When Facebook Places first launched, I wrote that a photo integration made sense:

Today Facebook shook up the local deals space with their Facebook Places announcement: the local deal platform which now competes directly with Foursquare, Yelp, Groupon, etc.

Following up on yesterday’s post about the impact Apple and Android are making on the gaming industry… here is a screenshot of today’s top grossing iPhone Apps. A couple notes of interest:

Two years ago, I wrote about the looming death of portable gaming devices… seems like it happened sooner than we thought.

Fun, quick collage I put together of Dogpatch Labs using Instagr.am – one of the exciting current Dogpatch Labs companies.

So my hiatus was brief… but I will keep this short to stay in spirit!
Today I got the Google TV (Sony’s Blu Ray product). It’s remarkable. Quick thoughts:

Facebook often uses their sidebar to promote other products and features:
- Image labeling
- The friend finder tool
- Facebook job openings
… etc

Have a key action you want to highlight for users? You could takeover the application as Facebook did to promote Places. You could create a persistent notification bar as Quora does.

Not previously known as a leading designer, Twitter has been on a roll with their latest iPhone app, iPad app, and New Twitter. Here is a good example of why – but with some learnings …

By far the most interesting part of Google’s new URL shortener (Goo.gl) is that, in addition to a bundle of real-time stats, the URL’s Goo.gl page includes a unique QR code. Clearly Google has plans …

Gilt Group has rolled out their new group-buying / coupon site Gilt City to six cities (New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago). With it comes the Gilt City iPhone app.
There isn’t …

Earlier today rumors / news broke of Facebook building a phone (more thoughts to come). See TechCrunch, AlleyInsider, Gizmodo, etc.