The Traveling Geeks gathered together for a great turnout (despite the torrential downpours) at the Guardian’s Media Talk (live) podcast. Our agenda was to discuss journalism and it’s rapid change in the 21st Century. Listen here.

While more and more newspapers lose their audience and their advertisers, print is quite quickly, becoming obsolete. In the video below you will see Sarah Lacy, JD Lasica and Robert Scoble discuss and confirm this theory.

In the second video, I asked Howard Rheingold to further extend the conversation into a video discussion about the journalism course at Stanford and the method of dragging people into the 21st century:

Zensify today releases an update to their social streams aggregation platform on the iPhone. I wrote about it at launch and raved about its ability to pull intelligent, trending topics from the streams of my Twitter, Facebook friends and other networks. But today a number of major improvements come to the beta which is now available on the iPhone Apps store.

Here’s what’s new in Zensify 1.2.3:

New UI

They’ve reworked most of the UI and created a much cleaner interface for the home view. User pictures are now featured in the left hand side and social network icons moved to the bottom of every entry to reflect the fact that it’s the content of an update not it’s source that is more important. Scrolling is now better too.

Tag Cloud (Topics)

This is the most powerful aspect of Zensify. They’ve reworked the algorithm to create better trending topics in the user’s social graph, while the Tag Cloud section has been renamed to Topics.

Performance and Bugs

Zensify is now much faster and way more stable. This was a big problem for me in the first release and I was starting to drift back to to other apps because Zensify was taking too long to update.

Facebook & Twitter

They’ve implemented the first part of the new Facebook Stream API and as an immediate result, users can now post Photos with text to Facebook. Photosharing to Twitter is also improved with a new photo sharing process in place in 1.2.3

All they need to do now is include integration with Google Reader and my Email and I won’t be able to leave this app at all.

Robert Scoble, Craig Newmark and Tom Foremski discuss what they have learned so far on the Traveling Geeks tour in London and what differences they see between Silicon Valley and the London tech scene.

SprxMobile, the company behind the mobile augmented reality browser Layar (which has been making waves across the technoverse) today announced that Layar will become an open platform. The first 50 developer keys for the API are available now and can be applied for here. Layar is currently only supported by Android phones and uses a combination of the camera, GPS and compass to calculate orientation and add a “layar” of digital information on top of that. For example, one of the first layars is from a dutch property website. When you point the camera at a house it can tell you whether it is for sale, the asking price and other relevant information. An iPhone edition is in development.

SprxMobile has an interesting philosophy. They do not themselves want to become a huge global company but rather be the spark (hence their name) that sets off a chain reaction of activity in other developers and businesses. This is one of the reasons that they decided to make Layar an open platform. The company has also been receiving an enormous number of inquiries from companies and other bodies who want their own layar and this was also one of the reasons behind the decision. The first Layar developer day will be held in Amsterdam on Aug 17.

There are lots of ways to get audio online from an iPhone today. You can use Evernote, you can send audio notes via Field Recording to Soundcloud, then there’s Tweetmic, Facemic (sends recordings to Facebook) Twitsay and Twitterfone. The list goes on. But one that’s getting a lot of traction for its ease of use and for the fact it has its own social network is AudioBoo out of the UK. And today it takes a step further with integration with the Spinvox API, the voice-to-text company which has been taken on by a number of global mobile networks.

AudioBoo is an iPhone app which has gradually been making bigger and bigger waves and is about to get a whole lot more interesting. The essential point is that you can record and upload audio from the iPhone straight to the Web, and also Tweet out the link to the audio. In fact it bills itself as Twitter for audio. A player appears on your Audioboo profile straight away and is embeddable in a blog. Admittedly that sounds less exciting than live streaming video from something like Qik, but since only a privileged handful have this app, which remains unapproved by the App store, Audioboo is the next best thing if you want to do an interview or record audio fast. The attached social network also has a ‘follow’ model, much like Twitter.

