Yahoo Stuff

Don't be a stranger... (The Unofficial Yahoo Weblog)

The Unofficial Yahoo Weblog — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:58:03+0100

As you may have read in Brad's post, Joe and I will be moving over to the Download Squad blog.

Don't worry, you'll still get to see the fanatical obsession of new Y! builds and services that you've come to know from us (in fact, I noticed today a new Y! Mail build...)

I'd like to thank everyone that's read my drivel here and taken the time to comment on the posts.

So, come on over to the new location -- we'll be sure to have cold one's in the fridge for you...Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Zoom, Enhance. (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

Everyone?s totally buzzed — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:06:16+0100

I'm used to being wowed by all of our enhanced results in Yahoo! Search, as they add a lot of visual flair to an otherwise utilitarian search results page (though adding SearchMonkey applications can help!). But when the results are already flashy, what can you do to wow the users? Maybe just make the results better, like we've done with our Olympics image search. As long as we know that you're searching for an athlete, or trying to find information about the Olympics, we'll now show a fun carousel of high-resolution images from Yahoo! Sports. It's the first time that I've seen this type of in-house search enhancement for images, so it's kind of a neat evolution.

Olympic Things (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam! — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:30:52+0100

The Olympics are nearly upon us, a fact that is not lost on my coworkers, who'll be working through the night monitoring the Yahoo! Sports Summer Olympics site, verifying results, and generally kicking butt. Good luck, guys! The site features a fresh new look, detailed results for all the athletes, sports, and countries that you can think of, a rockin' new trivia game, and a customizable Watchlist that you can use to keep an eye on the particular subjects that interest you. There are tons of nice little touches, too -- autocomplete search broken out by category, quicklink mouseovers for Watchlist stories, a deluge of interesting blog posts, et cetera. If you're interested in the Olympics, Yahoo! Sports is the place to be.

Coincidentally, getting there is even easier thanks to some excellent Yahoo! Search integration. The presentation of medals on the results page is just about as inspiring as the presentation of medals in real life, and the overview results have the nice touch of popping the featured video into a lightbox. To round out the offering, there will be search shortcuts for players and sports rolled out over the next few days. Maybe it used to be a marathon to find quality Olympics coverage -- we've turned it down to table tennis for you. Enjoy!

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisitor! (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

Zoom, Enhance. — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:30:16+0100

Or the Japanese, or the Italian, I suppose. Inquisitor has launched its first update post-acquisition, whose chief new feature is internationalization into eight different languages -- internationalization and integration with Yahoo! BOSS, BOSS integration and...its two new features are BOSS integration and internationalization, and a nice graphical facelift...its THREE new features are internationalization, and BOSS integration, a graphical facelift, and an almost entirely redesigned landing page...its FOUR...no...amongst its new features...amongst its new feature set are such elements as internationalization, BOSS integration, ...I'll post again.

I'll admit, the title is my favorite part of this post.

Music wants to be free (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

Great birds of fire — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:49:33+0100

The Yahoo! Media Player started out as a cool little feature of our Yahoo! Music site , and now is a hugely useful, easily consumable, and super awesome tool available for the entire web to enjoy. Well, it looks like we've got all of this music data on the Yahoo! Music site, so why not send it down the same road? The Yahoo! Music API is a great step in that direction, letting you search for artists, find information about artists and albums, pull down embeddable videos, and more. The Yahoo! Developer Network covers a few examples of how you could put it to use and also provides a quick comparison to the Last.fm web services.

Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam! (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

For me? — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:06:44+0100

Contrary to what Monty Python would have you believe, you can definitely have too much spam. Every time that I have to scan through the pages of poorly titled, grammatically inconsistent email messages that end up in my spam folder -- or, worse yet, my inbox -- I start to think that maybe the vikings wouldn't be all that bad as an alternative. As the most heavily used web email service out there, Yahoo! Mail consequently attracts the most spam, too, and has legions of spam-fighting robots (or computer scientists, maybe) doing their best to keep you and spam as far apart as possible. Still, you might be curious how you can actively help to make sure your inbox stays clean, so it's great that the Mail guys have gone ahead and hosted an open workshop with our Anti-Spam Czar to get all your spammy questions answered. There's a lot of good advice about what is or isn't helpful in avoiding spam -- use the Mark as Spam button! -- and it's an interesting read about why our anti-spam technology works the way it does and where we're going from here. Certainly not out for a breakfast of spam, egg, sausage and spam, if we can help it.

