[SoftRatty] tag: philippines

Have You heard About the Payatas?

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:16:31 +0000

The children living in the huge waste dump called Payatas in Philippines are some of the worst sufferers of the growth of mankind. The landfill in Payatas, The Philippines, is notoriously known the...

Visit Livewares.blogspot.com for more hot direct downloads. This is a content summary only....

Multiply Valued at $100M ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. buys 5% Stake

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:20:57 +0000

ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation bought 5% shares of the social network Multiply, as it was valued at $100 million. The media-centric network has a userbase which is primarily composed of adults. This buy enables ABS-CBN the right to purchase up to 10% shares of Multiply within the next two years. The social network has a deep footing in the Philippines, as it is quite popular with the people there – around 3 million users. Multiply plans to use this investment in advertising, and come out with a mobile version of the site, for its users in Philippines.

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100+ Open Web Awards Blog Partners - Nominations End Sunday

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:45:08 +0000

We’re pleased to announce that the 2nd Annual Open Web Awards is now powered by over 100 International Blog Partners. Our Blog Partners represent 24 countries and 9 languages to bring the Open Web Awards global and to the masses. With over 35,000 nominations already, we are nearing the end of the nominations period.

Nominations and Blog Partner applications end Sunday, November 16th at 11:59 pm PST. Please cast your nominations now and promote your favorites. Remember, like the recent US elections, this is a people’s choice contest. Only the top nominations will advance to the first voting round.

Nominate NOW!

Nominations close Sunday, November 16th at 11:59 pm PST. Nominate now and start campaigning! And feel free to embed this widget on your own blog or website by clicking the “Grab This” button!

Visit our International Blog Partners…and Become One!

Blog Partners by Country (alphabetical):

Argentina

Martín Aberastegue (Spanish): Not so personal weblog about information security, programming (my two big hobbies), SEM/SEO/SMO/SMM (my work in real life).

My Open Studio (Spanish): Blog about graphic design, with resources, tutorials, downloads and everything that a designer needs.

unblogged (Spanish): A spanish blog about tech, music, internet, business, lifestyle and nothing. Yeah, nothing.

Australia

Crenk (English): A weblog dedicated to reviewing some of the newest and best web and mobile apps on the web. Additionally, we have insights and analysis on some of the hotest topics from around the net.

Freedom to Differ (English): A blog that speaks freely about legal and policy issues facing the media and the internet

The Inquisitr (English): A better mix of tech, media, pop, movie and odd/ funny news delivered fresh daily.

Canada

AL6400 Blog (English): Thoughts and insights revolving around issues dealing with business, making money and personal financial management.

The Entrepreneur Journey of a Business Minder (English): Business Minder is here to help people obtain business mind set and succeed in their business journey

Cardeo Design Blog (English): Cardeo is a design blog focusing on web design, wordpress, css, and general design news and links.

Danny Brown (English): Social Media PR from Danny Brown informs, shares and listens - all things that social media should be.

Indyish (English): Indie arts community with group blog, live shows and downloads, streaming mp3’s and video, news and reviews.

Rise of the Innerpreneur (English): A blog for conscious entrepreneurs. Grow your business and your self. Ideas, resources and advice for the Cultural Creative entrepreneur.

T4 Blog (English): The travel & tourism industry is all about connections. Connecting people, places, and cultures. Using new technologies, social media, and social networks can help to foster the connections that we share.

China (Hong Kong)

WinandMac (English): We have written many tutorials and tips, with daily updates of
interesting news about Windows, Mac OS X and more.

Czech Republic

BuzzMag (Czech) : Leading Czech blog covering Web 2.0, social media, venture capital and startups since 2005

Krasohled (Czech): Krasohled is Czech blog about web design, web 2.0, marketing and new technologies.

Ecuador

Saturn Attacks (Spanish): A blog focused in things about culture and news, specially the kind of news than maintain relation with the geek world

Estonia

Friizu Blog (Estonian): Word internet, tech and start up news in estonian language.

Kristjan in Tallinn (Estonian): Kristjan talks about new startups, widgets and internet marketing. Sometimes little tips and tricks about blogging.