Speech-based Audioboos can now be automatically converted to text across Audioboo’s applications – including iPhone podcasting and Tweets.

In other words it’s about to become a huge blogger and journalist tool, because who doesn’t want to be able to get some kind of transcript from their interviews without the pain of actually having to type it out?

Recording will be limited to five minute chunks, which is long enough for a quick interview. Spinvox will also be added to Audioboo’s API so that third party applications can make use of it. Transcriptions will be paid-for and added on to the Pro version that BBC, ITV etc have already used.

These Audioboo Pro accounts will have a variety of web-based tools – such as moderation- to help companies manage content.

Mobypicture may be one of the few startups in the world headquartered on an Amsterdam houseboat but it is one of many jostling for position in the crowded world of mobile image/video/audio sharing services.The company is one of several Dutch startups (eBuddy, My name is e, IRLconnect, Nimbuzz) on the Europas shortlist and is currently planning an aggressive expansion into the UK and German markets.

Unlike the current leader of the pack, Twitpic (over 1 million unique users), Mobypicture is not just about Twitter and not just about images. It supports audio, video and images which can be simultaneously  shared with 18 different blogging (WordPress, Blogger), microblogging (Twitter, Brightkite), media (Youtube, Flickr) and social networking (Facebook) sites. The service is also integrated into many 3^rdparty applications. In fact, Mobypicture is closer in terms of features to services like Tweetphoto or Pikchur than to Twitpic. Read More

There were a few leaks and rumours about this last week, but now it’s been officially confirmed that the Palm Pre will launch exclusively with mobile network Telefónica, initially in four major European markets.

Spain, United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany will get the device first on the O2 and Movistar networks, just before the winter holidays. Pricing has not been announced.

This is something of a coup since, at least in the UK, Telefónica-owned O2 already has the iPhone deal, thus making it the sole arbiter of two of the hottest phones right now. However, the Pre maybe isn’t as hot as it was pre-launch. O2 already has exclusive British rights to the iPhone including the 3GS version, giving it an edge over rivals Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3 this summer.

Interestingly, the Pre could well benefit from being sold alongside the iPhone, as its iPhone-like UI might appeal to people who also want a real keyboard. Me? I’m happy with the iPhone’s virtual one, but then I’m used to it.

I’ll be checking out he Pre in real life later today. Although it’s had plenty of reviews Stateside, it hasn’t come up against the more sophisticated European mobile market as yet.

Applications for Seedcamp Week 2009 are now open for the next wave of European web-tech talent to apply. If you haven’t heard of Seedcamp and you’re a startup in Europe, you should. Since starting in late 2007 they’ve built up a head of steam, making them the closest thing Europe has to a YCombinator model – but they concentrate on developing more well-rounded startups than just hacker projects. You can apply here.

Mini Seedcamp 2009 attracted nearly 500 applications from across Europe, and this year it will be held from 21st to 25th September at UCL in central London. The week-long programme connects 20 early stage web tech startups with over 400 entrepreneurs, investors, marketers, product and developer experts, see here.

Plus, Seedcamp has announced the following new board members, something of a “who’s who” of the tech startup scene:

· Fred Destin, partner at Atlas Ventures

· Charles Grimsdale, co-founder of Eden Ventures

· Alex Hoye, co-founder of GoIndustry plc

· Christoph Maire, Head of Maps & Explore Unit, Nokia Services

· Dave McClure, Founders Fund

· Richard Moross, founder and CEO, Moo.com

The 20 teams compete for seed funding, but frankly, the connections they make are pretty worthwhile too. At the end of the week Seedcamp will invest up to €50K each in 5 teams for a small equity stake (5%-10%). On occasion, they have been known to select more than 5 teams.

Virtual worlds can be pretty dull when nothing you see there is recognisable as anything remotely real-world, which is perhaps why Twinity has such confident investors. The virtual world which re-creates the world’s cities for real-looking avatars to wander around, has closed another round of financing from existing investors to the tune of 4.5m Euros ($6.26 million).

