Download NBC Shows for Free

Oh, so that’s what they’re doing! When NBC pulled out of Apple’s iTunes, the world scoffed and started betting on how long before they would come crawling back. Well, don’t hold your breath…NBC has just made a startling announcement: they will be launching a new service called NBC Direct. On this ad-supported service, you will be able to download full-length episodes of NBC shows for the low, low price of…FREE. The service will launch in beta this October, just in time for the fall TV season. Downloaded shows will be available for a week and then they will time-bomb. (Why? Why with the time-bombing? Argh!) Another downer is that you will have to use their proprietary player in order to watch the shows. However, on the plus side, subscription plans will be available, which will offer automatic downloads of the shows you’ve signed up for. At some undefined point which we’ll just call "later on", NBC promises that you’ll be able to move your downloaded videos off your PC and onto your portable devices, like, say…your iPod. NBC is also hinting that they may make high def shows available via a peer-to-peer network. This "NBC Direct" website is not the same as the recently parked Hulu.com. Rather, Hulu will offer full-length episodes you can stream, but not download. The shows that will be made available on the new NBC Direct service will include Heroes, The Office, Life, Bionic Woman, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

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Mint, a highly anticipated personal finance web app, launched today. Mint allows you to view all of your banking and credit card transactions side-by-side, making identifying all of your transactions much easier and faster than ever before. After providing Mint access to your accounts, your transactions will be automatically categorized and Mint will provide you with graphs & pie charts showing you just how you spend your money. These graphs are so useful, Mint beta testers have claimed to have saved an average of $1000 during the beta period. Another nice feature in Mint is its alert system. The service can alert you via email or text message about the following:

• Low balances in any checking/savings account
• Credit card bill due dates
• Available credit on credit cards
• High/unusual spending by category (i.e. Shopping, Dining, Gas)
• Bank/ATM fees and finance charges
• Large purchases
• Large deposits becoming available

Mint will also keep your accounts up-to-date for you. That means when you login, you won’t have to "update" your transactions like you do in Quicken - they will already be up-to-date and balanced. Despite all these pluses and Mint’s admirable security policy, the real challenge they face is whether or not they can convince people to manage their finances using a web startup.

If you were following me on Channel 10, you may have noticed I had not posted in a while. This is just to let you know that I’m back & you should be seeing more regular posts from me over there from now on.

Yahoo made an interesting announcement today - they announced an agreement to acquire Zimbra for $350 million. In other words, don’t count them out yet. According to the Yahoo blog, "Zimbra is a global leader in email and collaboration software and its services are aimed at universities, businesses, and ISPs worldwide, which is a major driver of what made the company so attractive to us. We’re constantly being approached by these entities for our expertise in email and communications. Combining the best of Zimbra with what’s made Yahoo! Mail the top dog in web mail will not only allow us to cater to these markets better than anyone, it will allow us to expand our presence to partners and consumers at school, work, and home."

It looks like every web company will have some sort online suite, now. However, Zimbra isn’t really what you would call an online "office" suite. If anything, it looks more like web mail on steroids…or, as Zimbra would say, it’s "collaboration software." What makes Zimbra so "damn cool" as the please-think-we’re-hip Yahoo blog post title claims, is the suite’s mashup abilities. Zimbra can recognize patterns in your email and identify them as an address (click to see the map in Yahoo Maps!), a phone number (click to call with Skype!…if they’re up), or even a Purchase Order (click to approve!). The suite will fit just fine into the Yahoo world…I can see Yahoo’s beefed-up mail client now - complete with pop-up bubbles appearing all over the place as you mouse hovers over all the "patterns Zimbra recognizes" in your email. I see the spammers drooling now about how they can take advantage of this new ability. And if I ever see a company trying to run its merchandising department by clicking on numbers in their Yahoo Mail…

Before you get too excited, there is a catch. Actually, there are a lot of catches…SpiralFrog is a new site that lets you legally and freely download songs and videos, most of which come from Universal Music Group. The site offers over 700,000 songs and 3,500 videos and the only requirement to access them is registering an account. Sounds too good to be true? It is. In order to continue to access the files, you must log into the site once a month or the DRM’ed content time bombs on you. Additionally, you can’t burn the files to a CD and you can’t put them on your iPod. If you have a (non-iPod) music player or phone, you can copy the files to them, but not to more than two devices at a time. Joe Mohen, the company chairman claims "We believe it will be a very powerful alternative to the pirate sites." Yeah…because all the restrictions on the files downloaded from Pirate Bay are such a hassle aren’t they?

