It’s testament to the enthusiasm of the Uber fan base that we’ve gotten multiple tips this afternoon about the service being live in Seattle. Via a quick phone call with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, I’ve confirmed that Uber has indeed soft-launched in the Pacific Northwest’s largest city, with an initial three black cars in its test fleet.

Perhaps because of general cost of living is lower, Seattle Uber pricing is less than its counterpart in New York or San Francisco — At a $7.00 base fare with a $12 minimum versus a $8.00 base fare and a $15 minimum. Uber costs more than a cab obviously (the company is currently experimenting with pricing) but totally worth it if you need to get somewhere fast, safely or just want to impress someone with your uncanny ability to summon a black car at will.

As having enough drivers to quell car requests is a key issue with Uber, Kalanick tells me that they’re positioning the initial Seattle Ubers as for “adventurous users only” even though the app is live and ostensibly anyone can use it. Kalanick hopes to have dozens of cars available upon full launch, which he jokingly says we should expect at some point in the next two weeks to three months.

While Kalanick couldn’t give out any information about how successful the Uber launches were in San Francisco or New York, or which cities will come after Seattle, he did give me this one stat, “The best metric I can give you is that Uber is killing it in San Francisco and we’re crushing it in New York.”

Sure enough, five minutes after stealth launch, photographer Chase Jarvis – the Seattle equivalent of our own Erick Schonfeld – scooped one up (image below).

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Mark Suster (@msuster), a 2x entrepreneur, now VC at GRP Partners. Read more about Suster at Bothsidesofthetable

I’m in Seattle this week.

People keep asking me if I’ve “seen anything interesting.” Of course I have. I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation.

I really liked BigDoor, MediaPiston, OpsCode, BuddyTV, SEOMoz and much more. Can’t list them all.

But I’m not here trolling for deals. I’m here to build long-term, stable relationships that I hope will pay off over a decade, not a week.  I’m looking to turn dots into lines over time.

I’m inspired by the enthusiasm of the young, emerging startup ecosystem that is here. It has all of the components for success: a steady inflow of smart, CS graduates from UW who prefer to stay local if they could, a smattering of local VCs & angels, some “patron” companies like Microsoft and Amazon who provide new talent as well as the opportunity for company-defining partnerships and it has “elder statesmen” like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.

The ingredients are all here. Seattle should be the envy of any non-Silicon-Valley tech community in the country. Great lifestyle, great cost of living, motivated people and only the crap weather on the negative side. They have their successes; yet somehow all of the neurons don’t yet seem to be firing as powerfully as they need to be.

As I gear up to give a keynote at the annual Seattle 2.0 awards dinner on Thursday night I started to reflect on what it would take to “change the trajectory” for Seattle or for any regional market, really. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one.

And I think about the “Seattle issue” as a metaphor for startups and business in general. I’ve always been a big believer that just a couple of key individuals make all of the difference in a company’s success. It’s why my investment philosophy is called, “the entrepreneur thesis.”

I was meeting with a first-time CEO of a very promising young startup recently and offering my advice on what his priorities should be. He listed all of the product releases that were upcoming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. I gave him the same advice I give nearly all over-worked, control-freak, do-everything-yourself startup founders:

“Your number one priority isn’t any of these things. Your highest priority right now is hiring the 1 or 2 people that are going to join your company and make a difference. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder. But who else is going to get out there and close your big biz dev deals with you? Who’s going to help you with improving your marketing / positioning to become a clear platform category leader like Twilio?

Are you going to do all of this? Evidence over the past year would suggest otherwise. You have too much on your plate.

A few key people really can make a huge difference.”

Him:

“I know, I know. I will start recruiting soon. But I need to get our next release out the door. I need to take some VC meetings. I just don’t have enough time to focus on it right now. It will be a bit easier when we have a little more progress to show.”

Me:

“Bullshit. It never gets easier. There are always the next 20 tasks. The reason you’re not getting to the next level is that you’re not prioritizing the precise thing that could take you to the next level. I would say recruiting at least one superstar would be your priorities 1,2 & 3.”

