Time’s Top 50 Sites of 2011

Here are a few of my favorites from their list:

• HBO GO
• Techmeme
• Google+
• Klout
• Pinterest
• Quora
• Storify

Here’s Time Magazine’s top 50 websites for 2011 sorted by category.

Music & Video

• 8tracks
• HBO GO
• Howcast
• My Damn Channel
• Turntable.fm

Family & Kids

• CafeMom
• Dear Photograph
• Poptropica
• Proust
• Wonderopolis

Sports

• Bleacher Report
• Grantland
• Jayski’s Silly Season Site
• Onion Sports Network
• SB Nation

News & Info

• Big Think
• GetHuman
• Instapaper
• ScienceDaily
• Techmeme

Financial & Productivity

• DuckDuckGo
• Evernote
• Join.me
• Kickstarter
• LearnVest

Shopping & Travel

• Airbnb
• Gogobot
• Hipmunk
• Polyvore
• Retrevo

Health & Fitness

• CalorieKing
• HealthGrades
• MapMyRun
• Summer Tomato
• Zen Habits

Social Media

• Google+
• Klout
• Pinterest
• Quora
• Storify

Games

• The Escapist
• Giant Bomb
• OnLive
• Touch Arcade
• Retrocade

Education

• Freerice
• Khan Academy
• Open Yale Courses
• Smarthistory
• Starfall

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2087815,00.html#ixzz1idPQnkbd

Republic Wireless $19 unlimited cell phone plan

There’s a new cell phone service provider in the market – Republic Wireless. What set’s this provide a part form the rest is the all inclusive cheap rate. The catch is you must be accepted for membership.

Republic Wireless is counting on you to be connected to a third party WiFi service most of the time and that you’re not a heavy phone user. If you exceed either of these requirements, you could be kicked out of the program.

From Yahoo News: The company keeps costs down by routing as much of its network activity as possible over wifi internet connections, which are better equipped to handle data-intensive activities like streaming music and movies with no additional cost, assuming you don’t max out your home bandwidth limits. This gives the carrier’s 3G networks a little bandwidth breathing room, which translates into the $19 deal. As for traditional 3G mobile data, the carrier borrows Sprint’s network.

Republic Wireless uses a system called the Cellular Usage Index (CUI) to determine if you qualify for their service. If you don’t use you’re phone too much, you’re the ideal customer. Heavy users who eat up mobile bandwidth can be kicked out of the program after multiple warnings. The average cell phone user would probably qualify for their service.

The only drawback is they have one handset, a modified version of the LG Optimus running Android 2.3. The phone will cost you $199.

Their beta program is currently full, but check it out at http://www.republicwireless.com/join

Apple Confirms Steve Jobs Death

The iPhone 4s Debut

Facebook Video Chat is Here

In giant step towards improving communications and the value of their product, Facebook launched a new video chat service. This new chat service is provided to Facebook via Skype. You may ask why Skype?  We’ll Microsoft purchased Skype a few months back and Microsoft is a heavy investor in Facebook…you connect the dots.

You may ask, how do I use the new Facebook video chat? The new Facebook service is easy to use if you already have a web camera.  Go to Facebook’s chat feature as you would text chat.  In the chat menu bar you’ll see their new video icon.  Click it The first time you use the video chat service, you’ll be asked to download and install an EXE file.  Do so, without it it won’t work.

Here’s the issue I have with Skype, and now Facebook; there is no way to tell if the person you are wanting to video chat with has a webcam.  On Google’s video chat tool, they tell you is someone in your contact list is web cam enabled.  It would be a great feature to have in Skype and Facebook.

I would expect future enhancements to add  mutli-user video chat capabilities.

If any of my Facebook friends see me online, give it a try. In the meantime, check out Facebook’s video chat page.

Amazon Terminates Associates Program for CA Residents

I don’t make much money through my Amazon Associates Program, but I have put some work into setting it up.  In one fail swoop, Jerry Brown has canned my dreams of fortunes.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law Wednesday night that will require Amazon.com Inc. and others to collect taxes on goods sold through their Websites.  In turn (and in protest), Amazon terminated affiliate agreements all it’s California residents using their program.  Below is the email from Amazon notifying me of the termination:

Hello,

Unfortunately, Governor Brown has signed into law the bill that we emailed you about earlier today. As a result of this, contracts with all California residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program are terminated effective today, June 29, 2011. Those California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com,MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned before today will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect your ability to purchase fromAmazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. As mentioned before, we are continuing to work on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

Amazon has cut off affiliates in Arkansas, Connecticut and Illinois where similar laws were implemented.  Amazon is fighting the New York law. We’ll see if this set a precedent for other states to follow.

TinyChat – Simple and Easy Video Chatting

Sure, you could use Skype, or Google chat, or any of the thousand other tools out there, but TinyChat makes it simple and easy to video chat with your friends and family…or your co-workers in Egypt. Best of all, it’s free!

www.TinyChat.com  provides users the choice of creating disposable or permanent video conference rooms. They all have a simple URL and capacity for up to 400 live participants and 12 simultaneous live video streams. I’ve used Tinychat multiple times and haven’t found anything as simple as this to use.  They also have a private chat site for two people. p2p.tinychat.com enables anyone to easily create a private video call with no sign up. When two people go to the same URL (ie. p2p.tinychat.com/myname) together, they are automatically connected and their private call begins.

I haven’t created a permanent chat room yet.  I haven’t had a need to.  After going to the TinyChat.com, you can have a video chat room up in less than a minute. Just enter a chat room name and click ‘create’. At this point you can invite your friends to join. Click the ‘Share this Chatroom’ link give your URL to whoever you want to video chat with.  It’s that easy.

Give it a try, if you want to video chat, send me your Tinychat URL.

Looking for other video chat tools, read my review of  Tokbox

Video Chat using Open-Tok API from Tokbox

I came across a a group video chatting tool from TokBox.   Using their Open Tok API, you can integrate group video communications into any application.  The implementation can be as simple as embedding a widget to full customization and layout.

If you find someone to chat with, you can try it out on my free video chat page

DiBake.com won the TokBox App of the week.  They integrated group video chatting into an article. So instead of posting a comment, you can now video chat with a group people about the content of the article.

Dibake.com, invites you to participate in topical debates, live, face-to-face.  Simply go to Dibake.com, select the topic you’re interested in, read the arguments (or bakes) that have already been made and initiate your own, live video debate right there on the page. If you’re too shy to participate, you can also just watch the debate unfold.

Bring the power of video chat to your website

• In-browser video experience with no-download required
• Up to 20 users on screen and up to 200 in the audience
• Interoperability with Facebook, GTalk, Yahoo and more
• In-widget media sharing: Youtube, SlideShare and more
• Moderate calls
• Video messaging enabled

Google Site Language Translation

I’ve added the Google Translate plugin to my site. Give it try and let me know how well it translates my posts.

The plugin is from AsiaTranslate.net using Google’s Translator. The GTranslate plug in works seamlessly after a small configuration in WordPress.  Since I don’t read any foreign languages, I don’t know how good the translation is. Check it out in the left rail of this page.

We’ll see if my traffic numbers increase or stay the same with the Translate feature.

My Top 10 WordPress Plugins