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The 2008 Crunchie Awards are open for nominations. If you’re a fan of Next2Friends drop by the TechCrunch Crunchie nomination page and cast a ballot for us!  The Crunchies is a kitchy and slightly irreverent awards ceremony for new companies, such as Next2Friends, who have been innovating over the past year.  In their second year, the awards will be hosted by GigaOm, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, and TechCrunch on Friday January 9, 2009 at 7:30 pm the Herbst Theater in San Francisco.

To nominate Next2Friends in the Best Mobile category go here:

To nominate Next2Friends in the Best Technology Innovation/Achievement category go here:

To nominate Next2Friends in the Best Design category go here:

And, of course, feel free to nominate us for whatever you like at the Crunchie 2008 nomination page!

Next2Friends - It’s NOW!

Next2Friends™, the Mobile Social Platform, is teaming up with Webby Award winning web-series Drawn By Pain to create a 360° experience around its upcoming Tribeca Cinemas feature-length version screening on October 4th, 2008.

Series creator/director Jesse Cowell just debuted the series’ finale episode and is hosting the Tribeca Cinemas event in celebration of a hugely successful year. Next2Friends™ is sponsoring the event and will be on hand to create an all-encompassing experience out of the film screening festivities, through the exclusive use of its mobile tools. “Citizen journalists” and fans will be capturing all the pre and post show excitement by streaming live video, creating real-time opinion polls, and instantly snapping and uploading photos from their mobile phones.  There will also be live streamed exclusive content such as interviews with some of the key players of Drawn By Pain, and live coverage of the post screening Q&A with creator/director Jesse Cowell.

Winning the 2008 Online Film and Video Webby People’s Voice Award for “Best Use of Animation/Motion Graphics” was the culmination of a very momentous year for Cowell.  Starting in late January, Cowell announced a non-exclusive content deal between his banner Jeskid Productions and VUZE, the world’s most popular web portals.  Soon after, Cowell was asked by The Independent Film Channel (IFC) to appear on their new online Lunchbox Show, which featured interviews with Cowell along with clips from the series. In addition, Cowell agreed to have the official Drawn By Pain site www.drawnbypain.com powered by Blip.TV, the world’s leading videoblogging and podcasting service. The series was listed on the “What’s Hot” list for iTunes and was a featured exhibitor at New York ComicCon at the Javits Center in Manhattan. Drawn By Pain joined forces with The Escapist website in May of this year, on which it has been serialized in 12 episodes each Monday. The Drawn By Pain promotional spots airing on Escapist’s Zero Punctuation series translated into a huge jump in brand awareness for the series. The numbers of views & downloads for the series were now breaking the one-million mark across the board.

The use of technology and new media has opened up a whole new world of interaction and participation for fans, and Next2Friends™ delivers this better than any other social network today.  Driven by Next2Friends’ mobile tools, the paradigm is shifting from fans being the passive “recipients” of events to the engaged creators of content that reflect their excitement and experience.  At the heart of this transformation and central to Next2Friends™ is the mobile phone, which acts as a conduit and extension of all the ways a person wants to interact with a network of people in real life. This gets amplified at real world events, such as the Drawn By Pain screening, where people can suddenly share what they’re seeing using Next2Friends™ Live, snap and instantly upload photos for others to view using Next2Friends™ Snap Up, or ask and receive real time feedback from their network using Next2Friends™ Ask.

Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind screening event at 6:30pm on Saturday, October 4th at Tribeca Cinemas - 54 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10013. See Next2Friends™ in action by attending in person or simply tune in to www.Next2Friends.com on the eve of the event. For a free press pass to attend please contact Rachel Wilde at Rachel@Next2Friends.com. There will be a reception with food, drinks and special reels of behind-the-scenes footage following the show. For non-press reserved seating please contact info@drawnbypain.com. Tickets are $20.

Next2Friends - It’s NOW!

Everyone at Next2Friends™  is thrilled about being named one of the top finalist in the i-stage competition by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)^®.  Next2Friends along with 14 other fantastic companies will be unveiling their products to a live audience on Monday, October 20th, at the CEA’s 2008 Industry Forum at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.  We will be travelling from the UK and our US offices to showcase not only our full range of real-time mobile media products but also some hugely exciting new additions. 

Congratulations to all the Top Finalists

The winner of the i-stage competition will receive $50,000 to develop its product line, as well as free turnkey exhibit space at the upcoming 2009 International CES®, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, to be held in Las Vegas January 8-11.

“CEA’s i-stage competition serves as a phenomenal opportunity to recognize the new innovations that will fuel the growth of our industry,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences, CEA. “These top finalists are taking technology trends to the next level and will no doubt shape the future of how consumers work and play.”