I don’t care if you’re a 10-person organization, a 1,000 person organization or a multinational corporation – often it is the few key players that change the dimensions. Imagine Apple without Steve Jobs. Or less obvious, imagine Facebook without Sheryl Sandberg.

So entrepreneurs need to think the same way some VCs do – because markets change, competition changes, innovation & technology cycles move so fast that only by having a few truly outstanding leaders in your company can you sustain any sort of advantage.

And that is precisely my thoughts for Seattle and what I plan to deliver on Thursday night: Which few key community leaders are going to step up and get those neurons properly firing and connected?

My recipe for Seattle or your community:

1. Community Leaders + Organizers
You need a good mixture of both.

Look at what Brad Feld has done for Boulder. I know it’s not single-handed as he has both fantastic partners at Foundry Group and many other community leaders. But he has helped put Boulder on the consciousness of so many young, aspiring entrepreneurs in search of somewhere other than the San Francisco Bay Area to work & live. It is possible and he’s showing people that.

David Cohen deserves much credit for building TechStars into an internationally recognized brand name for innovation. If you can attract people to Boulder for a session to be part of the magical mix of people at TechStars then some will naturally stay put afterward.  But it did take Brad as a public spokesman, consummate networker and successful VC to help create legitimacy to let David’s ideas flourish.

It takes both to build a community. The business leaders need to do their parts. The people with the time, energy & creativity to build organizations like TechStars need to bring their ideas to fruition.

I see this emerging in Seattle and the passion of “a few key individuals” who can help shift the game. Chris Devore & Andy Sack have created Founder’s Coop with the goal of funding, incubating & launching more early-stage ventures in Seattle. If you could convince a few young “wantrepreneurs” that there is a community that can support them & a safe landing if they’re not immediately successful you might have your next Amazon in the works. It’s a very cool vibe at Founder’s Coop. These two guys are part of the recipe for Seattle’s growth.

2. Passionate Entrepreneurs & Ambassadors
Stating the obvious but you can’t will a region into success. You need to have passionate tech entrepreneurs who want to build businesses locally. They have the same trade-off decisions that you do about packing up and moving to Silicon Valley vs. staying and building locally. The answer seems obvious (to move) but it’s not. When you account for competition for talent, the difficulty of retention, the cost of living and the difficulty of rising above the noise – there are many advantages of staying put. The advantages of moving are more obvious.

So you need Dave Schappell who is building an interesting business in Seattle called TeachStreet, a local-community initiative to connect teachers & students. Dave is ex-Amazon and is a tireless advocate for the Seattle community. He’s been steadily emailing me for the past 18 months with ideas for local entrepreneurs I “have to meet” and has been egging me on to spend more time in Seattle. He’s why I came this week.

He helped me organize a set of meetings with high-potential individuals and a dinner where we all debating how to increase entrepreneurial velocity. I re-connected with Andy Liu the founder & CEO of BuddyTV – the largest destination for social TV enthusiasts on the web. When I saw what BuddyTV is working on and how long they’ve been the market (since 2005) I realized that this has huge potential to help disrupt the television market. They haven’t launched their next gen product – watch this space. No Dave S. = no knowledge of what BuddyTV is up to for me.

Every community needs their “ambassadors” who build relationships with leaders from other communities, who convince these people to come visit the community, who help organize events with local teams to get the cross-city interactions and who create awareness for the local talent.

Dave is a potential key ingredient in the recipe for Seattle’s success.

3. Patron Companies
Seattle has something that many communities don’t have. It’s what I call “patron companies” and the local giants are Microsoft & Amazon. When you think about the success that is Silicon Valley, the unfair advantage is not just the huge amounts of available venture capital. When you start a company in the Bay Area you can often get your first biz dev deal done with Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com, eBay, Yahoo! or the countless other successful startup firms.

A key deal not only helps you raise venture capital but it can help attract employees, garner press attention, help with product focus & importantly drive customer adoption and/or revenue.

