One of our users recently wrote in to tell us that he didn’t have an easy way to figure out which events still needed replies from guests.  We love reports like this because they tell us how to make the product better to everybody’s benefit.  And we’d like to be responsive to users as much as we can.

So we added an enhancement to the upcoming events page showing status next to each event whenever action is needed.

This status shows you when an event you have created is still in need of one or more replies from guests.  If you created an event and have not sent it out yet–perhaps because you are still figuring out details–Presdo also reminds you that invites still need to be sent out.  Of course, Presdo already reminds guests to reply to an event if they are still undecided on an event.

By the way, if you haven’t checked out the upcoming events page, it’s worth a closer look.  This page shows you all the, well, upcoming events you are a part of, whether created by you or invited to by someone else.  Whenever you have an upcoming event, go to this page by clicking the link in the header at the upper right.

To the user who gave us this feedback and enabled us to improve the product, thank you.  We’d love to hear more such suggestions.  To tell us about the gripe that will makes the most difference to you, tell us here.

You might have noticed that we have been adding many small enhancements to Presdo here and there to smooth the user experience.  The latest is the ability to save events to the calendar of Google Apps.

Any time you click the “Save to Calendar” button on an event, you’ll see a new fifth button, which allows you to save the event to Google Apps.  This function uses the same email address with which you signed up for Presdo to identify you to Google Apps. If you used another email address to sign up for Presdo, you can sign up for Presdo again or just let us know you want your email address on your Presdo account changed.

We received quite a lot of requests for this one, so we hope you find it useful!

The contest entries are in, and the judging for the Presdo iPhone 3G Contest begins.

Several weeks ago, we launched the Presdo API and began a contest around our APIs with iPhone 3Gs as prizes.  In the weeks since, we’ve received contest entries from many users.  We’ve gotten entries from as far away as Japan, Colombia and India.  Some of you really thought “out of the box” and submitted mashups that went way beyond what the Presdo API can do.  We love it, for we are truly excited by your creativity and passion to help us innovate at Presdo.  Clearly, we’re going to learn from you and enhance the APIs to enable people to do the kinds of things you dreamed of.

And now, it’s time for the judges to take a serious look at the contest entries and decide the winners.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be featuring some of the really impressive ideas on this blog so that the people who worked hard to enter their ideas get some deserving recognition.

The iPhone 3Gs are waiting to get into the hands of their rightful owners.  Thank you to those who participated in our contest.  The winners will be announced August 22 as promised.

Eric Ly
Founder/CEO, Presdo

Only three days remain before the August 1 deadline arrives for contest entries!  To those who have already submitted entries, thank you for your submissions.  We’ve received some really great and interesting ideas.  If you haven’t entered into the contest, now’s the time to pump in some extra cycles to get your entry done and submitted.  We look forward to opening the judging once the contest ends!

I’m really pleased to round out our judging panel for the Presdo Contest with Mike Maples, Jr.

Mike is the managing partner of Maples Investments, a new generation of VC firms here in Silicon Valley changing the way venture investments are done.  Among other notable companies, Maples Investments is an investor in Twitter and Digg.  Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike himself was an entrepreneur in his own right.  Mike co-founded Motive, the world’s leading broadband software company that successfully went IPO in 2004.  He also had executive roles at Tivoli Systems and Silicon Graphics.  Interestingly, Mike began his technology career in high school, when he started a software company that developed games and educational products for the original IBM PC. He has been passionate about the technology industry ever since.

I’m told that Mike is always too busy for his own good, to the point that he doubles or triple books his schedule.  Hopefully, Presdo can help him with that!  So we’re especially delighted that he is willing to spare a few minutes of his time to join us for the contest.

Eric Ly
Founder/CEO, Presdo

Our illustrious panel of judges for the Presdo Contest continues with Bob Walsh.

Many of you know Bob from the posts he has written on emerging web technologies and companies at the WebWorkerDaily blog.  He also runs the popular Joel on Software Business of Software forum.  But those are only his part-time jobs.  Bob has been a longtime software developer, the only person on our panel who actually codes.  We respect that.  Bob runs 47hats.com a consulting service for microISVs and startups.  The company provides consulting services to startups while building a Ruby on Rails training SaaS site for startups.  Bob is an author of two books, Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality and Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them.

Bob told me that he is generally interested in tools and techniques that help people cope with an information overloaded world, which is why we certainly appreciate his interest in Presdo.  With all his experience, Bob is going to be able to tell us which of the contest entries will truly help cut down on the information overload problem, which is something we are all interested in.

We are really happy to have Bob involved with the contest!

Eric Ly
Founder/CEO, Presdo

Many of you have written in and asked for more time to finish and submit you contest entries, so we have decided to extend the deadline for the Presdo iPhone 3G Contest.  We are extending the contest deadline to August 1, and winners will be decided August 22.

For those who have submitted or plan to submit entries by the original deadline, we want to make sure we honor your punctuality.  If you submit an entry by the original deadline, which is this Friday, July 18, and you win an iPhone 3G, we will also include a new Jawbone Bluetooth headset with your iPhone 3G.  It’ll go great with the phone.

We appreciate everyone’s interest in the contest, and continue to look forward to your creations.

To our Presdo Contest contestants, several have written in to us just the last couple days with questions about the Contest.  When you ask a question, please make sure your email address is included on the contact form.  Otherwise, we have no way of answering your questions.

And we’d certainly like to help you with your brilliant ideas!

Out of the many possible experts we could have chosen to be involved with the Presdo Contest, Allen Blue is truly a gem in my book.

Allen is a co-founder of LinkedIn and leads the company as its Vice President, Product Strategy.  I have worked with Allen for several years at LinkedIn, and I have never met anyone with more sharp and insightful judgment on product decisions than Allen.  I credit LinkedIn’s successful product largely because of Allen’s persistent, focused vision for it.

LinkedIn has announced APIs and OpenSocial integration, so Allen’s definitely been thinking about web service APIs and the myriad possibilities for them!

We are absolutely thrilled to have Allen, along with Ben Metcalfe, as judges for the contest.

The remaining judge will be announced soon!

Eric Ly
Founder/CEO, Presdo

There’s just one week left now before the deadline to submit entries for the Presdo iPhone 3G Contest.  The deadline is this Friday, July 18.  It has been great talking to contestants and enthusiastic Presdo users while receiving very creative entries!

Remember, Presdo will be awarding not one but three very slick iPhone 3Gs to people who come up with great mashups, deemed to be winning of course by our illustrious judging panel.

If you are think you’ve got what it takes to win, there’s no better time than now to charge up those creative juices and spending a couple hours on your idea.  Your audience awaits you.

Check out the contest details, and the Presdo API, and get rolling.