Germany

GoMo News (English): A daily addictive b2b blog on mobile barcodes, mobile search and mobile advertising. Read by 35,000 professionals it doesn’t re-write the news it cultivates the news.

Netzkobold (English): This is the personal weblog of Frederik Herman writing about social media, communications, viral, buzz and word-of-mouth marketing.

Wuensch-Media (German): Multimedia & Internet Consulting. Covering Cool Websites, Online Tools, Start-Ups, Social Media, Digital Media and Mobile Media.

Greece

Technology & Strategy Consulting (English): Writing about Technology and Renewable Energy issues.

India

FoneArena - The Mobile Weblog (English): FoneArena has been covering the mobile space with an aim to provide the mobile enthusiasts and mobile buyers the latest information about mobile phones with an eye on the Indian SubContinent.

Indian Web 2.0 (English): Web 2.0 and Technology Startups news Web Blog profiling next generation Web sites, Web2.0 applications and services in India and across the Globe.

Not Just Another Blog (English): A Tech blog with news, views and reviews (with special focus on Web 2.0 and Windows Softwares)

Readers Zone (English): A blog that talks about Software, Hardware, Security, Tips, and updates around Microsoft Technologies, Google and Yahoo!

Teknobites (English): A weblog dedicated to technology news, free software, web apps and online tips

Ireland

mobiForge (English): The worlds largest independent mobile developer community

Israel

Group Writing Projects (English): Is the definitive website for all things related to the blogger favorite, group writing projects.

SeoVice - New Media Daily (English): SeoVice Brings together the new media community to share ideas and insight.

Jordan

ArabCrunch (English): ArabCrunch is dedicated to profiling and reviewing Arab originated startups and existing Internet and Mobile companies in 2.0 and beyond.

Osama Romoh’s Blog (Arabic): Sarcastic articles written in Arabic by the famous Jordanian blogger Osama Romoh.

Latvia

RotorBlog (English): RotorBlog covers some of the hottest and more interesting social networking happenings and reviews of latest web applications.

Malaysia

BloggerUnited (English): A social blog aggregation and blogger networking website. The idea behind bloggerunited.com is to help bloggers gain readership and visibility to their blogs.

Saad Kamal : Search Marketing Blog (English): A blog focused on Search Engine Marketing including Search Engine Optimization, Web Analytics, Social Media, Professional Blogging & Buzz Marketing.

Netherlands

Ondergrond.TV (Dutch/English): Amsterdam subcult videoblog focussing on music, parties, fashion, films and expo’s.

Richard Kastelein Online (English): Mullings of Social Media Strategist Richard Kastelein

Nicaragua

SwordFishCode (Spanish): A team of Geeks writing about Technology, specially about internet mashups and web 2.0 services. Also you can find curious notes about new inventions and other things.

Peru

Tecnologia Diaria (Spanish): KnxDT is behind Tecnologia Diaria, a blog about Technology, Software, Hacking, SEO, Geek Stuff, Startups and more.

Philippines

Daily Contributor (English):Your Daily Contributor for News, Technology, Sports, and Entertainment

Romania

Computer Zone Blog (Romanian): Windows XP, Internet, Security Online, Tweak your Windows, IT articles.

Graphic Rating (English): Graphic Rating is a visual oriented blog covering latest news, events, product and services related to graphic design.

Tha Slayer (English): Web Design blog which provides free wordpress themes,web design & development tutorials along with general wordpress news and tweaks

Zamolxis (Romanian): Zamolxis is a Dacian god that often gets speeding tickets. Herodotus considered the Dacians “the bravest and most honest of the Thracians”.

Spain

RDD Blog (Spanish): “A blog about the best’ blogs” . The ideas behind the blog, to search and view thousands and millions of blogs that are today the best, the most original, the most successful and certainly the most profitable and publicize why and how its success has earned and continue making money, Web traffic and popularity.

Turkey

Vebiki (Turkish): Vebiki is one of the most remarkable Web 2.0 blogs in Turkey. Guys at Vebiki write new startup news from Turkey to World and reviews detailed…

United Kingdom

Blah, Blah! Technology (English): Is about delivering opinion on technology trends that shape lives, shape businesses and shape the future.

