So, what’s Pond ?  It’s an aggregator and publishing tool for social media services, that allows anyone to manage their social graph on a single place. You can import your friend list from social web services, merge friend contacts and update your social web status on the web, mobile or desktop.

The wide range of platform support is certainly the highlighted feature:  Besides the web, Android, and Symbian mobile apps are available (iPhone soon) and desktop software (Mac, Windows and Linux) will also be released.

Currently Pond supports Twitter, Flickr, SAPO Fotos, YouTube, SAPO Vídeos, Facebook and SAPO Blogs, as well any RSS or Atom feed. It will surely be a great way to introduce the power of social web to a wider portuguese audience, since the application is sponsored by TMN — the largest mobile carrier in Portugal (disclaimer: TMN is a Fulllsix client) — PT Comunicações and Meo (it will be interesting to see a social app on a IPTV service: social TV).

With smartphones becoming more affordable, growth on the social web will be fueled by mobile web with centralizing services like Pond or Vodafone 360 taking full advantage our digital identities. I only wish i could add more metadata to my friends info, like birthdays, tags or events. Give me that, and i’ll be a happy ? Ponder ?

Great work, SAPO team!

P.S.: the service is on beta — invitation only for the moment — with early registration for TMN clients.

Such is the case with Nation of Go, a Google Maps mashup sponsored by BF Goodrich, which you can get a short video overview:

There’s also a free mobile app to track drives, trails and racetracks and automatically upload them to one’s profile, with support for geo-tagged photos.
I’m a sucker for branded content and applications, and though suspicious of branded social networks (it’s like having a private talk on a crowded bar), this one from BFG really impressed me. Shame it’s only for North America.

Source: Creativity Online

Designing for Mobiles: Users & Context from Niek Dekker on Vimeo.

First, another great idea by FarFar, with Nokia presenting the next step in workload management. Just upload that boring document you have on your Documents folder and be surprised.

Speaking of mobile, and for not accusing me of a Nokia bias, there’s Samsung Omnia, a video exploration on what a mobile device has to offer, at 42goodthings.com. Also created by a Swedish agency, Projector.

Having a great time? Then grab a Heineken beer, and take a good look around the bar to know the signs.

It could be easier to understand, so i wouldn’t had to put up with the annoying voice off. The Oddcast custom video is nice though. Work by Unit9.

After the digital inspiration, a few more video bytes on creativity, starting with Lit Studio‘s Interactive Mirror (not sure how it would work out on a Monday morning)

Interactive Mirror from Alpay Kasal on Vimeo

and ending with an essential talk on creativity and play by IDEO’s T shaped men, Tim Brown.

Anyone with a GPS enabled phone can go through mission tasks, control checkpoints or complete their photo assignments, on a new kind of personal ARG.

The Flex application was developed by Orbster. Recently, at Ars Electronica, they were involved in Mission Future‘s location based hunt, with several GPS Missions around the conference venue.