SOMEWHAT FRANK

Video: Thoughts On Twitter (vs. Facebook)

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. I use them both and they are complementary products.

ajaxWindows: Desktop Access From Anywhere

Getting to your personal while away has now gotten a lot easier thanks to the San Diego based startup ajax 13 creators of ajaxWindows. ajaxWindows enables users to access their computer desktop just as if they were on it via a web browser from anywhere and event on a mobile device. Simply create an account and ajaxWindows syncs with your desktop and creates a duplicate online version. You can then access it from anywhere while on the go.

Video: A Look Inside TechStars

If you are startup looking for a little funding and guidance you might want to check into one of the incubator program like TechStars. Nestled just outside of Denver in Boulder, Colorado the TechStars program is in its second year and still accepting hungry startup founders for this years applicants. Throughout the summer program, founders can get up to $15,000 in seed funding, are surrounded by like-minded entrepreneurs, work in great space downtown Boulder, and are given access to learn from an line-up of fabulous mentors. Apply today - the 2008 deadline is March 31, 2008.

JiwaMusic Relaunches Social Music Network

JiwaMusic, a Paris, France based music site built on Ruby on Rails by Jiwa SARL that I previously covered, launched into beta in May 2007 to offer users the ability to search, create, share and embed music playlists.

Last week, Jiwa launched a new version of its product to offer more songs (more than 400,000 songs as thousands are added every day), a new design and a brand new player and new ways to share your musical tastes among other things.

I have 20 beta invites so if you are interested in giving the new JiwaMusic a try please drop a comment on this post and I will send one to you.

BricaBox Social Content Platform Launches

BricaBox, the NY-based structured content platform I previously reviewed, publicly launched today to enable anyone to create access and create these rich content experiences with ease. Funded sole by its founders BricaBox has been refered to a "wiki" on steroids (don't tell MLB or Congress) or "WordPress for structured content" as it offers a way for publishers tools to better display listings and such. It should also be noted that BricaBox offers social capabilities to enable community and sharing features which are sometimes confused with those of Ning or other social networking platform options.

EveryBlock: A Hyper-Local News Aggegator

Map mashups have become almost a dime a dozen these days as the release of open APIs by just about every major online mapping site and and development tools has lowered the barriers of entry. That was not always the case though and as recently as 2005 trailblazing mashup like HousingMaps.com (a cross between Google Maps and Craigslist housing listings) and ChicagoCrime.org (used Google Maps and Chicago Crime data to display crimes on a map) developers actually had to reverse engineer JavaScript code to create  mashup. This all changed with the release of Google Maps API and most of the major mapping sites on the Web have since followed suit.

It was recently announced that due to some server issues and overlaps with another new mashup the 2005 Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism award winning early mashup ChicagoCrime.org will be redirect to - EveryBlock. EveryBlock, launched recently, is also mashup of sorts created by Chicago-based Adrian Holovaty the developer that produced ChicagoCrime.org. EveryBlock is a news aggregator site for Chicago, New York and San Francisco that looks to help you answer the question:

“What’s happening in my neighborhood?”

The site compiles all the openly available public records and then slices and dices them so that they are easily accessible by zip code, address or neighborhood.

Playyoo Mobile Gaming Network Launches

Playyoo, a social networking platform for creating and sharing mobile casual games, officially opens its beta doors to the public today. Described by TechCrunch as the "YouTube For Mobile Games," Playyoo (www.playyoo.com or m.playyoo.com on mobile phones) allows anyone to create and submit mobile games to its network. Users can create, share and discover new mobile experiences all via Playyoo.

Playyoo, a privately held company based in London, England, offers game developers a place to create and distribute Adobe Flash Lite mobile games. But you don't have to be a seasoned game developer to create a Playyoo game as it offers integrated game creator tools to enable anyone to develop and publish a mobile game creation.

Picnik Launches Development API

Picnik, the solid suite of photo editing tools, has just announced the release of "Picnik-in-a-Box," its  development API. Now any web site can integrate with Picnik free for charge. According to Picnik, the new Picnik-in-a-Box API should enable anyone with knowledge of HTML or server-side scripting to quickly integrate photo editing int0 their website with some custom design aspects.

Personally, I find myself leveraging Picnik more and more these days as its tools have been integrated into Flickr. Picnik has also integrated with Box.net and Webs (formerly Freewebs). If you are interested obtain a software key which gives them instant, free access to the Picnik API.

ffwd Beta API Tools Available

ffwd, a video content discovery engine previously covered on Somewhat Frank, has announced the release of an early beta version of its API tools. The APIs  will provide developers with the ability to  connect to and access data from a ffwd profile. If you are a developer interested in giving the new tools a whirl and request a Developer API key or view the documentation visit: ffwd.com/developer

Happy coding! :)

Video: Kevin Lawver on Web Standards

This week I got a chance to sit down with AOL's Kevin Lawver who is very well respected at AOL and in the web development community. He has worked at AOL for 13 years and worked on everything from AOL search to conceptualizing and developing Ficlets, previously covered here.

We sat down and discussed a new book Adapting to Web Standards : CSS and Ajax for Big Sites which he helped Christopher Schmitt, Robert Cherny, Meryl K. Evans, Mark Trammell and Kimberly Blessing author. The book is devoted to helping experienced developers to better understand the changing web standards landscape and somewhat frankly, adapt. Kevin wrote chapter 7 which focuses on AOL's move into the online space with the relaunch the new AOL.com in 2005. The chapter discusses managing "corporate swirl" and "combating the waterfall" methodology. It even refers to web development as a craft (not witchcraft though).

Hasbro Should Just Buy Scrabulous Already

Are you a Scrabble fan?  Scrabble, the popular word game trademarked by Hasbro, Inc. has been the topic of debate recently as an online alternative was created to operate as a Facebook application called Scrabulous. Scrabulous was created by Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla within the last six months already has over 600,000 active daily users. Amazing! According to an ABC News report, Hasbro is outraged about the creation of the copycat game and as AllFacebook reports they are trying to force Facebook to remove it. Am I missing something?

Wakoopa Tracks What Software You Use

Do you ever wonder what software products you spend the most time on? I do. While there are ways to check the last time you used a software product it is not a 'walk in the park.' Wakoopa, an Amsterdam-based startup, tracks what software, games and other applications you use. Similar to how Alexa keeps track of web site metrics, Wakoopa looks to keep track of applications that you run on your PC or Mac. Wakoopa makes it easy to share your top software as well as discover new software from other Wakoopa users.

Give Your Laptop or iPhone A Hug

The Carsonified team led by Ryan Carson recently decided to take a few days to come up with a new and unique product just in time for the holidays. They brainstormed for a bit and the idea of hugs and laptop and iPhone cases fused together into nine unique hugs (or sleeves) for a device. Hug My Mac was born! Do you want to give your laptop or iPhone a hug? If so, read on.

Userplane Partners With TV Sites

Userplane, the web chat and community tools provider, has announced today that they are working with network and cable TV media companies to rollout social networking and messaging services within their existing online communities to kick off online conversations. Userplane's deal includes Channel 4 (UK), The CW, FUEL TV, and the Independent Film Channel as they will be adding the Webchat, Minichat, and Webmessenger applications to their online communities.

BricaBox A New Kind Of Publishing Platform

Brica what? BricaBox, a New York-based startup, offers a publishing platform for organizing and displaying content in a more structured manner. It's goal is to offer a way to present detailed content or data. Wondering why you might need more structure? Read on to find out how you might be able to use BricaBox.