Kasumi’s sexy SEO blog (English): Initially started as a research tool on the theme “sex sells” now evolved into a blog all about SEO, online marketing and web 2.0

Millwood Online (English): Millwood Online is a personal and technology blog covering the interests and findings of a web developer and web startup founder.

United States of America

/Message (English): Operating manual for the social web revolution

4CInt (English): Educating the world on the latest web design and internet marketing strategies.

Alex de Carvalho (English): I write about social media strategy, public relations, journalism, and the burgeoning technology scene in South Florida.

Altaide Valley (English): Altaide is a company passionate about new and high technologies (yes we are “geek” people), surveying last market trends and share this passion

Anything Geospatial, AnyGeo (English): Anything geospatial supports GISuser.com covering the geospatial Web, LBS, location technologies, mobile mapping, and location-aware social networking.

Bait, Tackle, Ice, Advice & Beer (English): BTIAB is about creating and supporting conversations around organizational change, leadership development, branding, and creating cultures of creativity & innovation.

Bill Hartzer (English): Talks about marketing on the web, social media, and search engine marketing issues.

BinaryWolf (English): BinaryWolf provides an ongoing list of links to topics that interest me. It’s a mixed bag of serendipity!

Black Web 2.0 (English): Black Web 2.0 covers website and application launches plus culturally relevant and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.

Blog the Change You Wish to See in the World (English): A personal blog of Clinton Schaff, highlighting topics including social media, online communities and people-powered politics.

Bub.blicio.us (English): Covers the social economy, offering insight into everything 2.0 and providing a lens into the social landscape that’s shaping the tech economy.

The Caffeinated Blog (English): Kari Rippetoe blogs about how businesses can utilize social media and engaging content to connect with customers and improve their online brands

Celebridiot (English): Celebrity gossip, scandals, and pictures from around the world updated daily.

ChurchCrunch (English): We are a technology blog covering businesses, ministries, marketing, trends, products, services, news, strategy, research, and anything else that is (or may prove to be) effectual in sharing Christ.

Collective Thoughts (English): Welcome to the new wisdom of crowds. Each member of Collective Thoughts is here because not only are they a known or rising star in their own field, but they also have a passion and unique understanding on social media. Together, we make up Collective Thoughts

Conversational Marketing Blog (English): Features insights from BJ Cook into the conversation architecture used by companies to create engaging customer experiences.

dashPunk (English): For fans, by fans, SF news, views, and reviews

Direct Marketing Observations (English): This blog is about content marketing, social media marketing and marketing. Not always on point, but points usually well taken.

EclipseMagazine (English): Celebrating our 11th anniversary this year, EclipseMagazine.com is one of the oldest Entertainment News Networks on the Web. Come and get your own Entertainment Blog at EM.

FaceReviews (English): Social News Reviews & Trends: Rating, Reviews and News blog covering facebok; multiple social networks and related platforms.

The Flack (English): This weblog attempts to shine a brighter light on the subtle role public relations plays in politics, popular culture, journalism, business/finance, entertainment, technology, social media, consumer marketing and sports.

Girls in Tech (English): An organization focused on women’s entrepreneurial and innovative achievements in technology across all sectors.

Google Inside (English): Google Inside covers everything Google related. Everything from rumors, acquisitions, new strategies and more!

The HighLife (English): Your WORLD. Your CULTURE. Your SCENE. Music. Photography. Art. Writing. Your destination for discerning taste and culture

How To Split An Atom (English): A blog that explores the intersections of business, technology and society.

I’m Not Obsessed (English): A celebrity gossip website which reports pop culture news, current fashion trends, and publishes the latest paparazzi photos.

Jacob Morgan’s Blog (English): My blog covers social media and relationship marketing and talks about the tools and strategies that are needed to succeed

Juicysnake (English): A blog about Social Media, and general rantings of a lunatic about various items on the web.

KillerBlog (English): The place to go to get the scoop on startups and the stories behind them and the entrepreneurs driving them.

The Kitten Lounge (English): A blog that covers fashion, style, beauty, food and music.

