What it does

You know about online storage. There’s box, mozy, carbonite, xdrive, et al. They’ve evolved from Gmail to your basic high priced online storage site to storage with sharing and lots of Web 2.0 goodies and free space. Here’s another one to add to your list: Free Drive. Like the rest of the flock, Free Drive offers storage, lots of it—up to 20 GB—but it’s got an edge over the others. FreeDrive has actually gone the social networking route. It’s designed for people who use MySpace or Facebook. There’s even a Facebook app you can add. A free account will get you 1 GB of storage. You can choose keep them private, share them with friends, or go all out and make them public for the world to see. The site itself has a YouTube vibe, with a choice of tabs ranging from ‘My FreeDrive’ to

‘The Public FreeDrive’. There’s communities and all the content is searchable with keywords and tags. Simply create a profile and get sharing.

In their own words

“FreeDrive is a personal storage and file sharing service designed for users of social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. With just a single FreeDrive account, users can access both their own files and their friend's files from within any social network they happen to be on. By focusing exclusively on building a service to support social networks, FreeDrive makes it easier then ever for friends to share files between friends.”

Why it might be a killer

FreeDrive works well if you social network especially if you use Facebook. It makes it easier to share content with a host of your peers. It’s got a good community built around itself as well?

Some questions

What makes FreeDrive better than other sites? Why not offer more storage for free? Will users actually pay for more?

How will it reach critical mass?

Updates


 » original news

I must admit that I had quite a massive Star Wars collection as a kid. I loved it, and obsessed with figures I didn’t have, sometimes even driving hours to track down second hand stores where Amamaman was rumored to exist.

But this guy is just nuts. He’s indexed his entire collection on this amazing Flash-based Webpage for easy browsing. It’s extensive, and his design is nice, too. Congrats, Joshua Budich, I tip my geek hat to you.

I’m not a PC gamer at all. I think the last game I played on a PC was my freshmen year in college when the Internet connection was blazing fast and everyone on my floor was into Unreal Tournament. Yeah, pretty sure that was the last I played a game on a PC. But there are millions of gamers out there and tons that are professional. I didn’t think about gaming peripherals until the Falcon Dust-Off Keyboard Quiver arrived at the CG office.

I pulled it out of the box and said, “WTF is this?!” Why do I want a bag for my keyboard? It took a couple minutes before I realized who this was aimed at. Now I completely understand the plight gamers go through when they don’t have their own equipment. Given that professional gamers bring their own rigs to competitions they should have an easier way to bring peripherals other than a box, right? I think that’s what the guys on MTV’s True Life: I’m a Professional Gamer did, but I could be wrong.

The Keyboard Quiver provides ample room for keyboard, mouse, headphones and anything else you need when you’re fragging away. The main external compartment is expandable, too. A nice feature some might not even notice is the ability to switch which way the bag “slings.” Check out the gallery to see what I mean. In what seems to be the norm these days with any backpack, the KQ comes with a PMP dedicated pouch at the top and grommet (what the hell are these things called on backpacks?) for headphones. What’s comical about this bag are the retention straps for a bottle of Dust-Off blower spray. Of course, you can probably find something else to strap in there, but it’s funny nonetheless. And there’s a pocket on the strap for your cell phone.

While the Keyboard Quiver isn’t really my thing since I don’t game, I can see the practicality of it for those who do game. It’s perfect for that upcoming competition or your next LAN party.

Seattle based wiki-startup Wetpaint has been talking to a number of big content sites about a new product they’ll be releasing soon, we’ve heard. The screen shot above is a mock-up that Wetpaint is using to pitch potential partners.

The product is an embeddable wysiwyg wiki. That alone is interesting, just because there aren’t any easy ways to embed a wiki into third party sites today. Google Sites doesn’t yet allow embeds, for example. PBWiki, a popular wiki startup, does allow embeds via their API, but it isn’t as simple to use as most widgets.

But what we’re hearing is that this isn’t a simple javascript or Flash embed. It’s a deeper integration that requires an insertion of code into a site’s back end application files. That allows the wiki to be created at the server level, not simply rendered in the user’s browser like most widgets. The idea is a pretty straightforward way to go about doing this, although we haven’t heard of any products doing this before.

Why is that interesting? It’s interesting because it pulls the Wiki content directly into a site’s HTML and allows it to be indexed by search engines. That means partner sites will get the SEO benefits of the wiki, a major plus for these partners.

That’s all we know for now. The product is being called Balco, although that may be an internal project name, not the name of the to-be-launched product. If Balco is as useful as we’re hearing, it’s definitely something we’ll use here at TechCrunch.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

HDR (high dynamic range) images are photos made up of the same image shot at several different exposures, and when you combine them you get a color-rich, almost surreal image with amazing highlights. They make stunning desktops for your computer, and we’ve found 13 resources for you to grab some of your own to freshen up your dreary work space. (more…)

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Branded video SaaS Reality Digital has just announced the closing of its $6.3 million Series B round of venture funding, led by OpenView Venture Partners. The firm’s Managing Partner and Senior Managing Director Scott Maxwell, as well as Venture Partner Mark Barry, will be joining Reality Digital’s Board of Directors as part of the deal.

With the provision of an on-demand platform that allows businesses to layer in video-sharing for social media purposes into their own sites, Reality Digital has made a name for its flagship product, Reality Digital Opus. This particular product can be launched as its own video-sharing network, or within an existing website, enabling users to upload, manage and share videos, images and audio files online. Existing and previous clients include MTV Networks, ITV Local, and Lonely Planet.

