I shot 3 different videos yesterday that describe Metaio’s new Creator Mobile software which allows you map real environments to hold augmented, digital content. Of all those videos (shot in well-lit, more stabilized sound environments) the best example to describe the system, of course, shows up at an off site event in a loud, dark room. Yet again, I busted out the “Rogue Ghetto Cam” (aka iPhone 4S) to capture the content. My apologies for the shakiness.

It’s no secret that I am an Augmented Reality fanboy in general and impressed with much of Metaio’s work. They are always up to something new.

Yesterday, Metaio CTO Peter Meier ran a small demo for me that describes how their new Creator Mobile software allows any user to map a 3D space with a coordinate system, so they can then add their own digital, Augmented Reality content to that space. This mobile app will work in conjunction with their desktop solution called simply Metaio Creator (video description at this link), which is where the content is actually associated with the coordinate system, via “drag and drop”.

The implications for retailers are obvious — add your own digital posters or videos to your store walls. Swap out the content whenever you like or even personalize for individual customers. All for free and without technical expertise.

As Augmented Reality enabling eyewear by the likes of Google, Vuzix, Lumus and others become a reality, we will see this trend take off.

Justin.tv has already gone in two directions. The main one is Twitch.tv, a video game-focused version of the original video streaming site, that by all accounts has booming traffic and revenue. The other one is SocialCam, a mobile video app spinout that’s also getting serious traction now. But the namesake cofounder Justin Kan is going in a third direction, with a new startup called Exec.

Similar in spirit to TaskRabbit, Zaarly and to some degree Postmates, the site-plus-mobile app (currently for iOS) lets you quickly order a task from the startup’s workforce — deliveries, chores, cleaning, even art. The main interface is streamlined down to a simple box that lets you type in whatever you want, in contrast to some of its competitors. Another key difference, from TaskRabbit in particular, is that this isn’t a marketplace where workers compete to bid down costs. Jobs currently go for a flat $25 fee, although Kan tells me they’re still experimenting with prices.

Like other online/mobile task services, Exec pulls in unemployed and underemployed people to complete the tasks. The company lists help wanted ads, then puts candidates through an interview process that includes a phone call, in-person meetings and a background check.

To be honest, I haven’t completed testing yet, as I’m moving apartments tomorrow. But I’m partway through. I’ve used the site to describe the task and provide my location and payment info, and I have someone scheduled to help me carry furniture at 6pm tomorrow. So far, so good.

Exec has been in testing the last few weeks, but Kan already has some meaningful anecdotes to share. A friend’s scooter ran out of gas on the way to a late night at the office, took a cab the rest of the way and booked an Exec at 6:26pm. An hour later, the vehicle was on site and refueled. Kan’s goal is to orient the site towards whatever a user might want (that’s legal, of course), and he says that someone has already managed to order an original piece of art for a birthday they’d almost forgotten.

Because there are so many different tasks that people might want, Exec also has specialized workers behind the scenes for particular types of jobs. Art creation might be a big one eventually, but so far manual-labor tasks like cleaning have been particularly popular.

Kan is, along with SocialCam and Justin.tv cofounder Michael Siebel, one of the latest Y Combinator founders to go back into the program. — for the third time, actually, as he’d cofounded calendar app service Kiko before Justin.tv. While he’s in the latest class this year (he and his two cofounders have built Exec in the last couple months), he’s also been a part-time partner at the seed-stage firm since June of last year, and he still maintains a strategic role at Justin.tv.

Look for company to take Uber’s approach of spreading to new cities and

What does the launch of Facebook Timeline for Pages mean for your brand? Unprecedented control, an opportunity to boost engagement, but also lot of initial work. A host of new features became available this morning when Facebook gave all Pages around the globe the option to upgrade to the Timeline redesign. Here’s how they work, and how to use them to benefit your business.

Activating Timeline

First, visit the Timeline for Pages preview manager and select to add Timeline to your Pages. You’ll then enter a curation period where only your Page’s admins can see Timeline, while everyone else including your fans will see the old design. Walk yourself through the features detailed below, and when you’re ready, click the “Publish Now” button atop your Page to start showing of Timeline to everyone. You can upgrade anytime until March 30th, 2012, at which Timeline will automatically become publicly visible for all of your Pages.

Cover

The Timeline cover displays a giant 851 x 315 pixel banner across the top of your Page. Facebook’s Product Director of Ads Gokul Rajaram tells me its “goal is to symbolize what an organization is all about. For a restaurant it could be a popular menu item, a band could display album cover art, and a business could show a picture of their customers using their product.”

Covers may not display calls to action or references to Facebook features such as “Like this Page”, purchase or pricing info such as “40% off” or “Download at our website”, or contact information such as web address. Rajaram says “brand have been very positive [about the restrictions] because they don’t want to be seen as overly promotional — it’s a turnoff. Pick a visually stunning, high-resolution image that will delight or intrigue visitors and make them want to scroll down to your updates.

About Section

Below the Cover is your Page’s standard profile picture, name, and two stats: your total Likes and the number of “people talking about this”. The About section shows a description for brands or an address and contact info for local businesses. Users can click through the About link to unfold a map and view other basic info. Be sure to fill out a short, punchy description of your brand’s identity.