Left The Box (English): A blog written by Samir Balwani about social media strategy and online marketing. Learn how to make the Internet help your business.

Live Internet Marketing Blog (English): Internet Entrepreneur, SEO/SEM Engineer, Web Developer Matt Brooks reviews on internet resources, awards, seo tools and new sites.

Managing the Gray (English): Podcast and blog focusing on the ever changing world of social media and new marketing.

Marcellus Blog (English): An exploration into building the pillars of the online media democracy

Marketing Pilgrim (English): Daily internet marketing news with expert analysis and opinion thrown in for good measure.

Mequoda Daily (English): Daily tips for publishers and marketers based on in-depth analysis of successful magazine, newsletter and special-interest websites.

MyTechOpinion (English): A comprehensive technology base for the real estate industry. We provide product reviews, how-to articles, and technology specific strategies for real estate professionals.

OpenJason (English): Social Media, Web 2.0 Technology, and Open Source Technology - Killer Tips, Tricks, and Tools.

Outbrain Blog (English): the outbrain blog contains information on widgets, recommendation systems, corporate happenings and other relevant content revolving around the evolution of discovery on the net.

PitchEngine (English): PR meets social media at PitchEngine, where PR pros, agencies, journalists and bloggers gather to share and discover new media.

Pleasure and Pain (English): A blog about making stuff easier and more pleasurable to use, written by NYC-based user experience designer Whitney Hess.

PR Sarah Evans (English): A public relations professional and social media freak just living the dream.

sCommerce (English): A self-hosted blog site for news and stories on Social Commerce and Social Sourcing edited by Craig Agranoff

Sociable Blog (English): Social networking news blog focused exclusively on social networks, but also regularly writes about startups and venture capital.

The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp (English): Highlights the latest news, tips and trends surrounding the small business and entrepreneurial community.

Steven Sanders (English): I bring blogging and affiliate marketing together to teach other bloggers how to harness the power of the internet to create wealth.

Stuff We Like (English): There’s a lot of stuff in the world and we attempt to cover it all in our blog and video shows.

TechZulu (English): TechZulu is about creating a community platform for technology and media companies. TechZulu is focused on covering, discovering and connecting all the great things happening in the growing tech world.

Usability Counts (English): A blog about usability, social media, content management and SharePoint development. Sometimes we’re funny!

WebConnoisseur (English): Long-time Webby Awards judge and award-winning online marketer’s thoughts on search, social networks, web analytics and everything else web-related.

Webmaster-Source (English): Blogging tips, design advice, and WordPress tutorials. Everything you could want to know about blogging and Web 2.0.

The Web Outside (English): Exploring the New Media Triad (web, mobile, and out-of-home) and the growing “outernet”

WhatCelebsWear (English): WhatCelebsWear brings Hollywood’s hottest fashions and sales right where you want it!

Wired PR Works (English): Blurring lines between branding, marketing, PR, SEO and social media. Published by Barbara Rozgonyi for conversation starters and community keepers.

Yoono Community Blog (English): The Yoono Community Blog is a social media / Web 2.0 blog covering all aspects of the subjects and covers bay area events.

OWA Sponsors Love The Web

The Open Web Awards is made possible by our sponsors. By supporting the Open Web Awards, these companies reward and encourage innovative web technologies. We can’t thank them enough for sharing our passion: building great web companies.

Platinum Partner

“PartnerUp brings small business and social networking together to create a community where entrepreneurs find the people, resources and information to grow their businesses.”

Gold Sponsors

“iStockphoto is the world’s leading image market and a revenue-sharing social network. Browse 3.5 million images and videos starting at $1 or become a contributor.”

“With Quintura’s advanced visual-based search and analytics solution, content publishers can increase site usage while creating new ad revenues”

Award Sponsor

“Infinite and Instant, Zazzle is the only on-demand retail platform for consumers and major brands, offering billions of retail quality, one-of-a-kind products, most of which are produced within 24 hours.”

