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Beta Watch

Interesting beta services from Flickr, DimDim, and Jiffle.

Edward N. Albro, PC World

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Flickr Video: Short Subjects

If you're a wannabe movie director who believes in brevity, Flickr's new video-sharing service (available to subscribers to Flickr's $25-per-year premium service only) is for you. The photo-sharing giant limits videos to 90 seconds and 150MB. Uploading a video is easy, but finding it isn't, at least so far. Though YouTube will probably always be the home for pirated snippets from last night's TV shows, Flickr has a good chance to appeal to talented amateurs producing their own art. But those amateurs had better be concise.

DimDim: No-Hassle Web Meetings

Click here to view full-size image. DimDim screenshot.DimDim lets you share your desktop, presentation, or whiteboard for free--and it does so quickly. As a presenter, you must install a browser plug-in, but on my PC that took only about a minute. People joining your meeting don't have to install anything, if they already have Flash. You can chat with participants via text or include audio and video in the meeting. DimDim worked so well in my tests that I can't imagine paying for a service like WebEx again.

Jiffle: Coordinate Meetings Online

Jiffle's thesis is sound: Why should you waste time going back and forth with people to schedule a meeting when you can do it more quickly over the Net? With Jiffle (which ranges from free to as much as $100 per month for a corporate account), you enter the times you're available--through Microsoft Outlook's calendar or through the Jiffle site (support for Google Calendar is coming). Then you invite colleagues to view that information and propose a time. Unfortunately, in practice I found Jiffle's system for setting available times, whether online or in Outlook, far from intuitive.

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