Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Office, Productivity, Web services, Commercial, Freeware

Fans of 37signal’s on the web task management and information gathering tool Backpack will be excited to hear about the tool’s latest addition, a Journal page.

Backpack recently underwent a major update that moved the tool from a single-user focus to a tool intended to allow teams that are working together to keep information organized. The new Journal function continues the tool’s move to more of a team focus, which is both exciting and a little frustrating. While none of the functionality that makes Backpack a good tool for individuals has been lost, it’s disappointing to see 37signals lose their focus with respect to Backpack. Considering they already have three team-focused products (Basecamp, Highrise, and Campfire) it would have been nice for Backpack to have remained focused on individual productivity.

Thought aside, the new Journal functionality allows teams to keep tabs on what each other are up to. There are two main elements. The first is the current status field, which can be thought of much like a private Twitter or Facebook status update. You use this field to tell everyone what you are currently doing. The second field grants you to enter what you’ve just finished, and these items are logged. This allows you to see what your team members are currently busy with, and what they’ve recently accomplished.

It seems to us that this might seem a tiny too much like big brother looking over your shoulder, but on the other hand nearly all jobs require some sort of record-keeping for your time. Is this a feature you could see yourself using? Why or why not?

If you’re still not quite sure what to make of this, a video demonstration of the new Journal page is available.

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Filed under: World wide web, Productivity, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

How many of you subscribe to an RSS feed because you liked one post you read? Raise your hands please. No, seriously, raise your hands please. Now how many of you stay subscribed to that feed because you’re either too lazy to unsubscribe, don’t know how to unsubscribe, or don’t want to injured the bloggers’ feelings by unsubscribing? Us too.

NewsGator is coming to our rescue!

Starting today, NewsGator, NetNewsWire, and FeedDemon will begin recommending stories and feeds for you to read and subscribe to.

Using some Harry Potter magic sauce from a company called SenseArray, NewsGator will begin showing showing you suggestions based on things that other people think are interesting. Hooray!

What’s the catch? Well, to make this technology smarter, you’ll have to interact with your feeds a tiny. That’s OK. We know that the earth isn’t run by Terminators machines…yet. Right now, SenseArray’s technology uses forward and share numbers, as well as tags and comment data to compute what might interest you. You’ll be able to thumbs up and thumbs down stories to customize the experience though, so no worries. Rage against the machine, y’all!

Soon, NewsGator hopes to accurately predict your tastes, even before you know what your tastes are.

It looks like the company is also hoping to help us deal with our severe information overload (the 3% of us junkies) by letting us unsubscribe to those dormant feeds that we don’t like anymore and keep us up to date with the Right Stuff. The stuff we’ll actually, you know…read?

Oh, and no worries, it’s not just for the geeks. Their new suggestion service will cover Top News, Entertainment, Sports, Fun Stuff, Science and Technology. While we’re not sure what “Fun Stuff” actually is, we’ll wait for T2 to suggest something.

Oh and please feel free to subscribe to the Downloadsquad feed. We’re humans.

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Filed under: Law, Marketing and advertising, Employees

With her homey look and her heavy New York accent, Wendy Kaufman entertained beverage fans everywhere with her Television appearances as the “Snapple Lady.” Her silly responses to fan letters on advertisements gave her a cult following of sorts, and she was so authentic; she started out working in Snapple’s marketing department and in 1993 was picked to appear in a campaign that ran heavily through 1995.

After having worked for a few corporate bosses as Snapple was purchased and sold, finally ending up in Cadbury-Schweppes’ newly-spun-off Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE: DPS), Kaufman was presented with a new “so one-sided” contract that she declined to sign in March. While a company spokesperson insists that the contract was lovely, Kaufman says it was “worth nothing” and will be headed off into the sunset to do voiceover work for Motorola.

She’s definitely not “over” yet though. Thanks to an appearance on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club in 2004, she was back in the spotlight, and soon was planning to launch her own plus-size clothing line, WendyWear. Is Wendy Kaufman still somebody without her job as the Snapple Lady? She seems confident enough.

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Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), eBay (EBAY), Marketing and advertising

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) shares dropped 1.77%. OK, you can say it was just as much as the Nasdaq dropped, or you can also say that no one was really impressed with the software giant’s new cashback on search service.

It is no secret Microsoft is trying to boost its internet division and gain search market share. After so often being accused of being a monopoly, I guess it’s hard for it to see Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) now being accused of the same in the lucrative business of world wide web search. Well, Microsoft tried to acquire Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), No. 2 in search (although it is also losing market share to Google) but we all know that didn’t work out all that well… at least not yet. I get the feeling we haven’t heard the last on that subject yet.

To address its search insufficiencies, Microsoft Wednesday rolled out Live Search Cashback, a new service that pays consumers who purchase selected items from participating retailers found through Microsoft’s Live Search engine. Only a portion of the buy price, of course, between 2-30% will be paid — via check, direct deposit to a bank account or eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY)’s PayPal. So naturally, those wishing to use the service will need to sign up and provide Massive Brother with even more personal information.

