Entries from December 2008 ↓

It’s time for our annual predictions post, in which the ReadWriteWeb authors look forward to what 2009 might bring in the world of Web technology and new media.

Looking back at our 2008 Web predictions, we got some of them right! "The big Internet companies will [embrace] open standards" (Google, Yahoo and others did this); "Mobile web usage will be a big story in 2008" (check!); "Web Services platforms will be a fierce battleground" (Microsoft Azure and Google App Engine were released and AWS grew). We also got some wrong, including most of our acquisition picks! Digg, Twitter, Zoho, Tumblr – all remain independent. Not to be deterred, we’ve made new acquisition predictions for ‘09… although the names will be familiar ;-)

Sponsor

So check out our predictions for ‘09 and please contribute your own in the comments.

Richard MacManus

1. iTunes adds social networking features; but it’s still a closed development system.
2. Facebook signs up to OpenSocial; whether or not this happens, there’s no doubt that Google will continue to collect big name supporters for the various open standards initiatives which it has started in the last couple of years.
3. Yahoo sells to a big media company, but it won’t be Microsoft; Yahoo getting bought is a big call and I hope I’m wrong about it – but e.g. I could see the likes of Rupert Murdoch swooping in if things get much worse for the former dot com high flyer.
4. Microsoft releases a cool online version of Office, but then Google releases an amazing new version of Google Docs; Microsoft promised the first bit at PDC ‘08, but when that launches I forsee it being trumped soon after by Google releasing a more powerful version of its browser-based Google Docs. One that is comparable in user experience (but not features, because that is unnecessary) to MS Word. This new version of Google Docs may be limited to Chrome at first, but it will get a lot of attention and scare the bejeebers out of Redmond.
5. Health web apps start getting attention from mainstream people and media; big breathless profiles from the likes of CNN, Time magazine, etc. Unfortunately health system red tape remains a tangly mess, for another year.
6. Apps that do filtering, inferring and recommendation have a great year; several will release plug-ins for Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook and other ’sipping from the firehose’ apps.
7. The usual suspects will remain unacquired in ‘09: Digg, Twitter, Technorati. The one that does get bought is FriendFeed – by Google probably, given that it was created by ex-Googlers.
8. Media properties prominently experiment with different and innovative types of online advertising; in other words the move beyond CPM starts to actually happen, due to the down economy, after years of CPA type predictions. Related, a stunning new metric will emerge that accurately determines the success of media properties beyond mere page views (ok that one’s wishful thinking maybe!).

Marshall Kirkpatrick

1. Lifestreams will continue to evolve; From the explosion of the newsfeed-powered Facebook to the
   experimental polling technology of FriendFeed, 2008 was a big year for
   the “lifestream” – the technology of aggregating data from all your
   activities on different social networks around the web. No one summed
   it up better than Mark Krynsky in his Lifestream Blog post The
   Year in Lifestreaming for 2008.

   In 2009, I’ll be watching the parties above, but also MovableType’s
   Motion, social media ping server Gnip, Strands on the iPhone and
   Chris Messina and friends’ new
   working group on Activity Streams.

2. Facebook will continue to surprise;

   I love to hate Facebook, but Mark Zuckerberg and company keep bringing
   me back to a state of…impressed. I wish open standards ruled the
   world, but Facebook Connect is so compelling that it can’t be ignored.
   I’d like to see Data Portability prioritized a touch above full-blown
   privacy, but Facebook’s relatively tame version of portability is
   getting real traction while others are stuck in the land of promises
   and proofs of concept.

3. Big companies will have incentive to give OpenID more support
   because of Facebook’s domination;

   Support has been relatively tepid in the past. When you’re winning,
   open standards aren’t in your interest. When you aren’t, they become
   much more appealing. MySpace, AOL, Yahoo – all have made meaningful
   moves to support OpenID before, but now that Facebook is clearly
   dominating them all, I expect to see these companies make bigger moves
   towards OpenID and other standards.

4. Have cake and eat it too solutions will emerge as a strong option;

   Have you seen JanRain’s
   RPX plug-in? It lets users log in to a website using OpenID or
   proprietary methods, like Facebook Connect, through the same
   interface. It’s really pretty, too. There are other examples of this
   kind of paradigm, but I expect to see them proliferate in the coming
   year.

5. One or two interface developments will blow us away;

   The iPhone inspired countless people about user interfaces, unlike
   anything else has in a long time. Somebody’s going to blow our minds
   again. Information overload alone demands radical innovation, and it’s
   in the works all around the world. Maybe
   it will be Mozilla, maybe it will be in gaming, perhaps in Adobe
   AIR, or it could be in Microsoft’s Silverlight. May it not be a
   brain implant.