Page Apps

The redesign of how Page apps are displayed could be the primary disadvantage of Timeline for Pages. Apps have been relocated from the left navigation sidebar to the right side of the About section. While they appear with thumbnail photos instead of as text links, they’re overshadowed by the massive cover above. There are four app tiles above the fold, and the first is permanently occupied by Photos. The rest can include Likes, Videos, Events, Map and a Page’s custom apps.

Previously, Pages could set a default landing tab that all non-fans would first see instead of the wall when they visited a Page. This is no longer allowed. Instead, users always see the main Timeline view and have to actively click through to custom apps. This means custom apps for your contests, promotions, games, media, coupons, and signup widgets may receive much less engagement from users who find their way to your Page.

Pages also often used “Like-gates” on their default landing app, requiring users to Like a Page in exchange for the ability to use the app. While Like-gates are still permitted, they’re not nearly as powerful since they won’t be the first thing users see when they visit a page.

To edit which apps you display, click the drop-down icon to the right of the tiles, click the ‘+’ button to import your custom apps, and then hover over them and click the pencil to swap them around. I recommend putting the native or custom apps most crucial to your business above the fold, so coupons for ecommerce brands, contests for consumer packaged good companies, events for promoters, etc. Only display the Likes panel if you have a lot of them and want to peer pressure new visitors into Liking your Page.

Messages

By default Page Timelines allow users to send direct, private messages to your Page. This create a new customer service channel where you can address concerns of users without having to discuss issues publicly on your Page’s wall / Timeline. Pages cannot proactively send messages, you can only respond to users that have already contacted you.

Since asynchronous customer service through messages is much cheaper than fielding live voice calls, Page messages could create additional ROI if you convince users to message instead of calling. If you find users complaining publicly on your wall, kindly ask them to message you instead and say you’ll resolve their problems there. You’ll need to consistently monitor and respond to messages though, or you’ll risk being perceived as ignoring your fans.

Highlights Feed

When users visit your Page, they’ll see a mix of stories published by your Page itself, by their friends, and stories from other users that have received a lot of Likes, comments, and shares. This is much different than the dedicated Page-only and other users-only feeds from before Timeline. Users can opt to visit those dedicated feeds, though. A Timeline navigation bar on the left lets users jump to different years in a brand’s history.

Since random user posts that aren’t necessarily positive could appear on Timeline, the Highlights feed presents branding risks. Thankfully, you can disable the ability for random users to post directly to your Page, and prevent their Timeline from displaying mentions of your Page. However, posts to or mentioning your Page by a visitor’s friends are always visible. If you see negative posts, hover over them and select to hide them, or delete them if they’re especially inflammatory or blatant trolling.

Pinned Posts

You can select to pin one of your best new or old posts to the top left spot of the Timeline feed for seven days at a time. Pinning can be used to direct users to an important promotional app, show off a special photo, or display a timely status update. The feature gives you significant control what visitors to a Page see first. Be sure to at least keep a link to your website pinned at all times, and rotate it with links to your apps and whatever else you want to drive the most traffic to or impressions of.

Beyond pinning posts, you can select to Highlight important posts throughout their Timeline to make them appear the full width of the Page. Ideally before you publish Timeline, or at least at some point you should crawl through your entire Timeline and Highlight all your best photos and links that are still relevant, and hide or delete posts that seem dumb or embarrassing in retrospect, have broken links, or were timely when published but no longer make sense. You should also Highlight user posts that especially positive, while hiding negative ones.

Friend Activity

In the top right of a Page’s Timeline’s feed, visitors see the count and faces of friends who Like your Page, followed by one update from a friend mentioning the Page that Facebook’s algorithms deem especially engaging. You have little control over this section. Keep it from amplifying negative mentions of your Page by hiding or deleting those posts when first published.

Composer

In addition to traditional status, photo, video, and question updates, you can select to publish special Milestone stories, such as your founding date, and other big accomplishments like acquisitions or hitting a notable number of customers. These updates are likely favored by the EdgeRank news feed visibility algorithm, and may receive more impressions in the news feed and more prominence on Timeline than standard posts. Milestones appear full-width on your Page with a special flag icon on top. Don’t be afraid to use them whenever somewhat appropriate. Users also see the standard composer, sans Milestones, and can use it to publish feedback publicly to your Page.

Admin Panel

Rather than sending admins to a separate interface, the new Admin Panel drops down and appears overlaid over Timeline when clicked. It displays notifications of recent activity such as posts to your Timeline by fans, a list of your most recent Page Message conversations, new Likes, and a snapshot of your Insights data including the volume of your own posts, total reach, and the number of “people talking about this”. Each section can be drilled into for a more detailed look. A “Manage” button on the Admin Panel reveal the “Edit Page” option where you can configure all your Page’s settings including whether fans can post to your Timeline and who can see those posts.

Activity Log

Here you can see every post your Page has ever published, as well as all those by users mentioning them. You can highlight posts to expand them to the full width of you Page, allow them to appear if Facebook deems them relevant, or hide them from view. Posts written directly on your Page’s Timeline may also be deleted. Activity Log makes it easy for you to curate your Timeline and make sure you’re putting their best foot forward.

