madKast is a simple (yet useful) widget that allows you to share news and blog posts with other people through email, MMS text messaging, Instant Messaging (IM) and social booking sites. In addition storing information across website, it also provides analytical and revenue sharing features.

It is still in its Beta stage, but isn’t everything nowadays. As of writing this, the analytical features and revenue features have yet to be implemented and is something we are very interested to see.

A product of TechStars 2007, madKast is the brainchild of Doug Ludlow, Johann Moonesinghe, and Anthony Restuccia. madKast is currently looking for users to try it out on their blogs with over 35 blogs incorporating it so far. Implementing it is as easy as it gets, copy the single snippet of javascript to your blog code or use the auto install feature (if you use Blogger or Typepad).

madKast is maddeningly great - try it out and let the guys know what you think about it. In fact, we like it so much we have incorporated it in Techzoogle as you can see next to each blog title (i.e. click on the ‘Share’ link to see its features).

Futuremark Corporation has launched YouGamers, the World’s First Intelligent Gamer website. A destination for PC gamers, it offers full reviews/ previews of original games, gaming industry news and exclusive interviews.

What makes it intelligent is its Game-o-meter™ gaming performance analysis, a service that scans your PC, estimates the system’s gaming performance and provides you with an accurate assessment of how well your PC measures up on the game of choice. Results are based on Futuremark’s database of over 13 million benchmarks results. So now, you could do a test on how good or bad the game runs on your computer without relying on the printed game compatibility summary and taking a chance with purchasing the game.

Currently the game database has about 100 or so PC titles with ratings and system requirements. Each game review actually has a convenient comparison service with direct shopping links (with prices) allowing you to purchase it immediately. The shopping links I noticed were from Amazon, Wal-Mart and J&R Music Computer World. I am not sure whether they have more shopping retailers to choose from but will assume that they probably do. Each user can also categorize the site’s information with tagging, a must have feature in Web 2.0 sites nowadays.

Visually, the site has a futuristic look with cool blue shades. The layout of the site is neat and organized. I loved the way the reviews and previews were laid out, (unlike most gaming sites) they managed to fit a lot of features and links within a page and still make it very pleasing to the eyes with no clutter. Each review has a nice end of review summary with scoring ratings broken down into 5 areas: gameplay, graphics, audio, technology and an overall average.

“YouGamers is a complete web resource for gamers that offers a full range of game information and an active community, but with an intelligent twist. Every gamer website up to this point has only provided a piece of the puzzle, largely ignoring the relationship between PC hardware and game-play,” said Tero Sarkkinen, EVP Sales and Marketing of Futuremark Corporation. “We’ll provide the regular news, reviews, links, content and forums, but YouGamers is smarter than that. Aside from serving the enthusiast gamer with detailed gaming performance analysis, we also help all gamers by telling them which games their PC can play well, before they actually buy one. We also give reliable upgrade and new PC purchase advice for an even better enjoyment of gaming. YouGamers is going to change what gamers expect from game websites.”

Together with a full featured forum for game discussions, YouGamer is a great next generation PC gaming site that may soon give some of the current top gaming sites a run for their money.

About Futuremark® Corporation

Futuremark® Corporation is the leading provider of performance analysis software and services for PCs and smartphones. Futuremark® is known around the world for its benchmark products, including the 3DMark® and PCMark® Series, SPMark™ and VGMark ™ (with more than 30 million copies distributed worldwide) and value-added services powered by a database of over 13 million real life benchmarking results. Futuremark® maintains offices in Saratoga, California and Helsinki, Finland.

It has been reported today that Wikipedia’s cloak of anonymity will soon be put to an end with the free Internet encyclopedia planning to ask contributors who claim certain credentials to identify themselves. It’s about time Wikipedia does something like that. They should have done it a long time ago as that may have minimized the controversies and the slandering practices we have seen lately.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in interviews by phone and instant message Wednesday from Japan that contributors still would be able to remain anonymous. But he said they should only be allowed to cite some professional expertise in a subject if those credentials have been verified.

“We always prefer to give a positive incentive rather than absolute prohibition, so that people can contribute without a lot of hassle,” Wales wrote.

Full Article [Associated Press]

ImNotify is a desktop software that can help you schedule and send reminders (through text messaging) to your phone automatically. Once the software is downloaded and installed, an icon sits in your system tray and carries out its scheduled functions in the background.

