demo2007

Iqzone is a new service announced at Demo 07 that allows you to post classified ads to the Internet using the camera on your cell phone. Users can create text-only postings or add pictures. The entire process is done by sending your photo and item description in a mixed media text message.

Iqzone is free, and all listings end up on the Iqzone's classifieds Web site. I'd like to see Iqzone build in some sort of integration to post to Craigslist and eBay. The service is being promoted as a quick way to sell things, but I can'… Read more

Pitched as "MySpace for groups" at Demo 07 last week, Nexo is a new Web publishing service that makes it gratifyingly easy to create a site for a club, team, or group of any sort.

There are a lot of easy ways to get a free site on to the Web right now, from MySpace (not a bad solution if you want to advertise your group to 40 trillion teenagers) to Wiki services like Wetpaint, but Nexo's focus on group dynamics pays off. The site is a good option if what you need is to keep a … Read more

PreClick announced its photo-messaging service last week at the Demo conference. The free app, called Instant Photo Messenger (or IPM) lets you share photos with others using a simple drag-and-drop interface. On the receiving end, users with the IPM software installed get a taskbar notification letting them know photos have been sent their way. They can then view the shots without leaving the program.

IPM doubles as an e-mail program of sorts, letting you send photo messages to any e-mail address. You also have a contact list, as you would on any other instant-messenging client. Contacts are added automatically after … Read more

Devicescape is a free Wi-Fi helper service that was announced at the Demo 07 conference this past week. It's designed to take the struggle out of connecting to various commercial Wi-Fi hot spots while on the go. After downloading the low profile Devicescape application to your PC, Windows Mobile smart phone, or Wi-Fi-enabled handset, you can instantly connect without having to manage log-ins or remember passwords.

The Devicescape client works with a number of Wi-Fi services, most notably T-Mobile's HotSpot service, which can be found in over 8,000 locations (mostly Starbucks). Devicescape is at work on interoperability … Read more

Wanna talk about the Iraq war on the Internet without igniting a flame war? Helium Debate could be a good choice.

A new feature of user-generated information site Helium, it tries to construct a forum for more civilized discourse on the Web. First launched in October 2006, the site has contributed articles on topics that range from the benign ("Bananas and Their Benefits") and banal (weight-loss tips) to highly inflammatory stuff like "Was the war in Iraq beneficial to U.S. interests in any way?" The Debate feature allows articles to be categorized by the writer'… Read more

Demo 07 is over. Erica Ogg and I scoped out almost all of the 68 introductions at the show, and it was hard to pick out the best. But we did it anyway. Here are our favorite products from Demo:

Vuvox: Gorgeous multimedia presentation creation tool, designed for the MySpace and MTV crowd. Best demo of a Web app I've ever seen.

Jaman: Indie film site. What makes this service so good? Is it the HD quality, or the community? Nope. It's the content. The team is jetting to all the good film festivals and buying up the … Read more

We still have to finish writing up a few of the new services we saw at Demo 07. There's also a Top 5 list coming tomorrow. In the meantime, check out this slide show from the conference.

Need more Demo? See all Demo 07 coverage from Webware as well as ZDNet's excellent business-focused coverage.

Embeddable video is getting pretty cool. Static preview images seem to be a thing of the past. Blinkx, which is showcasing its service today at Demo 2007, is announcing a new widget called 'Blinkx It' that crawls your blog or Web site to deliver contextual video content. Think of it as Google Ad Sense with videos and no advertising. For example, clicking the 'Blinkx It' widget below will bring up videos related to News.com stories:

This is nice and unobtrusive, but the results aren't necessarily pertinent. In most cases, I was unable to get a smattering of relevant … Read more

I just completed a remodeling project on my house. While I'm pleased with the results and our contractor was conscientious, managing the information around the project was a trial. DesignIn, a new service launching here at Demo 07, is designed for people like me, and the hundreds of thousands of other folks who embark on residential remodeling and construction projects each year.

The two big elements on the site are a collaborative blueprint editing system--where you can sketch out your remodel layout--and a system that lets you collect or "clip" items from the Web and connect them … Read more