Tech/Productivity Feed Mix

Skype Founders Assembling Killer Team For New Online Music Startup

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:16 GMT

Now that they got what they wanted – a renewed stake and board representation in the Skype that will be spun off eBay soon – the Scandinavian duo Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis can divert more of their attention again to the latest Internet venture they're putting their weight behind: Rdio. The yet-to-launch digital music startup was first talked about publicly a couple of weeks ago when the New York Times unveiled plans for its imminent online music subscription service but it's been pretty quiet ever since.

I've been keeping busy this weekend doing some very basic research – I love you, Internet – about Rdio and discovered a couple of interesting details that have emerged on the Web since the stealth startup got its first dose of media attention.

First of all, a search on LinkedIn used to surface only Malthe Sigurdsson, a London-based designer who used to be Creative Director at Skype, as one of the people hired by Rdio – as VP of Design. He can stop hiding that now.

Today, that same search on the business social network yields more results:

– Carter Adamson (COO, Rdio) – former General Manager of Desktop Products at Skype and prior to that Director, Product Strategy/Business Developement at AOL and before that Senior Program Manager at ICQ. His recruitment seems to suggest that the Rdio service will not be exclusively browser-based.

– Todd Berman (VP of Engineering, Rdio) – first hired as Software Engineer at imeem in 2005, Berman served as VP of Technology at the venture-backed social music startup until switching to Rdio back in August 2008. During his tenure at imeem, Berman undoubtedly learned a lot about what it takes to distribute music on the web and scale the service for a large user base.

– Craig Kimerer (Senior Software Engineer, Rdio) – also an ex-employee of music startup imeem, where he worked as Software Engineer. At imeem, he seemingly kept busy with 'scaling, new feature data-model designs and micro-payments' according to his LinkedIn profile. It's fun looking at his Twitter account, where he recently proclaimed open source media software sucks.

– Manish Singh (Senior Software Engineer, Rdio) – once a senior member of Oracle's technical staff, Singh was hired by social browser startup Flock in September 2005, where he held a number of technical roles before becoming the company's Director of Technology. His recruitment (Feb 2009) suggests Rdio won't exclusively run on desktops but also inside browsers.

– Matt Crocker (Senior Software Engineer, Rdio) – spent a couple of years developing software for Pioneers of the Inevitable, the startup behind customizable open-source music player Songbird. The University of Victoria graduate joined Rdio in March 2009.

– Joshua Miller (Senior Systems Engineer, Rdio) – held senior Linux/Unix system administration roles at IBM and Pay By Touch before moving to a similar role at social network Tagged (which boasts very high traffic numbers). Miller joined Rdio earlier this year.

Pretty skilled team, right?

Now pay a visit to the Rdio website. Not much to see, right? If gives you an option to sign in to your account if you happen to be lucky enough to have one (if you do, we have a special space reserved in our inbox for screenshots of the service) and an option to sign up for updates to your e-mail address. Other than that, there's nothing but a link to an e-mail address, which actually bounces messages when you send e-mails to it, rendering it gigantically useless.

But then there's a copyright notice at the bottom right that reads ‘©2009 Pulser Music Services Inc'. A search on the Web reveals that this appears to be a subsidiary of private equity investment firm Europlay Capital Advisors, which cites a preference to invest in “cross-border media transactions and in interactive entertainment businesses”. If you want to know more about Europlay from when it was founded in 2007, here's the SEC filing.

And guess who's Chairman and Managing Director of Europlay Capital Advisors? None other than Mark Dyne, the former CEO of Sega and Virgin Interactive Entertainment who was one of the first people to invest in Skype – he was also a member of the company's board from 2003 to 2006 – and until recently sat on the board of another venture started by Friis and Zennström: the ill-fated Joost.

Rdio CEO Drew Larner is also connected to Europlay, where he apparently recently served as Managing Director. Prior to Europlay, Mr. Larner spent over twelve years as an executive in the motion picture industry, most recently as Executive Vice-President at Spyglass Entertainment Group. In that role, he was involved in all operations of Spyglass with specific oversight of business development, international distribution and business and legal affairs.

So we have some serious veteran media executives investing time and resources in Rdio, which based on my findings already boasts a highly diverse and feathered team of engineers, developers and managers with a track record in digital music companies and carrying experience in working for venture-backed startups. Its earliest hire – that of Todd Berman – was made in August 2008 according to his LinkedIn profile, so apparently they've been building this company for nearly a year and a half now.

All that, combined with what Janus Friis recently told Bloomberg regarding Rdio, makes this a company to watch closely:

“We have watched many ad-supported music businesses come and go. We felt the time was right to revisit this space, this time with a compelling offering and a sustainable subscription model.”

It'll be very interesting to see what they come up with – the service is said to be on track for beta launch in early 2010 – and if they'll be able to steal some of Spotify's momentum when that company finally makes its way to the United States.

One thing is guaranteed: Rdio won't be one of those online music startups who manage to fly under the radar and whose leaders lack the experience and negotiation skills to effectively deal with the music industry juggernauts who control the majority of rights to the music this world has to offer.

Which isn't necessarily a recipe for success of course – the tale of Joost shows us just that.

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Blogging is Rocket Science

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:07 GMT

Today's post is by Kevin Sanders of Strong and Fit.

Do you ever have those moments when seemingly random, unrelated thoughts kind of merge together in your mind? This happened to me a couple of weeks ago.

I remembered a documentary I watched on the space shuttle years ago. Something was said about the percentage of fuel it burns within the first two minutes of liftoff. It stuck in my mind and I tried to find the information on Google. No luck. Then I remembered that one of my family members (Dale Hutchens, Ph.D.) works with NASA. He is a chemical engineer who was directly involved with developing the shuttle’s solid rockets. He gave me a quick estimate:

For launch, the solids provide the vast, vast majority the total LAUNCH thrust. The solids burn out in 2 minutes and 12 seconds, if memory serves. Each solid holds 1.1 million pounds of propellant. Therefore, in the first minute, you probably burn something more than 50% of the solids, or 41-ish % of the total fuel. A more certain number is that in 2 minutes and 12 seconds you have burned all the solids (2.2 million pounds) and close to 380,000 pounds (out of 1.6 million pounds) of the liquid, for a total of 67% of the total fuel.

The space shuttle burns most of its fuel within the first two minutes of flight! The science geek in me thinks this really cool.

What does this have to do with blogging? Stay with me.

I began thinking about some things I’ve learned on this blog. A few weeks ago Darren said problogger.net is kind of in maintenance mode (my paraphrase). In other words, it doesn’t require the same amount of work it used to. John Chow said something very similar in his video seminar—he now works about two hours a day.

But both bloggers spent a lot more time and energy getting things started.

