With so many different ways to contact people these days, phoning someone up is often the third or fourth option many of us think of when we want to get in touch with them. And as the mobile Internet gets faster and cheaper, more of us will be using our phones for email, instant messaging, VoIP, and accessing our social networks. This could mean that within just a few years, none of us will actually be making standard mobile calls, but rather using our handsets to send Facebook updates, post tweets to Twitter, chat on Google Talk, and talk via Skype.

The infrastructure to enable this to be done in a cost-effective way isn’t quite there yet, but the technology to do all of this certainly is. Recently, we’ve seen Skype announce that it will be bundled onto all new Nokia N-Series devices, and mobile IM apps such as qeep and Slick are growing in popularity. The leader in this field of multi-platform mobile communication is arguably Nimbuzz. This mobile social messenger, which I reviewed for Softonic a while back, is starting to attract some serious attention from both users and the mobile industry as a whole. Nimbuzz  already receives 20,000 new users every day, and has 12 language versions serving subscribers in more than 200 countries. It has been top of the iPhone App Store, won a Red Herring Global 100 award, and recently joined to the Research In Motion affiliate program.

I recently caught up with Geoff Casely, VP of Manufacture Markets at Nimbuzz, at the World Mobile Congress. Not only did he give me a demo (above) of the product in action on a Nokia N78, but he also outlined his vision for mobile social messaging and how it could spell the end of the mobile phone call: Read the rest of this entry »

As you will probably know by now, last night saw the launch of Google’s new web browser, Chrome. Somewhat confusingly trumpeted by Michael Arrington as a ‘Windows killer’, Google Chrome is clearly designed to take on not only Microsoft’s Internet Explorer but also Mozilla’s Firefox. We spoke to Mozilla Europe board member Zbigniew Braniecki, to get the open-source giant’s first reactions to the new kid on the block.

Talking about the launch, Braniecki told us:

I am happy that a new browser has entered the market: Google has very talented developers. They are creating a browser according to our (Mozilla’s) values - openness, standards, security and privacy. What the final result will be is hard to say.

But Google is a very different organisation to Mozilla, so their aims differ too:

We believe that the key for Mozilla is to stay in the role of the non-profit organization that aims to provide innovation and choice on the Internet. In short: Google is just a company, like Apple, Flock and so on. Whereas the Mozilla Foundation has a special position and responsibility in the development of the Internet.

Regarding the new browser and its features (much has been made, by Google and by other commentators of Chrome’s use of individual processes for each open tab):

Parts of [Chrome] are already implemented in Firefox, Safari, Opera or IE8. Some bits are really innovative and we’ll look at these with great interest. But for example, tabs as independent processes are very greedy when it comes to memory. Every Gmail tab loads everything. In Firefox we can optimize memory in such cases, but independent processes in Chrome do not offer such flexibility.

Much has been made of the fact that Google provides up to 70% of Mozilla’s funding. Is Mozilla going to take action against Google to protect Firefox’s market share?

Regarding business, it won’t be possible for us to erase Google Chrome ads from Google results that are shown to Firefox users. But for sure it is too early to say that Chrome is real competitor. It is an experiment, and not as professional a product as it looks in the press. There’s a long way to go before this is a product that can be responsibly offered to large groups of users. Firefox is an established, complete browser that works for millions of users every day. We have just extended agreement with Google for next 3 years.

We do not have any “silent deals” with Google, just partner agreements similar to what Opera has. Google does not prefer Mozilla in any way.

So perhaps some of the predictions about what will happen at the end of this new three year deal are correct? Only time will tell whether Googleis really happy to keep funding what is now a competitor.

After hearing the news that Babelgum will invest €10m in new productions, mostly shorts and documentaries, we wanted to find out more about where online television is heading, and what we can expect from it. We spoke to Valerio Zingarelli, Babelgum CEO, to ask him about what’s going on in the market. He let us know the company’s views on their current content strategy, the future of web TV and the low-down on their revenue-share system, as well as responding to some criticism in the blogosphere.

It is in the news that Babelgum will invest €10m into independent film production. Could you tell us where your company is heading and why it is independent film worth investing in?

Babelgum remains primarily a web distribution platform for non exclusive “long-tail” content; a platform that allows professionals to showcase and monetize safely and instantly their content, bypassing today’s distribution bottlenecks. The self produced content will always represent a small minority of all our content on offer (1%). The reasons why we are dedicating a budget to develop also our own productions are:
1) As Spike Lee put it, Babelgum’s mission is to nurture young talent;
2) Having exclusive self produced content is part of - I would say - every good content strategy. It helps to attract users in those areas where Babelgum wants to become a point of reference: indie films and Nature. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the second part of the interview we had with Cindy Jiang, head of marketing for HiPiHi. If you haven’t yet, check out the first part of the interview, where we learn about the Chinese virtual world and some elements of interaction between users.

