Pandora iPhone ad platform delivers over 1 million ads a day
Oct 30, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
Sometime ago we announced the launch of Pandora’s iPhone Mobile Ad Platform with Best Buy and Becks being the first to sign up. Now we are presenting you the results of it. At this moment the ad platform reaches nearly one of every five iPhone users. That’s sweet music for Best Buy and Becks ears and any other advertiser’s who wants to take their branding message to the Pandora iPhone platform.
The launch of Pandora’s iPhone application has accounted for a doubling of its former average daily growth rate, up to nearly 40,000 new registrations a day. The current 1.5 million Pandora iPhone registered users spend an average of 75 minutes per day interacting with the application or collectively 200,000 hours, streaming about 10% of the online service’s music.
Beck’s will probably enjoy the same high click-through rate that Best Buy did which was well above the industry standard. Best Buy’s integrated ad campaign, the first on Pandora’s iPhone platform, launched September 22. Beck’s iPhone campaign went live October 23.
A web-enabled version of Pandora is already available on the largest mobile networks, including 16 phone models on the AT&T network and on 17 Sprint phones. Achieving critical mass in the number of mobile users in the U.S. certainly destines the mobile marketing platform for unprecedented growth: Research firm Informa Telecoms and Media projects that the mobile ad market will grow to $12 billion by 2013, up from an estimated $1.72 billion for 2008.
According to Nielson’s July 2008 Critical Mass report, as of May, 2008, there were 40 million mobile subscribers who were active users of the mobile Internet in the U.S., less than one-half of the 95 million subscribers who pay for access to the mobile Internet but don’t necessarily use it. Conversely, the same report found that 82% of iPhone users regularly access the Internet, a figure which makes them five times more likely to do so than the typical mobile user.
About Pandora
Pandora (www.pandora.com) is a personalized internet radio and music discovery service available anytime and anywhere on the PC, in the home, and on mobile devices via partnerships with AT&T, Apple and Sprint. Listeners can simply enter a favorite song or artist, and instantly launch a personalized listening experience which includes discovery of new bands, artists and songs.
Today, Pandora has a growing user base of more than sixteen million registered listeners, a database of over 550,000 songs, and national advertisers such as HP, Microsoft, Honda, Procter and Gamble, and Nike.
Tags: 3G, ad platform, advertising, becks, best buy, iphone, ipod, mobile, online music, pandora
DZOIC releases the version 3.6 of their white label social networking software Handshakes
Oct 27, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
DZOIC, the company behind the white label social networking software Handshakes, just released the version 3.6 of it.In this new version the videos module has been completely replaced with the new one, which is now based on our their video sharing software “ClipHouse“.
New features:
- * Contact Us – simple contact us form, doesn’t require registration
* Statistics Module (admin console)
* Address Book import scripts fixed for all supported systems (Yahoo!, GMail, AOL, Hotmail, MSN Messenger, MySpace)
Other new features:
- * Video Grabber Plugin (allows your Handshakes users easily import / embed videos from YouTube by entering the video URL.)
* Load Balance Plugin (allows you to use multiple servers for video convertion and storage. Includes script installation, single server setup and plugin integration. This is a good feature for large websites built with this social networking software.)
* Tags (we already know what that means)
* Social Bookmarking (and we know this too)
About Handshakes
DZOIC Handshakes Professional is one of the best social networking software outhere. If you dream to start your own profitable social networking website like MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and others, look no further. DZOIC Handshakes is your complete solution.
Of course, it comes with a price and that’s $299/license (1 year free updates). For aditional modules and plugins you will have to pay separately (see their prices page).
This social networking software is a white label software which means you can download it and customize it as you wish. It is written in the open source PHP/ MySQL and after you will pay you will get 100% source code (no encryption).
Checkout their demo of the user interface and admin interface. If you have pre-sale questions or want to find out more from their users you can check their online forum.
If you are a user of this software tell us your opinion in the comments.
Sphere: Related ContentTags: cliphouse, dzoic, handshakes, mysql, open-source, php, social networking software, video sharing, white label
The team behind Elgg, the free open source social networking software, launches themes option
Oct 21, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
The interface for Elgg v1.0, the free open source social networking platform, underwent a radical overhaul due to the overwhelming users request for theming.
