What.cd?, one of the two main OiNK successors, is developing an entirely new set of site code, promising to be faster and more secure than the old TBsource. (TBsource is used by several private BitTorrent trackers and is among the least efficient and horrifying code to look at. So I’m told. I don’t speak programmer language.) It’s going by the name of Project Gazelle, which not only implies speed, but also the inability to outrun big cats. Technical jargon aside, all it means for you, the average BitTorrent user, is the What.cd? will run smoother than ever and smoother than any private tacker out there. Your download speeds, however, won’t increase.

In related news, it seems What.cd? just opened its door to more users. First three folks to email me at nicholas at crunchgear dot com get an invite.

What.cd To Launch New BitTorrent Tracker Script [Torrentfreak]

Unsatisfied with current air filtration methods, French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has created this excellent little thing that would look at home in Sleeper or The Jetsons. It’s called the “Bel-Air,” believe it or not, and it uses the natural processes of the plant inside the dome, roots and all, to filter out some nasty household pollutants like benzene and formaldehyde. I know I’ve been trying to get that formaldehyde odor out of my living room since that desiccated corpse came over four weeks ago, so this is just the ticket. But it’s not all French curves - it also has the backing of Harvard “scientist” David Edwards, who is fond of making intelligent statements with “Asiatic” and “Dyson” in them. They’re not expecting to produce them for another year at least, so I guess you’ll have to choke on trichloroethylene until then. Dang, those things do look cool, though.

Bel-Air Filtration System Uses Plants to Purify Our Environs [Gizmodo]

Filed under: Features, Gaming

There's only a select few titles that are really worth obsessing over for nearly half a year, but apparently, Rock Band is indeed a member of that upper echelon. After months of drooling over images of the game's accompanying hardware assortment, the star-studded title has finally landed on store shelves, and according to Electronic Arts, copies haven't been hanging around for long. In a report posted yesterday, EA noted that it moved "hundreds of thousands" of boxes over the Thanksgiving weekend, and judging by most every review we've seen, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. 'Course, with so much critical hardware packed in, it's not terribly surprising to hear that some early adopters found a few flaws, but it seems that EA has fessed up to the issues and is offering VIP treatment (read: immediate replacements) to those with jacked up axes.

Now that you've had some time to work out those vocal cords, brush up on your drum rolls and mosh in your own living room, inquiring minds are dying to know how you would have done things differently. We've already given you a shot to vouch for your rhythm game of choice, but haters and posse members alike can feel free to step up to the proverbial microphone and voice your wishes. Would you have thrown in a Telecaster rather than a Strat? How about embedding an accelerometer in the microphone in order to accumulate kudos for mindless twirling? Totally bummed by the omission of a wildly flamboyant mic stand a la Steven Tyler? Whatever your beef, don't hold back on this one -- your All Access pass to remixing Rock Band has (un)officially been granted.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Wixi, the personal webtop and file-sharing tool, now has an optimized version for the iPhone. It gives you yet another remote way in which to access the files you’ve uploaded to Wixi, in a mobile manner. As the new iPhone version is rather specified, it means that all your media, including photos, music and video, will be converted for use on the handset. You’ll also be able to access user pages through user-specific URLs, which lets you then navigate through their media and their friends. Search for other media by keyword. The biggest limitation of the Wixi iPhone version is the inability to share media.

This version is currently for mobile viewing purposes only. Wixi has indicated that it will be considering users’ feedback to guide their next steps on the continued development of the iPhone version, but file submission and sharing options seems like a no-brainer to me. Hopefully this functionality will be layered in soon. Several iPhone applications begin as view-only upon their launch, so it shouldn’t be too much of a hindrance either.

Wixi is a private, invite-only network where users can create their own “desktops” for accessing and sharing media with friends, very similar to Jooce. What’s interesting about the iPhone application is that it doesn’t seem to be restricted at all. I can access files and profiles on the iPhone version, but not on the website.

