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Early this year, the press pap about Denon’s new multiformat network receiver flew across my digital beam and my sonic spidey sense immediately began tingling.

It’s sleek, white and miniature. It’s also one of the first systems to arrive with built-in capability for AirPlay, Apple’s technology that lets you stream your music with CD-quality from any iTunes installation on your network. Additionally, it’s locked and loaded for streaming from several internet sources, plus Wi-Fi network streaming from PCs, Apple iOS devices and Android mobiles.

Could the Denon RCD-N7 be the holy grail of mini systems? Could one device blend CDs, traditional radio, internet radio, online subscription services and digital audio libraries streamed at lossless fidelity, yet be simple to use?

I was buzzing about it, but still feeling incredulous as I pinged my editor, got the green light, and waited patiently for the UPS truck to arrive.

Right out of the box, I noticed how simply the front of the Denon is appointed. The three-line OLED display is crisp and clear and can be easily read from across the room. There’s a headphone jack, USB for memory stick music playback, a CD tray and aux input and volume control buttons.

The speaker connections are in back, along with FM/AM/Wi-Fi antennas, Aux in/out, optical in, subwoofer in/out and an ethernet port for hardwiring it to your network if you choose. On top is a 30-pin iPod/iPhone dock.

Setting up the N7 was pretty simple — until I got to the networking instructions. They look like a two-page document left over from the Tower of Babel that had been hit by a tsunami — just completely incomprehensible.

My best advice is once you’ve hooked up the speakers, plugged it in and turned it on, just press the Menu button on the supplied remote and the N7’s screen will guide you through accessing your wireless network and saving the password. Bottom line, it’s actually pretty intuitive unless you rely on the instructions.

Denon has created a pair of matched speakers for the unit. The head and the speakers are separate pieces, as Denon figures you may already have your own sound boosters. If not, the matched set goes for $200. I tested the 65-watt system with both the Denon speakers and, just for grins, a pair of similarly sized Totem Mites that go for about $700 a pair. While the system will easily overpower them, the Denon speakers still sounded good and had a pleasing mid and upper range, but were a little weak on the low end.

The Totems are audiophile speakers, so they were predictably richer and silkier on all levels, especially in the bass range, and had far superior off-axis reproduction. But if you haven’t already sunk a bunch of money into speakers and your budget is limited, the Denons won’t disappoint you.

Beyond the tried and true Denon sound quality, the really big draw of the N7 system is its platform-agnostic wireless networking capability.

Skullcandy is known for making headphones that put fashion first and sound quality second.

You’ve probably seen its krazy-kool neon and graffiti-splattered cans stacked up for sale in mall kiosks, or clamped to the dome of some young’n on a skateboard as he whisks by and spills your latte all over your Haggar slacks.

The company’s demo skews young, and we all know the kids don’t necessarily care if their music sounds good, as long as it’s loud. Needless to say, Skullcandy’s headphones haven’t ever scored high marks among audiophiles. Being one of these snobbish elites, my expectations were not inflated when I received a shipment of Roc Nation Aviators, a set of headphones cross-branded with Jay-Z and LiveNation’s Roc Nation promotions outfit.

Skullcandy is angling the $150 set as its first foray into audiophile territory. It’s a shrewd move. All those tweens who grew up on Skullcandy cans are now graduating to adulthood, collecting their first real paychecks and looking to upgrade all the little things in their lives. And maybe they’ve outgrown the desire to wear bright pink skulls on their ears.

The Aviators’ styling is unique and fashionable, but not garish. True to the name, they’re reminiscent of the iconic aviator sunglasses. They have see-through plastic over-the-ear cups, leather pads, suede headband, nylon cord and chrome accents along the edges. Three colors are available: white, black and brown/gold.

So, they’re not ugly. That’s a plus, I thought. But then I put them on and — wait a minute, these actually sound pretty good. Not amazing, but much better than anything else I’ve heard from Skullcandy thus far.

The Aviators can get a little abrasive at times, especially when you’re listening to modern rock or techno. And the bass isn’t as present as I’d like it to be. Hip-hop sounds oddly tinny. But put on some mellower stuff that hasn’t been amped up to appeal to today’s ADHD standards — Nina Simone, Cat Power, James Blake, singer-songwriter stuff, classic rock — and the Aviators impress. My headphone nerd friends were all curious, so we passed them around and everyone agreed: solid.

They perform particularly well in quieter settings. Walking around on the street or riding on a city bus, I found the thin plastic shell didn’t do the best job of blocking out exterior noise. But indoors, in the park or at my desk, they were comfortable to listen to — and to wear — for long stretches.

There’s a remote with a built-in mic on the cord, so you can talk on the phone, change the volume, pause the song and skip tracks. The connector fits the iPhone (with a bumper, even) and all the Android phones I tried.

There’s also a companion app for the iPhone, iPad and Android. Version 2 of the Skullcandy App was just released earlier this month, so I tried it out. It has a library of streaming music that fits the “brand lifestyle” — lots of great West Coast hip-hop and some atrocious Sublime-wanna-be ska-punk — as well as streaming videos of skaters, surfers and snowboarders getting rad. The design is tidy. One cool feature: a map that shows the locations of local skateparks, ski resorts and surf spots, complete with current conditions.

But back to the Aviators. They’re not bad at all, even if they are a little steep. At $150, you can certainly buy a better set of over-the-ear cans. I won’t be trading these for my ATH-M50s or my Shure SRH750 DJ headphones, both of which are in the same price range and out-perform the Skullcandies. But while those are giant Cadillacs, these Aviators are more like a spry Miata. They fold up for travel, they’re comfortable and extremely light, and they come with a handsome leather case. So if you need a set of over-the-ear headphones that can squeeze into a fanny pack, the Aviators are a good choice.

They might actually turn some heads, too.

WIRED Surprisingly good sound. Light and comfortable. They fold up and slip into a svelte travel case. Charming retro styling already matches your sunglasses.

TIRED Priced at $150, but they perform more like $90. Chrome and plastic assembly is light, but feels a little flimsy. Companion mobile app is a take-it-or-leave-it affair.

How do you create what might be the world’s cheapest computer? Easy: You strip it to the absolute bare minimum.

Toshiba’s NB505 netbook isn’t quite as skeletal as that, but it’s awfully close. And at all of $288, asking for much more would probably be a bit greedy.

The specs don’t merit a whole lot of notice: A 1.66-GHz Atom CPU and a paltry 1 GB of RAM ensure performance scrapes rock bottom. Though it couldn’t actually run most of our benchmarks, those that the NB505 did complete were near-record-breaking … on the bottom end, that is. A 250-GB hard drive is more than plenty, and the three USB ports plus SD card slot cover the connectivity basics. The 10.1-inch LCD is about average in both brightness and resolution (1024 x 600 pixels), and at just 2.7 pounds, the laptop’s heft is in line with other machines in its class.

While price is the clear — and appropriate — focus with this portable, Toshiba makes some oddball choices that don’t really make a lot of sense.

Why saddle this underpowered netbook with special, always-on software that basically makes funny frames for your webcam video when you’re talking on Skype? Why would anyone want their machine hijacked by the “Toshiba Bulletin Board,” with its special notes and enigmatic “deals and offers?” Is this an attempt to drive the price of the computer down to zero? (If so, sign me up.)

The machine’s design is a bit of a mess, from the difficult, super-flat keyboard to the distracting glossy frame around the screen. Also, I’m mostly on the fence about the material used to create the back of the lid. It’s sort of rubbery plastic studded with pock marks. It comes in several different colors, but the one I tested was brownish-gold, making it look a bit like high-tech snakeskin, only much less cool than that sounds.

All of this may come off like there are a lot of negatives about the NB505, and there are, but remember: It’s less than 300 bucks. If you don’t like it, park it in the kitchen and use it for recipes. Keep it in your sock drawer in case of emergency. Or, give it to an orphan and write it off on your taxes. If the bottom line really is the bottom line, the NB505 is ultimately a surprisingly good netbook choice.

WIRED Touchpad is more spacious than pads on many much larger laptops. Dirt cheap. Battery life approaches 5 1/2 hours.

TIRED Incredibly slow; would happily have paid the extra $12 for another gig of RAM. Ultra-flat keyboard makes touch-typing massively error-ridden. We had forgotten that Windows 7 Starter Edition actually existed. Pretty darn ugly.

Photo by Jim Merithew/Wired.com

What’s so appealing about 3-D, anyway?

A while back, I saw two landmark 3-D movies in the same six-month time span: Avatar and the revival of Captain EO at Disneyland. The latter, a 1986 Michael Jackson flick, used 3-D in the sort of ham-handed ridiculous way it had always been used: Asteroids flew into the seats. Evil monsters poked their claws and spears into your face. Cue screams and laughter from audience.