The team has created two basic themes to help those interested in theming get to grips with the components of an Elgg theme. Check them out here!
Elgg themes are developed as plugins which makes them distributable, customizable and powerful (they can also be enabled and disabled easily).
Here’s a short tutorial on how to get started in theme creation.
There’s a dedicated place on Elgg website for theme development and it can be found here.
Elgg is a pretty new free open source social networking software and recently they launched its first version 1.0. It competes with a plethora of other free social networking platforms like Dolphin, PHPFox, PHPizabi, AroundME, WordPress MU+Buddypress and others.
It is PHP/MySQL built and it seems it’s gaining momentum in this crowded space.
Download it for free from here.
Sphere: Related ContentTags: elgg, free, mysql, open-source, php, platform, social networking, software, themes
Microsoft Web Applications Installer – distributing open source web software (Drupal, DotNetNuke, WordPress, osCommerce and others)
Oct 16, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
Something new comes from Microsoft: the company could become among the biggest open source software distributors in the world (not from their legal stand-point but it is a step)!
Now, that’s something new for a company known to say that open source movement is a “cancer“. Times are changing, so the words.
Microsoft developed the Web Applications installer software recently to help people get up and running with the most used Web Applications freely available for your Windows Server (yes, just Windows, no Linux support, as usual).
You can download the executable from here and install it on your computer. But be aware that you need to have Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista SP1 installed on your computer in order to successfully run this software (of course, you have to have IIS web server installed too, have the administrator privileges and at least .NET 2.0 framework).
Beside these requirements you have to have also MySQL database set up on your computer (use official MySQL installer).
The open source software supported so far are DotNetNuke, Drupal, Gallery, Graffiti CMS, osCommerce, phpBB and WordPress (probably more to come in the future). These are written in ASP.NET and PHP.
If you run into problems Microsoft has setup an online forum where you can get some help (this is a beta product).
Good move, Microsoft! If you can’t beat the open source join it 
!
Tags: asp.net, dotnetnuke, drupal, installer, microsoft, open-source, oscommerce, php, web application, web software, windows, wodpress
Social Web CMS – a Pligg fork web software, version 1.0 release
Oct 15, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
I didn’t know that Pligg had a spin-off (spin-offs which plagued other web software like Mambo – Joomla being the successful spin-off).
I just found out today when Venturebeat announced the launch of Tipd.com service which is based on Social Web CMS web software.Here is the example of how Social Web CMS works: Tipd.com
Social Web CMS reached the version 1.0 after a series of candidate releases.
In the team’s opinion this release means:
- * SWCMS has successfully maintained momentum after forking from the Pligg social news project.
* SWCMS has patched hundreds of security holes helping lock down and secure the platform.
* SWCMS has fixed scores of bugs across the platform, ensuring a stable platform.
* SWCMS has announced a platform that is ready for production utilization.
Social Web CMS has a long-term roadmap for improving the product which can be found here. It can be downloaded from here.
About Social Web CMS
Social Web CMS (SWCMS) is a mature, full-featured, and open source social news application written in PHP and utilizing a MySQL backend. From the web newbie looking for a simple way to enter the playing field to advanced developers hoping to drive social news to the next level, SWCMS is your best source for full, free, and actively developed social news applications.
The niche of this web software is social news (pioneered by Digg and Reddit ). In this model of social news the front-page news is determined not by a small group of editors but rather by the viewer community. This helps ensure that the topics covered are diverse – featuring multiple viewpoints rather than a select group’s editorial bias. Social News also helps ensure that the news is always the latest and freshest.
Sphere: Related ContentTags: clone, digg, mysql, open-source, php, pligg, reddit, release, social news, social web cms, software
SQL Server 2008 Database Performance and Scalability – the Microsoft approach
Oct 13, 2008 by Mircea Goia Miscellaneous
These are excerpts from the Microsoft whitepaper “SQL Server 2008 Performance and Scale” published here (MyTestBox.com got the permisison from Microsoft to reprint it here).
