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New member signups are steaming along at an unprecedented rate and we wanted to pause and highlight one of our new members who has been particularly active.  Fuchida67 hails from Singapore.  He has been uploading and sharing photos by the scores.  He is clearly a gaming enthusiast as he has two photo galleries devoted to computer components and graphics cards.  Check out what we presume is on of his computers, complete with neon lights!

And here is a fantastic shot of one lit up with a black light:

Fuchida67 and his friends:

And one from a funny series of photos that we’re not sure how he produced:

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We were trolling videos this week and came across something that exemplifies the power of Next2Friends.  When we began about a year ago we had some very cute and delightful videos submitted to us was by Hash of his daughter Aimen. One was a hilarious situation Aimen got in with her crib. Have a look (don’t worry, he assures us she was ok):

Another was Aimen learning to make kissing noises:

But what got our attention was a video shot this week of Aimen rolling out roti.  Like all kids she is growing up fast, but because of Next2Friends we have gotten to watch it all take place from the other side of the world!  Truly amazing!  And such a great example of the way that mobile tools can truly bring us closer.  Keep the videos coming Hash, and because of Next2Friends, we look forward to watching your beautiful daughter grow even more!

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This has been an exciting month at Next2Friends.  It began with our announcement that Next2Friends had developed the world’s first application for broadcasting live mobile video on the BlackBerry OS.  This was quickly followed by the release of Next2Friends Live for the BlackBerry Bold.  Since then we’ve seen a flurry of interest and activity.

The first large blog to break our news was Gizmodo, the highly trafficked gadget and tech blog.  Several others followed suit including JKOnTheRun, TheNextWeb, and dozens of others.

Next was a great article by Mike Butcher from TechCrunch around the BlackBerry Bold release.

AppAppeal, a web based application review site, also had some great things to say.

But perhaps the best part of all this activity is that we’re welcoming scores of new folks from around the world into our community.  It’s very exciting to watch this platform we’ve created become useful to people in all the ways we imagined it could.  One of our new members is Anthony Papillion, an enthusiastic tech writer and creator of CajunTechie.com.  He not only wrote a nice piece on Next2Friends he made a comment that really means a lot to us:

“Next2Friends has an incredible community that immediately makes you feel welcomed and comfortable - even when you’re a newbie making stupid mistakes.”

Sure the recent press is reaffirming but it’s really comments like these that act as our guide.  Our goal is and always has been to strengthen connections and build community through technology and if members are understanding and valuing the community we’ve built then we’re doing our job.  Thanks everyone and we’ll see you on Next2Friends!

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We’ve gotten a slew of new signups this week, including continued activity from BlackBerry Pearl and Curve users, and now BlackBerry Bold users from around the world.  This week has capped off one of our biggest months yet!  So we thought it appropriate to highlight one of our newest members.  Jason1100 has his status posted as “HAPPY” and he should be, he’s a new father!  Such a great example of how Next2Friends allows you to share the most important moments of life.  Jason took us into the hospital in the moments after his daughter was born:

And here is another shot of his new daughter, Madalyn, sleeping. She looks quite content!

Keep the broadcasts coming Jason, congratulations to you and your beautiful new family!

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It’s Friday and that means it’s time to highlight some of the great activity on Next2Friends!  The past couple weeks have been busy with the release of Next2Friends Live for RIM’s BlackBerry devices, and we’ve seen a tremendous surge in new members streaming live video from around the world!  This weeks member of the week is no exception.  Drewligan hails from the UK and by the looks of it is a typical teen having a good time with his friends:

We can’t help but marvel at the power of live streamed video to take us places we’ve never been while simultaneously showing us just how similar we are.  Anyone who’s been an adolescent (which should be all of you) should be able to relate to Drewligan and his buddies.  Here is a funny video of him in cooking class.  Not sure I’d eat those Drew!

Great stuff! Keep the videos coming!  Just try not to break anything…well, aside from a few hearts.

