According to the official Google blog, 100,000 invitations to Google’s most hotly-anticipated new service, Google Wave, are going out today. Wave is being touted as a communication tool that reimagines the way email should work. When Download Squad took a look at Wave back in May, Lee explained it this way:

Create a Wave, add people to it, toss in some gadgets, feeds, and photos, and mix with a rich text editor. You’ll see new content in near-real time as your friends add it, and you can even hit the rewind button and watch your Wave evolve from scratch.

So, who’s getting invited to use this next-generation communication tool? Well, it helps if you signed up early for an invitation and wrote the Wave team a message offering to give feedback. If you’re a developer who’s been using the developer preview of Wave, you might also get an invitation, and some are going out to paying customers of Google Apps.

In their blog post, the Google Wave folks stress that – if you do land an invitation – you’re not going to be playing with a finished product. Wave is still missing some crucial features, and bugs are going to be par for the course until the team starts using the feedback from these 100,000 new users to start identifying problems. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to directly invite friends to Wave, but you will be able to nominate them for invitations.

Do you have a Wave invitation yet? What do you think of the service so far?

Some lucky gamers have received the first wave of beta invites for Sony’s new online multiplayer game MAG. The following was posted on Joystiq when they received an invite:

According to the beta enrollment page, Sony “will be adding people in waves.” If you don’t see an invite in your inbox right now, don’t worry: you may be invited later. “If you do not receive an invite for the first wave you may still be invited in a following MAG Public Beta wave.”

Sony has already conducted a closed beta for MAG for over a month. The expansion of the beta to the public gives us hope that maybe — just maybe — we’ll be able to see MAG’s 256-player online battles hitting the PS3 sooner rather than later.

VIA: Joystiq

Or at least ‘reinvent’ it. Web browser specialists Opera have something big in the works, if this marketing spiel is to be believed. But is it just the public release of version 10 of its browser? The same one that’s available for download as a public beta, here? Looks like we’ll all find out on Tuesday when it all ‘changes’.

[via Stuff.tv]

Microsoft has released a public beta of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, which is part of Microsoft’s unified communications family. It belongs to Microsoft Office-related products and is said to be the first server in a new generation of Microsoft server technology to work on-premises and as an online service.

This release of Exchange 2010, according to Microsoft, introduces a new integrated e-mail archive and features to help reduce costs and improve the user experience. A public beta of the server is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010.

Exchange Server 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009. Microsoft Office 2010 and related products will enter technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and become available in the first half of 2010.

Additional Office products including Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010, and Microsoft Project 2010 are scheduled to enter technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and release to manufacturing in the first half of 2010.

Apple Releases Public Beta of Safari 4 Browser
Apple has announced the public beta of Safari 4, its web browser for Mac and Windows PCs. The company claims Nitro engine in Safari 4 runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3. It’s now available as a free download…More

Finally the news is out, and its doing the rounds all over…

ParitoshSharma.com, the much awaited collaborative platform for Personal Branding, is LIVE into public beta, for Feedback! YES!

Since www.paritoshsharma.com is a collaborative platform, I need your feedback on deisgn and usability!! Appreciate your time! Also, your feedback would be hosted LIVE on the blog and you can WIN a chance to be featured on The “ParitoshSharma” Show!!

There is lots of action in store, a quick sneek peek into The “Paritosh Sharma” Show:

Your feedback is much appreciated!

To know more and to connect with me: mail me at paritosh@paritoshsharma.com

David Wiley, via iterating toward openness, emphasizes the significance of Flat World Knowledge (FWK) going Public Beta, and outlined the common and distinctive features of FKW textbooks in light of traditional ones. Excerpt:

FWK textbooks are much like traditional textbooks in that they are:

• beautiful looking printed books,
• written by world-class authors,
• supported with all the supplementals and teaching aids (like an instructor manual, slides, and assessments) teachers expect, and
• available as review copies (for teachers),

FWK textbooks are UNLIKE traditional textbooks in that they are:

• licensed CC BY-NC-SA,
• always available in full-text online for free,
• offered in a variety of additional, affordable formats (paperback black-and-white ($30), full-color ($60), audio book ($30), individual book chapters as audio ($3), etc.),
• supported by a variety of study aids available at the student’s option (NOT forcibly bundled with the book)

I’m SO excited about FWK because we’re going to show the world that extremely high quality open educational resources can be produced and disseminated in a way that is sustainable over the long term. Jump over to the Catalog page, choose a book with a Feb 2009 publication date, and click “Start Reading” to see what I’m talking about.

