When I first wrote about Instagram in December of 2010, it was only just becoming the wildly popular social network that it is today. Since releasing their API, some companies started taking the great photos you can take on Instagram and do cool things with them. Take Stickygram for example - choose 9 of your favorite Instagram photos and turn them into fun, high-quality magnets.

GOOD

- The magnets are a lot thinner than I imagined they would be, but who needs fat magnets anyway?

- Having cute photos of my pets will make my mom absolutely giddy.

- The actual printing on the magnets looks pretty good although some coloring looks flat.

- Free shipping.

NOT SO GOOD

 - 15 dollars seems pretty high for what you get, but if you are using the service for a fun gift it's well worth it.

- Stickygram is based in the UK and it took nearly 12 days for my magnets to arrive. Not good for trying to get a last minute birthday gift (like in my case!)

 

Also, another cool service that makes physical postcards out of Instagram photos is Postagram. 99 cents per postcard and they ship them directly to any address!

Ok, some, not all picks for 2010's Crunchies. (These are picks based on my own experience using these products/companies). If you agree/disagree with me on any of these picks let's battle in the comments below or shoot me a message elsewhere! If you want to help my favorite picks win in the coveted Crunchies, you can place your votes here.

Best Social App

Hands down this has got to be Twitter. No other social application has grown to be a part of our everyday lives. Friends tweet, companies tweet, celebrities tweet, brands tweet, and even dogs tweet. Twitter is easily accessible and widely adopted to be the newest source of information flow that we seem to have graciously accepted. The new Twitter design (from the actual redesign to the roll-out of it to its millions of users) is an example that many startups can take note from (ahem, Facebook).

Best Social Commerce App

Groupon has been a hot topic lately and for good reason -- they are the definition of highly imitated, never duplicated. Andrew Mason reminded me of Dane Cook when I met him but I'm not too sure if that's a good thing. Nonetheless, Groupon has some amazing deals for visitors and is growing like crazy.

Best Mobile Application

Instagram is gaining a lot of momentum and I wouldn't be surprised seeing them win this award. They have a quick and easy to use interface that generates terrific photo effects that everyone enjoys. You can read my Startup Spotlight post on them here.

Best Location Based Service

Foursquare has got to take the cake here. Before their latest major update, I found little incentive to keep using Foursquare. Actually, my only incentive was to be the Mayor of Mr. Pickles Sandwich Shop. Checking in seemed to lose its magic after so long, but now that you can include photos at least it can now rival what Yelp and Facebook had all along.

Best New Device

The Kno is the best NEW device from the choices of this category. The iPhone 4 and iPad aren't really that new. The Boxee Box is cool, but there are many competitors in that saturated market. The Google Chrome Notebook? Really? A beta-only, test only, can't sell on e-Bay product is in the running? (OK, I'm a little bitter I didn't get sent one). The Kinect would be my second choice, but it doesn't have the same industry shaking technology that the Kno comes equipped with.

Best Technology Achievement

I met the Qwiki guys at Disrupt in San Francisco and they are what tech companies are all about: paving the way for the future. Their search engine is definitely futursitic with a great design and easy to use user interface. I'm also biased because they gave me a ton of free t-shirts and stickers. Their technology will be more widely used than the competing companies and I can't wait to check out a touch screen version of their program.

Best Design

Everything about AirBnB's iPhone app to their website is beautiful. They have really made the photos of the places for rent the main attraction on their marketplace. If you haven't tried them yet, try them the next time you travel. I must also note that 1000memories' website is also pretty beautifully designed.

Best Enterprise

Jessica Mah is a young entrepreneur who's kicking ass in Silicon Valley. inDinero is a Mint.com for small businesses that I will definitely be using in the near future.

Angel of the Year

Paul Graham. I'm just a fanboy.

Best New Startup or Product of 2010

I've got to give it to Instagram. Their app is what mobile media and social sharing is all about. Short, simple, and to the point.

Best Overall Startup or Product of 2010

Facebook looks to be overtaking Google as the new goliath on the block. I can't say (neither can the other 500 million users) that I don't heavily rely on Facebook to connect with others.

 

Again, let me know if you agree/disagree or have any other comments! The voting link is here and I would appreciate it if you could help vote for my picks!

You may not have heard of this hulking device just yet, but the general description goes like this: a bigger iPad but with one niche in mind: education. Sporting a single panel 14.1 inch screen (a dual screen version is available as well) and a stylus that allows you to take notes right on your electronic text, this device can easily hold up to 10 semester's worth of books.

The pricing point is competitive to other similar devices and allows consumers to have their investment pay itself by 3 semesters by offering electronic books that are 20-50% off physical copies. As of right now, the device isn't shipping yet, but will soon.