In summary, here’s a checklist of the most important things to do with your Timeline

• Choose a beautiful cover
• Provide a punchy description
• Feature your most important apps
• Pin the post you want to drive the most traffic to
• Highlight great historical posts by you and your fans
• Hide or delete embarrassing, out of date, or negative posts by you and your fans

For more information, check out the Facebook Timeline for Pages intro video and product guide,. Also, visit our Timeline for Pages news coverage, including the its impact on APIs, availability from mobile, and Facebook’s intentions for the product.

Miami-based streaming music startup Senzari, backed by $2 million in angel funding, is continuing its international rollout today with an entrance into its third market since its U.S. launch into private beta last December. Today, the company is announcing that it’s dropping the invite-only status as it moves into Spain, where it has signed a strategic partnership deal with MTV Spain.

The site has also been redesigned with a “mobile first” approach that will help the company transition to smartphone and tablet devices in the near future. As a part of the redesign, an “Around You” feature taps into Facebook to help users discover the music popular with those that frequent a particular location. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Senzari’s plans for social recommendations. The company is just two months away from the launch of a new algorithm which will help build stations based on data gathered from Facebook’s Open Graph, among other things.

Senzari is the fourth startup from serial entrepreneur Bill Hajjar, whose background is in wireless, mobile and the location-based service industries. The idea for his new streaming radio service is to take on Pandora by attacking some of users’ biggest pain points – namely international access and a larger catalog.

In December, Senzari began beta tests in the U.S. and Brazil, with a catalog of 10 million songs, as compared with Pandora’s 900,000. Today, Senzari COO Demian Bellumio estimates the catalog has grown to 11 million. But radio is programmed differently than something like Spotify, he says, it’s not necessarily about building the biggest catalog, it’s about ensuring Senzari has the right songs.

Like Pandora, Senzari is a radio service, not a download service or an on-demand one like Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody or Spotify. It doesn’t have to make deals with record labels to gain access to music, just distributers like SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the U.S., and others in different countries.

The company also wants to work with a partner as in enters new markets. For example, it previously partnered with RED Viacom (which represents ad sales for other Viacom properties, like Nickelodeon, VH1, MTV and Comedy Central). In Spain, Senzari lined up MTV Spain as a key ally. MTV will feature Senzari links on its website and promote the service to its 2.5 million followers on Facebook, Twitter and Tuenti (the “Spanish Facebook”).

But while the Spain launch is big news for the company, what’s perhaps more interesting (at least to those of us stateside) are Senzari’s plans for social. Although competitor Pandora already taps into Facebook users’ friend list for its “music feed” section as well as other social recommendations and sharing mechanisms, Senzari plans to go a bit further.

For example, with today’s redesign, the service has added an “Around Me” feature which combines check-in data from Facebook to algorithmically suggest tunes based on what people at a particular location (like a bar, coffeeshop, etc.) tend to listen to. That’s something no one else is really doing right now – a social, local, Facebook-based radio service.

In two months, Bellumio tells us that Senzari’s new recommendations algorithm will be ready, which will also tap into users’ Facebook social graph in new ways. While he’s keeping cagey on the details for now, it seems that recommendations will be powered by Facebook’s Open Graph, collecting data on what you listen to on other music streaming services as well as what your friends like. It’s the Spotify for Pandora users, in other words. This social data will be combined with other sources of information about your music listening habits, Bellumio says.

And as for the battle with Pandora, the now public music radio giant? Bellumio admits that being available outside the U.S. is key. “A big selling point in those markets is that there’s no Pandora,” he says, mentioning that he respects Pandora enormously, but that Senzari is after the first mover advantage outside the U.S.

Plus, he adds, “Senzari’s experience is lot cooler, and a lot richer…Pandora feels like it’s for a grandmother,” he boasts. “We’re for a younger generation that wants very sexy apps.”

In addition, “we can be a lot more innovative than Pandora,” he says, “given that we’re a small company and a pure startup.”

Those are big, bold claims, but stirring ones. Of course, it’s too soon to tell if the startup will gain the traction it needs to really take off, but building on top of Facebook is a good first step in building up the potential for virility.

The newly redesigned Senzari is available now to all U.S., Brazilian and Spanish users, no invite needed. HTML5 mobile apps will arrive next month, with their native counterparts to follow.

After launching the Ultrabook Fund to invest in tablet technologies, Intel Capital, the investment arm of chip giant Intel Corporation, has created a $100 million fund to invest in technology innovation in the automotive industry.

Called the Intel Capital Connected Car Fund, the new venture vehicle will be targeted primarily at investing in technologies that will deliver in-vehicle infotainment, mobile connectivity, driver assistance systems and other car-focused applications. This also includes new in-vehicle applications and development tools, speech recognition, gesture recognition and eye tracking optimized for the connected car.

The fund plans to invest over the next four to five years, and will be looking at funding startups across the technology spectrum including hardware, software and services companies.