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 incorporates the tools and technologies that are necessary to implement relational databases, reporting systems, and data warehouses of enterprise scale, and provides optimal performance and responsiveness. With SQL Server 2008, you can take advantage of the latest hardware technologies while scaling up your servers to support server consolidation. SQL Server 2008 also enables you to scale out your largest data solutions.
Introduction
Today’s organizations need easily accessible and readily available business data so that they can compete in the global marketplace. In response to this need, relational and analytical databases continue to grow in size, embedded databases ship with many products, and many companies consolidate servers to ease management concerns.
Companies must maintain optimal performance while their data environment continues to grow in size and complexity.
This white paper describes the performance and scalability capabilities of Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 and explains how you can use these capabilities to:
- * Optimize performance for any size of database with the tools and features that are available for the database engine, analysis services, reporting services, and integration services.
* Scale up your servers to take full advantage of new hardware capabilities.
* Scale out your database environment to optimize responsiveness and to move your data closer to your users.
Optimizing Performance with SQL Server 2008
Because your corporate data continues to grow in size and complexity, you must take steps to provide optimal data access times. SQL Server 2008 includes many features and enhancements to optimize performance across all of its areas of functionality, including relational Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) databases; Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) databases; reporting; and data extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes.
Relational Database Performance
In most business environments, relational databases are at the core of business-critical applications and services.
As volumes of data increase, and the number of users and applications that are dependent on relational data-stores grows, organizations must be able to ensure consistent performance and responsiveness from their data systems.
SQL Server 2008 provides a robust database engine that supports large relational databases and complex query processing.
Measurable, Real-World Performance
SQL Server 2008 builds on the industry-leading performance of previous versions of SQL Server to provide the highest possible standard of database performance to your organization.
Having demonstrated the high performance capabilities of SQL Server in the past with the Transaction Processing Performance Council’s TPC-C benchmark, Microsoft was the first database vendor to publish results for the newer TCP-E benchmark, which represents more accurately the kinds of OLTP workloads that are common in modern organizations.
Additionally, SQL Server demonstrates its performance capabilities for large-scale, data warehousing workloads through TPC-H results in the 3-terabyte and 10-terabyte categories. (For current benchmark results, see the TPC Web site at www.tpc.org.)
Sphere: Related ContentTags: database, microsoft, performance, scalability, solution, sql server 2008, whitepaper
Host Color, web hosting provider, announced the launch of TextPattern CMS Hosting Plan
Oct 9, 2008 by Mircea Goia Web Hosting
Host Color said that it now offers an authoring hosting plan based on TextPattern (TXP) CMS. TextPattern CMS is an elegant web content management platform, best for writers, journalists and other professionals who need to publish online textual presentations and easy to manage them (it’s the equivalent to WordPress and MovableType blogging platforms).The Hostcolor’s TextPattern hosting service is made exclusively for TXP websites. It can not be used to run other software applications. It is priced at $3.99 per month and enables owners of TextPattern CMS websites to work in customized web hosting environment.
The limitation is set due to quality assurance, so the hosting company can guarantee that customers of TXP Plan will use the promotional price of $3.99/month to host TextPattern websites only.
Host Color offers web hosting plans in price range between $2.99 and $11.99 per month. Priced at only $3.99/month TextPattern Plan is among the most inexpensive ones. Alongside with TextPattern authoring CMS Host Color allows its TXP customers to use ZenPhoto gallery.
The TextPattern hosting plan features 1,000 MB disc space and 5 GB monthly transfer. Host Color says that these quotas will be increased for anyone who needs more space and monthly transfer, but it does not want to promote any numbers that aren’t realistic or might be considered as overselling.
Besides pre-installed TextPattern CMS, customers can use a number of TXP skins without additional cost, and to meter their visitors with AWStats.
Anyone who wants to register new domain name with thei TXP plan has to pay only $8.95 for web address under COM, NET, ORG, INFO, BIZ, US or WS extensions.
Last week Host Color introduced its entry-level Virtuozzo VPS Hosting Plan – “VPS Start”. It is priced at $19.95 per month and features 192 MB RAM, 10 GB disc space and 50 GB data transfer per month.
