Yesterday, I was invited by Virgin America to the opening flight San Francisco-Fort Lauderdale and I tested the free in-flight wi-fi, courtesy of Google during the Holiday season (ends January 15th, sigh). It worked very well: the login time is very fast unlike when I had to go through the payment process on Gogo Inflight Internet website, the user interface was terrible and it often returned error messages. The most impressive technology feature is the power plugs provided for every seat in economy class, Virgin America is a true 21st century airline! I was able to post articles, the Microsoft Office 2010 post was published from the sky...

Check out the photo gallery, I shot some really nice pictures of the inaugural flight event, Virgin America CEO David Cush cut the ribbon in SFO and Sir Richard Branson himself welcomed us at our arrival in Fort Lauderdale.

[Web 2.0 Summit] Just when we thought that Bing was going to get an edge over Google by accessing Twitter's data, Marissa Mayer announces that Google too will have access. Google will integrate tweets in selected searches. I guess that Google wants to dip its toes before using this all over the place.

Does it mean that Twitter will crash even more often with the new traffic influx?

In an hour, I (Eliane) will be a judge for the Annual Silicon Valley Summit organized by ANZA Technology Network held at the Plug and Play Center in Sunnyvale, California (Oct 6-7) . The two other judges are John Dyson from Starfish Ventures and Simon Anderson, CMO of Pictage.com. The innovative Australian tech companies presenting at the conference are part of a 2-month program (Gateway to the US) devoted to exploring US market expansion opportunities, starting in Silicon Valley.

Tickets are $55 and can be purchased at this link: http://www.anzatechnet.com/conference2009/reg/reg1_summit.jsp

The Australian-based companies include:

• Earth Utility, a sustainable utility company that makes sustainability simple and affordable.
• iPOWOW!, an integrated platform and tools for online video, which collects attitude and opinion from any video in real-time, and allows for sophisticated reporting on responses.
• myCaRMS, enterprise software that addresses the dual requirements of regulatory compliance and risk assessment for financial institutions.
• Myownpad, social networking and social gaming integration into a unique virtual world platform that provides an immersive, interactive and social 3D experience.
• Software Shortlist, a proprietary method to help businesses identify software that is most appropriate for their business.
• Spinergy, renewable "clean" energy generation technologies that provide in situ power to drive instrumentation and telemetry equipment. These technologies are cheaper, safer, easier to install, and more reliable and robust once in operation.
• Tradeslot, combination optimization technology and auction technology that creates transparent and efficient primary markets for scarce resources such as carbon, timber, grain, iron ore, water and more.

Like.com, Inc. the masterminds behind visual search for shopping and the first visual style personalization tech (Covet.com) are innovating again. As the top online fashion search engine (over 8 million uniques) Like.com has proven itself to be a key player in e-commerce. Now the Silicon Valley company is creating a revolutionary new site where mainstream, indie and vintage fashions will live together. This new site is in total stealth mode. Recent tweets indicate that they are singling out Fall/Holiday '09 collections while previewing lines for Spring 2010. "The task of choosing the best collections is astounding. There's so much great talent out there, especially in the indie design sector," says Marissa Goodman, Director of Fashion at Like.com. "We will showcase a wide range of hot new designers and fashion mainstays in order to meet the diverse style and budget needs of today's online shopper."

Good news! They're still accepting submissions for review. Designers who would like to shine a spotlight on their original collections should send photos or links to marissa at like.com. But beware, if your designs only live on paper, this isn't the showcase for you. All items need to be built and photo shoot ready.

[DEMOFall 09] Webroot says that traditional approach to computer security is ill-suited for today's threats. Yesterday's focus was about protecting the computers and files from being damaged, but Webroot argues that customer identities are much more valuable. Your personal information can be stolen from many locations: smartphone, laptop, or even via a key logger on any computer. Webroot's new system revolves around a centralized identity (ID) manager that synchronizes the information across multiple devices. It can also defeat key loggers by circumventing the use of the keyboard. And of course, all the "new stuff" integrates with the traditional way that Webroot knows all too well. They have been doing that for a very long time. Webroot is starting a beta of the new service today and the final product will be priced at $79.95.Individuals can sign up today to participate in the free beta program for Webroot Internet Security Complete which begins October 19 by visiting http://www.webroot.com/registration/betaRegistration.php.

[DEMOFall 09] Micello is a database of maps of places like shopping malls, college campuses, convention centers etc… that mobile users can explore and access useful information while interacting with each other, thanks to its social networking component. There tons of Location Based Services such as Google Latitude or Loopt, bit none of them has really got into the buildings with relevant information.I can imagine very well how this application could provide both information and highly relevant advertising to a super targeted and engaged audience. Currently the app only provide maps for 150 places in the bay area and the user interface could be more appealing, however the concept could be developed very well with more funding (for now it is a "friends and family" funding). The company plans to include theme parks, golf courses, fitness centers, airpots, museums. Micello is available at the Apple AppStore and will be launched on BlackBerry, Android and WebOS in the coming months. www.micello.com

Micello will demo live on stage in the 8.30- 11.10 am session on Tuesday Sept.22nd, live.ubergizmo.com.