It’s important to note that Intel, as a company, has been working with automakers and in-vehicle infotainment suppliers to help integrate its own technologies into cars. For example, Toyota and Intel announced last Fall that the two companies would be researching and possibly developing an automotive infotainment platform.

Besides the tablet technology fund, the investment firm also has country-specific funds such as the India Technology Fund, China Technology Fund II, Brazil Technology Fund and Middle East and Turkey Fund as well as past technology specific funds such as Intel Digital Home Fund and Intel Communications Fund. Intel says that its Intel Capital investment portfolio is currently valued at approximately $2.179 billion.

Apple may be a big dog in music and movie sales and rentals, but it’s definitely not a big dog in ebooks. That’s what makes this note from Seth Godin particularly galling. In a post on PaidContent, Godin writes that Apple has refused to sell his new book Stop Stealing Dreams because it contains links to Amazon in the bibliography.

The reason cited is that there were "Multiple links to Amazon store." This could be an overzealous Apple gatekeeper messing up, but they definitely messed up with the wrong guy.

Arguably, the Apple book store doesn’t necessarily have to be involved in this whole thing, especially considering you can grab an epub right here. And, arguably, Godin does add his own affiliate ID in the link, which will presumably get him a cut for the hot, hot hardcover technology books he references in the text. Arguably, as well, Apple is being dicks.

This sort of move is a slippery slope. Folks who have been following Apple’s draconian app guidelines will understand the impetus here – the refusal to allow commercial activity outside of Apple’s purview – but that doesn’t make it right. I could, for example, add a link to my cookbook (“Order crystallized stoat musk at the Village Stoathandler ($5 with the coupon code LOVESTOATMUSK)”) that essentially points a reader to something they would not normally know about. As Godin notes:

Books are books are books – until they aren’t. We can take this argument in either direction. First we can say that the book is a sacred space free of commerce and that Apple is correct in their refusal to pollute the written word as such (you can, incidentally, buy my book here. It’s tangentially related). Second we can say that Apple should have control over what is sold through their channels for various reasons, legal, ethical, aesthetic, and otherwise even if that sale is made within a book and even if Apple doesn’t sell that book in its own store. Either way – the effete artists route or the mercenary merchant’s route – turns this great ebook experiment into a more cynical place than it needs to be.

In the end, Apple has no right to check the insides of books but by gar they will. They will refuse to sell a book on school-marmish grounds, just as any bookseller can refuse to sell Henry Miller or that vapid slobber-fest that is Heaven Is For Real, but it makes them look like idiots. They can begrudge a dude for links, as well. Why not? It’s a free country and it’s their walled garden. Sure that’s like refusing to allow a band to sell CDs out of its trunk because it would undercut the tickets sold at the skeezy club they’re playing, but commerce is commerce and censorship is censorship is censorship – and this is both.

Are you ready for the iPad 3? We are. We’ve got all kinds of coverage on when Apple’s unveiling the little darling, what you should expect, and whether or not a little iPad is even something Apple would consider.

But to break up the monotony (and annoyance) of truth mixed with rumor, I decided to hit you guys with a straight-up lie. So to be clear, this is not the iPad 3. Not even close. But… I really want it to be.

The folks over at Aatma Studio did the same type of concept video ahead of the iPhone 5 announcement last year, and it was just as awe-inspiring.

Check it out:

Now, to be honest with you, most of what we’re seeing in this video is possible, based on what we’re capable of in today’s technological landscape. An edge-to-edge screen wouldn’t be all that difficult, and once that is in place the ability to let two iPads work as one shouldn’t be that difficult either. In fact, Samsung’s leaked Galaxy S III seems to have an edge-to-edge display based on the renders we’ve seen.

Where we’re really getting into fantasy land is in the holographic images. Of course, with tiny Pico projectors and the like, spreading out a projected keyboard or controls is entirely possible. At the same time, however, using those controls can’t be all that pleasant. Especially where gaming is concerned, tactile feedback is kind of necessary.

But the ability to project light onto nothingness, with no screen to catch the light… well, that’s a no go. We haven’t quite figured all that out yet, but again this is even less usable than using a keyboard projected onto a table. At least then you’d be resting on (touching) something but manipulating images projected onto nothing would be really tedious if you think about it.

Either way, you have to hand it to the folks over at Aatma for getting creative with this and thinking as far into the future as possible. Though, come to think of it, Aatma’s forward thinking probably ventured into the past quite a bit (1968, to be exact), seeing that the edgeless design was first spotted in 2001: A Space Odyssey. How nice, then, to see Stanley Kubrick’s vision realized.

Oracle and SAP have been offering ERP (enterprise resource planning) software for sometime now to help businesses manage operations, including billing, time sheets and more. But small businesses can’t afford some of these legacy solutions and are looking for a simpler, easy to use product in the cloud. Enter AffinityLive, a SaaS that essentially helps businesses manage all of their work and data in the cloud.

As founder Geoff McQueen tells me, many small businesses are using tools like Excel to manage data. AffinityLive basically manages all client work, from prospect through to payment, and everything in between in one integrated system.