Sarah Perez

1. Twitter announces they have a plan to make money. They do.
2. New iPhone is released with video recording capabilities.
3. Facebook Connect becomes new de facto way to login to web sites.
4. Google Reader gets themes.
5. Digg still not acquired by anyone.
6. New real-time web app launches that integrates Twitter, FriendFeed & more in ways we never could have imagined.
7. Out of work journalists band together and create some killer blogs.
8. Google Chrome adds plugins…one of them is a Google plugin that lets you integrate Google Mail, Reader, & other Google products/services right into the browser.
9. Netbooks stay hot…get lighter, faster, thinner, but thanks to variable pricing from manufacturers, line between notebooks and netbooks blurs.
10. Google backlash begins.
11. Apple backlash does not.
12. New iPods released…now with VOIP app built-in. AT&T concerned.
13. Professional twitterer becomes a real job.

Bernard Lunn

1. VCs jump onto the SAAS bandwagon, but most ventures don’t need the cash.
2. More Indian start-ups go global with price-smashing strategy.
3. 2009 will be like 2002 for raising money or exiting.
4. P2P shows value for reducing cost of server farms.
5. Consumer and regulatory backlash make online privacy into a key differentiator for major players.

Frederic Lardinois

1. Digg still won’t be bought.
2. Twitter will start to embed advertising into its users streams as it slowly becomes mainstream.
3. Google will finally offer a comprehensive online storage solution and some kind of travel product.
4. Lifestreaming apps like FriendFeed will remain niche products that only serve the early adopter market.
5. Streaming web video to the living room will go mainstream.
6. If Apple finally enables its push server, mobile social networks and geolocation enabled apps will become a major topic next year.

Lidija Davis

1. Google loses goodwill, Yahoo gains.
2. Microsoft resurrects WebTV after buying out Netflix.
3. Mixx concentrates on usability and starts gaining ground on Digg.
4. Facebook has one security incident too many, leading to a decline in popularity.
5. The value of having a unified system for data portability and single sign-in services becomes unmistakable after a significant privacy breach.

Sean Ammirati

1. Twitter will be acquired (probably by Facebook–but multiple suitors will compete for the deal).
2. Due to new leadership and a slow economy that has people more focused on their professional network, LinkedIn will grow in the public’s consciousness and more importantly grow their revenue dramatically.
3. Exciting new open source projects will emerge and grow due to a growing number of un/under employed engineers.
4. Unfortunately, Facebook Connect authentication will become dominant method for authentication on the web (while this is my prediction, I’m still rooting for a more open solution).
5. Microsoft will launch a competing platform with Apple’s App Store. The reaction from the market will be underwhelming.

Alex Iskold

1. Twitter is going to continue to grow and eventually get acquired, while Facebook is going to see further decline.
2. Amazon will further strengthen its position in the cloud computing market, by launching more of its Web Services and gaining more clients for existing ones.
3. More contextual browsing technologies will hit the market powered by improved top-down semantic recognition engines.
4. The browser wars will further heat up, with Google throwing marketing dollars and distribution deals behind Chrome.

Rick Turoczy

1. With the economy continuing to tank, Microsoft will double-down on its Facebook investment, garnering more control of the company – and more access to the data being gathered through Facebook Connect.
2. Google will finally solve the issues that have prevented its adoption of OpenID logins for all Google services. That, combined with EAUT, will make Gmail accounts the de facto login credential on the Web.
3. One of the major gaming platform companies – Nintendo, Sega, Sony – will begin acquiring small iPhone development shops in an effort to translate titles to the iPhone format and to corner the market on iPhone gaming.
4. Under pressure from iPhone, Android, Symbian, and RIM; Windows Mobile will attempt to reinvent itself. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it will be about as successful as Vista and the Zune.
5. eBay – the Yahoo! of 2009 – oscillates between break-up and acquisition. After a great deal of drama, it will eventually be acquired by Amazon and incorporated into its seller storefront offering.

There you have it, the picks of the ReadWriteWeb team; what about your predictions? Let us know in the comments, so we can check who among us all has gloating rights at the end of 2009.

