Who says technology can't be romantic?  iFog, the new application from Tel Aviv-based startup, Ap Party, proves that circuits and sweethearts can go hand in hand.

“One day I wrote a message on the fogged-up bathroom mirror to my girlfriend and she really liked it and thought that it was romantic, said Barak Ben-Ezer, App Party co-founder, and a former Microsoft mobile device program manager. “I thought to myslef, wouldn't it be cool to be able to do this on her iPhone,”  Ben-Ezer said and soon the iFog was born.

Ben-Ezer and his partners developed an algorithm to identify when air passes over the iPhone’s mic, gradually filling the screen with realistic looking fog. Users can then write messages or draw pictures in the fog and shake the screen of its contents when they are done.

The iFog harnesses the same technology used to launch Smule’s wildly popular Ocarina, which allows users to create songs by blowing over the mic and playing a melody with their fingers, but it functions like Zephyr, another Smule app that also allows users to draw messages onscreen. Startup Blog Cont. »

I've recently stumbled across a new appreciation and liking to wine. It's partly due to a wine tasting event that the Second Glass hosts every week that I attended not too long ago.

And, what better time than the holidays and the New Year to profile a startup that raises its glass to celebrate wine?

The Second Glass fittingly describes itself as "the magazine for the new era of wine drinkers." - It's a guide that helps  wine drinkers navigate through the complicated, complex world of wine. Lets admit it, its difficult to choose the right bottle for whatever occasion it might be. However, most wine magazines are geared to the connoiseurs or dedicated enthusiasts - and as a result, they don't end up helping people like me. "Good wine, like good food is available to everyone, only the industry has become overly complicated and very pretentious." To counter this, Tyler Balliet founded The Second Glass and has positioned it as fun, more entertaining, and digestable read.

In many ways, the name mirrors the history behind this new era of wine drinkers. Prohibition in the early mid 1920's seemed to "screw everything up." Tyler explained, as he went on to describe how the law killed all but a small handful of wineries in California. As a result, people started drinking spirits simply because they were easier to smuggle. "Wine has always been something the US has cared about, but had never depended on." Startup Blog Cont. »

My wife expressed her frustration over the way our leadership is handling the financial crisis – based on buying more stuff and then buying more stuff, as a means of reviving our economy. What ever happened to buying just what one really needs and saving the rest?

I can equate this to the Green and CleanTech Bubbles. It seems that venture capital is spending a ton of money in this industry with the idea that sometime in the future we will overcome the global warming issue. It is typical human thinking; throw money at a problem and it may go away. If that doesn’t work, throw more money.

Money does solve a lot of problems, but not all. CleanTech and its implications, its costs, its failures are here for the long haul. That is why we need a more responsive (read – less hype) and responsible approach to global warming and the going “green” fever now gripping this nation. Green is good. Saving our planet is better. Managing our perspectives and expectations is even better and may be the only area where we are doing poorly.

Within the CleanTech and Green industries there is a mad frenzy converging on an idea that technology and clever management will change simple human behavior. We talk about reducing the carbon footprint globally but instead bargain and swap carbon credits. It is almost like a stock exchange where we acquire ever increasing profit by the mere act of buying and selling. What ever happen to being socially responsible and just reduce the amount of carbon being dumped into our atmosphere? Will we create a carbon “credit” market that is more profitable then the mere act of reducing carbon emissions? Startup Blog Cont. »

The following is a guest post from Ulf Lindahl, Chief Investment Officer at A.G. Bisset & Co., Inc.. Ulf specializes in currency trading through overlay and alpha programs. His models exploit mean-reversion in price-trends to identify appropriate times at which to buy and sell currencies as they rise and decline in value – a task that is difficult to accomplish with fundamental analysis or dynamic hedging strategies. His firm is world renowned for their currency management strategies. [He is also my Dad]

The economy has a history of growth punctuated by recessions. The recessions have generally become milder and shorter during the post World War II era – primarily because the economy became increasingly complex and less dependent on industrial production as the service sector expanded.

The current recession is an exception. Many economists predict it will be deep and long like the recession of the early 1980s, which was caused by run-away inflation and interest rates of 20% that made it prohibitive to by automobiles and large items on credit.

