by Brian Solis

If you didn’t think the Web had its own Academy Awards, think again. The Crunchies are back and voting is open. TechCrunch along with GigaOm and VentureBeat will host the Awards Ceremony at 7:30 pm, Friday, January 9 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. It’s an elegant, old world theater with 900 seats that shroud the awards with the importance they deserve.

The reception will follow from 9 pm – midnight across the street in City Hall’s Rotunda. After-party co-host MySpace will be supplying a celebrity DJ. There will be an open bar, finger food, game room, and other fun surprises.

Here are highlights from last year’s event.

Natali Del Conte

For pictures from last year’s Crunchies, visit my album on flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

by Brian Solis

Originally published on Intel’s InsideScoop blog. Disclosure, I’m an Intel Insider.

With CES right around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to spotlight some of the hottest gadgets to debut in 2008 – especially before we look forward to the most anticipated products set to hit the streets in 2009.

2008 was an almost overwhelming year rich with advancements and innovation that practically warrants a top 100 list to do it justice. However, I’ll focus on the products that specifically had a direct or indirect impact on my day-to-day workflow, personal entertainment, and also those few products that are currently sitting on my wish list.

Without further ado, let’s just jump right in. Listed in no particular order:

Jawbone

Jawbone’s second-generation Bluetooth headset absolutely rocks for me. I upgraded from the bigger, bulkier first generation model the very day the new unit arrived in stores. It lives up to its promise, providing a personal NoiseAssassin (TM) to kill surrounding noise allowing you and the personal on the other end of the line to speak and hear clearly.

Credit: Brian Solis

Flip MinoHD

The Flip camera line emerged practically out of nowhere to create a market for easily capturing high quality, Web-ready video and sharing it through email or YouTube, MySpace, and AOL. The new Flip MinoHD adds high definition video to the mix, allowing just about anyone to shoot and share HD video, taking advantage of YouTube’s new HD support.

Apple TV with Boxee

Apple TV is not new, but the ability to integrate (read: hack) a new DRM-free media dashboard and entertainment social network called Boxee transforms the Apple TV into a full-blown library and player for all of your movies and music, even for those not purchased through iTunes. It provides support for almost every format so that you can enjoy all of your content in one box.

Blackberry Storm

Dubbed as the first real threat to the iPhone, the sleek and elegant Blackberry Storm, stormed the market recently. It’s the first touchscreen Blackberry available, and while it’s unique to those considering a Blackberry product, and as, will do very well with consumers, I’m not quite sure it’s a threat to the iPhone. Perhaps it’s the iPhone for the Windows-centric workforce.

MediaGate 450HD

The Apple TV for the rest of us. The MediaGate connects directly to your HD TV via HDMI and provides a wireless connection to seamlessly stream or transfer media files directly from you main PC. Like the Apple TV with Boxee, The MediaGate 450HD system offers a visual dashboard for you to manage and enjoy your libraries of movies, pictures, videos, and music through your TV.

OPPO

Forget the debate over Blu Ray and HD DVD, most of us have collected dozens, if not hundreds of standard definition videos over the years. The OPPO DV-983H 1080p is an up-converting DVD player with ABT and 7.1CH Audio that transforms standard DVDs into HD-quality, breathing new life into your existing movie investment.

Zink

I was introduced to Zink at a past DEMO. Zink, which stands for Zero Ink, offers a printing solution for digital photographers to print pictures without ink cartridges.

At the heart of the ZINK Technology is the patented ZINK Paper, an advanced composite material with cyan, yellow, and magenta dye crystals embedded inside, and a protective polymer overcoat layer outside. The crystals are colorless before printing, so ZINK Paper looks like regular white photo paper. Heat from a ZINK-enabled device activates the crystals, forming all the colors of the rainbow.

Wii Fit

Wii is still one of the hottest products of 2008 and also one of this season’s hottest gifts. It’s a combination of fitness and fun in one, balance and pressure sensitive controller board. It’s not only for exercise and yoga, it can also be used for any game where your stature and agility are instrumental in navigating through the experience.

Livescribe

Also previewed at DEMO, Livescribe is one of the most sophisticated and natural solutions on the market today. Livescribe is a paper-based computing platform that turns plain paper into a computer screen and bridges paper and digital. The solution features the Smartpen, a Montblanc-size computer with advanced processing power, audio/visual feedback, and memory for handwriting capture, audio recording, and applications. The complementary Dot Paper features Dot Positioning System (DPS), technology, enabling interactive, “live” documents using plain paper printed with micro-dots.

