The Smooth DJ

idiomag, a UK based startup, offers music-centric digital magazines customized to your tastes. Brilliantly executed and easy to use, idiomag is monetized and uses video and music content legally. Partnerships with third-party blogs and industry publications such as Billboard keep the content fresh. Check it.

Commoncraft has some great videos explaining everything from blogging to social bookmarking. Great stuff. The Social Networking one is particularly good.

From Mashable today: Revver available for less than $500,000; Employees fleeing, including the founders.

So declared Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, president and CEO of Nokia, at the Mobile World Congress on Monday, the 11th. And he has a compelling argument too. Internet connected mobile devices add *context* to the Internet, a kind of new dimension where data like time, people, and location are always available in real time. For example, you will have a smart GPS map in your hand, showing you where in the city all your friends are, and what they're doing as it happens. Called Maps 2.0, Nokia is already rolling out the beta next month.

Nokia even took a public jab at Google, a mobile device newcomer with lofty expectations:

While acknowledging that both Google and Nokia share "a similar vision" for "operator-independent cross-platform software stacks," Nokia's Savander added: "Google's Android is still a Power Point presentation."

The strike is over, and I'm looking forward to watching The Office again. So how did the writers fair? Not so good, says Kim Masters in Slate.

Wonderful flash animation based on the teachings of Alan Watts [wikipedia]. By the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

This isn't a surprise, but more like the last nail in the coffin. Toshiba has apparently decided to stop selling and manufacturing HD DVD hardware. Expect more manufacturers to follow suit.

Google announces AdSense for streaming video. Google made over $16 billion in ad revenue last year and just about all of it came from text ads. This move by Google opens up video ads to small fry advertisers. With localization by IP address and demographic available, Video ads are poised to be a serious money maker. Compared with TV commercials, they are 100% captive (no fast forwarding or channel skipping), and orders of magnitude cheaper to produce. Advertisers would be extremely foolish not to take advantage of them.

With rates as little as 1 cent per view, and 2-3 ads per video, YouTube alone will bring in billions based on sheer traffic. Shows like Chad Vader will command higher ad prices because of their popularity.

From Sharp, a way for two people to watch different things on the same screen.

Google Sites launches today.

• What: Creating multimedia rich wikis with point and click ease (note: Google doesn't use the word "wiki", but as far as I can tell, that's exactly what this is)
• Why: Sharing things with a team or just organizing information
• Why it matters: It's free. Say good bye to paying big bucks for Lotus Notes.