Discuss

I am often asked what VC’s typically look for when performing analysis/due diligence on a business plan. Below is a plain and simple outline on what they look for:

1. Cover Page

1. Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary
   1. Company Intro
   2. Concept and Mission
   3. Mission Statement
   4. Strategy
   5. Company’s Products and Services
   6. Market Analysis and Trends
   7. Competitive Analysis
   8. Value Add of the Company
   9. Financing Amount, Purpose and Time Span
   10. Milestones
   11. Management Profile
   12. Financial Summary
   13. Exit Strategy

1. Company History and Current Status
   1. How Company Started
   2. Founders and Personnel

1. Revenue Model
   1. Nature of the Business
   2. Profit Margins of Industry

1. Technology, Products and Services
   1. Description of the technology (include diagrams)
   2. Value Add
   3. Competitive Advantages
   4. Proprietary Nature
   5. Current State of Development

1. Market Analysis
   1. The Overall Industry
   2. Market Segments Targeted and Rationale
   3. Customer Profiles (needs met/unmet, buying patterns)
   4. Describe how the company’s products will meet the needs of intended markets
   5. Describe all industry forces (suppliers, buyers, threat of substitutes)
   6. Barriers to Entry
2. Competitive Analysis

1. 1. Competitor Profiles (History, Segments Served, Market Share)
   2. Provide Solutions to Breech Entry Barriers
   3. Competitive Advantages (IP, etc)
   4. Anticipated reaction from competitors upon market entry

1. Sales and Marketing

Sales

1. 1. Material, Labor, Overhead Costs
   2. Methods of Promotion and Distribution
   3. Revenue Model
   4. Customer Selling Approach

Marketing

1. 1. Identify customer purchasing decisions and trends
   2. Identify current needs served and unmet by competition
   3. Identify company’s positioning (quality vs. price, innovator vs. adaptor, follower vs. leader, private sector vs. government)

1. Management Profile
   1. Background Information
   2. Capabilities
   3. Management Gaps
   4. Organizational Chart

1. Financial Strategy

Financial Operations

1. 1. List of all loans and terms
   2. Operating Budget
   3. Milestones
   4. Pro-forma income, cash flow and balance sheet

Financing

1. 1. Breakeven Analysis
   2. Amount Needed, Time Period, Total Amount Required
   3. Capitalization Table showing the amount raised and the percentage of ownership
   4. Exit Strategy

OpenSocial recently had its first year anniversary, and the specification and APIs are growing in popularity. And now, courtesy of the OpenSocial team, several new client libraries are available for leveraging server-to-server APIs. This gives developers easy access to building OpenSocial apps in languages other than JavaScript.

The new OpenSocial client libraries utilize the OpenSocial REST and RPC protocols, and they are available in four flavors. Pick your choice of Java, PHP, Python, or Ruby, and you will be on your way to developing some social applications.

According to the OpenSocial Blog:

Each library enables developers to retrieve profile information and persistent data from supporting containers without having to concern themselves with managing network connections, signing requests, or other lower-level details.

These containers are a great addition to the other resources currently available for OpenSocial. Be sure to check out our OpenSocial API profile as well as the OpenSocial Developer web site for additional information.

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OpenID holds much promise as a means of supporting a single digital identity that can be used across the Internet. Currently there are several types of OpenID identity providers out there, and several of the major players on the web, including AOL, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo!, have committed to become OpenID providers as well. While there is some concern about the ‘Balkanization’ of OpenID by these service providers (essentially the concern is over the fact that service providers will only provide OpenIDs and subsequently they will not become consumers of OpenIDs from other providers), the positive side of this adoption is that hundreds of millions of existing user accounts can now be used as OpenIDs.

However, there is one catch: at present implementing OpenID support for more than one of these providers can be challenging, given that the OpenID specifications and extensions supported vary among each provider. Enter RPX, a new software as a service (SaaS) that handles the user interface, authentication, and import of user profile and registration data for any web site.

RPX essentially serves as a proxy that utilizes OpenID (and several other open standards such as OAuth and HCard) to provide users on your web site with the ability to register and sign in using several different accounts, including AOL, Facebook, Google, MySpace, Yahoo!, and many other OpenID providers. Rather than trying to figure out which provider supports which specification and extension, RPX presents a unified sign in form that allows your site to become an OpenID consumer that supports accounts from the major service providers.

According to the RPX web site:

When a visitor is ready to sign in or register at your website, you display the provided RPX login interface. The sign-in interface helps the user choose their provider, and then RPX authenticates the user with their provider. The sign-in interface can be added as a popup overlay, or embedded directly into your webpage. If you’d like to build your own custom interface, that is also possible.

RPX includes an API that can be used to customize your implementation of the service, including the user interface (see our RPX API profile for details). Currently RPX is available as a freemium service. You can check out the full documentation available on the service and API. RPX was developed by JanRain, an OpenID solutions provider from Portland, Oregon.