Livescribe’s first key application is “Paper Replay.” When taking notes during a discussion or lecture, the smartpen records the conversation and digitizes the handwriting, automatically synching the ink and audio. By later tapping the ink, the smartpen replays the conversation from the exact moment the note was written. Notes and audio can also be uploaded to a PC where they can be replayed, saved, searched and sent. Additional applications will be available for download from www.livescribe.com.

Credit: Brian Solis

Tesla

Zero to 60 in under 4 seconds with a top speed of 125 mph and a redline of 14,000 RPM, this all electric sports car is redefining the automotive industry. With a price tag of $109,000 and a waiting list consisting of an A-list from Hollywood and the tech industry, Tesla has become Silicon Valley’s media darling by offering an eco-friendly vehicle that can travel up to 244 miles per charge. This car has been on my wish list since I attended the grand opening of the dealership in Menlo Park. you’ll be pleased to know that this sleek roadster will only cost you pennies per mile.

Credit: Brian Solis

Apple 3G iPhone

For the second year in a row, I joined Robert Scoble as we ventured to the Apple store in San Francisco to witness the debut of the new iPhone, well, and to also purchase a few. The iPhone 3G delivered on the promise to offer an all inclusive personal entertainment and productivity experience now supported by mobile broadband connectivity. The new phone also marked the debut of the iPhone App Store, which is further fueling the frenzy by providing a mobile marketplace for application developers and consumers. Apple claims that the App Store has served more than 300,000,000 downloads to date. The iPhone has done nothing short of completely reinvent the user experience, inspiring almost every consumer electronics company to rethink product designs, interfaces, and usability.

Photo Credit: Brian Solis

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

As a photographer, this has been on my list well before its official public release. And, now that it’s finally available and shipping, I’m forced to continue my wait until production can meet the phenomenal demand.

Canon’s update to its full frame EOS 5D features a stunning 21.1-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with DIGIC 4 Image Processor, a vast ISO Range of 100-6400 (expandable to ISO L: 50, H1: 12800 and H2: 25600), plus EOS technologies like Auto Lighting Optimizer and Peripheral Illumination Correction. Perhaps most notably, it features full HD video recording at 30 fps. View sample videos here: http://tinyurl.com/5zsljo.

The 5d Mark II can also shoot up to 3.9 fps, offers 9 AF points plus 6 AF assist points, a new 98% coverage viewfinder, and a 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA).

UPDATE: My 5D Mark II arrived today. After shooting the first picture and HD movie, the auto focus on my 35mm prime Canon L series lens gave out. Hmmm. The picture and the video are incredible however.

Intel Atom Processor
Yes, while I’m an Intel Insider, I’m almost positive that Intel’s new Atom Processor will make many “Best Of” lists for 2008. It’s yet another breakthrough, which serves as a catalyst for innovation in mobile computing, social networking, and collaboration.

The Atom is Intel’s smallest and lowest power processor processor to date and powers the latest Mobile Internet Devices as well as the rapidly emerging category of netbooks and nettops.

Designed from the ground up, 45nm Intel Atom processors integrate an astounding 47 million transistors on a single chip measuring less than 26mm, making them Intel’s smallest and lowest power processors to date.

Looking forward to seeing you at CES 2009 in Las Vegas along with the rest of the Intel Insiders! (Note:  See Intel Insider stories featured on the Consumer Electronics Insider site.

Connect with me on: Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku, Social Median, Facebook

by Brian Solis

MySpace Music threw an exclusive party during the Web 2.0 Summit that fused Los Angeles style with San Francisco architecture. Contrary to other reports, this party was not only one of the highlights of the Summit, but one of the more memorable parties associated with any tech conference in recent history.