Before there was Google (yes, kids, there *was* a time before Google), there was AltaVista, and they were one of the search giants of their time. Believe it or not, AltaVista is still around, still offering search. Like the others, they have web search, image search, news, and video. However, their audio search offers something different - it’s an mp3 search engine. A quick search for one of my favorite bands actually brought back a list of links where I could directly download mp3s. Not that I did, of course. That would be wrong. I buy all my music. But strangely, there it is, in all it’s questionable copyright-infringing glory. No need for Google hacks anymore, it seems. Maybe they are counting on everyone thinking they went out of business years ago?

Yahoo! Mash is yet another social networking site and it’s not getting rave reviews. After checking it out for myself, I don’t see anything here that would draw people away from the uber-popular MySpace or the fast-growing Facebook. The site is uninspired, offering the standard Q&A, a place to do a "shoutout" (called a blurt), and other modules that should be impressive (like integrating your flickr pics or MyBlogLog-like visitor list), but, for some reason, still leave me dry. I feel like I’m on Yahoo 360 with a new skin. There’s also this weird smiley face thing that is "My Mash Pet" (okay, I kinda liked it…when I fed it, it smiled at me). Still, this site isn’t worthy of the hype surrounding it, which is, of course, why I’m blogging about it. That all being said, if you must see it for yourself, I have some invites.

Audiofarm is a new site, currently in Alpha, that lets you store, search, sort and share your music. If you’re a musician, you’ll like that you can create unlimited pages with information about your sounds, equipment, releases, gigs, netlabel etc. so people can discover and enjoy your music. As a music fan you can manage and listen to your music from anywhere. The service allows you to search, browse and download files anonymously, but you have to register (it’s free) in order to obtain the ability to create pages and upload and manage your files and profile. Registered users are provided with storage space and an online interface. Music files can be uploaded in either the mp3, aac, or mid file formats. What’s to prevent someone from uploading copyrighted music? Sounds like it could get a little…uh…illegal, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, they’ve got you covered there: "But consider that there are exceptions for the files that violate our terms of service or the laws of concerned countries. This means that files violating copyrights, or containing pornography are forbidden and will be removed as soon as we notice." You can register for an account here.

(Found on Mashable!)

Deligoo is a new browser add-on that I think will be really useful if I can break my Google habit and remember to use it. The add-on is a del.ico.us/Google mashup search service that lets you search for items in your del.ico.us bookmarks. You can either search all of your del.icio.us bookmarks or just within a certain del.ico.us tag. To use Deligoo, you click on the installed Deligoo button in your browser’s toolbar to be taken to a page where you can enter your search terms and then deligoo to see the results. (What? Too soon to use it as a verb?) The results are delivered via Google Custom Search and are surrounded by Adsense ads, which may actually prove useful in this instance. Google Custom Search looks at the content of the saved pages themselves, so it will return much better results than if you simply used del.icio.us’s own built-in search feature, which searches only by tag. I am going to have to agree with Mashable!, however, on the speed - the results could be a lot faster to appear. Of course, this speed is probably proportional to how many bookmarks you have, so the results may vary for you. (Let me know how long it took if you try it!) The add-on is available for both Firefox 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 6.0+.

Microsoft Windows Desktop Search is a fast way to search your computer for many types of files, including documents, photos, videos, and music. Windows Desktop Search also searches Microsoft Office Outlook or Microsoft Outlook Express items, such as email messages, contacts, and appointments. After you install Windows Desktop Search, the Windows Search Companion is replaced with Windows Desktop Search. The Deskbar search box appears on the Windows taskbar next to the notification area.

Today, I just found a cool feature in Windows Desktop Search — I can launch programs with Desktop Search! To launch a program installed on your computer using Windows Desktop Search, do the following:

To start: Type this in the Deskbar search box:

Microsoft Office Word !word
The Microsoft Windows calculator !calc
Microsoft Outlook !outlook

This is excellent!

Some other useful shortcuts include:

• To get help with Windows Desktop Search: ?Help
• To get help with Windows Desktop Search syntax: ?syntax
• To Create Your Own Shortcuts, you can do the following:
  • Open a document: @shortcutname,c:\(document path)\(document name) @resume,C:\resume.doc
    To use the shortcut: type resume
  • Open a program: @shortcutname,=[program command] @note,=notepad.exe
    To use the shortcut: type note
  • Open a website: @shortcutname,webaddress @hotmail,www.hotmail.com
    To use the shortcut: type hotmail
  • Perform a web query: @shortcutname,webaddress$w For Example: @quote,http://moneycentral.msn.com/scripts/webquote.dll?iPage=qd&Symbol=$w
    To find a stock quote: type quote msft
  • Tip: Try performing a search on a website such as http://encarta.msn.com. When your search results page opens, your search terms should be included at the end of the web address in the Windows Internet Explorer address bar. Copy the web address, but replace your search terms with $w. Use this new web address to create your shortcut.