Features after the jump:

[DEMOFall 09] Another day and another Twitter dashboard… dotSyntax the company behind Digsby, the popular IM and social networking aggregator, claims that it delivers the best Twitter experience, presenting the data in a conversation format while the competition is still stuck with the “Timeline” interface. Digsby allows users to filter out tweets coming from unimportant sources and it includes a variety of features such as the ability to 'reply' and 'retweet' right from pop-up notifications.

"Twitter now feels and looks like a conversation, not a column of information to sift through," said Steve Shapiro, CEO of dotSyntax, "Our solution presents the clearest answer to the question, what is Twitter and how do I manage all this data?". Well, download the new app for free at http://www.digsby.com. and tell us if he is right., the main competition includes TweetDeck (client), Seesmic (web based), PeopleBrowsr (web based) and Hootsuite (web based).

Hand Eye Technologies has created a solution that allows set top boxes (Cable...) to talk to your phones. "What for?" you might ask. Put simply, their core product called Hand Eye Interactive Technology (HIT) sends contextual data related to a show to your mobile phone based on what you are watching (hence the "contextual part"). Users can also request information by snapping a photo of select on screen content.  In short, this is a new take on interactive TV. We might be getting old, but what's wrong with watching TV without receiving metadata on the phone?

[DEMOFall 09] VicMan Software launched its Online Photo! Enhancement Platform, which is a RESTful API available at http://pho.to . Most pictures taken with point and shoot cameras or phones have bad quality, mostly due to noise, incorrect color balance, low light conditions or the famous red-eye effect. Pho.to enhancement algorithm (http://enhance.pho.to) fixes all common photo defects at once by analyzing an image and by applying color and contrast adjustment, performing denoising and sharpening. Another Pho.to algorithm, http://makeup.pho.to, for automatic portrait corrections, detects a face in a photo and fixes automatically common flaws, delivering whiter teeth, smoother skin and removing the red eye effect.

[DEMOFall 09] VIAAS is the new video surveillance “as a service” delivered over the web by Third Iris. “VIAAS is simple to install, provides the power of professional monitoring systems and delivers enterprise-class reliability without the complexities typically associated with video monitoring solutions. .. Cost of entry is less than one-fourth of equivalent premise-based systems and since VIAAS operates as a service, customers benefit from lower ongoing cost of ownership as well,” said Steve Roskowski, co-founder and CEO of Third Iris. VIAAS features include a video footage search engine, IntelEvents, that allow users to easily find a particular video (by date and time of capture) without having to browse the videos for hours. VIAAS cameras automatically connect via a broadband internet connection to the VIASS service, according to the company, no additional network configuration is needed.

[DEMOFall 09] Digitrad lunahced its new voice service that allows users to place a call from a web browser by simply typing a person name, eliminating the need for a phone number. OrganIP can search, locate the call recipient and connect a call whether the caller is on the phone, in a social network or online community. OrganIP works from a PC or from a mobile phone, it si compatible with Android, windows, linux, Mac OSX and works on any web browser. Versions for iPhone, PalmPre, Blackbery, Symbian and Windows mobile will be available in the coming months.

OrganIP will be available in an open beta on October 19, 2009. OrganIP will first be free in US and then based on a monthly subscription fee. Users can signup today at www.organip.com to be part of the open beta.

MyOwnRealEstate's stated goal is to democratize property management. The solution includes bookkeeping, management aids, query and print, listing service, free documents and... online property management. The service connects landlord and renters in a way that was only accessible to large property management companies before. The company's reasoning is simple: there are 12 million rental units that are owned by private investors that could use MyOwnRealEstate's help to make more profits.

[DEMOFall 09] TravelTrac app for the iPhone allows travelers to share their locations, travel blog post, photos and video on custom Google maps, using geotagging technologie even from remote locations. TravelTrac offers 3 websites for globe trotters to share their adventures, depending on the vehicle they prefer:

• MotoTrac – www.mototrac.com for vehicular car/truck/motorcycle/RV and off road trips and travel adventures,
• TrekTrac – www.trektrac.com for land based exploration, tours, trips, and travel sharing; and,
• SailTrac – www.sailtrac.com for on the water sailing, boating, racing voyages and onboard adventures.

The offline mode makes it possible to continue creating the multimedia travel diary even when phone or wireless services are not available, once the connection is re-established and the app re-launched, all contents automatically updates and travelogues are formatted chronologically. Users can decide whether they want to share their trips publically or just with their friends and family, emails notifications are sent automatically to their network of friends with a link that allows them to interact with the content.

TravelTrac will begin supporting Google Android and Blackberry OS devices shortly. www.traveltrac.com/mobileapps.asp

Follow our live coverage during DEMFall 09 at live.ubergizmo.com

[DEMOFall 09]The recent presidential campaign has highlighted the power of small online donations, and that has created a demand from candidates, non-profit, local governments, and other entities to have a web-platform to raise funds. It's a good idea, but most can't build anything like that themselves. That's where Piryx comes in. The platform sits on top of a payment processing system that allows money to flow in. On top of that, the platform has a CRM system that can track donors and finally, Piryx also handles the integration in social networks to find new donors. Piryx charges between 4% and 4.5% of the transaction amount for its services and there's nothing to pay to get started.