1FPS|by David Chartier

Yesterday I wrote about Drop.io, an extremely simple, clever, and private file sharing/faxing/conference calling/blogging service. You can see my full piece here to get an idea for it, or of course head over to the site and take it for a spin since it’s so darn simple. After all, you don’t have to sign up or register to start using any of its services.

The company thanked me for the writeup and tossed five discount codes my way, each good for one premium 5GB drop (account) for one year. If you’re interested, leave a comment here or get in touch with me and I’ll toss a code your way. I’m not getting any bonus or kickback from Drop.io for distributing these codes. I just figured they shouldn’t go to waste, and it really is a cool service. First come, first served.

I noticed the other day that the URL for Google Reader on my iPhone gained some weight. Instead of the clean X, it had a bunch of extra gunk behind it. At first I thought Google screwed something up, but it turns out that the company has introduced unique URLs that point directly to feeds and labels (otherwise known as folders) rendered in Google Reader. Instead of displaying:

http://www.google.com/reader/i/ on iPhone

or

http://www.google.com/reader/view/ on a desktop browser

Google Reader now displays a custom URL for feeds, such as my Infinite Loop RSS feed, like this:

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2F
arstechnica.com%2Fjournals%2Fapple.rssx

The URL for a label appears to include specific user information. Here’s my general “tech” label:

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/user%[REDACTED]%2Flabel%2Ftech

This makes it really easy to create bookmarks for specific labels or even feeds within your Google Reader account on both a desktop PC or an iPhone. Smart idea, and I’m already creating a few on my iPhone for frequently used labels.

Apple has a new support document that further details the new Address-Book-to-Gmail sync feature that debuted in 10.5.3. Here are a few choice talking points:

• The feature now appears in iTunes 7.7 in addition to Address Book’s pref pane
• Apple explains: “Google uses email addresses as the unique identifier for each Gmail contact. If some of your contacts have the same email address, they may not all sync.”
• Also: “Anyone you have corresponded with in your Gmail account will be included in this sync by default.” Google, stop this behavior, or at least give us the option to shut it off.

My favorite bullet point is towards the bottom: “If you are syncing your computer with MobileMe, remember that these contacts may sync to MobileMe as well.” Note that Apple says these contacts “may” sync to MobileMe, instead of “definitely will, because MobileMe is a far more reliable replacement for .Mac.”

Good news for my favorite location-based social network so far:

Brightkite is all about sharing your location and meeting new people based on the places you visit, and the latest way of doing that is with the Brightkite API. Using the Brightkite API you can add a location component to any site, social network, or application.

I got ahold of the iPhone 2.0 software yesterday and took a bunch of free and commercial apps for a spin, including Loopt, a competitor to Brightkite that Apple showed off at WWDC. I gotta say: Loopt’s iPhone app is impressive, but I’m really interested to see what Brightkite can pull off with its iPhone app that is due by the end of July. This open API makes the service much more appealing to both developers and users. Plus, Brightkite is where most of my friends already are, so I’m hoping Loopt doesn’t gobble up most of the market simply by being first out the gate.

As seen on this TwitPic page. Funny.

It’s an advertisement for BeenUp2, what looks to be a new microblogging service that lets users post pictures and videos from camera phones “while your friends and family chit-chat about it live!” Looks kinda interesting, but I’m already buried up to my eyebrows in both social networks, microblogging services, and socialmicrobloggingservicenetworks for now.

From the “Things I Never Thought I’d See Advertised on Digg” department.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Another winner from The Onion. I’m constantly impressed by the high production values of these segments. Definitely a step or two above the rest.

via iRockandRoll

From Technosailor’s 10 things you need to know about WordPress 2.6, a new “Press This” bookmarklet will arrive that makes it much easier to blog photos, quotes, and videos you find around the web. This is one of Tumblr’s killer features, and it’s about damn time WordPress tackles something like this.

The other 10 things are certainly worth reading, including a new compromise to the ridiculous disabling of external blog editor access (by default) that MarsEdit developer Daniel Jalkut rightfully called BS on.

“Performance” service customers now get upload speeds of up to 1 Mbps, and “Performance PLUS” (the caps mean ‘more better’) get 2 Mbps.

Looks like we’re on the PLUS plan. This is good news for my Mozy online backup that’s still chomping away at our 250GB+ iTunes library; maybe it’ll finish sometime in 2008.

He got more expressive since last year’s videos, but now that he’s cemented his fame as “The iPhone Guy,” he’s really letting himself go.