Great birds of fire (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisitor! — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:04:23+0100

Fire Eagle has finally spread its wings, offering a straightforward way to track your location and expose it to the world. There's not much to the site itself -- ooh, you can say where you are and...er, continue to be there -- but it seems like the ease of integration by other applications with the Fire Eagle service is what makes this a pretty big thing. There's already a sizeable number of applications in the gallery that desperately want to know where you are. So now that I've told Fire Eagle where I am, I just need to find the application that sends cookies to my location. *hunts*

For me? (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

(More) Olympic offerings — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:56:56+0100

MyBlogLog has done a lot of awesome things with fostering blog communities, but the most visible feature, tracking the users who have visited a page, has always puzzled me a bit. Do I, as a blog reader, really want to carry around all of these identifying cookies just so I can get my icon added to the list of recent viewers? It's interesting for other readers and the blog owner, certainly, but maybe I'm not that selfless about giving to the community.

The new Just For You widget speaks to my more selfish motivations. Now I have a reason to broadcast to the blogosphere who I am -- they can use that information to help find other stories on that site that I might be interested in (based on my stated interests through MyBlogLog) and explicitly call those to my attention in a pretty little module. It's a tiny bit invasive, I suppose, but it's also useful, which offsets a lot of those sticky privacy issues. As long as you're going around and being a good netizen, you might as well get something out of it.

Everyone?s totally buzzed (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:00:44+0100

For a long while, Yahoo! Buzz had been limited to only covering a select group of authorized publishers. This allowed the team to keep pretty tight control over the quality and reliability of the sites hosting any interesting stories that we cared to link to, but it also meant that there were vast swaths of the web that simply would never get any attention from our service, cutting them off from a significant potential stream of users and keeping us from some really awesome content.

Well, be careful what you wish for, previously unbuzzable web sites-- the Yahoo! fire hose? is now ready and waiting to crush your servers under a massive wave of traffic. As of today, any web page can be submitted to Yahoo! Buzz via our handy submission page. There's also a sizable collection of neat buttons to get you started, so that even your least web-savvy users can click you towards the coveted top module on yahoo.com. So, if you've ever felt like your servers are not quite enough on fire, start generating some Buzz today!

Dance like everyone?s watching (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

Olympic Things — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:18:06+0100

Common knowledge states that we only yodel over here, but our talents aren't limited to our voices. Check out this cute and (for me) heartwarming video over at Yodel Anecdotal, produced with Matt Harding of wherethehellismatt.com fame. Despite the endless excitement that's been the past year, Yahoos can still break it down on the dance floor.

(More) Olympic offerings (Yahoo! Cool Thing of the Day)

Music wants to be free — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 06:16:17+0100

Having spent the last three hours watching the incredible Olympics opening ceremony, I can't help but plug a few more Olympics related products. While I don't have a phone that can enjoy it, the Mobile Olympics site is still fun to look at in a browser. Presumably your iPhone will prove to be a better venue. If you're like me and aren't willing to spend $70+ on a data plan, you can still get in on the fun through My Yahoo! -- the module they put together is really impressive. Not as impressive as a mass of Chinese volunteers operating an undulating grid of blocks, but pretty good nonetheless.

Zamzar, convert any files online (WebScratches)

Badger, Deeply integrate external RSS feed on your website. — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:58:27+0100

/>A little story…
Tim and Louise both work all day long. From time to time, during their 4pm break, they would email each other.Those messages often have an attachment.Sometimes it’s a picture of the place where they intend to spend the following week-end. Sometimes it’s a music track which means something very special to both of them. Sometimes it’s an office document created on a word processor, a slideshow maker or a spreadsheet editor.
There is one problem however:Louise uses a Mac while Tim works on a Windows-powered system.
As a result, some of the files they receive are not compatible with their machine. This is the reason why they both use Zamzar
(more…)

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Taking a break (WebScratches)

WebScratches — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:46:05+0100

Alright I would like to tell my readers that I am going to put this place on hold for a little while.

