Over 200 people waited in line at the Verizon store in Manhattan.  Many people were turned away after the phones ran out.  Verizon stated that they will be adding more shipments to meet the demand.  For those who ordered the phone online, they will start coming in about 5-7 days.

The Storm costs $200 with a two-year contract.  In San Francisco, over 100 phones were sold before 7AM.

“If a store has already run out, it’s evidence of pent up demand,” stated Brenda Raney, a spokeswoman for Verizon. “We don’t normally have people line up.”

The Storm has GPS, a YouTube video player, high-res display at 480×360 pixel display, 0.34 lbs. in weight, and 1GB of onboard memory.

The Storm has 5.5 hours of 3G talk time, and a 3.2 megapixel camera with built-in flash.   The phone is available in the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Although the iPhone has the advantage by offering third party applications through the App Store, Research In Motion is supposedly planning on opening a similar service sometime next year.

Although the selling price is not known, one of TechCrunch’s sources believes the price is less than $125 million. Pierre Chappaz, the former CEO of Kelkoo announced the sale on his blog.

Yahoo!’s stock price has gone south since Steve Ballmer stated that Microsoft is still no longer interested in acquiring the search engine company as a whole even though Jerry Yang stepped down from the CEO position.

Below is the abstract of the patent:

A data management tool. The tool is a unified, horizontal system for communications, organization, information processing, and data storage. The tool operates seamlessly with existing platforms, and is a common workflow layer that is automated with a scalable, relational database. The tool uses one or both of a relational and object database engine that facilitates at least many-to-many relationships among data elements. The highest contextual assumption is that there exists an entity that consists of one or more users. The data storage model first assumes that files are associated with the user. Thus, data generated by applications is associated with an individual, group of individuals, and topical content and not simply with a folder, as in traditional systems.

Leader Technologies was founded by Michael McKibben and they specialize in web-based collaboration platforms.  Leader’s four core products are Leader Phone, Leader Dialog, Leader Alert, and Leader Meeting.

“We have spent a great amount of time and effort in procuring our intellectual property,” stated McKibben, “and have taken the steps necessary to protect our proprietary and inventive ideas [MarketWatch].”

Google has a dela with Sprint Nextel.  Verizon is currently in talks with both Microsoft and Google.  Between T-Mobile and AT&T, Yahoo! will be able to reach 105 million subscribers in the U.S.  This deal does not affect the T-Mobile partnership with Google for the G1 smartphone.  T-Mobile and Yahoo! will share advertising revenue generated by the partnership.

Microsoft and Google’s battle for the Verizon Wireless deal is rumored to be worth about $550-$650 million.

“Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it’s the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people’s lives,” stated the Lively Team on the Google Blog. “But we’ve also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off.”

Lively will be fully shut down by the end of December. Google encourages users to take screenshots of their rooms and avatars to keep for sentimental value.  Linden Lab now has one less competitor to worry about against their Second Life software.

14. Motask.com

Motask.com is a free, simple service where users can add, edit, and mark tasks as finished.  Motask’s simplicity makes it a very intuitive service.  The site is best viewed from mobile browsers, but it also works well with any normal PC/Mac browser.

13. Todoist (Smartphone Web Interface)

Todoist was started by Amir Salihefendic.  Todoist is a very minimalistic to-do list service.  It has a Firefox sidebar plugin, GMail integration, keyboard shortcuts, labels, reminders, Quicksilver plugin, iGoogle, and Netvibes widgets.

The mobile version of Todoist is located at: http://todoist.com/m/.

12. TooDo (Google Android)

TooDo is a Google Android app that has two-way sync with Remember the Milk and Toodledo.  Task notifications can be setup on a contextual or geographic basis.  Tasks can be submitted via SMS.  And notes can have images, audio, and video attached to them.

The most recent version of TooDo can be downloaded here.

11. Jott (iPhone App)

Jott is a free iPhone application that converts your voice into notes and tasks.  All of the notes are backed up on Jott.com and added to your account.  Tasks through Jott.com can be added from the iPhone app, the desktop app, Twitter, Google Calendar, etc.

