Can you believe it? I couldn’t at first. Now we are getting ever so close to the age of the Jetsons! I tested it out for myself. I tried listening to a wide variety of shows to try and stump the software but all attempts failed. It event detected when I was trying to listen to a commercial. The only thing that stumped IntoNow was a local news broadcast. The app also can not detect movies that have not been broadcasted on TV yet. I tried testing it with Paranormal Activity 2 and it could not detect it.

So what is magic juice for IntoNow? The software uses their own patented indexing technology called soundprint. They can identify what’s being watched down to the invidual episode.  They have an index that covers 140 million minutes of previously aired shows, equivalent to 266 years of video! I have played with the app a couple of times now and the transitions between screens is super smooth. The is also able to find shows within a few seconds which is impressive. Once its found a show, all you have to click is share, post a comment if you want, and click done. The one feature that is lacking that Miso and GetGlue both have is a gaming system. Miso and GetGlue awards you points and badges based on the number of times you checkin to a type of show or some other criteria. I do not see that as an option with IntoNow. They could add it later.

I love the app so far and I’m gonna try playing around with it some more but right now its my goto app for TV Checkins. More screenshots below showcasing more of the features.

I did a guest post today for my buddy, Larry Henry who runs LEHSYS.COM over the Cinchcast or cinch service. The service is an audio-based one that allows you to record audio via a phone number, computer, iPhone or Android phone and share it with all your social networks. Check out the article and let me know what you think:

http://www.lehsys.com/2010/10/social-network-audio-cinch/

Using the tips in the these articles on lifehacker, I’ll be spending the weekend going through various facets of my digital life clearing out what I don’t need. From Email, Contacts, Social Networks, Google Reader, and even my desk itself.

This new simplified site’s look is a complete 180 from the normal posterous site seen below:

This may be an answer to the simple look and feel of Tumblr, posterous’s direct competitor. Is this article written by Peg on Tech, one of the reasons for Tumblr’s popularity is the landing page is much less cluttered. Here is a quote from the article about Tumblr’s landing page:

Sign up is dead simple. Can you imagine the conversion rates they get out of that page? Moreover, they have one of the best taglines of any service: the easiest way to blog. What else is there to explain? They don’t brag about features like “like”, “reblog” or (ugh) “tumblarity.” Tumblr is the easiest way to blog. Anyone, your mother included, can understand that.

Posterous with their new Post.ly page is trying to bring that simplicity to them as well. Techcrunch has an article on the announcement. I personally have a tumblr and posterous account. I seem to use posterous more because I like their feature set. I will definitely give this a try and see if I like it better than using their main site.

Did my first guest podcast, well actually my first podcast of any kind. The podcast was the Average Joe Show, hosted by Corey Charette and Ward Miller. It was a pretty entertaining show. In this episode we discussed the following news stories: sickness from BBQs, toy gun store robbery, long hair suspension, Army mom refuses to go, McGwire used steroids, Spider-Man 4 is a no go, and a sex robot. Ya we covered a varied array of topics. Give it a listen here.

Thanks again Corey and Ward for the opportunity and I hope to be on more shows in the future.

“I’ve never liked the word podcast. It causes confusion…people have told me that they can’t listen to my shows because they ‘don’t own an iPod’.”

Speaking of netcasts, that is his tagline on the bumpers to his shows “Netcasts you love, from people you trust.”

The documentary below is done by Michael Sean Wright and Marc Ostrick where they traveled to the “TWIT cottage” in Petuluma, CA. This is part of The Spark Series for eGuiders. They are exploring what makes Leo stand out in this new frontier of media. Leo Laporte has a huge following on the internet and he is doing this with a small staff and a modest budget compared to his TechTV days where it used to cost millions to do what he’s doing today. Leo also give his take on technology in general, Net Neutrality, and explains the joys of doing his show now versus what he did with traditional media. You will also get a small look behind the scenes of TWIT is run. I have always been a huge fan of Leo and the ex-TechTV personalities. A great little film about a tech culture icon.