For a movie so closely identified with the current 3-D boom, James Cameron’s Avatar never tried any of these tricks. I quickly forgot I was watching a “3-D movie.” The depth, the added sensation of things being further away, had the subtle effect of making everything seem real, touchable. The 3-D technology was the medium, not the message.

The Nintendo 3DS is at its best when it does Avatar, not Captain EO. Games that make players go gaga over the innovative glasses-free 3-D display are all well and good. But it’s the way the small screen’s 3-D effects make every 3DS game look like a little animated diorama in a shoebox that impresses me the most. Something about that third dimension brings games to life.

The $250 3DS, already available in Japan and coming stateside March 27, is a gadget with the weight of the world on its bezels. Nintendo has enjoyed uninterrupted dominance in the handheld gaming space since it practically created that space with Game Boy in 1989. This is now under assault from Apple’s suite of touchable phones and tablets, which play an increasingly enjoyable library of games for significantly lower prices.

Once again, Nintendo’s proposal is typical Nintendo — staunchly conservative and wildly innovative in equal measure. On the one hand, it emphasizes $40 retail games over cheap downloads, and the company says it won’t try to attract indie “garage game” developers. On the other hand, it has positively leapfrogged the competition by utilizing a glasses-free 3-D screen, in the same way that the original Nintendo DS led the way with its touch interface.

As other writers have already elaborated upon, the 3-D screen is made significantly better by the “volume control” slider to its right. You can crank the 3-D up all the way if you want to enjoy the full depth-of-field effects, but to view these you’ll need to hold the 3DS rather close to your face, pointed square at your eyeballs.

This is not nearly as taxing as it sounds — I’ve played it at length with the machine in just that position and never felt tired. But if you want, you can crank down the 3-D, sacrificing the full force of its power for a more relaxed viewing angle.

Chevrolet has positioned the Cruze as a small car you’ll want to drive because it’s a good car, not because it’s the only one you can afford. That same philosophy is true for the Eco, the Cruze’s more fuel-efficient sibling, and it makes for a stylish, engaging car that just happens to be quite good on gas.

For the Cruze Eco, Chevy cooked up a batch of aerodynamic trickery and weight reduction from recipes based on the Volt. If designing the Volt was putting a man on the moon, the Cruze Eco is Tang and a pen that writes upside-down.

For example, GM engineers designed a shutter that reduces drag by closing off the lower grille at high speeds. Together with panels on the underbody, some closed-off vents at the top of the grille, a spoiler and a ride-lowering sport suspension, the changes reduce drag ten percent and improve looks immeasurably over the base Cruze.

With a stick shift, it weighs in at 3,009 pounds, a savings of 214 pounds over a standard Cruze without the Eco package. Sheet metal was reduced 1 mm in thickness in parts, while weld flanges were reduced between 1 and 2 mm in length. The wheel and tire choices saved an additional 21.2 pounds. Sure, we’ll take lightweight 17-inch alloys — for the environment, of course.

Having suffered through every Chevy compact from the miserable Monza to the comatose Cobalt, I was less than optimistic while picking up the keys, especially since “weight savings” sounded suspiciously like “cost cutting.” However, after a very pleasant week in a 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco, I realized I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The automatic Cruze Eco arrived for testing just as gas inched above $3.50 a gallon. Even with a heavier foot than most, I managed 32.6 mpg over 500 miles in a mix of stop-and-go, suburban and highway traffic — close to the EPA estimate of 26 city and 37 highway. You can expect even better mileage from the manual, which is rated at 28 city and 42 highway.

It wasn’t just the fuel economy that impressed me, however.

On the road, despite the weight savings, the Cruze feels like it’s held together by electromagnetic force. Handling is firm and steering is precise, if a bit numb for spirited driving. On paper, 138 horses might sound tame, but the Cruze doles them out with gusto in a way that no hybrid I’ve driven can match.

In curves, there’s little lean or body roll, and the Cruze makes quick and entertaining work of onramps and highway sweepers alike. On straightaways, the Cruze effortlessly motors along at 80, even in strong crosswinds. Everything about this car inspires confidence, and nothing about it feels like a soulless appliance.

