, where it allows one to access content on their PC and Internet using the Intouch IT7150 from virtually anywhere in their home.

With its inherent ability to remain connected to the Internet, the Intouch IT7150 is capable of achieving instant access to news, weather, social media, other dynamic content and online photo galleries, alongside enabling users to organize and share their own photos through a partnership with FrameChannel. Apart from that, users can also upload photos and other content into the internal frame memory directly from a memory card, the Web, or even a PC using a Wi-Fi or USB connection. You will be able to check up on the latest news updates from Washington through FrameChannel, while subscribing to personalized RSS feeds from your favorite sites (including CG, of course!). Heck, even the latest weather conditions can be checked out if it is so required before you head out for your vacation.

Some of the features found on the Intouch IT7150 include :-

• 7″ color digital display screen with 16:9 aspect ratio
• High resolution at 800 x 480 pixels
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• Touch operation with on-screen QWERTY keyboard
• Digital photo frame with FrameChannel partnership
• Wireless RSS 2.0 feed reader
• Live internet radio
• Video/audio/photo playback function
• Stereo speakers (1W x 2)
• 128MB of internal memory
• Audio jack
• Clock, calendar and alarm
• USB cable included to connect to PC
• Rechargeable battery with estimated 1.5 hours battery life

Expect the Intouch IT7150 wireless Internet frame to retail for $229.99 if you’re interested in bringing one home.

Press Release

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Intouch IT7150 wireless Internet frame

Several airlines have been offering Wifi for a while now. United Airlines wants to ensure that people are actually trying it out and so through the end of the year, you can get one free session if you create a new account with Aircell’s Gogo Inflight. The offer is only good on United’s 757-200 flights between New York Kennedy and the airline’s Los Angeles and San Francisco hubs.

Of course this is aimed at getting more people to pay for the service, which costs $12.95 per flight. But hey, you can’t turn down free Internet. Your boss will love it.

United Airlines Introduces Try-Before-You-Buy Wi-Fi Promotion
Gogo ® Inflight Internet now available on all p.s. flights

CHICAGO, Nov. 23, 2009 – Just in time for the busy Thanksgiving holidays, United Airlines customers on transcontinental p.s. (SM) flights can enjoy a complimentary
onboard Internet session with the new Try-Before-You-Buy promotion, offered in conjunction with airborne communications provider Aircell.

Through Dec. 31, first-time users of Aircell’s Gogo ® Inflight Internet service will be offered one free session upon creating a new account.

Gogo enables customers with Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs to surf the Web, check e-mail, send and receive instant messages, and access a corporate VPN.

The service is available on all of United’s p.s. flights between New York Kennedy and the airline’s Los Angeles and San Francisco hubs.

“Gogo Inflight Internet service on our p.s. flights provides our customers with an even more productive and enjoyable travel experience,” says Allen Will, managing director of strategic aircraft programs. “With Gogo Inflight Internet and an AC power port at every seat, p.s. customers will get more accomplished in the air this holiday season, leaving time for more holiday cheer on the ground.”

For more information on United’s inflight Internet service, visit united.com/Wi-Fi.

About United
United Airlines (Nasdaq: UAUA) operates approximately 3,300* flights a day on United and United Express to more than 200 U.S. domestic and international destinations from its hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C. With key global air rights in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and Latin America, United is one of the largest international carriers based in the United States. United also is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides connections for our customers to 1,071 destinations in 171 countries worldwide. United’s 47,000 employees reside in every U.S. state and in many countries around the world. News releases and other information about United can be found at the company’s Web site at united.com.

*Based on United’s forward-looking flight schedule for October 2009 to October 2010.

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United Airlines & Gogo offering try-before-you-buy in-flight Wifi promo

Google’s on a bit of a shopping spree this holiday season. The search giant just acquired AdMob for $750 million a few weeks ago. Today, Google has acquired display advertising company Teracent for an undisclosed amount of money. The deal is expected to close this quarter.

Teracent’s Intelligent Display Advertising technology creates display ads entirely customized to the specific consumer and site. The startup’s proprietary alogirthims automatically pick the creative parts of a display ad (images, colors, text) in real-time determined by like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.

