What it does

If your Japanese skills don’t go beyond arigato and konichiwa then JapanCast may be perfect for you. The site teaches Japanese you’d hear on the street, the type you’d learn from watching Anime all day—in fact the site uses Anime in its lessons. Hitomi, your sensei, will teach you Japanese via podcasts. Besides the podcasts, JapanCast features a social network where users can meet Japanese friends and tutors, and there’s also a blog featuring updates about anime, Japanese movies and culture, and news. Within Japancast social users can post videos and photos, ask questions and participate in live chats. Japancast also offers show notes for purchase from each podcasts. You’ll also find useful links to study material.

In their own words

“Learn Japanese with our free Japanese lessons in podcast format. We use examples from anime and everyday conversation to teach you Japanese that is useful for everyday life. Hitomi-sensei is from Tokyo and will teach you to speak with the most common Japanese accent. If you are watching an anime now and want to know more about a word or phrase you have heard, post a comment or send us an email.”

Why it might be a killer

JapanCase makes learning more approachable and more fun. Using examples from pop culture and anime, users will be able to retain more information than by simple rote practice. Members can also find Japanese friends to exchange languages with and to simply keep up with all things Japanese.

Some questions

How often are podcasts broadcasted? Will the site add a section dedicated to tutors or language exchange? How helpful is this site really, for learning Japanese?

Updates


 » original news

Filed under: Cellphones

It's finally, really happened. The Boy Genius has gotten his hands on pictures of a brand-spanking-new Palm device -- a heretofore unknown model called the Treo 850. As you can see in the above photo, this is a whole new look for the ailing smartphone maker, though it certainly bears a resemblance to the Centro and Treo 500. Apparently the Windows Mobile device will sport a 400MHz CPU and a 100MB of RAM, though other details are sketchy at the moment. Honestly, not a bad turn for Palm at all -- now if you can just whip up that new OS and some new form factors and...

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Here's what we can tell you about the Emtec gdium EM-PC mini-laptop;

• It does not resemble the ASUS Eee PC at all.
• It does contain an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 display, flash-based storage (though no word on capacity), a Linux-based OS, and a webcam.
  
• The company is touting its "GKey," which is a removable dongle that manages the security and authentication for the laptop.
  
• It will be available in July in Australia for AUD $449, or about US $420.
  
• It looks nothing like the Eee.

[Thanks, KC]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

What it does

The creator of WordCurious, an American now living in the newest Prague for the expat scene, Buenos Aires, made the site so he could remember Spanish vocab. As far as a language learning site goes, this one’s pretty basic, but it does make for a less cumbersome and facile way to create word glossaries and vocab lists. Sign up takes a few seconds, and there’s the option to input personal information, e.g. a short bio and a blurb about your favorite quote. You can also add a gravatar. From there you’ve got a simple form to add words and sayings. Lists can be kept private or you can make them public for everyone to see and share (only you can edit your lists, however). Lists can also be downloaded into excel forms.

In their own words

“Wordcurious was created by Norman Clarke. I'm a programmer originally from the USA, now living in Buenos Aires Argentina. I made this site because I found that I needed an easy way to keep track of new Spanish vocabulary I was learning when I moved to Argentina.



You know... when you're a foreigner somewhere and your toilet is broken and you need to call the plumber... sometimes you want to look up a list of plumbing-related words first so that you can describe the problem, and the plumber doesn't think you're an idiot.



I've also had a lifelong interest in languages and linguistics, and my wife is a translator and interpreter. So WordCurious simply had to happen.”

Why it might be a killer

WordCurious is very low key but helpful. One difficult aspect of learning a new language is vocab and idiomatic sayings; you could keep handwritten notes, but it’s so much simpler to have a place on the net to store your lists so you can access them anywhere. It’s also beneficial to see other people’s lists.

Some questions

Is there any way to upload lists? Will there be a printer friendly version of this? What about adding a means to make flash cards?

Updates


 » original news

What it does

SmartJabber is a chat-based solution for improving online support, retaining customers, and increasing sales by avoiding shopping cart abandonment. If you have an online store, you will probably agree that many sales are abandoned just before the close of the sale. One of the major reasons for this is that customers doubt the seriousness of the company and the chances of actually receiving what they are paying for. Implementing chat customer service directly on your website can help you to minimize this lack of confidence by allowing sales executives to reach out to potential customers to talk them through any doubts they might have and assuring them as to the trustworthy nature of your company.

In their own words

“For every three customers who plans to buy from your site, statistics show that approximately two will turn away, right before checkout. This means that your site could be losing an immeasurable amount of profit, every second. The answer is chat marketing. SmartJabber targets every last sale through the use of the highest quality interactive chat agent technology, guaranteed.”

Why it might be a killer

Chat would appear to be the ideal solution for online customer service and sales. SmartJabber provides a complete solution at a reasonable cost and the implementation of this service will almost certainly increase sales and retention.

Some questions

Will some people shy away from being chatted to in this manner? Many may feel that this is too intrusive and back away from a purchase.

Updates


 » original news

Ladies and germs, the next version of the Optimus keyboard! Dubbed the Optimus Popularis, it’s currently set to retail for “well below” $1,000. That’s some deal, $1K for a keyboard. Why buy food or pay rent when you can have a cool LED keyboard?

All the best stories come from random LiveJournals. Or something.