The private beta is built around Genesis, which includes 5 episodes, associated with the development of your HiPiHi world. Will this be the same with the final version? Will every user go through this introductory process?

“Hipihi –Genesis” includes five episodes, following the principles in the real world. The first section is called “the making of heaven and earth”, we will explore the new world together. Next, we will utilize the character image editing system and the powerful creating system in the episodes of “the making of human beings” and “the exploitation of the works of nature”. The preliminary system of social economy and transaction will be created in the episode of “the insubstantial mirage”. In the last episode, “appearance of the society”, every resident of Hipihi sees the new world and society created by themselves.

How is it specific to Chinese culture? Are you aiming exclusively at Chinese users?

The site is currently in beta testing mode with about 10,000 users – about 15 percent are from overseas. Although we are currently focusing on the Chinese market, we are thinking globally in the long-term. We are aspiring to create a 3D net standard, engendering a global virtual community, and are working to offer HiPiHi in multiple languages.

What is the state of the web in China? How do you place HiPiHi in China’s web and tech industry today?

We believe a major trend will be the gradual move from a 2D to 3D web environment. As time goes by the whole social networking arena will shift into the 3D environment. The contextual web as we know it today will become a truly experiential web, as users and providers explore new ways to effect functionality, creativity and generally improve the online environment. In this respect, we hope that HiPiHi will be ahead of the curve.

When will HiPiHi be launched to the public? Are you also planning on an English version?

Our public test will happen in August, and the full commercial launch will hopefully be sometime in the autumn. The English version is under development, and we are planning to release it later.

In a recent interview, the founder of HiPiHi, Hui Xu, said that you had invited sociologists and economists to create “a shared and fair world which will finally embrace the various cultures of the real world”. What steps are you taking to reach this goal?

Now the HiPiHi world is under limited beta test. So during the period our main goal is to make the creation function more powerful and foster our resident community, and form HiPiHi’s unique value.

Will HiPiHi support Windows Vista?

Yes. It will support Windows Vista. Right now there are little problems with the compatibility between the HiPiHi world and Vista. Fortunately, the solution is on the agenda.

Dubbed almost everywhere as the “Chinese Second Life”, HiPiHi is a virtual world, currently still in private Beta, that aims to emulate the success of its American counterpart. HiPiHi allows users to fully create and customize their character, meet new users and interact in an open world. The world is expected to have its very own economy and will allow users to have their property and businesses. The screens we saw of the application are very impressive and many users have signed up for a tryout already.

We recently had the chance to talk to Cindy Jiang, head of marketing at HiPiHi, to understand a bit more what HiPiHi is about and how it aims to attract users.

What are the social networking aspects and tools of HiPiHi? How can users interact in HiPiHi?

HiPiHi is a platform, which can offer a totally interactive, immersive and open-ended experience for users to create, inhabit and govern a new world of their own design. So it is also natural to be a social networking platform. Just like in real life, communication is the basic part of your life in the virtual world. The users can exchange their ideas through the online chatting tools (only text for now). They can also send messages to each other both online and offline.

How is it different to Second Life?

HiPiHi does have some similarities with SL. However, the fundamental difference is that we are targeting different values and cultures. A virtual world is not just a 3D environment, but a complicated social system involving relationships, policies etc. HiPiHi was born in China, and we really hope it can embrace Chinese culture. We also believe functionality will be better in HiPiHi than in SL. For example, HiPiHi will make creativity a much simpler process by using pre-fabricated objects, and there will also be advanced setting for users to build customized objects for trading.

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A while back we brought you news of Zattoo - an exciting P2P TV streaming app that unlike Joost, carries live TV from European TV channels. Today we bring you an exclusive Q&A session with Sugih Jamin, Chairman and CTO of Zattoo Inc. Among the many juicy tidbits: confirmation that the service plans to launch in multiple European countries this June.

iT: How did Zattoo start?

SJ: Zattoo was built on a PhD thesis project I supervised at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The company was founded in the US in May 2005 and Zattoo was first launched in Switzerland in June 2006.

What were the biggest obstacles you had to overcome in developing this project?

Zattoo enters a country only when we can obtain legal rights to retransmit TV channels in that market. As we expected, obtaining legal rights to retransmit proves to be a very complicated, involved, and time consuming process.

What’s the deal as regards licensing from the various channels?

This varies from country to country and from broadcaster to broadcaster. It is more straight forward in some countries and with some broadcasters, less so in/with others.

