ReadWriteStart

After successfully selling MyBlogLog to Yahoo, it was surprising to see Lookery founder Scott Rafer write a blog post announcing his company's "orderly shutdown". In heartbreaking detail he took full responsibility for the company's demise saying, "In chronological order, the sins Lookery committed under my leadership were continuing our dependency on a large partner, not knowing when to cut bait on a failing asset, and building ahead of the market." While Rafer is still advising half a dozen startups and his API management company Mashery continues to thrive, the loss of Lookery has taught the entrepreneur some hard lessons.

In 1906 John Philip Sousa criticized the gramophone saying, "These talking machines will ruin the artistic development of music in this country." Nevertheless, because Sousa did not forsee user-generated culture proliferating alongside "mechanical music" he could not have been further from the truth. Not only have machine technologies aided in musical development, but there are a variety of mediums to choose from. While audio engineers may scoff at the idea of making music on the iPhone, there's no denying that a number of options exist for the pocket DJ. Below are a few tools to get you started:

Metaio Augmented Reality Solutions is about to announce the release of the company's Junaio iPhone application and ReadWriteWeb has an exclusive pre-release review. While other products like Wikitude, Robotvision and Layar allow users to view notes and text above a location-based layer, no other service offers us a chance to add 3D objects and animation. While the demo may seem frivolous for now, the possibilities for branded scavenger hunts, real-world easter eggs and Foursquare-like location-based games are limitless.

Earlier today we posted about Answers.com's rise as a revenue and page-view generator. Through user-generated Q&A posted to WikiAnswers, the company is crowdsourcing heaps of daily content, ranking high in search across a variety of subjects, subsequently seeing steady traffic and, finally, cashing in via Google ads. It's a simple business model, but from a user standpoint there remains one question: Are we seeing quality solutions?

KillerStartups hopes to ensure that entrepreneurs get quality solutions. The company launched Startups.com as a WikiAnswers-style Q&A site specific to business.

We're half way through the Enterprise 2.0 Conference and ReadWriteWeb has been fortunate enough to witness some of the enterprise community's brightest new stars. Enterprise 2.0 Launchpad offers early-stage companies a chance to shine. In a gong-show like presentation series, the four finalists took to the stage to battle it out for the title of best newcomer.

It's almost a rite of passage for North Americans to go abroad in search of themselves. I believe the rest of you call us "ugly Americans." We are the smelly people on your crowded subways, the drunk people in your religious festivals and often, the slack-jawed map readers blocking you during morning rush hour. Duffel offers us a chance to change that. In July, ReadWriteWeb covered a list of travel trends including group planning, mapping tools and recommendation engines. Duffel combines all three in one easy-to-use dashboard.

Canadian company ConnectionPoint is about to unveil its FundRazr Facebook application as the only service utilizing both PayPal X's Adaptive Account API and its Adaptive Payment API. Initially launched in private beta at TC50, Fundrazr allows users to collect fees and donations through Facebook.

When most of us hear the words, "For as little as 50 cents a day..." our brains conjure up solemn images of Sally Struthers. For as little as 50 cents a day MixMatchMusic is offering starving and made musicians a chance to reach their fans via a customizable iPhone app maker. Between now and tomorrow morning, MobBase will offer musicians with no programming skills the ability to build sleek-looking band apps. Features will include videos, images, bios, band news, streaming playlists, concert schedules and perhaps most importantly, links for music purchases.

Before anime torrents, World of Warcraft and even before the internet itself, fantasy seeking geeks were fortunate enough to pour over the genius and inspiration of writers and artists like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. With the exception of Ben Affleck's lackluster display in Daredevil, almost every classic Marvel title has produced an equally epic blockbuster movie hit. The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Wolverine and The Punisher are as thrilling to audiences now as they were in their comic book form. And this past weekend, Marvel announced plans to offer its products via a number of iPhone applications.

While the rest of the world is digitizing and consolidating their belongings, some of us just can't stop being the pack rats that we are. While the Kindle offers a good daytime reading experience, it's tough to justify taking it into the bath or falling asleep with it nestled against your cheek. My home is filled with books I no longer need but love to lend out. Whether your home is filled with books, camping gear, vinyls or video games, if you're a collector below are some tools to help you manage your stuff: