March 29, 2008
The adoption of Twitter, which I covered previously a number of times , appears to be acceleratingly since March 6th, as I have seen my followers double in that three week period. My friend Gary Vaynerchuk recently started to do a daily "thoughts on life" video podcast and gave his thoughts on Twitter vs. Facebook...kinda. So in response to his video I wanted to make a quick SOMEWHAT FRANK TV episode 18 with my thoughts on Twitter (mainly) as well as a few comments about Facebook.
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March 20, 2008
I have been to a number of industry events and I don't know how many times I either run out of cards are find myself cardless but technology has made it a lot easier to connect. LinkedIn recently joined Facebook and a number of other sites that have created iPhone experiences which makes it pretty easy to contact people and connect immediately thus online identity has replaced one of the features of offline identity - the business card.
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March 6, 2008
Microblogging has becoming extremely popular as sites like Twitter and Pownce have jumped onto the scene to enable users to quickly share messages, links and files. I recently got a preview of a Chicago-based startup that has created platform a new microblogging platform. Edmodo, a self-funded bootstrapping startup co-founded by Jeff O'Hara and Nic Borg offers microblogging for education and groups. Since both co-founders work in education, they wanted to do something to help others in the space. They also noticed there were not microblogging platforms available with the rostering and privacy options needed in the educational space - so they decided to build Edmodo.
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February 23, 2008
Twitter is a great communication tool. I use it all the time. I initially enabled mobile notifications but found I was getting a constant stream of Twitter text messages which can be somewhat distracting. So I turned off mobile notifications except for direct messages. But I still find that I miss "@ replies" since they cannot currently be sent to my mobile device.
I just put in a feature request to Twitter. I would love to be able to get "@ replies" sent directly to my mobile device just the same as direct messages are. Anyone else want to see this feature added?
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February 22, 2008
Eyespot, the online video editing site that I previously reviewed with very high marks, has released a new set of tools to make personalization and syndication of videos. The tools include the ability to share to a mobile device or to a number of other video platforms with just one click.
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January 9, 2008
Music makes the world go round. OUTSHOUTS, a Palo Alto, California based three employee startup, takes music going 'round seriously as it enables anyone to create and send their own mixes of music over email and text message directly to your mobile phone. OUTSHOUTS lets anyone become DJ to mix music tracks with your recorded voice and pre-recorded music or other content.
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January 7, 2008
Lifestreaming has made great strides in the past year as Justin.TV strapped a camera on his head. Robert Scoble, Sarah Meyers and a number of others including myself have participated in one way or another in the lifestreaming video movement leveraging tools like UStream.TV, Mogulus and Blog.TV.
With CES taking place in Las Vegas this week and the unfortunate fact that I was unable to attend (due to my day job) I am going to take full advantage of my friends lifestreaming videos to get the feel of the conference. There is a new tool called Qik that might make lifestreaming even easier than before. Qik is an alpha product that has sprung onto the scene to enable users to stream live video directly from their mobile phone.
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October 30, 2007
Microblogging platforms have been coming into their own as sites like Tumblr and Twitter have emerged to enable users to provide a shorter format for blog posts. Why microblogs? Microblog platforms offer users an easy way to make shorter format posts that take less time and overhead than a full fledge blog. Soup.io has just officially launched to offer users a microblogging platform that pay attention to your content details so different content types are displayed appropriately.
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September 17, 2007
TechCrunch40, the 2007 TechCrunch launching pad conference, is upon us and you can keep up with the event just updated techcrunch40.com website. The site offers fully-featured hub for TechCrunch40, which starts this morning and continues through Tuesday evening. It will offer details about the 40 presenting companies (as they launch), the 100 demo pit companies and speaker details. The site will upload video clips of each set of presentations. The site also has Flickr photos can view photos of the conference and messages about the event via Twitter.
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September 11, 2007
Typepad, the popular hosted blog platform by SixApart, has announced a new iPhone optimized interface. Typepad users can now visit http://i.typepad.com on an iPhone or the new iPod Touch in their Safari Web browser use an optimized version of Typepad.
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September 3, 2007
If you are looking for a way to cut corners when it comes to updating your online status you might want to give twitterfeed.com a try. Twitterfeed.com turns twitter into a status feed aggregator as you can pull all your status updates into one place and then publish them all to twitter.
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July 11, 2007
If you have an iPhone you may be trying to figure out a way to optimize your widget experience. Mojits offers a potential solution as it provides a place to find web widgets optimized for the iPhone. Currently, Mojits offers a couple dozen web widget options which include AIM iPhone...