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The Mac OS X 10.5.6 update broke pwnage, the unlocking/jailbreaking program for the iPhone. Fortunately, there’s now an easy solution to fix this problem. You just need an Automator script and these simple instructions.

You first need to be logged into the Mac with administrator privileges and, when asked, you have to provide with the administrator password.

Yes, it’s that easy. Enjoy. [Get the script here or here via Hackintosh]

Following everything must be great. The all-seeing eye, yeah! Never miss anything worthwhile. Be the first to know. I’m signing for it.

Such a beautiful utopia, but oh so dangerous to strive for. Though there are plenty of tools that will help you getting you there. Turn on a sound effect every time you receive an email or tweet. Wear your head set all the time. And…, install an Adobe Air app which keeps you up to date about all the latest articles in your feed selection.

Snackr is such a service. After installing it on the Adobe Air platform, importing your OPML file, and placing it in the preferred corner – your RSS feeds are always available. Right there, in the corner of your eye.

I’m running the RSS reader while I’m typing this post, and man, it drives me crazy! It keeps asking for my attention. Like a TV screen in a bar. The design, features, and usability: it’s all very well-executed. – but using the nifty little program will mean the end of productivity for me.

But hey, maybe you’re the kind of guy/ gal who needs a little bit of distraction. If that’s the case, don’t hesitate and click here.

By Glen Stansberry

As the mistletoe is hung and egg nog served, friends and family of Web developers around the world are pulling their hair trying to figure out what to get someone who works on the Web for a living. Our loved ones typically have no idea what to get us for Christmas, because for many, our job and online world are very foreign places. Instead of getting the traditional pack of underwear, neck ties or socks, you can give your friends and family a nudge in the right direction with a gift idea from this list.

Please notice that often it’s even a better idea to take a closer look at the blog of a web-developer to find a wish list containing concrete items that a designer, blogger or programmer would like to get for Christmas. It also makes sense to consider the environment of the web-developer — for instance, if you find an Apple logo on the back of his or her car, it is probably not a good idea to spend money on a Windows-application. If possible, pay close attention to the applications, frameworks and tools the web-developer uses. Once you know the environment, you can better find out what is needed and how an untraditional Christmas gift can become a pleasant Christmas surprise.

It’s been said that “It is better to give than to receive,” so let’s help our friends and family give to us by providing an extensive list of tools that we’d love to see under the Christmas tree this year. Feel free to send this list to your relatives if you’d like to get a solid, useful gift for the upcoming holidays!

1. Ergonomic Office Chair

Ergonomic office chairs are a bit of a pricey Christmas gift and may be out of most people’s shopping budget. High-quality chairs as a whole aren’t cheap, but when you take into account how long developers spend sitting in office chairs, they’re a small price to pay for health.

Here are some highly reviewed ergonomic chairs:

• Aeron ergonomic office chair: $674.

  

   

• Freedom Chair by Humanscale: $700.

  

   

• Stealcase Leap: $849.

  

   

• Office Star Deluxe Ergonomic Leather Chair: $270.

  

   

2. Ergonomic Keyboard

Because Web developers usually spend anywhere from 8 to 12 hours per day on the computer (sometimes more!), a comfortable keyboard is an absolute must. However, many developers use whatever keyboard is shipped with their computer, and many times the keyboard isn’t very friendly to extended usage.

Please notice that some web developers prefer to work with laptops instead of desktop PCs which is why it may be reasonable to look for an ergonomic mouse instead. Here are a few of the top ergonomic keyboards:

• Kinesis Advantage
  A little pricey, but one of the best: $299.

  

• Microsoft Natural Hand
  One of the most recommendable ergonomic keyboards: $60.

  

• Tru-Form Pro -Contoured Ergonomic Keyboard
  A highly rated Windows ergonomic keyboard: $80.

  

3. Office Plants

While it may not be high on the list of things a Web worker might want, a plant for the office is an extremely thoughtful gift. Studies have shown that plants make for much more productive work environments, because they improve air quality, control humidity and provide many other benefits. In fact, studies have shown that office spaces with plants actually improve creativity.

Photo by misocrazy

There are any number of household plants that can improve an office space. WikiHow has an excellent article on how to choose a good office plant for your Web developer.

4. Visual Editors

Visual editing applications can speed up the layout process of a website, providing quicker turnaround times. While not all Web developers use visual editors, many do use them to see what’s going on with their code.