The SaaS gives real-time forecasts of staff utilization and workload using a patent-pending algorithm, will automatically capture every email sent between a team and its clients, features a smart time sheet, manages billing and more. There’s also two-way sync of calendar entries, contacts and tasks with Google Apps, Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 and admins can approve time, create invoices and sync them automatically with Quickbooks, Xero and Saasu.

AffinityLive will also take a business’ existing data and forecast what future resourcing and revenue looks like for a business. The application, which starts at $49 per month, currently has around 1,000 users in beta.

McQueen says that one of the goals of AffinityLive is not to encourage users to "upgrade" from email and collaborate, or change the way they do work, but instead to help businesses get control over the chaos of how the managed their work, teams and operations.

"Lots of SaaS products today are doing one thing, and do it well," Geoff says. "This is great for engineers who get to focus and iterate, but there's a risk of focusing too much on what you want and not enough on solving the real customer problem. When you talk to businesses, they don't want a dozen different tools doing things that don't talk to each other – they want something that just works and lets them get on with the job."

McQueen adds that monthly customer growth is up 30 percent, and usage has remained high and sticky, with more than two-thirds of users using the product every single day.

On the heels of Box’s strong growth in 2011 — now at 8 million users and 100,000 businesses — and plans to offer the service to the Feds, comes another sign of the enterprise-cloud storage startup’s fast growth: it is moving into Europe.

Today the company is announcing a deal with Podio, a social business collaboration platform, to offer storage services to Podio customers.

Those customers today officially number at 40,000 but unofficially are “quite a lot higher” says a spokesperson. The company expanded to the U.S. last year and plans to give an update on growth in March.

Box has been around since 2005 but it is only more recently that the company’s business has really taken off — and so it makes sense for the company to put deeper roots into partnerships with international companies that can help the business grow more there.

Podio tells me that it is the first European partner for Box. Although technically Box already integrates with some 150 platform partners including those with international reach like Salesforce.com, Google, Jive and Yammer, this one more specifically will mean another social networking platform that Box can offer to its 8 million users.

Podio has been ramping up its partnerships at a faster rate of late: the Google partnership — to integrate the Podio platform with Google Docs — in fact was only announced a couple of weeks ago.

For Podio, a social network for businesses that lets those who use it create apps to enhance the functionality of the service (or a “Yammer with apps,” as we once called it) the deal gives its users another feature — cloud storage from a well-known brand — to add to the list already offered by other partners.

Those partners include Google Apps, Campaign Monitor, Evernote, FreshBooks, Instapaper and Zendesk.

If Windows Vista was Microsoft’s folly – a mish-mash of ideas not fully baked and aimed at multiple constituencies – Windows 8 is Microsoft’s rebirth. To get ecstatic about it isn’t quite the direction I’d like to take this mini-review, but let’s just say that Microsoft is on the cusp of getting things right.

As we said before, Windows 8 will ruffle a lot of feathers. The first and most obvious comparison is with the new Windows Phone interface. The “Start” menu is gone, replaced by what amounts to the entire Metro UI. This UI – the one with the multiple, animated squares, is the one that matters.

Then there’s the Explorer. Every so often – and it will happen more in the beginning of Win8′s life cycle, the OS drops into “original” Windows, the Windows of tiny, uselessly-labeled buttons and overlapping windows and notification screens. Gone are the tiles and gently pulsing images, in comes Windows 95.

Woe betide Microsoft for maintaining ties to the original Windows with this odd accretion of functionality – they’re going to be ripped apart by the blogging masses – but this is the second time I’ve seen the interface and I’m accepting of the compromise. Going from Metro to “Windows” is like going from the Museum of Modern Art to a bodega across the street. You’ll get more done, but damned if you don’t miss the cool, calm design and attention to detail.

The improvements made in this version include a split keyboard for improved on-screen typing, considerably improved gestures including a cool “left side swipe” that brings up all running applications, and improved PIM apps like Mail and Calendar that are so far from Outlook as to make Outlook look like a steam-powered Rolodex. SkyDrive interactivity allows users to keep their settings, downloaded apps and content, and look and feel from PC to PC, a very interesting concept that bears further examination.

As we noted earlier, Windows Live is gone, replaced by Microsoft Account. The distinction is an important one. In short, Microsoft Account allows IT managers to distribute apps, settings, and files to any computer, anywhere, including mobile devices. You could log into a friend’s computer and see all of your SkyDrive files and have access to app downloads. Even your wallpaper will move over. Then, when you log out, all that data is gone. That’s how it works in theory, at least, and it should improve an IT guy’s life immensely.

This goes hand-in-hand with improved battery life and performance. Win8, dependent on fairly efficient on-screen animations, reduces the need for heavy duty graphics activity. I asked Microsoft if there are any savings associated with what amounts to a vector-based graphical interface and they said that the OSes energy efficiency is much improved over previous versions. Just stay out of the wild jungle that is the Windows Desktop and you’re good.

