Filed under: Google, Social Software

If you haven’t heard of Google Wave yet — a) wake up! and b) watch this tech demo. It’s long, but if you’re a nerd, or someone who uses the Internet a lot, you’ll find it more exciting than the latest Harry Potter film. And at only 80 minutes, it’s not a potentially-bladder-exploding endurance event, unlike the bespectacled wizard wannabe.

And with that said, the goodies: Download Squad are giving away Google Wave invites. We’re going to start giving away invites whenever we have them to give away and today, to get the ball rolling, we’ve got 20 up for grabs! If things heat up, we’ll scrounge under the couch cushions until we find more!

Wave is just starting to pick up steam, with more gadgets and gizmos and robots appearing every day. With reports of Google Wave server federation (the ability for anyone to run a Wave server) coming soon, and the sandbox walls being torn down, now’s your chance to get in on the action.

Continue reading The great Google Wave invite giveaway!

The great Google Wave invite giveaway! originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Web services, Google, Social Software

If you were hoping the title meant I had gotten wind of some kind of Microsoft-sponsored sabotage, I’m sorry to disappoint you…

Even though there are thousands and thousands of Google Wave users now, it seems like the number of available invites isn’t keeping pace with demand. I barely mention Wave, and yet I’ve still had people hounding me on Twitter for a spare invite. They’re even being sold on eBay, for crying out loud.

While I don’t have any to give out, I do have some encouraging news. Those of you who want access might not have to wait for Google to pony up more invites.
TheNextWeb is reporting that Google could well be on the verge of announcing the federation of Google Wave. Yep. You may just be running your very own Wave server on your own hardware sometime soon.

Google’s been talking about Wave at eComm Europe. They’ve demoed a terminal-based wave client and and hinted that the Wave sandbox environment will be opened up later today to allow federation. The Wave protocol code is already available for developers to tinker with.

Will today be the day Google opens up the floodgates? We’ll keep you posted.

Google Wave coming to a server near you: YOURS. originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Video, News, Windows, Macintosh, P2P, Social Software, Web

A colleague and I gave the app a trial run today and we liked it. After downloading and installing (7.9 MB Mac and Windows) the beta, Libox prompts you to import your files from your computer. The UI is clean, minimalist and intuitive. After importing your media files from your computer, you can share them by email with your friends and groups. Your friends will also have to install the app to open the files you send.

Libox allows you to sync your media files with all the computers in your house. There is also a web app where you can access your media in your browser, however, it is in alpha and can only be used on your local computer and if it is not behind a firewall.

To accomplish all this, Libox uses a combination of P2P networking, cloud and grid computing. It does not store your media or metadata on their servers and when you share media with your friends, Libox creates a “private secure network” on those specific files with those specific friends. The files are received in their original format, no compression, resizing or degradation.

Many questions abound, like how will this service make money? Once out of beta, will it be a paid service? What about the private secure networks? How private and how secure? The web access in alpha - how will that work? What are the compatible file formats? Any plans to add other file types like EPS or Docs? Does Libox work with Linux? Tell us more about the company and mission. Is their plan complete world domination? Is Libox too good to be true?

Stay tuned. Hopefully, we’ll get these answers and more if you leave your questions in the comments.

Share unlimited media files for free with Libox originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News, Social Software

Facebook’s making some big changes around its application platform, particularly concerning how much access apps have to a user’s activity stream and notifications. If you’re a Facebook user who hates app spam, that’s good news for you. It’s terrible news for developers, though, because getting their links in front of you is how they spread virally and pick up more users.

This doesn’t mean that apps won’t be able to communicate with their users. They’re getting put back into the sidebar, and that (virtually useless) boxes tab is going away. App and Game notifications will be handled by a new sidebar dashboard, moving them out of your stream once and for all.

Email will also figure more prominently in the user-developer relationship, with developers getting the option to ask users for their email addresses and send notifications that way.

Facebook isn’t mincing words about what it’s trying to do, here. In the official blog post announcing the changes, they come right out and say they’re trying to cut down on spam: “Application communication in channels like notifications and requests aren’t effectively serving their original purpose. There is a significant opportunity to improve the user experience and reduce spam by replacing them with better features and moving most communication to the stream and Inbox.”

Take that, Farmville!

[via TechCrunch]

New Facebook rules make app spam a thing of the past originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Social Software, Microblogging

Though Twitter seem to be having some stability issues, at the time of writing, almost every active Twitter user should now have access to the new Lists functionality.

We covered it briefly back when the beta started, but here’s a quick guide on how to make them — and how to get the most out of them, because really… this might be exactly the change we social media addicts have all been waiting for.

It’s really quite easy. In three steps:

1. Visit the Twitter homepage. If you see the Lists box (as seen at the top of this entry), then you’re good to go — if it’s not there, you’ll have to wait until you’re included in the testing, which should be really soon now.