Twinity’s owner Metaversum, which has taken a totally different tack to the likes of Second Life, won the backing from existing investors Grazia Equity and Balderton Capital, which joined BFB BeteiligungsFonds Brandenburg from InvestitionsBank des Landes Brandenburg, which is managed by BC Brandenburg Capital and KfW. As you can tell the startup is based in Germany. The funding will be used for development and expanding internationally.

Back in April last year Balderton, best known for investing in and exiting from Bebo and MySQL (the former to the tune of $140 million) joined investors in Metaversum.

In Twinity, members use real profiles and realistic-looking avatars. A virtual Berlin is in public beta right now, but a virtual Singapore is set to follow this summer, and London is under construction (much like the real London if you are familiar with its roads).

The following is a guest post by Ayelet Noff, who is part of the Traveling Geeks contingent of bloggers.

This morning we had a breakfast with Tristan Wilkinson, Intel’s Director of Public Sector and other Intel execs. We had an interesting discussion about the use of  technology in the Western world, in developing countries, in the classroom. For example, we talked about how parents and teachers need to be more open to allowing kids to use technology, the internet, their mobile devices and not focus as much on the negative aspects of technology but rather on all the positive aspects. There is a huge problem with parents’ attitudes toward their kids’ involvement with technology and a huge divide in regards to educating parents:

Video:  Huge divide of educating parents

We also had a little debate about whether Twitter is already a mainstream phenomenon or not:

VIDEO:  Twitter mainstream?

Lastly, we discussed the importance of bringing technology to developing countries and what a difference even one cell phone in a village can make. However, Scoble, part of the TG party, also reiterated the idea which he calls the “Friend Divide” – this is to say that even if you have a computer and are able to get online, you’re still at a major disadvantage to people who have already built a rich network of friends which they can use to get and spread information.

VIDEO – Importance of a network

Right now I am writing you from NESTA’s Reboot Britain conference. More postings to come as we continue on our fascinating British journey…

The Europas, the European Startup Awards 2009 for European and EMEA tech companies, will be held on July 9 in London. Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.

Here are the shortlisted nominees in each category in alphabetical order:

The Europas Shortlist: Best Web Application Or Service (EMEA)

Amiando
Babbel
Dopplr
Jimdo
Spotify

The Europas Shortlist: Best Design

Babbel
IRL Connect
Songkick
Spotify
Wonga

The Europas Shortlist: Best Bootstrapped Startup (less than 3 years old)

BookingBug
Doodle
Mixcloud
Soup.io
Struq

The Europas Shortlist: Best Social Innovation (which benefits society, EMEA)

Aleveo
Amazee
Decisions For Heroes
Mendeley
School of Everything

The Europas Shortlist: Best Enterprise / B2B Startup (EMEA)

BlueKiwi
FreeAgent Central
Huddle
VideoPlaza
Zendesk

The Europas Shortlist: Best Cleantech / Environmental Startup (EMEA)

Alertme
Amee
Dopplr
RouteRank
SpeedSell

The Europas Shortlist: Best European / Real World Gadget (EMEA)

Fon
INQ Mobile
Modu
My Name Is E
Poken

The Europas Shortlist: Best Entertainment Application or Service (EMEA)

eRepublik
Moshi Monsters
Playfish
SoundCloud
WeeWorld

The Europas Shortlist: Best Mobile Startup (EMEA)

Aka-aki
Bambuser
Goojet
Nimbuzz
GetJar

The Europas Shortlist: Best Mobile Application (EMEA)

eBuddy
Fring
MobyPicture
Shozu
Spinvox
Tweetdeck Mobile

The Europas Shortlist: Best Startup Founder(s)

Alastair Mitchell, Andy McLoughlin, jointly, Huddle.net
Alexander Ljung, Eric Wahlforss, jointly, Soundcloud
Daniel Ek, Martin Lorentzon, Spotify
Felix Haas, Armin Bauer, Markus Eichinger, Dennis von Ferenczy, Sebastian Baerhold, Marc Bernegger, for Amiando
Richard Jones, Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel, for Last.FM
Richard Moross, Moo