Developers will be pleased with the cool new Metro UI and, more important, the concept of “contracts,” a sort of pipe-slash-API that allows apps to share pieces of data. Search is the most interesting application of these contracts. For example, when a user performs a search, all of the apps on the device offer up their own contracts. Once you start to drill down into a search, these contracted apps expose what they’ve found during their own searches without exposing anything else. Think of it as a roll call for apps where the OS requests some data and the apps reply in turn. The same goes for sharing. Twitter and email sharing become integral parts in the sharing experience when those apps make their contracts visible.

Microsoft is actually playing down the compromises it has made with Windows 8, focusing instead on their road map for future features. Win8 is not an accretion of functionality over an old platform. It is, instead, a rethinking of the Windows experience that will leave many queasy. While it’s fun for us to go swiping along through tiles and writing contracts with daemons, it’s going to be a massive change for “regular” users who are used to the old mouse-and-window way of doing things.

The question is whether Microsoft can offer a compelling reason to rewrite apps in Metro (they will) and whether users will take to Win8 as quickly as they did Win7 (I’m not so sure.) A fleet IT buyer will look at Windows 8 and wait things out but the move will be inevitable, especially as users begin expecting Metro and keep getting XP.

In the end, Windows 8 is a massive change and an obvious next step. The OS leaves competitors in the relative dust, at least in terms of usability, and paves the way for a world of touchscreens and Kinect-like interaction.

A side note: as evidence of the difficulty folks will have at getting used to this new OS, I forced myself to use Win8 for most of last week, hooking it up to a big monitor and connected a keyboard and mouse. Oddly, as much as I loved the concepts, I just couldn’t quit the old icon/window interface of OS X. This isn’t a critique of Win8 in its current form simply because the OS isn’t finished yet. It’s an acknowledgement of the mental models that Microsoft has built up inside us for decades now and an understanding that the road ahead will be a hard one – but the destination will be worth the slog.

Mobile app marketing firm Fiksu has new data today on the effect the post-holiday rush on mobile devices had on the number of apps downloaded throughout the month of January. In short, downloads skyrocketed last month, even beating December’s numbers. iOS downloads reached an all-time high last month, the firm says, up 12% from its previous high in December, when the devices were originally unwrapped by their new owners. This trend seems to indicate that the fervor to load up a new phone or tablet with apps doesn’t just result in a temporary spike – the increased activity is sustained over weeks (and perhaps months) into the future.

The measurement known as the Fiksu App Store Competitive Index tracks the average aggregate daily download volume of the top 200 free U.S. iPhone apps. It peaked at 6.79 million daily downloads in January, up from December's 6.04 million (or, as noted above, 12%).

To be clear, this firm tracks trends here in the U.S., so its findings are not globally relevant. Still, they seem to highlight how the traditional mindset around marketing has inched its way into the mobile app space.

Case  in point: in January, the cost to market mobile apps dropped significantly, falling 59% from December’s record high of $1.81 to just $1.14 last month. This is the more interesting data point for app marketers, because it shows a misconception about how marketing spend needs to work over the holidays. Apps are not Christmas presents, which have to be bought, wrapped and ready by a particular date – people continue to buy apps throughout January too, and beyond.

Although the advertisers rushed to drive up their app store rankings over the holidays, it turned out that January was actually a better month to acquire users than December was. Who knew?

Micah Adler, Fiksu CEO, advises app marketers to reconsider their marketing programs. Many app brands invest heavily in Q4 and then reduce spending in January as they evaluate their programs for the New Year and focus on version upgrades, he says. But January, note Adler, is “an excellent time for both growth and value – and budget-savvy marketers should take full advantage.”

Now they know for next year. Oh well.

Tired of just hearing about Windows 8 all the time? Well then, you’re in luck — Microsoft has finally released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview to the public, so people outside of the tech bubble finally have the chance to take Redmond’s new OS for a spin.

Be warned though: the file sizes range from 2.5 to 3.3 GB depending on your preference between the 32-bit or 64-bit versions, so you may be downloading for quite some time.

Hopefully the download process isn’t too much of a headache — according to Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky, they’re already bracing themselves from the hordes of Windows 8-hungry users. The servers seem to be coping with the load just fine for right now (thanks for the heads up, commenters), but we’ll see how things progress as more people hear about it.

Alongside the long-awaited download links, Microsoft has also provided users with the necessary system requirements for running the Consumer Preview, and they’re just as lax as what Windows 7 required. While a 1GHz processor and DirectX9 or later are a must, the rest of the requirement depends on which version of the OS you would like to run. If you’re a 32-bit type, you’ll only need 1GB of RAM and 16GB of disk space, while those of the 64-bit persuasion need at least 2GB of RAM and 20GB available on their hard drives.

The preview can be downloaded here — enjoy! (Oh, and let us know what you think.)

Developing…

When Toshiba first entered the tablet space, they specifically told us “we’re not focusing on thin and light, we’re focusing on usability.” This was true — both the Thrive and Thrive 7″ have a host of ports and the big guy even has a removable battery.

But it would seem that Toshiba is ready to switch up the strategy, as the company is today announcing the world’s thinnest and lightest 10-inch tablet, the Excite 10 LE.

Not sure where the whole “LE” thing came from so let’s just ignore that. The Excite 10 has a brushed magnesium alloy back panel and only weighs 1.18lbs with a waistline of 7.7mm. For some perspective, the Droid Razr is 7.1mm thick.

