The Smartphone Hub

The always exciting World Cup kicks off today and I’m using a mobile application from Goal.com to keep track of it all. I’m using the Google Android version, but the free software also runs on iPhone, Nokia Symbian S60 5th edition, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. Although I’d love to spend time watching matches online — NewTeeVee has a list of ways to watch World Cup online streams and videos — I just don’t have the time. So a mobile app such as Goal.com gives me a quick World Cup fix when I need an update.

On my Nexus One, this software runs silky smooth and makes good use of the high-resolution touchscreen. The interface is easy to use as well: just tap the World Cup tab for a left-to-right sliding menu offering News, Live Scores, Teams, Results and Standings. Once in any of these sub-menus, the same sliding interface is used, making it easy to scroll through news stories, for example. The application, distributed by Handmark, is ad-supported, but the advertising is very unobtrusive and isn’t getting in the way of my World Cup data. The software also supports sharing of World Cup news via Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, email and even text messaging. Unfortunately, I don’t see a way to schedule updates to speed things up, but there is a manual refresh option.

What I really like most about the app is is what carriers will like, too — it provides just enough data without sucking down huge amounts of bandwidth — that’s key for folks who don’t have unlimited data plans and also important to service providers. Indeed, Akamai recently beefed up its network in anticipation of moving 2-3 terabits of data a second during the World Cup events, which would set a record for the highest rate of throughput it’s ever passed along.

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Live Event Coverage: Video Rights Roundtable (subscription required)

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Apple’s new Safari 5 brings support for browser extensions, which the company plans to showcase on its own gallery in a few months. In the meantime, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorites.

To learn more about using Safari, check out our Safari 101 screencast on TechUniversity (subscription required).

Web & Utilities

AdBlock

The AdBlock extension is a great way to remove unwanted content from your browsing experience. Download the extension and load your web pages without as many intrusive ads. There’s even beta options to remove Google ads and YouTube ads.

BuiltWith Analysis

The BuiltWith Analysis extension provides an insider look into a website with one click. You can see what JavaScript libraries a site uses, who provides analytics as well as other nitty-gritty details that are totally public, but often obscured in tons of HTML source code.

Invisible Status Bar

Google’s Chrome browser does away with the status bar at the bottom of your window and only shows it when you hover over a link. The Invisible Status Bar extension does the same thing for Safari!

Live CSS Editing

The Live CSS Editing extension provides a quick way to load up a page and test modifications to the CSS in real time.

Bit.ly Shortener

The Safari Bit.ly Shortener extension makes it easy to shorten a URL with Bit.ly. Simply load the URL in your browser and then click the button!

PageSaver

The Svay.com PageSaver extension will, in one click, save the visible portion of a web page as an image and automatically download it into your Downloads folder.

ScribeFire

ScribeFire is an extension for using a centralized place for posting to all of your blogs, supporting a variety of typical blog features including formatting, categories and tags. ScribeFire’s Safari Extension brings support for this right into Safari.

Snapper

Similar to PageSaver, Snapper also saves the currently viewable portion of a website as a PNG and automatically downloads it for you.

Type to Navigate

The Type to Navigate extension is pretty darn cool. If you’re browsing a page and there’s a link you want to follow, just start typing any word that’s contained within it. It’ll highlight the link and then you just press Return to load it. If it’s not the right link, press Command + G to move to the next one.

E-Commerce

Amazon.com Search Bar

If you frequent Amazon.com, you’ll want the Amazon.com Search Bar extension. It’ll add a new Amazon.com bar to Safari giving you one-click access to your shopping cart, wish list, the latest deals and a quick way to search Amazon.com.

InvisibleHand

The InvisibleHand extension will subtly let you know when it finds a cheaper price to a product elsewhere on the Internet. The list of supported retailers is fairly decent for the U.S., UK and Germany, but more are being added frequently.

Social

FaceBlock

The FaceBlock extension blocks all of the annoying ads on Facebook. I always feel a little sadness for the advertisers that are paying for impressions that I never have to see. Oh well.

safari140

This gem of an extension allows you to post directly to Twitter from within Safari. Links are automatically shortened by is.gd.

Share with Facebook

The Share with Facebook extension gives you one-click access to share your current URL with your Facebook account.

Webbla

If you use Webbla for managing your bookmarks, take a look at the Webbla browser extension, which allows you to quickly add or modify them.

YouTube Full Screen

This extension is a great way to enable full-screen support of YouTube videos if you’re using YouTube’s HTML5 player instead of its Flash player.

Productivity

Background Tabs

The Background Tabs extension will allow you to open a new tab in the background by simply pressing the V key.

Gmail Checker

The Gmail Checker extension will give you an icon and badge in your Safari toolbar to show unread messages on your Gmail account. Keep an eye on their website for updates because the next version will support Google Apps users.

GoMBoX

The GoMBoX extension transforms your Google Images experience by showcasing results in a Lightbox overlay, allowing you to see larger versions without having to leave your search results page.