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FREE McAfee Internet Security 2009 3-PC License Valid for 6 Months

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:00:09 +0000

McAfee Internet Security makes PC and online protection easy for everyone. This set-it-and-forget-it solution comes with award-winning McAfee SiteAdvisor web security, so you know the safety of web sites before you visit, bank, shop or trade online. This powerful security bundle keeps your family and your PCs safe from viruses, spyware, hackers, online scammers, identity thieves and other cybercriminals.

McAfee Internet Security is now available with revolutionary Active Protection technology, providing immediate protection against malicious threats to your PC. A new threat can be analyzed and blocked in milliseconds, rather than waiting hours for traditional techniques. Active Protection is the best technology to keep you safe from emerging online threats. With unmatched performance, McAfee Internet Security runs silently in the background without slowing down your PC, boasting faster start-up, shut-down and scan times.

When you purchase a Lenovo laptop in Philippines, you’re entitled for a free McAfee Internet Security 2009 3 computer license valid for 6 months. I have a friend there and he wasn’t able to successfully get his McAfee IS 2009 license. So I used TeamViewer to remotely help him out and managed to get his license. Anyway, the steps to get the free McAfee Internet Security 2009 license is really long and confusing. I’ve taken the liberty of writing the whole steps down so that the next Lenovo user will be able to obtain his free McAfee Internet Security 2009 without problems.

1. Go to this page: http://www.lenovopromos.com/LREG/PH

2. Enter POL in the media code box and click the Verify button.

3. Click Agree and Proceed button.

4. Fill up the form. Make sure you enter a real working Email address. The rest of the information can be bogus except Serial Number. You can find the 8 digit serial number at front right panel or on the back of the Lenovo system. (Googling the phrase lenovo serial number K100 reveals a lot of working 8 digit serial numbers Changing the numbers at the end of a legitimate serial numbers also works). Click Submit when done.

5. Check your email address that you entered in the form at step 4. You should get an email from Lenovo (lenovo@blugrapes.com) with the title Confirmation of Lenovo Purchase. There is a link that you must click to activate the download.

6. Click the Download Now button where it says Free 6 Months Trial

7. Now you’ll have to create a McAfee account by filling up the form. Click Read Privacy Policy button when finished filling up the form.

8. Scroll right to the bottom of the McAfee Privacy Policy page and click I Agree.

9. Scroll right to the bottom of the End User License Agreement page and click I Agree.

10. You should see a print receipt page now. Click Go to My Account. Leave the web browser with the current page open.

11. Now check your email that you’ve used to create McAfee account. You should receive an email from subscriptions@mcafee.com with the subject Your McAfee Account. You’ll have to click the link in the email to complete the activation process.

12. Go back to the web browser where you left it open in step 10. Click Download button.

13. Click I Agree button.

14. Click the small download button to download DMSetup-Serial.exe

15. Run DMSetup-Serial.exe when finished downloading. You should be able to to select Typical or Custom installation but if you don’t see that and asked to login, just enter your McAfee login details that you’ve created in step 7.

16. The setup will automatically download and install McAfee Internet Security 2009 on your computer.

After helping my Philippine friend to install the McAfee Internet Security 2009, I noticed that the graphical user interface (GUI) is exactly the same as version 2008. Every software that goes through a major update surely has some noticeable changes in the interface. I checked the official McAfee datasheet and saw that the screenshot is the same. I believe that the McAfee 2009 products only improved the core of the program but not interface.

Note: This offer is meant for people who bought Lenovo laptop in Philippines, not everyone. As you can see, the Lenovo user would have to go through a very long process to get the free 6 months McAfee Internet Security 2009 license and I believe not every basic computers is able to achieve that. The complete step-by-step provided is meant to help the Lenovo customers, and not to promote piracy.

Technorati Tags: free, mcafee, internet, security, license

VoxOx goes gunning for Skype, Digsby

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:00:00 +0000

What if Digsby and Skype merged into one seemingly all-powerful VoIP and messaging communications tool? It's a question which, according to San Diego-based telephone company TelCentris, can be answered by VoxOx.

VoxOx, currently for Windows and Intel-based Macs with plans for Linux and PowerPC Mac versions to be released within six months, incorporates features that have not yet been seen all rolled into one package. It's got multi-protocol chat abilities, bolstered by messaging support on the most popular social-networking sites and support for short Web mail reading and writing. It offers a telephony service that includes call encryption; mobile-to-mobile calls initiated by either SMS or via a Web site; a free personal-assistant-style call-forwarding service; and a system for earning minutes by watching ads or responding to surveys.

