After taking all the time they could to ensure that the Amazon SimpleDB did well in the private beta, the team brings it out for the public. The SimpleDB is pretty simple with a free signup and it’s a great news given its the first time they have offered a Web service for free. The offer lasts six months, during which users can utilize the given amount of data transfer machine processing, after which they will have to pay as they use it. The blog post mentions

You can now get started for free. For at least the next six months, you can consume up to 500 MB of storage, and you can use up to 25 machine hours each month. You can transfer 1 GB of data in, and another 1 GB out. You can move as much data to and from Amazon EC2 as you would like, for free.

Amazon also plans to bring out its own interface much like the known SQL with additional plans to enable transferring of multiple items in one go.

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

The U.S. market leader in online video advertising, Tremor Media has set its sights on Europe now, with the opening of a new office in the U.K. The company is one of the top four online video advertising networks in the U.S. and plans to quickly establish itself in the U.K. market through its expertise.

Adrian Lacey is appointed as the new managing director for the Tremor Media, U.K. He has earlier worked with companies including IBM, Mars, Disney, Ford, and L’Oreal in the U.S. He states:

TV commercials recreated in the right way online can be just as entertaining as through traditional channels. However, the advantage is that the internet offers far greater reach and penetration into markets and specific demographics. The growth of broadband and high-speed internet means increased video content streaming and more sophisticated online advertising campaigns.

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

Kevin Martin, the outgoing FCC Chairman wants to clean the WiFi from porn for the rest of us, according to Wall Street Journal. Now this is one heck of a task because they would have find it hard to draw a line between what’s porn and what not. FCC apparently has a solution for this i.e. they would be allowing individuals to opt out of the filtering and get unadulterated data.

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

There's yet another new blogging platform out there: Kontain. It's designed for non-technical users, and it's easy to use and very good-looking. I don't think I've seen an easier platform for beginning bloggers, in fact. Everything on the site is clear and simple. But there's a downside.

The negative of Kontain is that while it's easy to use, it's very limited on the presentation side. You get no blog templates to choose from. While the default layout of Kontain blogs is attractive enough, the lack of customizability is surprising in a product that is so strong on the authoring side. Also, the blog pages display slowly.

Creating a Kontain blog is simple. Adding media to blog posts is simple. Even viewing and organizing the media files you've uploaded to previous posts is simple--something that's not true in almost all other blog platforms.

It's the little things that make Kontain a delight. From the start, it gets out of your way. While it requires a valid e-mail address from new authors, you can start posting right away, since you have 15 days to confirm registration. If you're writing a post and want to share it with friends, you can enter in their e-mail addresses from the posting screen.

Quite possibly the simplest blogging interface ever.

All entry fields are nice and big. I would not feel uncomfortable recommending Kontain to people with poor eyesight, or those simply afraid of technology or the blogosphere. It's really that easy.

You can't choose your display template or even colors.

However, pretty and simple is not enough, unless you're Apple and have an Apple-like advertising budget. There are other super-simple, quick-to-use blog platforms, like Tumblr. And there are certainly services that already have the community angle dialed in (like Vox). And for anyone halfway serious about blogging, there's nothing wrong with expending a few brain cycles to learn how to use free mainstream services like Blogger or Wordpress.com.

There are ambitious plans for Kontain, including social features (friend following, for example), privacy options, Web-based audio, image, and video editors, SEO options, and reader analytics. I don't know if Kontain will still be as simple when it gets these features. I also don't think there is a big untapped market for new bloggers, since it's a safe bet that most everyone who wants to blog now is already doing so. Kontain isn't a bad platform for teaching about blogging, but I don't see it supplanting any current platforms.

SimpleDB, one of Amazon.com's suite of online services that people can use to build Web sites or other computing operations, is out of private beta testing.

The service lets programmers store database records at Amazon and extract specific data from them. Along with the shift to public beta testing, Amazon cut the price for storing data from $1.50 to 25 cents per gigabyte per month.

SimpleDB, introduced nearly a year ago, is a newer arrival into the Amazon Web Services suite. Other services let customers process data, store raw data, distribute content, and store messages sent among different computers.

The company also announced basic level of use is free for at least six months--the first time the company has done so with one of its Web services. After various thresholds are met in data transfer and computer processing, customers must pay according to usage.

