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The Knot TV adds new wedding programming

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theknot-tv.jpgThe Knot, a very popular wedding resource, announced today new programming for their online streaming video channel known as The Knot TV. It joins existing programming starting this summer, adding an additional 360 minutes of footage.

Highlights of the upcoming season of The Knot TV include views of new off-the-runway wedding gown designs, an interview with wedding fashion designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka, profiles of six different gown designers and their works and peeks at new bridesmaid dress styles.

The Knot TV, said The Knot, delivers over 1.5 million streams a month and offers wedding style programming such as fashion shows, bridal makeovers, honeymoon specials, real-wedding videos, and style inspiration from celebrity wedding planners.

Originally posted on June 6, 2007 @ 3:45 pm

Vayama aims to ease international flight bookings

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vayama.jpgA Silicon Valley start up by the name Vayama launched today what it says is the industry’s only dedicated international travel Web site. It’s also claiming to offer the largest selection of international airlines, flight and fares.

Vayama, which incorporates Ajax technology, said it offers access to the flight inventory of airlines not previously available online as well as specific fare and route combinations. Examples of this include booking a trip on Iberia from New York to Rome, China Eastern from Los Angeles to Ho Chi Minh or Hawaiian Airlines from San Francisco to Sydney.

Features of Vayama include an interactive world map, 3-D seat maps, the ability to book flights to other cities and countries beyond the original destination, flight comparisons and a narrowing of search results based upon criteria such as total travel time or connecting airports.

Originally posted on June 6, 2007 @ 4:38 pm

Weather WunderCams give you local weather photo visuals

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wundercams.jpgIf you’ve always wanted to share what the weather looks like in your part of the country with your friends online a new solution from Weather Underground might just do the trick. The nation’s first online provider of weather content is now offering a “WunderCams” feature to those who already act as personal weather stations for the Weather Underground network.

This WunderCam offering will let personal weather station owners provide Weather Underground viewers pretty much real-time weather pictures for a given area. In addition it will offer “a historical calendar, which displays month-long cycles of weather data, current conditions and animations of the day’s weather.”

The purpose of this weather Web cam feature, explained Weather Underground, is to offer “users a new perspective on weather reporting, beyond traditional weather data consisting of numbers and text.” It joins other offerings on the weather network such as daily animations and weather visuals.

Originally posted on June 5, 2007 @ 4:48 pm

Filed Under: Web

Avvo takes guess work out of finding a lawyer

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A new Seattle start-up is promising to help you out in choosing the right lawyer next time you need to mix it up with the complex legal system. Avvo has launched a public beta of their Web site to provide you free ratings and profiles of legal hounds in your area.

Avvo, which currently covers lawyers in Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington, rates lawyers based upon the “Avvo Rating,” or how well a lawyer might be able to represent a client. The rating is apparently based upon “a proprietary mathematical model applied equally to each lawyer to analyze information Avvo has about them, including their experience, disciplinary sanctions and professional achievements.”

Avvo apparently draws upon a wide variety of sources to create all of these lawyer profiles, visiting state courts, bar associations and lawyers’ Web sites to collect its data. Users of the site will also be able to submit ratings of their experiences with a lawyer, while lawyers themselves will be able to endorse one another and update information on their online profiles to give potential clients more of a sense of that lawyer’s background.

avvo-beta.jpg

Originally posted on June 5, 2007 @ 5:16 pm

nuTsie brings iTunes to your mobile… sort of

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nutsie.jpgMelodeo has introduced nuTsie, a new service which lets you stream iTunes music from your home computer (sort of – read on) to your compatible wireless mobile phone. The beta of nuTsie is currently free.

nuTsie, assuming it survives what will probably be an Apple lawsuit soon, says it lets you enjoy “hi-fi quality music” and offers you the ability to shuffle your iTunes playlists and songs from your phone. The way it works is that you export the metadata about your iTunes music collection and upload that data to the online service. nuTsie “compares the list of the songs in your iTunes library and playlists with all the music already stored on nuTsie’s Web servers, and then streams those same songs to your mobile phone. It plays all the songs in a shuffle mode. nuTsie pays the artists and recording industry based on your listening to their music.”

What’s interesting to note about this service is that it does not in fact stream your iTunes music collection from your home computer, which gives you the ability to enjoy music even if your PC is turned off. The potential major downside of all of this is that if you have a lot of fringe music in your collection you may not be able to enjoy it if it doesn’t exist on nuTsie’s servers.

A social element also exists with nuTsie in that you can share your music tastes and playlists with friends through a Web page. Melodeo hopes to expand this sharing to your mobile soon.

Originally posted on June 5, 2007 @ 1:37 pm