FontCapture is a beta website where you can create your very own font in your handwriting. Its super easy to do. The site gives you a PDF Template which has a grid outlining each letter of the alphabet, numbers, and special characters. You simply print this template out and fill in each square in your own handwriting. Be sure to follow the instructions on the site on the best way to fill out the form. There are little tick marks showing the tops of capital letters and descender tick marks for those letters that go below the baseline like “g” and “p.” Make sure and sure and use a thin black marker or sharpie as suggested.

You then scan the template, upload it to the site, name your font, and install the resulting font onto your PC or Mac. Presto! your own personalized font. Below is a sample of the font I created from my own handwriting.

Here is my finished template for reference and resulting font.

Have fun creating your own font and just think of this as another way to make a custom font that is not necessarily your handwriting. You could make the next windings or Helvetica. You could make your font out of boxes or animals.  Share your creations in the comments if you like.

This blog post is based on a project I did for a local museum to help them promote some of their upcoming events for free. The examples in this post will be based on their events. The five websites I will be reviewing are craigslist, upcoming.org, eventful, zvents and facebook. I will outline the pros and cons of each service as well as what sets them apart. Keep reading to see the reviews.

Craigslist.org

Craigslist is the grand daddy of posting events and classifieds for free online. When the site first started, there was only a handful of cities supported. Fast forward to the present and craigslist has sites in every state and major city in the US and different countries across the globe. The reason for success has alot to do with the freedom you get with the service. Anyone can post an ad. You don’t even need to sign up for an account. The fact that the majority of their services are free has also contributed to their success.

PROS:

• Availability Nationwide and in most metropolitan areas and some rural.
• Ease of posting an Ad. Probably the easiest of all services listed.
• Very simple non-cluttered design.
• Ability to post events anonymously.

CONS:

• Its biggest plus is also a negative. Because its so easy to post, alot of the content is spam.
• No way to add photos, maps, calendar links,etc to events without knowing html.
• No social buttons to promote your event.
• No way to add comments.

Craigslist is great place to post simple events and helps get the word out. It has become the defacto standard when it comes to events and classifieds. If you are planning an event or get together definitely post to craiglist first. The only piece thats lacking is the social aspect. That is why when promoting an event, make sure and cast your net big and use as many sources as you can.

Upcoming.org

Upcoming hasn’t been around as long as craiglist but it does boast an impressive list of features. Upcoming is a Yahoo property and as such, you will need to have a yahoo account to post events and post comments on the site. You don’t need an account to search for events though.

PROS:

• Ability to post direct link to ticketing pages.
• A lot of venues are already added in their system.
• Maps, Calendars, Print, Email and RSVP links are provided.
• You can add your own images to the event page easily.
• Users can post comments to events page.

CONS:

• Unlike Craigslist, you will need a Yahoo account to post events.
• They didn’t have my venue for the local museum. Had to add it manually.
• More prominent in the bigger cities. Didn’t have alot of events listed for my mid-sized town.
• To post links inside the description, you will need to know HTML.
• Can only post your event to one category.

Overall I am pleased with the features included with Upcoming. You get a lot for free. Being able to add multiple images from your computer is a big plus. I think the ability of people to RSVP for the event is also a big plus for the event coordinator. The other added bonus is the “buy tickets” link where you can post a separate link to the ticketing portion of your site.

Eventful.com

Eventful is another new player to the scene of free events online. Their service is a lot like Upcoming in many ways but it has a couple more bells and whistles, as well as paid services to promote your event.

PROS:

• Ability to add pictures to your posting
• Can add simple HTML to the description.
• Can add your event to 3 separate categories
• Seperate area to add links to such things as your website, ticketing site, reviews, sponsors, etc.
• Countdown widget you can customize and use on your website.
• Ability for vistors to post comments

CONS:

• Cannot add events anonymously, you will need an account.
• When you signup it automatically opts you in for email newsletter.
• To promote your event there is an additional fee such as email marketing or higher search results on their site.

