] Updating a Weg log, already simplified by automated
] blogging sites, is now as easy as picking up the phone.
]
] The latest trend in the increasingly popular Web log--a
] personal or professional online diary--is audioblogging,
] the posting of audio clips instead of or alongside text
] entries. In addition to providing a new means of keeping
] bloggers' fans up to date, the audioblog is inspiring
] software developers and start-ups to raise a whole new
] crop of tools and services.
]
] Along with audioblogging, plain-text blogging is
] undergoing a subtle transformation as people begin to use
] their cell phones and other mobile devices to send
] written updates to their Web logs. This technique is
] sometimes called "moblogging," short for mobile blogging.
]
]
] One application developer said moblogging would
] accelerate the transformation blogging has already
] wrought on the dissemination of news and personal
] experience.

Dialing for bloggers | CNET News.com

] Microsoft next week plans to begin testing a radically
] new instant messaging and communications product aimed at
] teenagers and young adults who grew up using the
] Internet.
]
] The new software, called Threedegrees, creates a
] peer-to-peer social group in which people can chat, share
] photos, listen to music and meet friends. Concurrently
] with the test, or beta, program, Microsoft also plans to
] release the Windows Peer-to-Peer Update for Windows XP.
]
] To use Threedegrees, prospective testers must be running
] Windows XP with Service Pack 1, the peer-to-peer update
] and MSN Messenger 5 installed on their computers. The
] software allows people to create groups, in which up to
] 10 people can participate in the same instant messaging
] session. Group members also can share animation and
] photos or listen to music.

Microsoft aims to tap 'Net generation' | CNET News.com

] Microsoft is set to release a beta version of its new
] messaging service. This is not a standard upgrade to its
] Messenger software; this is the product of NetGen, a
] division of Microsoft that is developing software aimed
] at the Net generation, i.e., teenagers and young adults
] who have grown up using the Internet.
]
]
] The software, called Threedegrees, aims to create
] peer-to-peer social groups of up to 10 people. This
] allows for groups of friends to communicate with one
] another in their own groups so they can chat, share
] photos and video, and listen to music together. There is
] also a feature called Winks which allows one user to send
] animations to the rest of the group as an extra form of
] communication, much like the emoticons seen in the
] standard Messenger software. Individuals are not limited
] to one group, but can join several different groups with
] a range of people they know.

Geek.com Geek News - Microsoft's Threedegrees IM software

] A radical new design that promises to revamp and rewire a
] decades-old staple of electronics -- the battery -- may
] also be the elusive blueprint for powering so-called
] "micro-electromechanical systems," or MEMS, futuristic
] devices no wider than a human hair.

Yahoo! News - Tiny Battery May Power Next-Gen Gadgets

] After several near-deaths and consequent re-births, Shift
] magazine, the financially troubled but influential tech
] culture magazine, may have given up the ghost for good.
]
] The board of directors of St. Joseph Media, which
] controls Shift's publishing company, Multi-Vision
] Publishing Inc., yesterday announced that the magazine's
] upcoming March issue, already printed, would be its last.
] It will be on newsstands in two weeks.
]
] "We thought we could improve the product and make it
] profitable once the technology sector recovered from the
] decline that it entered earlier in the year," St. Joseph
] group president Greg MacNeil said in a release.
]
] Staff were told of the decision yesterday morning, though
] editor Neil Morton and associate publisher Kevin Siu
] found out last Thursday.
]
] "I didn't see it coming at all," said a shocked associate
] editor Jose Lourenco. "Things were going great ... ad
] sales were picking up and we were planning ahead to
] expand certain things."

TheStar.com - Shift magazine publishes its last issue

] Salon is running a story about a new independent film
] that is being produced by a few folks who are into
] blogging. As part of the plan to get publicity for the
] film (which appears to be working) they hired a blogger
] to hang out on the set and blog the experience. The
] question, then, is does Hollywood get blogging? The
] answer, in this case, is "not yet". Everyone on the set
] wants input into what the blogger is writing, which is
] delaying any posts from going up for approximately three
] weeks. The blogger has a list of rules over what she can
] and can't write about, and is mostly being told to stay
] out of the way. On the whole, it sounds like the
] publicity stunt is more around this attempt to blog,
] rather than the blog itself.

Techdirt:Hollyblog - Can Hollywood Get Blogging?

] My knee-jerk reaction was to find out who broke the
] story, how it spread, what the blogs were saying, how the
] mainstream press reacted. And this was indeed an
] interesting story within the story; one that's already
] been told so many times it feels like ancient history
] already (thanks to bloggers). The San Jose Mercury News'
] Dan Gillmor broke the story on his weblog while Pyra
] co-founder Evan Williams was on a panel at "Live from the
] Blogoshere," who then updated his weblog and projected it
] to the audience. Another blogger on the panel, Tony
] Pierce, later complained that the Los Angeles Times
] reporter in the house didn't even write up the buyout
] story. (Pierce does a much better job than I could
] tracing the breaking story online.)

OJR article: Google Blogger = Mainstream Weblog Acceptance?

] So, yeah, everybody's gonna be buzzing about Google
] buying Pyra, but my take is that it's not really that
] great a fit.]
] Of course, Google bought Deja, which is the closest
] parallel as far as their acquisitions go. But Deja
] archived everything in Usenet, and Blogger only
] encompasses a part of the blogosphere. Granted, it's
] probably close to half, but relegating the incredibly
] intricate network of LiveJournal users and the
] aggregator-powered Radio users and the thought leaders
] who use Movable Type (including, amusingly, Gillmor
] himself, who broke the story) to second-class citizens
] seems like a critical misstep for Google's path so far.

anil dash - Google Buys Blogger

] So why would Google buy Pyra Labs, developer of the
] widely-used Blogger and Blogspot web self-publishing
] system? Is Google "selling out" to the urge to become a
] portal? Are they morphing into a content provider? Are
] they losing their laser-like focus on search? No, to all
] of the above.]
] This isn't the first time Google has purchased a web
] "community." Google purchased the Deja Usenet newsgroup
] archives in February 2001, and now runs them as "Google
] Groups." The interactive, often self-referential nature
] of many weblogs has many similarities to newsgroup
] postings.]
] Yet Google has said little about the Pyra deal, issuing a
] sparse 77 word statement to the media with few clues
] about the rationale behind the purchase:]
] "Google recently acquired Pyra Labs, developers of
] Blogger -- a self-service weblog publishing tool used by
] more than one million people. We're thrilled about the
] many synergies and future opportunities between our two
] companies. Blogs are a global self-publishing phenomenon
] that connect Internet users with dynamic, diverse points
] of view while also enabling comment and participation. In
] the coming weeks, we will report additional details.
] Blogger users can expect to see no immediate changes to
] the service."

SearchDay - Puzzling Out Google's Blogger Acquisition - 18 February 2003

] "Google buying Blogger validates the importance of
] weblogs to the internet ecosystem. You can't devalue
] people and the things they care about."

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Fame or misfortune beckons for weblogs?