Here is how you can turn your iPod Touch (second generation only) or iPhone into a phone:

• Download a free app from AppStore called fring which will lets you call users on Skype, Google Talk, MSN and other IM with voice services.
• Get a microphone so that it works properly.
• Signup for a fring account and login to any of the IM services mentioned above and start making calls.

You can use the service until you’re logged in to the IM service account or your Wi-Fi connection is accessible.

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Some serious reports have started to surface that Apple would be launching multi-touch desktop and notebook computers during Macworld in January 2009, according to TG Daily. These reports have been aided by the fact that LG Electronics, which manufactures iMac displays, is ramping up its factories to mass produce multi-touch displays

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Online music sites have been offering up a melodious escape from the daily grind since the early 2000s. With the space seeing healthy competition from the likes of Pandora, Last.fm, imeem, iLike, and even MySpace Music, can Mufin, a music newbie, hold its own in a head-to-head battle with a proven competitor like Pandora? Let’s take a closer look.

Suggested Listening

Mufin banks on their distinct recommendation engine as the primary selling point. According to the website, Mufin “knows the musical essence of millions of songs and connects those songs that have a similar essence.” The idea being that you’ll discover new songs that other sites couldn’t possibly have recommended, sound being tantamount to this magical musical formula. It’s a very unique and touchy-feely approach to recommending music, but does it truly deliver?

The answer depends on your taste. I’m a huge fan of Regina Spektor, but I’m not in love with the Spice Girls, so I was pretty miffed with Mufin when it suggested that I might like Wannabe based on my preference for Spektor. That doesn’t mean Mufin’s formula doesn’t work, it just begs the question of whether or not musical preference is closely tied to similarities in sound.

Maturity is also an apparent issue with Mufin; not all songs allow users to preview similar tracks. Take, for instance, another favorite track of mine—Rilo Kiley, Breakin’ Up—a track that lacks the similar tracks feature.

Pandora, however, can’t be considered an outright winner in this category for the simple reason that users are given a very vague description as to why a particular song is selected (see image). Pandora uses 50 musician-analysts to dissect the musical qualities of each song so that each time you give your stamp of approval, they can add songs with similar musical qualities to your play list.

Pandora has always been hit or miss for me in this particular category, especially since my musical inclinations change from season to season. I would really love to see the song-to-recommendation correlation, so that I can pick and choose before songs are automatically added to my play lists. In the past year, however, I’ve noticed that I’ve been giving far fewer thumbs down ratings, so either their formulas are improved or I’ve managed to self-select my way to a more harmonious play list.

Winner: Pandora. Despite the somewhat ambiguous play list additions, Pandora provides enough features to help users automatically find and listen to similar songs. Finding the same quantity of related songs on Mufin could take users an eternity.

On-Demand Listening

Part of the appeal of a great music site is being able to listen to what you want, when you want it. Mufin lets you search for a song by artist, song title, or album name. Pandora offers similar search features, but only Mufin lets you actually play that song.

Winner: Mufin. Even though you only get to hear a 30 second snippet, Mufin at least gives users the option, something Pandora simply doesn’t do, as described in FAQ #25.

3rd Party Integration and Extras

Though new on the scene, Mufin offers users a few alternative ways to engage with the service including both Facebook and MySpace apps, an iTunes plug-in, and a desktop music finder powered by MAGIX for one click playlists and song comparisons.

The Facebook and MySpace apps function exactly the same way that the website does, just within the confines of each respective walled garden. Unfortunately both the iTunes plug-in and music finder require Windows, leaving yours truly completely in the dark. I reached out to a friend for a little perspective, but she reported failed attempts at installing the iTunes executable. Are you having the same issue?

Pandora users, however, can reap the rewards of a well established and diversified service. You can take Pandora on the go with the slick iPhone app and additional mobile apps for Sprint and AT&T phones. You can also listen to Pandora on your Chumby, find artist concerts using Sonic Living, create favtapes, listen to liked songs on Swurl, and of course there’s the stand-by Facebook app.

Winner: Pandora is practically everywhere both online and off, and user friendly to both PC and Mac users.

