What if you don’t have Ping

Apple made some great announcements on September 1, among them the iTunes 10. Though everyone was quick to download the new version, it suddenly dawned while the user interface improvements and a new tricks were there, the new social network for music, called Ping, was missing from the iTunes in India, as it needs access to the iTunes stores. Those of us who got access to iTunes stores had access to Ping, but with mixed feelings for those who didn’t.

For those of you wondering if you need to upgrade and download the latest edition, you don’t have to rush. Right now the only two features available in India are the simpler Sync, again more of a user interface improvement than anything else, and a feature called AirPlay which allows you to play any media in your library to enabled devices, which are yet to hit Indian markets.

If you want your friends to know what music you are listening to, who your favourite artiste is and what you think of their latest album, there are simpler ways of doing this, even if you do not have Ping.



To do this, you can go to www.last.fm and open a free account. The application does what it likes to call scrobbling and listen into what you are listening to and what kind of listening preferences you have. Depending on this it will do one of the following:

* Show you more information on the track that you are listening to, and the album, and let you buy the album from Amazon.com or other online portals the CDs is available on.

* Show you similar artistes.

* Show the top listeners on last.fm who have a similar taste as yours, and help you make friends.

* Let you listen in to tracks from similar artistes in your social neighbourhood.

* Mark your songs as loved or banned, so that they don’t get played again.

Sometimes artistes and companies work with last.fm to offer you free downloads of music, and if you hit their portal, you will also get an option to download a few mp3s.



I tried artistes varying from Frank Sinatra, A R Rahman, Shreya Ghoshal to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Alam Lohar and it was not only able to pull out the right information, but even suggest that since I loved Alam Lohar's music, I would like Kartar Ramla and Sukhwant Kaur, adding another dimension to my music.

So if you are worried about not getting Ping, get yourself a free account with last.fm, download the scrobbler, and enjoy music, like never before.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 12th September 2010

Getting back the Pulse

Not one to be left behind, Yahoo does a Buzz with Pulse


The Internet started out as a place that was disconnected, with information scattered everywhere. To get to where you wanted, emerged a world of portals followed by the search engines. Companies such as Yahoo and AOL excelled at it, but over the years many of the giants faded into oblivion or changed their business models. While Google stuck to search and started building a whole lot of other things, Yahoo was still busy playing a hybrid between a portal and a search engine.

But that was before people started sharing information on their own using Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and every other social media platform available. This took the Internet user to different websites and too many pages, meaning there were too little eyeballs on the portals. This was a problem that needed a solution. Google came up with Buzz, but it got caught in privacy issues. Now, Yahoo is trying its bit with Pulse.

Before the dawn of Google and Facebook, there was a time when Yahoo Messenger meant the world to everyone. But when social networking took away it winds, Yahoo was left with no option but to transform itself. Some time back, Yahoo profiles reincarnated itself as Yahoo Pulse with some very attractive changes. Though still at a preliminary stage, Pulse seems like it has the ability to define the next wave of online computing and information sharing. To some users, Pulse — http://pulse.yahoo.com — will seem like a bit of Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and Yahoo Messenger rolled into one; a bit intimidating at first. But this is where I think it gets its edge.

As digital cameras have become cheaper, people want to share their pictures online. Some are very personal, and you will only want to share them with a few select friends. Others are of cats, dogs and mountains that you would love to show the world. This is where the integrated Flickr album in Pulse comes to your help.

Then there is the integrated blog engine which does not limit your expressions to 160 characters like Twitter or a few lines like Facebook. On Pulse, you can write a long blog post and then, if needed, automatically share it among your connections.

Like Facebook, Pulse too gives you applications and games. You just have to click the application tab on the left and add games or applications, and there is already a good range to choose from.

As of now, Pulse only integrates with Facebook and Flickr. I would have loved to see a Twitter plug-in as well as the ability to login and fetch my mail from Gmail and Hotmail, but then these things take time. For those of you who are looking for a Facebook replacement, Pulse is not what you want. But for those of you looking for an extension to sharing information with your online friends, Pulse presents an attractive and user-friendly option.

And thankfully, Yahoo has handled the privacy issue very clearly. Your information can be slotted under three definitions — No one, Friends and Everyone. Select ‘no one’ and then absolutely no one will be able to see your thoughts and ideas, ‘friends’ mean only those in your contact list can read your posts and the ‘everyone’ option means it’s for anyone to see.
So if you were looking for a one-stop networking solution, retaining Yahoo as your home page, look no further.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 27th June 2010

GOSSIP - Sequoia Capital MD is MingleBox Founder‘s Husband!

Minglebox, is an upcoming Social Networking site from India.

Direct Post from Aloo Techie, read on.. it's interesting.. Also check out the link sequoia, incest, & india

GS

Linked IN Watch Out, Yahoo is Here

Yahoo, yes the biggie in the Internet space, has started a huge advertising campaign for it's Yahoo Groups. People who have been a Yahoo user, would have seen the groups have been there for a long time, so what is the new proposition, well the above ad speaks everything, though it is not a Social networking site, but being a part of a group, can make you listen as well as give you a chance to talk to individuals, and connect with them.

GS