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Following on the first part we gave you last week, here is the second bit of our interview with Ken Case, a founder of the Omni Group.

iT: How threatened do you feel by the rise of online applications (like Google apps) and how do you think it will affect your business model?

KC: I’m not sure whether you’re asking about online applications which are written with native tools and leverage the Internet (like Google Earth), or web applications which are written to run in web browsers (like Google Spreadsheets) and store their data online. But perhaps my answer to either question is basically the same, so it doesn’t really matter: either way, we’re talking about online technology being leveraged to build software solutions.

All software solutions are built by leveraging some set of technologies. At Omni, we happen to focus on leveraging Macintosh technologies, though we’re certainly no stranger to online apps (which I’ve been writing since the mid-’80s, before founding Omni) or to web apps (which we built a lot of during Omni’s consulting years in the late ’90s). Most technologies aren’t exclusive, and we may well make more use of online technologies in future versions of our applications. But what we’ve decided to focus on are Macintosh technologies, and we’ve done this because we feel they make us the most productive.

So do we feel threatened by online applications? No more than by Windows applications, or Java applications: none of those approaches to building software seem as appealing to us as the way we’re building our software now. And we’ll continue to be on the lookout for technologies that can help us be even more productive.

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The Omni Group is one of the most popular software developers for Mac with applications like Omniweb, Omnioutliner or Omnigraffle recognized as functional and original productivity tools. The company is expected to release a private beta of its next product Omnifocus, a Getting Things Done application to simplify your workflow that has geeks all around wetting their pants. We recently posed a few questions to Ken Case, founder of Omni Group, to know a bit more about Omnifocus and Omni Group in general.

The Omni team seems like a fun bunch of creative and talented people. What is a typical work day at Omni?

A typical work day at Omni… Hmm. (Can any day at Omni really be called typical?) Some early risers show up before 9am, but most of the office shows up between 10am and 11am. The snack room is just outside my office, so at this point I hardly notice the constant sound of the espresso machine running during those hours.

We have a few 11am meetings during the week, but most people only attend one or two of those meetings. (Two of those meetings are focused on one product or another; each product team meets every other week.) These meetings are typically pretty short (maybe 15 minutes), but when we have a lot to think about (like what features should go into a release) they can run for quite a while.

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The world of video has changed almost completely over the last decade. No longer are we chained to the antiquated video player and its poor playback, tape-chewing ways. The DVD revolution has not only transformed the quality of movies but has made it possible to watch films conveniently from the comfort of your PC.The price of hardware DVD players is falling all the time and software behemoths such as Microsoft and Apple are finally waking up to the potential of the digital media industry and emptying their bulging wallets into producing their own solutions.

Add this to the fact that fixed memory capacity and bandwidth sizes are expanding by the second and you start to wonder how relative minnows like CyberLink, developer of the vastly popular PowerDVD, expect to stay in the game. We caught up with the company’s founder and industry guru, Dr Jau Huang to find out how.

When was the first version of PowerDVD launched and who was involved in its creation?

PowerDVD was first launched in 1998. It was the triumph of a small team of eight engineers - including myself - who had a passion to create the best DVD decoder in the world. Of course, in some way we have to thank our first lot of users - mainly tech-savvy early adopters who had actually heard of MPEG-2! Without their enthusiasm for the product, PowerDVD would never have got off the ground.

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Musestorm is an exciting company working in the fields of dynamic web data, like RSS feeds, web APIs and widgets. It helps developers by aggregating data and creating solid data-driven AJAX applications. Through its MuseStorm analytics service it also provides publishers statistics to analyze the impact of their widgets. Musestorm recently launched a new product, the Widget Syndication Service allowing users to very easily create and distribute widgets to websites, blogs, social networks and mobile phones. We asked Yishay Schwerd, its VP R&D and co-founder, a few questions about Musestorm.

Can you give us an idea of your background and what got you into widgets?
Our background is actually from Mobile related companies and technologies. We actually started with the developer SDK – allowing developers to easily access data on the Web. We developed the ability to aggregate and cache data, reformat data (for AJAX, Flash and JSON apps originally) and distribute the data, to applications. Later we understood that the same technology can be easily used to produce widgets and in June 2006 we’ve launched “Widget Central”.

Can you explain the technology behind Musestorm?
The technology behind the MuseStorm service enables aggregation and caching of XML based data, re-formatting of data into new formats (e.g. web widgets, desktop widgets), distribution of reformatted data and tracking and analysis of distribution. MuseStorm uses mostly open-source software such as Linux, mySQL, and Java. Our servers are Java based.

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