Amazon.com released its “Best of 2008” lists, which include the bestselling, most positively reviewed, most-wished-for and favorite gift products as determined by Amazon.com customers in 2008.

The following is a list of the bestselling products on Amazon.com in 2008 by total units sold:

• Books: “Breaking Dawn” by Stephenie Meyer (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)
• DVD: “Wall-E” (widescreen single-disc edition)
• Music: “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay
• Video Games: Nintendo Wii
• Software: Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
• Electronics: Amazon Kindle
• Home & Garden: Oster 4207 electric wine opener
• Grocery: Senseo Douwe Egberts dark roast coffee pods
• Gourmet: Taste of Italy gift basket
• Health & Personal Care: Groom Mate Platinum XL nose and ear hair trimmer
• Beauty: Bare Escentuals bareMinerals SPF 15 foundation
• Toys: Wild Planet Hyper Dash
• Baby: Munchkin Mozart Magic Cube
• Apparel & Accessories: Levi’s men’s 501 pre-shrunk jeans
• Shoes and Handbags (Amazon.com and Endless.com): crocs Cayman sandal
• Jewelry: sterling silver open Double Flower pendant, 16″ – 18″
• Watches: Casio men’s Pathfinder multi-band solar atomic silver watch
• Sports & Outdoors: Razor A Kick scooter
• Home Improvement: First Alert CO600 plug-in carbon monoxide alarm
• Automotive: Accutire MS-4751WC digital programmable tire gauge with light

More →

Developers of the Global Hosted Operating SysTem or G.ho.st are upping the ante in promoting its service. We recently got an email asking us to try out the Alpha of the web-based “operating system,” which they call a “Virtual Computer” or VC.

The web application is not an operating system in the strictest sense of the term, in that it does not provide an interface between hardware and software, the interface itself looks like what a user might expect of an OS.

The desktop shows icons for frequently-used applications. G.ho.st runs several office- and multimedia-applications that one would expect from a basic operating system, such as a word processor, media player, calculator and its own email application (where users can have their own @g.ho.st addresses). Much like a full-fledged OS, user can manipulate windows, which can be dragged around, resized, minimized or maximized. There’s even a taskbar for easy task switching.

For easy synchronization between local and remote files, G.ho.st also offers 5 Gigabytes of online storage for users. G.ho.st also runs a referral system, in that users who successfully refer other users get additional storage space.

Aside from the regular VC, the service also offers a mobile version, where users can access data while on the move.

MacMod announced that its new site with 5,000 community members will be launching this January 1, 2009.

“This is going to help us knock out the bugs before we go public,” said Co-founder Jacob Thomason. “It’s nice to be in the final stages of what has been a 2 year plan.” The site is repositioning itself as a Mac-only social network with lots of Mac-centric content.

In addition to having the largest library of modification guides and an active forum, the new features users can look forward to include:

State-of-the-art Profile System: Users can create an online profile, meet and befriend Mac users from around the world, leave wall comments, and share personal photos with the community.

The Big Blog: Unlike very large generic social sites MacMod has a niche to serve and this allows member blogs to be aggregated and served up in a real-time community wide blog called “The Big Blog.”

Groups: Meeting other Mac users on the new MacMod.com can happen in numerous ways, but one way to find like-minded people is to create or join groups where community members can participate in topical discussions.

Software Tools & Tutorials: MacMod is developing a large collection of software tools and tutorials for its users. These programs will specifically focus on customization and productivity. Tutorials will be published weekly to help users put those programs to use (e.g. how to rip & burn a DVD).

Activity Feed: Know what your MacMod friends are up to with a real-time activity feed that chronologically catalogs their actions on the site.

Applications: Members can install several applications to customize their profile including a Twitter Application. Several applications will be available at launch with more coming soon.

AdMob is highlighting the growing WiFi usage in the US and the UK in its November 2008 Mobile Metrics Report. Worldwide iPhone requests grew 52 percent month over month to 359 million in November, giving the iPhone 6.3 percent of total requests. In the US the iPhone is now the top device with 9.9 percent of requests.

