Also: Top tech cities | Microsoft launches revamped MSN mobile | Microsoft TV renamed Mediaroom | YouTube's video edit tool | Music Station's UK launch set for October | Facebook stories of the day
Which sites would you put in a top fifty list of the most creative web projects? It's a tough call, but Dazed Digital has had a go and compiled a top 50.
It's an odd batch really, with everything from Greenpeace to the Saatchi Gallery. But users are invited to vote, so do have a rummage.
A good chunk of the list is inevitably skinny-jeaned: the year-old Dalston Oxfam Shop scours flea markets and charity shops for bizarre mix tapes, which blogger Todd Hart digitises and posts for readers. Last week's delicacy was a guest mix tape from Prestel Records founder Kevin McKay, who sent in a 1993 example. Probably just best to listen to it if it sounds like your bag.
There's also Marc Garrett's Furtherfield project to promote web-based art and noise, and the brilliant Etsy gets a look-in (eBay for craftmakers) along with the delightfully DIY olafbreuning.com and the intriguing strange maps with its new take on the political geography.
Some bigger names make the list: music recommendation site Last.fm, citizen journalism project Now Public, self-publishing site Lulu, web TV services Joost and QOOB and photographer Nick Knight's Show Studio. (Dazed Digital)
Top tech cities
Aussie paper The Age has compiled a list of the world's ten most tech cities, and the results are not what you might expect. Europe fares very badly.
Seoul is first, followed by Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Cities were ranked on the cost and availability of broadband and wireless, adoption of new technology, government and education support and future potential. Seoul has an impressive 80% of households with comparatively cheap broadband connections, and digital mobile TV is also big business; two million South Koreans now watch TV on their mobiles on public transport. In Tokyo, three quarters of residents have a 100Mbps connection that costs only £12 per month, while Hong Kong is leading in web TV with one third of all households signed up to the city's 70-channel service.
Stockholm ranked fifth, and San Francisco sixth. Tallin is seventh, and labelled as a city already ahead in egovernment and with free wireless networks throughout. New York is at 8, Beijing at 9 and New Songdo City at 10.
US cities scored well on wireless networks but were not as affordable as Asian cities. New Songdo, we are told, is en route to being the ultimate digital city, even as a work in progress. (theage.com.au)
Twenty-five new sites to explore
Yet more lists: PCWorld.com has compiled a list of 25 sites you won't be abel to live without from mash-up tools like Wayfaring and Buzzdash to organisation tools like Pageflakes and Clipmarks, bookmarking sites Goowy and PopURLs, media sharing sites Splashcast and Squiddoo to collaboration sites like Picnik and MyPunchbowl. Time to play. (PCWorld.com)
Microsoft launches revamped MSN Mobile
Microsoft has overhauled the MSN portal for mobiles to include email, search, maps and instant messaging alongside the news, sport and entertainment information. The new site adjusts to display on whatever handset it is displayed on. Microsoft plans to introduce advertising to the portal later this year, hoping to build its share of the predicted boom in mobile advertising - expected to reach $19bn per year by 2011. (Reuters)
Microsoft TV renamed Mediaroom
Meanwhile in other Microsoft news, the IPTV platform has been renamed Mediaroom. The service is already used by 10 companies and in its new form will allow users to connect PCs to their TV sets to play their digital content. A toolkit will also be introduced to allow developers to produce applications around the Mediaroom service. (Reuters)
YouTube's video edit tool
The eponymous video site has introduced an Adobe-branded video editing tool. Users can use the "remixer" to mash together video, photos and graphics in a more professional way, storing their work in progress in a digital bin.
(CNet)
Music Station's UK launch set for October
The mobile music downloads service Music Station began its European launch in Sweden last week, charging £1.99 per week for unlimited downloads from a million-song catalogue. Music Station so far has deals with EMI, Warner and Sony BMG and deals with 23 phone operators. UK launch is set for October. (e-consultancy)
Facebook stories of the day
Richard Sambrook is already bored of talking about Facebook, he twittered this morning. He's only been on it for two weeks and is already the poster boy. That's new media for you. Meanwhile blogger Jon Udell grumbled yesterday that Facebook doesn't offer the right box to explain that you just "met someone through the internet". I'd second that - could we have a free text box please? I often want to say "met through work", which isn't necessarily the same as "worked with". But that's all a bit inside baseball. (Jon Udell)