The slate runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb, but Toshiba and I talked tirelessly about this and you can rest assured the Excite will run Ice Cream Sandwich by the end of spring. Past that, you’ll have a 1280×800 10.1-inch AutoBrite display, along with a OMAP 4430 1.2GHz dual-core processor.

Portage seems to be Toshiba’s specialty, and even as such a thin slate, the Excite 10 still makes room for the necessary connectivity. MicroUSB, HDMI, and microSD slots are all included, along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. On the back you’ll find a 5-megapixel camera capable of video capture in 1080p, along with a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter for video chat.

The Excite 10 LE comes in both 16- and 32GB flavors for $529 and $599 respectively.

Startup NimbleCommerce wants to become the daily deal platform for media companies (often, but not always, the traditional ones that are struggling to make money online), and today it’s announcing a big customer — Digital First Media, which manages the MediaNews Group (the second largest newspaper chain in the United States) and the Journal Register Company.

Altogether, Digital First says it reaches 57 million Americans in 18 states. Its newspapers include The Denver Post, The Salt Lake Tribune, and the San Jose Mercury News. Chief Digital Officer Arturo Duran tells me the company has already seen success with daily deals in some markets, like Denver and San Jose. However, NimbleCommerce allows Digital First to unify the deal platform across all its properties, exporting the successful models to other markets and making it easier for businesses to offer their deals in more than one paper. (He also insists that the partnership wasn’t about price, but presumably this lowers costs, too.)

Duran argues that this move is part of Digital First’s broader strategy for surviving in the digital age.

“The newspapers grew up thinking that they had to be different,” Duran says. “One of our big strategies has been standardization — the navigation, the backend, it has to be universal. … We think a big piece of why the newspapers do not survive is because they try to do everything on the small scale.”

For now, the partnership is focused on daily deals initially, but Duran and NimbleCommerce CEO Prashant Nedungadi say it could eventually expand into some of the other services that NimbleCommerce offers, such as other forms of e-commerce. Nedungadi also says that his company is now profitable, and that it’s managing nearly $150 million in revenue through its platform.

Facebook Pages around the world can now upgrade to Timeline, allowing businesses to express themselves more visually through a redesign consistent with what was pushed to user profiles this fall. Major new features include the option to pin posts to the top of the feed for one week, and receive and respond to private messages from users. Pages can also upload a big cover image and feature posts from amongst a feed of updates Facebook determines to be the most engaging.

Overall, Timeline should inspire users to spend more time browsing Pages and reading their feed stories. However, it removes the ability to set an app as a default landing page, which could reduce engagement with signup widgets and contests. All Pages can upgrade to Timeline today, and but also have an optional 30 day period to curate before Timeline is forcibly pushed to them on March 30th.

Admins can go here to add Timeline to their Pages. Additionally, here’s the Facebook video introduction to Timeline for Pages, and the product guide for Timeline for Pagesis embedded below. You can see a live example of Timeline on the Today Show’s Page. Page admins should check out my follow-up “How To Use Facebook Timeline For Brand Pages: New Feature Details”

Existing Page APIs will remain intact. Facebook has been working with platform partners like Buddy Media and Vitrue to make sure their tools don’t break and can support the new functionality. A new admin panel and Activity Log lets Pages see a quick view of their Insights data, respond to inbound private messages, and feature, hide, or delete posts. Timeline for Pages is not visible from mobile yet, but will be soon.

Brands with a long, colorful history have the most to gain from Timeline. They’ll be able to insert updates, links, media, and milestones as far back as their founding. For example, Livestrong’s Page features photos and videos from Lance Armstrong’s fight with cancer in the 1990s, while ESPN displays a photo from its first broadcast in 1979.

The inventor of Timeline, Facebook product manager Sam Lessin, tells me that “We’re doing this because consistency matters. Organizations have identities too. A lot of brands are’t great storytellers, but the best ones are. All barands should aspire to that level with their Timeline. It weaves together the best stories from the brand and the best stories from your friend about the brand.”

While businesses, organizations, and public figures should be excited about Timeline, their relationship with users will go largely unchanged. That’s because most interaction with them happens on the news feed, not Pages. The redesign does give marketers a more compelling place to link to where visitors will see more branding and less Facebook site chrome. By reducing the prominence of apps on Timeline, Facebook may have sacrificed the quantifiable benefits of Pages to increase their beauty. Still, the stunning visual design will further Facebook’s goal of replacing the company website as the center of a brand’s marketing efforts.

For in-depth analysis and instructions, Page admins should check out my follow-up “How To Use Facebook Timeline For Brand Pages: New Feature Details”. Also, below is the official Facebook Product guide for the Pages Timeline.

Wallpapers! Microsoft is holding a big Windows 8 event today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where it’s expected to announce (release?) the final Windows 8 beta. Plus, as if that isn’t enough, the Windows 8 wallpapers and lockscreens are supposed to be unveiled. I know, right? Wallpapers! Lockscreens!

