Miscellaneous

Podcast: MySpace promotes OpenID

At a Tuesday afternoon panel at the Demo conference, representatives of MySpace, Google, Facebook, and Plaxo explained how they are working to create a more open environment so that people can take their identity with them as they migrate from one social-networking site to another.

While we're not yet about to see Facebook let people log on to its site with their MySpace ID, or vice versa, we are starting to see more cooperation among sites. MySpace ID product lead Max Engel speaks with Larry Magid about MySpace's efforts, including collaboration with AOL.

ScanCafe now digitizes black-and-white negatives

LAS VEGAS--ScanCafe, a start-up that digitizes film images using relatively cheap labor in Bangalore, India, announced a new service on Tuesday to scan black-and-white negatives.

The Burlingame, Calif.-based company already scanned color slides and negatives as well as prints, but film scanners have trouble with black-and-white negatives. ScanCafe uses a "wet mount" process for which the company has applied for a patent, said Wade Lagrone, vice president of marketing, in an interview at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show here.

The process is more expensive but still competitive, Lagrone said. Color negatives cost 24 cents each, color slides 29 cents, prints 27 cents, and black-and-white negatives 69 cents apiece. The cost includes retouching and color correction. … Read more

Podcast: Innovative netbook with removable touch-screen

CNET and CBS News tech analyst Larry Magid speaks with Always Innovating's Maria Victoria about the company's Touch Book touch-screen netbook. One unique feature is the ability to remove the screen and take it with you to use as a touch-pad or leave it in place to use as a netbook. The company has adapted a version of Linux to provide an iPhone CoverFlow-like interface for launching programs.

The company claims it will get up to 15 hours of battery life.

Asus to nix 7-inch Eee PC Netbooks

HANNOVER, Germany--Asus is to phase out its 7-inch-screen Eee PC Netbooks in mature markets, company chairman Jonney Shih said on Tuesday.

During a press conference at the CeBit technology show here, Shih told ZDNet UK that the manufacturer would concentrate on its 10-inch Netbooks, which he said customers preferred. He denied recent reports that Asus would phase out its 8.9-inch Netbooks. However, he did say that it would cut 7-inch Eee PCs--the original size for the line--from its catalog.

"It seems that customers prefer to have a greater screen, which also means a larger keyboard," Shih said. "I still believe we have a good opportunity in 8.9-inch for kids, telecoms (providers) or emerging markets. The 7-inch (Netbook) is going to be phased out, although some emerging countries may still have some demand."

Asus has previously had to deny rumors that it would remove all its sub-10-inch Netbooks from its range. In November, it said both its 8.9-inch and 7-inch Netbooks would survive with refreshed specifications.

At CeBit, the annual spring tech show, Asus showed off a variety of new and recently announced products. It offered up an Eee videophone, an Eee NAS PC, and several new notebooks, including the Eee PC "Seashell" 1008HA, which is a one-inch-thick, 10-inch-screen version of the Eee Netbook design. … Read more

Podcast: Roku to stream Amazon video

Tim Twerdahl, Roku vice president of consumer products, tells Larry Magid that the Roku set-top box will now allow you to stream movies and TV shows from Amazon.com.

The Roku player already works with about 12,000 movies and TV shows from Netflix. Unlike Netflix, which bundles Roku TV viewing with DVD subscriptions, Amazon movies and TV shows will be on a rental or purchase basis. New movie releases typically cost $3.99, with older movies available for $2.99. TV shows will cost $1.99.

Length: 6:21

VCs to Demo: Funding tough but not impossible

PALM DESERT, Calif.--On the day that the Dow sank below 7,000 for the first time since 1997, a panel of venture capitalists told attendees at Demo 2009 what most people already know. This is an extremely challenging environment for raising money.

But challenging doesn't mean impossible. There are still some opportunities for both entrepreneurs and investors.

The panel, which was moderated by Matt Marshall of VentureBeat consisted of Christine Herron of First Round Capital, David Hornik of August Capital, Bryce T. Roberts of O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and Eric Tilenius of Tilenius Investments.

Tilenius said that "… Read more

Podcast: Cc:Betty organizes your email

Ben Dean of Cc:Betty tells Larry about the new service. You put betty@ccbetty.com in the CC field of an email message and it sets up a "mail space" for the thread of messages.

For more of CcBetty.com, see Rafe Needleman's blog post.

Jukebox + iPhone equals a pickup at a bar

Skout is a location aware dating service that lets you use an iPhone or other GPS enabled mobile device to find potential matches. Now the company is moving into bars with a large jukebox that can "skout out" potential mates in and near the bar. You can dedicate a song to your would-be sweetheart or send an SMS or virtual flowers.

Skout's chief marketing officer, Patrick McGovern, explains the system to Larry Magid who wants his wife Patti to know that his interest in the subject is purely professional.

Application makes screen recording easy

PALM DESERT, CALIF -- Programs like Camtasia Studio that let you record what you do on your PC (including motion and sound) have been around for awhile but Citrix Online, the company behind GoToMyPC, is simplifying the process of creating videos and bringing them to the web. I've only seen the onstage demo at Demo 09 and haven't worked with the program but, from what I saw, it does look like it's easier to use than other screen capture programs I've used.

GoView doesn't just capture still shots but entire screen sessions with optional voice … Read more