We’ve launched the iConsole Forums. Discuss all-things-iConsole over there. We’re online and can answer questions right now!

iConsole Forums

It’s been quite a trip since announcing in September, but we’re pleased to announce that today is the first day you can sign up for the iConsole alpha.

We do encourage you to sign up early, as at some point we’ll have to hold people over to a second wave.

Oh, and if you’ve already been to iConsole.vg, we’ve made a few tweaks this morning… so head back over. But, if you’re really in a hurry, here’s a direct link to sign up for the alpha.

As you may have noticed, the signup process creates a MechaWorks ID, something we’ve teased in the past. In the near future, this will give you centralized access to iConsole downloads, support, discussion, and connecting to the iConsole platform in the clouds.

What’s next? We’re putting all our resources into the Alpha 1 release set for next month, still a little bit of work to be done on that. While it is an very-first-alpha release, we want to make sure we can avoid as many show-stoppers as possible.

We’re taking the wraps off of iConsole.vg a bit early, ahead of the January 20th. That’s the day we’ll begin sign-ups for the alpha, and we hope to ship the first alpha out to the first wave of testers within a month of that.

So, yes, we’ve been building the iConsole. No more goofy code-names like Full Circle. Everything we touted with Full Circle will eventually make its way into the iConsole, but we’re taking the time to do this right. You’ll find more details about our release cycle and milestones over on the new site.

Hi folks, I want to clear up some confusion about MechaWorks, Newsroom Network, and our upcoming MechaWorks ID. In short, we made a few goofy errors in announcing stuff. Our bad.

Here’s the deal. We previously announced MechaWorks ID, a unified login that was going to work across Newsroom Network and Full Circle, as well as the other stuff we’re working on. That was a “goof” because we already announced Newsroom Network was being spun off, into a separate company. Obviously, MechaWorks and Newsroom Network aren’t going to be sharing logins.

Full Circle will have a robust ID system, and that is the MechaWorks ID that we teased previously. Newsroom Network is getting a copy of this system for its sites, but the two won’t talk to one another… we like to think of it as a parting gift for Newsroom Network, as it goes into its own company. If you’re already on one of our sites (PhoneNews.com, DealNewsroom.com, etc), that login information will be migrated to the “Newsroom Network ID” (that may not be the final name for it). For Full Circle, you’ll have to re-register over here for a MechaWorks ID.

We hate when we make mistakes, and we just wanted to clear the air. Come January 1, MechaWorks and Newsroom Network are going their own separate ways. Each are benefitting from the great technology that we’ve been building over the past few years, but each company’s set of goals are going in different directions that make this necessary.

Our jobs page has just been rebuilt. Check it out.

PhoneCashback.net has been offline longer than we expected, we apologize for the downtime. We have fixed the outstanding issues, and it will be back online in the next 24 hours.

Full Circle will start to take shape in the next week. A signup form will be offered. First-come, first served. Sign up early for the alpha.

Our jobs page is half-online right now. We’ll update when it’s back in the next day or so.

Today, we’re taking the wraps off DealNewsroom.com. As usual, we’re launching the site in real-time, so pardon some of the dust.

Like its predecessor, DealNewsroom.com is all about giving you the digest version of tech deals out there, so you get just the best deals… and none of the boring deal chatter.

We’re kicking off with Black Friday 2009 coverage, but we’ll be announcing giveaways and other surprises in the near future. As we announced, the transition to Newsroom Network is off to a great start, and DealNewsroom.com is the first site to make good on that commitment.

DealNewsroom.com

Readers of CheapenGadget.com, fear not. All your bookmarks, RSS feed subscriptions, and links will carry over just as before.

Hi everyone, we’re a bit past the middle of the month, and it’s time for a brief update on Full Circle.

First, I want to thank those that have covered Full Circle so far. We’ve struggled to get media attention in this difficult startup environment. We believe much of this is due to our developer-focused launch, and we’re moving full steam ahead with tweaking and finalizing our consumer announcement.

Over the past couple of months, we’ve talked to hundreds, if not thousands of developers, gamers, and even non-gamers about Full Circle. It has been quite an experience, and we announced Full Circle like we did for that reason; so that we could quietly collect feedback and develop our product. We’re not fans of stealth mode, and this was a good balance.

I won’t take up your time going over every tweak that we’ve learned. But, I will give you a short list of some of the big things that we’re changing. First, a lot of non-gamers were excited about Full Circle, because we’re bridging a lot of worlds. Who says Boxee and Hulu can’t get along in the same box? We certainly think that they can. And, who says you can’t pull all that off with your old laptop? Full Circle has, after all, been all about combining the concepts of console and computer, so that makes sense too.

Developers, on the other hand, are reluctant to sign on to a console that suffers from Phantom Syndrome. That’s the term that we coined for it… basically, it’s the problem of offering a video game platform that reminds people of the Phantom Console. Now, we’ve worked hard to avoid this, by, well, actually showing folks the console in live demos. But, as noted up at the top… this is a difficult startup environment. Simply showing stuff working isn’t good enough right now.

As such, we’re going to chart out a path to what we announced initially. By underwriting development using a fusion of in-house and crowdsourcing, our initial goal is to master the home theater market, delivering a platform that fusions content sources together… so Pandora and FanCast, can play along with Boxee and Hulu. And, so that all the content on all your computers just follows you to your HDTV, naturally.

We haven’t forgotten about video games, quite the opposite. It’s the focus of Full Circle, and it will continue to be. What we’re doing, is making sure we get the foundation as solid as possible, before gaming goes on top. As we’ve said all along, we want to do this right.

So, in splitting the difference there, we said we would start selling dev kits by year’s end. We’ve decided to make dev kits a free thing. In order to do so, however, we’re going to be bumping the announcement back by a month, to December. This will allow us to gracefully spin off our Newsroom Network sites into a brand of their own, and then focus completely on Full Circle.

- Christopher Price, CEO

One final thing… we just finished trademarking the super-secret name for Full Circle (which, we can’t say enough at this point, is just a code name). Every single person we’ve told it to is in love with it, so we think that’s going to work from day one next month.

After our quiet developer campaign for Full Circle, we’re back in the valley, and back at hosting our monthly WordPress meetups. Once again at Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View, we’ll be chatting about all things WordPress at 3 PM tomorrow.

Please be sure to RSVP, and yes, seating is really limited this time around. We’re working on expanding that, as well as adding additional events where we’re not blabbing on, and on, and on, about publishing software.

And yes, as usual, we’re giving free coffee to those that attend.

A lot of people are talking about a Boxee Box, which is slated for announcement on December 7.

We’ll beat them to the punch with a Boxee Box for everyone. We may not have it ready for you on December 7, but Full Circle already includes Boxee. And, it can install on any old Mac or PC (like, the one collecting dust in your garage), without any need for even a copy of Windows. And, of course, Full Circle will be in your hands, for free, before Boxee Box is out.

Now, go forth and spread the word! Full Circle is already well on its way, and we’re wrapping up our next wave of announcements right now.

I should note that this is great news for the folks at Boxee, as we’re happy to be providing the first free “Boxee Box, sans buying a new box” distribution.