In Los Angeles we don’t have “patron technology companies” that are big enough to matter – we’re still hoping to see them emerge. But every time I talk with senior executives a the big studios or talent agencies I tell the same story,

“You know that your industry is being disrupted. What industry isn’t these days. You can be part of the creative destruction. You can help local entrepreneurs get their first deal done and the innovation ought to benefit you.

Sure, it might mean some of your employees or colleagues go to join the barbarians at the gate, but would you rather that innovation happen in your home town where you can play to your strengths or do you want your entire future industry to shift to Silicon Valley?”

This message is surprisingly well received. People do want to help. They just need a few key individuals who are willing to go out on a limb, take some actions and make things happen for them. They need somebody bending their ears. They can then direct staff, allocate budgets, talk to the press, connect you with politicians and attend events. A few key people really can make a difference.

And that is what is most disappointing about the feedback I’m getting about Seattle. It has the dual technology patrons and yet the consistent story I get is that they’re not actively out embracing the startup community, helping local successes emerge, getting comfortable with the symbiotic benefits of some employees going to startups that innovate at a different pace and then buying up local teams, talent & IP. They’re doing stuff – just not enough.

Seattle has its patrons. The neurons aren’t connecting to the startups. Somebody needs to make this happen.

4. Elder Statesmen
This is where I think the action on connecting neurons has to come from. Jeff Bezos (and executive team) have to recognize that it’s in their best interest to see the community thrive and the benefits to Amazon (not to mention Seattle) are far greater than any negatives of employee flow. Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates and other senior teams from Microsoft need to want to promote local startups. These kinds of connections seldom emerge from middle management who view the immediate threats more than the long-run benefits.

But Jeff, Bill, Steve and well as Howard Schultz, the executive team at CostCo, etc. are not likely to spearhead this movement. They’re too busy running their companies and literally changing the world. Who from Seattle has their ears? Who can get help get access to their capital? Who can get them to communicate the bigger picture message top-down to their teams to embrace the startup community and unleash local partnerships?

Without this – it’s a totally wasted patronage. Who will step up the way that Steve Case (founder of AOL) has done with Startup America to promote this initiative to politicians, business leaders and the press. Actually, who will get Steve Case to spend time in Seattle helping communicate the message to local leaders? It’s clear that America has a vested interest in promoting entrepreneurship in many regions in the country to stimulate innovation & job creation.

Who will be those key leaders who will step up and make a difference?

5. Playing to Your Advantages
Every region has its advantages and while not limiting innovation to local themes it seems to make sense to at least consider local advantages. It’s no big surprise that I spend a larger portion of my time in LA working on: disruption of television, performance-based marketing, games & mobile. We have unique skills, teams, experience and regional assets that give us a better chance of success than other regions.

In no expert in Seattle but when I look around I see: enterprise software (Microsoft), the market leader in cloud services (Amazon AWS), games (Xbox), some of the most innovative retailers in the country (CostCo, Starbucks, REI) and what is left of Boeing (HQ moved to Chicago). I’m sure there’s much more.

I’m not sure it makes too much sense to have check-in applications for restaurants here. That seems likely to be dominated by a more urban startup from NYC or from San Francisco. But who know? I’m just saying’ … what local assets do you have that load dice in your favor?

6. Marketing Muscle
It’s great to see an initiative like Seattle 2.0 because every community needs its local tech press to report on companies and run conference. Consider just how much exposure the Austin community gets every year due to SXSW. It’s awesome.

I’ve often talked about the NY advantage of having the NY Times, WSJ, Silicon Alley Insider, New York Magazine and even the editor of TechCrunch based there. Not to mention every major agency, many PR firms, etc. There is no question NY startups get disproportionate press.  That’s natural. Not to mention they have the highest profile VC / blogger Fred Wilson of AVC.

It was great to hear that in Seattle John Cook and company are solving this at GeekWire.  Every region needs its local media & events. In LA we have SoCalTech, for which I am grateful. It’s an awesome source of regional news. I’d LOVE to see it become more of a national vehicle. How do we make that happen?

I’m now getting about 400,000 views / month at BothSidesoftheTable. I don’t write about LA but I write from LA. It’s important. A few key people can really make a huge difference.