So what will the new funding be used for? Reality Digital is hoping to take advantage of the current video media market in order to grow across the US and Europe. That likely includes sales and marketing, as well as continued branding efforts for its own product. As Reality Digital offers metrics for consumer behavior and interests, as well as advertising capabilities, the company has already established its one-stop-shop approach to its hosted, branded offering.

I’m actually quite anxious to see how VideoEgg’s dropping of its hosting service will affect other white-label solutions, as VideoEgg and others ramp up their focus on the advertising sector of the online video trend. Will the narrow approach work, or will the all-encompassing hosted solution be ideal for branding and integrated social media sharing and consumption?

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Filed under: Cellphones

Don't look now, but mid-2008 is almost here, and for those waiting intently for the release of a LiMo SDK, you're one step closer to having your dreams realized. Announced today, the LiMo Foundation has made available what it calls the "first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices." According to Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation, the consortium is hoping that R1 will "spur rapid innovation and contributions from all LiMo members," and it's restated that software development kits for Native, WebKit and Java operating environments are set to launch during the second half of this year. Not one to sit idly, the entity has also announced that Release 2 is currently "being specified and developed," and should escape testing and greet the real world in late 2008.

[Via PhoneScoop]

 

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Filed under: Cellphones

Don't look now, but mid-2008 is almost here, and for those waiting intently for the release of a LiMo SDK, you're one step closer to having your dreams realized. Announced today, the LiMo Foundation has made available what it calls the "first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices." According to Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation, the consortium is hoping that R1 will "spur rapid innovation and contributions from all LiMo members," and it's restated that software development kits for Native, WebKit and Java operating environments are set to launch during the second half of this year. Not one to sit idly, the entity has also announced that Release 2 is currently "being specified and developed," and should escape testing and greet the real world in late 2008.

[Via PhoneScoop]

 

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Chumby Industries, makers of the Wi-Fi video and widget displaying device, the Chumby, have just announced $12.5 million in Series B funding today. The company notes that this new financing is going to be used to "accelerate growth of the company, and expand and broaden the Chumby Network to other screen-based Internet connected devices." How did this little gadget get so popular? And why would you want one? Read on to find out.

What's a Chumby?

For those of you who don't know, the Chumby Touchscreen Internet gadget is a popular...and darned cute...gadget that can be customized with various channels that feature widgets, videos, feeds, games, and more.

To use your Chumby, you plug it in and configure it to work with your Wi-Fi network. Once that's done, you log on to Chumby.com and customize yours with the widgets of your choosing.

These widgets can be anything - web clips, RSS feeds, games, videos, Tweets, news, weather, a clock, photos, or a million other things. Some of the widgets come from deals made with content providers, like the widgets available from CBS, MTV Networks, MySpace, The Weather Channel Interactive, AOL's SHOUTcast and Scripps Networks.

The Chumby also has speakers, so you can hook up the Chumby to your iPod via the USB connector in the back and play your iTunes playlists with it.

Made for Hackers

However, what's really great about the Chumby is that the device is designed for customization. Want to hack, mod, extend, or improve Chumby? Have at it!

The Chumby lets you upgrade your Chumby in four different ways: developers customize the software, build Flash widgets, or even hack the hardware. Arts-and-crafts types can also mess around with the Chumby in their own way, decorating it or putting in a case of their own design.

Software: The Chumby is a Linux-based, open-source platform which means developers can do nearly anything with it. A quick glance on the Chumby forum shows posts about Python & Ruby for Chumby, Java for Chumby, Perl for Chumby, MTASC for Chumby, and much more.

Widgets: For Flash animators, the Chumby can be a showcase for your talents. Artists can upload widgets to the Chumby site and share them with the community so others can add them to their own Chumbys. These widgets are the bread-and-butter of Chumby, bringing most of the cool stuff like news feeds, videos, games, viewers, utilities, and other fun and/or useful tools to the device.

Hardware: The Chumby is made for tinkerers. You can open up the Chumby, take it apart, upgrade it, add to it, and mod it. They even tell you how and provide extensive documentation.

Crafts: You don't have to be a computer nerd to enjoy modding your Chumby, though. Even artistic types can enjoy making Chumby their own. The Chumby is designed so that the core electronics can be easily removed from its casing, letting you create your own look for Chumby without having to write code. See?

Modded Chumby on Chumby's flickr Group

You can even embed a Chumby gadget on your own web site to show people what your Chumby looks like:

Virtual Chumby

Now, don't you want one?

Author's Note: I have a Chumby and I love it.

I’m in LA for one more night, and we’re squeezing every last drop out of the LA tech scene. If you’re in the area, join myself and Causecast tonight - 6pm at the MaKai Lounge, 101 Broadway Avenue, Santa Monica, for a Flash MashMeet, West Coast style!

A small, select group of tech influencers will be drinking, talking tech and learning about Causecast’s platform for social change. They’re also celebrating the appointment of Sloane Berrent as their Director of Business Development - as shown in the photo below, Sloane was spotted recently at SXSW with a certain Mashable team member. Here’s the blurb, courtesy of the Upcoming page:

Join Causecast and Mashable for a last minute Drinkup from 6pm on at the MaKai Lounge in Santa Monica.

Causecast is buying the first 50 drinks as a celebration for the announcement of Sloane Berrent who has accepted the position of Director of Business Development. After that MaKai has agreed to offer happy hour prices for the whole group as long as we’ve there!

And if you’re East Coast tonight, head right over to the NY Web 2.0 Meetup, where Mashable is a sponsor. Meet our very own Adam Hirsch and drink with the top names in East Coast tech!

Pete Cashmore and Sloane Berrent

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