Seeing as the iPhone version has viewing options only, the extended privacy for iPhone use may not be as much of a concern for Wixi, especially as the iPhone view-only version is very similar to a static version of the Wixi player, which users can create on the main website and export to their websites, blogs and social networking profiles. Or it could also be in part due to the open registration status of Wixi’s iPhone version for the first 5,000 users. See here for details on signing up.

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Flux, a new social network joint venture between Viacom and SocialProject, had a limited launch in September.

The platform is the cornerstone of Viacom’s social network strategy. Instead of building independent networks for MTV and its hundreds of other brands, they’ve built a distributed platform that shares users, infrastructure and content, but allows for distinct branding and community building around each property. And Flux isn’t just for Viacom - third parties are using it as well.

When Flux launched it had only a few hand picked non-Viacom partners. Today they are opening up the platform for anyone that wants to join.

Like Ning, it’s fairly easy to create a Flux social network. The look and feel can be customized via templates or by uploading your own CSS, and the network can be mapped to your domain name.

Once created any Flux member can join your network with a single click. Since Flux is already gaining users via their launched Viacom and other properties, this gives young communities a deeper pool of users to draw from. And the fact that new users do not need to create a new profile, friends list or login credentials gives them a greater incentive to join. User data is exportable, Flux says, if the partner creates a privacy policy stating that.

Partners have three integration choices. fShare, the basic integration, allows users to take content from the site and easily embed it into other social networks. Flux Lite allows partners to create a basic social network. Flux custom gives nearly full control over the look and feel and has additional features. Partners can choose any integration, it just takes a little more work to use the custom features. Flux will add new developer features over time as well. The chart to the right (click for larger view) shows the various options.

We’ve created a test social network on Flux, at techcrunch.flux.com. And we’re also integrating their fshare functionality into the main TechCrunch site as an illustration of how it works - see the button below each post.

Flux partners can choose to show Flux ads on the site, or use their own. Flux says they are currently selling at a $1.50 CPM and will split that 50/50 with partners. If a partner chooses to display their own ads instead, they must split revenue with Flux 50/50 as well.

Flux v. Ning

Flux and Ning have very similar features and will compete for communities looking to build a social network (and there are lots of other choices as well). Ning has an established platform, lots of money, and 130,000 existing communities (including Playboy). Flux also has a great platform, and the leverage of all the Viacom properties to promote it.

Ning sees the threat from Flux. CEO Gina Bianchini wrote a fiery point-by-point comparison of the two services earlier this week - Flux disputes some of the facts.

Ning is currently supporting Google’s Open Social platform. Flux says they will fully support Open Social beginning in January.

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Ok, so beyond poisoning us with lead-filled children’s toys, China is getting ready to blow our GPS satellites out of space. China is claiming that space above its country is its property, and is prepared to say “stay off my lawn” with star wars toys it’s currently developing.

The only way that we, as the last remaining superpower, can respond is with bad-ass X-Wing-style fighter rockets and a Top Gun-like training base where we sit in cockpits going “pew! pew!” at each other.

Ok, maybe not, but China is just nuts, aren’t they? Now let’s everybody panic.

Report: China targeting all ‘enemy space vehicles’ including GPS satellites [World Tribune]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Over the last few days, we have rolled out posts for each of the different 13 categories in the Open Web Awards. Additionally, many of our 30 partner blogs have made their own postings for specific categories, which you can find in the list below.

A couple quick points to clarify based on questions we’ve received: (1) Anyone can make a nomination; even if it’s your own company or one you represent (2) The number of *unique* nominations will be taken into account in determining who makes the voting round. Nominations remain open until 11:59 PST on Tuesday night (December 4th).

With that, here are links to all of the nomination posts on Mashable:

Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks
Mobile Applications
Social Shopping
Music
Places and Events
Start Pages
Video Sharing
Photo Sharing
Sports and Fitness
Social Search
Social News and Social Bookmarking
Widgets and Applications
Large and Mainstream Social Networks

(more…)

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