7. Local Angel Community / Recycled Capital
Fred Wilson wrote an eloquent piece on his blog about “recycling capital,” which every regional community should read. The magic that is Silicon Valley is that every tech entrepreneur who has made a bit of money chooses to “recycle” it by investing back into the startup community. There is a long tradition of these and it’s what formed the original angel network groups.

As I look at LA I see a lot of this reinvestment going on. There are great entrepreneurs like Evan Rifkin, Tom McInerney, Paige Craig, Diego Berdakin, Brett Brewer, Kamran Pourzanjani, Jarl Mohn and many, many more who have done several local Los Angeles tech investments. There are several “club deals” where you see the same sets of people “passing the hat” around on deals.

I know from all of my private conversation that they aren’t seeing this as a “get rich quick scheme” – they’re giving back to the community. And the truth is that they know $25-50k from them on a deal that they can help influence returns on is a lot better than handing it over to a money manager who is parking your cash in a vehicle you don’t understand.

I have done the same. I had the good fortune of doing one small deal that returned 6x in a year. So it was newfound capital I wasn’t expecting. I plowed it back into 9 deals. I prefer not to do any angel investments because I focus on my VC funds but it was gratifying to write some small checks to support local teams.

I know there’s tons of money in Seattle. Perhaps somebody needs to organize it a bit better to go into more angel deals. I know that Founder’s Coop has a fund as does TechStars Seattle. That’s one model. Perhaps some experienced tech entrepreneurs could formalize more of the Amazon / Microsoft money into a higher velocity of angel deals.

8. Venture Capital
And of course you need a mature venture capital industry. There are several local firms in Seattle like Madrona, Maveron, Ignition and others. But the consistent message I heard was “there’s not enough.” That’s why more VCs ought to be spending time in Seattle. It’s similar to LA in that there are a highly motivated cadre of tech savvy entrepreneurs wanting to create companies and a lack of funding. I’d bet if one is disciplined about investing here you’d see significantly better pricing than chasing deals in the overly competitive Bay Area corridors.

It’s not an either / or but both / and. But as I look at the GRP Partners returns we’ve made a lot of money investing in companies in New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Arizona and Seattle. We won’t rush into the market but we’re very open to finding teams with the ambition to build big businesses. We know it can be done.

9. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
The other message I delivered to the room of entrepreneurs & investors at dinner the other night was that you need to think about equity from outside the region the same way that countries think about foreign direct investment. The inflow of capital can be transformative.

But what is often not talked about is that those investments lead to 8-10 board meetings every year of which it would be hoped that the “outside the region” VC would attend 6-8 of them in person. I think a series of brand ambassadors should find out when these VCs will be in town and organize evening events for them the night before so they don’t do a fly-in, fly-out visit.

Imagine if the ambassadors from Seattle organized a dinner with 8 entrepreneurs, the CTO of Amazon, the head of Xbox and the head of marketing for Starbucks. You mean to tell me that the VC wouldn’t fly in early for that?

With VC FDI the community gets more than money. They get time, commitment & attention. One deal begets more deals. If you’re already on a plane to Seattle 8 times a year picking up a second investment there is trivial. Get them over that first hurdle.

10. Time
And finally, it’s clear that to really build a regional community you need time. LA and Seattle are in the second (or third) major wave of technology innovation. We have all of the 2nd-time entrepreneurs from Overture, CitySearch, MySpace, etc. on to their next companies and that produced Demand Media, a public company who even with a slight recent reduction in share price is still trading at $1.3 billion.

Over the past 15 years Seattle has built one of the most interesting technology companies in the world. I’m still amazed at how forward thinking Amazon has been in cloud services – years ahead of Google, Salesforce.com, IBM, HP, Oracle or the countless other companies that should have been strong in this space.

It’s a shame that hasn’t translated into more local break-out successes, but if a few key people really wanted to put in the effort to make it happen I’m confident that Seattle could be a major force in the decade to come. That will be “the decade of the cloud” where it really starts to become a truly connect resource that continues to accelerate innovation.

Who’s in?