Dreamweaver is a robust Web authoring tool for both Mac and Windows users. It’s far and away the most popular of the Web editors. $399.

Coda is a beautiful Mac application that combines a powerful text editor, Subversion, CSS, file transfer and terminal all in a single window. The file transfer is done by the Coda makers’ excellent FTP-application Transmit. If you already own Transmit, Coda costs $85, without $99.

You can find more editors worth considering in our reviews CSS Editors reviewed, WYSIWIG-Editors reviewed and Source code editors reviewed.

5. Advanced Text Editor

Text editors are lifelines for Web developers. Lots of time can be saved with text editors that have extended functionality. Auto-completion, language formatting and a slew of other features would be helpful when laying out a theme or programming Web functionality.

• Textmate
  An advanced text editor for Mac: $52.

  

   

• UltraEdit
  Popular professional Windows text editing application that boasts over 2 million users worldwide: $50.

  

   

• BBEdit
  Another powerful text editor for Mac users: $125.

  

   

• E Text Editor
  The Windows equivalent of Textmate: $34.95.

  

   

Please notice: if a web-developer uses Notepad++, a robust freeware editor for Windows users, he or she will be very unlikely to switch to one of the above mentioned applications.

6. CSS Editor

CSS editors are very specific visual editors that pay attention only to CSS. They’re quite handy to have around for debugging code and quickly setting up website designs.

• Style Master
  A robust CSS editor for both Mac and Windows users: $60.

  

   

• CSSEdit
  The Mac-only CSS editor that won the prestigious 2007 Apple Design Award for Best Development Tool: $39.

  

   

7. Subversion Client

Subversion is an excellent way for developers to work on shared code without having to worry about spoiling someone else’s updates. Subversion is also quite handy when it comes to backing up data and keeping versions of local files, which can be especially useful for designers wanting to store revisions of their work.

The only downside to subversion is the learning curve. It can be quite tricky learning how to create, manipulate and sync your repositories. But a subversion client can make the learning curve much smaller with tools for streamlining your workflow, making updates, reverting to previous revisions and using diff to compare versions all within a client on your computer, no terminal necessary. Here are some of the best subversion clients:

• Versions
  A Mac-only subversion client that also interfaces with Beanstalk, a subversion host: €39.00 (approximately $52).

  

   

• Tortoise SVN
  A freeware SVN utility for Windows. If a web-developer doesn’t know about SVN yet, he’ll never forget you if you’ll point him to it.

  

   

8. Hosted Versioning Subscription

What better complement to a nice subversion client than a subscription to a versioning service to remotely house your repository?

If you’re using Subversion, then Beanstalk is an excellent SVN hosting service. Beanstalk offers a free account as well as higher levels of service with more repositories, users and storage, starting at $15 per month.

If you’re using Git, then GitHub is a popular online Git repository. It has a free plan if you’re running an open-source project, giving you up to 100 MB of space, otherwise GitHub offers monthly subscription plans starting at $7 per month.

9. Creative Coffee Mugs

It’s a safe assumption that many designers and Web developers drink coffee or tea. Coffee mugs make great stocking stuffers, because they’re typically not that expensive, and it’s guaranteed they’ll be used. Web Urbanist has an excellent roundup of interesting coffee mugs that you can give as gifts this holiday season.

10. Backup Software

There is nothing more valuable to developers and designers than daily backups of their hard drive. Losing a hard drive is a Web worker’s worst nightmare, and any tool that can ensure it doesn’t happen is greatly appreciated.

• Mozy
  Mozy is a simple solution that runs in the background and backs up the hard drive at set intervals. Both Windows and Mac users can enjoy this service for free if they’re backing up less than 2 GB of data. Otherwise, a $5 per month subscription is required.

  

   

• Jungle Disk
  Jungle Disk uses your Amazon S3 account to regularly back up your hard drive on Amazon’s servers. Available for Windows, Linux and Mac users for $20.

  

   

• Syncback
  If you’re a Windows user, you can save money with the freeware utility Syncback, which schedules backups to an external hard drive. Lifehacker has an excellent tutorial on how to do this.

   

11. Browsershots

Browsershots is an incredible resource that every developer should have. Browsershots takes a screenshot of any Web page and allows you to test layouts across many different browser types and operating systems. Developers can see how their layout looks in IE on Windows, Firefox on Linux, and almost any other combination they can think of.

Browsershots offers a priority service that gives paying members immediate screenshot processing (which can otherwise take hours if many screenshots are requested).

12. Subscription to libraries or magazines

Knowledge is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s definitely a good idea to give a web-developer subscription to a journal or magazine, or you can also consider a subscription for an online-library. For instance, O’Reilly is an excellent resource for the developer thirsting for knowledge. A Web development industry leader for many years, O’Reilly provides many great resources for those wanting to learn new languages, techniques and other development skills.

For a monthly fee, O’Reilly provides online access to its complete library, with a service called Safari. The Safari Bookshelf plan is $22.99 and restricts access to 10 books per month. The Safari Library plan offers more types of content (video, full downloads) and allows for unlimited access to its books for $42.99 a month.

13. Books, books, books

There are plenty of books out there that a web developer would love to get for Christmas. It would be important to list all of them, but fortunately we and other bloggerse have selected some useful books already. Make sure that you select a gift that really fits to the interests of a person: no, not every web-developer is a huge fan of Swiss design and not every typographer would love to have a book on SEO optimization techniques. Here are some useful lists where you can find useful and interestind web-development related books:

• Usability and Interface Design Books
• 30 Essential Books For Industrial Designers
  Some useful books for web-developers are in the list as well.
• 25 Must Buy, Borrow Or Steal Books For Web Designers
• 40+ Books For Professional Design and Development
• 30 Delightful Graphic Design Books
• Useful Web Design Books
• Powerful Design Books

14. Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium

If you’re feeling really generous this Christmas, then head on over to Adobe and snag the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium software package. While it is a tad expensive ($1,699), you’ll get 11 Adobe products that can greatly enhance a Web developer’s workflow. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Fireworks are all included, along with many other programs. This software package is a virtual Swiss army knife for Web developers. If you give it to a Web developer, he will certainly never forget you.

Notice: while there isn’t a comparable set of free tools to match the Creative Suite 4 Web Premium package, Gimp is an open-source image editor that is supported across Linux, Mac and Windows platforms. If a web-developer is a Gimp fan, you may want to search for a useful Gimp-book out there.

15. iPhone Developer Program

Many developers want to get more involved in the iPhone Developer program, which gives developers access to build and distribute iPhone apps through Apple. A standard program developer account costs $99.

An excellent complementary gift to the iPhone Developer program would be the iPhone Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK, an excellent tutorial that answers questions that the iPhone SDK documentation doesn’t answer.

16. Password Management Software

Nobody likes to remember all of their passwords, least of all Web developers. We may have tens or even hundreds of account, user name and password combinations to remember, many of which are used daily. Software that stores passwords is a perfect gift for any Web developer. There are plenty of software options, both free and paid, that help with password storage on any platform.

• 1Password
  Highly rated Mac software that stores your passwords and syncs data between different browsers and other programs: $39.95.

  

   

• Roboform
  Roboform is another highly rated Windows password client that has won many awards, such as PC Magazine Editor’s Choice and Download.com’s Software of the Year: $29.95.

  

   

• Passpack
  Passpack is an online solution for storing passwords. It offers a free account of up to 100 entries and a pro account for €10 ($13.50).

  Passpack

   

• KeePass
  An open-source password manager for Windows.

  

   

17. Screen Capture Software

Capturing screens is an almost daily routine with Web developers. A picture is worth a thousand words, and this is especially true with development. Many times, it’s easier just to show a screenshot of a buggy Web page than to try to describe what’s wrong. Here are a few screenshot services and software that can speed up this process.

• SnagIt
  Windows-only screen capturing software that quickly captures, edits and shares screenshots: $49.95.

  

   

• Jing
  Jing is the little brother to SnagIt, because they’re both made by TechSmith. Jing quickly takes snapshots and allows simple editing and sharing via many online services. Jing is freeware.

  

   

• Skitch
  Skitch is similar to Jing, except that the software only works for Mac computers. You can snap a screenshot, annotate, edit and upload the screenshot to skitch.com. Skitch is freeware.

  

   

18. Project Management Software

There are plenty of reasons for Web developers to use project management software: to collaborate with other project members, to organize their workflow and to generally stay on top of all that needs to be done when working on a project. Here are a few of the best project management and task manager software products.

• Basecamp
  Long considered the best project management tool, Basecamp is an excellent online service that tracks projects for many users. Basecamp offers a free basic plan, and extended plans start at $24 per month.

  

   

• Action Method
  Action Method is an excellent project management tool that allows you to add references, discussions and events to any project. Unlike services like Basecamp’s, Action Method allows you create unlimited projects with a paid account of $12 a month.

  

   

• OpenProj
  OpenProj is an open-source project management solution for your desktop. It has been downloaded over 800,000 times since its launch.

