SOMEWHAT FRANK

Sprout Builder Easy Flash Toolkit Now Public

Creating flashy multimedia pieces of content for the Web might have just gotten a little easier as Sprout Builder opened its doors to the public today. This Hawaii-based startup first popped up on my radar at DEMO 08 as they first reveled Sprout Builder. The Flash toolkit makes it easy for anyone to create a rich interactive page, widget or part of a page without knowing how to write a line of code.

ikordo Helps You Organize Meetings

I hate long meetings when I feel that something could be solved with a simpler method like AIM, email, a text message or a phone conversation. When a meeting is needed, coordinating meetings can be as time consuming as the actual meeting itself. If you have a personal assistant you probably do not have to worry about this but if you do not then you probably feel my pain. ikordo, created by UK-based Volutio, offers a product that help facilitate organizing the meeting for you by putting into an organized system that leverages various communication streams to lock down your meeting times.

LiquidTalk: iTunes For Business

Keeping up to speed with the latest corporate or team communications while on the road or away from the office can be a bit daunting. Many companies leverage video or audio messages which cannot be accessed from outside the corporate firewall. LiquidTalk, a Chicago-based startup, offers a business solution to help keep people in the corporate environment in the loop via the devices (iPhones and BlackBerry) that we all have on them at all times. It is like having iTunes for business as it syncs all your corporate communication messages to your device for on the go consumption on your own terms.

Movial Social Communicator: Share Anywhere

Have you ever taken a photo or seen a video and wanted to immediately share it with your friends while on the go? Obviously you could upload it to Flickr or Facebook or a number of other sites but more than likely times you probably would fire off an email to your friends to share it with them. Your friends would then get your message at various times depending upon when they actually go to check their email which means you are not instantly communicating with your friends.

Movial is looking to help make sharing easier with the recent launch of Movial Social Communicator. Social Communicator offers a desktop client and mobile application that syncs all your mobile phone contacts and empowers users to send videos, photos and news directly to their friends at their current location.

TECH cocktail Boulder Colorado

I am pleased to announce that TECH cocktail will be making its first appearance in Boulder, Colorado. TECH cocktail Boulder 1 is another big step forward for TECH cocktail for another reason besides the obvious one of expanding to a new area. TECH cocktail Boulder 1 will be the first event we are putting on in partnership with the DEMO conference. Yes, the same DEMO conference that I just attended last week.

Microsoft Bids On Yahoo, Facebook Numbers Released, OpenSocial or OpenGadget?, No Tipping Point?, DEMO08 & Technology Tomorrow

Photo of the Week: This week I spent time at the DEMO08 conference in Palm Desert, California and I snapped this shot from my hotel room balcony.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 02.03.2008

DEMO 08: My Favorites

DEMO 08 was a blur of excitement and adrenaline as 77 companies showcased their stuff in front of the tech world. I pulled together roundups for Day 1 and Day 2. Now I want to look back and express the launches that I found the most interesting. Please keep in mind that there might be some great products that I left off this list because I could not relate to them as well as the ones on the list. If you attended DEMO 08 please drop a comment below and let me know which launches were keen on.

DEMO 08 Day 2: Roundup

After another eventful evening, this time at the traditional DEMO Jam Session event, day 2 of DEMO08 was another intense day of product launches. Once again, rather than reviewing every single company that launched a product I will offer some tidbits and analysis from day 2.

DEMO 08 Day 1: Roundup

After an evening mixer last night which helped to get everyone together DEMO08, as its name implies, was filled with lots of demos. Rather than review every single company that launched a product today I will give you a brief overview of each one. Overall, I was impressed by a couple of pen-like gadgets, a few enabling technology sites, a couple video sites and of course mobile products.

Hubdub Launching Predictive News Aggregator

I am a big fan of news aggregators like Digg, Reddit and Mixx as they bubble up interesting content from around the Web. Hubdub, a UK-based startup, is launching at DEMO08 to put a new spin on the traditional news aggregator landscape by creating a predictive marketplace for news. Hubdub will look to leverage the value of user-generated news aggregation with the accuracy and stir of prediction markets.

DEMO08: I'll Be There, Follow Along

Today I am heading to Palm Desert, California (west of Palm Springs) to attend the DEMO 2008 conference. I am excited to see what this years event has to offer. I have covered some of the companies on from DEMO conferences including the launches of both Moobella and Blurb.

If you are also headed to DEMO08 and have a new product you would like me to look at or just want to sync up at the event please drop me a comment, email or direct Twitter message (here is some help on direct messaging if you need it) and we can make arrangements.