W+Ki

Joost is said to be preparing a “major retrenchment” of staff as part of a restructure that will see Joost abandon its global ambitions for the US only.

According to the Sunday Times, Joost has struggled to convince media and sports companies to sell it global rights, which are usually offered on a country by country basis. The Times reports that Joost still has money in the bank and “Joost is unlikely to close, however. “There are too many egos involved,” said one former employee.” Joost denied that staff would be retrenched, saying only that “There are some situations where staff have been re-aligned to better fit our needs.”

There’s a time bomb out there with Joost’s name on it. Full-screen, broadcast-quality video streams—the main selling point of Joost’s peer-to-peer Internet TV client software—is quickly coming to the Web….the vast majority of that video is not exclusive to Joost. All the Internet TV services are lining up the same content. And better-quality video is not going to remain a differentiator for long.

Set up by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, Joost offered much promise, but has failed to deliver anything unique at a time when online video became the hottest vertical on the web. The restructure cant hurt, but with ongoing intense competition, Joost may well be on borrowed time.

Vivaty beta goes live

Vivaty is the first 3d world that brings together your friends, photos, and videos in a personal virtual scene in the browser.

It will be launched through Facebook, the idea being that you will be able to skip to your or your friends 3d space to see their latest content/creations. A step better than currently possible in a social network - and more friend based than the existing 3d worlds.

No big downloads required, just a small browser plug-in.

SniffU on Facebook

A new service, Sniffu, has developed a new mobile phone service that gives people an electronic map showing the location of their friends.

The Social Network Integrated Friend Finder (Sniff) can be accessed by Facebook or cell phone and is already popular in Scandinavia.

Sniff says only consumers who give their permission could be electronically tracked by the service and plans to charge users about 75p for each location “sniff”, with the results for mobile customers sent by return text.

It looks like the first Facebook application to apply premium charges to customers’ mobile bills.

In many respects, it’s not unlike what Loopt is doing with its friend-finder features, but the Facebook aspect looks like a new twist.

RipLounge: the virtual world launched by an advertising network

What place will advertising take in virtual worlds, without antagonising users? It's an ongoing debate, but one that's likely to be fuelled by the launch of RipLounge. It's a new virtual world that's the work of advertising network Stable Media, and virtual worlds firm Wyndstorm.

The beta version launched yesterday, and claims to be “one of the coolest VIP online hot spots”. The screenshots look like a blend of 3D and photorealism, with socialising clearly the main draw of the site (with locations like yachts and nightclubs giving it an upmarket spin).

But advertising is a big focus too, as you’d expect. The big question will be balance, for if the ads outweigh the content, users won’t be interested. If the idea is purely to attract people to come and talk about the virtual advertising that surrounds them, RipLounge won’t be a success. However, the flipside is that if the commercial side is sensitively worked into the world and truly interactive, the community could thrive.

Expensive Divorce

It appears that Paul McCartney's divorce settlement was a little more expensive than he hoped. Consequently, he has finally agreed a deal with iTunes to distribute the whole of the Beatles back catalogue for the sum of $400m.

So far, the Beatles catalogue has been one of few in existence not secured by Steve Jobs and his iTunes enterprise.

However it is highly unlikely that iTunes’s proprietor will exercise haste when dealing with something so coveted the world over as the Beatles songbook. Rollout will be slow and the service is likely to heavily promote the impending delivery of albums such as Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver prior to their debut.

Great sales are what iTunes is after, and arousing strong anticipation among its customer base is standard practice for Jobs and Co.

Internet is the enemy of the mafia

One of the Sicilian Mafia's oldest and most steady revenue streams, protection money, called "pizzo" in Italian, is now at risk a new website that now provides extorted businessment the support with which to stand up to the mob. Traditionally considered a death sentence to stand up to the Sicilian Mafia, Addiopizzo.org, which means "Goodbye Pizzo," voluntarily lists 230 businesses who openly defy the payment to the Mafia. There is safety in numbers, and the tide of pizzo payments is indeed starting to turn. Perhaps what the website organizers should offer next is the ability for the pizzo-paying business owners to list what they are each paying for "protection." That way, perhaps they can lend some transparency to the Mafia's business. After all, why pay 500 euros a month if your neighbour is only paying 100 euros a month for his "I-hope-nothing-bad-happens-to-you" policy? Or, perhaps, once again, the web has brought an end to an outdated business model, and the Sicilian Mafia needs to adapt with the times. From spam to porn to gambling, the Internet is rife with shady schemes in which thewell-organized gangster can participate.

Every brand wants a Macworld

It never ceases to amaze me how excited people get about MacWorld. One guy here (shall remain nameless) actually suggested that today the 'year came to life'. Oh yes.

This year there was no live broadcast (not enough to say eh Steve!?) but the usual live blogging (on the various Mac obsessed sites - I watched on MacRumor) and a bit of SMS action if you were out and about.

My summary : they've launched a really thin Mac and it's alright, but it's only as powerful as an iPod.

The picture above is from a post on engadget where they have already (with 1/2 hr) sized up the new Mac Air against the competition (more than positively). Just how great is it for a brand to have advocates like that? How many product launch days get this kind of publicity? Amazing

Secret to Apple design lies in Braun from the 60s

Great post on Gizmodo shows some visuals of 1960's designs from Dieter Rams of Braun alongside Jonathan Ive's present Apple work......

And if you want to know what might be coming next from Apple, here's some of Braun's other stuff.....

Partnership With NBC Universal for the First “Long-Tail” Olympics

NBC Universal and Microsoft will raise the bar for live and on-demand Internet broadcasting through an exclusive agreement where Microsoft and NBC will deliver NBCOlympics.com on MSN, the official online home of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In the first “long-tail” Olympics, online viewers will have access to more than 3,000 hours of live and on-demand content so they can watch their favourite athlete or sport, regardless of whether the sport has seven fans or 7 million. NBCOlympics.com on MSN will be available free and powered by Microsoft Silverlight technology, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering high-quality video experiences on the Web.

Perhaps we'll get a true indication of which Olympic sports people really want to see.....

Arabian Lords

One of the first lessons in Entrepreneurship 101 is to find an underserved market and serve it, and that's just what BreakAway Games and Quirkat have done with their Arabian Lords PC video game.

Inspired by the rise of Islam between the 7th and 13th centuries, Arabian Lords is a bilingual strategy game targeted specifically at Middle Eastern players. Gamers take the role of an enterprising merchant lord, and through a combination of strategy and city-building, they try to grow their influence from just one palace to an entire ancient empire. As they gain prestige and wealth, they must engage in competition and shrewd diplomacy against rival factions while keeping their own customers and citizens happy and their communities thriving. Players are rewarded for successful negotiation and leadership, not military might or violence.

It's available across the Middle East. BreakAway is also considering launching the game in the US to tap into the Arab American market.

There are almost 200 million consumers in the Middle Eastern region today, and more than 33 million of them are online, according to Internet World Stats. Where else are they being underserved....?