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<title>Haaze.com / JozhssonDate / All</title>
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<pubDate>Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[How to find free Kindle books]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-find-free-kindle-books</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-find-free-kindle-books</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>JozhssonDate</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-find-free-kindle-books</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Jungle-search.com makes it easy to find free Kindle books.(Credit:Screenshot by John P. Falcone/CNET) Companies with their own Kindle competitors, such as Barnes &amp; Noble, Sony, and Apple, make a big deal of the fact that their e-book readers are compatible with the ePub file format. That means, unlike the Kindle, that the Apple iPad (through various apps, including iBooks), Sony Reader, and Barnes &amp; Noble Nook can be used to read tens of thousands of free books from Google and a variety of other sources. Just choose a title, download the ePub version, and transfer it to the compatible reader of your choice. Yes, nearly all of the books and essays in question are public domain classics (and sometimes not-so-classics) of yesteryear--the works of authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and the like. But free's free, and these are the sort of canonical works of art that bookworms appreciate reading and re-reading ad infinitum. But fear not, Kindle owners: you too have access to many of the same public domain titles, numbering in the thousands. Amazon has made it easier to find them than in the past by displaying the paid and free titles in the top 100 list in adjacent columns (overall and by genre). But what if you want to see more granular lists--say, separating the public domain titles from the modern freebies (Publishers occasionally give away older books in a series to hook readers on newer ones, for example.) Or what if you want to see only books in a certain price range--only those that are 99 cents, or $2 to $3 That's where Jungle-search.com comes in. The search engine is designed to scour Amazon for all sorts of deals across a variety of categories. And that includes Kindle titles, which can be filtered by price. As of today, there are almost 17,000 free Kindle titles (see links below). Nearly all of them are public domain titles, including many of the same you'll find on Google Books. The remaining 246 free titles tend to be Kindle games, or those aforementioned freebie promotional titles. Currently, it looks like romance titles dominate the top of the list, but you'll find plenty of thrillers, and even some &quot;Star Wars&quot; books in there, too. (These titles tend to turn over pretty quickly, so it's worth checking every few weeks or so.) The price searches on Jungle-search are customizable, so you can also use it to search for bargain Kindle titles as well. For instance, you can currently find more than 220,000 titles available for under a buck, and more than 125,000 costing between $1 and $5 (including megahit &quot;The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo&quot;). Just remember to filter out the magazines and newspapers that sometimes come up in such searches, since they'll bill you on a weekly or monthly basis. Kindle titles by price (via Jungle-search.com as of December 29): Free Kindle e-books (public domain): 16,528 Free Kindle e-books (non-public domain): 246Kindle e-books ($0.01-$0.99): 83,902Kindle e-books ($1.00-$4.99): 216,986Kindle e-books ($5.00-$7.99): 257,493Kindle e-books ($8.00-$9.99): 125,975Kindle e-books ($10+): 127,346 Remember, even if you don't own a Kindle, you can still enjoy the e-books--free or otherwise--using the various apps (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and so forth) available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices and phones, as well as on Windows PCs, and Macs.  Got a favorite free Kindle title Or another source of free titles Share your finds in the comments below. Editor's note: This post has been updated since its original publication with additional information. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[WebGL powers 3D virtual world on the Web]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=webgl-powers-3d-virtual-world-on-the-web</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=webgl-powers-3d-virtual-world-on-the-web</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 03 Dec 2010 08:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>JozhssonDate</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=webgl-powers-3d-virtual-world-on-the-web</guid>
