The popularity of the Eee PC netbook has reached even those industries which you wouldn't think would be impacted by such a nifty piece of hardware. Latest industry player to join the netbook craze is toy specialist store - Toys R' Us. But wait, we're not saying that the store would be releasing its own branded netbook, but rather starting Nov. 16, the toy specialist would soon be carrying the Eee PC under its Consumer Electronics assortment of products.

News had it that Toys R' Us will be selling four models of the Eee PC 900, with the store hoping to capture the younger market. Toys R believe that the Eee PC is a kid-friendly product, hence the decision to sell the said netbooks to its consumers who are predominantly toy-loving younger consumers.

To kick-off the introduction of the Eee PC to their product offerings, Toys R' Us will be conducting a comprehensive campaign that would include print and active in-store displays.

Via Twice.com

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Toys R' Us to Sell Four Models of the Eee PC

At the Flash on the Beach 08 conference being held in Brighton, England, Adobe's Senior Director of Engineering, Paul Betlem, confirmed that a Flash Player is in development for the iPhone. The information was provided in answer to a direct question from an audience member during the Town Hall meeting sessions held during the conference, historically a good source of Adobe news.

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Adobe's Official Word

According to Betlem, Adobe is working on the iPhone Flash Player, but the iPhone is a closed platform. In other words, it's entirely up to Apple as to if and when they will allow the player onto the iPhone.

You may remember it was only earlier this spring that Apple CEO Steve Jobs deemed the current version of Flash Lite, the scaled-down version of Flash for mobile phones, as not being good enough for the iPhone. According to Jobs, Flash Lite would spoil the iPhone experience. He also noted that the desktop version wouldn't work either as it would run too slowly on the iPhone. What he called for was the creation of a "missing product in the middle."

Apparently, Adobe has heeded that call and has been busy building that middle-of-the-road version. The only question now is whether or not it will be good enough. At this point, Apple may be feeling the pressure to make Flash work considering Microsoft's recent licensing of Flash and Reader LE on Windows Mobile.

When Will It Arrive?

As to when we will see Flash on iPhone, it's anybody's guess. However, according to AppleInsider, the iPhone/iPod Touch software will be updated next month to v2.2 beta 1. Included in the update will be a newer version of Safari, which has been redesigned to relocate the Google Search bar to the right of the Address Bar. Also in the update will be a new App Store which will feature a new categories page with large category icons and more spacing between each listing.

We suppose it's too much to hope for that the new version of Flash would be pushed down with this upcoming update as well, but Apple has been known to surprise us before.

POLL: What Do You Think About Flash On iPhone?

We're looking forward to having Flash on the iPhone, but we're curious what you think. Has it been difficult for you to use your iPhone/iPod Touch without it? Or do you think "good riddance!" having never liked Flash in the first place? Please take our poll and let us know your thoughts.

Does iPhone's Lack of Flash Bother You?
( surveys) Discuss

When we first introduced you to Elgg two years ago, it was a new social networking platform whose focus was on e-learning. Since that time, the software has been rewritten and it has moved away from being strictly for educational use only. Today, the award-winning Elgg is one of the top open source social networking platforms available on the internet.

A little over a month ago, Elgg 1.0 was introduced to the world. In this newest release, several years in the making, the software has been improved from the inside out. It has a more attractive UI and design, for starters. But under the hood you'll find more changes like better plugin support, RSS and OpenDD views, and a new database schema.

We may have said that the next social networks would be powered by blogging CMS platforms like WordPress and Movable Type, but what we're really seeing is a shift towards making all web platforms more open and social experiences.

To that end, Elgg can help form the basis of a new generation of social networks. But their platform goes beyond just delivering a solution for the next web 2.0 hangout or social site, although that it a popular use for their software. The Enterprise 2.0 movement is also aided by Elgg as companies wanting to build and customize their own intranet-based social networks have begun to adopt the platform as well.

The Interview

We recently had the opportunity to follow up on our original interview with one of Elgg's founders, David Tosh. We talked about where Elgg stands today and what plans they have for the future.

How would you describe Elgg to someone who didn't know what it is?