• The Twitter Team — good for up-to-the-minute news from the developer team itself. They can be quite funny too, from time to time…
• Baseball Writers — The Huffington Post have compiled this great list of sports-tweeters. Worth following if you’re into baseball!
• The Huffington Post also have an Iran list, a Democratic Rep. list, a Republican Rep. list… (you can view all their lists here.)
• Musicians and Labels — This one has a comprehensive collection of every record company and music magazine, and some bands/artists too.

If you have some great, comprehensive lists, please let me know, and I’ll get them added — there doesn’t seem to be a List directory or search yet!

Update — masterful fellow DownloadSquad blogger Lee has just discovered a Twitter Lists site called Listorious. It’s really rather good.

Twitter Lists finally unrolled to the masses — get your lists here! originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Security, Social Software

If you didn’t ask to have your Facebook password reset, think twice before opening an email that looks like it’s from Facebook’s support team. A lot of these fake password-reset emails have been going out lately, and the attachments they contain can take over your computer and add it to the Bredolab botnet, according to ZDnet.

Your first clue that these emails are sketchy is that they contain a zipped .exe file, which is a horribly insecure and inefficient way to send an account password. Although the mail looks like it comes from support@facebook.com, the address is just spoofed to fool you. The botnet behind this attack, Bredolab, is reportedly involved in some large-scale spamming and identity theft activities, so don’t risk letting your computer become part of it.

[via ZDNet]

Fake Facebook password-reset emails are a botnet attack originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Social Software, iPhone

Well, at least they’re honest about what they do. A new iPhone app called Stalqer helps you locate your friends, even if they’re not signed up for your favorite location-based service - like Google Latitude, Foursquare or Loopt. Users who opt-in to Stalqer ping the service with their location every time their phones check for email, which gives nearly real-time updates on the iPhone (which can’t keep an application like FourSquare open in the background). That part is only slightly creepy. The creepier part is that Stalqer tracks friends who aren’t even using the service.

By pulling info from friends’ Facebook locations, the app can give you a general idea of where people are. It can’t yet read status messages and wall posts to look for location info, but it reported does a fair good job of finding people without that capability. The app does have SOME privacy features: it won’t let you track people who you haven’t added as contacts in your phone’s address book. That’s pretty easy to get around, though: just add the person you’re looking for.

As far as what information you share through Stalqer, you can control how precisely you’re located and also turn reporting on and off. If you only want to show some friends which city you’re in, and not the street address, you can create a group and change your privacy settings to allow for that. It sounds like Stalqer is trying to build the kind of app that everyone wishes exists, but nobody admits they want. Where do I sign up?

[via CNET]

UPDATE: To clarify, following someone on Stalqer requires you to be Facebook friends with that person, which is something they’d have to approve.

Stalqer iPhone app finds people, whether they sign up or not originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Audio, Social Software, Web

Damn you, Grooveshark! I’ve been doing just fine without any Adobe Air applications installed on my system. But you come along and release a standalone interface, and now I’m hooked.

As Sebastien reported with Waver, the Grooveshark Air app seems to be a bit more smooth and responsive than the browser-based version. Whatever the reason, as a guy that runs on unstable, developer-channel browsers that have a penchant for crashing, it’s nice to have my streaming audio running stably in its own app.

The app’s system tray icon provides pause, skip, and previous controls, and notifications with album art and track info can also be set to appear in whichever corner you prefer.

Grooveshark Desktop is currently for VIPs only. If you have a $3/month paid account, just sign in and head to your account page (or click here) to download Desktop. Adobe Air is required, but as long as you have the Flash Player plugin the install just takes a couple of clicks and some patience.

So now I’ve got a great out-of-browser way to access Grooveshark on my desktop. I wonder when I’ll be able to do this on my iPod Touch? Soon, I hope.

We’re gonna need a bigger boat: Grooveshark attacks your desktop originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Google, Social Software, Search, web 2.0

Last week, at the Web2.0 Expo, Google demoed a new Social Search feature that delivers targeted search results based on your social circle. Now, this feature is available in Google Labs, so anyone with a Google account can try it out. When social search gives you “results from your social circle,” who does it mean? Google looks at your Gmail chat buddies and contacts, as well as your Twitter and FriendFeed buddies and your Google Reader subscriptions to find relevant results. So far, it doesn’t seem like Social Search is for everyone, but you should definitely give it a look if you’re a social networking junkie.

Social Search results show you which of your connections a particular result came from, and how you’re connected to that person. For example, I searched for Download Squad, and found a blog post from fellow Squadder Nik Fletcher, who I follow on Twitter. Results aren’t limited to direct connections, though, Social Search also finds more obscure stuff, like your friends-of-friends on Flickr. It’s clearly still a work in progress, but right now it’s great for finding blog posts by people you know, and keeping up with your friends across the various networks they’re signed up for.

Google’s Social Search is now live originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: OS Updates, Social Software

Microsoft’s new Twitter account offers quick, brief Windows 7 tech support originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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