To date, Teracent has only raised $5.8 million in funding. Google says that Teracent’s technology will now be offered to its display advertising clients who run campaigns in Google’s Content Network and to DoubleClick clients. Google had been rumored to be in talks with Teracent about a possible acquisition a few weeks ago. Earlier this year, Yahoo announced a partnership with Teracent as part of its “Smart Ads” program for PC and mobile advertisers. With Teracent’s acquisition by Google, I’m assuming this partnership is nullified.

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Google Acquires Teracent To Apply Machine Smarts To Display Ads

jQuery is a Javascript library that is used in a large number of web applications and is popular amongst web application developers. It was launched in 2006 by John Resig, and immediately gained a large following due to its lightweight nature and design philosophy. jQuery allows developers to build Javascript web applications easily by abstracting many of the complexities and difficulties. A developer with knowledge of CSS selectors and HTML would easily find their way around jQuery and be able to implement Ajax queries, effects and other tasks with a few lines of code.

A new commercial company called appendTo has launched recently with the goal of providing commercial support, training and development solutions exclusively around jQuery. The company was founded by members of the jQuery development team, and is lead by co-founder and CEO Mike Hostetler, who is both a jQuery core team member and previously a freelance developer/consultant. John Resig is not involved or affiliated with the company, and is employed by Mozilla as a developer.

The website for the new company does not reveal much other than the announcement press release and a contact form. What is more interesting is that the fast-paced rise in popularity of Javascript and frameworks such as jQuery has now lead to companies being setup to support them. It wasn’t too long ago, before Ajax and before the tidal wave of rich internet applications, that Javascript was considered nothing more than a hackish scripting environment for web pages. Frameworks such as jQuery solve many of the traditional pain-points with Javascript development – issues such as cross-browser support and separating code from markup and style. The growing popularity of web based applications and the rising number of web application developers owe a lot to Javascript frameworks and to jQuery. They provide an abstract layer and drastically lower the barrier of entry for developers to build rich web applications.

jQuery is well known because of its simple yet elegant approach to Javascript development. The library is small and modular, and has a very active developer community providing support, plugins and other resources online. JQuery is MIT licensed, meaning that it can be applied in commercial environments and within commercial applications with no intellectual property implications. It was for these reasons that Microsoft decided to support jQuery within the .NET MVC framework – a huge vote of confidence in both the framework and its community (Scott Guthrie, VP of the Microsoft Dev division, was full of praise for jQuery in his blog post announcing the support).

appendTo has sensed the opportunity with jQuery, and with the rising number of rich web applications being built are looking to capitalize on supporting and implementing one of the best and most popular Javascript libraries. It is the first company, that we know of, specifically setup around supporting and commercializing a single Javascript library.

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appendTo Aims To Commercialize jQuery Javascript Library

As rumors continue to swirl around LinkedIn’s possible IPO, the professional social network is steadily adding useful features that help transcend the platform’s technology into other applications.

LinkedIn recently launched two-way integration with Twitter and also rolled out a plug-in to pull in your LinkedIn contacts within Microsoft Outlook. And today, LinkedIn is opening up its API to start letting developers make applications that tap into LinkedIn’s social network.

While LinkedIn is releasing 11 different APIs, they fall into three distinct categories. First, developers will be able to let users easily access their information, profiles, connections and messages via oAuth login. The second functionality is to give users the ability to make actionable decisions about information, but letting them message their LinkedIn contacts, post updates, accept contacts and more. And the third piece of the puzzle is search. So developers will now be able to embed LinkedIn search in other applications. The social network’s search engine was re-launched last year and has done over one billion queries in this year alone.

Over the past year, LinkedIn has made select business development partnerships with technology companies for integrations, such as IBM, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Twitter. While these partnerships created additional channels for LinkedIn’s platform, the opening up of the social network’s API is no doubt going to expand its presence across the web, perhaps representing a new level of growth for the social network.

LinkedIn has already tested the API with several developers and applications are already going to be launching in the near future. Twitter, MySpace and Facebook client TweetDeck will be integrated with LinkedIn in its next version. From the client, you’ll be able to see a stream of updates from your contacts, view profiles of contacts and comment and message contacts directly from TweetDeck. Posterous, Box.net, and Ribbit will all launch LinkedIn integrations in the near future as well.

