Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Google Friend Connect Tries to Strangle the Social

Alliance Creates Private P2P File-Sharing Networks

Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): Alliance, a free, open-source, cross-platform peer-to-peer application, takes nearly all of the security and privacy concerns out of peer-to-peer file sharing by putting you in charge of your own network. The dead-simple interface lets you add Alliance-using friends to your network and files on your system to share, and you can search, chat, and download like any other peer-to-peer app. The traffic between clients is encrypted at a low level, but you can apply an experimental SSL layer if you'd like a bit more protection from snooping. For trading files with co-workers or friends, it's a nice no-overhead solution. Alliance is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems.

Publish Your Panoramic Photography at Panoye

Now that you know how to stitch together panoramic photos with free software, publish your creations at Panoye, a panoramic sharing web site. Panoye users are building "a virtual tour all around Earth" with user-submitted panoramic images. Upload, tag, geotag, and share your panoramas on Panoye, which offers YouTube-like HTML markup to embed a pannable panoramic image onto your own web site, like the one after the jump:

Visit this panorama <a href='http://www.panoye.com/panorama-showempty.537.html'>here</a>
When you fall in love with a photo and decide you must see the scene with your own eyes, check the accompanying map for its exact location.

XBMC Turns Your Mac into the Ultimate Media Center

You don't have to mod your classic Xbox to run the best free media center application around anymore: Dedicated developers have ported the Xbox Media Center (XBMC) software to the Mac, and its killer features will convince you to abandon Front Row forever. The latest XBMC on OS X beta dropped last week, and it's as stable and useful as ever. Dubbed the "throw out your Xbox" release, XBMC for Mac 0.5 beta 1 adds the key feature that finally puts your media center Mac under the TV where it belongs: remote control support. Let's take a look at how you can (and why you want to) replace Front Row with XBMC on your Mac.

Why XBMC?

Ever since I soft-modded my classic Xbox last year, XBMC won my heart as my primary media center package. If you haven't used XBMC before, take a look at some screenshots of the app in action.

Here's a look at a few movies in my DVD collection on the XBMC. (XBMC can automatically download all of the DVD cover art, plot summaries, and cast lists from various sources, like IMDB.)

Like movies, TV shows also get art and summaries. Here's the wide view of some TV series on my XBMC.

On the music side of things, XBMC can display your songs and albums in a Coverflow-like view (among others).

You can also browse and view your photo library with XBMC. The full-screen slideshow looks great on your TV screen, too.

You can see more of what's possible with XBMC in my initial writeup, but keep in mind that a few things aren't working in the XBMC for Mac beta. (See below for more details.) First, let's get your Mac set up with XBMC.

What You Need

To run XBMC, you'll need an Intel-based Mac running Leopard (the software does not run on PowerPC models or on Tiger). You'll want a remote control (Apple remote or universal remote), and a TV with a DVI or VGA input would be nice too, for watching movies on the big screen. Finally, download the latest release of XBMC for OS X here, and install it on your Mac as usual.

Initial Setup

You can use the mouse to drive XBMC on the Mac, but some actions (like going full-screen) are keyboard only. From the XBMC for OS X wiki, here's the full list of useful keys to know when using XBMC on the Mac:

Backslash - Full Screen Toggle
Arrow keys - Navigate menus
Page Up and Down - Scroll up and down
Enter - Select
Esc - Previous menu
Backspace - Go back (or up) a directory
Spacebar - Pause
Period - Skip Next
Comma - Skip Previous
Tab - Minimize Video
Printscreen - Screen Shot
Minus - Volume Down
Plus - Volume Up

p - Play
f - Fast Forward
c - Context menu
r - Rewind
x - Stop
m - Player controls
s - Shutdown menu
i - Info
q - Queue
z - Change aspect ratio

Next, you want XBMC to find your media stash. To point it to your video collection, navigate to Videos, and choose Add Source. From there, add the directory where your clips live. Once you've done that, to add DVD art, select your newly-added source, and press c to get the context menu. Choose "Set Content" to tell XBMC where to grab art and video info from, and scan your video clip info to XBMC's database. Wash, rinse, and repeat for your music as well.

Configure Your Apple Remote

In order to start flipping through the movie collection on your Mac under the TV while you relax on the couch, you want to enable the Apple remote to work with XBMC. To do so, in Settings, hit the Apple Remote section. If you've got a standard-issue Apple remote, set Mode to Standard.

(Note: I happened to have Remote Buddy installed on my Mac, and XBMC complained that the driver was getting in its way. Once I uninstalled Remote Buddy, all was well.)

Replace Front Row with XBMC: To start up XBMC instead of Front Row, check off "Always Running" in the Apple Remote section of XBMC's Settings area.

