• Ever wish you had a personal assistant to run down things you just don’t seem to have time for?  Check out Fancy Hands – your personal assistants in the cloud.  Send them an email with what you need and they’ll get it done!  I think this is going to catch on and could be very helpful for some individuals and start-ups.  Here is a review by a someone who tried it and loved it.
• E-books are getting more and more popular. Look for the battle to get even more intense as Google prepares to jump in with their own digital bookstore – Google Editions later this summer.
• Ever find a tweet you liked and wanted to quote it on your blog or website?  Now you can embed tweets directly and preserve any links in them.
• Did you know you can “tweet” via email?  Might be a good idea for those that are really wed to email and reluctant to try separate apps to engage in the Twitterverse.
• Facebook check-in appears to be in the works.   The location-based services seem to be of high interest as of late but really haven’t become mainstream. If Facebook jumps in that could change.
• Craigslist has been in the news recently and taking some heat for allowing very questionable content in their ‘adult services’ ads.  It caught the attention of the Christian community and surprise, surprise generated new petitions to boycott Craigslist.  However, not everyone agrees with this approach – here’s why.
• The battle between Google and Apple in the mobile phone market is getting serious as Android-based phones are now outselling the iPhone.
• It looks like the Apple / Google battlefield will also be extended to the tablet market as well as Google announces plans to partner with Verizon on a new device.  Verizon CEO even confirmed it.
• Looks like these rumored 4G iPhones keep showing up in strange places.
• Speaking of the iPhone… the rumors of being able to get one on Verizon are really heating up.  I think we will see this happen later this summer and AT&T will really suffer.
• Folks who go on mission and volunteer trips could benefit from this cool idea – the Volunteer Card.
• Gmail users can now drag and drop images directly into the body of the message.
• Looks like you’ll be able to use your Android 2.2 phone to connect your laptop to the internet.
• So many people are upset about the recent changes in Facebook’s privacy settings – there is a new movement to create a new alternative - and it’s not MySpace.  They have already raised $115K!
• Apple announced las month that it is shutting down the popular Lala.com streaming service at the end of May.  There are strong rumors that Apple is getting ready to announce a cloud-based iTunes in early June.

So, here are this weeks links in no particular order.

• Facebook Chat can now be integrated with your AIM or Tokbox chat clients.  I don’t know about you, but I have always thought the idea of Facebook Chat was a solid one and made sense, but the interface was clunky and tied to the Facebook webpage. Now you can still chat with your FB friends and not have to worry about having to keep you FB website visible to do so.
• Google Maps Goes 3D – A feature that was previously available in the downloadable Google Earth app is now available on online users as well.  Very cool. (Note: Google Chrome Browser & Google Earth Plugin are required)
• Do you work on multiple computers? Looking for an easy way to keep track of synchronize your home & office and not mess with USB thumb drives to move files areoun?  Three great solutions include Evernote, Dropbox, and Google Docs.  Check out this overview.
• The floppy disk is officially dead – RIP – I’m starting to feel even older now.  I can remember when the 3.5 floppy replaced the 5 1/4 disks.
• How to Get Confidence from God – A great post from Donald Miller this week.   How do you get yours?
• Noah’s Ark (possibly) Found – If this turns out to be true it is the biggest story of our life time.  Do you think it will matter or cause anyone to suddenly find faith in God?
• More and more schools are turning to Google Apps for their collaboration solutions.  Why would any non-profit not take advantage of this robust free tool set?
• If you know me, you know I am an avid user of social media, but here are 6 good reasons why you should avoid it!
• There has been a lot of news this past week about the announcements and changes Facebook made at the F8 conference.   What you may not have heard is this report on how Facebook CEO doesn’t really believe in privacy anyway.
• If you have tried YouVersion, you’ll be happy to hear they now have a Reading Plan Calendar to help you read through Bible.  Earlier this year they released a major upgrade to the reading plans and now you can track your progress more visibly.
• Carlos Whittaker released is first full length CD “Ragamuffin Soul“.  This is a great worship set that I’m sure that we will be singing in churches for years to come.
  
  

• Lala is shutting down – The online streaming music service will be shut down on May 31.  I think this stinks as I’m a big fan of lala but apparently Apple (who bought them a few months ago), has other plans.  There is talk and rumor of an iTunes.com site that will be based on the technology that Apple acquired through their purchase.  I can only hope so.

That’s my highlights for this week.  Let me know what you think!

Looking for an easy and quick way to create a podcast? You might want to check out buzzsprout.

They take the complexity out of the process and get you up and running very quickly and professionally. You can use the new url with you buzzsprout account or publish your episodes to your own website or iTunes.

You’ll also get statistics on your episodes and listeners.

Bloomberg is reporting

that Apple is “in talks to acquire online music service Lala, according to two people familiar with the matter.”

The shoe fits. Back when Lala launched I described it as an iTunes in the cloud — something that we believe Apple will inevitably launch. Apple is certainly building a lot of data center capacity for something. Lala is already one of two companies powering full-song streaming for Google’s new music search (the other one is MySpace Music via its iLike acquisition), and it is a part of the Facebook gift shop. Lala already has all the streaming licenses in place with the major music companies and a team which can help Apple create a killer streaming version of iTunes.

We’ve been huge fans of Lala since its launch in October (you can see our extensive coverage here. The site uses an innovative ‘web song’ model that lets you buy albums for very cheap (10 cents per song) that you can then stream as many times as you’d like. That pay-to-stream model would certainly be more attractive to Apple than just an advertising-supported one. Lala’s streaming licenses might also allow iTunes to deliver a full-song sample instead of the 30-second previews currently available.

Update: I walked over to the Lala office, which is only a few blocks from us, to see if I could gather any more details. They didn’t seem particularly happy to see me. I knocked on the door and a Lala employee answered, keeping the door half shut so that I couldn’t see in. I asked if any of the company’s executives were around. He looked over his shoulder, asked if they were, and a second later said they weren’t (it was not a particularly convincing effort). He promptly shut the door, and I’m pretty sure I heard someone inside say something to the effect of “Are you serious, don’t answer it!”.

Obviously this isn’t confirmation of anything, but they’re clearly on high alert.

One other point to note: back in October we did an extensive sneak preview of the long-awaited Lala iPhone app. The Lala team had previously been concerned about having their app rejected because of the way it competed with the native iTunes app, but in light of the recent acceptance of apps like Spotify

they were optimistic.

It’s now been more than a month since we gave that preview. Six days ago I reached out to Lala to find out what the situation was, and while CEO Geoff Ralston replied, he totally ignored the question. Most CEOs in that position would have at least acknowledged that they had fallen prey to the Apple approval process.

We’re still digging for more.

get widgetminimize

CrunchBase Information

Lala

Website:	lala.com
Location:	Palo Alto, California, United States
Funding:	$35.1M

Lala is a hub for online music discovery and purchasing. Users can listen for free music, adding tracks to their playlist as they surf. members who download a plugin can turn Lala into an online music locker that syncs their desktop music libraries… Learn More

Apple

Website:	apple.com
Location:	Cupertino, California, United States
Founded:	April 1, 1976
IPO:	1980

Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computer maker to include consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from… Learn More

Information provided by CrunchBase

This could be very interesting for music lovers out there. If you haven’t tried out lala.com yet, I highly recommend it!