And the winner is…

Pandora. A seasoned online music competitor that bests mufin in feature set and seamlessness. Mufin may take the cake when it comes to making me hungry, but that’s not reason enough to cut Pandora out of my diet.

Special thanks to everyone, especially @SocialSound1982, who responded to my tweet asking for feedback. Additional feedback is encouraged in the comments section, especially if you’ve fallen in love with mufin and have some additional insight to share.

Jennifer Van Grove is a Social Media Strategist in the San Diego area helping companies engage with their customer communities online. She blogs about San Diego, technology, startups and social media at JenniferVanGrove.com. Jennifer is also an Associate Producer for Jenn2.0, a web series in the making, you can follow the progress of the show at MakingJenn20.com.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, bns124

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One argument against it: Industry observer Michael Gartenberg thinks Microsoft won't make its own cellphone because doing so would potentially destroy its partnerships with companies that sell Windows Mobile-based devices, like Motorola (MOT), Palm (PALM), and HTC. "Microsoft now has traction with more than 20 million licenses out there and a great stream of partners and new phones for consumer and business use," Gartenberg says.

The problem: Windows Mobile isn't Windows, lacking both its market share and price tag. Those 20 million licenses don't make much for Microsoft, which only charges $8 to $15 per phone, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Even at the high end of that range, selling 20 million licenses in a year is just $300 million in revenue for Microsoft. That's couch lint for a company whose sales are expected to near $70 billion next year.

Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL) just shipped 6.9 million iPhones last quarter for $4.6 billion in revenue. Plus whatever revenue Apple gets from selling "halo" Macs to iPhone owners, iTunes songs, and iPhone App Store purchases. Plus whatever goodwill synergy Apple gets with its other products, like using the iPhone as an awesome Mac remote.

So, about that Windows Mobile partner stream? Microsoft would have to sell 300 million Windows Mobile licenses -- almost one third of the mobile market -- at $15 apiece to near $4.6 billion in revenue. And that's not happening next year, 2010, or any time soon. (Moreover, we're not convinced someone like HTC would ditch Microsoft if it were still making money selling Windows Mobile phones.)

Can Microsoft build an iPhone? Probably not. But it doesn't have to build an iPhone yet. It just has to build something better than the phones that currently run Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and lesser phones. Which can't be be that hard, especially with the help of Danger, the mobile platform company Microsoft bought earlier this year.

What's the payout? Even if Microsoft can sell just 1 million Microsoft-brand phones next year at a very low, $300 wholesale price -- half of the iPhone's -- it could equal that $300 million in hypothetical Windows Mobile revenue. Plus commissions on app sales, a few pennies of search revenue from built-in Live Search, potential Xbox tie-ins, etc. Not the dumbest idea we've ever heard.

See Also:
Steve Ballmer Pretends Not To Understand Google Android Pricing Strategy
Another Apple iPhone Advantage: Mac Software Companies
'GPhone' Sales Strong: HTC Eyes 1 Million G1s Shipped In 2008
Palm's New Smartphone Platform DOA?

TUAWNew Rolando trailer says release in December originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While Twitter might be the “it” startup of 2008, it somewhat famously has zero revenue. Meanwhile, although Facebook has become the most trafficked social network, its biggest competitor, MySpace, does a far better job of monetizing its users as it evolves into an online media company. What can Facebook do to counter? Instead of buying the hottest startup on the planet, take a look at acquiring companies with real business models that are in need of what Facebook has – hundreds of millions of users. Here are a few ideas that come to mind:

SmugMug

We know that Facebook isn’t just the world’s biggest social network, it’s also its biggest photo sharing site. SmugMug offers a gorgeous interface for organizing photos, but more importantly, offers serious monetization by letting users buy prints, postcards, merchandise, and more. MySpace recently introduced its own options for photo printing, through a partnership with HP.

Imeem (or iLike)

Increasingly, Facebook’s lack of a music service is becoming one of its most glaring omissions. Recently, rumors surfaced that the company was looking to forge a partnership or outright purchase one of the online music companies. iLike already owns the most popular music application on Facebook, while Imeem offers a more popular destination site and widget network. The business model here is obvious: digital downloads, concert tickets, merchandise, and ringtones. Their big competitor: MySpace Music.