"We've made the business decision to go with SimpleDB even simpler than it was before. You can now get started for free. For at least the next six months, you can consume up to 500MB of storage, and you can use up to 25 machine-hours each month. You can transfer 1GB of data in, and another 1GB out," said AWS evangelist Jeff Barr in a blog posting Monday.

Among those using SimpleDB are Pluribo, Issuu, and MyMiniLife.com, Amazon said.

To make SimpleDB easier to use, Amazon said it plans to release a new interface similar to the SQL (Structured Query Language) widely used in databases today. It also plans a mechanism to let people more easily upload multiple items.

Good OS, a company renowned for its gOS Linux that was launched at Wal-Mart, is now announcing “Cloud” a new instant on OS that boots into a browser with services from Google, Yahoo and Windows Live with in seconds. Cloud could also optionally boot into Windows, if users desire. The OS would be pre-installed on GIGABYTE Touch Screen Notebooks which would hit the market early next year.

“We are excited to preview the GIGABYTE Touch-Screen Netbook with Cloud and Windows together, said a Good OS spokesperson. “With Cloud, GIGABYTE Netbooks will power on to the Internet in seconds, while still supporting killer applications together with Windows XP.”

Google also has plans to get Chrome pre-installed on PCs and we are sure that they would pull off something similar by adding icons of Google services in the bottom of the browser area to give users an easy and instant access to its services.

Press Release

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

"There was a need for [Media Meshing] because media companies were hiring and most people freelance... The party was really a unique networking event for people in media -- low pressure, organic social scenario. But in the last year, the entire environment of media has changed -- bloated mastheads are being trimmed down, expenses are being cut everywhere. This time last year people would have several offers to move to various places. Now people are just happy to keep the jobs they have. So not only are many media people now unemployed, the job availability in the business has changed. And it seems kind of rude to be getting trashed when people are without jobs -- no one wants the party to take on a desperate kind of vibe."

We're not sure this is true. Even last month's Media Meshing was as busy and high-spirited as necessary. There's never a bad time for booze-fueled networking -- especially in bad times.

So we're hoping Blakeley's just lazy. (He does promise us more ambitious plans next year.)

In the meantime, we'll wring together some sort of informal Meshing-like event starting in January. Consider yourself invited; details to follow.

See Also:
Gawker's Denton: "Plan For The Worst, Now."
Gawker's Nick Denton: Sentimental Softie?
What Went Wrong At Valleywag? Denton Confesses
Valleywag To Become Section of Gawker.com

Photo: Kate Miltner

A TV set-top box manufacturer, TVonics, has advised UK consumers not to dump their TV sets as it further dampens the chances of environment betterment. As the UK plans to move to full digital broadcast, another 8 million TV sets are estimated to be sold this year, and with every purchase - an old one will be dumped.

This can be avoided as old TV sets can be converted to digital for less than £40, and adding a little more money can bring the program recording option. TVonics Director Andy Carr states:

It’s just madness to throw away perfectly good TVs when they have plenty of life left in them. The enormous publicity around digital switchover has meant that many people now wrongly believe they have to upgrade their entire television to get all the digital channels from Freeview. They could save themselves a fortune, and save the planet at the same time. All that’s required is a small Freeview box and you can access up to 40 channels of free digital television on any old TV. And with a digital TV recorder they can even build a library of up to 250 hours of their favorite shows.

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

With Kindle 2.0 not to hit the markets any time before Q1 2009, Amazon is trying to lure in customers by offering refurbished Kindles (1.0 of course) for $329, not much of a discount specially in these distressed times and given the fact that the newer better version would soon hit the shops. But for those who cant contain themselves, well you got to buy when you got to buy.

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme:

CNN is reportedly offering a wire service to help the newspapers in financial distress. Though the trial version of the service has been on display in some newspapers, the project will kick off in Atlanta this week. The news broadcaster will address some 30 newspaper editors and share its plans to broaden coverage of national and international events.

With this effort CNN goes up against the largest news-gathering operation in the world: The Associated Press - a non-profit corp. owned by the 1,400 newspapers (members). Due to its high cost, some newspapers intend to leave The A.P. On the upcoming CNN Wire, president of CNN Worldwide, Jim Walton states:

The reality is we don’t have a lot of relationships with newspapers.

We have relationships with TV stations around the world.

CNN Newspaper Summit is kind of a get-to-know-you.

---
Related Articles at Startup Meme: