We’re excited to announce the launch of BlogRadio 2.0. We’ve added:

• Enhanced photo viewing
• Easier to use mobile platform
• Location based blog suggestions

So we have made it through another year.  I’m sure everyone says this every year, but from a technology standpoint, this year has been very, very interesting.  Tablets took center stage, 3D TV didn’t quite catch on, but smart tvs seem to be giving it another go.  Mobile, social, local, and media were all trends to watch.

At BlogRadio, it has been an interesting year as well.  Bruce has gone full time, and I hope to follow him soon.  We launched our white label program, and got our first big customer.  As usual, we have some other exciting things brewing as well.

One of the most interesting things about running a startup is getting the notion of ‘pivoting’.  Usually when you start out, you have an idea of what your startup will be doing, but until you begin to interface with entities who will actually be writing you a check for your work, you might not really understand the problem space, or you may stumble upon an altogether different pain point.

From a business development aspect, it can seem intimidating, but as long as you are open and transparent with your customers, you have a leg (integrity) to stand on.

I am looking for this year to be a ‘breakout’ year for  BlogRadio and BT Software.  The events of last year blew my expectations out of the water, so I can only speculate on what this year will bring.

Happy New Year.

-Tirrell

We’ve seen a ton of really cool products lately. Some we get ideas from that we can implement in BlogRadio. Others are just plain neat! Here’s what we’re seeing.

• The Samsung Galaxy looks like a very slick iPad competitor running Android.
• The Samsung Smart/Connected TVs have a visually crisp picture, a very slim form factor, and all kinds of interesting possibilities.
• The Logitech Revue Google TV device has a tracpad, which opens a new world in terms of interaction with the TV.
• The Droid 2 combines the touchscreen of the HTC Incredible with the tactile sensation of my tried and true Blackberry Curve.
• The xbox 360 Kinect looks like the next evolution of what the wii started with regard to kinetic interaction with video games.

Good times.  Interesting times.

Have you tried any of these products? What do you think?

It has been awhile since I have put up a blog post.  Here are some things at the top of mind.  As BlogRadio moves from ‘cool idea’ to ‘sustainable business’ mode, business development is taking a higher priority.  Honestly, its a little intimidating.  But I really feel like RealVoice and contextual advertising has a good value proposition for publishers who are looking to increase their reach and revenue.

BlogRadio’s journey has been an interesting study in customer development and startup pivoting as well.  When we first started, we envisioned that we would be able to sell the service to end users who wanted to keep up with news and blogs.  Some twists and turns later, our vision is that we will be in the ‘plumbing business’ as an enabler for publishers.  In a year, who knows what business we will be in.  The key is that we are exploring business models values.  I still hear talk about ‘eyeballs’ as if this is 1998.  We didn’t get any venture funding, and the seed funding is not enough to support two adults in their 30s with families, so the imperative to become profitable and self sustaining is pretty high.

Here is an observation on conferences: My first conference was Adobe Max 2009.  Since then I have been to many many other conferences.  I have spent so much time in the Bay area over the last year that I have seriously considered getting an apartment there.  I live in San Diego, and moving is not an option (per my wife) for at least 5 years, because we moved here in March 2010.

I still feel like the value of conferences is that a single day of face to face communication can replace dozens of emails and phone conversations, and a working example of your ideas illustrates much  better than a PowerPoint  slide.

On to some technical stuff. Froyo 2.2 is out for Droid phones.  Awesome.  Because that means we can run Flash 10 and Adobe Air 2.5 on the Android platform.

This week’s news (there’s just so much of it lately) is: we are now members of Alcatel Lucent’s ng Connect program. We’re in the program with big players like HP and Kyocera, as well as up and comers like Chumby.

Being a part of ng Connect will let us find synergies with other companies, helping us expand into new and exciting areas. We’re excited to see where this relationship will take us!

After biting our nails all morning, we found out that we received the 1st place award for the Productivity category in Nokia’s Calling All Innovators competition. That means we win $30,000 to put toward making BlogRadio even more fantastic! Here’s a news story on the competition and winners.

“This award is further proof that we’re onto something at BlogRadio,” said Susan Payton, Vice President of Marketing, “To be recognized by such a world renowned mobile company is truly an honor.”

To see what else we’re up to, stay up to date with our media kit.

A few months ago we entered Nokia’s Calling All Innovators competition. We recently found out we are a finalist! We will find out next week at Nokia World if we won, but just to be a finalist is exciting enough.

We’ll keep you posted on whether we win, and all the exciting details of Nokia World next week.

A lot of people are connecting with us on Twitter, where we post system updates and news as well as links to reviews of BlogRadio. We’re also providing tech support there too, so if you’re not following us on Twitter @podblogr do so now.

You can also connect with us on Facebook. We post updates as well as thought-provoking questions we’d like your feedback on.

Want to have your blog featured? Email spayton@podblogr.com to see what opportunities we have.

And we’d love your feedback! What do you like about BlogRadio? What do you want changed?

Behind the scenes we always have a lot going on here at BlogRadio. One thing we’re really excited about this month is our new partnership with Nokia’s Daily Apps Blog.

Each week, the posts on this blog will be read with our new RealVoice. It’s an actual voice! This is a new service we’re launching, so look for more top blogs to offer it in coming months.

Here’s a post on The Daily App about us. Here you can hear a sample of what the Daily App posts will sound like.

Want to get The Daily App with RealVoice? Just add it to your BlogRadio feed, or download BlogRadio for the first time. It’ll be in the default list.

Just got back from MobileBeat, and boy my feet are tired. We didn’t win the startup competition, but there were still some great conversations about the mobile industry and where it’s headed that we got to participate in.

We’ve got some exciting news! We are officially launched in Nokia’s OVI store. Right now we’re only available on the N97 Mini, but will soon be available on all Nokia phones. So if you have an N97 Mini Nokia phone, you can now get your favorite blogs streamed as audio to your phone. Here’s our commercial. We’re very excited.