The interior surfaces are pleasant to the eyes and fingertips. A padded, two-tone dash ensconces rows of well-placed controls and a leather-wrapped steering wheel with buttons for cruise control, stereo and phone. All buttons and switches move with a satisfying amount of feedback that belie the car’s cost, and even the cloth seats were comfortable after hours of driving. Trunk space is class-leading and the rear seats fold down.

Most of the cutting-edge technology is on the exterior of the car, though our tester featured OnStar, Bluetooth and XM, plus USB and aux-in jacks. It was also equipped with Audio Facebook, which uses OnStar to read and post status updates with a minimum of distraction. I’d see a little more utility in a service that lets you access Twitter, e-mail or texts — or one that converts speech-to-text for status updates — but it’s a good start.

What’s not to like? Well, the test car took a while to shift out of first gear, and the 1.4-liter turbo displayed a tiny bit of lag when hard-pressed during highway passing maneuvers.

It would be nice to have a cover for the center console cup holders, which accumulated loose change instead of lattes. The storage area on top of the dash can’t hold anything that could be damaged by heat from the sun, and the rear seats would be tight for anyone taller than 5′11″.

The Volt can be forgiven for hogging the spotlight in the Chevrolet lineup. After all, it’s a technological tour de force that redefined the automobile in less than five years of development. However, it’s not going to be a volume seller.

That mantle, hopefully, will belong to the Cruze — a spirited, solid car that’s as fun to drive as it is painless to fill up.

WIRED Lessons learned on the Volt trickled down to the Cruze. Chevy proves that high-tech and high-mileage don’t mean hybrid. You can get a manual with a turbo.

TIRED Other cars in the same class sell for a slightly lower MSRP. Turbo lag. “Eco” trim level sounds cheap, but it’s both better-looking and better-equipped than the base model.

Photos courtesy of Chevrolet

Photos: Jim Merithew and Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Here at Wired, we take things very seriously. Correction — we take protecting our desks and planning sneak attacks on our coworkers very seriously. We put office-warfare gadgets to the test.

USB Thunder Missile Launcher
First on our list was the USB Thunder Missile Launcher ($36). Download the free controller software, plug in the launcher to your Windows laptop or PC by USB (a Mac update is in the works), and use your mouse or arrow keys to aim and shoot.

Because the launcher doesn’t include a webcam, ballistics are a trial-and-error affair. But it’s surprisingly easy — my first shot sent one of its four foam missiles straight into my boss’s shoulder. Oops! The sound effects are fun, but they give your victim a heads up that they’re under siege if they’re paying attention. Four foam missiles are included, and the range is up to 25 feet. Perfect for guarding your desk area, or surprising a coworker across the office.

Moon Blaster Gun
Next up is the Moon Blaster Gun, a 19-inch tube gun that uses air pressure to pop glow-in-the-dark, ping-pong-like balls across the room. Pricing starts at $12.50 on Amazon, or $65 for 10 guns direct from Glow Universe.

The Moon Blaster’s small, rolling ammo was a little tricky to locate after a round of battle, but turning the lights off may give you better luck spotting them since they glow in the dark. It definitely takes a couple of forceful pumps to build up enough pressure, but after that, the balls shot out in rapid fire. The cheapest of the bunch, and it definitely felt like it. But it’s still a fun and effective weapon.

Zing Z-Curve Bow
The Zing Z-Curve Bow probably delivered the most powerful punch in our arsenal. The foam arrows are surprisingly hefty, and they can fly up to 100 feet and strike with a vengeance. It’s also easy to use — after only a few practice shots, we were able to achieve some deadly accuracy.

This weapon is great for ninja-style guerrilla warfare because it is quiet and features a fairly slim profile. It comes with two foam “bounce back” arrows and one “Zartz” suction-cup-tipped arrow. You’ll probably want to get a pack of extra arrows so you don’t have to constantly retrieve them after only a few shots. The sets start at $18 on Amazon.

N-Strike Stampede ECS
No office battle could be complete without Nerf’s latest and greatest, the N-Strike Stampede ECS. You can’t help but feel like a badass when you’re wielding this monster. Priced at $50, it’s Nerf’s first blaster with a fully automatic clip system. One big squeeze and you can ambush your office mates with a non-stop onslaught of pink foam darts.