In some ways, blogging is like the space shuttle—a great deal of effort is required to get it “off the ground.”

Think about some of the steps a typical blogger would take during the first six months of creating a new blog:

Choosing a topic (big one).
Choosing a platform and design.
Choosing a name/domain.
Writing/creating a hundred posts (assuming an average of four posts a week).
Registering with digg, stumbleupon, twitter, etc.
Participating in forums.
Leaving comments/backlinks on other blogs.
Writing guest posts for other bloggers.
Registering with directories (such as blogcatalog).
Spreading the word on social networks (facebook, etc).
Developing a core of followers.
Setting up a newsletter.
Printing business cards with your blog address.
Telling your friends about your new blog.
Finding appropriate affiliate programs.

These are just a few steps that come to mind. When you think about the cumulative effort, it’s a lot of work.

Maybe this is one reason some blogs never make it very far—some bloggers just don’t realize the initial effort that’s required on the “front end.” Or maybe they don’t realize things will get easier (or at least more productive) over time as their blog gains momentum.

As I’ve mentioned before (both here and on the forum), it took about six or seven months for me to see significant traffic on Strong and Fit, my fitness blog. It still requires effort, but I’m now seeing more results with less work (in terms of traffic and income).

OK, I’ll admit it—blogging isn’t really rocket science. But we sure can learn from it.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Blogging is Rocket Science

Snoop Dogg, Entrepreneurship and Rajasthan

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:00 GMT

I'm in India this weekend with fellow TechCrunch/BusinessWeek writer Sarah Lacy. After we’re done with the elephant rides in Jaipur, we’re going to be meeting local tech startups. Then we head back to New Delhi to meet more aspiring entrepreneurs. Sarah is writing a book on how startup culture has gone global and I’m researching how R&D has globalized. It never ceases to amaze me how you can find brilliant entrepreneurs everywhere—whether in the middle of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan or Santiago Chile (where local entrepreneurs showed me life-sized holographic images projected through some hardware connected to their laptops, and software which can help monitor the operational efficiencies of department stores in California). The promise of these early ventures is always amazing and their enthusiasm infectious. Which brings me to Global Entrepreneurship Week. And Snoop Dogg.

You are probably asking yourself, what the heck does the controversial and highly successful rapper have to do with entrepreneurship? Snoop has graciously agreed to serve on a Nov. 16 mentoring panel that features high-powered entrepreneurs handing out sage advice on how they launched and grew their businesses and brands. No doubt, Snoop has built one of the most durable brands in the notoriously volatile world of hip-hop. In fact, I'd wager that Snoop could give some solid lessons to some of the top decision makers and brand masters on a global basis. The panel is but one of a huge slate of events arranged by the Kauffman Foundation (full disclosure — they have underwritten some of my research) for Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Those events span the globe, running in 85 countries and hundreds of venues all with a singular goal—to spur innovative thinkers to do innovative things. The emphasis of many of the events, not surprisingly, is technology. The events are designed to teach, inspire, and foster collaboration among entrepreneurs (many of whom may not even know they are entrepreneurs yet). Aside from getting some sage advice from the original Snoop, the week is also chock full of opportunities for entrepreneurs of every type. Got a great idea to join the clean tech revolution? During Global Entrepreneurship Week in San Francisco, the Clean Tech Open Ideas Competition finals will be held. In this competition, thousands of people submitted early-stage clean technology ideas and it helps turn them into successful companies. Ideas can cover anything that fosters a healthy natural environment, from big-think solar breakthroughs to power-management software for buildings or hotels. Just like the TechCrunch50, this bakeoff will let people with big ideas present in front of a high-powered panel of experts and vie for startup-funding and other assistance.

While a lot of the events are in the U.S., the spread beyond our shores is notable and accelerating. Take “Speednetwork the Globe”. This is a series of networking events where entrepreneurs of all backgrounds can meet with potential collaborators, mentors and investors in five-minute increments. More than 500 speednetworking events in 31 countries happened in 2008, connecting approximately 25,000 people. Likely even more will be scheduled this year and this is a model for how to get geeks and suits—the two key components of a tech startup—together and brainstorming.

A quick look through the list showed me that pretty much anywhere I go I can find some event worth hitting. On November 18 in Chile (which I wrote about previously as being a rising comer in the tech world) the government-backed Foro Innovacion (Innovation Forum) will hold an all day business plan ideathon competition, focused on technology industries. In Tokyo, on November 14 the Honda Foundation is sponsoring a seminar addressing the needs and challenges of social entrepreneurs in Asia.

That last event I put in for a reason. Enterpreneurship, I strongly believe, is not just about making money. In much of the world, entrepreneurship is about giving people control over their own fate, lifting them out of poverty, and improving the world. Even here, in the U.S., entrepreneurship is an incredible social resource. All meaningful job growth over the past few decades has come from start-ups and entrepreneurial businesses that are small in size but powerful in impact. The latest economic crisis and wave after wave of resulting layoffs has clearly illustrated there is no safety in working for a big company, or having the right kind of degree, or even being a productive employee.

This is the core of entrepreneurship, the ability to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps, no matter the circumstances, and create a business and a way to support yourself, your family and your community. Most of you reading this either are entrepreneurs or have entrepreneurial aspirations. I'm saying, that's great. You are what has made this country an amazing place, and these types of motivations are what has lifted tens of millions of people out of poverty around the world. So pay attention to Global Entrepreneurship week, mark it on your calendar, and attend an event if you can. Next time around, organize an event in your area. And never forget why you are doing what you do.

Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.

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YouTube Is Falling Apart Again

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:37 GMT

The ads are destroying YouTube. At least this one is. It is a video ad for sustainable energy company from Spain called Acciona. Yeah, I had never heard of them either.

The video starts with this Euro-dude in a suit starting to blow up and crack apart like he's made from plaster. Halfway through, the actual video player crack in half, and all of the surrounding parts of the site shake and fall away, while an annoying voiceover is saying something about rebirth. I don't know, maybe it makes more sense in Spanish.

The visual effect is interesting, but feels like a gimmick since it's already been done before to much better effect by Nintendo. A year ago, they used the same collapsing webpage motif in a video ad for Wario Land: Shake It. At least that made sense.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

POLL: TweetDeck Trounces Seesmic Desktop in Reader Vote

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:41 GMT

We've had a number of close calls here during our Web Faceoff series, but this wasn't one of them. This week we pitted TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop against each other in a bar room brawl for favorite Twitter client. Now, the results are in.

Whereas last week's Windows 7 versus OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard battle was a close one, with Windows 7 going the distance to outlast the current Mac OS, this week's showdown had a big winner.