<description><![CDATA[KataSpace is a 3D world accessed using a WebGL-enabled browser.(Credit:screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)One of the obstacles to Second Life popularity is the fact that people must install specific software to visit the site. One of the promises of a 3D technology called WebGL is that such worlds could be drawn directly in a browser.Now a company called Katalabs, formed by a number of Stanford researchers, has done just that with a virtual world project called KataSpace. A version can be explored online with a browser such asFirefox 4 beta 7 (Windows | Mac | Linux) that has WebGL support.KataSpace uses the Web technologies to create a user interface for the open-source Sirikata platform for multiuser 3D world, Katalabs said in a blog post. The demonstration world is workable but primitive, with only two avatars to pick from, some jerky movement, and terrain that avatars walk through rather than over. But it does serve to show that WebGL is moving from concept to reality.3D on the Web is a competitive area, with WebGL support being built into Firefox, Chrome,Safari, and Opera--the four browsers that all trail Microsoft's Internet Explorer in usage. Adobe Systems also is at work building a roughly similar low-level 3D interface into its Flash technology that's already widely used today for online games.Google, which has formidable marketing muscle and growing clout in the browser market, plans to put some of its marketing muscle behind WebGL. It can be tried today in the developer version of Chrome 9' the final version should ship some time in January.&quot;The Chrome experiments team is building a section specifically for WebGL,&quot; said Henry Bridge, a Google Chrome product manager. The Chrome Experiments site showcases new Web technology.Microsoft is cagey about its WebGL plans. In the past, the software giant's Dean Hachamovitch dismissed it as not meeting the &quot;same markup&quot; goal the company advocates with Web technologies, meaning that a Web developer should be able to write one version of a Web page that should load in all browsers. Of course, if Microsoft joined the WebGL effort, it could well meet that &quot;same markup&quot; goal.Microsoft, however, also has its Silverlight browser plug-in. The company announced yesterday that the upcoming Silverlight 5 will include a lower-level hardware-accelerated 3D graphics interface, too. However, Silverlight 5 has been under a cloud after earlier Microsoft remarks that indicated HTML, the language of the Web, was stealing some of its the thunder.Microsoft plans to ship Silverlight 5 in beta form during the first half of 2011 and in final form by the end of 2011.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[City dwellers enlisted &amp' rewarded  for delivering DHL packages - Springwise]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=city-dwellers-enlisted-amp-rewarded--for-delivering-dhl-packages---springwise</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=city-dwellers-enlisted-amp-rewarded--for-delivering-dhl-packages---springwise</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>JozhssonDate</dc:creator>
<category>Transportation</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=city-dwellers-enlisted-amp-rewarded--for-delivering-dhl-packages---springwise</guid>
<description><![CDATA[We''ve seen numerous efforts to reduce the energy used and urban congestion created by the small-package delivery industry, including both neighbourhood pickup spots and a ride-sharing program for packages. Combining a little bit of both ideas, bring.BUDDY is a program that will soon be tested out by DHL to recruit city dwellers to deliver packages along urban routes they''d be taking anyway.Created last year for DHL by a team of students at the HPI School of Design Thinking at Germany''s University of Potsdam, bring.BUDDY taps all the consumers moving through a city each day, whether via bike, public transport or on foot. Interested participants indicate their travel route for the day using a downloadable smartphone app' a text message then lets them know of any packages needing delivery along the way. When there is such a package,  the participant picks it up from the local kiosk where it''s waiting and delivers it as they go about their daily business. In exchange for their help, the program rewards them with points that can be redeemed for free train tickets, merchandise coupons or CO2 credits. A .pdf brochure and a video on YouTube both explain bring.BUDDY in more detail.As part of an effort to reduce its own carbon emissions, DHL will reportedly begin a pilot test based on bring.BUDDY and its network of DHL Packstation kiosks later this year. As with any service like this, of course, trust issues will have to be overcome. Nevertheless, the project''s potential to make dedicated delivery vehicles superfluous, at least in urban areas, is nothing if not compelling, with benefits including less congestion, lower delivery costs and reduced emissions. One to watch, try out or get involved in...Website: www.d-school-blog.hpi-web.deContact: office-d-school@hpi.uni-potsdam.deSpotted by: Doug Caldwell<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[YouTube launches ad format that lets viewers skip or choose]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=youtube-launches-ad-format-that-lets-viewers-skip-or-choose</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=youtube-launches-ad-format-that-lets-viewers-skip-or-choose</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>JozhssonDate</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=youtube-launches-ad-format-that-lets-viewers-skip-or-choose</guid>