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April 24, 2007
While online video upload sites have become extremely popular in the web 2.0 movement, it appears that live streaming video seems to be catching on fast. UStream.tv offers users the ability to create their own live web channel with live chat functionality. Streaming video is by no means a new...
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March 23, 2007
Twitter has been the talk of the blogosphere and tech community for the last few weeks. Twitter has taken a simple idea and technology to create an easy to use and somewhat addictive product thus turning it into a growing phenomenon. I finally gave in and reviewed Twitter two weeks...
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March 5, 2007
Is your site mobile ready? .mobi has launched, ready .mobi, a mobile-readiness test to help site owners. You simply put in your URL and using industry best practices & standards you find out if the site is mobile ready. Unfortunately, Somewhat Frank is not currently fully mobile ready. You can...
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January 26, 2006
Apparently you can patent character groupings known as emoticons since I just read Cingular was allowed to patent mobile emoticons. At first glance I thought this sounded absurd. How can a mobile company or anyone for that matter own characters grouped together to form an alternate meaning like the smiley...
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December 30, 2005
I am headed to the airport right now for a New Years weekend in the sunshine state of Florida. I am looking forward to seeing my girlfriend, getting some sunshine and relaxing while the holiday season draws to a conclusion. I will do a little mobile blogging from Florida if...
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December 30, 2005
Two-thousand five, was a year of big expectations for me and for the most part it lived up to its billing. I felt it was in some ways a year I could do no wrong. Maybe it is because I am the fifth Frank and the five at the end...
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December 13, 2005
Doc Searl the Syndicate SF Conference. Doc spoke of how Dave Winer "badgered" him into blogging in the Fall of 1999. Doc noticed that fall when blogging just started to take of as the beginning of the "split of the web" from the use of the static web to the...
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December 12, 2005
I am well on my way to San Francisco for the Syndicate conference aboard a Boeing 767 United Airlines aircraft. I took this photo while watching the movie Cinderella Man somewhere over Nevada. *Image originally uploaded via camera-phone by Somewhat Frank.
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December 8, 2005
The photo to the left is what I dealt with on the way home from work today. So far seven inches of snow have fallen and it is still coming down. I would have to say this is one of the features that make Chicago a unique city. It gets...
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November 24, 2005
Thanksgiving table taken via camera-phone by Somewhat Frank. I headed out of Chicago to the country late yesterday evening for the Thanksgiving holiday today. The table is getting set and the turkey is in the oven as we prepare to give thanks, feast and watch football this afternoon. UPDATE: I...
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November 18, 2005
Caribbean Island Image sent to Somewhat Frank. I just got this email from my sister who is in the Caribbean on the island of St. Kitts where she is attending a wedding. Bless her heart. I love to hear from my sister but honestly I saw the picture and got...
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November 13, 2005
Soldier Field Photo uploaded via camera-phone by Somewhat Frank. I am bundled up with my girlfriend at Soldier Field watching football on a windy day in Chicago, as the Chicago Bears take on the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers are far removed from the dominate days of Montana, Young and...
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October 16, 2005
Over Georgia originally uploaded via camera-phone by Somewhat Frank. I just flew home from Georgia and took this photo out the window of the airplane. It was a wonderful weekend away from Chicago. I spent time with some extraordinary people and really enjoyed myself. The weekend seemed to pass so...
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October 16, 2005
Beach Club originally uploaded via camera-phone by Somewhat Frank. I made it to Sea Island, Georgia's Sea Island Resorts safely. The weather has been beautiful. I only have checked email once to receive feedback on a Tribune project I am currently managing. So I have definitely have gotten to relax....
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October 13, 2005
In less than three hours, I will be departing for Sea Island, Georgia for a weekend away from the big city. It is a much needed fall break after battling mono in September. I hope to catch some rays on the beach and get some much needed rest and relaxation....
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October 9, 2005
Purdue endzone originally uploaded via cameraphone by Somewhat Frank. As a Purdue University alum I took a road trip down to watch Purdue's football team take on Iowa. While the trip was enjoyable the actual game was painful to watch as Purdue dropped their third straight game. It is quite...
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October 8, 2005
Welcome Tribune Interactive posted via cameraphone by Somewhat Frank. I recently visited the Chicago Light House with Tribune Interactive as part of the United Way Leadership breakfast. The Chicago Lighthouse helps the visually impaired with support, career help and schooling. They also have a 30 employee clock making business that...
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