Below is a screen shot of the iPhone app in use.  The app can be downloaded from the iTunes App store.

10. EasyTask Manager (iPhone App)

EasyTask Manager is yet another free iPhone application, but syncing costs $19.99.  Tasks are sorted by action name, context, start date, due date, priority, etc.  Upcoming tasks have a circle with the number embedded for the due date as demonstrated in the screenshot below.

EasyTask Manager can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.

9. reQall (iPhone App)

reQall is a free iPhone application that tracks tasks for today, upcoming days, and overdue.  reQall sends text messages, voice messages, IMs, e-mails, and calendar alerts for these tasks.  Tasks can be added by talking to the application on the phone.

To download the app, click here.

8. Zenbe  (iPhone App)


Zenbe is a free iPhone application.  Zenbe features include basic text and due dates, multiple lists, due dates, easy task e-mailing, and web syncing.  Below is a screen shot of how the app looks on the iPhone.

To download the app, click here.

7. Vitalist (Smartphone Interface, iPhone Interface)


Vitalist has an interface that is similar to e-mail.  Tasks and actions are tracked in your inbox.  Each action or task can be grouped by project.  Vitalist is similar to Nozbe but has a more friendly interface.  There is a mobile web version and an iPhone interface for Vitalist.  Tasks can be sent to your account using Twitter, Jott, SMS, and IM.  Actions and tasks can be shared with other Vitalist users.

Actions can also be color-coded.  Overdue actions are highlighted in red, upcoming actions in gray, and ticklers in green.

- iPhone interface: http://iphone.vitalist.com
- Smartphone interface: http://my.vitalist.com/mobile/

6. Nozbe (Smartphone Interface, iPhone Interface)

Nozbe users to group tasks into project folders, add multiple actions at once (using one per line method), add categories, attach files, schedule appointments, print take on specific paper types, and setup multi-accounts.

Multi-accounts are perfect for small businesses because it has a news feed styled recent task activity for each user.  Multi-accounts also have the ability to be branded from company-to-company.  The catch is that for the free version only one account with 5 projects and 1MB of storage is available.  To upgrade your account, you have to open your wallet.  The starter multi-account price is about $12/month.

- The mobile web version of Nozbe is available at: http://www.nozbe.mobi
- The iPhone version of Nozbe is available at: http://inozbe.com/

5. Ta-da Lists by 37signals (iPhone Interface)

So far over 4 million to-do lists have been created on Ta-da Lists.  Lists can be checked off, shared with family/friends/etc., and has iPhone support.

Ta-da lists has an iPhone interface version available at: http://www.tadalist.com/iphone/. A separate app has not yet been created.

4. TaskPlus (Windows Mobile Only)

TaskPlus is essentially an add-on service that complements the Windows Tasks application.  TaskPlus is a plug-in that orders your tasks into Personal, Business, and Birthday categories when visiting your Windows Mobile phone homepage.

Each task line contains a start date, subject, and due date.  Completed tasks are removed from the homepage.  This application can be installed directly on your Windows Mobile phone or through ActiveSync.

3. Remember The Milk (Smartphone Interface/iPhone App/Windows Mobile App/Blackberry Interface)

Remember the Milk (RTM) is one of the best task management services.  Adding tasks on Remember The Milk is possible with Netvibes, Twitter, iGoogle, Netvibes, GMail, Google Gears offline, Google Calendar, OS X Dashboard widget, Jott, IMified, Quicksilver, Yahoo! Widgets, Tasque, and Twit2RTM.

Locations can be added for completing specific tasks as well.  Suppose you have to pick up milk from Safeway in San Francisco, just add the location on the top of the add a task page.

There are several ways to access Remember the Milk using a mobile device.
- Mobile version of RTM is available at: http://m.rememberthemilk.com
- For the iPhone it can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store.
- For the BlackBerry it is available at the following URL: www.rmilk.com/milksync
- For Windows Mobile phone users, the .cab files for the app can be downloaded here.