Instapaper

If you love Instapaper, check out Instafari, a simple one-click way to save an article to your Instapaper account.

InstaPaper Greystyled and Article Tools

The Greystyled and Article Tools extensions provide you with a cleaner style for your Instapaper.com account. Once the extension is installed, just visit instapaper.com to see the changes.

Google Reader – Simplified

If you’re a fan of Google Reader and the GreaseMonkey scripts that give it a simplified look, check out Lucidica, an extension that’s based off Helvetireader.

Safari Reload Button

If you’ve ever wanted to move the reload button for Safari out of the URL window and into its own button, the Safari Reload Button extension does just that.

Search Preview

With the Search Preview extension, you can preview the web pages that show up in your search results. This extension works with Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Toodlethings

If you use Toodledo for your task management, the Toodlethings extension re-styles the web interface with clean buttons and easier to read fonts.

For more great extensions, check out the Safari Extensions blog and keep an eye on Apple.com for its showcase that’s scheduled to premiere later this summer.

Have you written your own extension or found others? Share them in the comments below!

Check out the rest: GigaOM

	Which SmartPhone Platform is the Best? Jayaraman Raghuraman (Raghu), VP – North America of Endeavour Software Technologies (www.techendeavour.com), discusses the nuances of best mobile smartphonet. How do a enterprise or consumer decide which one to pursue first? As mentioned by Raghu, iPhone isn't the only platform out there, although it continues to get 95% of the hype because nearly every influencer has an iPhone but RIM due to its incredible enterprise mobile security has proved time and again that it is perhaps the most successful enterprise platform . All platforms have different characteristics. Thus, the million-dollar question is which mobile platform will suit particular enterprise IT leaders or corporations in their business ventures. The ruling mobile platforms whose capabilities have impressed corporate to date include iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Android, and Symbian. Also Read "A Guide to Determining the Right Smart mobile Platform for your Enterprise Mobility Strategy" yourmobileblog.blogspot.com	From: mobilitycompany Views: 29 1 ratings
	Time: 03:44	More in Science & Technology

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Gary Kremen, the founder of Match.com and former owner of Sex.com, is trying to cleanse his soul, he tells me during a recent interview at a cafe in the Mission District of San Francisco. That means that four years ago, after roughly a decade of building Internet companies and delving deep into the online porn world in one of the most epic, crazy tales of the dot-com boom, he turned all of his attention to being an angel investor in early-stage greentech startups. “I wanted to do something positive for society after doing evil porn for so many years,” says Kremen.

Kremen, who tells me that if possible he likes to write a startup’s first check, has invested dozens of small rounds of hundreds of thousands of dollars into companies that are building the next generation of green technologies, like solar power and energy efficiency. His portfolio includes Clean Power Finance, which he founded and put a sizable amount of funding into; as well as home area network startup People Power (one of our Green:Net launchpad companies); home audit startup Recurve; energy software company Greenbox, which Silver Spring Networks acquired; and carbon software company Carbon Flow, among others.

What some might find surprising is that while many greentech investor heavyweights have yet to find either exits or make much money, Kremen doesn’t seem to be doing all that badly, though it’s still early days. Greenbox was sold off to the smart grid industry’s networking leader and last month Solaicx, an 8-year-old maker of silicon wafers for solar cells, was sold to MEMC (Kremen is a limited partner in Green House Capital Partners, which invested in Solaicx). Kremen described some of his investment wins as “some lucky things have happened but I’ll have some toilet paper.”

Kremen’s greentech investment funds come from his $15 million sale of Sex.com — which he turned into an adult search engine — to Escom LLC in 2006, as well as a couple of other investments. It’s not a whole lot compared to the funds of the greentech VCs on Sand Hill Road, but as Kremen puts it, is “better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.” If you haven’t heard the whole saga of how a porn mogul stole Sex.com from Kremen — who in the early days of the Internet registered websites like jobs.com, housing.com and sex.com — and then how Kremen won it back in court, do some serious googling.

Now after four years of concentrating solely on greentech angel investing, he’s a sage of sorts, having seen and met with pretty much every firm in Silicon Valley. He thinks the wealth from the Internet will emerge in the opposite way to greentech: “In the Internet a lot of people made money early and lost it later. I think cleantech will be the opposite. There will be a lot of people that lose money early on and make it later.” It’s those big VC funds that went in aggressively early that will probably get some of the arrows in their backs, says Kremen.

Kremen isn’t just using cleantech as a way to cleanse the soul; he’s reformed his personal life, too. He recently got married and adopted a baby, whom he shows me pictures of on his iPad at various times throughout our meeting, and — like all new dads — seems to still be slightly in shock about fatherhood. It’s somewhat of a 360 180 to Kremen’s previous life, and which San Jose Mercury writer Chris O’Brien referred to as downright serene in a recent article. But Kremen says abashedly: “I think we can actually –- I hate when people say this — but make a difference in a big way.”

For more research on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

Cleantech Financing Trends: 2010 and Beyond

Image courtesy of noodlepie’s photostream.