…and TweetDeck was it, with a full 71% of the vote (3294 votes) as compared to Seesmic Desktop's 23% (1055 votes). Six percent or 260 of you just couldn't decide and went for the Tie option.

What did you think of the results? Did the best Twitter client win? Let us know in the comments! And of course, don't forget to tune in again on Monday for the next round of our Web Faceoff series (and check out all the past winners below).

Web Faceoff: Overall Results

Week 1:
- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:
- Tumblr vs. Posterous
- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:
- Pandora vs. Last.fm
- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:
- Twitter vs. Facebook
- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:
- WordPress vs. Typepad
- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:
- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:
- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop, 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Reviews: Chrome, Facebook, Firefox, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Pandora, Posterous, Seesmic Desktop, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, TypePad, WordPress

Tags: poll, seesmic desktop, tweetdeck, twitter, twitter clients, web faceoff

Marissa Mayer Chosen As A Glamour Magazine Woman Of The Year

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:30 GMT

Google's Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer was recently profiled in a Vogue Magazine article that offered a in-depth glimpse into the exec's lifestyle, loves, career and fashion preferences. Now, Mayer has been named as one of Glamour Magazine's 2009 Women of the Year. Joining Mayer on the list are a variety of female powerhouses and icons including Maya Angelou, First Lady Michelle Obama, Susan Rice, Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

Mayer has been frequently profiled in business and technology publications over the years, but it's also nice to see her achievements highlighted in magazines like Vogue and Glamour. The brainy Stanford-grad has been able to set an example for young women everywhere. As one of Google's early hires, she's now helping to lead product design for one of the world's most innovative companies. And she's only 34. What's not to love about a successful and geeky coder who also loves to wear Oscar de la Renta, Chanel and Armani?

Photo credit/Glamour Magazine/Brigitte Lacombe

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The Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway #Crunch

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:53 GMT

If you're a Twitter freak and think that a dedicated Twitter device is just the thing for you, read on.

This week we saw the launch of the TwitterPeek, a cute little device built by Peek that will do just about anything you want it to do, as long as all you want it to do is access Twitter. It won't surf the web. It won't make phone calls. It won't support third party apps. But it most certainly does run Twitter.

You can get it in black. Or, if you want to show a little flair, you can get in in cyan.

For some crazy reason I wanted one. A friend bought me one that I will truly love forever(ish). But the company also sent me one. And while I may or may not need one TwitterPeek, I almost certainly don't need two TwitterPeeks.

This is where you come in.

We're giving one of these away to a TechCrunch reader. It's the cool one, cyan, with lifetime service that costs $200. And it's all yours. Just retweet this post and make sure to include the short URL link – http://bit.ly/3U2Yhy – as well as the #crunch hashtag. Tomorrow we'll sort through all of the tweets and pick one randomly for the win. You'll get the TweetPeek device in the mail, and we'll throw in a TechCrunch tshirt. Even the postage is on us. But please note that in this case only U.S. readers are eligible, because the device only works in the U.S.

By the way, if this goes well and everyone doesn't spazz out, we'll do a giveaway every week. Next week we'll give away a Droid if we can talk Motorola, Verizon or Google into paying for it. If you are a company that has a cool device befitting the refined tastes of a TechCrunch reader (as defined by us) and want to supply the goods, let us know in the comments or via tips@techcrunch.

Oh. And on an unrelated note, it's unlikely we'll be returning this test unit, Peek. Something, err, happened to it. I mean we lost it. Actually, it never arrived.

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Gowalla Hops Onto Android Via The Mobile Web

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:09 GMT

Up until now, if you wanted to use the location-based service Gowalla on the go, you had to have an iPhone. Today, that expands to Android. But rather than building an app, Gowalla has extended support to Android using the mobile web. This works because Android's browser is closely tied to the device and is able to access location information, which is vital for Gowalla. The goal is to extend this mobile web support to BlackBerry and a few other location-aware devices in the next week or so, co-founder Josh Williams tells us.

As a small team, Gowalla, like its rival Foursquare, doesn't have a lot of resources to devote to building apps on all the mobile platforms, so this is a good solution for the time being. Eventually, the plan is to have native apps for all the big platforms, Williams says.

But the most-loved child will remain the iPhone app for the foreseeable future. In fact, version 1.3 of that app has just been submitted to the App Store for approval, we're told. Williams says that it should alleviate a lot of the check-in and place adding issues that users were experiencing in previously versions, which we touched on here.

Yesterday, Gowalla also added Twitter feeds to venue pages on their web site. This allows you to see what the official Twitter accounts for those places are saying at any given time. They also began appending place's Twitter names to your tweets when you check into a place on Gowalla. See an example here.

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textPlus 2.0 Hits The App Store For Free Texting

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:26 GMT

textPlus, a text messaging app that's powered by GOGII, has just hit the App Store. textPlus lets any iPhone or iPod Touch send free text messages to any cell number by using in-app advertising to cover its costs. There is no limit on how many text messages you can send per month, it's just a matter of getting WiFi, 3G or an Edge connection. GOGII was one of the first companies that was funded by iFund, the partnership between venture capital firm KPCB and Apple, which was announced at the Apple SDK roadmap event.

With version 2.0 of textPlus, GOGII is announcing the availability of textPlus usernames, which can effectively serve as a stand-in for a phone number, which is great for iPod Touch users. Your friends can send standard text messages to you from any phone, simply by sending a text to the shortcode 60611 that leads off with your username followed the rest of their message (so a text to me would look like “DanielBru Hi are you coming to the movie tonight?”). textPlus also supports group messaging, though someone with the app installed needs to initiate the conversation (the other participants in the chat don't necessarily need it installed and can use regular SMS).

One of the biggest upsides to textPlus is that you can send text messages internationally at no cost at all — the one requirement, is that you have a textPlus username. And of course, with iPhone OS 3.0, and push notifications, you'll get a notification each time someone sends you a new text message. GOGII's goal with textPlus is to make the texting functionality much better then what Apple has already developed.

After playing with textPlus over the last few days, I can see where the success of version one came from — textPlus is very to use, and the ads don't really get in the way. The only thing I fear is that GOGII doesn't have any immediate plans to support picture and video messaging, which iPhone users on AT&T recently got.

textPlus currently supports the following carriers; AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, US Cellular, Virgin Mobile, Nextel, Boost, Cellular One, Dobson, nTelos, Cellular South, CellCom, evol, ECIT, RINA, Bluegrass, Cox, Inland Cellular, West Central Wireless, Centennial, EKN, RCC, and Immix/Pc Management.

You can get textPlus on the App Store today at no cost. [iTunes Link]

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

iPhone Coming to Verizon in 2010 [RUMOR]

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:21 GMT

Many signs point to the Apple and AT&T agreement that makes the latter the exclusive carrier of the iPhone within the US coming to an end within the next year.

