One presenter was Felipe Coimbra of Twtapps. I first met Felipe at a Tweetup last March (see picture at the end of the post). Felipe developed simple yet very practical Twitter-based applications. One great feature is that you do not need to register to use his free applications. For a fee, Twtapps can brand their applications to your blog or company. He is also thinking about adding premium services.

The current free version is plenty to fill many blogger’s needs. I wish to put the attention on three popular applications.

TwtPoll let you run simple poll online. This is a very popular Twitter application. It was the 9th most popular Twitter applications according to Compete (February 2009). This assessment was based on monthly active users.

TwtInvite is the most used applications to organize Tweetup events. It would be perfect to plan informal picnics in the park. A quick way to reach the Twitter community for your event. You simply fill a form and voilà. People can respond to the invite. This enables you to track the number of attendees and see who plan to be there. The event can be public or private.

TwtQpon is a simple way for small business owners and etsy sellers to promote rebate to the Twitter community.

Major brands use TwtQpon and TwtPoll. Several Twtapps applications were featured in TechCrunch. Plus Felipe is a nice guy. You should give his applications a try.

+ Twtapps

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Farm Town is a fun social game where you design and manage a farm. It takes advantage of the social element of Facebook. Having neighbors helps you make more money and gain experience more quickly.

How to Make Money and Build Experience on Farm Town

Visit your neighbor’s farms daily to rake or water their farm. Doing this simple task delivers 6 points of experience and between 10 and 20 coins. Farm Town rewards collaboration between neighbors. You can send free gifts (trees or animals) to your friends.

When you hire a friend or a hand to harvest your mature crops, they earn a small wage and you will be able to sell your crops at the market for more (more than if you harvest it and store it). You can also hire hands at the market to harvest your crops. Being hired as a temporary farmer enables you to make more money. For that reason, there is never a shortage of hands at the market.

Facebook games are meant to be quick sessions compared to video games where you can play for hours in a row. Playing 5 to 10 minutes one or twice a day is enough at first. As you increase your growing area, the game will demand more of your time. When you feel short in space, stop by the real estate office and buy more land to expand your farm. You can also spend time redesigning your farm or chatting with other players.

You gain experience by planting your farm. Initially, plant seeds that take 1 day to mature. I am partial to strawberries and potatoes. Grapes are ready in 4 hours. If you do not wish to play daily, grow longer maturing seeds. My favorite seeds are: tomatoes and rice maturing in 2 days, coffee and onions growing in 3 days, and pumpkins ready in 4 days). You can coordinate everything to play once every 2 or 3 days if you like. In any events, we could meet at the farmer’s market or cheer with water at the Inn (still not operational), since they are still waiting for their liquor permit.

JUNE 9th, 2009 1:45 AM ET – IMPORTANT MESSAGE:  To all Farm Town players, the maker are working on bringing back the game as soon as possible. Read my complete status here.
I also slightly edited my review of the game to share more tricks that I learned while playing.

September 28th, 2009 Update: This blog is NOT produced by the maker of Farm Town, and I do NOT work for Farm Town. Therefore, it is not the right place to ask about support. To contact the maker of Farm Town, use their Facebook application page.

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The Storyline

McLaren with their sponsor Vodofone posted on You Tube a video relating the extraordinary experience of two dedicated McLaren Formula 1 fans. It started as Steve and Simon wrote an application to convert their BlackBerry Storm phone into a car remote control. One weekend, they transformed the office in a big Grand-Prix circuit. It was brilliant idea for a do-it-yourself circuit. Imagine the look of your friends if you design a similar race track one weekend at home. They made you think their Grand-Prix video on You Tube caught the attention of a staff member at McLaren, which led to a private test session in Portugal with Lewis Hamilton. This is the way to grab my attention!

The storyline continues with McLaren taking extra steps to impress Steve and Simon. They hooked a remote control on an actual Formula 1 car. Lewis Hamilton, who enjoyed playing video games, used the remote control to drive the car across a small section of the circuit. How cool is that! It is a Cinderella story that for a while could make you dream.

This is effective because it is entertaining. It speaks to me as a Formula 1 fan. You wish it was true for these guys. Vodofone, this is a lot more effective that the 2-minute video where Lewis Hamilton tells us how he used his Blackberry Storm.

Who I Cheer For?

If you want to know, McLaren may be my favorite team but my favorite driver is Kimi Raikkonen. I admired the talents at Ferrari but I did not become a Ferrari’s fan even with Kimi in the red suit. Sound complicated, it is. Let’s hope Kimi learned from last year’s mistakes. I want him to be crowned World Champion for a second time. I am looking forward for the start of the Formula 1 season March 23, 2009.

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BeFunky was founded by engineers and cartoonists with a unique desire to integrate art and technology. It is fun and pretty easy to use. The selection process of the Uvatar works well. They do not tell you but you can move the selected dots to get a smoother shape for your face.

There are 9 effects to create an art picture with Cartoonizer. I went modern with the Warholizer effect on a relax pose.

The results look cool. I received good comments when I posted it on Facebook. I like that you are not obligated to sign in to download the results of the art print. You have to sign in to create an avatar since you have to add items to complete the tasks. For which of your avatar face, you can select your outfits, the background decor, add accessories and even be seen with celebrities.

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