Live Documents To Take on Google Docs and Microsoft Office

from Digital Inspiration by Amit

Sabeer Bhatia, who sold Hotmail to Microsoft in 1997 for around $400 million, has now challenged the cash cow (read Office Suite) of the same company that made him a millionaire.

Sabeer has launched Office Live Documents - an online+offline Office suite of programs similar to Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Like Zoho Office or Google Docs, Live Documents lets you create, edit and share Office documents in the web browser.

All your edits are automatically synchronized with all other copies of the documents.

And if you own a copy of Microsoft Office, you can download a Live Documents toolbar desktop client that makes it easy to upload documents from your Office programs to the Live Documents cloud (very similar to Office Live Workspace).

Other than uploading documents online, this Live Docs desktop client will also synchronizes all changes made to a document - either on the browser or on the desktop within Microsoft Office - to ensure that the most up-to-date document is available on both platforms.

Live Documents is done in Flex so should work on any system that has the Flash plug-in. Overall, Live Docs sounds like a good concept but they are definitely up against some heavyweights notably Google and Microsoft.

Request invite for Live Documents here. Official site: live-documents.com

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Jajah, Jaxtr, Jangl - How Are These Skype Alternatives Different ?

from Digital Inspiration by Amit

Jajah, Jangl and Jaxtr have very similar-sounding names and what further adds to the confusion is that all of them are in the web-calling (VoIP) space each trying to make their presence strong on online social networks and at the same time, grab a piece of pie from big daddy Skype.

Jajah, Jaxtr and Jangle make it possible for you to receive calls without revealing your phone number. They all work with regular phones without the computer. They provide widgets allowing readers and friends to connect with you without leaving your website. And none of them will require you to download or install any software on your computer or phone.

So what are some unique features that makes each of these "Ja.." (fill in the blanks) service different? Let's take a look:

JAJAH - Jajah lets you make phone calls over the internet but using regular telephone lines. Type in your phone number on the Jajah website and also the phone number of the person you wish to reach – Jajah will then connect the two numbers seamlessly.

Jajah will also let you send SMS text messages to any mobile phone in the world. And they have just introduced a new service called Jajah Direct which lets you make Internet calls even without a computer or an Internet connection.

You can add Jajah call buttons to your website, social networks or email signatures and receive calls without giving away your phone number. The call charges in this case will be paid by the person who is receiving calls through Jajah (i.e., you).

Jajah supports voice conference calls and call scheduling so you will never forget calling your aunt on her birthday as Jajah will automatically make the call for you.

JAXTR - Jaxtr provides a simple click-to-call widget that you can embed in your social web profiles or blogs.

Anyone on the web can can type his phone number inside this widget on your web page and Jaxtr will then connect his phone to your phone almost immediately.

When you register with Jaxtr, you also get a local phone number and any calls made to this number are automatically redirected to your main phone number.  

The best part about Jaxtr is the simplicity - it doesn't require the caller to register before placing a call - they can just key in their own phone number and wait for Jaxtr to connect.

JANGL - Like Jajah and Jaxtr, Jangl also allows anyone to call you without knowing your phone number but there's a difference in approach - when you have to make a phone call through Jangl, you first have to provide Jangl an email address of the person you wish to reach.

Jangl will then give you a local phone number, you call that and leave a voice mail message that will be delivered to the recipient over email. Once they agree to connect with you, the recipient receives instructions to get a number – local to them – to call you back. (read that line again, it may take a while for you to understand the Jangle concept but its actually quite simple)

The interesting feature here is that all phone numbers assigned by Jangl are always different - so if you have five friends who you have allowed to connect through Jangl, they will all be assigned unique phone numbers .

Jangl is quite popular on dating websites but unfortunately, India in not in their list of supported countries yet.

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Blogs Can Download and Use Copyrighted Images from Corbis Legally

from Digital Inspiration by Amit

Stock photography website Corbis is allowing bloggers to download their pictures on blogs for free without having to worry about "copyright infringement" - in return Corbis will embed a banner ad beneath the photograph or image.

There exists dozens of stock photography websites offering royalty free pictures at no cost but the Corbis advantage is that they have tie ups with big news agencies like Reuters so you could gain "legal access" to photographs that are otherwise extremely expensive.

According to Reuters, you can download Corbis pictures from PicApp website (currently in private beta) and they will be tracked automatically. The photos will either include an ad overlay on part of the image, or embedded advertising that pops up when you move the cursor over the picture.

PicApp follows a CPC based model and shares revenue based on the number of clicks made my visitors on the image but it is not clear if Corbis has any plans to share advertising revenue with publishing sites.

Corbis is privately owned by the same person who started Microsoft - Bill Gates.

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Universal Music CEO: Record industry can't tell when geeks are lying to us about technology

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Universal Music's CEO Doug Morris did a Wired interview in which the 68-year-old man said that he didn't really understand technology, that the record industry couldn't respond to Napster in 1999 because it didn't even have the in-house expertise to figure out whether a technologist was lying or not -- also, he compares his industry to a character from the comic strip Li'l Abner (which, New York magazine reminds us, stopped running in 1977).

"There's no one in the record industry that's a technologist," Morris explains. "That's a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn't. They just didn't know what to do. It's like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would you do?"

Personally, I would hire a vet. But to Morris, even that wasn't an option. "We didn't know who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated. "I wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology person — anyone with a good bullshit story would have gotten past me."

Link (via Michael Geist)

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CASH music, a platform for Radiohead-style digital distribution that makes fans into stake-holders

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Chris sez, "One of my favorite songwriters, Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses, 50FOOTWAVE, and solo) has founded the Coalition for Artists and Stake Holders, on the assumption that both artists and fans are stakeholders in the production of music. She's built a framework to distribute music on the internet while taking donations (sort of Radiohead-style: pay what you want) and taking full advantage of the medium -- including offering ProTools tem files via BitTorrent so you can remix her song!" Link (Thanks, Chris!)

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