The present recession was not caused by high interest rates, but by an abundance of cheap credit that ignited a boom in residential housing. When the boom ended, real estate prices began to drop and that led to a liquidity crisis among financial institution as they had to write down large amounts of non-performing loans. As they stopped lending to each other the government had to bail them out to prevent a financial melt-down. Startup Blog Cont. »

Imagine the utility of nearly indestructible flexible displays? After years of research it looks like scientist have finally been able to mold that dream into a reality. With help from the US Army, Arizona State University's Flexible Display center has been able to produce a prototype (shown above) that can be sewn in a sleeve of a hoodie, or military uniform. In the future, combat soldiers may be able to receive "real-time readouts of positions and battle operations."

The U.S. Army established the Flexible Display Center at ASU in February 2004 to spearhead the next revolution in information displays. FDC collaborates with academia, industry and government on rapid technology development, innovation and integration to create a new generation of innovative displays that are flexible, lightweight, low power and rugged. These revolutionary displays will usher in a new era of powerful real-time information sharing through ubiquitous commercial and military application in everything from portable pocket-held and vehicle-mounted devices to permanent and temporary conferencing/command rooms.

The technology was named as one of the top 10 technology breakthroughs of 2008 by Wired Magazine. They're likely to be more of a reality for consumers in 2010 or 2011.

[Image curtesy of Philip Spears]

The Way I Am is a not-so-surprisingly entertaining look at Marshall Mathers' improbable rise to fame. The autobiography is intelligent and thought-provoking, providing deep insight into the man himself. If you are (or were) an Eminem fan, you must buy this book. It has never-before-seen photos, unpublished lyrics and other rare memorabilia that are quite fascinating.

A massive blackout crippled the Northeastern U.S. on Aug. 14, 2003, leaving over 50 million people without power across a giant swath that reached from Toronto all the way to New York City. We were all to blame.

In New York, we're not used to thinking about electricity as a finite resource, how it's produced or what it costs and nothing short of a colossal power failure will get people talking about this crucial matter. To be fair, however, New York City as part of the broader region was only part of the problem that led to the 2003  blackout, just as energy consumption on a person-to-person basis contributed to a power grid overloaded only after human error and computer malfunctions caused a wide scale network failure.

However, the question remains to be asked, how much electricity do we really need and how much should we be using?

“The West as a whole thinks we have a right to energy,” says HEMS Tech founder and CTO, Bill Melendez. “We’re at the very beginning of a change of attitude globally concerning the use of energy and electricity.”

Melendez’ company, HEMS Technology (Homeowners Energy Management Systems) has invented a wireless technology that will help homeowners and utility companies track and regulate home energy consumption while simultaneously reducing electricity bills and curbing the emission of greenhouse gases caused by power generation.

The product looks like a regular electrical socket, but when an appliance of electrical device is plugged in, the socket sends a wireless signal to a "gateway" receiver detailing how much electricity has been used and for how long. Startup Blog Cont. »

Like College Mogul? Like Alex Lindahl (the co-founder)?

Well, he turns 23 today so wish him a Happy Birthday in the comments below! (i.e. make fun of him profusely)

Should a startup have a revenue model in the beginning? [Poll at bottom of article]

It's almost the same question as asking, should a founder write a business plan? One of the main points of writing a business plan is to figure out how you're going to build a business. But, you can't really build a business without any sort of plan on how you're going to bring in the money...or can you?

The web has taught us otherwise - that if you build something that truly creates value, then you will eventually make money off of it, or have the opportunity to. But, is this the right lesson to be taken away?

Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, discusses this very concept in one of his essays, "Be Good." His main point is that start-ups should actually act as (or aim to act like) non-profits and charities in the beginning. In other words, they should primarily be concerned about creating value and utility for their users with relatively little concern about charging those users for that added value in the short term.

About a month after we started Y Combinator we came up with the phrase that became our motto: Make something people want. We've learned a lot since then, but if I were choosing now that's still the one I'd pick.

Another thing we tell founders is not to worry too much about the business model, at least at first. Not because making money is unimportant, but because it's so much easier than building something great.

However, I would argue that just because someone wants something, doesn't mean that they are willing to pay for it. What it does depend on is how much value is created at a certain price point. Startup Blog Cont. »

The white paper definition describes crowdsourcing as a "neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call."

Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, gives a much better definition and describes crowdsourcing as "the application of Open Source principles applied to fields outside of software."

I've been bringing the concept up in more conversations because I've come to believe that it's a very powerful, useful, and cost efficient model that entrepreneurs should know about. However, no matter who I talk to, whether it be a successful businessman or founder of a new tech company, I've had to repeatedly explain what it is. If it isn't already, I predict that crowdsourcing will be one of the new, hot buzzwords in 2009. (We certainly need more, the term "Web 2.0" is beginning to make me puke.)

