Like the Olympics, 211(me) selected 08.08.08 to launch something big. It’s the Pay My Rent! Comedy Contest! Presented alongside Showcase Live and WBCN, we’re looking for the funniest comedians in the land to enter to win a chance to open up for Dave Attell when he performs at the brand new Showcase Live at Patriot Place in Foxboro, MA on Saturday, August 23rd. Not only will the grand prize winner get this great opportunity - we’ll event pay them for it - $1500 to help with this month’s rent.

Know a great comedian, or are you one yourself? Enter now at 211me.com/comedy. Entries are accepted through August 11th. Voting begins on August 12th and runs through August 19th.

The grand prize winner will be chosen by popular vote. The text to vote format allows anyone to text in the comedy vote code provided on the site for their favorite comedian into 555211 to vote. Additionally, comedians can campaign for more votes by placing a widget provided to them by 211me on their website, Facebook, Myspace, blog, or wherever they may be on the web. From the widget, a vote can be placed by placing in the voters mobile phone and email directly into the widget and hitting vote.

Looking for a few good laughs? Check out the site now and see who is the funniest in the land! 211me.com/comedy

                            (Created using 211me)

I guess I deserved it; I have not put up a post since freaking November. The good news is we have been busy. The biggest two things being that we:
        1) Closed Series B round of financing
        2) Signed up several new customers

We closed our B round ($1.425 million) in late December, so it was nice Christmas celebration for everyone at 211me!  We had a term sheet from a VC but decided to go with another private investor round and we are very happy about. We are not anti-VC or anything, but the individuals that invested are top notch (including our new Board member Seth Kaufman and the former CEO of a Fortune 50 company).
We will be doing a press release at CTIA coming up next week regarding our new customers and new features we are adding next week. I  will be attending, so if you see me throw a drink in my fat face. We signed up several new customers to our premium service and are very happy with their use of the 211me green cards.
That’s it for now, but it won’t be as long between posts, or I will get chiefed again.
Rd

R2D2 and Roy Batty, both created as androids but with wildly divergent results. One a trusted side-kick, with all the answers. The other the intelligent psycho android played by Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, who kills his maker. Which one will Google’s Android be?After speaking with some folks, lets clear up some confusion, the G-Phone is not a phone like iPhone, but rather an operating system. Google at this point will not be making the phone, they are partnering with manufacturers to use their operating system. It appears that Google has and continues to benefit from this confusion which it helped create.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer called the Android platform “a mere press release,” which is correct. Understanding the impact on the mobile industry, be it a benevolent “open” platform that helps the consumer or not, is not possible at this point.

Only time will tell. But the new $10 million Android developer competition should help Google’s cause.

Quick Links:

Android

Roy Batty

Blade Runner

Star Wars

R2D2

Google’s Android

Steve Ballmer comments

Fotolog, the photo sharing company was snapped up by France’s Hi-Media for $90 million in a combination of cash and stock. Hi-Media must have significant plans for the site if they were willing to pay a $9/user acquisition price. Compared to the Photobucket purchase by Fox for $250 million for 40 million users ($6.25), it represents as a significant increase of $2.75 per user.

 Quick links:

Fotolog

Hi-Media

Hi-Media Press release

Photobucket

Photobucket Purchase

Croissant