<description><![CDATA[YouTube has officially launched TrueView, a new ad format that will let viewers skip ads choose one from a selection.At a time when online viewers are fickle with their attention and video providers are burdened with finding ways to monetize that attention, this is the latest in a slew of video advertising experiments.When an ad begins playing, a countdown timer will appear for five seconds, after which time the viewer may press a button on the top-right to skip the ad. If they choose to skip an ad, they&amp;'ll be jumped to their content &amp;8212' no questions asked. Alternatively, the advertiser can present the viewer with a choice of ads and let them choose the one to watch, a technique that has been used by competitor Hulu for some time.The idea of a skippable ad may sound counter-intuitive at a time when the lack of a TiVo-like fastforward button on the Internet is seen as a holy grail for advertisers, but YouTube will only be asking advertisers to pay for ad views in which the viewer doesn&amp;'t skip the ad.Which means they&amp;'ll only be paying for potentially interested ad viewers who are more likely interested in their product.Last year, YouTubefound in an experiment that as many as 70% of viewers abandon videos when confronted with a long pre-roll ad. So, the idea of a skippable ad, even if it doesn&amp;'t lead to an ad sale for YouTube or impression for the advertiser, will at the very least work toward ensuring another viewer isn&amp;'t abandoning the video sharing site.Worth noting is that YouTube is only offering the TrueView choice to advertisers, who can still choose to use the traditional ad format. While there are only a handful of videos that are currently making use of TrueView, the number is likely to grow as more advertisers begin experimenting with the format.Previous Story: Google now demotes bad merchants a4 somehowPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: ads, TrueView, video advertising, video sharingCompanies: YouTube          Tags: ads, TrueView, video advertising, video sharingCompanies: YouTubeSid Yadav is a contributor to VentureBeat. He currently studies computer science and psychology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He is also the creator of Memiary, a micro-diary utility. You can reach him at sidyadav@gmail.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @sidyadav.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Flipboard CEO&'s claim: We&'re not building a business &''on the backs of publishers&'']]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=flipboard-ceorsquos-claim-wersquore-not-building-a-business-8220on-the-backs-of-publishers8221</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=flipboard-ceorsquos-claim-wersquore-not-building-a-business-8220on-the-backs-of-publishers8221</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>JozhssonDate</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=flipboard-ceorsquos-claim-wersquore-not-building-a-business-8220on-the-backs-of-publishers8221</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Updated with additional comments from Flipboard&amp;'s Mike McCue.Flipboard, an iPad app that republishes articles your friends link to on Twitter and Facebook in pretty, magazine-like templates. It does this by violating publishers&amp;' copyrights and hoping they&amp;'ll forgive it, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue tacitly admitted today.&amp;''We want to build a business with publishers, not on the backs of publishers,&amp;'' McCue said in response to a question I asked about whether Flipboard had the legal right to republish content in its app. McCue was on stage at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference in San Francisco.Flipboard has changed some of its practices since its launch first raised copyright questions. It has started using website&amp;'s RSS feeds, a format commonly used to distribute content online, instead of scraping or copying content directly from websites. And it displays excerpts of long articles, with a link to the full article on the publisher&amp;'s website.There are legal precedents allowing the display of short, text-only excerpts and thumbnail images from websites. But Flipboard seems to test the boundaries of those precedents in the amount of text and the size of images it uses.McCue didn&amp;'t address the central question facing Flipboard: How can it take copyrighted text and photos, change the layout, and display them on a new device without violating publishers&amp;' copyrightsThe answer, of course, is that it can&amp;'t. McCue said that Flipboard would stop taking content on request or if publishers placed a configuration file on their servers to block the service. As Gizmodo&amp;'s Joel Johnson pointed out in July, &amp;''Content creators do not have to specifically ask that their copyright not be violated.