Hook it up to the TV: I used a DVI to VGA adaptor on my MacBook Pro to connect it to the big-screen TV. As you can see from the photo, I couldn't coax the MacBook to work at the TV's full resolution, but it's still way more watchable than the laptop screen.

What Doesn't Work (Yet) in XBMC on OS X Beta

XBMC for OS X is still very much a beta, so quite a bit of secondary functionality does not yet work with it—namely weather and plug-ins (like YouTube or Tetris). Other small random things don't work on my Mac the way they do on the Xbox, like the CPU temperature reading, as shown.

What's Better in XBMC for OS X (versus for the Xbox)

The most obvious advantage to XBMC on the Mac instead of the Xbox itself is ease of setup. No more logging into secret FTP sites to download software, exploiting games, or modding required—simply install and go. Secondly, your Xbox doesn't come with a full keyboard and mouse, but your Mac does, and this makes entering text and browsing directories much easier and faster. Thirdly, your Mac already has a bunch of useful files and applications on it, so XBMC's File Manager is way more useful.

It's also way easier to add hard drive storage to your XBMC for Mac—simply plug in a standard FireWire drive and go. (No more configuring Samba shares or cracking open your Xbox case to install a bigger hard drive.) Finally, you've got full-on OS X behind you, so the need for XBMC plug-ins isn't as great. For example, you can simply run your favorite Mac BitTorrent application in the background, and have it drop videos into your XBMC source directory automatically.

To see more of what XBMC on the Mac can do, hit the play button on this clip, which demos XBMC sporting a very Front Row-like skin. (Note: this is an earlier release of XBMC for Mac, not the latest beta.)

Be sure to check out the XBMC on OS X wiki to find out more about the project and its progress.

Are you an XBMC fan and user? Have you tried XBMC on the Mac? What's your verdict? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Webjam offers Apple-like simplicity for site building

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Earlier today I had a great demo with Webjam, a do-it-all publishing service that launched at the Le Web conference in late 2006. In many ways it was ahead of its time with a platform that lets you create your own social network, blog, online shop, or iGoogle alternative.

Like Ning (which picked up $60 million in funding last month), it lets users build pages out of various components without needing to know any coding. The twist is that if you come across someone else's design of modules that you dig, you can copy the entire thing to your own page and make it your own. The same goes for individual modules, which can be ported over to any of your Webjam pages, complete with whatever feeds or standalone content they contain.

Co-founder and CEO Yann Motte, formerly of Yahoo Europe thinks his platform's got what it takes to rise above the noise of other platform services, social networks, and blogging tools because it can do nearly all of those things nonexclusively. "[Users] don't have to split their activities between several Web sites," he says. "It works for you and me, and other people in this industry, but it does not scale for the average user." Does that mean he wants people to give up their Facebook profiles? No, but Motte believes that Webjam offers the average user more possible combinations to post and discover quality content than the competition.

The service has already seen accelerating growth in the U.S. over the past few months. Motte says the site has been growing 10 percent a week and is seeing users spend more than 12 minutes on the site (according to Compete), something I think is due to the page creation tool, which is really well done. If you've ever used Netvibes or Pageflakes it uses the same system; you simply have a bunch of different boxes you can drop down onto a blank editing canvas, which can be skinned and re-arranged to your liking. Motte says that in many ways his system is like Facebook's except more open because you get more control over the privacy controls of each box, as well as the data that goes with it.

These extensive privacy settings might be one of the most complex bits of the service. Each module has its own settings for viewership and editing. Users who visit your creation can become members, and in some cases co-contributors to the content that gets pushed out for others to read. Motte's example was to show me a page where a Webjam user had two different versions of a blog--one for everyone in the world to see, and a member's-only version.

One thing I'm not sold on is that people would pick Webjam as a blogging platform over a more established service like WordPress or Blogger. Motte acknowledges that Webjam's blog editor does not offer as many tools or the same level of community interaction, but comes back to say that if you decide to change the focus of your site later on it's not limited to being just a blog, and that's not a freedom most users are used to having. One service that took that idea and ran with it was Tumblr, which lets people change course if they get tired of writing things, and simply lets them republish photos, videos, audio, and IM conversations.

When it comes down to it, I found Webjam's creation tools and skinning to be far easier to use than the ones that come with Ning. I think the results looked a little better too, at least with some of the themes you can apply which are on par with some of the really simple and beautiful ones on iGoogle. What's not as established as Ning is the business model, which for now is simple text ads. The good news for power users looking to potentially get a little cash off of the hosted sites is that the service is rolling out a premium plan in July, which is currently being offered for free until then. Premium members get all the usual perks of services like this, with domain mapping and the option to remove or place banner ads.

