SOMEWHAT FRANK

Searching For The B.E.S.T. Bebo Application

I was in San Francisco early last week at the Bebo B.E.S.T. Developer Challenge Awards Ceremony. As an application contest judge with Dave McClure and Jesse Stay, I had the pleasure of examining a number of stellar applications which ranged in form and function. The most important characteristic I looked for were usability and engagement.

Here were some of the fun facts about the contest:

• Almost 2,000 BEST Contest entries

• Entrants include big names like: Playfish, (Lil) Green Patch, Family Link & Large Animal Games

• Contest entrants came from a variety of categories, including Casual Games, Virtual Reality, Communication & Entertainment

Congrats to the five application finalists included KickMania, Banana Grams, RoboKill Trainer, Solid Sudoku & Bowling Buddies. The grand prize winner was Bowling Buddies by Playfish as it offered an extremely engaging gaming experience on Bebo. It only takes a few minutes to bowl an entire game and was easy to pick up and play.

Check out photos from the Awards ceremony like the one below.

Occipital ClearCam Improves iPhone Photos

Occipital ClearCam iPhone App Improves Photo Quality from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

I take a lot of photos on my iPhone and often I wish it has a better quality camera. Well, that may now be a reality with Occipital's new iPhone application called ClearCam. The Occipital ClearCam application is said to turn your 2 megapixel iPhone photos into a 4 megapixel photo in just a few simple clicks of the thumb.

Occipital was a TechStars incubator startup that demoed at TECH cocktail Boulder 2 this past August and has since been working on perfecting the ClearCam iPhone application. I recently visited Boulder, Colorado and stopped by the TechStars office to talk with Occipital co-founders Jeffrey Powers and Vikas Reddy about the new application. Check out episode 65 on SOMEWHAT FRANK as I get a chance to see the Occipital ClearCam iPhone application in action.

Twestival Across All The Land For Clean Water!

What is a Twestival? A Twestival, brings together Twitter users in local communities to both network and support a charitable cause. Washington, DC & Chicago are among some of the marquee cities in the United States for Twestival and is expecting one of the largest turnouts at its event on Thursday, February 12th, 2009.

In case you missed it, on February 12th, 2009 over 120 cities around the world will be hosting a unique event to raise money for Charity:Water, a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. I love water, especially clean water, so I give Twestival my full support.

President Abraham Lincoln Scrapbooked Online?

Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibit Explored at Library of Congress from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

Not exactly, since the Web wasn't invented yet, but President Abraham Lincoln was a traditional scrapbooker. I bet that if Honest Abe were alive today he would be using Tumblr, Scrapblog or Delicious to save all his clippings or bookmarks. How do I know this? Today I previewed the  Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition at Library of Congress which houses the largest exhibit of Abraham Lincoln artifacts. One the artifacts I found while exploring was a scrapbook of clippings from the Lincoln-Douglass debates (the only known record of its time).

I also spoke with Matt Raymond, Director of Communications at the Library of Congress for episode 64 of SOMEWHAT FRANK. I also posted some photos on Flickr. Check out the video (above) as I experienced the Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition which opens to the public on February 12th and runs until May 9th. It can also be found on YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Google, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Viddler and Vimeo.

If you cannot make it out to Washington, DC to see the Lincoln exhibit in person you can explore it online here and follow updates on Twitter: @librarycongress.

Judging Startups at Twiistup 5 This Week

I am excited to be headed back to Cali, Cali next week as I am a judge for the Twiistup 5 event in Santa Monica. It has been awhile since I have been to southern California as I attended the first Twiistup event on my birthday back in 2007. It was a great event but this event is going to be 5 times as big and is actually taking place at an airplane hangar. 

Visiting the Threadless.com Office in Boulder

Threadless.com Boulder Office Visit from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

As I travel from place to place I occasionally visit different companies that have interesting or unique office spaces. Check out my past Office Visit Videos. I visited the Chicago Threadless.com office last February so when I visited Boulder, Colorado this past week I stopped into the new Threadless.com office to see just how the t-shirt giant was settling in. I talked with Threadless Founder Jake Nickell and Chief Creative Officer Jeffrey Kalmikoff along with a few other of their officemates at their new Threadless.com skinnyCorp Boulder office. I shared my office visit experience as episode 63 on SOMEWHAT FRANK.

Watch as Jake Nickell tells what inspired the creation of Threadless.com in the first place and looks for anyone that has one particular t-shirt. Can you help him out?

Watch & Rate the Super Bowl Commercials Online

With the Super Bowl today and my beloved Chicago Bears not in it this year I am unsure who I will be pulling for just yet. But I am sure I will probably be paying more attention to commercials. As I watch the expensive television time slots I will be rating them online with two products (two separate personal friends of mine created).

First, Thummit, the DC-based startup that I previously highlighted, has been working on special event rating systems as they took full advantage of its Washington, DC location during the recent 2009 Presidential Inauguration to rate the Inauguration events. Today, with the Super Bowl Thummit enables you to rate the 2009 Super Bowl Commercials.