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The new Digsby is here!  We just released Build 32 (r17926) which is the culmination of a massive effort to improve performance, improve connectivity, fix most of the remaining bugs, and add some new functionality to boot. Major changes in this release include:

• RAM Usage: We optimized from the ground up and fixed memory leaks to lower RAM usage by almost 75%.  This has been the number one complaint since our launch and we are proud to introduce this massive improvement.
• Performance: User interface elements draw twice as fast for better performance. We have made changes to the architecture that will improve GUI responsiveness and CPU utilization across the board.
• Connectivity: Every IM protocol automatically tries multiple connection methods and ports to improve the odds of getting through restrictive firewalls and proxy servers.
• LinkedIn: Digsby now supports LinkedIn in addition to the other social networks.  Functionality includes a full newsfeed, alerts when new messages arrive, and the ability to set status right from Digsby.
• Bug Fixes: We have fixed hundreds of bugs, making Digsby more stable than ever.  There have been almost 3,000 revisions in our codebase since the last release so there are too many fixes to list in our changelog.

Digsby
Build 32 - Better than Ever! [Digsby Blog]

Announced in April, the new version of iGoogle that brings social applications is tested in a small number of randomly selected Google accounts.

The new iGoogle places the tabs on the left-hand side of the page and you can expand the tabs to see the list of gadgets and status information, like the number of unread Gmail messages. There’s a new chat feature borrowed from Gmail that lets you chat with your contacts while visiting iGoogle - that means iGoogle gets a sense of presence because you’ll know when your contacts are online. Since the chat feature will be enabled by default, it’s obvious that Google will be able to add options for sharing items and discussing posts with the contacts that are online.

iGoogle also adds a list of updates from your contacts similar to Facebook’s newsfeed: you can see stories shared by your contacts in Google Reader, recent photos uploaded to Picasa Web Albums, Google Talk status messages, shared iGoogle themes and gadgets.

Another change is that gadgets have an expanded interface, called canvas view. Gadgets authors will take advantage of this to display more information and make their gadgets more interactive, while your feeds can be read in a Google Reader-like interface. In the future, iGoogle will support OpenSocial applications and the transformation to a social site will be complete.

Google announced that the canvas view will be rolled out to a small percentage of users this month and to more users in July, while the OpenSocial applications “will not work in production until later this summer”.

Another cloud service is coming, this time on your phone. Dashwire is intended to mirror your phones content onto a web based interface. I’m sure the power users are thinking “I can already do that with other 3rd party apps. Yes, you can… but Dashwire is probably not intended for the ultimate power user and it does do a good job of providing a clean, easy to use web based interface for accessing for phones information. Some of the things they list that Dashwire can do today via their Web-based interface:

• Send and receive text messages (SMS)

•  Add and edit phone contacts

•  Easily organize your photos and videos

•  Listen to voicemails

•  Set Internet favorites, ringtones, speed dials, and wallpapers for your phone

•  Transfer contacts and settings to your new phone

•  Automatically upload photos and videos

•  Find friends and people you want to follow

•  Create a personalized web page to share your media

• Add comments and star ratings

• Single click photo upload to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Bebo

The interface is smooth, grey, and very attractive looking. The fonts are large and everything is easy to read.

On your Dashwire dashboard are your photos and videos, contacts, bookmarks, and SMS and call history laid out in movable AJAX tiles. You can click to play on your ringtones (I found this a very easy way to manage ringtones. There are tiles for phone, and text messages and you can reply to them with your keyboard. Even with a Treo or Blackjack you can’t bang out an SMS as fast as you can on a traditional keyboard. You can e-mail photo links from Dashwire, too, without your friends having to sign up to the service to view them online. Contacts you add online materialize in your mobile address book. Essentially, Dashwire is allowing you a web interface for interacting with your phone, while at the same time making an online backup of some of the most important “data”. It’s not backing up your programs, registry settings or anything like that, but all your critical stuff like contact, messages, etc.

Now it’s time for the secret sauce: how your content gets there. Dashwire begins as a mobile app that most users will probably download over the air. It installs, and then syncs to your personal page on Dashwire.com, which you’ve configured by registering your screen name and number on sign-up. The synching takes FOREVER, and might take more if your mobile network is lagging. Photos and videos take the longest to upload, and even longer the more you’ve got. I only have the “stock photos” that came with my phone and I’m sure that’s the part taking the longest. I wonder about the value of that (personally) though for people unfamiliar with other backup solutions this might be a great alternative.

The video they put together gives a great overview of what Dashwire can do, so check it out and see if this is a solution you could use. The accounts are free (not sure yet how’ll they monetize this service yet) and it’s in open beta. Some improvements they could make are faster backups. Even once my phone was sync’d it still take a LONG time during the sync process… and I wonder… why? For the moment, it only supports Windows Mobile 5 and 6, and subscribers have to specify their carrier and device model when they register. Dashwire doesn’t manage files or programs, or perform certain small tasks like deleting photos from the phone or reading and initiating e-mail. Those would be welcome additions. Dashwire also has a setting to update your status on Facebook and Twitter… though I haven’t seen HOW this works or any instructions on their site for making this interaction occur. Still… for a beta it’s not bad and definetly worth checking out.

Looks like MySpace is trying to play catch up to the MASSIVE lead Facebook has in this area by *finally* adding support for mobile browsing of their site and 3rd party apps/gadgets/widgets.

Just like the website version, MySpace Mobile also allows reading and send bulletins, accessing of MySpace message, approving friend requests, viewing of photos, searching for other users, posting comments, blogging, and checking out friends profiles. To access MySpace Mobile, users simply need to type m.myspace.com on their phone browsers to visit the website. Ho hum in my opinion. I don’t like looking at shitty MySpace “profiles” and their horrible layouts on my PC why would I want to subject my mobile phone to that?

Recently, MySpace started showing off its new gallery of third-party applications that users can now start adding to their profiles and to their MySpace home pages. So here they are again attempting to play catchup (feature-wise… MySpace is still the largest social site on the net) with Facebook. Most of the apps have issus, but to be fair this is still “beta” (which in the web 2.0 world means generally available but not expected to work).

Electric Pocket, of Smartphone fame for the popular ringtone manager Ringo has just released a cool application for Windows Mobile and Blackberry phones. Findme lets users share their current locations automagically and securely with their smartphone WITHOUT the need for GPS. You can then “tag” your location with home, work, school, etc and it will automatically update your Facebook profile with your location.

According to their website: “You are in complete control of what your friends see - “At home”, “In the Office”, “Playing Soccer”, “Walking the dog”, etc. If you haven’t named a place your position will just show up as “Unknown” - and you can always “Go Dark” if you dont want to be seen.  If you want, you can add additional location information like zip or post code to a favourite place so FindMe can show your friends a map or directions to where you are.”

There really isn’t much to say on it as the program itself is pretty basic. In a nutshell, what you do is install a tiny application on your Windows Mobile device. This application grabs information about the cell tower that you are connected to and allows you to assign a tag to that location. Then the application uploads your current location to Facebook which in turn allows all of your friends to see where you are. The only downside of this application that I can see is it will make a bit harder to hide from those individuals that you do not want to hang out with.

FindMe works with all Mobile phones. It does not require GPS or additional hardware. Automatic operation is currently available for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile Smartphones and in progress for Symbian and Palm OS. If you’re a Facebook addict then check out FindMe by hitting up the download to play around with this simple, yet fun, program.