2. Toodledo (Smartphone Interface/iPhone Interface)

Toodledo is one of the better task management software applications I’ve seen thus far.  It has folders, subtasks, due-dates, tags, goals, notes, estimates, priorities, etc.  Toodledo also supports email and SMS reminders, RSS, IM task additions, Twitter task additions, OpenID support, and a Firefox extension. Toodledo can also import/export tasks on email, iCal, XML, Excel, CSV and PDA formats.

Toodledo also creates a print-friendly foldable booklet to keep in your pocket of your top 110 tasks.

To access Toodledo from a mobile phone:
- Download the app from the iTunes App Store (iPhone)
- Mobile web versions of Toodledo (must be enabled from internal profile page)
WAP 1.0: http://www.toodledo.com/wap.php
WAP 2.0: http://www.toodledo.com/wap2.php
Simple HTML: http://www.toodledo.com/html/

1. Default calendar and tasks software

All of the mobile operating systems that exist in the marketplace today already come equipped with ways to manage tasks. You should be able to create seamless to-do lists no matter if you use Windows Mobile, the iPhone, Google Android, or Symbian.

Microsoft Windows Mobile comes with a built-in application called “Tasks” when clicking on the Start Menu.  For those of you that use the Tasks feature in Microsoft Outlook, Windows Mobile Tasks works similarly.  Add a task, a deadline, and the task status.

The Apple iPhone and Google Android comes with a default calendar application that allows users to quickly add events.  The events have alert capabilities to inform device holders about due dates and times.

Symbian also has a calendar service called vCalendar v1.0.  This calendar service has the ability to sync with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes servers.

“We’re excited to announce the availability of never-before-seen images from the LIFE photo archive. This effort to bring offline images online was inspired by our mission to organize all the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” wrote Paco Galanes, Software Engineer at Google. “This collection of newly-digitized images includes photos and etchings produced and owned by LIFE dating all the way back to the 1750s.”

The LIFE collection is available at: http://images.google.com/hosted/life.  About 10 million of LIFE’s photos will be added to the collection.  Many of these images have never been published before.  If a picture was really worth a thousand words, LIFE’s collection on Google is worth 10 billion words.

“There’s a very low tolerance for anyone that seems to be involved in exposing consumers to health risks in China,” stated Citigroup analyst Jason Brueschke [AP].

In response to the controvery, Baidu CEO Robin Li stated that all medical, beauty, and diet products must now show licenses before returning back to Baidu’s paid search ad results.

Baidu was also hit with controversy last year when the media reported that the search engine company supposedly repressed information about a tainted milk scare in China.  Baidu responded by saying that dairy company Sanlu Group asked to exclude scandal news from search results, but they refused.

“We are doing this because we care. It is important to us. We want to be a responsible corporate citizen,” stated Li. “If I had to speculate, our traffic will be negatively affected in the short term.”

Nesson is defending a Boston University undergraduate student in a case where the student is being taken to court for downloading copyrighted music.  Nesson is seeking out to prove that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional.  The RIAA uses this law as civil enforcement and to intimidate people into settling out of court.  Nesson believes that this method abuses the legal process.

Nesson’s goal is to “turn the courts away from allowing themselves to be used like a low-grade collection agency [Wired].”  Thus far only one case in relation to copyrighted music downloading has been taken to trial.  All other circumstances have been settled out of court.

Joel Tenenbaum is the graduate student being represented by Nesson.  Tenenbaum was sharing 816 music files on Kazaa in 2004.  He offered to settle with $500, but the RIAA demanded $12,000 instead.  If Tenenbaum’s actions were willful, he could be forced to pay $1 million.

Nesson believes that there are ways that the record industry could deter piracy without demanding large rewards from file sharing individuals.  The RIAA could provide music for free, but bundle it with ads.

[image credit: Harvard.edu]

Boxee has about 100,000 alpha testers using the service and funding was needed to expand their services.  By the end of 2009, Boxee plans on launching a “kick-ass beta,” building more functionality and content, improving the product based on user feedback, work with team-xbmc and additional developers for resources, and finish the year with over 1 million users.

Currently Boxee delivers content from Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central, Last.fm, and Flickr.