The main interface of VoxOx intentionally mimics the iPhone.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Entering public beta Monday, VoxOx is able to do all this because the software is being developed by a telephone company, says TelCentris' CFO Michael Faught. "Part of allowing users to take control of their interconnected lifestyle is to allow them to click a button and fire out an e-mail."

One of VoxOx's aims, he said, is to make it as simple as sending an e-mail to initiate any kind of communication. When people are forced to use so many different programs to complete similar tasks, "it has become unmanageable."

Part of that simplification process includes making VoxOx's API open source, said TelCentris' CEO Bryan Hertz. They hope to create a similar open-source community that can build out features for VoxOx that they might not have the time for or even consider. This is a playbook page that Skype also uses to great effect: Skype has several hundred "extras" that most likely have not hurt user interest.

TelCentris' interest in expanding what it can do also comes from its current customer base. Hertz notes that the company provides services to more than a dozen phone companies, and provides hosted phone services to dozens of small to medium businesses globally, with customers ranging from the Philippines to Brazil.

In addition to the features listed above, VoxOx offers 120 free minutes of call time to all registrants at the U.S. rate; a free U.S.-based phone number; international calling; pay-by-minute upgrade plans; voicemail; customizable hold music; video conferencing with VoxOx contacts; two-way text messaging; and tabbed instant messaging for MSN, ICQ, AOL, Jabber, Yahoo, and Google.

To ramp up interest, VoxOx offers all users an additional 120 free calling minutes to every person they recommend who signs up. Users can also watch short advertisements or fill out surveys to earn additional minutes. They've got a sweet deal going for CNET readers, too:

VoxOx's keypad allows for on-the-fly VoIP.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

"The first 500 users to sign up for VoxOx through CNET will receive 1,200 minutes of free calling to U.S. and Canada phone numbers. The 1,200 minutes equal 1,200 'Vox Points.' These Vox Points are also redeemable for international calls at varied rates. Vox Points do not expire, and in coming months, Vox Points will also be redeemable for free gadgets, such as a Bluetooth headset and ATA box."

Click here to take advantage of this offer.

Users can currently share files up to 100MB via a generated download link that they can then share via e-mail or instant message. Mobile access is available from a mobile browser, iPhone, and WAP, with a planned native iPhone app.

Other planned features for the near future include an ATA upgrade for physical home phones, a personal assistant, fax support, the ability to route inbound text to VoxOx or your cell phone, video conferencing with non-VoxOx contacts, untabbed IM, group chat IM, Away message defaults to Social Status, Facebook IM support, and additional IM protocols. VoxOx hopes to incorporate support for LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube on the social-networking side, and Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, and Mac contact importing.

When you install VoxOx, it's hard not to note that the main Home interface looks like an iPhone. That was intentional, Hertz says. "The interface is skinnable, but the default looks like that for continuity with smartphones," Hertz said.

From there, square icons with rounded corners and highlighted by bright colors take you to 15 program features: contacts, a keypad for on-the-fly dialing, your calling and chat history, account settings, a setup Wizard, Call-Back, Reach-Me, Vmail/Fax, Hold Music, Vox Points, Updates, Invites, Web Portal, Mobile, and the Help button, which jumps to the Web forums, the FAQ, user guides, and videos. Paying users get voice and e-mail support, too.

Call-Back lets users initiate landline and mobile calls from either their computers or via SMS.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The Call-Back feature is what sets VoxOx apart from other VoIP services. Call-Back has two tabs in it, one for Web-initiated callback and one for starting the callback with an SMS. Under the Web callback, you set the country, country code, and area code and phone number for the number that you want to be reached at, and then enter in the settings for the person you're trying to call.

Hit Initiate Callback at the bottom of the pane. VoxOx will call you from a local number. Pick up and you'll hear ringing through the earpiece as if you've dialed a number. That's VoxOx calling the person at the second number you entered from a number that's local to them. When they pick up, you'll be able to talk as if you've made a long-distance call but without the long-distance charges. The process is simpler than it sounds, and in three tests the call quality for both me and the person I was speaking to was fine. There were no instances of tinniness or echoing.