The i-stage finalists are:

• Amulet Devices, The Amulet Remote
• Avaak, Vue ™ personal video network
• Boxee, media center
• Frontline Inc., Fitness Interactive Technology (FIT)
• GenAudio Inc., AstoundSound
• Instinctiv, Shuffle
• IPEVO, digital photo frame
• JFDI Engineering Ltd., GridSearch
• Lightglove, LtWv
• Next2Friends™
• Occipital LLC
• Pongr Inc.
• PDT Ltd, Novo, Minora 3D Webcam
• Taggle
• YouBundle

The i-stage finalists will have their products reviewed and judged on Monday, October 20, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas, by a panel of technology experts including Kevin Kelly, Wired magazine; Ryan Block, formerly of Engadget and Jeff Pulver.  Molly Wood, executive editor of CNET will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the event.

But we would also love to hear your thoughts.  I already see a couple of items to put on my Birthday Wishlist.

Press Release - CEA Announces i-stage top finalists

Drawn By Pain

Without a doubt this week’s member of the week is Jesse Cowell, the creator of the wildly creative Drawn By Pain live-action/animated series.   Jesse, or Jeskid as he is known on Next2Friend, is an award winning film maker who is about to premier his full length film with the support of Next2Friends!  We are very proud to be backing such talent, have a look at his trailer:

The premier will take place at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City on October 4th at 6pm.  The open to the public screening starts at 6:30 followed by a question and answer session with Jesse.  Tribeca Cinemas is at 54 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10013.

View Larger Map

We hope to see you there!

Next2Friends - It’s NOW!

Next2Friends adds several valuable tools to any New Media Creator or Video Blogger’s arsenal.  Tools like Live Streaming from Mobile or Instant Photo Uploading to the web add immediacy to posts.  So it was with deep regret that we weren’t able to attend this year’s New Media Expo held last week in San Francisco.  Instead we followed the action remotely and have decided to highlight some of the great coverage we’ve come across.

Christopher Smith of RelativelySpeaking.com did some great interviews at the Expo, particularly one with Expo founder Tim Bourquin:

Keynote Speakers

First off, the number of speakers and sessions was enormous.  Thursday’s keynote address was given by Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV.  Here is what Mike McAllen had to say from his great comprehensive rundown of the events he attended:

“Starting it off with Gary V was masterful. He is a firecracker and a really fun speaker. I have seen a ton of speakers producing corporate events and he was a perfect fit. He set the tone for me and a number of others.”

George Wright, VP of Marketing for Will It Blend and Blendtec gave Friday’s keynote address. And Saturday’s was given by Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf of Epic Fu. Mixed reviews on both.

General Thoughts in the Blogosphere

Michael Geoghegan posted a great list of Top Ten Takeaways from the Expo (actually, it goes to 11).  Particularly interesting were his comments on the schism that is developing between “corporate” and “indie” Podcasters and his advise to those trying to monetize their work.

Louis Trapini gave a great rundown of the event as well as some interesting critiques as a first time attendee. And Mike James added some poignant critiques of the decision to move the Expo to Las Vegas, as did Todd Cocherane over at GeekNewsCentral.

And Some Fun…

And finally, some fun video broadcasts from the event.  Check out this video from Rachel, of HeyItsRachel fame, catching other prominent people in the Podcasting / Vlogging world, including iJustine and Mostly Lisa:

And a fun one from Mostly Lisa herself:

Next2Friends - It’s NOW!

Well, Next2Friends has made it back from the Glastonbury Festival in one piece and we have to say, it was a great time!  We were determined to bring you all the excitement of the festival in real time and squarely accomplished that goal!  Check out our Glastonbury Profile. We streamed over a hundred real time videos using Next2Friends Live and shot and uploaded nearly a hundred photos using Next2Friends Snap-Up. Have a look through our photos and videos.  Here are a few highlights:

And then there are the loads of videos we captured from the event, including a real time stream during the “Amy Winehouse punches fan” incedent.  Check it out:

Good times! Find out how you can broadcast live events using Next2Friends!

 Next2Friends - It’s NOW!

Next2Friends has an exciting weekend ahead.  We are partnering with the Pussycat Club to bring you all the excitement of this weekend’s Heatwave Tropical Beach Party! The Pussycat Club is one of the longest running, most highly respected club brands in the UK.

And did I mention that they know how to throw a party?!? Check out this footage from their 13th birthday bash:

The Next2Friends Team will be out in full force for the event, capturing all the excitement using Next2Friends Live, Ask and Snap Up! And rumor has it there will be  exclusive videos and pictures only viewable by friends of the Pussycat Club Profile.  So head on over to their Next2Friends page and befriend them so you don’t miss out! Don’t have a profile? Sign up for one! See you Saturday and if you can’t make it, well, we’ve got it covered!

Next2Friends - It’s NOW!