&amp;''McCue&amp;'s other defense: Publishers seem to like Flipboard. Last week, it introduced Flipboard Pages, a program which allows publishers to opt into the display of longer articles in Flipboard-formatted templates. ABC News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and All Things Digital (the host of the D conference where McCue spoke), among other publishers, have joined the trial program.It seems like a step in the right direction. But if McCue wants to get Flipboard on firm legal ground, he should flip the company&amp;'s model and make Flipboard Pages the only thing he offers.Update: After the publication of this article, McCue and I had an engaging conversation about RSS feeds, aggregators, and copyright law. He said Flipboard spends a lot of time thinking about what&amp;'s right for authors and publishers, and he personally wouldn&amp;'t want to be involved with a company that treats their content disrespectfully. He also firmly believes what Flipboard doesn&amp;'t violate copyright law, and pointed out some technical aspects of how Flipboard displays content from RSS feeds that he believes puts it in the clear.From our conversation, I&amp;'m convinced he&amp;'s sincere, but I&amp;'m not sure he&amp;'s right. As lawyer and copyright expert Bruce Sunstein pointed out in 2005, RSS feeds are copyrighted just like any published material, and simply because it&amp;'s now easier to display the material in new ways &amp;8212' and publishers are accommodating those uses &amp;8212' doesn&amp;'t mean those ways might violate publishers&amp;' copyright.McCue and I ended the conversation agreeing that there should be better ways to clarify rights, most likely through Creative Commons licensing, which uses copyright law to provide explicit permission for various reuses of content. Already, a handful of publishers like Gawker Media are using Creative Commons licenses for this reason. And McCue also said Flipboard is thinking about ways to give publishers more control over how their content is displayed in its app.What Flipboard is doing is definitely pushing the boundaries. It would be all to the good if it also ends up redefining them in ways that give the media and technology worlds more clarity about copyright.Next Story: Chrome OS launch coming in mid 2011, but Google starts pilot program now Previous Story: As Blizzard kicks off World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, it suffers a disastrous data leakPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: news aggregators, social aggregators, Social MediaCompanies: FlipboardPeople: Mike McCue          Tags: news aggregators, social aggregators, Social MediaCompanies: FlipboardPeople: Mike McCueOwen Thomas is the executive editor of VentureBeat.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Skyara attracts do-gooder activity guides]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=skyara-attracts-do-gooder-activity-guides</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=skyara-attracts-do-gooder-activity-guides</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>JozhssonDate</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=skyara-attracts-do-gooder-activity-guides</guid>
<description><![CDATA[San Francisco startup Skyara launched last month with a cool concept &amp;8212' ita4a4s a marketplace where people can buy and sell new experiences. Now co-founder Jonathan Wu said the team has discovered a surprising side effect: Most of the money earned in the marketplace is going to charity.The story seems like a good illustration of how a relatively minor feature can turn out to be a big selling point for your startup.Users looking to do something cool and different can go to Skyara to purchase an experience, and people who have expertise can sell an experience. The activities currently featured on the front page include a4ADating Tips for Dummies with 2 Wing-Womena4 ($25) and a culinary tour of San Franciscoa4a4s North Beach neighborhood ($59). (For now, Skyara is limited to San Francisco.) Skyara takes a 12 percent fee when an activity is booked.At the suggestion of Paul Bragiel, a partner at I/O Ventures (where Skyara was incubated), the company included an option where guides can donate their payment to charity. That option has been a big hit &amp;8212' Wu said 80 percent of the bookings made to date have been for charity. Even among the for-profit sellers, Wu said a4Aalmost all of the sellers have commented that they offered the experiences just for fun.a4In general, the non-charity activities tend to involve more typical experiences like a kayaking or a biking tour, while the charity activities are unique and cheaper, so theya4a4re more likely to get booked, he said.a4AMost people aren&amp;'t offering experiences to make money, because they value their free time more than what they would charge, but rather they are happy to share their knowledge and give back to the community,a4 Wu said.Perhaps the most noteworthy of the charity activities right now is tea with angel investor Ron Conway and musician MC Hammer. Instead of accepting money from the highest bidder, Conway is asking people to donate $10 to the University of California San Francisco Childrena4a4s Hospital and to promote the charity on Facebook, then the winner will be chosen at random.Wu declined to offer any user numbers, and like I said Skyara is currently limited to the Bay Area, so it remains to be seen whether this do-gooder model will continue to hold as the site grows.