For starters, non-exclusivity has been profitable for Apple in others part of the world. Moreover, even AT&T’s CEO acknowledges the deal won’t last forever.

And while Verizon might be all about showing off what Droid does right now, a new report suggests it could become the first carrier other than AT&T to offer iPhone on American soil, starting in the second half of 2010.

According to a report obtained by Apple Insider, “Apple has contracted to produce a UMTS/CDMA hybrid iPhone due in the third quarter of next year that will enable the company to sell a single global handset to all carriers, and specifically to Verizon Wireless in the US” – the significance of CDMA being that it’s the standard that Verizon’s network uses, versus AT&T’s GSM.

As you might suspect, there’s currently no comment from Apple or Verizon, but it’s not the first time the two companies have been linked. Just last month, a report surfaced suggesting that Verizon and Apple were already testing a 4G version of the iPhone. While we await more details, we can’t help but be amused by how we might end up looking back at the current attack ad battle taking place between Verizon, AT&T, and Apple if a Verizon iPhone comes to fruition.

Tags: apple, att, iphone, verizon

DocVerse Puts Google Docs-Like Collaboration Inside Microsoft Office

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:20 GMT

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: DocVerse

Quick Pitch: DocVerse brings the collaboration functionality of products like Google Docs to the 600 million users of Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

Genius Idea: Collaboration is a key to success in any business, especially when you have a scattered team that needs to work on documents constantly. There are already a lot of options, including Google Docs, Adobe Acrobat, and even Microsoft Office 2010 to some extent. But having full, Google Docs-like collaboration in Microsoft Office would be nice.

This is the gap that DocVerse is trying to fill. It's a plug-in for Microsoft Office that adds this type of functionality to a new sidebar within Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, and Word.

This sidebar is where all of DocVerse's magic happens. You can invite friends and colleagues to collaborate on any documents. As you and others make edits, those changes are synced to the cloud. In addition to a hard copy, the plug-in automatically saves a web-based version of the doc that others can see to make collaboration easy.

It's not just the instant collaboration though – there are also some great discussion and tracking features via the DocVerse sidebar. One allows you to IM anybody collaborating on the document in question. Another lets you track the most recent changes and by whom they were made. Finally, the version history tab lets you see a larger overview of the history of the document.

All in all, DocVerse is slick, easy to understand, and perfect for small and large businesses where the employees are used to using Microsoft Office to get things done. DocVerse's collaboration suite isn't free, though. It's $49/month for 10 users and 500 documents and $99 per month for 25 users and 1500 documents. If you just can't get your team on board with Google Docs though, DocVerse may be the answer you're looking for.

Popular iPhone movie app flops on BlackBerry

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:57 GMT

Flixster's Movies app just isn't up to snuff on BlackBerry.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

FishVille Launches on Facebook; It’s Like Underwater FarmVille

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:56 GMT

We were sort of surprised to discover how many of you proclaim your love for FarmVille, the social farming sim game from Zynga. We reported that the company had trademarked the name FishVille last month, and speculated that an aquatic derivative of the wildly popular social game might be in the works.

And indeed it was, with FishVille launching in beta today. It's a bit of a late contender to the aquarium games space, with Happy Aquarium, Fish World and My Fishbowl all getting a head start. Nevertheless, Zynga has enough clout in the social games space to make FishVille a quick winner in all likelihood. With an estimated $200 million in revenue this year, it's arguably the most successful of the companies in the space along with Playfish, Playdom, and others.

The game itself is fairly simple, like many of the Zynga's other titles including YoVille and Cafe World along with FarmVille. You're given a virtual aquarium with a few starter fish, that you feed and then harvest and sell to invest in new fish eggs. In a similar revenue mechanic to other Zynga games, you can either pony up real money to get credits to buy more eggs, or complete ad-related surveys and offers in exchange for credits — a practice that has recently come under some scrutiny as a host of less than reputable ads have been finding their way into social games from several companies.

Have you played FishVille yet, or tried out any other social games on Facebook or elsewhere? Let us know your impressions and your favorites in the comments.

Reviews: Facebook, Yoville

Tags: facebook, fishville, games, offer ads, social games, virtual goods, Zynga

WWD Screencast: Firefox 3.6 Tab Previews

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:30 GMT

With the new beta of Firefox 3.6, new tab previewing functionality has been made available in Firefox — you can preview tabs using the “List all tabs” button, and you can see a preview when using Ctrl-Tab to switch between tabs.

These two new features are not enabled by default, so you'll need to go to the about:config page and toggle “browser.allTabs.previews” and “browser.ctrlTab.previews” to “true” (either right-click on the entry and hit “Toggle”, or just double-click the entry).

I made a quick screencast showing how to enable tab previews and how it works:

(Via gHacks)

5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:23 GMT

Megan Berry is an evangelist for Mobclix, the industry's largest mobile ad exchange, working on social media and marketing. She also blogs at The Huffington Post and the Mobclix blog. You can follow her on Twitter as @meganberry, or through the @Mobclix handle.

Unsure about mixing your iPhone with wine? Well, if you're a true vinophile, the iPhone is an amazing device to keep you more connected to your wine. The following list of top wine apps on the iPhone will convince you that mixing the two is worth the risk of spilling some pinot noir on your phone. Like wine itself, these apps vary in price and quality, and many still have a ways to go in terms of functionality. But the five awesome apps on this list will help you find, choose, taste, pair, and collect wines.

Think I missed an important one? Nominate it in the comments!

1. Hello Vino

For those who aren't quite wine snobs, but wish they were, this app will help you fake it 'til you make it (stealthy use of iPhone required). If you don't know which wine goes with which types of food, what wines are best for what occasion, or how to pronounce Sauvignon Blanc then this is the right app for you.

Perfect for every wannabe wino out there, Hello Vino will make choosing the right wine easy. Pick the type of food you're having or the occasion and then choose whether you'd like a red, white, rose, sparkling, or sweet wine. Sophisticated wine connoisseurs will find this app beneath them, but those with less experience with the vines will find its lack of complexity just right. Hello Vino can help you pick whether you should get a chardonnay or a malbec, but look further if you want an app to help you determine which specific wine to buy. The best part? It's free, a rarity for wine apps.

Cost: Free

2. Pair It!

The ultimate wine snob must have not only drink the best wine, but pair those wines perfectly with the food they're eating. Pair It!, created by a wine pairing expert from Sonoma county, encourages users to shake their iPhones to find a random pairing, or figure out the perfect pairing for the food or wine they already have by entering into the app. In case you doubt the true wine snobbery of this application, you should be aware it takes into account relative weights, flavor bridges, and elements of taste to find the perfect match. In other words, this app knows wine.

