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I haven’t blogged much in the last week - but I have good reason: we’ve been hard at work on InGameNow… and, just in time for tomorrow’s NBA Draft, we officially launched today!

InGameNow: Twitter for Sports

As I have discussed before, InGameNow was launched and funded out of sfEntrepreneurs - an organization of ten local entrepreneurs with varied skillsets. After a couple months of intensive work in each of our ’spare’ time, we have launched a product that we are very excited about. The concept of InGameNow arrived from the team’s two shared passions:

1. We are all avid sports fans
2. We are all avid Twitter users

But we collectively were disappointed about the lack of a sports presence on Twitter - and personally, I am a believer that Twitter is effective for open, spontaneous discussions but struggles as a medium to follow structured events.

The end result is InGameNow.com which can best be described as Twitter for sports. With InGameNow, sports fans can interact around teams, players and games… most exciting, users can now receive real-time updates and scores via Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger and Email (customizable by frequency and content) - so even if you can’t attend or view your team’s next game, you’ll be able to stay up-to-date and engage with fellow enthusiasts:

For mobile users, you can either us Google Talk, browse directly on InGameNow.com (optimized for the iPhone) or schedule email alerts:

We also had a nice write up on Mashable:

A new sports community called InGameNow, from the creators of the recently acquired beRecruited, adopts the Twitter method of disseminating user-generated information on sports news reporting and commentary. In addition, these Twitter-like updates are filtered based on votes, so the best updates can bubble to the top. In true sports community nature, users on InGameNow earn points for site participation, and can work their way up the rankings in order to become trusted users…

If you’re a sports fan, I encourage you to check out InGameNow. We aim to have an active night of posting for tomorrow’s NBA Draft. And (as always) I welcome feedback either on the blog or directly via email!

I love my blackberry. And I’ve written about how much I love it.

I am disappointed by the ‘iPhone 2.0′ - it doesn’t have video recording - let alone MMS.

… But today I dropped my blackberry and severely scratched the screen. It made me consider whether to:

1) buy a new Blackberry Curve
2) wait until the new Blackberry Bold arrives
3) trade it in for the new iPhone 3G

The answer was pretty easy: It’s time to convert to the new iPhone. I don’t love the iPhone for reasons I’ve already written about. First, the new version isn’t as innovative as it claims. Second, I use my Blackberry to send numerous daily emails and really do need a full keyboard. Third, I have no complaints about my current Blackberry and its interface.

But… now that I need a new phone, the biggest draw to the iPhone 2.0 is it’s platform…. especially considering my role at Widgetbox. I love my Blackberry - but the iPhone’s open platform is attractive enough to draw me towards Apple. I already know I won’t love the iPhone - but I am sure there will be plenty of applications that I grow to love.

I work in a world of platforms, applications and widgets - at this point, I feel guilty using my Blackberry (despite loving it) because it’s neither the future of mobile nor is it the representative of the (open) web philosophies I believe in.

Twitter is already struggling to stay afloat as the tech world buzzes about Apples WWDC 2008… and Steve Jobs hasn’t even taken the stage yet. Perhaps Twitter shouldn’t have made their “we’re ready” announcement yesterday (or as Michael Arrington noted, “Tempted Fate”)?

Twhirl isn’t passing data in either direction and Twitter.com is moving remarkably slow.

That said, TechCrunch is down as well…

It was about a year ago that Apple announced the iPhone and the tech world traded in their cell phones and blackberries for the slick, full-screened gadget. I was intrigued (and love the UI) but it wasn’t enough for me to trade in my trusty Blackberry Curve.

So as today’s iPhone 2.0 announcement looms just two blocks away from my home (where I type this) - here’s what I am looking for and what will get me to convert:

- 3G: seems a given
- Improved Photos: the Blackberry doesn’t cut it and I’m using my phone for media more and more
- Video: the rumors of a front-facing video feature have me giddy
- Sizing: sure the current model is sexy, but it’s still relatively big (height and width)
- Other Improvements: ie GPS, MMS

You can follow the WWDC at USA Today and live on Engadget and Gizmodo.

I turned my girlfriend Anette onto Twitter 6 months ago (@anetteherrera. She’s admittedly and proudly not a techie; but she enjoys following a few close friends has actually posted 100+ tweets since registering.

All of her twitter usage has come from her Blackberry. Other than registering, she has never visited Twitter.com. So when she asked me last night why she hadn’t received any Twitter updates in over two weeks, I realized that she had no idea that Twitter had been down and shut off their IM service.

Fascinating.

Twitter has been lauded for being transparent with their status problems - releasing a new blog, giving interviews and attempting to address the issues. But, that praise has come from techies (like myself). And if you don’t read TechCrunch or blogs like this regularly - you’d be left in the dark wondering why twitter@twitter.com on GTalk isn’t working… which is precisely what happened to Anette (though she really should read my blog!).

The lesson I learned is that transparency only works when there are viewers.

One of the great growth factors for Twitter was the ability to receive and post from distributed sources (ie off-Twitter.com)… But the only notice from Twitter regarding their service failures is on a status blog and in a small square on your Twitter.com profile. Perhaps an email would work? Perhaps an @twitter direct message?

While most of Twitter’s users are tech-folks, I guarantee there are countless others like Anette who wondered why they weren’t receiving Twitter updates and couldn’t makes posts. It’s not good business to hope that these users figure out what’s going on and hope that they return… when the service returns.

One measure of a service’s utility and stickiness is its ability to charge for usage. Consequently, I regularly find myself asking, “Is this important enough to me that I’d pay for it?”