The N-Strike Stampede ECS includes three 18-dart clips and one 6-dart clip for a total of 60 rounds. You’ll go through the darts surprisingly fast if you hold the trigger down, so I ended up duct-taping two clips end to end for super-speedy reloading. An optional handle with pop-out bipod slides onto the bottom front of the gun for added stability; a removable blast shield slides onto the top to protect your face (but only if you keep your face inches from the blaster body).

It’s bright yellow and orange, and it lets off a loud racket while you’re unloading on the stooge from marketing, so you won’t win any points for stealth. But at least the Nerf-neon darts are pretty easy to spot amongst power cables and desk debris. It’s powered by six D batteries, which are not included.

Compact cameras with fast, professional-style lenses have been blowing up big time in the past year.

However, Olympus only recently joined the fun. Yes, the company did produce some point-and-shoot style models with “fast” apertures back in the early 2000s — the chunky 4-megapixel Olympus C-4040, with its f/1.8 lens was one of our favorites at the time. But of late, its focus has been on mirrorless, interchangeable lens, Micro Four Thirds cameras such as the PEN E-PL2.

All of that changes with the new 10-megapixel Olympus XZ-1, a stylish little camera with an impressive attached lens: a 4x zoom (28-112mm equivalent) with a maximum aperture of f/1.8.

The lower the aperture number, the wider the opening in the lens, allowing more light to hit the sensor which (theoretically) makes for better photos in dim conditions. Camera nerds already know the importance of this — most professional photographers consider an f/1.8 DSLR lens an essential part of any camera bag — but at the consumer level, it’s a big step up from the norm.

With compact cameras, the f/1.8 designation is a little different though. You can only achieve that aperture when the camera’s lens is pulled back to the widest focal length — 28mm in the XZ-1’s case — and because the sensor in a point-and-shoot is so small, it’s hard to get that shallow depth of field to create beautiful background blur in portrait photos.

There are other benefits to a fast aperture though, not the least of which is that you can turn off that nasty flash on your camera and still capture crisp photos in the dark. Some of the XZ-1’s competitors, such as the 10-megapixel Canon Powershot S90 and Panasonic Lumix LX5, both of which boast f/2 lenses, are veritable low-light killers. They let you snap sharp photos of your pals at the pub no matter how bleary-eyed you’re feeling. In fact, we liked the LX5 so much we named it Camera of the Year for 2010.

In addition to its fast lens, the XZ-1 uses a larger-than-average imaging chip for a point-and-shoot: a 1/1.63-inch 10-MP CCD that’s the same size as the one in our favorite LX5. With this one-two punch, plus a slew of interesting features packed in a slim, attractive camera body, the XZ-1 should be quite the little sharpshooter, right? Well, yes and no.

Though the all-black XZ-1 I tested (it also comes in white) resembles some competing cameras in this category, there are a couple of differences. For one, that iZuiko-branded f/1.8 lens does not retract fully into the body like the lens on the S90, making the camera about an inch thicker than the Powershot at its widest point.

This wasn’t such a big deal — it’s still pretty thin — but what did annoy me was the dangling lens cap. If you decide to use the cap, you need to tie it down to the neckstrap eyelet with the included leash or it will fall off when the camera extends its lens while powering on. Good luck fitting both the neck strap and the camera leash into that eyelet though. It’s a struggle. On the other hand, if you decide to forego the cap, the protruding lens has a tendency to get smudged.

Also disappointing are the tiny buttons and overly Spartan layout on back of the camera. Since the XZ-1 is, ostensibly, aimed at photographers who might know their way around f/stops and shutter speeds, why is there no button on the camera for ISO, white balance, or other important creative features? Yes, you can access some of these using the Control Ring around the lens on the front of the camera, but it’s an extra step that will slow you down.

And, while the 3-inch OLED screen with a 610,000-dot resolution on back of the XZ-1 is sweet, the camera’s menu system is cluttered and counterintuitive. The napkin-sized Quick Start Guide was also not much help in making sense of the settings and menus. So if you want to do a deep dive on the XZ-1’s functions, you have to pop in a CD-R to view the full user guide. Not convenient.

The good news is that when you figure everything out on the XZ-1, it hums like a well-oiled machine. The camera uses Olympus’ TruePic V processor and it powers on and is ready to shoot in about a second and a half. Shutter lag is almost non-existent in good light and only minor in low light. I also liked the red one-touch video button on back of the camera below the mode dial, which immediately gets the camera rolling in its 720p, 30fps HD video mode.

