flixn is a new service allowing users to record video directly from a webcam and save it to the web. The process is as simple as:

1. Press the on-screen record button to begin recording video.
2. Cut and paste the generated code into a site to share you video.

As the authors have already identified, this functionality is perfect for bloggers, myspace, eBay and any number of sites involving social interaction.

flixn have certainly discovered a gap (albeit a small gap, given the availability of webcams) in the web 2.0 market.

Nintendo have confirmed that the forthcoming Wii console will support Flash via its embedded Opera Browser. There’s no news yet on which version of the Flash Player they’re planning to support, but this could open up some exciting opportunities for developers.

This site features a beautiful selection of sculptures made from single sheets of A4 paper.

We’re currently working on a new web presence for Heavenly, scheduled for launch in October.

Microsoft have released the beta version of Windows Live Writer, a desktop application for composing blog entries.

The software features WYSIWYG authoring, photo publishing, map publishing using Microsoft’s Live Local maps and compatibility with a range of weblogs including Blogger, TypePad and WordPress.

If you haven’t tried a desktop blog authoring package you could do far worse than try the cross-platform Ecto.

Go2Web is an interactive, searchable directory of Web 2.0 websites. All the usual suspects are there (YouTube, Flickr, last.fm etc.), but the site is well worth a visiting to find some of the lesser-known resources such as bebop (find gig tickets via iTunes), imbee (secure social networking for children) and chuquet (the most popular links taken from thousands of feeds).

Online retailer Amazon has launched Amazon Unbox, a service allowing users to purchase and download movies and video content. The service is only compatible with Microsoft Windows XP: if you’re a Mac or iPod user, stay tuned for Apple’s video-on-demand service, rumoured to be appearing on September 12th 2006.

The battle for supremacy in this emerging market is sure to be bitterly fought. Apple’s overwhelming dominance in the sale of digital music has yet to experience a serious challenge; it remains to be seen whether they can emulate this success with movies.

I’ve used SmartFTP for a good few years now and am very happy with it. It transfers files both up and down from the internet; I couldn’t ask for anything more from an FTP client. However every time I install it I have the same problem – I can’t for the life of me find the setting that disables the auto connect feature on start up. Only a small thing I know, but the small things do seem to matter in life.

Being a simple kind of chap, I’d have expected to find a checkbox in the Tools->Settings->Connection options with a useful label such as “disable auto-connect”. However that’s just not how it works. Instead go to Tools->Settings->Interface and deselect the “Restore Workspace on Start” option. Simple really, just not particularly logical. Ok, I can *just about* see the logic but it’s definitely blury round the edges ;)

Google have launched Google Image Labeler, a “game” created to help improve the quality of search results returned by Google Images.

It’s an intriguing concept: upon login, players are randomly paired and given 90 seconds in which to suggest keywords for a series of images. Points are scored when users suggest the same word.

Google’s objective is to use the data generated by this game to improve their search technology using human intelligence. Full credit to them: they’ve conjured up a strangely compelling game which will encourage an army of people to provide this valuable information for free!