After having launched as a private beta, Creative Citizen, a collaborative channel through which individuals can contribute, discover, and discuss ideas that promote the practices of environmental conservation and efficient living, has now been made available to the public. The site, still very much in its infancy, with just 256 “creative citizens” having registered themselves and pledged to solutions for a greener future, is certainly a work in progress, but one that may well prove attractive to people who tend toward the group-effort mentality.

In its most basic form, Creative Citizen is a network for people who think it worthwhile to sustain all manner of natural and elemental things: trees, water, bears, sharks, humans, etc. It’s co-founders, CEO Scott Badenoch and CIO Argam DerHartunian call it a “green wiki.” Through the site, members can essentially connect with likeminded, eco-conscious individuals - from longstanding evangelists to the born-again, as it were - to share basic tips with one another, add and amend solutions to waste problems and so forth, and even pocket some virtual greenage points while they’re at it. On the whole, it seems built to maintain a relatively casual atmosphere, with average folk and treehuggers working together to cut their respective carbon footprints. Or at least try.

Of course, Creative Citizen cannot guarantee that its users will follow through on their respective promises to adhere to solutions shared by fellow community members. That would be wishful thinking. Some might do as the say, but as with most things new and unfamiliar, a move to truly green living isn’t such an easy transition, with most first-world citizens only begrudgingly reusing plastics of all varieties and restoring their bicycles and whatnot. So Creative Citizen is playing it smart by keeping things simple, and even more so, allowing users to take control. Hence the wikiware.

Social networking has taught Web 2.0 entrepreneurs that the ability to provide an infrastructure for a community to build and sustain itself is what guarantees success. Therefore, instead of working to proselytize to its membership, Creative Citizen has effectively established a budding foundation on which users may do as they please. Which may well charm enough people to “convert” to make all gears turn as needed, more or less.

Yes, user engagement is key for Creative Citizen’s future. The site naturally has strong competition among numerous online entities. Facebook alone offers numerous active networks of the environmental-awareness mold, and it can even facilitate the formation of live social events to complement Web-based discussion, something which Creative Citizen has yet to explore, and which it likely must do if it’s to make a significant dent in the market. Alas, it is a young thing, and it has had to start someplace, and it seems Creative Citizen has made its public debut in a potentially quite productive way so far.

mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/21/creative-citizen/

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Creative Reporter: Not Insane!
Mochila Adds Citizen Image to its Repertoire
Wikipedia Now Uses Creative Commons
Is Creative Reporter Insane?
ABC News Betters Citizen Journalism Tools
CNN to Launch Citizen Journalism Portal iReport
EveryStockPhoto and Yotophoto - Creative Commons Photo Galleries

Here’s the Acer Aspire Predator that’s presumably coming out sometime soon, although an exact date and price aren’t known yet. The case looks like a futuristic dumpster mixed with a legless AT-ST, and I mean that in a good way. The front of the case is like a goalie’s hockey mask that flips up over the top of the machine (also in a good way). Specs include…

• Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium
• Intel Core 2 Extreme or Core 2 Quad processor
• NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI
• Up to 8GB RAM
• Serial ATA HD, four drive bays, up to 1TB, RAID
• Two optical drive bays
• TV Tuner
• SoundBlaster X-Fi Platinum and Dolby
• 8 USB ports, card reader, dual Ethernet ports, two DVI-D ports, TV-out
• Liquid cooling
• Overclocking

Acer Predator [Acer.com]

Here’s a tip, kids. Next time you break up with your girlfriend, don’t post nude photos of her on MySpace. Especially if she’s underage. Yeah, it seems cool at first, but then those pesky lawmen will ruin your life.

A 17-year-old Wisconsin kid faces felony chargesfor doing just that, posting nude photos of his 16-year-old girlfriend on MySpace. That’s child porn. The best part is, the kid doesn’t seem to understand how bad things are about to get:

Warned that he could face jail for publishing images of the minor, Phillips told an investigator, “Fuck that, I am keeping them up,” according to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in Lacrosse County Circuit Court.

Probably, in this case, the kid should have just called her some horribly degrading name (”stupid head,” perhaps), and then moved on with his life.

via Drudge Report

Last week, eMarketer lowered their estimates for advertiser spending on social networks in the US. Apparently, the research company sees the same trend globally, and has lowered worldwide estimates, at least in the long-term. eMarketer now sees social networking ad spend in 2011 at $4.3 billion, versus the previous estimate of $4.7 billion. As Alley Insider notes, estimates for 2008 have remained the same at $1.9 billion globally.

So, between lowered ad spending estimates and slowing traffic growth at top social networks MySpace and Facebook, is it time to panic? Not quite. As eMarketer reports, ad spending on social networks is still projected to outpace online advertising on the whole by a wide margin: 68% to 22% in 2008. Not to mention, with how quickly things change in the social networking and online advertising space, estimates that look three years ahead are certainly subject to change.

Of course, the biggest influence on ad spending is something neither the social networks nor the advertising networks can control: the economy. Advertising budgets are typically the first thing to get cut in a recession, so if the economy falls apart, look for these estimates along with those for most other online ad metrics to get slashed further.

mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/21/social-network-advertising-estimates/

---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

AOL Acquisition of Tacoda Behavioral Ad Network Complete
Social Networking Ads: $2 Billion by 2010
Projections: Ad Spending on Social Networks to Drop
Freshbooks Launches Estimates Service
Gore’s Current Goes IPO
Zynga Opens Platform So Game Developers Can Publish Across Networks
MySpace Hits Back on Ads: Launching Self-Serve Marketplace