It’s official: 2011 is the year of incremental progress. Mobile handsets have settled into a groove featurewise and are now gently nudging their way upward in speed, power and capabilities.

If we’re going to be stuck in a climate of baby steps, at least Samsung’s Galaxy S 4G is an example of baby steps done right.

From the moment I got my mitts on the S 4G, something felt eerily familiar. I’d seen many of its elements before — the unsettlingly light chassis, the glass and faux-chrome accents, and even the flashless 5-MP camera. As it turns out, the feeling of déjà vu was completely warranted.

The S 4G is essentially a mildly tweaked Samsung Vibrant with a couple of extra goodies. For those keeping score, a lot of the Vibrant’s perfectly serviceable features (1-GHz processor, 4-inch 800 x 480 AMOLED screen, 720p video recording) are back.

So, what’s new? Android 2.2, for starters. Also, as the phone’s awkward moniker boasts, this handset brings T-Mobile’s particular brand of 4G (HSPA+) to the fold.

I honestly wasn’t expecting too much given the piecemeal rollout of this next-gen data network, but the difference was noticeable immediately. Heavy hitting image-rich sites like (ahem) Wired.com loaded with virtually no hesitation, and raining down large file downloads from Dropbox produced nary a stutter.

Converting the phone into a hot spot was also one of the more useful data-centric features, though the option is strangely buried within the menu tree. Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface has never been especially appealing, and this is another nail in that coffin.

Yet another addition is the S 4G’s front-facing VGA camera. Though it’s perfectly poised for video conferencing, I was a little underwhelmed by the options on the app side. Getting the service up and running is simple enough thanks to a preloaded Qik app, but the occasional stutter and noticeable lag left a lot to be desired.

Lack of polish aside, I can’t really fault the VGA camera in terms of functionality. I was able to make and receive video calls just fine. They just resembled fireside chats with Max Headroom.

Other goodies include a copy of Inception offered from Samsung’s Media Hub storefront. Normally I’m prone to ignore extras like this entirely, but watching the film on the S 4G uncovered some interesting tidbits. Due to the smart combination of a workhorse battery and a power-sipping display, the film’s hefty 2-hour-28-minute run time only slightly dented the Galaxy’s gas tank.

As the movie finished I noticed that only 20 percent of the battery had been depleted. It’s doubtful that I would ever force myself into a back-to-back four-peat viewing of Inception, but it’s good to know that Samsung realistically views the S 4G as an entertainment device.

If we’ve learned anything over the past year, it’s that incremental improvements are incredibly easy to flub. Even with our lingering gripes with the S 4G, we can’t give the phone too much guff.

Samsung managed to transform an already well-appointed blueprint into an even stronger contender. Sure, it’s not the overwhelmingly overhauled quad-core beast of our dreams. But even incremental progress still counts as progress.

WIRED Stronger iteration of a solid design. Mostly smooth navigation thanks to a humming 1-GHz processor. Great call quality. Awesome battery life and power management. Gorgeous high-def 720p video (in well-lit environments). Ready for downloads and app-tion thanks to an included 16-GB memory card (expandable to 32 GB).

TIRED Accessing the movie storefront requires a tedious login process. Bloatware aplenty. Where’s my HDMI out? HSPA+ service is fantastically fast (where available). 4G to 3G to EDGE handoffs are often slow. White backgrounds often produce the dreaded “screen-door effect.” Froyo is already old hat — give us Gingerbread!

Photos by Jim Merithew/Wired.com

We’re back with a new episode of TC Cribs, the show that takes you inside the hopping offices of tech startups. This week we check out Seesmic, the multi-protocol client that lets you monitor you Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and many other accounts from one place (they offer a nice web app and native mobile apps). And they have a thing for raccoons, as you’ll see in the video above.

Tune in for our full walkthrough of the office, led by Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur.

Oh, and if you want to watch Loic’s full description of Seesmic (which ran a bit long), you can watch it right here.

As usual, credit to Ashley Pagán and John Murillo for the camera work, and to Mr. Murillo for the great editing.

