SOMEWHAT FRANK

Sneak Peak: AOL Desktop For Mac

On Valentine's Day, AOL released a sneak peek of the new AOL Desktop for Mac (beta 8), available for all Tiger(R) and Leopard(R) users (10.4.8 or higher). Here are some of the highlights they list on beta.aol.com:

• Increased Speed: Installs in seconds and launches quickly - so you can begin browsing immediately, without signing in.
• New Browser: An all new browser allows you to surf all your favorite sites faster than ever before.
• Tabbed Organization: Tabs on browser windows and instant messages offer easy access and an uncluttered, organized view of all windows.
• Integrated AIM: AIM is built right in so you can see which Buddies are online, chat and more.
• Customization: A highly customizable toolbar makes it easy to keep your favorites at your fingertips, as well as access them on any Internet-connected computer.

Continue reading for additional details on the new AOL Desktop for Mac.

MyBlogLog Rolls Out Glossy New Widget

MyBlogLog, the blog community creating site operated by Yahoo which I previously reviewed, has rolled out a slick new community widget. The widget offers a glossy finish and "flyout" upon hovering on community member photos which displays details and contact information. It seems MyBlogLog has simplified the widget configurations by removing a number of features and customizations.

According to a recent post by Ian Kennedy on the MyBlogLog blog, the new widget was graphically inspired by Arlo Rose who created Yahoo Widgets (formerly Konfabulator). I like the new look and so I promptly updated the widget on Somewhat Frank.

AOL Redesigns Seem To Be Paying Off

The latter part of last year, AOL redesigned a number of its channel offerings including News, Sports and Money & Finance in an effort to increase engagement and traffic starting with AOL News in June 2007. According to a recent release by AOL, it appears that these changes are paying off. The redesign offers a cleaner design and more blog-like social platform than before which might have contributed to increases in key metrics like Page Views and Unique Visitors.

myAOL Adds Some Themes

myAOL, the personalized startpage suite, has added a little more personal flair to its offering by launching the ability to select themes or skins for each page or tab on your personal dashboard. Now in addition to changing the background color users can select from one of six themes.

Ask Skins Get Even More Personal

Ask.com rolled out Ask 3D search in June 2006 and I was pleased by its simple, beautiful design which enables users to select from a couple of skins or backgrounds for the search experience. Ask has just enhanced the feature to offer users the ability to create their own skins for the Ask 3D experience. Users can now simply add there own skins to customize the Ask search background to any photo that they like. It takes about a minute or less to do and is actually quite fun.

Magnify.net Releases More Design Options

Magnify.net, a New York-based startup previously covered on Somewhat Frank, recently unveiled the ability for any member of the community to create, share, and use design elements that have been "open-sourced" by other members of the community. For example, more complex template sets that use custom color themes, graphic backgrounds, icons, and CSS can now be used as a starting point and re-mixed by other community members. These design related updates should make it easier to customize the look and feel of a Magnify.net video channel. Additionally, Magnify.net has released a new set of templates and graphics elements that include a series of themed graphics for niche sites.

Video: Kevin Lawver on Web Standards

This week I got a chance to sit down with AOL's Kevin Lawver who is very well respected at AOL and in the web development community. He has worked at AOL for 13 years and worked on everything from AOL search to conceptualizing and developing Ficlets, previously covered here.

We sat down and discussed a new book Adapting to Web Standards : CSS and Ajax for Big Sites which he helped Christopher Schmitt, Robert Cherny, Meryl K. Evans, Mark Trammell and Kimberly Blessing author. The book is devoted to helping experienced developers to better understand the changing web standards landscape and somewhat frankly, adapt. Kevin wrote chapter 7 which focuses on AOL's move into the online space with the relaunch the new AOL.com in 2005. The chapter discusses managing "corporate swirl" and "combating the waterfall" methodology. It even refers to web development as a craft (not witchcraft though).

Fawnt Showcases Top Free Fonts

Looking for a cool new font online might have just gotten a little easier with Fawnt. Fawnt, a startup "font" site, showcases some of the hot fonts that can be added to your computer. Fawnt's "secret sauce" lies in using a simple, large white bubble display.

Amazon Kindle A First Look Video

My old friend Benjamin Higginbotham at Technology Evangelist gives an honest and 'somewhat frank' perspective about his first 12 hours with the just released the wireless book reading device the the Amazon Kindle. Ben is a veteran e-Book reader users and lists the positives and negatives to the Kindle. 

Songza Music Search Soon To Launch

Songza, a Chicago-based music startup, will soon launch to offer a new way to search, play and share music online. This free music search offers an extremely minimalist and slick interface to create and play playlists online. Songza's interface was designed by Chicago-based Humanized. Songza is so fresh, they have not even officially launched yet but if you are in the Chicago-land area this week you might want to attend the official Songza launch party on Thurday night.

3 Minimalist Bookmark Startpages

While there are a number of Web 2.0, Ajax, personalized home page products (myAOL, yourminis, iGoogle, Netvibes, etc)  that leverage syndication for content updates. I recently found three applications that seem to lean towards a more minimalist visual bookmarking startpage approach. In this article, I will take a closer look these products, so as to point out some alternative approaches to the classic personalized startpage.

Reactee T-Shirts That Text Message

Looking for a reaction from a tee shirt? Reactee offers the ability to create customized tee shirts that might just get the reaction you are looking for via SMS text message. Reactee, a project of TextMarks, allows a user to setup a keyword to text to 41411. By simply sending a specified keyword to 41411 you will receive a response text message created by the tee shirt creator.

Reactee tee shirts designs can include custom slogans, keywords and even images. Creating interactive human billboards, Reactee creators must have a US phone number to create account. Users can update their tee shirts as well as manage the message that a tee shirt sends.

Moo Stickers Arrive (Literally)

Moo, a UK-based printing startup, puts an unique and personalized spin on traditional items like business cards and notecards. Moo loves to print as they continue to roll out additional offerings. In mid-July, Moo announced the launch of Moo StickerBooks.

Truveo Video Search: Tim Tuttle Explains

Truveo, a video search startup which was acquired by AOL in 2006, recently redesigned the site and I have to say it is super. It offers a new layout that slices and dices its aggregation of videos from across the Web so users are bound to uncover videos that would have previously remained buried.

AniBOOM: Animation Community & Toolkit

AniBOOM is an animation community that partners with animators around the world to help distribute their original content. AniBoom offers an array of animation tools for animators to  create, watch and share a wide range of animated video shorts and series. Novice animators with great ideas can even try and turn them into reality by leveraging the community.