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It’s time again to highlight some of the great happenings on Next2Friends.  Next2Friends has members from around the world and if there is one thing our suite of real time mobile tools does, it’s enable people to share their world with others.  This week’s member of the week is Ozie.  Ozie lives in Singapore and while there is not much profile information on him it is clear that he is a car racing enthusiast:

And he clearly has an interest in music as well.  His videos offer a glimpse into the music world of Singapore and it is through them that we find that artists like Jimi Hendrix and the Police are classics nearly everywhere!  Have a look:

Very enlightening, keep the streams coming, the ablility to peer into other parts of the world so intimately is truly amazing.

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It’s time again to pick a member of the week this time we decided to feature a new member, albeit a pretty active one.  David Tindall or Horseman as he is known on Next2Friends, joined just about a month ago from the UK. Since then he has chronicled some nights out with friends and seems to be having a great time!  Here is one of his first live streams:

Thanks David and keep the streams coming!

And we cannot forget the wonderful Acid House Flash Mob event that was broadcast live over Next2Friends last Friday.  In case you’re wondering what either Acid House or Flash Mob means check out our blog from last week.  And you can get a better idea of what went on last week at the Liverpool Train Station from this video here:

Great stuff!

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 I Want to Work For Diddy

We’ve had some awesome activity this past week!  The first bit comes from none other than the VH1 Hollywood premier of the show “I Want to Work For Diddy“.  “I Want to Work For Diddy” is a new show in which contestants vie for a chance to work for P. Diddy or Puffy as he was formerly known.  We’ve got an exclusive interview with Poprah, one of the contestants as well as a cameo from Bishop Don “Magic” Juan, old school G.  And the fun doesn’t stop there, take a look at all the Next2Friends shout outs and endorsements:

Swimming With Bears

The next feature of the week comes from our former member of the week Wagnet88.  Wagnet88 continues to be an extremely active participant on Next2Friends.  Check out his profile for over one hundred thought provoking videos and behind-the-scenes-of-filmmaking footage.  But the video that has landed him into “Member of the Week” hall of fame again is “Swimming With Bears“.  This video has climbed the “Most Viewed” ladder very fast to become the number 2 most viewed video on Next2Friends!  Have a look:

Picture of the Week

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Member of the Week

Yes, it’s time again to elect the Next2Friends Members of the Week.  Next2Friends continues to draw people from all over the world and this week’s Member of the Week is no exception.  She lives in Singapore, is an active blogger, mother, and from the looks of it a brilliant cook!  Annie K, or Chic as she is known on Next2Friends, has been making our stomachs growl for the past week with her cooking videos.  In fact she has several very instructive videos of her preparing various dishes.

Videos of the Week

And another in the series “Stir Fried Spinach, Carrots, Tiger Prawns and Bean Curd”:

We’ve really been enjoying these. Granted, there are a lot of cooking shows and even an entire network devoted to it in the US, but to watch an everyday person go about a ritual that is performed probably somewhere between 3-12 billion times a day seems pretty cool. Here is the last of the series and boy do those prawns look good!

And somehow Annie still finds time to write on her website/blog, ChildhoodSpeech.com. She speaks 4 languages and is very interested in language development. Topics range from grammar tools to dating! Check it out!

Picture of the Week

The picture of the week comes from the ever active Karizma:

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It’s that time again.  We’ve had A LOT of great activity on the site this past week.  And particularly from new member Wagnet88 who runs a film company called Viral Headfood.  He has done such great stuff, we’ve all been watching his fascinating behind-the-scenes look into film making.  One thing that watching his clips has brought to my attention that I sort of knew but ALWAYS take for granted when watching a film is that despite the fact that the actors may be “alone” in the shot, they are FAR from alone.  There all sorts of people around them, make-up people, lighting people, audio people, directors, everything.  It truly has given me a greater appreciation of just how good good actors are.  Despite all the activity that surrounds them they can create the illusion that they are perfectly alone.  Amazing! And that’s not to minimize the amount of incredible work and talent that goes on behind the scenes. Film production takes SO much work and the talents of SO many people, I think we all take for granted this incredible medium.

See what I mean, On Set with Wayne (Day 2) Make Up:

And another:

Our picture of the week comes from Becca. She is a student at Sussex University in Brighton, England. Check out this photo:

Great stuff!

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