First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
Originally published at A few words from Rob Mansfield. You can comment here or there.
So I'm A Celebrity's back for another year giving all us couch potatoes the justification we need not to go out for the next couple of weeks.
Chief among this year's contestants are the perma-tanned George Hamilton, 80s Page 3 'stunna' Sam Fox and camp design duo Colin & Justin.
But woe betide anyone who thinks that winning the annual jungle junket is a key to further riches. If you look back at the roster of previous winners, many of them have fallen foul of the IMACGMOOH curse.
Of the 8 previous victors, four have fallen on hard times. Kerry Katona's - queen of 2004's jungle - problems have been well-documented, but few could have predicted that when she overcame the likes of Peter Andre and Jordan to lift the crown.
In 2006, Carol Thatcher took the crown and all was going swimmingly until she was booted off of the One Show earlier this year for calling a tennis player a golliwog.
The following year, former Busted member Matt Willis charmed the pants off of the viewing public and donned the regal get-up. Any thought that he would go on to conquer the pop charts again were swiftly dispensed with. His debut solo album failed to crack the top 50, he was dropped by his label and then had to go to rehab to clean up his drinking habits. Happily, he's back in fighting form, but things weren't good for a while.
Even last year's victor, former EastEnder Joe Swash isn't immune. He may have got a gig for Living following Pamela Anderson around, but he had to file for bankruptcy in the past few weeks. Money's a sore spot even for the success stories.
Of the other four winners, three are what one might call veteran entertainers who had a solid career before they started, so were unlikely to lose out too much. Tony Blackburn, Joe Pasquale and Christopher Biggins weren't exactly A-List, but it meant that their careers got a little boost for a bit longer. Phil Tufnell is, well, Phil Tufnell.
Anyway, my point is that winning the show doesn't necessarily guarantee success after the celebs fly back from Australia.
So all this year's contestants: you have been warned.
Originally published at A few words from Rob Mansfield. You can comment here or there.
After much fannying around with Belkin USB adaptors, we managed to get the broadband connection working and, lo and behold, the internet was there.
We set up email accounts for them both and typed out some basic instructions for using it and other simple web behaviour.
We also downloaded Skype and set up an account and sorted out a basic webcam.
A week on and it has already been revolutionary, according to my girlfriend's mum. Not only is she able to video call every day for 10-15 minutes and see our daughter, but our little girl gets a kick out of seeing her grandparents and their assorted animals.
On top of that, they've discovered the wonders of things like Amazon - the ability to buy obscure books at half the price and get them delivered for free, rather than trawl round half-a-dozen bookshops in the faint hope that they'll be there.
OK, so they're not about to code and launch their own website, but that's not what digital inclusion is all about. It's about opening up basic access to the internet and allowing everyone to enjoy the benefits.
Seeing someone discover this for the first time is a lot of fun!
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
Originally published at A few words from Rob Mansfield. You can comment here or there.
Even in death, Michael Jackson continues to cast a spell over his fans and beyond. The premiere of Is This It?, footage of his rehearsals for his O2 Tour, hits cinemas worldwide tonight.
Handily, his first (and you'll note the use of the word first) posthumous single is also called Is This It, even though it was co-written with Paul Anka back in 1983.
Some may think that this will be the last we'll hear of Michael Jackson for a while. The circumstances surrounding his death seem to have been cleared up and now this footage is about to be shown finally.
And yet, we all know that music legends never really go away, do they? Jimi Hendrix recordings were unearthed long after he shuffled of this mortal coil, MTV Unplugged and the single You Know You're Right were released after Kurt Cobain's death and even Nick Drake's early unheard recordings have been turned into something 'new'.
Jackson will be no different. There will always be new fans to attract. My six-year-old daughter had never really heard of Michael Jackson before his death. While watching Up in the cinema at the weekend, the trailer for Is This It? came on and she turned to me and said, 'That's Michael Jackson. It's sad that he died,' before proceeding to sing along to all the songs playing in the background.
I'm not suggesting people should forget him, but let's face it, we can all be pretty certain that in a year or two or 10, some more 'new' recordings will be 'mysteriously' discovered.
The Jackson bandwagon will roll on long after his death, because he is still a money-making machine and probably still has a line of creditors longer than your arm, queuing up to claw back some of the money still owed to them. For that reason, and that reason alone, Michael Jackson will never be allowed to die.
Originally published at A few words from Rob Mansfield. You can comment here or there.
I remember well when The Proclaimers burst onto the scene in the mid-1980s. Even though they looked as if they should be mocked with their geeky specs and extraordinarily strong accents, there was something undeniably compelling about their music.
Most people remember '(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles' and 'Letter From America', which was, indeed, their breakout hit and the one that firmly entrenched them into the hearts of most British music-lovers.
However, I was always more taken with one of their follow-up tracks, Sunshine On Leith. Far more poignant and elegiac, it seemed to sum up the Proclaimers for me far better.
The only recording I ever had of it was a dodgy home-taping from a R1 Simon Mayo show (I know because his voice comes in over the start of the song), so I finally downloaded it recently and can't stop listening to it. If you've never heard it before, or even haven't for a long time, give it a listen. Beautiful.
Originally published at A few words from Rob Mansfield. You can comment here or there.
After the first week of this year's X Factor live finals, I blogged about the fact that Louis Walsh had obviously had eye surgery.
At the time, I didn't have access to footage of new Louis, so it was all speculation. Now he's back in the chair, I've taken the liberty of doing a dodgy comparison (left), so you can judge for yourself.
Originally published at A few words from Rob Mansfield. You can comment here or there.
In spite of the furore over Nick Griffin's appearance on last night's Question Time and the running commentary provided by almost everyone I know during the show's broadcast, it's been a quiet week on Twitter.
Quiet, that is, when you compare it to last week. There has been acres of web space devoted to the double whammy of Twitter-power in the previous 7 days.
First, there was the now infamous Twitter campaign to embarrass lawyers Carter Ruck and their client Trafigura to lift the quite bewildering gag order on reporting in the House Of Commons.
Being part of the constant Twitterthon on Tuesday felt rather special. It was like going on a student demo without leaving the comfort of your own living room. Populace action using the web in a way that had previously been unimaginable.
And the Twitter community had only just recovered, when the second huge 'scandal' of the week erupted. Namely, the now equally infamous Daily Mail article, penned by Jan Moir about the 'strange, lonely and troubling death' of Stephen Gately.
My partner read it very early on Friday morning and said, rather presciently, 'That's going to cause a bit of a stink'. Too right - a stench that Jan Moir herself and the Daily Mail could never have imagined.
In an even greater show of strength than the earlier Trafigura moment, the Twitterverse went into meltdown. The level of astonishment at the column's content was quite something to behold.
When a friend of mine tweeted that Moir had quite rightly breached the PCC code and forwarded the message to Derren Brown, the die was cast. His retweet flooded Twitter and the PCC was deluged with complaints - in itself a delicious irony given the relentless Daily Mail campaign against Ross and Brand last year - a number that currently stands at around 25,000.
Every development was noted. When the article headline changed and the ads were removed, tweets went round everywhere. When Charlie Brooker published his comment on the whole sorry saga, a link to his article achieved almost equal saturation.
But all good things come to an end. At lunch the other day with some friends, we noted how quiet it had been on Twitter this week, in comparison to the fire and brimstone of the previous seven days.
And we all agreed that actually a quiet week was actually really important. A sense of order and decorum has returned. Changing the world, or at least a couple of small parts of it, takes energy and emotion that cannot be continuously maintained.
Twitter needs time to gather itself before the next assault on freedom of speech and the erosion of liberal values. Let us get our breath back!