  

   

• activeCollab
  activeCollab is another highly rated online project management software package. However, unlike Basecamp, activeCollab allows you to install the software on your own website and server. Plans start at $199 per year.

  

   

19. Idea Capturing Tools

Keeping ideas and thoughts together can be a struggle for developers and designers. Fortunately, there are tools that can capture and store the ideas.

• Evernote
  This tool can be indispensable for capturing ideas anywhere. You can record a voice memo, take a screenshot, clip a Web page or just write a note. Evernote syncs your captured ideas online and locally, and it even has mobile access and an iPhone app. With Evernote, you’ll never let your Web developer lose an idea again. (Evernote even allows people to purchase the premium level plan as a gift.)

  

   

• Jott
  Jott allows you to call a number and record an idea (or “jott”), and then the speech is converted to text. Jott is a free service but has extended plans starting at $39.50 a year.

  

   

• Moleskine – Sometimes the best way to capture a thought is to write it down the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper. A moleskine is an excellent gift for those who prefer the paper method.

  

   

20. Music or movies

Because Web developers spend hours in front of the computer each day, it’s only natural that many will listen to music. Music is a gift that never wears out. Consider an iTunes or Amazon MP3 gift card.

A subscription to a music service is another great gift idea; for a monthly fee, you can listen to as much music as you want. Rhapsody music is a music subscription service that allows you to use (non-iPod) portable music players and your computer to stream any song, album or artist from its vast collection. Plans start at $12.99.

Another great idea is a high performance over-ear headphones that deliver the perfect atmosphere for a creative and enjoyable workflow. Some good examples of professional over-ear headphones are:

• Sennheiser HD-555 Audiophile Headphones
  A comfortable, high-quality headphone system. Price: $98.99.

  

   

• Bose® QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones
  This system has a noise reduction and quality sound for travel, work and home. AAA batteries guarantee a 40 hours average life. Price: $269.

  

   

• the recent Consumersearch Headphones Review may provide you with more useful pointers to various headphones.

You may also consider buying a couple of DVDs with movies the web-developer will probably like. In the end, web developers are also people and yes, sometimes we do watch movies.

Summary

To conclude, here is a brief summary of some useful things that would put a smile on a web-developer’s face, make him or her happy and will definitely help to make the life of a web-developer easier:

• ergonomic office chair,
• ergonomic keyboard or mouse,
• creative coffee mugs,
• office plants,
• visual editors, CSS-editors and text-editors,
• Subversion client,
• hosted versioning subscription,
• backup software,
• subscriptions to librarier or magazines (e.g. O’Reilly),
• books, books, books,
• Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium,
• iPhone Developer Program,
• password management software,
• screen capture software,
• project management software,
• idea capturing tools,
• music, movies or headphones,
• even more ideas…

What’s your favourite gift?

What would you like to get as a present for Christmas? Is something missing in the list? And what are you going to give to web developers for this Christmas? Share your thoughts, ideas and opinions in the comments!

What gift would you like to get for Christmas?
( polls)

About the author

Glen Stansberry is the editor at Web Jackalope, a blog about creative Web development. You can follow him on Twitter. (al)

Everybody knows that Mac OS X 10.5.6 “breaks” PwnageTool where the DFU mode won’t work. Fortunately the iPhone Dev Team posted a note on this issue and offers a work-around. Unfortunately they didn’t tell us how to rebuild kext cache.

I read about the bug (yah, it’s just a bug, and not Apple’s attempt to mess up jailbreaking) but I upgraded my Mac OS X anyway, thinking I don’t need to jailbreak my devices. How wrong I was! A friend brought in a sick iPod touch and seeked my help. Oh well, a friend in need is a pest indeed. Suddenly I regretted upgrading my OS. When I attempted to Option+Restore, I get “An unknown error occured (21).” and could not proceed. So sad.

So I re-read the team’s notes and now detail below the exact steps I took to fix the “bug”:

Oh, needless to say (but I’m saying it) … you can try it at your own risk, but it works for me.