The Europas Shortlist: Best Investor (VC or Angel fund, EMEA)

Atlas Venture
Eden Ventures
European Founders Fund
Index Ventures
TAG – The Accelerator Group

The Europas Shortlist: Best Investor Personality (EMEA)

Fred Destin, Atlas Venture
Morten Lund
Robin Klein, TAG
Saul Klein, Seedcamp/Index Ventures
Yossi Vardi, Angel

The Europas Shortlist: Best New Startup, Summer 2008-2009

SoundCloud
Spotify
Stupeflix
TweetDeck
Tweetmeme

The Europas Grand Prix
Decided by Judges vote only

(While you’re here, subscribe to our Twitter feed and RSS feed).

The Europas, the European Startup Awards 2009 for European and EMEA tech companies, will be held on July 9 in London. Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.

Here are the shortlisted nominees in alphabetical order:

SoundCloud
Spotify
Stupeflix
TweetDeck
Tweetmeme

(While you’re here, subscribe to our Twitter feed and RSS feed).

The Europas, the European Startup Awards 2009 for European and EMEA tech companies, will be held on July 9 in London. Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.

Here are the shortlisted nominees in alphabetical order:

Fred Destin, Atlas Venture
Morten Lund
Robin Klein, TAG
Saul Klein, Seedcamp/Index Ventures
Yossi Vardi, Angel
(While you’re here, subscribe to our Twitter feed and RSS feed).

The Europas, the European Startup Awards 2009 for European and EMEA tech companies, will be held on July 9 in London. Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.

Here are the shortlisted nominees in alphabetical order:

Atlas Venture
Eden Ventures
European Founders Fund
Index Ventures
TAG – The Accelerator Group

(While you’re here, subscribe to our Twitter feed and RSS feed).

The Europas, the European Startup Awards 2009 for European and EMEA tech companies, will be held on July 9 in London. Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.

Here are the shortlisted nominees in alphabetical order:

Alastair Mitchell, Andy McLoughlin, jointly, Huddle.net
Alexander Ljung, Eric Wahlforss, jointly, Soundcloud
Daniel Ek, Martin Lorentzon, Spotify
Felix Haas, Armin Bauer, Markus Eichinger, Dennis von Ferenczy, Sebastian Baerhold, Marc Bernegger, for Amiando
Richard Jones, Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel, for Last.FM
Richard Moross, Moo

(While you’re here, subscribe to our Twitter feed and RSS feed).

The Europas, the TechCrunch Europe Awards 2009 for European and EMEA tech companies, will be held on July 9 in London. Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.

Here are the shortlisted nominees in alphabetical order:

eBuddy
Fring
MobyPicture
Shozu
Spinvox
Tweetdeck Mobile

(While you’re here, subscribe to our Twitter feed and RSS feed).

The Europas, the European Startup Awards 2009 for European and EMEA tech companies, will be held on July 9 in London. Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.

Here are the shortlisted nominees in alphabetical order:

Aka-aki
Bambuser
Goojet
Nimbuzz
GetJar
(While you’re here, subscribe to our Twitter feed and RSS feed).

The Europas, the European Startup Awards 2009 for European and EMEA tech companies, will be held on July 9 in London. Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.

Here are the shortlisted nominees in alphabetical order:

eRepublik
Moshi Monsters
Playfish
SoundCloud
WeeWorld

(While you’re here, subscribe to our Twitter feed and RSS feed).

The Europas, the European Startup Awards 2009 for European and EMEA tech companies, will be held on July 9 in London. Over 400 entrants were voted on by the industry and these results merged with those from 19 expert advisors.

Here are the shortlisted nominees in alphabetical order:

Fon
INQ Mobile
Modu
My Name Is E
Poken

(While you’re here, subscribe to our Twitter feed and RSS feed).