I have a lot of work coming up and I obviously will not have time to update WebScratches. Lately I have been receiving several translation jobs proposals.

In addition to freelance translation, I should be doing freelance writing for French Tech Magazines. Starting July, my French visitors, should be able to read me both at Vnunet.fr and Zebulon.fr.

Just so you know, Vnunet.fr is in association with several popular paper tech magazines in France like PC Expert, SVM or SVM Mac.
Zebulon.fr put the emphasize on tips and tricks to optimize your operating system.

Have a nice geeky summer!

No Tags

Mowser, the Internet in your cellphone (WebScratches)

Kyte, or how to moblog your videos — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:14:13+0100

/>A little story…
Tim often has to work out of town. He’s constantly on a plane or in the train to move from one city to another. When he does not have a project to review or a book to read, he usually gets online on his mobile phone to either send a nice quick email to his wife or to read his favorite websites. Some of those websites have a mobile version to make it easier. However some only are readable with a desktop web browser. This is for example the case of his brother’s and sister’s blogs. For those, he uses Mowser.
(more…)

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Living offline? (WebScratches)

Concept: Yahoo! Reviews — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:26:41+0100

Sorry for the lack of updates. I am having troubles with my internet connection.
It’s getting really hard to live offline and I’m currently in a cyber caf�.

I’ll be back as soon as I can

No Tags

Kyte, or how to moblog your videos (WebScratches)

Zamzar, convert any files online — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:11:51+0100

/>A little story…
Next August, Dave and some of his friends are going to spend a couple of weeks traveling around Spain. Dave is quite excited about those holidays as he intends to take a lot of photos and videos. He has been searching for nice places to visit and the city of Barcelona looked quite interesting to him. His little sister, Fiona is a bit jealous, but her parents think she’s too young to take a trip abroad. Dave promised to send as many pictures as possible on his weblog via Flickr so that she would be able to to have an idea of the spanish culture. Dave has a 2 megapixels camera-phone which actually does nice shots. He can also take some videos and is now looking for a way to share them automatically on his blog.
(more…)

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How to create a GTalk alias (WebScratches)

Mowser, the Internet in your cellphone — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:47:00+0100

/>In order for users to avoid spam, Yahoo! enables the users to create “alias”. An alias is a nickname attached to your main ID with which you can log in the messenger and the whole network. The only difference is that alias are not attached to your mailbox. Anyone trying to send you a message to your alias will receive a failure report. My Alias on Yahoo, for example is imguillaume, no one however, will ever know the main ID to which it is attached.

Well guess what? Google actually lets you create aliases as well! Right now the process is not quite official and there fore a bit hidden but really it’s worth mentionning!

In order to do so, go to PicasaWeb. Click on “Settings” in the top right corner. From there you’ll be asked whether you want to create another nickname.
Once create, you will be able to log in the whole Google network - GTalk and Gmail included - with your password. No one, however, will be able to send you any email.

Technorati tags: Google - Talk - Chat - Alias - Nickname - Messenger - ID.

No Tags

Giving Joost invites (WebScratches)

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at D 2007 — Mon, 28 May 2007 00:14:44+0100

Hi all!

Just a note to let you know that I have got Joost invites
Simply reply over here with your email adddress if you want one.

I have been playing around with this Web TV and I like it a lot. I just wish they had more tech related content (of course!) like a TechTV channel for example. Also I think it would be great if I could subscribe to webTV podcasts to get more personnalized content and therefore create sort of personal channels. I’m currently watching the Reuters channel… very interesting!

No Tags

Concept: Yahoo! Reviews (WebScratches)

Giving Joost invites — Wed, 23 May 2007 11:06:38+0100

Finally I am back online. Those two weeks have been pretty hard!

Here is a little concept that I have made few days ago. It’s called Yahoo! Reviews.