Cost: $2.99

3. Fromage

No good wine tasting would be complete without cheese. Fromage is your pocket guide to over 650 types of cheeses. You can rate cheeses and mark your favorites. Each cheese comes with descriptions of flavor and suggested wine pairings. A fairly simple app, but a must for any wine (and cheese) lover.

Cost: $2.99

4. Drync Wine

Much like the name implies this app will help in almost every step of the process of drinking wine. With a database of well over a million wines, you should be able to find the one you're looking for. Drync Wine was born out of the developer's own desire to track the wines he was drinking.

Once you've found your wine, you can take tasting notes, rate it, and add a photo of the label so you remember it. This will get saved to your virtual cellar so you can keep track of the wines you've tasted. Drync Wines replaces those cheesy wine tasting journals and does it cleanly and simply. Furthermore, they recently released a free version that lets you try before you buy (you can only keep up to 10 wines in the free version).

Cost: Free / $4.99 (the link above is to the Pro version)

5. DrinkFit

DrinkFit provides nutritional information for different varieties of wine so you can get an idea of how many calories you're drinking with your dinner. A fairly simple interface make it pretty easy to find the wine you're drinking and get a calories count. Note, however, that this app does not measure the calories of specific vintages just the difference between, for instance, the average calorie count of a pinot noir versus a pinot gris.

It also contains calorie counts for other types of alcoholic beverages such as, beer and cocktails, but I'm sure you always drink wine, right?

Cost: $1.99

Honorable Mentions:

Wine Snob: ($3.99) A solid wine tasting log and wine database.

Cellar: ($0.99) It allows you to visually keep track of your wine collection.

Wine Ph.D.: ($4.99) The wine ratings are helpful, although the database is less than complete.

Cor.kz Wine Info: ($3.99) This is a fairly complete app with a wine database, wine tasting notes, cellar management, and wish lists.

More iPhone resources from Mashable:

- iPhone TV: Top iPhone Apps for Live Streaming Television
- Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged by Mashable Readers
- 7 iPhone Apps That Can Save Lives
- 15 iPhone Apps to Tame the Kids
- 20 Creative Apps For Your iPhone<

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, zoom-zoom

Reviews: iStockphoto

Tags: iphone, iphone apps, List, Lists, wine

5 Most Popular Posts on WebWorkerDaily This Week

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00 GMT

Just in case you missed any of them, here are the five most popular posts on WebWorkerDaily this week:

Does Multitasking Make You More Productive?

It's easy to think that just because you're a demon multitasker, you're automatically productive. But is that really the case? Karen investigates.

Google Dashboard: Find Out What Google Knows About You

Google has just released Google Dashboard, a window onto all of the data it stores about you.

What Is Google Wave, Anyway? New e-Book Explains

Charlie introduces “The Complete Guide to Google Wave.”

7 Handy iPhone Apps For Your Work

Aliza looks at iPhone apps from seven web apps that are favorites of ours.

Do this One Thing Before You Accept that Job

Georgina explains why you need to get the get the inside story on what it’s like at a company before accepting a job.

Droid Does: An Ad on Google’s Homepage

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:48 GMT

In addition to celebrating Muppets today, Google appears to be loudly and proudly celebrating something else on its home page.

With the Verizon Droid launch hot and heavily underway today, the search giant is according the highly-regarded Android phone a place of honor on Google.com today. Although it's not unprecedented — they've done a homepage ad for both the first Android handset's G1 launch and for the Chrome browser — it's still a relatively rare occurrence to be up in lights on the Google homepage.

Clicking the link takes you to a splash page with more information and purchasing links — we took a screencap you can see below.

Of course it makes sense for Google to give a nice promotional push to what is shaping up to be the handset that finally pushes its Android mobile operating system project into the mainstream. Not only is it the first Android phone on the U.S.'s largest carrier, but it's being widely hailed as the phone that comes closest to catching the iPhone in terms of sheer awesomeness.

Did you pick up a Droid today? Are you contemplating doing so? Let us know your impressions or vacillations in the comments.

Reviews: Android, Chrome, Google

Tags: ads, android, droid, Google, Mobile 2.0, Motorola, verizon droid

My Not-So-Epic Quest To Find The Elusive Verizon Droid Line

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:06 GMT

Today is Droid day — an event that I, like many tech bloggers, have been looking forward to for quite some time. Unlike some people, I wasn't graced with a test Droid last week, so I was forced to go out and get one the old fashioned way: by getting to the store as early as possible, before the precious devices sold out. And while I was concerned about falling prey to a supply shortage, a part of me still hoped there would be many others like me, helping justify my early morning rise. These are my notes as I searched for the unexpectedly elusive Verizon Droid line.

5:30 AM. I woke up this morning to the soothing chimes of my over-priced alarm clock, took a look at the ungodly hour, and immediately sank back into my pillow. It wasn't until my second alarm (strategically positioned far out of arm's reach) kicked in that I remembered the task at hand: Droid day.

Ah yes, the phone that seemingly came out of nowhere — at least to those who haven't had their ear to the ground on Android phone news, which until now has largely been a steady stream of mediocracy, fueled by underpowered CPUs and generic UIs. But Droid has something special. Mostly, it's the phone's heavy duty processor, but there's also its brilliant screen, much-improved operating system, and the fact that it runs on a network that doesn't leave people screaming profanities (at least until they get their monthly bill).

So I embarked this morning to the Palo Alto Verizon store, hoping to use a Qik live stream to capture the festive line of Droid fans sure to be present. After all, Verizon customers have plenty to celebrate — though they're on the nation's best network, they've long been burdened with an underwhelming selection of phones. This is the first time they've had a chance to pick up a device that's a viable alternative to the iPhone. And with Verizon's marketing onslaught over the last few weeks, not to mention the generally very positive reviews, I expected the turnout to be good. Not Apple good mind you — no marketing push can match Steve Jobs' mystical mind control over a rabid fanbase of millions. But this was the heart of Silicon Valley, where gadget geeks flourish.

Alas, it seems that my expectations were unwarranted. I walked up to the Verizon store no later than 6:20 AM, forty minutes before the 7:00 AM opening time (three hours earlier than usual in light of the big day). But no sooner had I arrived than I began to question my still-groggy mental state. The Verizon sign was directly above my head. There were five or six employees buzzing around the well-lit store, two of whom were decked out in bizarre Droid-branded outfits, complete with black leather vests. But the street could not have been more empty.

The door cracked open. One of the employees, perhaps concerned by my confused expression or excited that someone had actually shown up, had come to talk to me. Yes, I was in the right place. Yes, they were due to open in a little more than half an hour. And yes, they too had expected more than one person to be standing in front of the store at this point. The door closed again.

