Pownce. About 14 hours ago, news of Kevin Rose's new startup (partnering with, according to the Digg, Leah Culver, Daniel Burka, and Shawn Allen) hit Digg and the rest of the internet. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check the website out for the basic details. In summary, it's like the recent Web 2.0 darling, Twitter, but with some solid additions and improvements.

Lucky for you guys, unlike most other current Pownce members, I was able to rip myself away to write up some first impressions. Without further ado...

The Initial, Initial Impressions

I think a lot of other people shared my knee-jerk response:

I mean, the thing is, Twitter's a pretty awesome idea. I actually first heard of that little gem reading some article on Digg about how Twitter was going to fail, and my reaction was immediately signing up and diving right into a several weeks long addiction of voyeurism and friend/fan gathering. (That's one of the great parts about social networks, right? You feel great creating friendships, and a lot of times, recreating friendships, with a click of a button.) Continue reading...

My friends at the Potion Factory have been cooking something up for a while, and they're finally ready to give everyone a taste of their juicy creation. It's called Tangerine, and depending on how you look at it, it can be used for creating upbeat, active playlists of songs from your collection for working out with (or just pumping you up for that test coming up), or slow, soothing playlists for relaxing with. How does it do this? Boot up Tangerine and you'll be welcomed with a little rotating slice of tangerine as the app analyzes your music collection and assigns each track a "BPM", or "beats per minute" figure, along with values for "beat intensity". Continue reading...

One of the more common idea submissions for my ongoing software contest, My Dream App, was a "Quicken Killer" and ideas in a similar category. We had literally dozens submitted, and even a minor ruckus once people realized none had made it as a finalist. Why didn't we? Well, to be frank, it was decided that it would be difficult for a small development team to do properly in a relatively quick development cycle. Color me wrong, because Cha-Ching has done just that.

Currently in public beta as version 0.2, the first thing you'll notice when you download and launch this app is its impeccable presentation. Kudos to developer Juan Alvarez (this guy is hilarious, watch this video we shot at WWDC. And I swear if you watch the Keynote video, you'll hear him laughing in the background at points), and UI designer Krzysztof Wrosnki. This is a very pretty, very "OS X" app, and it's clear the team drew inspiration from Delicious Library's three-paned, custom control laden interface. And that's a good thing, because it works. (Delicious Library topped my Top Ten Beautiful OS X Apps list.) Continue reading...