Objectives :
To develop a popular social service
To make Yahoo! Search more relevant with humanized results.

Case study 1:
Mr John is looking to get a new cell phone. He would like to read about few models and get a smart comparison. Mr John type ?cell phone reviews? in Yahoo! Search
Yahoo?s goal = to get Mr John on the Yahoo! network

Case study 2:
Mr John is looking to get a new cell phone. He still hesitates between a Nokia or a Sony Ericsson unit. Mr John types ?Nokia ModelName? VS ?Sony Ericsson ModelName? in Yahoo! Search and crosses his fingers as he hopes the comparison has already been made.
Yahoo?s goal = to get Mr John on the Yahoo! Network in order to read a contest on Y!Reviews or to invite Mr John to create this contest.

(more…)

No Tags

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at D 2007 (WebScratches)

Taking a break — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:18:45+0100

No Tags

Badger, Deeply integrate external RSS feed on your website. (WebScratches)

Living offline? — Wed, 02 May 2007 20:18:11+0100

A little story…
Louise has two weblogs. One is written in French and deals about trends, fashions and comic reflexions about her daily observations. It is hosted on Blogspot. Based on Wordpress, the second one is more of a personal weblog, a place written in English which mainly helps her share her personal life with her brothers, sisters and friends living abroad.
Now Louise would like to have a domain name. She could choose to forward this domain to one of her blogs but instead she’d like to have a landing page presenting the two places.
Here a good solution to display the RSS feed of any blogs on your webpage.
(more…)

No Tags

Zion Software announces commercial XMPP gateways (BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180)

BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:14:57+0100

On August 11th, Zion Software announced the introduction of the JBuddy XMPP Gateway, a commercially supported XMPP gateway for connecting XMPP and Jabber users to public IM networks including AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo.

The JBuddy XMPP Gateway leverages the JBuddy SDK and is available as a FREE download for small group and limited use deployments. Commercial deployment licenses are also available for purchase.

WLM9 on the way? (BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180)

Gizmo Universal IM Widget — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:25:16+0100

As reported in mess.be another Beta build of WLM9 has appeared (build 14.0.3921.717) Don't get too excited, because you won't be able to download it yet. Some new highlights:New look, with colors and headers resembling the new Windows Live headerNew Groups featureDP pictures are now displayed on the left-hand side in conversation windows (hopefully Microsoft will give users the choice of making it appear on the right-hand side like v8.5)New Photo sharing feature.Stay tuned for more news as and when it becomes available.

Screen Sharing Tool for IM programs (BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180)

Hi-Tech Peeping Tom Spys on Girls' Webcams — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:07:41+0100

With ScreenCamera you can share your desktop screen using video enabled instant messengers including AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, Live Messenger, etc..

Actually, with ScreenCamera you can share your desktop and your webcam at the same time using video enabled instant messengers.

Download and install ScreenCamera. Select 'ScreenCamera IM Device' as the video source for your Instant Messenger. Start ScreenCamera and you will be immediately able to share your computer screen with your friends.

To download ScreenCamera visit: ScreenCamera - Software for: screen as webcam, broadcast screen as webcam, screen to webcam, broadcast screen over web, screen capture software for webcam, webcam sharing software, screen sharing software, desktop sharing software, screen sharing, de

Interactive Networks Launches IM for Education (BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180)

WLM9 on the way? — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:21:48+0100

>Instant messaging has long been used by students for socializing and collaboration. Some teachers have even embraced IM as a way to communicate with their students -- creating a sort of extended "office hours." Unfortunately, this all happens in a haphazard fashion using public IM networks, with little or now managment capability available to the school.

For example, the teacher could not easily create IM groups for a class, limiting who could join. And the tools for collaboration vary depending on the IM system used.

Now Interactive Networks has introduced a special version of Intan-t instant messenger specifically for educational institutions. It provides many improvements and brand new collaborative features that benefit both educators and students.

Educators can create group tutorials and answer questions regarding exams or homework. They can share presentations with their students online, promoting interactivity. And they can collaboratively review documents.

Educational institutions can manage the whole IM network through a web based administration console, having the chance to add specific users to the student�s contact list, creating groups for different purposes.