A few minutes later I was joined by two new Droid fans. Unfortunately, my excitement over my new friends was rather shortlived — the newcomers turned down my offer of free TechCrunch T-shirts, and informed me that they weren't actually waiting in line, but had come to witness it for themselves too. As it turned out, they were members of the Android team, who were also apparently let down by the sad turn out. But, as they quickly pointed out, the line was not actually as empty as it seemed! For I had neglected to take into account the three cars parked at the side of the road, each of which was occupied by one future Droid customer. And we were also joined by one other person, who was officially the first person in line, a mere 30 minutes before the store opened. You can relive this moment in the poorly shot video below.

Over the course of the next half hour we were joined by perhaps four more people. I was cheered up by the fact that many of them accepted my offers of free TechCrunch T-shirts (the Android team members eventually caved and asked for some too). But the atmosphere was oddly solemn as we tried to brainstorm where everyone else could possibly be. We eventually arrived at the conclusion that people may have decided to head to the nearby Best Buy, which actually offers a better deal because they take care of the Droid's $100 mail-in rebate for you (Verizon makes you go through rebate hell). It was time to look elsewhere for a line. You can see our heartfelt goodbyes in the video below.

Thus, I set out on part two of my journey, which was even more boring than part one. I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say, there wasn't a single person in front of the Best Buy. Not even an Android team member. My quest was a failure. There are lines being reported in places — dozens of them — across the country, and I was unable to find one.

All of this would bother me more, were it not for the fact that I now have a Droid sitting on my desk. Over the course of the last few hours, I've gradually come to the conclusion that this thing rocks, plain and simple. I'll always have a soft spot for the iPhone, but for this generation of smart phones, at least, I've made my choice.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

MSNBC Having A Bad Friday (NSFW)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:05 GMT

I think it's safe to assume their Twitter account has been hacked.

Update: Yep. Now suspended.

Update 2: MSNBC is now saying that the account was never in their control in the first place. It was previously sending out MSNBC headlines, but then today went off the deep end, obviously. So I guess this is a lesson in controlling your online brand.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

LUNCHTIME POLL: What’s Your Favorite Twitter Photo Sharing Service?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:05 GMT

Gather 'round, social media lovers, for 'tis time for this week's Lunchtime Poll! As you may know by now, the way it works is simple. We'll throw out a poll question, start off with some responses from the staff here at Mashable, and let you fine folks have at it in the comments.

Last week we looked at your favorite Facebook applications — stay tuned later today for a recap of those results. Today we're curious about what Twitter photo sharing service wins your heart, mind, and pics. Ready to have your say? Head on after the break and let us know!

What's your favorite Twitter photo sharing service?

Mashable Faves

Adam Ostrow: yfrog … love the new webcam integration.

Jennifer Van Grove: Posterous: I use it in lieu of anything else for Twitter photo sharing, because I can also share all media types – video, music, text – with Twitter (and Facebook/YouTube/Flickr), and it's all collected in one place. It's the perfect extension of my Twitter account and it's become a content repository/livestream that gets really great traffic.

Ben Parr: Posterous also.

Barb Dybwad: As an old skool Flickr user I use the Flickr2Twitter feature to automagically post pics to both when the need strikes.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ericsphotography

Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Posterous, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphoto

Tags: flickr, Photos, posterous, twitter, twitter photo sharing, yfrog

Europe’s Biggest Paper Blocks iPhone Browsers To Force Sales Of Its App

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:01 GMT

So much for the coming mobile nirvana of free mobile content – at least for iPhone users in Germany. Today Europe's biggest newspaper, BILD-Zeitung, intends to use, in effect, brute force to compel users buy its new iPhone app. The paper tabloid is to block anyone using an iPhone browser from accessing its website.

Now, readers will not only have to pay for the dedicated BILD iPhone app, but they also need to pony-up recurring fees for new articles. The same is planned for Axel Springer's quality paper Die Welt. Users of Nokia, Blackberry, HTC or other smartphone brands will not be blocked – but only for as long as it takes for Springer to develop an app for each device.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Chomp Eats Up Some Seed Funding. Next, Will Bite Into The Mobile Space.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:00 GMT

It's not yet clear what Chomp exactly is, but we do know that it's a rather hot property right now. It took the still stealth start up just 10 days to raise a nice seed round from Ron Conway and a few other big name angel investors, we hear.

So what do we know? Well, the company is definitely in the mobile space. In fact, it's a “BIG mobile play,” founder Ben Keighran tells us. Keighran, who in 2006 started Bluepulse, a mobile messaging app, has most recently served as the lead advisor to Aardvark for their mobile strategy. There's apparently no website for the company yet, but they do have a Twitter account, which features one tweet: “Working on something sekret… ”

We managed to squeeze a logo out of Keighran, but that's about it. He also told us that we should hear more about Chomp early next year, but for now, they will remain shrouded in secret. Still, someone must have liked something they heard about Chomp if they were able to in just 10 days get a seed round of around $500,000 – $550,000, which is what we're hearing.

We'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Thanks to Our WebWorkerDaily Sponsors!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:00 GMT

We'd like to say thanks to this month's WebWorkerDaily sponsors:

FreshBooks: Look Professional with FreshBooks.

Exclusive Video Of The Litl Webbook

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:37 GMT

When news of the Litl Webbook broke out on Wednesday, I was pleased to learn that the company is located here in Boston, since there aren't nearly as many people in this area making actual hardware devices, as opposed to software and web companies. I got a chance to sit down with CEO John Chuang for a thorough overview of the Webbook, so check out the video inside for some information about the design philosophy and user interface behind the $699 transforming internet computer.

15 Social Media Twitter Lists to Follow and Expand

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:24 GMT

As you can probably tell from our extensive coverage this week, we're extremely excited about the possibilities of Twitter Lists: from how news organizations are leveraging the feature, to a full Twitter Lists FAQ to the potential for real-time journalism and the utility of lists after the tragic Fort Hood shootings.

As such, we've started work on our own project to categorize Twitter into what we hope will be useful lists. These are nowhere near finished, of course: just a starting point. We'll be adding more and more names over the coming weeks. If you see people you'd like to include (and there are many, many more to add – sorry if we missed you!), just send a Tweet to @mashable with your suggestions.

Twitter Lists from Mashable

You can explore all our evolving lists here >>

Media Thinkers: media thinkers and commentators.

Social Media Linkers: social media experts, thinkers and linkers.

Mashable Team: the Mashable team, social media musings and personal Tweets.

News Orgs: news organizations on Twitter, breaking news.

Marketing Experts: marketers who Tweet, digital marketing insights and links.

Top Designers who Tweet: web designers share their insights and musings.

Music: popular musicians on Twitter.

Web People: the web scene, a growing list of all things webby.