The last couple of years were about who could create the next popular social network. Pretty soon every site will have social networking features to it, so stop trying pitch your startup as a social network. Eventually most sites will have these types of features (or be connected to social networks like Facebook with Facebook Connect), so it gives your startup no real added value proposition. However, my prediction is that the next couple of years will be about who can create the next hot crowdsourcing startup.

Jeff Howe actually coined the term, not too long ago, in a Wired article titled "The Rise of Crowdsourcing" in 2006. (I highly recommend reading this) Startup Blog Cont. »

In middle school, courtship included crimppled notes, rumors, bra-strap snapping, liaisons, and awkward silences. At least for some, the routine evolved in early high school when the opposite sex began to venture across the dance floor - only to find themselves stuck at the cookie and kool-aide stand half the time. "Dating" gradually became easier with the help of liquid courage in later high school and early college - and maybe reached its peak the last two years when actual maturity began to kick in.

While college's ideal breeding ground never seemed to grow old, bars and other options in the real world can easily become overdone and tiresome. It's probably why so many people end up trying online dating sites like Match.com, eHarmony, and PlentyOfFish.com.

About the same time Adam Sachs (Northwestern U. '05) and Dan Osit (Northwestern U. '04) grew tired of the corporate world, they began to hear more horror stories from friends who tried the awkward, online dating scene. As they talked to more people, they began to realize that the online dating space is a far cry from ideal - and that people are actually paying to have bad experiences.

So, with no background in technology and a cool idea to turn the market upside down, they quite their jobs and started Ignighter - an online group dating site. Startup Blog Cont. »

Scientific treatment for deadly diseases and life threatening ailments never seem to come quickly enough. The founders of LabMeeting Mark Kaganovich, Daniel Kaganovich, Jeremy England, and Joseph Perla, hope to harness the power of the internet to perhaps change the way scientific researchers interact and develop cures.

Labmeeting is an online platform designed to unite scientists in the life sciences (biology), and allow those researchers to more efficiently search for, organize, and share scientific documents, papers, protocols, and ideas relevant to their research. Startup Blog Cont. »

Two years ago, when it became passé to ask someone for a phone number, "I'll find you on Facebook," was the preferred way to say, "let's keep in touch." Social networking sites provided a great alternative to the awkard, public exchange of pertinent information when there were only a handful of "mainstream" social sites to which anyone belonged.

Today, however, I'm drowning in social networking--not literally, of course, but every few days it seems a new network comes across my radar and I don't know if I'm missing the boat by not jumping onboard.

When my brother studied abroad in Fiji I had to join Hi5 in order to see his travel photos. My cousin, who is studying engineering in Finland, sent me two invitations to  different networks and we're already friends on Facebook!

Call it the perils of the network effect. Joining a new social networking site means creating a new profile, uploading photos and convincing your friends to join, otherwise it's a waste of time. Once I've join, I'm essentially trapped because my profile stays behind the perimeter of a walled garden erected by whomever built the site.

Furthermore, growth among social networking sites is highly cannibalistic. I have seperate accounts on Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, Migente, Hi5, Orkut and, several more, but for any one to grow, it has to snatch users away from other sites.

There are  now hundreds of  seperate social networks catering to thousands of distinct constituencies, but each audience is "trapped" inside whatever tank their social networking site has created to house a specific profile. Openfriends from Citrusbyte, a Los Angeles-based site-launch lab promises "life beyond the fishbowl." Startup Blog Cont. »

Yes, 2008 is coming to a close, meaning plenty of reflection on the past year. What were the hottest companies? What were the big ideas in Cleantech? What CEO's made departures from this year's most prominent tech companies? Where are we going and what technologies will continue to be disruptive? Did you even know there were 10 new car company startups? (I only knew about 2!)

Check out this list of the best Top 10 Lists for Tech from around the web for 2008:

MIT Technology Review: "10 Emerging Technologies of 2008"

Technology Review presents 10 technologies that we think are most likely to change the way
we live.

Gartner: "Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2008"

The report is based on analysts insight on emerging trends and what they predicted for 2008. Were they right?

InfoWorld: "Inside 2008's Hottest Tech Startups"

InfoWorld picks 10 newbies whose technologies could make a huge difference to business IT

Channel Web: "The Top 10 Tech CEO Departures Of 2008"

It was a tumultuous year to be in the top spot at a tech company in 2008. From Symantec to Synnex to VMware, CEOs were either ousted, resigned or retired. Here are some of the most prominent CEO departures in 2008.
Startup Blog Cont. »