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You’ve certainly read Jason Toon’s work: he’s head writer for Woot.com. But you might not have thought about the staggering amount of copy he has to write. And the first time he did a Woot-Off, neither did he. More »










Woot – Arts – Hack – Writers Resources – Woot.com

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Facebook has launched a new site that for people in 45 countries using one of 50 carriers will not rack up any data charges. It is can be accessed at 0.facebook.com. It is a low bandwidth site, like the current m.facebook.com, but apparently the carriers will let Facebook site that begins with a “0″ bypass the data counters. Presumably Facebook will pay the charges, or has worked out some sort of revenue sharing agreement based on advertising revenue.

I haven’t seen a list of countries or carriers yet, but according to CNet, Brazil, Denmark, Greece, Hong Kong, India, and Turkey are included. France and the UK are on the roadmap. I guess for now, you’ll need to check with your carrier to see if you qualify, unless someone here has found a complete list.

Check out the rest: Windows Mobile News copy

When it comes to starting a business, it’s hard to top Naval Ravikant’s CV. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded Epinions.com and Vast.com; and as an angel investor, he’s helped fund companies like Disqus and Twitter. We wanted to find out what makes an ambitious man like this tick, so we asked him to sit down for a brief video chat about entrepreneurship.

If you have aspirations to start your own business, watch the video as Ravikant discusses:

• The three traits you need to look for in a partner
• How important it is to be in Silicon Valley
• How to get a meeting with an investor
• Whether you should be public or private with your idea

Check out the rest: GigaOM

When it comes to starting a business, it’s hard to top Naval Ravikant’s CV. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded Epinions.com and Vast.com; and as an angel investor, he’s helped fund companies like Disqus and Twitter. We wanted to find out what makes an ambitious man like this tick, so we asked him to sit down for a brief video chat about entrepreneurship.

If you have aspirations to start your own business, watch the video as Ravikant discusses:

• The three traits you need to look for in a partner
• How important it is to be in Silicon Valley
• How to get a meeting with an investor
• Whether you should be public or private with your idea

Check out the rest: GigaOM

BookRenter.com, an online textbook rental service for students, has landed a big fish for its board: Netflix co-founder Mark Randolph. The former CEO of the online movie rental company retired in 2002 and since then has been investing in and advising a number of startups. BookRenter founder and CEO Mehdi Maghsoodnia said the addition of Randolph to the board was an endorsement of the company’s Netflix-style service for textbooks.

The idea behind BookRenter is one that would likely appeal to any university student (or parent of a university student) who’s had to shell out hundreds of dollars for textbooks that are used a handful of times, or where only a few pages are required for a course. It probably doesn’t appeal to textbook publishers, however, since it effectively cuts them out of the loop — just as Netflix does to movie distributors. BookRenter says it has 3 million books available for rent and offers next-day shipping and free UPS returns. Books can be rented for up to 125 days, at what the company says is a saving of up to 75 percent over buying the book.

The startup, which was founded in 2008, raised $6 million in a Series A financing round last fall from Storm Ventures and Adams Capital Management, and says it’s growing at 300 percent quarter-over-quarter. Its larger competitor is a company called Chegg.com, which has raised a total of $144 million in equity and debt financing. The two have clashed over the claim to who is No. 1 in the market — Chegg recently sent BookRenter a legal letter claiming that it owned the rights to the phrase “Number 1 in textbook rentals.”

The textbook rental market could soon be getting a lot more competitive for both companies: Barnes and Noble has been testing a rental service as well.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): The Price of E-Book Progress

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Kate Sheets

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Bandwidth.com, the folks behind the free Phonebooth system that’s such a boon to web workers, today launched two new iPhone applications targeted at consumers and small business customers: Holdr and Conference Starter. The software was developed under the Phonebooth Labs name and marks the company’s first step into the mobile software marketplace to complement its VoIP offerings.

Holdr is the more consumer-focused of the two: Instead of wasting time being tethered to your phone as you wait on hold, Holdr allows you to press *7 and hang up. When the other end of the line takes your original call off hold, Holdr rings your phone back to reconnect the call, which should then be with a live person. The one downside I can see is that you have to initiate the call from the Holdr app, not the standard iPhone dialer. With that in mind, I’d probably only use this free software when specifically calling a place of business.

Conference Starter, meanwhile, looks to be an excellent way to get up to 25 people on a conference call. Using the $4.99 app, you select contacts, choose a conference moderator and click the Start Conference button — each of the selected contacts are then called by the service and upon pickup, each is added to the call. The first 250 minutes of conference calling using Conference Starter are included in the application price, but after that, each additional minute is 2 cents. Conference Starter supports in-app purchasing of additional conference minutes and works on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices.

Given the kerfuffle over Apple not allowing a Google Voice app on the iPhone, I’m almost surprised that both of these apps were approved. Then again, Apple could be facing some antitrust scrutiny in the near future, so it may behoove the company to be more liberal with third-party software than it has been so far.

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