Σήμερα αποφάσισα να βάλω την public beta των windows 7. Είναι το καινούριο λειτουργικό που η Microsoft θέλει να παρουσιάσει μέχρι το καλοκαίρι. Συμφώνα με τα λεγόμενα της Microsoft δεν είναι απλός τα Vista με κάποιο Service Pack άλλα ένα νέο λειτουργικό που βασίζεται στα Vista. Είναι γνωστό ότι τα Vista δεν κατάφεραν να έχουν την αποδοχή όπως άλλα λειτουργικά της Microsoft και αυτό για 2 λόγους κατά την άποψη μου. Λόγο το μεγάλων απαιτήσεων από άποψη hardware και σε συνδυασμό με την έλλειψη προγραμμάτων και Drivers το πρώτο διάστημα. Το δεύτερο είναι αναμενόμενο σε μια καινούρια πλατφόρμα. 

Τώρα ας πάμε στα καινούρια. Το μηχάνημα που τα εγκατέστησα είναι ένα IBM Notebook R50e και από χαρακτηριστικά: Pentium mobile 735(1.7GHz), 1512MB RAM, 60GB 5400rpm HD, 15in 1024×768 LCD, Intel Extreme. Η εγκατάσταση είναι ακριβώς ίδια με τον Vista χωρίς ιδιαίτερη δυσκολία. Τα windows 7 βρήκαν τους περισσότερους Drivers και δεν έχω κανένα πρόβλημα. Το Boot του λειτουργικού , τουλάχιστον στο μηχάνημα μου, δεν είναι πιο γρήγορο από τα XP άλλα είναι λογικό. Εκεί που κερδίζουν τα windows 7 είναι στο Shut down, είναι πραγματικά γρήγορο. 

Από θέμα προγραμμάτων η beta είναι ultimate έκδοση και έχει παρά πολλά προγράμματα που συμπληρώνουν όμορφα την ευκολία του λειτουργικού. Έτοιμες λύσεις που παλιότερα έπρεπε να ανατρέξει σε τρίτους κατασκευαστές τα έχει ενσωματώσει. Η έκδοση αυτή του λειτουργικού έχει βγει έτσι ώστε να κλείσει εταιρίες που παρείχαν έξυπνες λύσεις. Είναι ένα πλήρες λειτουργικό. 

Εντυπωσιακή είναι η ανανέωση του Paint και του WordPad που έχουν ακολουθήσει το Ribbon design του Office 2007. 

Η καινούρια Taskbar είναι πολύ βολική. Ομαδοποιεί όλα τα ίδια παράθυρα. Ακόμη πιο εντυπωσιακό είναι ότι ενώ υπάρχει ένας IE ανοικτός και έχει 3 Tabs το κάθε Tab το εμφανίζει σαν ξεχωριστώ παράθυρο.

Η γενική άποψη που μου δημιούργησε είναι θετική και σίγουρα έχουν γίνει κινήσεις από την Microsoft για να αντιστρέψει το κλίμα άλλα και ουσιαστικά έχει γίνει δουλειά. Αν και τα windows 7 είναι κατά την άποψη μου τα Vista βελτιωμένα δεν παύει να είναι κάτι νέο. Ας ελπίσουμε να τηρήσει η Microsoft της υποσχέσεις για τον καινούριο πυρήνα και τελικά οι απαιτήσεις να είναι πιο κάτω από τα Vista. Τώρα πια θα είναι εύκολη η μετάβαση.

After several requests, including a very public one, I’m posting a link to the original zip, so that everybody can try it out. Hopefully, it will be useful to most of you.

I’m currently in the process of fixing some of the bugs already reported and thinking about implementing some new features. Any feedback, whether it’s a bug or a feature request or a user interface improvement or whatever, is welcome.

Here’s the trailer, with pictures and explanation on what this universe is all about. Looks very familiar for people who’s been traveling second life a while ago:) This launch being a huge stake for Sony, it will be interesting to see if the platform can stand the hype and thereby criticism always following. Looking very much forward to follow the discussion during the weeks to come.  More on Playstation Home on Wikipedia.

Red Bull is the first advertiser entering the universe, with a branded island with activities for the users in a branded context. Diesel and Paramount Pictures are also throwing their brands into this new world. Read full post about this at Adverblog

Twinity, the 3D Online world powered by real life, in only a few short weeks since going public beta is charging past 50,000 users – clearly Twinity is gaining momentum and Real People are seeing the opportunities to enchance their real lives and social networking friends & places by joining Twinity.

Click to visit Twinity.com

Keep a watch out for Virtual London & Virtual Singapore both cities soon to join Virtual Berlin in Twinity

Hey wanna help promote Twinity – Vote for twinity here: http://bestuff.com/stuff/twinity you can also join the public beta from this link !

Do you have a killer idea that you think will make you famous, money, happy or a social celebrity in Twinity – we want to know – contact me through comments leaving your email and i will contact you personally – APLINK