Thrown at the old mint in San Francisco, MySpace invited Lionel Richie and DJ AM to entertain the anxious and excited crowd. Not only were the invigorating conversations and connections abundant throughout the entire mint, laughter and fun filled the air while the geeks also danced the night away until the early hours of the morning.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Lionel Richie

DJ AM

DJ AM

Chris DeWolfe and Tom Foremski

Bryan Thatcher of Empressr and Michael Birch, Co-Founder of Bebo

iJustine – Justine Ezarik

Ellen McGirt of Fast Company

Caroline McCarthy of CNET

Gabe Rivera of Techmeme

Cathy Brooks of Seesmic and Gregarious Greg Narain of BlueWhaleLabs

Irina Slutsky of GETV and Nick O’Neill

Brady Forrest of O’Reilly

Dave McClure

Hammer, Ron Conway, Dave Morin

Tara Hunt, Jennifer Hussein Pahlka

Joseph Smarr and John McCrea of Plaxo

MC Hammer of DanceJam

Janetti Chon

Cupcakes!

Ben Metcalfe and Cathy Brooks

Brandee Barker of Facebook

Jacob Mullins & Team VentureBeat: Anthony Ha, Dean Takahashi and MG Siegler

Dean Takahashi and Brian Solis

John Furrier

Brandee Barker, Heather Harde, Mike Maser

MG Siegler and Leah Culver

Peter Pham and Mike Morin

Debbie Landa, Kristen O’Brien (Dealmaker Media) and Shay Nowick

Sarah Delman Brown and Cathy Brooks

For more pictures from the MySpace Music party, please visit my album on flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

Subscribe to the bub.blicio.us RSS Feed.

by Brian Solis

At the Web 2.0 Summit, Microsoft announced its new BizSpark program to help transform today’s most promising startups into tomorrow’s most successful businesses. Microsoft and the BizSpark team celebrated with an official launch party at Ozumo in San Francisco. The event was one of the highlights of the week. The ambiance was a conductor for incredibly enthusiastic conversations fortified by positive spirits.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Karen Hartline of Mashable

Dave McClure and Heather Harde

Gregarious Greg Narain

100 hundred bottles of beer on the wall…

Michael Sheehan of GoGrid

Jacob Mullins of BizSpark

Gabe Rivera and Nick O’Neill

Larry Chiang

Cynthia Johanson, Yahoo Brickhouse

Brian Solis

Barney Pell of Powerset, Larry Chiang and Sarah Austin

Ozumo

Karen Hartline, Marianne Masculino, Tara Hunt, Aubrey Sabala (Jeff Clavier in the background)

Magician

Microsoft’s BizSpark will continue the action.

If you’re in NY on 11/11, join us (RSVP Below)!

Microsoft BizSpark and The TechSet, present “Ignition” an event for entrepreneurs, investors and those who contribute to a dynamic ecosystem for helping startups flourish.

Join Stephanie Agresta, Brian Solis, Microsoft staff and partners at One Little West NYC from 8-10pm. Free hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and valuable networking will be served. Plus, you will have the opportunity to meet some of the most influential technologists around. All attendees can participate in a “twitter raffle” to win an XBox 360 Elite.

RSVP on Eventbrite.

For more pictures from the Microsoft BizSpark launch party, please visit my album on flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

Subscribe to the bub.blicio.us RSS Feed.

by Brian Solis

Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) was interviewed by John Batelle during a premier session at The Web 2.0 Summit currently underway in San Francisco.

The conversation was interesting and entertaining, but not as revealing as his previous live discussions.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

John Batelle

Mark Zuckerberg

The Adidas sandals have been officially retired

The Audience

For the blow by blow action, see Michael Arrington’s post over at TechCrunch.

For pictures more pictures from Web 2.0 Summit visite my albums on Flickr: Day One and Day Two.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

Subscribe to the bub.blicio.us RSS Feed.

by Brian Solis

During day one of The Web 2.0 Summit, we were treated to an incredibly eye-opening conversation between billionaire investor John Doerr and John Heilemann, a contributing editor at New York magazine. Heilemann had just flown in from Chicago where he spent time with Barack Obama. Believe it or not, Obama had a couple of questions for Doerr that he channeled through Heilemann.

This is where the conversations begins.

Obama requested Doerr’s recommendation for chief technology officer of the United States. Within seconds, Doerr replied with ease.

“Bill Joy,” he said quickly.

Joy is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, in which Doerr was an early investor and is now a partner Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Doerr added, “It would be a sacrifice to lose him to the Obama administration, but there is no greater cause.”

Obama’s second question sought Doerr’s guidance on which single policy issue would most help entrepreneurs.

Again, with a prompt and convincing response Doerr jumped, “Kickstart research and innovation in the energy sector.”