[photo via Flickr/DownTown Pictures]Next Story: Sony&amp;'s Home virtual world hits 17M users and finds a business model in virtual goods Previous Story: Apple and others gearing up for patent wars with bids on Nortel&amp;'s 4G wireless patentsPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: activities, charityCompanies: i/o Ventures, SkyaraPeople: Jonathan Wu, MC Hammer, Ron Conway          Tags: activities, charityCompanies: i/o Ventures, SkyaraPeople: Jonathan Wu, MC Hammer, Ron ConwayAnthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Foursquare fights fake friends]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=foursquare-fights-fake-friends</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=foursquare-fights-fake-friends</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>JozhssonDate</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=foursquare-fights-fake-friends</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Popular check-in application Foursquare is facing a problem that has long bedeviled social networks &amp;8212' spurious friend requests. And it&amp;'s dealing with violators by putting a cap on them.Users now have a limit on the total number of friends they can have as well as the number of friend requests they can send, a change  first noticed by AboutFoursquare.com.For the average user, this may not be an issue: Most users don&amp;'t want thousands of people knowing where they are at any given time. So the policy is likely targeted at businesses looking to take advantage of creating a profile on Foursquare. Like Twitter, the microblogging network for posting short status updates, Foursquare allows businesses to create profiles in the same way that people do. That liberal policy is unlike Facebook, the dominant social network, which only allows real human beings to create profiles and requires businesses to use a different format called Pages.Some companies have been randomly sending friend requests to thousands of Foursquare users, like Bastardjeans.com, which currently has 61, 923 friends. Why would they do this Well, the benefit comes when one of those users checks in to a venue where Bastardjeans.com has left a tip. Since friends&amp;' tips are displayed first, Bastardjeans.com gets more visibility.Other advantages include being able to know where these users are fromtheir check-ins,as well as being able to send them messages, since many Foursquare users share contact information with friends. All of these could be advantageous to a business looking to promote itself &amp;8212' though it&amp;'s probably not how Foursquare or most of its users envisioned the service operating.Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley told VentureBeat that the startup is constantly working to adjust the balance between letting businesses engage with users, while at the same time trying to keep a positive user experience. Asked what the limits on friends and friend requests would be, Crowley said, &amp;''I think they&amp;'re still in flux right now.&amp;''As of right now,Foursquare&amp;'s major competitors, Gowallaand Scvngr, do not have plans to restricttotal friends or friend requests. While Foursquare is still young and most users have few friends compared to the bigger social networks, one wonders if the restrictions may push some avid users to eventually go with another location-based applications with fewer restrictions. That happened with Friendster, an early social network which cracked down on fake profiles and lost ground to the less-restrictive MySpace.Foursquare, based in New York City and founded in 2009, has raised more than $21 million in funding. It currently has more than40 employees in its hometown and a new engineering office ita4a4s opening in San Francisco.Previous Story: Salesforce picks up real-time collaboration provider Dimdim to bring Chatter up to speedPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: check-in, friend requests, friends, LBS, location, location based services, location-based, policies, restrictionsCompanies: Foursquare, Gowalla, ScvngrPeople: Dennis Crowley          Tags: check-in, friend requests, friends, LBS, location, location based services, location-based, policies, restrictionsCompanies: Foursquare, Gowalla, ScvngrPeople: Dennis CrowleyCody Barbierri is a social and digital media consultant. He works for Piehead and blogs about social media at Social Tab. (None of his posts are about clients or their competitors.) Reach him at Cody@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Cody on Twitter.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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