No one can tell me this doesn’t smack of desperation. Is Microsoft really serious in thinking this could actually make a dent in its search business? The cash rebate might attract some people, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to change their search habits. If anything, they might still search on Google, then go to the Live engine and find what they want there. The rest of time, I bet, Live will not be in use! Of course, the higher the cashback, the more people it will attract, but doesn’t that sound a little backward? How much can Microsoft spend on that? And couldn’t Google at any time counter with a similar offer should it select to?

I’m sorry, but this just doesn’t sound care about it would change anything in the reality of search today.

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Filed under: Good news, Products and services, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Marketing and advertising

Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS) announced Tuesday that the company has removed all digital rights management technology from its store and will begin selling unprotected MP3 files immediately. Napster has also gained the support and backing from all four of the major record labels on top of existing deals with independent labels. This is something other stores like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iTunes Store and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN)’s MP3 Store have yet to secure.

According to Billboard, Napster will have a similar deal with Sony BMG that it has with Amazon where the label is the seller and the store only receives a commission. In addition, Napster’s six million song catalog far outpaces that of any other store. Amazon comes close, but is four million songs behind. Unlike iTunes, though, Napster won’t offer a service to allow users to upgrade existing DRM-encoded files to the new DRM-free files.

Napster executives, however, remain committed to the subscription-based model that the store has operated under for the past few years, hoping to utilize the new MP3 files as gateways to introducing customers to subscriptions. Billboard contends that Napster “is gambling that the proliferation of Internet-connected devices — such as mobile phones, home stereos and eventually automobile radios — will some day convince music fans that a monthly subscription to access all the music they want from any device is more compelling than buying it.”

At the end of the day, another digital music store offering DRM-free tracks is a good sign for digital growth, digital stores and the music industry. This is particularly evident here since all four major labels have signed on to offer Napster quite a massive cache of tracks. The continued hopes for transitions to subscription services might be the next prolonged discussion, as the largest retailer iTunes and Apple have continued to steer clear of that model.

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Filed under: Marketing and advertising, McDonald’s (MCD), Wendy’s Intl (WEN), Burger King Hldgs (BKC)

I always love news items like this. According to Reuters, there exists a $175 hamburger. You can find it in New York at a place called The Wall Street Burger Shoppe. Presumably, huge traders would be the only ones able to afford it.

Well, for those who would even think to complain about the prices at McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD), Burger King (NYSE: BKC) and Wendy’s (NYSE: WEN), this $175 burger should put things in perspective. It doesn’t sell a lot; the news piece states that the place moves about two dozen in any given thirty-day period. The Wall Street Burger Shoppe mostly sells $4 burgers.

But, really, this $175 burger is nothing more than genius marketing. The owners are obviously not under any illusion whatsoever that they can make a great return on capital by investing in such a expensive offering. All it’s meant to do is to bring publicity to the establishment. It’s obviously worked. As a way of branding, this goofy pricing scheme immediately differentiates the restaurant’s brand from others. In fact, it was the said intent of the owners to have the most expensive burger in the area. It’s also a great differentiator between personalities. I mean, I think you can tell a lot about a person who is actually willing to purchase this thing (and, you can certainly infer a lot about the person’s net worth).

Yep, those $4 burgers seem like no cost at all compared to the $175 royal dish. Perhaps either McDonald’s, Burger King, or Wendy’s should leverage this example of 80s-like excess to their advantage.

If I were a commercial scribe, I’d pen an ad that makes consumers who buy this thing look, at best, ill advised, and those who select one of the big three’s value menus theoretical physicists by comparison (then again, considering some of the wacky theories theoretical physicists come up with, that might not be such an apt metaphor). I could definitely see Burger King using its ghoulish regal mascot to do a comedic mini-campaign based on such a concept.

Well, I won’t be digging deep into my wallet to shell out an amount too close to two hundred bucks for my taste to enjoy one of these hamburgers. I’ve got to fill up my gas tank, remember…

Disclosure: I don’t own shares in any company mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

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Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Wendy’s Intl (WEN)

Wendy’s (NYSE: WEN) recently agreed to be acquired by Triarc (NYSE: TRY), parent of Arby’s, but that won’t stop the company from efforts at innovation before the deal closes.

In a statement, the number three fast food chain announced that it’s “introducing a new line of hand-spun Frosty Shakes in three flavors: Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Fudge, and, yes, Strawberry — a company first.”

The company will launch a national ad campaign in June. The Frosty was one of the original Wendy’s menu items when Dave Thomas opened the first location in 1969. Since then, the Frosty has become Wendy’s best-known item, with annual sales exceeding 350 million.

What can Wendy’s do to keep up with the more innovative McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD)? Here’s an idea: an all-natural Frosty made with real milk.

As Sarah Gilbert recently wrote on WalletPop, our sister site, “Unfortunately, today’s milkshake is barely recognizable compared to those of the middle of the century. Most milkshakes consumed by Americans this day come from McDonald’s, Wendy’s or Starbucks; where they’re all individually “branded”, Shamrock Shake, Frosty, Frappuccino, so that it’s clear the milk is but a minor player. Nonfat milk solids, corn syrup solids, guar gum, dextrose, cellulose gum, vanilla. Is this progress?”

An all-natural Frosty could really move Wendy’s into the 21st century. They’ve demonstrated a willingness to introduce new Frosty products, so why not give it a try?

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