Initiating the SMS Callback is, in some respects, even easier. Once you set your cell phone number in the interface, you send a text message from your phone to the number 1-323-649-9139. In the body of the message, you must type in 011 followed by the country code, the area code, and the phone number without any hyphens.

The default chat interface.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Shortly after, you should receive a phone call from the permanent VoxOx number that you've been assigned at the top of the main VoxOx interface. Answer it, wait a few seconds, and you'll hear ringing. If you're lucky, the person you're trying to reach won't be freaked out by the unfamiliar local number that's calling them and they'll pick up. I tested this with friends in Sweden and Australia, and again encountered no tinniness, no echo, and no delays.

Unfortunately, I did encounter one angry wife who did not think highly of me waking her up in the middle of the night. My attempts to blame misremembering the time change from Boston to Melbourne on VoxOx were strangely met with extreme derision.

A Home button at the top of the pane makes it easy to jump back to the main interface. The next feature, Reach-Me, lets users configure multiple call-forwarding numbers, as well as set the number of seconds one of them can ring before jumping to the next number. You can also set the number of seconds the dialed number will ring before Reach-Me kicks in, and whether your multiple call-forwarding numbers will be attempted simultaneously or in order.

The Contacts interface.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Given how much it can do, I expected VoxOx to be a massive piece of bloatware. Surprisingly, the installation process took around one minute, and at launch it was using around 90MB of RAM. This jumped up to around 380MB while running eight simultaneous chats and a telephony session--a bit high, but not outrageously so. The computer I tested it on had 2GB of RAM, and was running a fully loaded Firefox, an RSS client, and a jukebox, so I wasn't expecting great performance. However, VoxOx smoothly jumped from pane to pane and there was no sluggishness in its response time.

As you can tell from the list of planned features above, VoxOx is still very much in beta. Many of the features that will make it stand above its competitors haven't been fully rolled out yet, so it's a little hard to judge on its merits as it is. Because it encourages such heavy cross-pollination between cell phones and computers, it'd be great if there was a way to import cell phone contacts. You also cannot, as of yet, begin an SMS Call-Back and have it forwarded via Reach-Me to a different phone.

Even with those drawbacks, VoxOx looks to force changes in the telephony and instant-messaging market that favor users more than they do now--as long as we can all remember what time zone we're calling.

Explosion in African Mobile Browsing

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:28:39 +0000

Opera's latest State Of the Mobile Web Report for the month of September focuses on Africa. It's an eye opener for anyone with a US or Euro-centric view of Internet use on cell phones. The report, which tracks the usage of Opera Mini, indicates that traffic from Africa is up 180% since January, 2008. Gains in some African countries are incredibly high. September over January page views from Egypt increased 2300%, Nigeria 1690%, Libya 8537%, Zambia, 1200%, Swaziland 1700%. Opera doesn't give absolute numbers so it's hard to know whether these percentages translate to a meaningful number of users - except in the case of Egypt which now ranks tenth among all countries in number of Opera Mini users. South Africa, at sixth the only other African nation in Opera's top ten, showed an increase of 106%.

These numbers surprised me so I searched for data to compare them with. I found two sources, AdMob's latest Mobile Metrics Report (PDF) and AdMob Analytics which I run on the mobile version of this site.

Admob's metrics report lists the number of ad impressions, which correspond roughly to page views, for the top 20 countries world wide. AdMob's top twenty includes three African nations; South Africa where impressions were down 7% over a year ago, Nigeria which was up 2900%, and Kenya up 210%.

WapReview.mobi's statistics only go back to July and, while not as dramatic, show solid gains. Traffic from the entire African continent was up 88% for Octiber compared with July. The top African countries in terms of overall traffic on wapreview .mobi were all up too; South Africa by 45%, Nigeria up 91%, Egypt up 178% and Kenya up 53%. Overall, wapreview.mobi traffic was down 1.65% between the two periods so Africa is bucking the trend.

