Just a quick video updating you all on everything that has been going on the past few weeks. There is lots about Webmaster Jam Session 2008.

It was just announced that Digg.com has generated an additional $28.7 Million in VC funding. Digg is saying that this funding is going to be used for a large expansion plan over the next few months. Rumor is that Digg plans to almost double its staff to 150 as well as move to a bigger and better space in San Fransisco. I do believe this is all true, but what I am wondering is why?

The expansion represents the largest initiative in the company’s history and will include:

• Hiring the staff needed to accelerate Digg product and feature rollouts, including more ways to consume the over 16,000 stories and other content submitted to Digg everyday, deeper category and topic content views, and additional ways to discover and customize content;
• More than doubling the Digg staff within the next 12 months – from 75 today to over 150 by December 2009;
• Kicking off Digg’s international growth strategy and plans to expand Digg into other languages;
• Moving to a new larger corporate headquarters in San Francisco in early 2009 that more than triples the existing Digg headquarters space;
• Investing in brand and market development programs;
• Investing in publisher analytics and more sophisticated tools for publishers;

~ Yahoo News: Digg Announces Significant Expansion Plans Fueled by $28.7 Million Series C Round of Funding

So, what is GrabUp? GrabUp is screen capture product from a London, England based software developer. GrabUp is a screen capture program unlike any other screen capture program out there. It that makes taking quick screen shots a snap. Prior to getting GrabUp, to take a screen capture, I would:

Command+Shift+4 > Open up my FTP program > Connect to my FTP server > Browse to the folder I want to upload it in > Upload it > Open FireFox > Browse to the image > Copy the link > Paste it in an email, IM, or else where.

Well, with GrabUp I:

Command+Shift+4 > Command+V to paste the link to the screen capture.

As you all already know, I am loving my new iPhone. While the phone itself is awesome, the true enjoyment of the phone comes from the third party apps. Below I am going to walk you through the useful apps I have choose to follow me everywhere I go. This list is only the useful apps; I am going to review games in Part 3 of my iPhone coverage.

If you think I am missing some great apps, please let me know so I can check them out.

WeatherBug

The default weather app on the iPhone SUCKS! It is missing a lot of information that one might want when looking for a weather report. WeatherBug gives you all the normal stuff like current temp, heat index, humidity, and a few day out forecast, but what I really find useful is that WeatherBug allows you to view radar maps that use the Multi-Touch pitch zoom functionality.

While I have had some issues with the radar maps not loading completely, it has not really bugged me. WeatherBug also allows you to view weather webcams around your area. Also, you can track multiple locations very easily.

iTunes Download Link: WeatherBug

Twitteriffic

As most of you know, I am a twitter fanatic. I love posting tweets when I am away from my computer. I have been doing this for sometime via text message, but now I can easily post tweets without using up my text messages.

Twitteriffic has some nice extras too. You can post photo tweets directly from Twitteriffic as it is integrated with the Twitpic.com service. Twitteriffic also uses the built in iPhone GPS to update your profile on Twitter with your exact location. I find this to be a little to intrusive on my privacy. I don’t want people knowing exactly where I am all the time so I don’t use this function.

There are 2 versions of this app, a free version and a pay, I use the free because well, it is free. The only real difference is that with the free version, you see an ad appear in your Twitteriffic home screen. This does not bug, because the ads are tastefully done, and placed in non annoying locations.

Additional Note: Twitteriffic is very complex and might be overwhelming at first, but read the hints and give yourself some time to figure out how it all works then you will love it!

Associated with: http://www.Twitter.com/
iTunes Download Link: Twitteriffic