But alas. The wallpapers from the Consumer Preview release leaked early. Win8China got the exclusive and posted a rar file containing the seven wallpapers and six lockscreens. Most of the wallpapers are of the standard floral variety but one is a clever Metro-ish style of the Windows 7 betta fish. Interestingly enough, two of the wallpapers are clearly designed for a dual-screen layout, stating loud and clear Windows 8 will support a more robust multi-monitor support.

Microsoft is taking a refreshing approach to Windows 8 development. Unlike Apple who holds everything secret until the last moment, Microsoft engineers have extensively blogged about Windows 8, often writing thousands of words on seemingly trivial features. This approach builds upon the success Microsoft had several years ago launching Windows 7 and has certainly generated a lot of discussion about Microsoft’s next OS.

Microsoft’s festivities kick off at 9am EST. We’ll have the announcement but also an in-depth look at the latest Windows 8 release later today. But until then, enjoy these wallpapers. Wallpapers!

Here are a couple of the screens. Jump over to Win8China’s download link or R27 Blog for the download link.

SugarSync, an application that syncs your data across desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, and even televisions, has raised $15 million in series D financing led by new investor Coral Group with participation from existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Sigma Partners, Hatteras Venture Partners and Hercules. This brings SugarSync's total funding to $50 million. Yuval Almog of Coral Group has also joined SugarSync's Board of Directors.

While companies like DropBox have gained much of the media’s attention, SugarSync has quietly been plugging along, offering its own take on the cloud, file storage and syncing market. Currently, the platform is offered on a variety of mobile platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian (Windows Phone 7 is coming soon), and features a two-way sync solution for mobile devices.

The company says it has millions of customers in over 100 countries, and this number is expected to grow.  SugarSync was selected as the Cloud partner of choice by Samsung, Lenovo, Fujitsu, SanDisk, France Telecom- Orange, Korea Telecom, SoftBank Mobile and will be introduced to over 100 million new customers via product integration with these partners in 2012.

CEO Laura Yecies tells us that the company didn’t need to raise money but wanted to increase investment in staff and in architecture to mitigate growth. And raising money wasn’t an issue. She said that whereas years ago, investors were hesitant about investing in cloud based file storage, now these same investors have no problems writing a check.

The new funds will be used to double the staff count this year and SugarSync is also planning to add another data center. She adds that SugarSync’s user grew 600 percent last year alone.

Apparently there are still dedicated gamers out there. Sony stated on Tuesday that the Vita is exceeding its expectations and over 1.2 million units have sold worldwide. The Vita hit the U.S. and European market last week after launching in Japan in the middle of December 2011. Sony announced in early January at CES that only 500k Vitas sold in its home market. Many pundits and outlet stated the Vita was dead on arrival, citing casual gaming on smartphones and tablets as the killer. But don’t count the Vita out yet. It’s alive and kicking.

We found the Vita to be a satisfying device. The screen is wonderful and the possibilities nearly endless with dual analog sticks, a navigation pad, shoulder buttons, motion controls and dual touchscreens including one on the Vita’s backside. It’s impressive — at least in theory.

But it still feels like the last of its kind. The launch titles consist of a good deal of ports of smartphone games. The apps are limited, the 3G limited to AT&T, and the battery life sucks. However, the Vita is only fighting the Nintendo 3DS in the dedicated gaming space, a fight Sony no doubt feels the Vita can.

Accessibility has become quite the theme here at Mobile World Congress: Nokia and ZTE have announced new low-cost devices to bring push Windows Phone into developing markets, and Google chairman Eric Schmidt highlighted the importance of connecting all people.

Sweden-based Doro is trying to help in their own way — the company has recently pulled back the curtain on the PhoneEasy 740, an Android-powered smartphone meant to help the older folks in your life stay connected.

It feels like slider phones like this are harder to come by in general these days, but an Android portrait slider? Seems like a odd choice, but Doro seems to make the form factor work for their needs. The 740 has a thick, plastic body that doesn’t feel like the most solid thing in the world but could take its fair share of drops on tile. The keys were large but shallow; don’t get me wrong, they’re totally usable, but they lacked the satisfying feel a good button should impart when pressed.

In addition to the usual nine-key layout on the front, the 740 also features a customizable button on the device’s rear. Think of it as an emergency button. By default, holding it down for a few seconds prompts the phone to continually call and message 5 preset people in case something nasty happens.

The screen was passable — given the device’s target market, it doesn’t make much sense to pick nits with with screen technology here — it was bright, and was great for displaying the UI’s large text

That UI, called Doro Experience, runs on top of (and obscures) Android completely — there are no homescreens, no widgets, and perhaps most importantly, no ways to access the Android Market. Doro has plans to open their own app portal featuring apps developed in-house. The first will be a medicine dose reminder, and a Facebook application is in the works, though they hope to build partnerships with third-party app developers to help bolster their lineup. Doro is also bullish on what they call the Doro Experience Manager, which allows 740 users to allows for remote access to their apps and media by trusted friends and family.

The Doro 740 is set to debut this Spring, and could enjoy a fling in the States — Consumer Cellular, a MVNO geared toward the mature audience carries a few of Doro’s wares, so the 740 may soon be spotted at your local drug store.

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