Elgg is an open source social networking engine started by Ben Werdmuller and myself back in 2004. Elgg can be used by developers as a starting point from which to build out their own social applications (it handles common back-end functionality and has an extensive programming API), and out of the box as a useful social utility. This year, it was voted by a panel on InfoWorld as the best open source social networking platform 2008.

What's new with Elgg since we first spoke?

We have completely rewritten the Elgg core. This was necessary in order to future-proof the project, improve scalability and allow for greater customization. Over the past four years, we have found that one size really does not fit all, so we had to make sure Elgg was flexible enough to handle new demands being thrown at it, both now and in the future. The era of the monolithic social network is coming to a close; we want to make it easy for people to add social functionality into all kinds of applications.

Why did you move away from being focused just on being a platform for education?

Although we've always had an educational base, a lot of users from other fields began picking up on Elgg. As a result, we were securing contracts to build custom networks on Elgg for groups that were not part of the educational circle, and feeding those developments back into the product. Gradually, interest in Elgg became greater outside of education, so we adapted to that change.

How does Elgg compare to its commercial competition?

With its new architecture and open standards at its core, we feel it is best placed to handle changing expectations in the social arena. It's a very competitive space, but a lot of products have just bolted social features on top of their existing systems - Elgg has social functionality built into the core and was designed from the ground up to support it. That allows us to create deeper features, and also plan ahead for new kinds of social applications. As the types of social applications and uses for them grow, we feel our approach will pay dividends.

Some employers are even letting employees use Facebook at work now. Do you worry that will affect the number of potential customers for your product?

Not really. If anything, I think this increases the potential and opportunity. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc play an important role in bringing the concept of social technology to new audiences. For groups like us, who provide niche services, this is great. For example, companies try out Facebook and then start releasing that they want to improve their internal communications to be more Facebook-like; we can help them with that.

Why should someone consider Elgg for their network?

I think there are three main reasons: simplicity, extensibility and openness. The basic version of Elgg is deliberately very simple and clean. Our architecture allows you to easily extend Elgg's functionality to meet your specific requirements. Lastly, we fully embrace open standards such as OpenDD, FOAF, RSS, Open Social and OpenID, allowing you to interact with other applications.

Who is using Elgg today?

Elgg users range from sports networks to corporate companies, university intranets to school districts. There is a wide cross section picking up the software and applying it to their own niche. Increasingly, companies are also using Elgg to build social sites for their clients; we're keen to promote and support this.

What's in store for Elgg's future?

We have a couple of things in the pipeline:

• Firstly, we're going to launch an Elgg supporter scheme. This will give companies who are providing Elgg-related services the chance to form closer links with the core project.
• We are working on a new mobile intranet platform, powered by Elgg, that allows users to share status updates, photos, documents and media via MMS, SMS, email or the web. It also handles simple notes and shared tasks.
• We decided we needed a system within Curverider to improve our communication while on the move, and built it for our own use; it's been so successful that we thought other companies and organizations might find it useful as well. So far, the reaction from people we've shown it to has been extremely positive.
• All Elgg-powered services have the Open Data Definition built into their core, which allows for full import and export of users, content and connections as well as the ability to syndicate friends' activity in a distributed way.
• Lastly, we have just announced an advisory board that is packed with experts with excellent track records, in order to ensure Elgg and Elgg-powered services continue to develop and grow.

Filed under: iPhone, App Store

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple

The Wordpress for iPhone app is looking pretty full featured. Both Wordpress.com and self-installed Wordpress blogs are supported, along with full tag and category support. Embedded Safari provides true previews, and posts are auto-recovered if your blogging is interrupted by a phone call. It even supports multiple blogs.

Not shabby. Price? Same as Wordpress: totally free.

Wordpress for iPhone [Official Site]

Q: In the era of "free" software, would a mobile software startup be committing short-sighted suicide by attempting to price their product at all? These days, it seems that "eyeballs" are considerably more valued than short-term monetization. Facebook being a prime example: they avg a mere $3.00 in gross revs per active user annually, but yet they hold a $15B valuation. Within the VC community, how much weight does the "build it now - figure out a way to monetize later" type model still hold? Are you seeing any trends of push-back against this model?

A: (Brad) There was a time not so long ago (1999) when it didn't matter how much revenue you had, or how much money you made (or more likely - lost) - all that mattered was how many eyeballs you had (and how fast that number was growing.) If I remember correctly, that cycle didn't end too well.

