I had a chance earlier today to talk with the folks at Grand Central. This service serves as a centralized personal calling center. Some of the key features I noted were:

• Automatic call forwarding to 3-6 phones
• Personalized greetings and voicemail based on caller
• Call recording for 1-10 hours
• Per call note taking and forwarding
• Spam blocking for phone numbers
• RingShare - allows you to provide a MP3 for your phone number

The basic service is free. For a small monthly fee (under $15), you can get quite a bit more. I asked some questions about other forms of integration and it seems there could eventually be an offering catering to small businesses. To me, a tie in with SalesForce or other CRM systems would be ideal.

This is defniitely something that I recommend taking a closer look at. It’s really pretty awesome. The only difficulty, of course, is that you have to start using a new number. This is not a problem for me as I am moving, but it certainly could be a hurdle for others.

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, grand+central

Widgetbox has the goal of widgetizing the web. Today’s world is using widgets to enable content, communities and commerce..

Widgetbox provides you with hundreds of widgets that you can add to your own pages. They are trying to make it easier for you to create widgets as well as to find them.

They have a Money Maker’s category that lists widgets that will actually earn you some cold, hard cash for the real estate they take up on your site. The application enables you to customize the presentation of the widget - effectively normalizing widget configuration.

WidgetBox has tag awareness - “Widgets tune in to the content of the page and they do so automatically.”

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, widgetbox

PostPath is the first company outside of Redmond to build protocol compatibility with Microsoft Exchange (famous for using undocumented protocols).

Interestingly, the PostPath server runs on Linux but appears to the system as a valid Exchange Server. A nice feature is that the Linux tools for high availability can be leveraged as opposed to the Microsoft route.

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, postpath

“We create building blocks from visual images… Drawing is the most natural form of expressing”

Imaginestics is the worlds only online shape search engine (3d-seek.com). Amazingly, you can sketch any shape and it provides you with a resultset containing products that match the shape you are drawing. This enables you to then locate those hard to find pieces that you end up missing after destroying the IKEA box.

Sellers can upload their own 3D files. Browsers can interact with 3D models of the objects directly in the site.

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, imaginestics

Setting up hi-tech gadgets is a living hell. Retrevo is “the ultimate in consumer electronics search”. They are a vertical search engine that provides you with quick access to product documentation as well as search.

The screen is organized into categories. The search provides a preview of the documents you are looking for. Results can be mailed to your family and friends with ease.

Retrevo integrates buzz from the blogging world so the unofficial experts have their say represented as well. Naturally, it folds in reviews from the official sites as well.

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, retrevo

Flurry makes e-mail more accessible on the average cell phone. Flurry doesn’t care what kind of phone you have.

Flurry converts messages into hyperlinked documents that function as expected on higher end phones. Flurry is also capable of handling news.

FotoMail enables you to capture photos and send them as attachments in your messages.

Flurry offers a number of customization options through the web site.

Flurry is completely free - even on your old brick phone.

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, flurry

More than 100B mobile messages will be sent this year. “Pinger is incredibly simple - allows anyone to send a voice message to any cell phone, regardless of carrier.”

To use the service, you simply dial the Pinger number. After leaving a voice message on the system If you are not a member, you get an e-mail with a link. If you are a member, you can get notified on your cell phone using a text message. The Pinger message contains details about the call. Dialing in plays the message automatically and replying is a single-button process.

The web interface makes it possible to forward messages as well as manage a number of other annoying features that can be hard to punch out on the phone.

One last integration is that Pinger can ping your myspace page and leave a comment on the page. Interesting.

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, pinger

Joopz - new web-based text messaging service (webtexting). Allows web-originating messages while letting recipients respond directly to the desktop.

The site has a nice user interface that seems clear and easy to use. Each conversation is maintained as it’s own chat box… enabling you to quickly stay on top of multiple conversations.

Any member can respond to all other members automatically. Joopz provides SMS forwarding which will take your web-based messages and send them to your phone.

Joopz will be sold direct to consumers as well as through business partnerships.

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, joopz

3Jam is reply-all text messaging. They are focused on new ways to keep people in touch with their friends. The problem with SMS today is there’s no way to send to a group of people.

There is no special sign-up or software required to use the software.

The system provides transparency into who has received the message.

Send a text message with keyword start or you receive a 3jam.

They’re announcing a few small starter apps that will make it even easier to use the service directly from your phone.

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, 3jam

Statistics created online, realtime, everywhere (SCORE).

With Score, they provide a single-click capture of events. Parents can use the web site to locate their child’s school and watch realtime video of the game they are in. Beyond that, you can drill down specifically to the child.

This information is also available directly via your cell phone as well.

There is just a 4 second delay in place. Parents can save the content, review it, or download it.

Another target for this product is the talent scout investigating new prospects.

technorati tags:demofall2006, demofall, sportstat