He then focused on the fact that the US also needs to invest in graduating a greater number of capable professionals. His goal is to double it from 30,000 to 60,000 graduating in physical sciences and engineering. Doerr highlighted the fact that a majority of students are studying from foreign countries. After they graduate, we send them back home, “what kind of foreign policy is that?” he quipped. His advice, “Staple a green card to each diploma!”

The conversation traversed a multitude of subject matter. One such discussion focused on the financial crisis.

His observation is that Silicon Valley and technology is a big part of the economy. But that venture capital investments and startup performance are not to blame this time. He also said that the mortgage industry is not solely responsible either. We’re enthralled in a “crises economy” according to Doerr.

“People lost faith in our government, leaders, and they lost faith in their money,” Doerr believes.

Doerr continued, “Wall Street and Main Street are intertwined. Kicking people out of their homes makes no sense at all. What lenders should do is revalue their homes, issue a new 30 year mortgage and have them restart their lives in their existing house.”

Mr. John Doerr also discussed the startup market.

“There’s been a lot of activity that doesn’t deserve to be funded,” Doerr exclaimed. “Good ideas will still get funded, but it’s a buyers market, not a sellers market, so terms are going to be different.”

His main concern nowadays is how can his team get those companies to produce a return.

“Google is just not going to buy a lot of these startups, so who else will?” he asked.

He warned startup founders to get ready for a longer haul than most anticipate. To help startups survive the financial crisis, he offered the following 11 tips:

1. Act now

2. Cut once, cut deeper than you need. You only want to do this once – use a scalpel, not an axe

3. Have or secure 18 months of cash

4. Defer facilities expansion and expenses on technology infrastructure

5. Evaluate R&D priorities and focus on what truly is necessary and important

6. Renegotiate all contacts – you’d be surprised that everything, right now, is negotiable

7. Everybody in the company ought to be selling

8. Pay people in equity in addition to reduced cash

9. Secure cash – treasuries. security backed agency loans

10. Figure out the leading indicators of your business dynamics so you can react quickly

11. Over communicate without sugarcoating

“Most importantly,” he added, “do not cut hope. We will emerge much stronger.”

Pictures from the Web 2.0 Summit Day One are available in my album on Flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

Subscribe to the bub.blicio.us RSS Feed.

by Brian Solis

John Batelle and Tim O’Reilly

The Web 2.0 Summit opened up with a few powerful statements from Tim O’Reilly in defense of the idea of “web 2.0,” not the moniker that is argued to have lost its soul and meaning.

“Do you think web 2.0 is over,” he asked emphatically.

“Are we done evolving the Web as a platform,” O’Reilly continued.

O’Reilly is referring to the confusion of technology and business opportunities that have yet to be discovered and introduced with “me too” startups not closing critical rounds of financing.

With many leading bloggers and influencers citing the end of Web 2.0, O’Reilly truly believes that the opportunity for innovation is only pervasive.

I agree.

This isn’t a market for startups to capitalize on leap-frogging existing solutions and trying to change the world and carry the industry one iteration at a time. This is our chance to create new pioneering solutions and business models to not just generate revenue, but carry forward the true spirit of “Web 2.0″

Pictures from the Web 2.0 Summit Day One are available in my album on Flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

Subscribe to the bub.blicio.us RSS Feed.

by Brian Solis

I woke up in a sudden rush to check the news to make sure that it wasn’t a dream, or by some strange turn of events, the circumstances surrounding the 2000 election controversy didn’t reappear for one reason or another.

It wasn’t a dream.

It’s a new day in America.

What a beautiful and historical moment

America has spoken through the votes of millions of people who truly #hope for #change.

According to President-elect Barack Obama, this is our election…and I believe him.

Last night, in Grant Park in Chicago, Barack Obama, standing at the forefront of history in the making, was larger than life.

Allow me to share the spirit from his incredibly moving and inspiring speech so that we can join together around the words, intentions, and ultimately the actions that will support them, in order to make the next four years meaningful.

Barack Obama:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

This is your victory.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.

I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.

And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

Let’s remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity. Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too. And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome.” Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves — if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see?

What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

—

Update: CNET’s Caroline McCarthy has a great post on “10 election tweets worth remembering.”

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pownce, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Jaiku or Facebook

Subscribe to the bub.blicio.us RSS Feed.