1. Quit all running apps except for Safari/Firefox.
2. Disconnect your iPhone/iPod, and un-mount all your USB devices such as harddisk and flash drive, leaving only your USB keyboard & mouse connected (duh).
3. Download Mac OS X 10.5.5 combo update from here.
4. Mount the .dmg and you should see the MacOSXUPDCombo10.5.5.pkg file inside.
5. Drag and drop the .pkg into Pacifist. (You can download Pacifist from here.)
6. Click on right-pointed triangle icons until you are at the following folder:
   /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/
7. Select the “AppleUSBHub.kext” file.
8. Click on the “Extract To…” icon on Pacifist’s menu.
9. Choose to extract it to your Desktop.
10. Confirm the extraction with Administrator Privileges (and enter your pw when prompted.)
11. Repeat steps 7 to 10 to select and extract the “IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext” file.
12. Go to Finder and select “Go to folder …” from the “Go” menu.
13. Copy and paste the following path into the text field:
    /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/
14. A new Finder window pops up after you click the “Go” button. You will see lots of .kext files.
15. Back up “AppleUSBHub.kext” and “IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext” by copying them to your “Documents” folder (or wherever you like).
16. Drag and drop the two files you extracted earlier from your Desktop to the new Finder window, replacing the existing copies. You will be asked to autheticate. Authenticate by clicking the button and enter your password.
17. Once again, go to Finder and select “Go to folder …” from the “Go” menu.
18. This time type “/System/Library/” (without quotes) in the text field, and click “Go”.
19. Look for a file named “Extensions.mkext”.
20. Autheticate and delete the said file (be careful; do not delete the “Extensions” folder; delete the “Extensions.kext” file!)
21. Launch your Terminal app (it’s in your /Applications/Utilities/ folder.)
22. Copy and paste the following terminal command into it:
    sudo kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions
23. Hit the Return key to execute the command. You will be prompted to enter your password.
24. You must reboot your Mac immediately once the terminal command has been executed successfully.
25. Done.

Related Posts:

1. PwnageTool 2.0.3 is Out, but it Doesn’t Work!
2. PwnageTool 2.0.2 is Out!
3. Downgrade Mac OS X iTunes 7.6 to 7.5, Really
4. Growl Notifications for Amule
5. Mount and use your iPod touch as a Thumb Drive!

There are way too many comment login systems out there. Each blogging platform (Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger) has its own login system, then there are the cross-platform commenting systems like Disqus and JS-KIT. But many of these will soon give way to Facebook Connect and Google’s Friend Connect.

I am talking about just the ID people use to login, not the commenting systems themselves. We adopted Facebook Connect as a login option for anyone who wants to leave a comment on TechCrunch, and it already accounts for more than 20 percent of our comments. FB Connect is also now available to any of the 500,000 blogs and sites that use the JS-Kit commenting widget, and Disqus is planning on implementing Facebook Connect before the end of the year.

Other blogs are adopting Google’s Friend Connect (which lets people login with various email credentials, or even Twitter). JS-Kit is also working on adding Friend Connect, as well as MySpace ID as login options.

All of this choice is great, except that already there are six different login options in The JS-Kit widget (Guest, Existing JS-Kit, New JS-Kit, Haloscan, OpenID, FB Connect). Pretty soon we’ll need the equivalent of a “Share This” button, perhaps a “Universal ID” button, that will then open up to all the options. But I think that’s too much. Engineers may feel it is egalitarian, but consumers run away when they are presented with more than 3 or 4 options.

That is why I think Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect will win in the end (Sorry, MySpace). People may have IDs for the various blogging platforms or commenting systems, but most don’t identify with them. It is a necessary inconvenience. They identify with Facebook or their email because that is where they manage their personal and professional lives.

In addition to replicating the comments on your Facebook News feed, the JS-Kit implementation also supports embedding Facebook photos and YouTube videos directly into the comments. It makes commenting much more personal when you know your friends will see it in Facebook. It also has the potential to reduce the amount of comment trolling and general incivility that has taken over many blog comments (we hope).

Update: No sooner did I post this than I learned that not only is Disqus working on a Facebook Connect plugin, but so is Six Apart (for Movable Type), Wordpress, and MediaWiki. Here is an entire Facebook Connect plugin directory. Grou.ps is also adding FB Connect.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

They did it again: iPhone Dev Team has unlocked the iPhone 3G. They are now packaging the user-friendly software for a December 31 release.

While it took a little longer than the free iPhone EDGE unlock, it does sound like this is the real deal. The team is claiming a successful unlock—now the next step is to package it up in a user-friendly GUI app like Pwnage Tool.

The only catch is that it will work only with iPhone 3Gs with baseband version 2.11.07 or earlier, and it must be jailbroken. To ensure you preserve an unlockable version of the baseband, the Dev Team has warned against the usage of the QuickPwn jailbreaking tool and against updating via official firmwares without first waiting for Pwnage Tool to work with it. More guidelines for that are here.

Phew, after all this l33t my head is starting to spin, but the good news remains—iPhone 3G unlock is on the way! [Dev Team]