While there are plenty of different things going on this time around, ultimately all businesses have to generate a profit (and positive cash flow) to be valuable. But that's the not the question you asked.

These days, it seems that "eyeballs" are considerably more valued than short-term monetization. The key word in this statement is "short-term". In the short-term, it's important that you get enough critical mass behind your mobile app and this generally means users. However, with the emergence of the iPhone App Store and the crazy disruption it and the iPhone are having on the mobile phone and software market, I'd assert that all bets are off right now on what the best "short-term" strategy is.

For example, I'm aware of several very popular iPhone apps that are free; I'm also aware of several that generated significant revenue in the first week for their publishers.

Ultimately, if Apple is successful, it will help establish a new market price points for mobile apps that will range from "free" to "something". I don't think anyone knows what that range is yet, but it's not going to be "free" to "free". And - as a result, you shouldn't view pricing your app as "short-sighted suicide", unless of course you price your app too high (where - in many cases - the max price you can charge is nothing.)

I'd be a lot more worried about having an app that no one cares about.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

• The masses of humanity continue to collect. Massive stock shortages don't seem to be an issue (yet), but patience is not a virtue we hold dear to our hearts, so we really can't blame these people.
• Some buyers are reporting a yellow tint to their screens -- probably not enough to notice without another unit side-by-side for comparison, but real nonetheless. Of course, the first iPhone suffered from the occasional crappy backlight, bum touchscreen, or negative black, so we wouldn't be surprised if a few lame displays made it out of the factory floor for this model as well; we're following up with Apple on this and we should have more for you later today.
• We took the iPhone 3G on a decent drive around New York, and found its tracking to be impeccable. In a situation where we might have veered off the path following Google Maps directions, the blue blip kept us right on track. Despite what you've read (we're looking at you, Mr. Pogue), we see no technical reason that the aGPS can't provide turn-by-turn directions, provided there's software to take advantage of it.
• There are some complaints floating around about 3G reception, but it's been just fine on our review units around the world so far. How's it treating you out in [your location here]?
• iphone-dev has a video up of BootNeuter going about its business on a first-gen iPhone that's been upgraded to firmware 2.0, and the process is looking as slick and painless as ever. Unlockers who haven't shelled out for the 3G, commence your salivating.
• MobileMe seems like it's up for the moment, but don't breathe too hard lest you bring the whole thing down again.

When I was a kid, one of my weirder hobbies was ventriloquism. I don't even remember why I got started, but I do remember that some people thought I was pretty good at it. In the short time that I was a ventriloquist, I won several local talent shows, and one time I even got to appear on live TV.

The TV appearance started off badly.

The crew sat me and my dummy in a chair in front of the camera, and soon afterwards the cameraman made some sort of hand motion at me. I had no idea what the hand motion meant, so I just sat there, assuming it was nothing I needed to be concerned about.

Then he did it again, and this time it was clear that I was supposed to do something. But I didn't know what to do, so I simply looked at the camera and said, what? He did it one more time, this time more forcefully, and again I said, what?

The cameraman, obviously displeased that I didn't grok his secret language, leaned forward and said, YOU'RE ON!

Oops. I'd just screwed up on live TV.

I nervously launched into my routine, which started off with a joke that mentioned something about having three pieces of candy. I was supposed to hold up three fingers when I mentioned the candy, but I was so distressed with how things started that I forgot to hold up two of them.

The one finger I held up was the middle one.

In slow motion, my eyes moved to the upheld digit, and a look of sheer terror crossed my face when I realized that I'd flipped off everyone watching. Doing that as an adult would've been bad enough, but it's infinitely worse doing it as a kid. The middle finger held a mystical quality back then, and raising it - even accidentally - was a very bad thing. I was pretty sure that raising it on live TV would mean a lump of coal come Christmas morning, and possibly even eternal torment in the place with the guy with the horns.

I have no idea how the show went after that I'm assuming I went into autopilot and finished the act, then quickly got the hell out of there.

To my surprise, nobody mentioned my one-fingered salute after the show, and I never got in trouble for it. But somewhere deep down, in the same place I store my guilt over setting off those stink bombs in third grade, I just know I'll eventually pay for flipping off my home town.