Here are the past episodes of TC Cribs:

• Inside The Psychobox: A Tour Of Dropbox’s Bumping Office
• Take A Doc On The Wild Side At Scribd (With Bonus Go Karts!)
• Dogs, Unicorns, And Mysterious Gongs: Inside Yelp’s 5-Star Pad
• TC Cribs: IGN HQ Gets Its Game On With Lawn Gnomes, Plumbers, And Creepy Dinosaurs

We’re entering another round of testing in the paywall/microtransactions world, but it doesn’t look to be turning out any better than the last one. I argued that until payment methods are improved, everyone is just whistling in the dark, but that hasn’t stopped the NY Times from taking another shot at it, and The Daily from trying a whole new format. The necessary precursor to any of these schemes, however, is a simple, easy, and generally agreed-upon payment system — an e-wallet.

Minno seems to feel this is true as well, and are hard at work making a payment tool they feel is as simple and powerful as cash, without the political and regulatory trappings of bank-related NFC schemes or credit card tie-ins. It’s simple, all right, but is it powerful enough?

The idea is to remove as many obstacles as possible from between the user/buyer and the seller. Thus, Facebook connect is employed, no card or bank account need be tied to the account, and the payment plugin is just a line of javascript. It’s not aimed at real-life situations or point-of-service, as NFC is, and it doesn’t have a “twist” like Flattr or Bitcoin. It’s not an alternate currency and it doesn’t come with a built-in community. I could do without the whimsical aquatic theme, but other than that: so far, in my opinion, so good.

It’s built by a couple guys who left Google to pursue this project, and who think that there will be a place for this kind of payment system, mainly for purchasing online works like subscriptions, single articles, media and books (directly from the creators, for example Project 7 Alpha), and web app functionality (as demonstrated by the Torrent Traveler demo app). It’s fundamentally a different market than that for NFC and expedited credit and debit payments, and requires a less extensive (though no less secure) infrastructure.

The plugin and system look good, and I think that for now there is definitely an emerging opportunity for point-to-point money transfers on the web. A sane monetization plan will help, too, and Minno wisely isn’t planning on draconian minimum fees or 30% transfer scrapes. But timing and placement matter, and I’m less confident that Minno will be in the right place with the right clout when this field really takes off.

Maybe it’s looking too far out, but I think that a transfer of funds between two unique IDs on the internet is likely to be standardized into a fundamental protocol. Until that time, I find it unlikely that it’s going to be branded, or rather a brand that grows into prominence, as Facebook and PayPal have. It seems that whenever money is changing hands (even if it’s pennies), big interests tend to step in, and regulation gets involved as well. Not to mention that potential business models and the market they exist in are neither of them even close to solidified yet. We’re looking at serious changes to the way money and the web interact over the next few years.

The bigger companies aren’t nearly agile enough to offer an actual product after just a few months of development, as Minno is doing, but they’re going to come to market with a product that is, if not actually superior, still carries more weight. Banks, VISA, Apple, Google, PayPal — every one of these monsters has good reason to be spending millions on a successor system to the holdover online payment methods we’ve had in place for 15 or 20 years now. It’s a David vs. Goliaths situation, and I’m not holding out much hope for David.

To their credit, Minno has a system that plainly works; at the moment they’re short on partners (no one wants to go with a newcomer like this on faith) and the ability to scale and provide service, customization, and behind-the-scenes wirework to large and important customers (like if, say, a large blog network or media conglomerate were to use Minno) is by necessity unproven.

The micropayments world is going to be one of these billion-dollar businesses everyone likes to talk about (and get in at the ground floor of). But the battle will be hot amongst the heavyweights, and Minno may find themselves (as they seem to have inadvertently set themselves up to be) a small fish in a big pond.

There isn’t much information out there about Stripe, a new payments startup cofounded by brothers Patrick Collison and John Collison (last seen selling their startup Auctomatic to Live Current Media for $5 million).

It’s an online business to business and business to consumer payments provider, we’ve confirmed. “How is it different than PayPal or Google Checkout?” I asked someone who’s seen the product. Their answer – “It doesn’t suck.”

Developers have a lot of trouble getting the various payments parts to work properly – from getting a merchant account to making the software work properly on your website. And then there is fee gouging. Stripe is said to make the process very, very easy for developers.

Apparently Stripe really doesn’t suck, because the company has taken approximately $2 million in a venture round from PayPal founders Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, as well as Sequoia Capital, Andreesen Horowitz and SV Angel. Stripe was valued at around $20 million in the round, we’ve heard but haven’t confirmed. The company wouldn’t comment on whether or not the financing occurred at all.

Sequoia partner Michael Moritz is said to be personally involved in Stripe as well. He’s not known to spend a lot of time on startups he doesn’t think will have huge exits.