Top Brands on Twitter: brand names on Twitter, official company accounts.

Tech: interesting voices in tech.

Foodies to Follow: foodies who Tweet, top chefs share knowledge.

Celebrity: celebrities who Tweet.

Journalists and Journalism Tweets: journalists talk media, newspapers, tv and the growth of online journalism.

The Twitterati: early Twitter stars who share interesting links.

Healthcare on Twitter: healthcare experts and organizations on Twitter.

Reviews: Mashable, Twitter

Tags: twitter, Twitter Lists

Not Satire: The Onion Gets a TV Deal With Comedy Central

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:16 GMT

America’s most trusted satire newspaper and website, The Onion, has been steadily moving into online video in the past few years (with many hilarious pokes at the Web, the iPhone, and social media along the way).

Now, the outfit has landed a very real deal with Comedy Central to develop a pilot for a show based on its Onion Sports Network (OSN) videos.

According to a statement put out by the companies, “the as-yet untitled series will take on the whole universe of modern sports – teams, players, leagues, sycophantic fans, ridiculous products and over-hyped sports coverage – with an eye towards appealing to sports fanatics and more casual fans.”

It’s not hard to see an OSN-based show fitting in nicely alongside The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The completely over-the-top parodies of ESPN and FOX Sports Net talking heads and cliché stories and soundbites is very analogous to what the network has done with its take on cable news.

You do have to wonder, however, if the humor of stories like today’s “Tom Coughlin Retires From Family to Spend More Time With Team” might be lost on those that don’t quite get the whole satire genre.

If you haven't seen OSN before (or even if you have), here's the hilarious Coughlin story:

Tags: Comedy Central, the onion, tv, video

BUG: Twitter Investigating Elevated Errors

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:14 GMT

This is potentially minor as none of us at Team Mashable have spotted any, but Twitter reports looking into the source of elevated errors on the site currently.

There appear to be more folks retweeting the status post than actually reporting errors themselves as well, so if you've run into anything suspicious you should let us know what you're seeing in the comments.

Are you seeing any errors either on the main Twitter site or via clients? We're wondering if this is at all related to the missing mentions issue from yesterday, but it's hard to speculate too deeply at this point. We'll let you know if we hear any updates on these.

[UPDATE]: Luckily, that was quick — Twitter reports the issue is now fixed, although they don't say what the cause of the errors were.

Reviews: Twitter

Tags: bugs, errors, twitter

Web Office Suites: Complementary and Coopetive Technologies

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:00 GMT

My recent post “5 Web Office Considerations: Beyond the Buzz” garnered some thought-provoking comments, which got me pondering on the proper place for the web office suite (whether it is ThinkFree, Zoho or Google Apps) in today's world.

As a technical writer by trade, I have fairly strong opinions as to how a web office suite can fit into the workflow of a team publishing moderately complex documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. I do believe that a web office suite and Microsoft Office don't have to be “natural enemies in the wild” and can coexist to offer web workers, their employers, and their clients the best possible document authoring, publishing and collaborative working solution.

This post is going to dive into some things web workers should consider in a mixed Microsoft Office/web office environment, and in environments where multiple web office suites are used.

Complementary Technologies: The 80/20 Rule
In my recent post, commenter Ray Stahl brought up the 80/20 rule, which says that 80 percent of an organization's employees will have their needs met by a web office suite, while 20 percent of the employees (the “power users”) need full Microsoft Office licenses. Microsoft itself believes that this hybrid approach is likely to work in the future, with the desktop Office suite and its own Office Web Apps coexisting quite happily (although as Tom Reestman points out over on our subscription research site GigaOM Pro, its approach may actually be good for its web office competitors).

While each company's needs will vary, the 80/20 rule seems like a reasonable rule of thumb. Microsoft Office licenses can be expensive, so only providing full Microsoft Office licenses to power users like technical writers and the accounting staff makes sense.

Web workers need to be aware with the 80/20 rule as it's important that recipients can open documents without much fuss.

Here are some considerations:

Is the recipient using Microsoft Office? If, so what version?
Does the final deliverable require the advanced features of Microsoft Office? For example, does a spreadsheet rely on pivot tables or complex formulas?
Only use document templates that don't lose formatting or have issues when opened in a web office suite. Ask where does the power user sit in the document publishing process? If they are the final publisher then you may also want them to take on the bulk of the template, table of contents generation, and other tasks that require advanced features only available in Microsoft Word.

Web Office Applications Coopetion

The web office productivity world is very competitive, but there is also the opportunity for coopetion when different vendors integrate their services with each other.

Take, for example, the recent update to Zoho Projects (Zoho Projects 2.0 was covered by Doriano last summer) that now includes integration with Google Apps. This latest update includes single sign-on, enabling users to login with their Google credentials; the ability to upload documents from Google Docs to Zoho Projects; view project milestones in Google Calendar including project milestones, tasks and meetings from your Zoho Projects; and an embeddable Zoho Projects gadget you can insert in iGoogle, Gmail and Google Sites.

Perhaps coopetion could even better serve web workers better than all-out competition between the web office suites and Microsoft Office, as companies could build robust online and desktop Office ecosystems, offering web workers more opportunities to have collaborative and publishing solutions that best serve their employers and clients.

Do you use multiple web office productivity tools in your organization?

Low-Stress Ways To Move House and Declutter Your Life

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:55 GMT

Editor's note: This is a guest post from Annabel Candy of Get In the Hot Spot.

Did you know that moving house can be one of the most stressful times in your life? It's right up there with losing your job, divorce or the death of a loved one, as one of the biggest causes of stress.

I've been there. In 2007 my husband and I sold our house along with most of our belongings and moved from New Zealand to Panama with our three young kids. We ended up spending 18 months in Central America and lived in Costa Rica for over a year during which time we moved house three times.

Moving house was easier in Costa Rica, because by then we'd got rid of most of our possessions and had less to cart around with us. We got good at giving things away, selling them or just chucking out all that rubbish that clutters up our lives.

Moving out of our home in New Zealand was the big one. I certainly felt the stress could come but managed to change that pressure into a buzz so I could enjoy the excitement of change and new beginnings. In the end moving house and countries was a fun way to declutter our lives.

Tips for a stress free move:

1. Get organised in advance. If you leave everything until the last minute it will be stressful. We sold our house five months before we left and then rented it back from the new owner. That way we could relax with the cash in our bank account and not worry about how we were going to finance the move.

2. Start selling non-essential items three months before you leave. Clutter and things you don't use much build up in any house, especially if you have kids. You'll find that there are plenty of things you can off-load two or three months before your move. Stuff like toys, tools, kitchen equipment, many clothes and everything that's broken, or that you never use but have been saving for a rainy day.

