chicfreak’s Neighborhood

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.

TypePad Micro

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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.

~daisy

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.

~daisy

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,

daisy

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Blog Action Day

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Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy

Last night was the night of TV glam. The 61st Emmy Awards were held yesterday at the Nokia Theatre. The TV equivalent to the Oscars gathered together your fave TV actors and actresses as well as TV show hosts and just beautiful A-listers and socialites to celebrate the best shows, actors and directors this year.

Heidi-klum-emmy-awards-2009

Beautiful dresses, original designs, gorgeous silhouettes, so who was the hottest best dressed of the night?

Project Runway host Heidi Klum showed her beautiful pregnancy style in a custom-made black strapless lace gown with embroidered bodice by Marchesa. Her enormous baby bump was really hard to hide. The model is due this fall.

Though she said No to personal fashion line claiming she wasn’t “interested in doing it for my own ego”, Harry Potter star and the highest grossing lead actress of the decade, Emma Watson added she would willingly design a line if it was “beneficial to a cause”, and looks like she’s found the cause she was looking for!

Emma Watson will launch her first Spring/Summer 2010 designer collection next February!

Emma-watson-people-tree-spring-summer-2010-collection

Emma teamed up with People Tree to create a capsule lifestyle collection with all the proceeds going to the People Tree Foundation, a charity which aims to school farmers and artisans on sustainable fashion through training and environmental initiatives.

Learn More…

These Scala Bio-Fir leggings are hailed as the latest tool for a woman’s arsenal in the battle of the bulge: tights that fight cellulite. While these leggings, which were developed with retailer John Lewis, aren’t the first that have used cellulite reduction as a primary marketing ploy, their £15 price tag makes Scala Bio-Fir leggings perhaps the first affordable pair.

So how do Scala Bio-Fir leggings work? The gallery above contains the graphic Scala and John Lewis released, but essentially the leggings are outfitted with crystals that, when they come in contact with the skin, emit infrared rays. Such rays increase the body’s metabolism, which speeds the process of fat breakdown in the body. Wearing tights for weight loss? I’m still a bit skeptical, but if you try the Scala Bio-Fir leggings and have a good experience, let us know!

You can find the Scala Bio-Fir leggings at the link below, although when I checked this morning, they were sold out.

Tights

John Lewis claims the leggings are most effective if worn for six hours a day for a continuous 30 days. After this, they recommend regular use. The same material is in Scala's Bio-Fir knickers, which broke John Lewis records with sales of 25,000 a month after their launch in July.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/