Tailored mainly to businesses, ImNotify text messaging service acts as your wireless connection to your clientele keeping you in touch with your contacts. This can be done by delivering messages directly from computers running ImNotify software (client) and connected to the internet.

“Everyone is on the go these days, so the idea was to develop a way for companies to easily and cost-effectively connect with their customers in a non-intrusive way,” said Manuel Plaza, CEO of VBMan & Company. “With ImNotify, we’re taking CRM to a new level.” According to Plaza, there are many benefits to this type of customer contact, including: cost-efficiency (compared to traditional channels, i.e. direct mail), guaranteed delivery, precise targeting, storage for repeat viewing, and more.

Full Features

+Auto Scheduled Delivery
IM notifications can be scheduled by date and in 15 minute increments or sent instantly using the “Send Now Message” Delivery.

+Message Templates
You can setup templates for commonly used messages (reminders, alerts, offers), sort them into categories or customize them.

+Multiple Recipients
Text messages can be sent to multiple recipients at the same time.

+Inbox Logs
Customers can reply back to ImNotify text messages and can be viewed easily within the software application.

+Outbox Logs
You can query, view and delete outgoing messages that are scheduled to be delivered.

+Contact Manager
ImNotify allows you to easily store contacts and organize them into categories. Contact categories can be added or deleted specifically to your needs.

+Unlimited Text Messages
The software allows you to send unlimited text message without extra costs incurred. *This doesn’t include your phone text service costs.

+Spam Filter
There is an inbuilt feature within the software to filter out the pesky Spam messages.

The company has also mentioned some useful features available to subscribers in the future like the ability to limit amount of messages per business or per month, the TextMe Loyalty Program where it “lets you be first to know”, the ability to Add, remove, and give feedback to businesses, Coupon Codes, Business 411, Behind Schedule Alerts, Web Administration Panel and SQL Server Support.

Subscription pricing is $49.95 per month for a small business with a $149.85 setup fee. Larger corporate users may buy bulk licenses or a whole corporate license at a cheaper rate. Overall, IMNotify represents an invaluable tool for business users to keep track of their appointments and keep in touch with your clientèle in an almost effortless manner.

About the founders

Based in Orange County California, VBMan & Company is a fully-integrated software engineering and development firm. With over 10 years experience, VBMan offers a full suite of customized solutions, ranging from Search Engine Marketing to Mobile Marketing Solutions to Website Design. For more information, you can contact them 800-842-0508 or visit their website at at http://www.smartbusinesstext.com.

Press Release

Bellevue, WA – March 7, 2007 – BSQUARE (Nasdaq: BSQR) has developed the first SecureMMC Client Software Suite for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. The new product supports the new Secure MultiMediaCard specification, SecureMMC version 2.0. SecureMMC memory cards now enable secure downloading of songs and video to Windows Mobile devices, secure wireless financial transactions between Windows Mobile devices and point-of-sale terminals and secure data transfer between mobile professionals’ Smart phones and corporate enterprise networks over virtual private networks (VPN) lines.

“The new SecureMMC v2.0 standard, together with BSQUARE’s SecureMMC client software, allows both MMCA members and other mobile infrastructure ecosystem players to extend their business models since digital rights management and privacy of consumer and business data are now assured,” said Brian Crowley, president and CEO of BSQUARE.

MultiMediaCards offer features similar to Secure Digital cards. The two types of cards are based on separate but related industry standards. MMC and SecureMMC storage cards can be used in any device that supports Secure Digital (SD) storage cards as long as the software on the device supports them.

The market for mobile phones with removable memory cards like Secure Digital cards and MultiMediaCards reached over 277 million in 2006, compared to 115 million in 2005 (Source: Strategy Analytics Web site). Approximately 65% of mobile phone OEMs design their phones to use Secure Digital cards. MultiMediaCards can be used in these same phones with the appropriate client software support.

MMCA members can license the SecureMMC Client Software Suite from BSQUARE free of charge. Members pay a per device fee for implementation of the SecureMMC Client Software Suite when their devices ship. Email sales@bsquare.com or call 1-425-519-5900 for more information.

About BSQUARE

BSQUARE is a software solution provider to the global embedded device community. Committed to delivering quality, lowering project risk and time to market, our teams collaborate with smart device makers at any stage in their device development.