>Intan-t also provides multi-person chat with voice and video, making it easier for students to connect with each other and their instructors. This is ideally suited for distance learning classes, allowing students to put a face to the names of their peers and build a stronger sense of community.

"The changes that information technology brought to our societies promoted radical advances in educational environments, changing teachers' instructional roles in the classroom. It is a fact that our younger generations have embraced this technology, while for some educators it is seen as a threat to their role. Acquiring technology skills and developing new teaching strategies for integrating technology into educational institutions would change the dynamics of the classes, turning instant messaging into a collaborative tool for both students and faculty", said the company�s CEO, Pablo Salomon.

Educational institutions get a 50% discount over enterprise pricing. There are options for hosted or server editions, and four different versions, allowing organizations to select the features that meet their needs and budget.

Instan-t has a great solution for organizations who want greater messaging control and security in their organization. The product is competitively priced, and definitely worth a look for any organization looking to create their own private IM network.

Read more: http://www.interactiveni.com/Enterprise/learning.htm
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Hi-Tech Peeping Tom Spys on Girls' Webcams (BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180)

Interactive Networks Launches IM for Education — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:19:45+0100

Most of us have experienced problems with a computer at one time or another. When University of Florida student Marisel Garcia starting having problems with her laptop, her friends recommended a fellow student known for his computer repair skill.

>Fellow student Craig Matthew Feigin did fix her computer, but gave her more than she asked for when he surreptitiously installed two additional pieces of software onto her machine: Log Me In and Web Cam Spy Hacker. With this software, Feigin was able to remotely activate her computer's built-in webcam, recording over 20,000 images of the unsuspecting Marisel.

Marisel became suspicious because of the light that would come on indicating that the webcam was activated, and noticed that the battery was draining faster than usual. She had a trusted friend check her computer and they discovered the software.

Feigin has been arrested late last week by Gainesville police, where he apparently admitted to installing the software on other women's computers too. "We have eight or nine more potential victims that we know of now," Gainesville Police detective Joseph Mayo told the Gainesville Sun. He is charged with modifying computer data and disrupting or denying computer system services which, according to Florida Statute 815.06 on computer-related crimes, could be treated as a felony and punishable by prison time.

This serves as a warning. Be careful when taking your computer in for repair. Use a reputable shop that you trust. Better yet, educate yourself on how to maintain your PC.
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Goober Takes Shotgun Approach With IM Client (BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180)

Screen Sharing Tool for IM programs — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:40:12+0100

Goober is an instant messenger developed by a team of Germans now officially based in Delaware that�s going up against the big guys (Skype, MSN, ICQ, etc.) with a desktop client that overflows with features - some useful, some more superfluous.

The cross-protocol Goober client (available for Windows and soon Mac and Linux as well) can be used to instant message with both peers on the Goober network and those using ICQ, MSN, or Jabber. Its built-in VoIP capabilities can also be used to place calls, although video chat is still under development. We�re told that the company is intent on keeping its client software up-to-date on all platforms, including Java for the mobile, so that users enjoy the same experience regardless of device.

So far, so good - although nothing terribly special. Goober differentiates itself primarily by providing a suite of widgets that can be used to solicit communications through the client. An email widget can be placed in the signature of messages and a so-called �portal� widget can be placed on social network profiles and other webpages. Both present buttons for one-click instant messaging, VoIP calling, and file transferring with the user who distributes them. An additional �classifieds� widget assists those trying to conduct business online who want to be reached through more synchronous means than email.
Goober has also integrated entertainment features into the client. The company draws upon free video channels and radio stations found on the internet and allows for the playback of them at the bottom of the client. The quality of this content isn�t superb and I�m not sure why you�d want to use your IM client for media consumption, but there it is anyway.

Among Goober�s various other bells and whistles is a micropayments system that can be used to pay either Goober for VoIP services or whoever has white labeled Goober for its own business (perhaps a media company that wants to deliver its video through the client for a fee). A Jajah-like feature connects two landlines via VoIP to cut down on the cost of long distance calls. And users can send SMSs, MP3s and screenshots to each other from within the client.