Jaxtr

This startup provides web-based VoIP services, allowing users to create widgets that can be embedded on blogs, websites, and social networking profiles. While all seemed to be rosy as the company passed 10 million users and introduced premium services to make money, Jaxtr recently laid off staff and saw its CEO resign.

What’s the play for Facebook? Like other web-based VoIP services, while member-to-member calling is free, calling out to landlines or cell phones costs money. Since Facebook would be spending $0 on user acquisition (typically a huge cost for VoIP services), that revenue drops right to the bottom line.

An Ad Network

For a while, speculation had it that Facebook would launch its own behavioral ad network, where users’ profile data would be leveraged to serve ads on participating publishers’ sites. Ultimately, we wound up with Beacon, which just freaked people out and ruined a few people’s Christmas. Nonetheless, this remains a huge opportunity for Facebook, and with an unsustainable number of ad networks out there as we head into an economic slowdown, Facebook could pick up a big network (in terms of reach and impressions) on the cheap, and then insert its own behavioral technology behind the scenes.

Digg

Acquiring Digg would be a bit out of leftfield and probably very unlikely; whereas the other names on this list are services that would integrate within Facebook, Digg is its own massive destination site. However, the two companies are already working together to bring Facebook Connect to Digg. News is the cornerstone of any media operation, and Digg, with Facebook Connect, would simply fit the bill without being a boring also-ran in the world of news aggregators.

Plus, with Google no longer interested, Yahoo building its own social news site (Buzz), and the big media companies all being squeezed by the current economy, there aren’t that many companies that would offer a competing bid. On the other hand, Facebook could potentially build their own Digg competitor, based on an aggregate view of user’s posted items.

Will Any of These Deals Actually Happen?

The Pros: all of the businesses above offer Facebook logical ways to make money. The Cons: None of the above are nearly as sexy as Twitter, and they all come with baggage.

Nonetheless, even if Facebook isn’t worth the $15 billion valuation they used to try and persuade Twitter to do a deal, they are in a far better position than most as the economy slows down. Lots of startups with good ideas and good business models simply won’t be able to gain users fast enough to survive. Facebook can scoop up these types of companies on the cheap, get them integrated, and emerge from the current economic downturn as an online media company with diverse revenue streams. On the other hand, the alternative - not doing any deals - isn’t a bad idea either.

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Forbes "absolutely denies" this rumor, and "has no knowledge of the source," a company rep tells us by e-mail. "Forbes Russia is also not for sale to this group."

Russian private equity firm Onexim -- founded by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov -- had been rumored to be buying Forbes, according to Russian news reports translated by Yakov Sadchikov, CEO of Web search firm Quintura.

Disclosure: I previously worked for Forbes.com.

Earlier: Russian Billionaire's Firm To Buy Forbes?

Despite Google having it’s impressive CDN (content delivery network) for streaming live videos, Google is going for third party vendor services to host YouTube Live live concert. But  it’s not Adobe’s Flash Media Server nor Wowza

Yes it’s Akamai, the leader in streaming content delivery. It was first a rumor that Google was partnering with Mogulus, Ustream or Justin.TV. But they chose to work with Akamai. Streaming live events with more than 100,000 simultaneous viewers is a tough ask and Akamai based on it’s past experience and reliable infrastructure is now readily backing up Google services, despite Google paying high costs for it.

It appears based on public Akamai data that about 700,000 people were watching the YouTube concert at its peak.

Handling CDN is not easy, but can you think of a much more cheaper way of delivering content to users with reliability? Comments…

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Facebook is all set to relaunch its classified listings by coming December and God knows whether the news is just a rumor or will this really turn out to be true. Chances are that Oodle, the reason for the choice being that it had earlier powered classifieds for Walmart. Whatever platform takes up the job to power Facebook Classifieds may face quite a lot of problems given that earlier attempts by Microsoft to put out their own classifieds had failed. Let’s just wait and see whether the rumor turns to be true or not and more importantly if it ends up as a success.

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