3. Organise your personal belongings and paperwork. Get a concertina folder for essential documents like passports, birth certificates, and other certificates and keep them all together. Sort out your personal photos – put them in albums and chuck out all the blurred and boring ones. Give all the kids a memory box – a shoe box will be about the right size for them to keep all their school reports, photos, pictures and keep sakes in. Keep the box small – they will fill it!

4. Maximise this opportunity to minimalise. There's no point in keeping too much stuff if you're making a big move. Sending it overseas may cost more than replacing it and this is the ideal time to become more minimalist and get rid of all the possessions that are compromising your freedom. Make a list of everything you want to sell but need to keep until you leave: furniture and big electrical items such as the fridge, washing machine, stereo and dryer.

Write an email with title, description and price. Just sell everything for half what you bought it for. Remember, you want to get rid of it. Now email this to all friends and colleagues who live nearby. I predict a feeding frenzy. Print out the email, ask people to commit to buying something and add their name by the item. Ask them to swing by on moving day and pick it up. Simple yet effective and your friends will be delighted.

5. Have a huge garage sale for smaller items. Think of it as being paid to clean out your house and declutter your life. Again, remember to sell everything for a low price because your main aim is to get rid of stuff. If you're not comfortable making money from selling your old clothes, toys, crockery and books then mention in the garage sale ad that all proceeds will go to a worthy cause, like Guampedia or your favourite charity.

By now your house, cupboards and garage should be looking nice and empty which will make cleaning easier. Don't pack or store any breakables unless they have sentimental value or are not replaceable. Things like crockery and glasses can be picked up when you get there.

6. Packing. You can start packing up things you're taking early too. Buy a big roll of bubble wrap, masking tape, cardboard corners for pictures and some tea-chests from removal company then pack a few things each night or blitz the lot in one day.

Give the kids one small box each for toys they want to keep. This will focus them on not over-packing and on getting rid of everything they don't need any more. Tell them you'll use some of the proceeds from selling their old stuff to fund a great family outing from your new home.

7. Moving day. When your friends come round to collect all the stuff they bought offer them all the crockery and glasses you needed until the last moment. If they don't want it ask them to drop it off at a charity shop for you. They'll be so pleased with the great deals they got from you they'll be happy to oblige. Finally have a good clean up or use some of your garage sale money to hire a cleaner.

Boom! You're out of there.

With less clutter tying you down, the world is your oyster. Just imagine if you were really good and got rid of it all, you'd be free as a bird.

If you're like me you'll enjoy the process of clearing out and moving house. Plus, it's great knowing that your friends will think of you every time they open that beautiful old trunk you spent weeks restoring.

So you thought moving would be stressful? No way. Just adopt these zen habits before making a move and debunk the myth that moving house is stressful forever.

Read more from Annabel Candy at her blog, Get In the Hot Spot, a virtual treasure trove of inspiration, information and idiosyncrasies for people who want to live their dream. Or make her day and keep yourself updated on the latest articles, by subscribing to the free RSS feed.

Infosys Co-Founder Adds Another $91 Million To Venture Fund

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:44 GMT

More good news for Indian entrepreneurs! Infosys co-founder and chairman N. R. Narayana Murthy's new VC firm, now called Catamaran Venture Fund, just added a whole lot more money to its coffers. A few weeks ago, we reported that Murthy was turning to “the dark side” after selling a large amount of company shares in order to set up a venture capital firm. To set up the fund, Murthy reportedly sold 800,000 shares, or 0.13 percent of the company, its total value converting to $38.7 million, more or less.

It appears that Murthy's wife, Sudha Murthy, who reportedly put up the seed funding for Infosys Technologies at its founding 30 years ago, has sold 2 million shares worth of her Infosys stock, worth roughly $91 million dollars. And Sudha sold 22 percent of her personal holding to fund her husband's new VC fund.

The Catamaran Venture Fund will have a total of around $130 million dollars to invest with and will focus on early stage and angel investing. As we wrote in our past report, Murthy aims to invest mainly in ‘brilliant’ Indian entrepreneurs who found startups that operate in the areas of healthcare, education and nutrition, which may include technology-related companies.

Murthy started Infosys with six others back in 1981 by borrowing INR 10,000 (roughly $215 today) from wife Sudha. Infosys went public 12 years after its original founding and its share increased three thousandfold over the next 15 years or so. While Catamaran's fund is still small compared to the war chests of other VC firms like Battery Ventures and Sequoia Capital, it still has the potential to make some very meaningful investments.

Photo credit/Flickr

(Thanks for the tip, Jason)

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Tech/Productivity Feed Mix

Skype Founders Assembling Killer Team For New Online Music Startup

Blogging is Rocket Science

Snoop Dogg, Entrepreneurship and Rajasthan

YouTube Is Falling Apart Again

POLL: TweetDeck Trounces Seesmic Desktop in Reader Vote

Web Faceoff: Overall Results

Marissa Mayer Chosen As A Glamour Magazine Woman Of The Year

The Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway #Crunch

Gowalla Hops Onto Android Via The Mobile Web

textPlus 2.0 Hits The App Store For Free Texting

iPhone Coming to Verizon in 2010 [RUMOR]

DocVerse Puts Google Docs-Like Collaboration Inside Microsoft Office

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

Popular iPhone movie app flops on BlackBerry

FishVille Launches on Facebook; It’s Like Underwater FarmVille

WWD Screencast: Firefox 3.6 Tab Previews

5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers

1. Hello Vino

2. Pair It!

3. Fromage

4. Drync Wine

5. DrinkFit

Honorable Mentions:

More iPhone resources from Mashable:

5 Most Popular Posts on WebWorkerDaily This Week

Droid Does: An Ad on Google’s Homepage

My Not-So-Epic Quest To Find The Elusive Verizon Droid Line

MSNBC Having A Bad Friday (NSFW)

LUNCHTIME POLL: What’s Your Favorite Twitter Photo Sharing Service?

Mashable Faves

Europe’s Biggest Paper Blocks iPhone Browsers To Force Sales Of Its App

Chomp Eats Up Some Seed Funding. Next, Will Bite Into The Mobile Space.

Thanks to Our WebWorkerDaily Sponsors!

Exclusive Video Of The Litl Webbook

15 Social Media Twitter Lists to Follow and Expand

Twitter Lists from Mashable

You can explore all our evolving lists here >>

Not Satire: The Onion Gets a TV Deal With Comedy Central

BUG: Twitter Investigating Elevated Errors

Web Office Suites: Complementary and Coopetive Technologies

Low-Stress Ways To Move House and Declutter Your Life

Editor's note: This is a guest post from Annabel Candy of Get In the Hot Spot.

Infosys Co-Founder Adds Another $91 Million To Venture Fund