Zvents.com

Zvents seems like it has the least amount of features compared to Eventful and Upcoming. It has the standards such as adding a event description, map, keywords, website links. It just seems like its lacking alot of the basic features you get with the other services listed with the except of craigslist. There is a premium version of the site which adds the ability to add photos, videos, more links, a branded website, business logo, and stats. They have some sort of tiered pricing which starts at $49.95.

PROS:

• Site is easy to navigate
• Events are easy to configure
• Has the basic features of the other services mentioned
• Ability to add performer to the event.

CONS:

• Can not add images unless you purchase a premium package.
• Can only add one link to your website for free, additional links are in the premium package.

Facebook Events

Facebook Events is another way events for free. This makes a good supplemental way to reach more people for your event but i would not make this my main focus since you are limited to those on facebook for exposure. Its true you can post a link to your event that the public can see, but they can not participate in discussion or RSVP unless they have a facebook account.

PROS:

• Has most of the features of other services mentioned.
• Ability to add photos,links, etc.
• The popularity of facebook to help spread the word.

CONS:

• Must be a Facebook member to participate and RSVP.

In summary, to get the best “bang for your buck” so to speak, its best to use a combination of services. Try out some of these services and see which one works best for you. You may want to even poll some of your guests and find out where they heard about the event so which one is getting you the most exposure. Use some of these services’ website features to help get the word out.

Lazy Feed is a new web app still in  ”invite-only beta” that basically aggregates feeds and stories based on trending keywords and topics that you add yourself. I was lucky enough to score an invite code from Louis Gray in a friendfeed conversation. Not sure what topics to add?  Don’t worry the site can connect to some of your social sites to grab your most popular keywords and tags as a base. They currently support 4 social sites: twitter, flickr, delicious, and blogs. Once all of your topics are imported from these sites, you can manually add your own topics as well.

The wow factor with Lazyfeed is the real-time aspect of the site. Once you have added all of your favorite keywords, you will see the topics move up and down the page depending on which topic is receiving updates. Once you select a topic from the left hand column, you can view the results in the middle, browsing column. The newest content will always be at the top. The content will be summaries of each story and you can click on each to get an expanded view. You can even click the Save button to save the article for later viewing.

This service seems to take its cues from sites like google reader but it also tries to set itself apart by being based on topics rather than individual RSS feeds. The site is still in beta with more features in the works, I’m sure. I like the simplicity of the site and how the newest content gets pushed to the top. The real-time updates can be paused if you rather take your time when reading the stories. I would like to see options to share the content with other services. Right now its more of a closed system.

Below is a video which shows a demo of the site’s features:

If you’re interested in trying out the service let me know and I have 2 invite codes to the site. Fare warning about these codes, they are not guaranteed to work. I took them from a public spreadsheet so no guarantees.

The reason for my title of  “Facebook eats Friendfeed” because I thought of the praying mantis analogy.  This merger is just like that of a female and male praying mantis. Facebook is the female mantis luring in the male, friendfeed for sex. The male does his deed and inseminates the female and when the deed is done, the female says thanks for the goods and eats the male!

Its been stated that Friendfeed will live on independently of facebook but the spirit of the site is lost. No longer will they be making features to enhance the experience for the users of friendfeed but the best will wind up on facebook. I’m a user of both systems and I have to say I spend a lot more time on friendfeed vs facebook. Facebook will always be a place to catchup on old friends and see what their up to but I feel my experience was richer on friendfeed.  I agree with Robert Scoble (one of friendfeed’s biggest evangelist) that:

“FriendFeed’s community was geekier and more fun, for me. No (or almost no) celebrities, very few jerks, lots of engagement that I don’t get on Facebook, and no spammers.”  Robert Scoble

What do you think about the new Facebook/friendfeed acquisition? Do you think its a win for social media or a power play from facebook to go after twitter? Leave me a comment below.