The iPhone has by far the most WiFi usage, with 42 percent of requests coming in over WiFi instead of a mobile operator network. The inclusion of WiFi on popular new smartphones such as the G1 and BlackBerry Bold indicates WiFi usage will continue to grow in the coming months. WiFi only devices such as the iPod Touch and Sony PlayStation Portable also generated significant traffic. More →

Linkin Park is treating fans to a free holiday showing of the international broadcast version of their new concert DVD Road to Revolution– Live At Milton Keynes (Machine Shop Recordings/Warner Bros. Records). The footage will stream for 24 hours beginning 12:01 am on December 24 via the Linkin Park Media Player on linkinpark.com. At the same time, Meebo will let fans discuss the new DVD in real time in the Linkin Park Meebo Room.


“We wanted to give the fans something special for the holidays,” says Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington. “The Milton Keynes show was a special concert for us and by streaming it online, we can share that experience with all of our fans around the world.”



The Linkin Park media player gives fans the opportunity to engage with Linkin Park content online through their own web sites and communities. Viewers get instant access to exclusive content, and can enjoy a rich catalog of live performances and music videos. In addition to keeping in touch with the band, fans use the media player as a form of expression on their own sites, and as a communication tool among other fans. Hosted on more than 20,000 sites across the web, the player empowers Linkin Park fans to own a piece of one of their favorite bands. The band will also use a Meebo Room to enable real-time social interactions between fans during the free streaming event on December 24th. Fans can download the Linkin Park Media Player, which will be featured along with the band’s Meebo Room. Linkin Park will also integrate the Meebo Room into linkinpark.com on a permanent basis to let fans continue conversations about the band that began during the DVD showing.

Video sharing sire Dailymotion has added support for the OpenID digital identity framework single sign-on and online user-authentication standard.

The addition of OpenID support will enable Dailymotion’s users worldwide to consolidate their account with other identities on the Internet. OpenID users can now link their OpenID to an existing Dailymotion account on a one-to-one basis, use their OpenID to initiate and simplify registration on Dailymotion or use their OpenID to log in to a linked Dailymotion account.

Elevation Partners has agreed to make an additional $100 million equity investment in Palm. Under a definitive agreement, Elevation will increase its investment in Palm by acquiring newly issued Series C preferred stock that is convertible into Palm common stock at a price of $3.25 per share. Elevation will also receive warrants to acquire 7 million shares of Palm common stock at the same price. Prior to March 31, 2009, Palm may elect to cause Elevation to sell up to $49 million of this new investment to other investors on the same or better terms than on which Elevation invested.

“The additional capital from Elevation Partners will enable us to put added momentum behind the new product introductions scheduled for 2009 and will provide us with enhanced stability in unsettled economic times,” said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc.

Kraft Foods announced the release of iFood Assistant, a new application for iPhone and iPod touch that offers users access to food and meal planning ideas. Unlike similar Web Apps that only link to external websites designed to be viewed on an iPhone, iFood Assistant is a resident program that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and installed on any iPhone and iPod touch.

Fresh features of iFood Assistant include:

• Over 7,000 tested, searchable recipes with clear, step-by-step instructions – also includes an alternate horizontal view to follow along while cooking

• Users can review comments on recipes and share with others

• Shopping lists with nearby store recommendations and the ability to add custom ingredients

• High quality video demonstrations with easy to follow instructions

• Useful tips and shortcuts to aid on-the-go consumers like the “Dinner Tonight” and “Recipe of the Day” sections that feature daily recipes

With no new licensing terms, Warner Music Group demanded that thousands of its videos be removed from YouTube, The New York Times reported.

It is expected that with music videos a favorite staple among YouTube users, and with the company going big in video advertising, music companies will expect nothing but to be fully compensated.

Does this mean the end of Madonna in YouTube?

Blog readers are attracted to posts with photos, and with this in mind, PicApp launched to provide use of copyrighted photos to independent publishers free of charge. However, it may not always be easy to copy and paste code from one webpage to another. And so PicApp is making its service more accessible to WordPress bloggers, through a WordPress plugin.

Having hard time finding affordable, yet high end, images for your blog? problem solved. Access millions of updated images, of any topic (news, celebrity, sports, events, creative and more) directly from your WordPress environment and add any image easily to your post. The images, legal and free to use under the license terms , will enhance your blog content , improve its SEO and attract a significantly larger readership.

The plugin makes it easier to insert free, quality photos into a blog post by integrating all these into your WordPress interface.

[via XFEP]