Jason Ball's TechBytes

Opera reinvents the web?

"Opera today (well, last week. I've been a little slow getting this post out) unveiled Opera Unite, a new technology that shakes up the old client-server computing model of the Web. Opera Unite turns any computer into both a client and a server, allowing it to interact with and serve content to other computers directly across the Web, without the need for third-party servers.

Opera Unite makes serving data as simple and easy as browsing the Web. For consumers, Opera Unite services give greater control of private data and make it easy to share data with any device equipped with a modern Web browser.

For Web developers, Opera Unite services are based on the same open Web standards as Web sites today. This dramatically simplifies the complexity of authoring cutting-edge Web services. With Opera Unite, creating a full Web service is now as easy as coding a Web page." Full press release here.

Very interesting concept which I imagine Google will copy quickly, roll into Google Wave and Chrome...and leave in beta for 5 years. But they wouldn't be alone....

Nokia also has been working on making your phone into a server. I spent a lot of time last year looking into this space. It has some interesting implications on network usage and ease of use for photo sharing, etc... another problem that gets solved by having a local server is separation of data and application.

One of the problems with web apps is that the data and the application are intertwined. Separability of data and application was very clear in the desktop world- you could tote your word files with you anywhere... but with cloud apps, this is becoming much more difficult. (For example, have you tried to export your gmail messages?) As they say, if you can't take data with you, it's not yours... One of the benefits of having a "server" on your phone or laptop is that any pictures you take can still be accessed on Facebook, but you can host those on your own "server".  (And we all know Facebook is trying to build their own private version of the internet. If you believe things like that.)

The current problem with having a local server on your machine (any machine) is that you need to be a geek to make it work. Opera is moving this towards the masses, but it's still a Yahoo Pipes mass appeal. Google needs to make this dead easy to use - maybe that's part of what their doing with Wave...

Spotify- The Next Great Music App

Congratulations to the Spotify team- they've launched their public beta today allowing anyone to listen to music over the web, in what I think could be the next great music app.

I've been lucky enough (thanks Daniel!) to be one of the beta testers over the past several months- today's the first time I've seen (and heard) ads on Spotify- and they've come up with a great advertising supported music model that's legal. Yes, it's all legit...

Two things you've got to do: 1) Download the app 2) SHARE a playlist. Sharing music via Spotify has to be the most fun I've had in years. (Yes, VCs are kind of sad that way.)

And if you can't wait to get your hands on a beta invite- you can get the premium version of Spotify immediately which has no ads...

This is gonna be a great.

 

Dropbox- how file sync should be

My beta invite for Dropbox (funded by Y Combinator) arrived this weekend - and my initial impression is very positive. I've migrated my home mac use to a client/server (MacBook Pro/iMac) set up- with my iMac doing most of the heavy lifting.

I've tried multiple back up services and even tried to use iDisk as a "dropbox", but it never worked like it should. I'm now sharing my "Current" folder between the two macs seamlessly- and can even get access via the web if needed. Essentially, Dropbox is what iDisk should be - seamless cross-platform file sharing, complemented by web access:

Apple should acquire these guys ASAP and switch out iDisk for Dropbox...and getting access to these files via my iPhone would make a nice addition to MobileMe too.

The Music Revolution

Wow, talk about music news this week. Muxtape got its wrist slapped by the RIAA...

...but there are new music start ups to pick up where Muxtape left off (if it's in fact dead, and not a publicity stunt).

Some new arrivals on the scene are 8Tracks, Grooveshark Lite and Simplify Media. I've covered other cool music sites in the past here as well.

Music startups are not for the faint of heart or the shallow-pocketed. Spiral Frog has spent $12 Million and hasn't even launched. They were reported to be looking for a further $25 Million. And that's pre-launch.

8Tracks has spent about $80k to get the service to where it is today, but has a special license that they're using currently.

I've been watching several guys here in Europe, but see real business model challenges to ad based music services given the royalty rates that the majors are looking for. Silicon Alley Insider has a good overview of why the current licensing model is broken. They calculate 1 ad per song to break even, we've run some numbers and they look higher than that to us- which means if it doesn't work at 1 ad per song, then things just go downhill from there,

Add in the fact that WalMart is pulling/reducing its music inventory, which can't be a good thing for the Labels either... all of which leaves me scratching my head as to where these guys plan on making money (Not online and not in store- that doesn't leave many options.)

So what's next, who's going to start the Music Revolution (or has it already quietly begun)?

(thnx to datsuncog for the tape pic)

Yahoo OnePlace- An Intelligent Mobile Agent?

Continuing with the theme of The Next Web, Yahoo has announced Yahoo OnePlace today:

Yahoo! onePlace brings together all your interests, passions and important information into a single location, creating a rich, highly personalized experience around it for you. Everything is instantly organized, dynamically kept up to date, and served up to you the way you want [to your mobile]...

...News feeds, websites, videos, images, emails, search queries, etc.—all can be linked into Yahoo! onePlace from anywhere across the Internet with a single click [and delivered to your mobile]....

and

...Yahoo! onePlace will list each of these for you as well provide a preview of the underlying content, which is continually refreshed throughout the day.

If they pull this off, this is going to be an exceptional service to bring the internet to the mobile. Before you dismiss Yahoo out of hand, pick up your iPhone and search for anything inside safari. Look at the google results. Then go to prefs and change to Yahoo as your search engine, and run the same search. Then, sit back and admire Yahoo's implementation of mobile search...