Here are some of the services / sites where that answer is yes… And what I’d be willing to pay:
Gmail: I’d pay to keep my Gmail account more because the switching cost is high than because of the functionality. That switching cost is painful enough that I’d spend $75 to prevent it. I will likely end up paying for increased storage too.

Google Maps: Love Google Maps for my Blackberry. Telenav is $9.99 / mo and offers greater functionality – I’d likely pay $10 to download Google Maps or some nominal monthly fee. If Google Maps added navigational directions, I would pay $10 / month.

Wordpress.org: The benefit of blogging with WP is so significant (SEO, functionality, flexibility) that it’s well worth paying for. I’d probably pay a $200 for an installation… which makes me realize how much I rely on the product.

Google Analytics: If Google analytics weren’t free, I would unhappily pay a monthly fee to install it ($10) because, despite my disdain for the interface and lack of real-time metrics, it really is a necessity.

Google Analytics w/ Real Time Data: I would certainly pay extra for real-time Google Analytics.

Slimstat: Slimstat is a free Wordpress plugin that delivers real-time analytics. I would pay $40 to install it.

Slimstat “Premium”: … And I’d pay a lot more if Slimstat offered a model with unlimited data capturing / storage (the basic one shows the last ‘n’ records). I would pay $100 / domain.

Mint Analytics: I gladly paid $40 to install Mint on my domains. Great data and great interface.

Craigslist: I would pay for premium listings on Craigslist (if they introduced some sort of featured ads format) and I’ve paid the jobs listing fees before (many times).

Amazon Prime: I spend enough on Amazon that they gave me Amazon Prime for free when it first launched. Considering that I buy my groceries, toiletries, electronics, dog food, etc on it – I’d pay for Prime if Amazon forced me to.

iStockPhoto Premium: I love iStockPhoto – but it’s a pain to purchase credits. I’d pay for a premium account that enables power-usage.

MLB.tv: MLB is the only major sport that has truly adopted the web and their radio and video streaming is fantastic. I already pay for the service (estimates: $14.99 for radio broadcast of all games,$99-$179 for video)

Podcasts / On-demand Radio: There are certain podcasts and radio shows that I would pay to be able to download in entirety. For instance, I love The Thundering Herd on ESPN Radio but it streams too early on the west coast for me to catch it – and the Podcast only captures 30 minutes of the broadcast. I would pay $5-$10 a month to listen to it on-demand, in its entirety (price depends on whether or not ads are in the broadcast). The same can be said for Tony Bruno and JT the Brick.

eLance: I love eLance. Use it all the time. They choose to charge the service provider – but if they reversed it, I would pay on a per-listing basis. The price depends on the project, but a nominal amount ($5?).

ESPN360: It’s the only way that I can catch Duke games without leaving work at 3pm pst… I’d pay either per game or per month ($5-10) for the service. I’d pay a whole lot more if they could include MLB, NFL and NBA (would start to challenge my Comcast bill).

If you haven’t yet switched over to an iPhone (like me), you are probably excited for the new Blackberry 9000. The first videos look great… although the presenter makes a terrific point: this is not a revolutionary phone. Rather, it’s evolutionary.

The interface, OS and form are all revamped - but are essentially improvements. I am excited about a couple things:

- a faster OS (huge need)
- the screen (looks amazingly crisp)
- video capture (the camera improvements look great)

Not excited about the size. I much prefer the Curve to the 8800. It doesn’t look much different, but the 8800 is far bulkier. I also want to know more about the internet browser (desperately needs the ability to run multiple browsers) and what native apps the 9000 comes with.

I am definitely more excited about the forthcoming Blackberry 9000, but BoyGenius has confirmed pictures of a new Blackberry flip phone called the KickStart. It’s due out by the end of 2008. I can’t imagine going back to a clamshell - but I like that Blackberry is offering different styles and formats in an effort to capture the non-corporate user. The Pearl has been a big success.

Of course if the iPhone 3G for under $200 rumor is true… I might become a convert…?!

Two exciting new launches from Widgetbox:

1. If you have an iPhone (unlike my), you can now place widgets directly on your home-screen. There are currently 16 widgets available - but more are coming! iPhone users can go to http://iphone.widgetbox.com to get started.

Read more on TechCrunch, WebWare, and Mashable.

2. We redesigned Widgetbox.com. It’s much more dynamic - and frankly, it’s much more fun. You can now browse through our 50,000 widgets with a variety of different sorts (for instance, take a look at the hottest widgets page).

My entire office now has iPhones and I really am one of the last remaining Blackberry addicts… and any slim chance of turning my Blackberry over for an iPhone just went out the window. Specs of the new 9000 series were revealed by the always-great Boy Genius:

* Everything we reported was true. 624MHz processor, 480×320 screen, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, etc.
* The web browser flies. “Loads web pages in 3-4 seconds.”
* The BlackBerry 9000 in its current state runs OS 4.5
* Early launch date was slated for a consumer AT&T launch on June 18th. Remember that we predicted the device was delayed. See below.
* The battery lasts around 4 hours with straight phone calling. “Battery sucks, to be honest. With Wi-Fi on, I only got a little less than two hours browsing the web,” and all testers are reporting huge battery issues which could be why we’re all hearing it is delayed.
* We’re not sure of the next part, but he said that the device either has 256MB of internal memory or 128MB. Don’t ask why we couldn’t tell the difference.

Update:
AlleyInsider disagrees with me… strongly
And CrunchGear is somewhere between us