The web host recently has been very active in promoting some national and regional Top-Level domains such as .DE, .ME, .US, .Asia, .BZ, .CN and .TW. It also opened its new Affiliate Program, that transfers 25% of the company’s revenue per sale to its affiliates and also pays them for each unique visitor sent to Host Color’s website.
About Textpatern content management system (CMS)
A flexible, elegant and easy-to-use content management system, Textpattern is both free and open source. Sites published with Textpattern can employ unlimited registered contributors, each of whom may be assigned privileges by the publisher of the site. Installing and managing plugins that extend Textpattern’s abilities is straightforward. Overall, is a good contender of WordPress and MovableType although it’s not the most trendy publishing software outhere.
About Host Color
Host Color LLC is a quality U.S. web hosting company incorporated in Delaware. It powers thousands of business and personal websites in data centers in South Bend, Indiana, U.S. and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company also provides fully Managed dedicated hosting through HC Servers and European hosting services through HC Europe. It offers discounts to academics and non-governmental organizations.
Tags: cms, content management system, hostcolor, hosting plan, provider, textpattern, virtuozzo, vps, web
BitGravity (CDN) announces new Advanced Progressive™ API for Interactive Video Application Development
Oct 7, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
What does that mean?
It means that BitGravity’s patent pending Advanced Progressive application programming interface (API) for H.264 and FLV-encoded video now supports Progressive Downloads, Auto Bitrate Adjustment and Virtual Clips.
This is a major breakthrough in HD streaming (see the demo below).
This new API enables developers to inject advertising, automatically adjust bitrates, add virtual clips and other additional advanced features into their H.264- and FLV-encoded video, unlocking the ability to create affordable and scalable interactive HD video applications for the first time.
With the Advanced ProgressiveTM API, BitGravity customers can add a variety of advanced features to FLV- and H.264-encoded video, including:
- * enabling auto bitrate adjustment between series of encoded videos
* seeking to any portion of video by time code without having to download an entire file
* showing select scenes from a larger video
* creating start and stop points
* allowing time-range requests
* synchronizing videos from time codes
* delivering bandwidth control
BitGravity’s content delivery network (CDN) was engineered to enable a new wave of High Definition, live and interactive content on the Internet (we’ve presented Bitgravity in the Content Delivery Networks providers list).
BitGravity offers a library of source code that makes it easy for customers to use the Advanced ProgressiveTM API and introduce feature-rich interactive video applications. H.264 streaming with
Advanced ProgressiveTM is a new option with BitGravity’s content delivery service.
“From inception, our service was intended for interactive, fast-loading, HD content delivery across the mainstream Internet, and this new release of our Advanced ProgressiveTM API with H.264 support is another milestone in keeping with this original vision,” said Barrett Lyon, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and co-founder of BitGravity.
“With the move toward high-definition video and the demand for advanced feature sets, successful content delivery networks must have rich APIs capable of supporting customers with cutting-edge interactive video applications,” said Dan Golding, Vice President and Research Director with Tier1 Research http://www.t1r.com.
Demo
You can see a demo of their technology here: http://demo.bitgravity.com/advanced
There are two links there: “H264 Advanced Seeking and Auto Bitrate” and “H264 Virtual Video Clipping”
By default, “H264 Advanced Seeking and Auto Bitrate” will be opened and you can start testing.
Follow the red arrows from the image below.
For advanced seeking, you can drag the arrow to the location you want along the loading bar, even if the clip is not fully loaded yet. For audio bitrate adjusting, click on the spot that the red arrow is pointing to.
There are three options: high, low and automatic.
The changes can be seen in real time (especially if you choose the “low” option and then back to “high“).
To see “H264 Virtual Video Clipping” click on that link and follow the red arrows from the image below.
Choose a time interval (between 00:00 and 20:54) and click Update. You will see the jump.
About BitGravity
BitGravity, Inc., built the first content delivery network (CDN) optimized to instantaneously deliver HD-quality video on demand, live and via interactive applications to massive audiences on the Internet.
The company is based in Burlingame, CA and is privately held, with strategic investment from Allen & Company, Tata Communications and private investors.
Tags: api, application, bitgravity, CDN, clipping, content delivery network, development, interactive, progressive, video
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