How many of you were tweeting along with the Oscars this year? Or the Super Bowl? Or during your favorite TV shows? Do you find the multi-tasking a little cumbersome?

I just discovered the new startup TweePlayer. It was launched at this year’s SXSW aaaand I’m sorry to say that I missed it while running around trying to cram everything in. BUT that doesn’t mean I wasn’t quite impressed when I discovered it via Mashable. The service records real-time conversations surrounding TV shows and events (such as sports, awards shoes, political events, etc.) and syncs them with their recorded versions. It doesn’t seem you can use TweePlayer while watching live TV, but for those who TiVo everything or watch videos online (Me! Me! Me!), this seems like one darn cool product.

The timing of the player is pretty neat. As I mentioned earlier, this works with recorded shows. So if you want to join in the conversation via tweet, the tweet will be updated into the dialogue as if it was occurring in real time. Then if someone else watches that show using TweePlayer, he or she will see your input within the conversation without any break in timing.

So…I just signed up to get in on the beta of the player. Stay tuned to the Astek Twitter feed for thoughts and opinions!

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Rachel Yeomans Categories: Social Media, Technology, Web

Most of us have heard the coined phrase, “You are what you eat.” But what about, “You are from which you email”? One of our favorite ‘educational resources’ here at Astek, The Oatmeal, published the following on that thought:

First off, we at Astek very proudly email from the Astek domain (YAY, we’re smart!), but some of our family members do admittedly use Yahoo.  CNN Tech also published a similar graph last year along with the following statement: “Fair or not, if you send an e-mail from an AOL account, the recipient is likely to expect it to be spam, a forward of some thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory or pictures of kittens.”

Regarding the pictures of kittens, does keyboard cat count?

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Rachel Yeomans Categories: Fun, Web

We’ve reached the end of a significant phase with eMainstay, a client with whom Astek has spent the last three years building the My25 web-based meal-planning software to improve health and reduce management costs for communities housing people with developmental disabilities.

In order to broaden the market for the software, which has proven highly successful in numerous USDA-funded studies, eMainstay approached Astek to develop a robust new My25 prototype for the software and online community development. We chose video as the form to convey our vision for the future of our software and a truly innovative approach to household-oriented meal planning.

The videos below say it better than words. Bon Appetit!

My25 Business Overview

My25 Online Toolkit Intro

Extra special thanks to Vin Design, Kathleen Ermitage, and Sedgwick Productions for their multiple contributions to the ongoing success of this project.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Fun, Marketing, Technology, Web

This past Sunday’s CBS Morning News show featured a brief segment on business cards. According to those being interviewed, the business card is extremely important for businesses…still. With today’s technology, many people say that the business card is becoming ‘old marketing’. However here we are, still exchanging cards as a form of professional follow-up after a conference or used as an ice breaker at the beginning of an association lunch.

Even from the more technological side, sometimes I admit I ask for someone’s Twitter handle before I ask for their business card. There are people who feature QR codes on their cards. Even start-ups such as Hashable take some of the hassle out of the business card exchange (and in many cases, the business card memory loss). What is your view of the business card?

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Rachel Yeomans Categories: Marketing