If you’ve ever fancied the idea of battling Top Trumps style with your friends’ faces, Facetrumps has got you covered. Simply sign into Facebook, select the friends you’d like to include, choose the categories and then set their various ‘strength’ scores for each. Facetrumps will then turn your friends into trading cards, delivered to your door.

We asked Jon Stephens from Facetrumps to tell us a bit about the idea:

The idea for Facetrumps originally came from those random pub conversations in which you end up talking about which of your friends are most likely to millionaires / get married first / or get drunk the fastest. We started thinking about how we used to do this when we were kids, but it was more comparing cars / battleships / planes using packs of Top Trumps (we’re trying not to use the phrase for copyright reasons). It seemed like an obvious next step to update the classic card game for the new generation of kids that are growing-up with Facebook accounts.

We knew about how powerful Facebook Connect could be through using it with a previous project of ours (www.wirediary.com) and knew that it would be relatively simple to use the profile images to create the trump cards.

Our target markets are children who are most likely to play with the cards, and adults who are going on stag do’s or who are looking for a quirky present for people. So far people seem to have particularly enjoyed coming-up with their own categories and rating their friends.

We think there is a lot of potential in looking at how to use the data in social networks to produce offline products (and we’ve seen a couple of companies starting to do this recently). If Facetrumps is successful then we are going to try to move in to other similar areas, possibly using data in twitter as well. We may also do a phone app version of Facetrumps and allow users to upload their photos etc so people don’t need to use Facebook Connect (this would be useful if you were creating packs for your work colleagues who you were not connected to on Facebook).

If you’ve ever fancied the idea of battling Top Trumps style with your friends’ faces, Facetrumps has got you covered. Simply sign into Facebook, select the friends you’d like to include, choose the categories and then set their various ‘strength’ scores for each. Facetrumps will then turn your friends into trading cards, delivered to your door.

We asked Jon Stephens from Facetrumps to tell us a bit about the idea:

The idea for Facetrumps originally came from those random pub conversations in which you end up talking about which of your friends are most likely to millionaires / get married first / or get drunk the fastest. We started thinking about how we used to do this when we were kids, but it was more comparing cars / battleships / planes using packs of Top Trumps (we’re trying not to use the phrase for copyright reasons). It seemed like an obvious next step to update the classic card game for the new generation of kids that are growing-up with Facebook accounts.

We knew about how powerful Facebook Connect could be through using it with a previous project of ours (www.wirediary.com) and knew that it would be relatively simple to use the profile images to create the trump cards.

Our target markets are children who are most likely to play with the cards, and adults who are going on stag do’s or who are looking for a quirky present for people. So far people seem to have particularly enjoyed coming-up with their own categories and rating their friends.

We think there is a lot of potential in looking at how to use the data in social networks to produce offline products (and we’ve seen a couple of companies starting to do this recently). If Facetrumps is successful then we are going to try to move in to other similar areas, possibly using data in twitter as well. We may also do a phone app version of Facetrumps and allow users to upload their photos etc so people don’t need to use Facebook Connect (this would be useful if you were creating packs for your work colleagues who you were not connected to on Facebook).

It might sound like a slightly odd idea that you could create a global brand around startups but accelerator programmes like Y Combinator and Techstars have been having a pretty good go at it.

Accelerator programmes act as intense, competitive business development programmes for startup companies, primarily tech-related. In return for a small equity stake, accelerators typically provide workspace, some cash, access to high-quality ‘been-there-done-that’ mentors and a chance to pitch to potential investors – all crammed in to a few months.

TechStars in particular has extended its brand by launching new programmes across the US and rolling out the brand globally through the TechStars Network of similar programmes.

A new entrant into the arena, Rockstart – which was established this year by Dutch entrepreneur Oscar Kneppers, founder of media companies Emerce and Bright - aims to take things a step further and establish a ‘global brand for startups’. You can check out their manifesto video above.

iPads and other tablet devices are increasingly making their way into various retail and hospitality settings but they’re still relatively expensive bits of kit and you don’t want to let them get busted or stolen.

One simple idea comes from design and manufacturing company nClosures. They’ve designed a simple, lockable enclosure for tablets that can help turn them into public kiosks – and when you consider full-scale touch screen kiosks can cost well in excess of $10,000, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Site: www.ipadkioskmount.com

It may seem like the world of e-commerce is an increasingly mature space but it is still surprisingly segmented.

Almost every marketplace, from Amazon to EBay, has its own listings policies and proprietary formats making the life of an independent online retailer a complicated one.

Stepping into the breach are sites like SellerExpress which provide centralised platforms from which online retailers can manage their listings, and stock levels, across numerous marketplaces – in this instance Play.com and the various Amazon marketplaces.

A single dashboard allows for bulk uploads across multiple sites and rapid data entry based on product barcode or ISBN numbers. The site also allows retailers to ‘auto reprice’ ensuring that they maintain the highest possible margins while still shifting their stock.

It’s probably not the sexiest industry to play in but where there’s customer pain, there’s potential profits.

Site: www.sellerexpress.com

Creative agency Cosalux and Deutsche Post DHL have created a Facebook application, Social Memories, which turns your social circle into a gorgeous, infographic inspired book.

While it’s great to see pics from your favourite events and best friend’s birthday arranged in a glossy magazine-style, pages dedicated to the words you use most in your status updates and the male:female ratio of your friends are even more interesting.

Once the app has generated your book, you can adjust the colour palette, pick your language and (naturally enough) share the whole thing on Facebook. And if you’re particularly enamoured you can get it professionally printed and bound for €19 + shipping.

Souvenirs of our digital lives can be good business.

Link: http://apps.facebook.com/mysocialmemories/

Smart, creative people tend to gravitate around smart, creative spaces. Reinvogorating the art of screen printing, Print Club London combines a ‘co-working’ style membership model, shop, workshops and private commissions to create an exciting business that deserves to be replicated in cities around the world.

Open 24 hours a day 365 days a year. We have six screen beds, two t-shirt carousels, t-shirt dryer, applemacs, storage facilities, washout room and the mother of all exposure units. We supply the facilities and members supply there consumables such as ink, paper, screens and emulsion.

Check it out at www.printclublondon.com

Applications like 4square have undoubtedly given the idea and enormous boost but it seems as if game mechanics is everywhere at the moment (case in point, we highlighted Yoxi just a few days ago).

Finnish startup Deal Machine applies the concept to a rather obvious opportunity – sales teams. The site allows sales managers to set rules, break down a company’s sales process into targets and rewards, create leader boards etc…

Where else could this simple concept be applied effectively? The answer is anywhere you’d like to motivate people to do something – think business, marketing or ‘doing good’ for starters.

Site: www.dealmachine.net