You can read about all the technical specifications right on Kno's website. Being selected to represent Kno on the campus of San Francisco State University as their on-campus marketing intern, I've had some time to use the tablet and meet some of the people behind this hot new startup. I can attest to the passion, dedication, and hard work from everyone that works for Kno from the CEO down to the marketing team. These guys seriously want to change education for the better. 

The Device

The device itself is actually really gorgeous. It does have some weight to it (2.6 lbs for single screen, 5.6 for the dual screen) but it isn't uncomfortable to hold. When you use it to study or read a textbook, chances are that you'd lay it flat or use a tablet stand that is available for purchase on the Kno website. What was pretty cool to me was that you can fold back the dual screen tablet so that it consolidates to the size of the single screen version (for those crowded classrooms where you barely have any desk space).

The stylus and touch screen is responsive, but not yet perfect. It is currently usable for a student but the user interface experience is being constantly worked on and updated to deliver a better overall experience. Heres a photo of a doodle I did in about 5 minutes:

The Kno device will not only change the future of education but also the future of doodling ;) Jokes aside, you can't help but not play around with such a device.

Among the blogosphere and gadget sites I frequent, people seem to doubt the effectiveness of a tablet that isn't called an iPad. There is also criticism on the size since the general idea about technology is that smaller is better. Though that rings true for multiple gadgets, the Kno tablet is different and is targeted to a specific market.

It is built to serve the functions of writing, reading, researching, collaborating, and organizing. The iPad fills the reading and researching functions to a tee. But, the Kno aims to serve all of these functions so any student can gain an educational advantage - a feat that no device in the educational market has emerged to be king.

Smaller tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Blackberry Playbook are emerging, but the size of the Kno is perfectly suited to deliver the best educational experience. The company has spent countless hours studying students on how they study and they've revolved their findings around the design of the device. The company still takes constant feedback through their advisory panel and the current batch of west coast campus marketing interns. It is not uncommon to find Kno visiting college campuses showing their device off to prospective students.

Anticipation

There are many people who are anticipating the shipping of Kno devices, especially students who are currently underway of the new semester/quarter. Kno has recently been nominated as a finalist in TechCrunch's 2010 Crunchies Awards for the category Best New Device. You can vote for them here! They are among some great company and I wish them the best of luck!

I for one cannot wait to actually use this device next semester. I admire a company that actually listens to its early adopters. Like I said before, you may not have heard of this device, but now you Kno.

At a glance

• Website, Twitter, Facebook Page
• Founded in May 2009 by Babur Habib and Osman Rashid (one of the founders of Chegg)
• Headquarters in Santa Clara
• $55.4M total funding
• Consumer pricing: $699-$999
• Webkit based browser supports HTML5 and Flash
• Rich media player can play videos in multiple codecs
• All material on Kno is sent to the cloud for access anywhere, anytime
• Check out photos from my time at Kno HQ on my photostream!

Previous Startup Spotlight: Instagram

 

Initially when I got my iPhone from Posterous the first thing I did was download a bunch of photography apps since I was going to be sharing my life on a more consistent basis. A lot of the other photography apps did one thing really well but lacked in another area.

None of these apps does what Instagram does so well: creating a community of creative photo lovers who are keen on getting the "artsy" picture rather than just any random shot with a variety of filters that can make those aforementioned random shots look rather good.

Instagram at its simplest is fast, beautiful photo sharing. Currently available only on the iPhone, this app is finding a nice niche in mobile users.

Here are some photos I've taken with Instagram:

All of the filters work extremely great and it's hard not to use one (you're not required to). A simple interface that allows other users to like or comment on other users' photos works well. The recent version upgrade seemed to fix a problem where liking a photo wouldn't register. 

What I Like

• Free
• Great filters
• Active communtiy (photo contests, showcases)
• Can post to other social media websites with ease
• Posterous support (just had to plug that one in)

Suggestions

• Some people share photos not taken with iPhone (this is a gripe to me and apparently Kevin Rose as well)
• No clear guideline on how to appear on 'Popular' tab 
• Can't manage profile on company website -- not a big deal, but some may find it useful.
• Can't go through your photos on the website. A gallery would be handy instead of copying the sharable link on each individual photo.
• Feed should have the option of viewing in thumbnails much like the Popular tab. This would present photos from your followers without the comments taking up real-estate. Maybe truncating the amount of comments may help.
• Privacy settings (block people following you or finding you from their Facebook or Twitter networks)
• View counter

The company has a reported 1 million users and its really taking off. A bunch of my friends have come aboard the Instagram ship and I'm starting to see more and more Instagram posts on my Twitter and Facebook feeds.

They've even moved into Twitter's old HQ. I've seen several press releases on the companies growth and by following some of the founders I can see that these guys take great pride in developing a kick-ass app. 

Conclusion

If you have an iPhone app and don't have this, get it. And when you do, follow me @brownday