Although the results are mixed, inconsistent and cover different periods I think it's clear that there is real growth in mobile browsing occurring in Africa. The increases reported by Opera and Admob's Nigeria numbers are so large that they are hard to believe. I have to think that there were other factors at work to skew the numbers. In the case of Opera Mini, perhaps an African provider started bundling Opera Mini with handsets. Maybe a major Nigerian mobile web destination signed on as an AdMob publisher. My own WapReview analytics results are harder for me to discount. Admittedly, the sample size is small. WapReview.mobi recorded 261,547 page views in the last 30 days, of which 8,799 came from Africa. But an 88% percent increase in African traffic in three months certainly seems significant.

The International Monetary Fund publishes a document that groups all the nations of the world into two categories; "Advanced Economies" and "Emerging and Developing Economies", based on a number of economic factors. The top ten countries on both the AdMob and Opera reports include seven from the IMF's list of Emerging and Developing Economies. AdMob's are Indonesia, India, South Africa, Philippines, Romania, Nigeria and Malaysia. Opera's list includes Russia, Indonesia, India, Ukraine. South Africa, Poland and Egypt. Developing countries in Asia and Eastern Europe have been generating significant mobile web traffic for several years but the heavy traffic from Africa is a new phenomenon. Africa has less wealth and has taken longer to get to that point of significant mobile web use but it's happening now. Not only are developing nations among the top countries in use of the web on mobiles, they are also the nations with the highest growth rates in its use and this seems especially true of Africa.

The usual explanation for the relatively high mobile use in developing countries is that connected PCs are scare in these countries. Mobile phones are relatively common and have thus become the chief means of accessing the web.

The Opera report lists the top ten sites visited by users in ten African countries. They turn out to be pretty much the same sites that are popular in the US and Europe; Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, MySpace, BBC, etc. I think this is a temporary phenomenon, the next step will be the growth of uniquely African mobile web destinations and services particularly for news, sports, banking, business and shopping. Most of this development will be home grown, the barriers to entry for the mobile web are low, it's not cost effective for businesses in Nigeria to hire UK or US mobile web designers when there is local talent available. However the mobile boom in the developing world, assuming it can be sustained through the current global ecconomic downturn, will drive demand for commodity resources like hardware, hosting, content and ad delivery networks - which can be served from anywhere in the world.

This item from the Wap Review Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Jason Calacanis' Mahalo Fires 13

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:54:00 +0000

Jason Calacanis' Wikipedia-for-profit Mahalo laid off 11 of its 20-to-25 member editorial staff and two developers yesterday, says a former employee. The source tells us some of the positions will be rehired in the Philippines. About 10 Mahalo employees in administrative and executive positions remain based in Santa Monica.

Mahalo's freelance contributors -- the other humans who power Jason's "human-powered" search engine -- are "all getting nervous" and "looking for other stuff," the former employee says.

Given the economy and Mahalo-investor Sequoia's dramatic reaction to it, we're not surprised to hear the news. Earlier this month, Jason told us Mahalo isn't close to profitible despite a record 4.6 million uniques in August -- because he wants the site's traffic to hit 10 million to 15 million uniques before injecting ads. He also told us Mahalo's funding -- about $20 million -- would last the company four years.

Update: Jason tells us Mahalo will retain 70 employees and "more folks" who are freelance. He also confirms the layoffs on his personal blog:

Although we've got a significant amount of cash on hand, and the business is ahead of schedule in terms of traffic (4m uniques a month, double where we thought we would be at this point), we're fairly certain that the advertising climate for the next two years will be severely depressed. To ignore this obvious fact would be irresponsible. ...

We've laid off a just under 10% of our full-time staff, cut our overhead by doing smart things like renting desks (we have six offices in Santa Monica fyi), and reorganized our editorial department to focus on freelance positions over in-house editors. The net result of the effort is we are giving Mahalo another year of 'dry power' (or runway) to complete our mission. ...

It's my responsibility to make this hard decision and I don't take it lightly. To the people impacted I'm very sorry that I wasn't able to anticipate this better. It's my fault and I'm sorry that you've got to bear the burden of my inability to better prepare.