LinkedIn’s VP of search and platform products, Adam Nash, told me that over the past year, the network has received 4,000 requests from developers to integrate LinkedIn with their applications. Nash says that this is the first step for LinkedIn to become an open ecosystem and there are future plans for additional APIs to be released down the line.

50 million users strong, LinkedIn could expand its already powerful growth with development of third-party applications. It’s a no-brainer for LinkedIn to open up its API. As Twitter’s platform has shown, an open ecosystem produces innovative and sometimes, extremely popular, products around a product. And it doesn’t hurt to have a loyal developer community as well.

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Originally posted here: 
An Ecosystem Is Born: LinkedIn Opens Up API

As a blogger, sometimes the most difficult part of writing a post is contacting the company it is about. First, you either have to search your contact list, or the web, to figure out who to reach out to. And then you might not get a response right away. And finally, if you do get a response, it may include misdirection or less information than you’d like. All of these things led to the idea for a new startup, Plato’s Forms.

To be clear, the communication problems run the other way too. Sometimes companies would love a better way to talk to journalists before they publish a story. Plato’s Forms would offer that communication pipeline. The idea is to make it easier for the two sides to communicate on any given story, so the correct information is shared with the readers.

And this communication isn’t meant to be necessarily be filtered through a PR agency (unless the company wants it that way), it’s more about direct interaction. This is meant to cut out all possible noise and just get to the signal of what trying to be communicated, in a timely manner.

Plato’s Forms would charge the companies a subscription fee to use this service, but it would be free to journalists. And this isn’t just meant for big enterprises, they envision that startups would use a tool like this as well.

Since the product won’t launch until next Spring, co-founders Darryl Siry and Ben Metcalfe didn’t have a demo to show just yet. But I’m told that the method of communication will not just be another email or IM tool. And the core of the product is the communication platform, so it will work with a number of different applications, presumably.

The company’s name is derived from the philosopher Plato’s Theory of Forms, Siry tells us. Basically, the thought is that humans can’t understand the true nature of things, but can only interpret it. And different humans have different interpretations. Plato’s Forms (the company) wants to get those more in sync.

Plato’s Forms has just closed a seed round of funding to the tune of $545,000 (but the note has been left open to accept up to $750,000). The round was led by a group of angels (including Siry) and Zelkova VC.

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Plato’s Forms Gets Seed Money To Open Dialogue Between Bloggers And Companies

MOG has set a launch date for its All Access music streaming service: December 2. That’s when you’ll be able to sign up for the hands down best music streaming service on the web. If you’re willing to pay $5/month, that is.

Is it worth it? I’m definitely starting to think so. Partially because of the quality of the product (more on that below), and partially because the free streaming music business model seems to be falling apart. Spotify is delaying U.S. launch, MySpace may move to a subscription service, and the iMeem service, recently acquired by MySpace, may not even be around for much longer. By this time next year there may not be any legal free streaming services left.

But even with free streaming competitors, MOG may be worth it. I’ve been testing the service for a couple of weeks and it is a significantly better user experience than any other music service I’ve tried, including Spotify, MySpace Music and Pandora.

It’s just incredibly easy to search for and discover music, add it to playlists or your library, and start listening.

MOG has released a short video showing the full service (until now we’ve just had two teasers).

You can see from the video how easy it is to search for artists, albums or songs, and add them to your library or to playlists. Based on this alone MOG is better than MySpace Music, which continues to try to slow down users – the more songs they stream, the more MySpace has to pay. MOG doesn’t have that problem because they pay the labels a set fee per user every month.

But MOG also has another killer feature – MOG Radio. The video shows how it works. Type in any artist and start to listen to songs just from that artist. use the slider to add in more similar artists. Move it all the way to the right and you basically have Pandora. But the ability to just listen to music from one artist is a really compelling product. I’d consider paying $5/month just for this feature alone.

I also like MOG’s social features. You can search for playlists created by other users, or go to user profile pages to see what music they’ve been listening to. If you like their taste, you can follow them and get updates on new music they are playing.

You can see all of these features in the overview video embedded above. Watch that video and then decide: would you pay $5/month for MOG All Access? Let us know in the comments.

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MOG All Access Music Service: Watch The Video Now, Sign Up On December 2