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Motorola offers mobile summer travel tips

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motorola-road-trip.jpgMotorola today unveiled a site which is designed to help road trippers make the most out of their mobile phones and Bluetooth accessories. The site is called Motorola Road Trips and it looks free to use.

Motorola Road Trips lets one plan and share their road trip adventures via their mobile devices. The site, obviously part marketing and part how to, offers a series of “road trip tech tips” to show users overlooked mobile device features such as the digital camera. The site also features destination information, travel news, product suggestions and user comments.

Motorola encourages users to make use of popular social networking sites to distribute their travel content to others. One is also instructed to tag media with the term “mototrips” and it will instantly be added to the Motorola Road Trips user gallery.

Originally posted on July 16, 2007 @ 1:19 pm

PalBee launches as free Flash video conferencing service

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palbee.jpgA new free video conferencing service which is Web based made its debut this week from a company in Seoul, Korea. PalBee is the product of Zenitum Entertainment.

PalBee offers unlimited free sessions of one hour video conferencing for a maximum of five video attendees. It has a Flash-based user interface and currently provides a whiteboard, text chat, images and PowerPoint slide sharing features. The service, which can only support 10 video conference sessions at the same time since it is in beta, will be upgraded shortly to add support for new features as well as more video conferences.

“We will continuously increase the capacity and bandwidth multiple folds to support more users,” said Albert Kim, CEO and Founder of Zenitum. “Even then, free users have to come and create conference sessions first come, first serve basis.”

Originally posted on July 13, 2007 @ 4:51 pm

RealTravel reveals list of prime travel spots

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realtravel.jpgRealTravel, a travel blogging and travel guide site, has unveiled what it believes to be are 10 top American treasures to visit. This list was put together by RealTravel editors and newlywed bloggers Team Edwards and is described as “some less traveled destinations worth visiting include spots in Arizona, Tennessee and South Dakota.”

The list includes the following:

  • Avenue of the Giants (Northwestern California)
  • World’s Largest Fountain (Fountain Hills, Arizona)
  • Custer State Park (Custer, South Dakota)
  • Ruby Falls (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
  • Badlands National Park (Southwestern South Dakota)
  • The Enchanted Highway (Regent, North Dakota)
  • James Pecan Farm (Brunswick, Missouri)
  • Storybook Land (Aberdeen, South Dakota)
  • Corn Palace (Mitchell, South Dakota)
  • Whistle Stop Café (Juliette, Georgia)

RealTravel claims to be one of the more popular travel Web sites, citing its “Best of the Web” by Forbes and BusinessWeek in 2006 and Best Online Travel Community of the Year in 2007 by the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. It reportedly helps more than half a million people plan trips with advice from other travelers every month.

Originally posted on July 13, 2007 @ 4:40 pm

FitResolution brings social to working out

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fitresolution.jpgFitResolution announced its presence today as a place to bring together health, fitness and Web 2.0 technology. The site is the creation of founder and president Zach Silverzweig, who came up with the idea while developing his own workout plan to fight a disease he was facing.

FitResolution offers for free the ability for registered users to create, share and search through workout plans based on keywords and fitness goals. It allows users to follow a workout plan and offers a community aspect for networking and support. One can also log progress so he or she can compare and compete against one another.

“We are the first website to fully embrace an online approach to physical fitness,” said Silverzweig. “Some sites are just trying to link social networking and exercise. FitResolution is different. We put the power to get healthy in the hands of our users who create and share workout plans.”

Originally posted on July 11, 2007 @ 7:22 pm

Yahoo closes Right Media acquistion

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Yahoo announced today it had closed the acquisition of Right Media, an interactive advertising company which had developed an open exchange system for letting buyers and sellers trade digital media more efficiently. This acquisition was first announced at the end of April.

Yahoo’s move to acquire Right Media stems from its desire to grow its online advertising strategy. The acquisition follows Yahoo’s 20 percent strategic investment in Right Media in October 2006. Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo has acquired the remaining equity interest in Right Media for approximately $650 million.

“We are pleased to have closed our Right Media acquisition so quickly and are excited to welcome Right Media’s talented employees to the Yahoo family,” said Jerry Yang, CEO and co-founder, Yahoo Inc. “We believe Right Media will be a perfect complement to our industry leading advertising tools and capabilities and help Yahoo continue to transform how advertisers and publishers connect to their target audiences.”

Originally posted on July 12, 2007 @ 7:31 pm