To see some examples of popular Webjam pages you can go here. You can also check out a quick demo of the site maker in action after the break.

TinEye: Search the Web with images instead of words

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Traditionally, Web search has relied on words or queries to scan massive indexes of pages for results. Searching for images can be a little trickier though. You're often relying on the competence of whoever uploaded the shot to provide the proper file name--and in a very small percentage of cases extra hints in the metadata to help the search tool get its hooks in.

In the real world, this isn't always the case, which is why the creators of a new image search tool called TinEye have approached image search the other way around--letting you search for sites using image files you've stored locally.

Sure this seems a little backward, but the idea is to find content related to whatever pictures you've got stored on your computer, or simply discover variations of that same shot around the Web.

The tool works best with popular or otherwise well-known images. Nearly everything else I tried didn't produce much. Some of the searches with the most results have been compiled in a "cool searches" section, but typically feature well-known art or photography. The company expects to have a better set of results as its index increases in size.

One of the more interesting uses for this technology is tracking down stolen intellectual property. We often find our posts put up on small blogs that cut out the bylines and take credit. If the blogs reused whatever screenshots we've added, a tool like TinEye would track them down even if they're using slightly altered text.

While we probably wouldn't go to such lengths to hound down a screenshot, there are photographers and other content creators who would. The company has already spun its technology off as a product called PixID, but it's geared more toward larger content rights holders than small-scale bloggers.

For users who want to spend a little less time (and bandwidth) using TinEye, there's a Firefox plug-in that will add a "search for image on TinEye" option when you right-click on any picture you come across on the Web. Users can also just grab the URL and enter it, which can be helpful if you don't feel like ferrying image files back and forth.

Several sites are already using the technology behind TinEye. Digg uses it to help search for duplicate story submissions on any post that contains an image. Adobe also uses it in PhotoShop Elements to look up related images that match the colors found in your photos.

Moving forward, the company intends to add video to its repertoire, letting you see where a video has been posted regardless of what service it's hosted on. This is something I'm far more interested in seeing than photos, as the viral spread of video clips across blogs and other pages is fairly rampant. When mixed with some sort of timeline, this service could yield some great metrics for video creators and a tracking system to follow when videos have been remixed and re-edited.

The service is currently in private beta, but we've got 100 invites for Webware readers who want to give it a spin. To get yours, fill out the Wufoo form after the break.

Native Orb App Brings Live TV to Your iPhone

The OrbLive streaming media app is for everyone who is sick of waiting for a Sling Mobile client on their iPhone. As you may (or may not) know, Orb pulls files off your PC and streams them to any device with an app or web browser capable of accessing the Orb interface. From there you can stream music, video files, and if you have a TV tuner card, live TV. While Orb was previously accessible via Safari, this new, official app is supposed to be an easier, more intuitive way to get your media on the go. It does require a jailbroken iPhone, however. Check out the video of the client in action. [Orb via Register Hardware]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW7Q51Ma22o

100+ iPhone 2 Designs I Guarantee Steve Jobs Won't Unveil Anytime Soon

I recently challenged you all to come up with the most ridiculous iPhone 2 concept designs possible, and boy oh boy did you ever deliver. What you're about to see is over 100 of the most impractical, nonsensical and flat-out retarded cellphone designs the world has ever seen. No, you won't be seeing any of these on stage at WWDC next month and you certainly won't see them at the Apple store, but hopefully the sheer insanity and creativity of your fellow readers will tide you over until the real thing drops. Enjoy.

None of These are the 3G iPhone

NBC Streaming Full Episodes of 30 Rock and the Office to iPhones (for Free, No Ads!)

Even though there's no love lost between NBC and iTunes, that doesn't mean NBC doesn't love you! At least if you've got an iPhone or iPod touch. They're streaming full episodes of 30 Rock and The Office to iPhones (and touches) in QuickTime, for free, with NO ads. They work, nicely, but the major catch is that if you exit Safari, you've gotta re-DL all over again, and the files are huge, so is this Wi-Fi only, really. This looks weird for NBC, but it's really not.

They're putting their shows out online in a million different ways (you can even download 30 Rock, The Office, Conan and Leno direct to your desktop now) and more than happy to pipe 'em to you, as long as it's in a controlled sandbox of some sort. NBC Direct requires a walled-garden player install with loads of DRM, and they wanted copyright controls from Apple and Microsoft to give just two examples, not to mention Hulu. It's sorta surprising that the QuickTime feed for iPhone is unprotected, but theoretically it's restricted to two devices. You know, if they'd just relax a bit, overall, they'd be in a good place online. [Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks Peter!]