Orkut Adds Photo Albums

Orkut, the social network owned and operated by Google, has finally stepped into the social networking world’s big league. It’s now got photo albums!

Sure, this isn’t as huge a news story as, say, when MySpace acquired Photobucket, but it’s still bound to be quite an important addition for the Orkut’s users.

Though photo albums were rolled out over the last couple of years by the likes of MySpace (joined hands with Photobucket) and Facebook, Orkut had for a good while been lagging behind in this area. But no more. It’s now doing its own thing in the image sharing dept.

It’s easy to take for granted the simple features some social networks offer us, but for the many devoted users of Orkut in international reaches like Brazil and India, this is sure to be very welcome bonus.

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Amazon Launches Software Download Store

More Amazon news coming your way today. The online retailer that carries…nearly everything known to man, just launched an online store for downloading software. The selection is currently limited to five iterations of Turbo Tax, but it’s not hard to imagine we will see more products added to the store very soon.

As with the company’s MP3 store, you first need to install a download client, and then you can grab your purchases. Once done, your new software is on your PC and added to your Amazon Media Library on the chance you may need to download it again someday.

To top off the launch, Amazon put up a free-of-charge software sample for those of us who just want to try the new feature, but have…you know…no interest in a copy of Turbo Tax.

Source: Mashable

Boeing 787 at risk of in-flight hacking

The network architecture aboard Boeing's new 787 leaves the aircraft susceptible to infiltration by passengers during a flight. As reported by Wired: The computer network in the Dreamliner's passenger compartment, designed to give passengers in-flight internet access, is connected to the plane's control, navigation and communication systems, an FAA report reveals. Given the need for fail-safe operation during flight, this issue justifiably raises serious concerns. Here's an excerpt from the FAA report: The proposed architecture of the 787 is different from that of existing production (and retrofitted) airplanes. It allows new kinds of passenger connectivity to previously isolated data networks connected to systems that perform functions required for the safe operation of the airplane. Because of this new passenger... read more

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Google Loses A Senior Sales Vet

It seems like all we’ve heard about lately is Yahoo execs leaving the mothership. But Google losses seem to be trending up for the new year as well. The latest noteworthy expat is David Hirsch of the big G’s New York offices.

Mr. Hirsch is a veteran of the sales division, and he is leaving to work on more closely with startups. He is reportedly a member of New York Angels, a funding group that specializes in funding companies in the range of $250,000 - $750,000, and he also is said to have invested in Amie Street.

At the same time Google is losing their design lead for user experience, Kevin Fox. He is leaving for an unnamed startup.

Source: Mashable

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Mahalo Launches New Toolbar And User Stubs

Mahalo, the human-powered search engine, has launched two new features that can aid in saving you some time while cruising the Web.

First up is version 3.0 of their FollowMe feature. Now when you want to recommend a page you come across, you can submit to Del.icio.us, Magnolia, Mahalo Social, and Twitter all from the same screen. It will save you a couple steps, and if you don’t want to submit it to any given service, you can uncheck any of the boxes. It will also added a guide to helpful shortcuts when you are on popular sites such as Gmail and Twitter to save you the effort of looking it up.

For the second feature, Mahalo is taking a page from Wikipedia’s book and adding “stubs”. This is an attempt to get more users involved with the process of building the search results so that the search engine can grow more quickly. If any stub receives more than three quality links, the Mahalo guides will then get involved, and help finish building the page out. And to combat spam, which could certainly become a problem with such an infrastructure, the company has a team of 50 employees monitoring all incoming links. Those found submitting spam can face suspension of their entire account, so think twice before you have a go at it.

Source: Mashable

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A Look At Hulu On Veoh

Veoh and multi-network startup Hulu joined together this week in an effort to push more television programming out to Web viewers - and in turn gather more ad dollars to share amongst themselves.

The deal the two have arrived at is quite straightforward. Veoh gets to expand its TV archive by showcasing Fox and NBC content; Hulu is given a larger audience. But is this agreement something that might benefit you, the video viewer? In a word, yes.

There are some compromises one needs to make when watching material born of the Hulu project on Veoh. The video quality, for one, is often not as good that it is when consumed right at the source. And the environment in which one plays back available programs is not the most aesthetically pleasing. Hulu is certainly the prime location to view shows originally loaded to Hulu.

That being said, Veoh makes for an acceptable second option. Especially if the first is inaccessible. Which to many eager eyes it is. Still.

What strikes the visitor most when browsing the “new and improved” Veoh is the impressive array of video now presented on its pages. Professionally produced video, in particular. Collectively, few other online services of its kind can match it. Yes, YouTube has its record-setting treasure trove of clips to tout, but all those I Can Has… montages can surely get a exhausting after some time. On occasion, a 20-minute-plus session with 30 Rock or Heroes can be a decent escape from the standard faire.

Also, getting to the point made about video quality, the matter can be taken very basically. If you were to juxtapose Google’s woeful 240-by-340-pixel standard with Veoh’s clearly superior video quality reproduction, it’s obvious which one of the two you would ideally prefer. If nothing else, consider the good you’ll be doing your precious corneas by taking some time to get to know the more visually awarding side of the Web’s media universe. Veoh may not serve billions of bits per second all across the globe, but its premium collection of candy more than makes up for its lack of enormity.

Well, there you have it. The new Veoh, plus Hulu. Enjoy.

Source: Mashable

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