Overall, Goober is a respectable IM client, although I find little that would actually entice me to switch over from Skype and AIM. The entertainment features don�t do anything for me, and the widgets are only moderately useful. The user interface could also use some cleaning up, as it confuses and doesn�t look the most professional. However, those who regularly communicate across several protocols should check it out, especially once Goober adds AIM and Gtalk support (both planned). A special beta download page has been set up here that will come with a $5 voucher for the first 5,000 TechCrunch readers to try out the client�s VoIP capabilities.

Also see the recent upgrades to Skype�s IM client, which has moved further in the video chat direction.

More from TechCrunch...

Gizmo Universal IM Widget (BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180)

Zion Software announces commercial XMPP gateways — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:08:26+0100

Something about that title seems, well, weird. A gizmo widget? Aren't "gizmo" and "widget" synonymous?

Actually, Gizmo refers to the popular SIP voice chat client and probably the biggest competitor to Skype. And widgets are basically little programs you can embed on your blog, Facebook, or other social network page.

Gizmo's biggest strong points are that it uses an open protocol for voice over IP (VoIP), it can double as a multi-network IM client with support for AIM, MSN and Yahoo, and it can run on a wide variety of platforms, including PC, Mac, Linux and mobile devices.

And now, you can embed Gizmo's "universal IM widget" in your webpage.

The universal widget is easily embedded on your iGoogle, Netvibes, Wordpress, Typepad or Windows Live blog -- or any website that will let you insert HTML.

The universal IM widget is auto-updating and provides an audio alert when new messages come in. It supports AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live.

Get the Gizmo Universal IM Widget here.
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Delicious 2.0 Imminent Again (BigBlueBall Forums - 147,148,154,156,163,180)

Apprise: An Air RSS Reader with AIM/Twitter Integration — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 07:00:16+0100

Yahoo�s inability to launch Delicious 2.0, which was feature complete and in private beta back in September 2007, has become a bit of a joke around Silicon Valley.

Last month we called on Yahoo to provide guidance on when we might see the new version of the service. In a blog post today, the Delicious team says to get ready for the new version, it�s �almost ready.�

We heard this all before. In January the Delicious blog strongly suggested a launch was imminent, but it never came. We heard from sources inside the company that the issue was an inability to scale the product properly. Some team members suggested caching of bookmark data to reduce the load on the database servers. Others thought a fresh set of database queries were needed every time a user pulled up a page on Deicious. Since that page lists every tag they�ve ever used, the site crawled.

It�s unlikely the team would head fake us again with a blog post unless they were really sure it was time to turn on Delicious 2.0 for everyone. It�s just too bad that Delicious founder Joshua Schachter left the company before he was able to see it go live.

More screen shots of Delicious 2.0 are here.

More from TechCrunch...

Apprise: An Air RSS Reader with AIM/Twitter Integration (BigBlueBall Forums - ...

Goober Takes Shotgun Approach With IM Client — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:40:47+0100

Christian Cantrell, an Adobe employee and editor of WatchReport just sent me a link to his latest project. It’s called Apprise Reader and it’s basically a feed reader with two very compelling features: direct forwarding of stories to Twitter or AIM.

On the surface, Apprise Reader hits all the right buttons: Adobe Air, Twitter, AIM, RSS. It is, at its core, a feed reader with a dead simple interface. It accepts standard OPML files to import feeds and runs natively on Windows and OS X - Linux support is coming soon.

All of this by itself should make it worth the download but wait, there’s more. Apprise is in beta right now and it’s completely free. You can easily send links from the feed reader to Twitter or to any of your AIM friends. You could also conceivably edit the code to add in any destination you could imagine including blogs and micro-blogs like Tumblr. You simply enter your credentials and Twitter and AIM icons light up on top of the window. Tapping them sends the story to its respective destination.

Sure, it’s not earth-shattering but this is one of the first standalone readers I’ve seen to be able to do this. It’s a powerful and compelling addition to the standard feed-reader repertoire and sure to be soon replicated.

Source: CrunchGear