Top photo courtesy of Fotolia

Blue Marble’s biochemicals can be used to manufacture everything from food and perfume, to plastics, adhesives and synthetic textiles. The company also produces renewable energy from biomass.

One of the company’s best known products is its perfume line, EOS, made partly with spent beer brewery grain from Freemont Brewing in conjunction with the hand-made fragrance retailers Sweet Anthem.

According to the company’s website:

“[Blue Marble]‘s process uses organic material (biomass) including: food by-products, yard clippings, spent brewery grain, algae, milfoil, corn silage, wood chips, and more.

The company’s proprietary AGATE (Acid, Gas, and Ammonia Targeted Extraction) polyculture fermentation technology…uses non-genetically modified bacteria to produce target compounds. [This process] links several kinds of bacteria in a production chain to breakdown plant material. The…bacteria symbiotically works to produce a broad portfolio of compounds.”

In late 2009, the Seattle clean tech company struck a partnership with the Odessa Public Development Authority (OPDA) to construct and run Washington state’s first specialty biochemical biorefinery. The joint project attracted a $2 million award from Washington State’s Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB). The plant is now moving out of its pilot phase towards a higher-volume, commercial phase.

In April 2009, the company raised its series A investment of $2 million from an entrepreneur involved in bottling and distributing sodas in Africa, Rajiv Shah who holds a seat on Blue Marble’s board.

The project could do for commuters what Cabulous and Uber have begun to do for taxi drivers and their potential customers — make it easy to find one another, while hopefully curbing pollution and traffic congestion when there are too many single-car drivers on the road.

A Washington state -funded project, the go520 app and service allows up to 250 drivers to offer empty seats in their vehicles to 750 riders along Seattle’s SR 520 highway. Drivers require an iPhone; passengers can use any mobile phone with texting capabilities to access the service. The company will make a Windows Phone 7 version available in April 2011.

To encourage participation in the project, Avego will give go520 drivers who use their program 20 or more times each month a $30 gas card, and some other travel reimbursements. Riders will receive up to $30 per month in Avego credits to use towards travel beyond the program covered by the go520 initiative.

Washington state has sought to decrease emissions and reduce traffic around Seattle’s highways with a number of other approaches including: the installation of ramp meters, new tolling, bus services and web-based carpool services.

According to an Avego press statement:

In 2009, the Washington State Legislature required the state’s transportation department to conduct a carpool pilot project on the SR 520 corridor in King County. The pilot project includes a detailed evaluation of real-time [carpooling] to help policy makers determine how it compares to other demand management programs and whether it should be used elsewhere in Washington. WSDOT considered a variety of proposals and selected Avego to receive a $400,000 grant.

In December, Avego attained $5.6 million in series A funding in a round led by SOSventures.

The report is based off of several different factors, such as how many people use the internet, how many wifi hotspots are around, and other data about online behavior. You’d think that Seattle would be safer considering the size of the tech industry in the northwest in general, but apparently familiarity breeds contempt. At the other end of the spectrum, Detroit is one of the safest cities, with El Paso, Texas, and Memphis listed as second and third.

Symantec goes on to recommend the steps you should take if you live in one of these “dangerous” cities, which basically says buy Norton Internet Security. Of course, only you can decide what the best security solution is for you computer, but Symantec also mentions the importance of keeping your system up to date, and installing a good anti-virus program.

[via Eweek]

The list is calculated based on broadband adoption and the amount of wi-fi access points in the city. It’s no big surprise that we ranked highly, this city being home to more startups, establishments, and tech juggernauts than you can shake an Eee stick at. Plus, we have to stay inside a lot, so…

Washington, D.C. also jumped a lot of spots, and with the capitol being in the state it’s in, it may be improved further by next year. Seattle welcomes the challenge.

I’m sitting in the Virgin America gate at JFK waiting for my flight to Seattle and I come across this tidbit of news. I’m both stoked and bummed at the same time. I’m stoked because this is a pretty rad deal for Mariner’s fans and I grew up rooting for them, which explains my hatred for the Yankees, but I’m bummed because I forgot my DS at home.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Nintendo Fan Network, it’s a network for DS owners at the ballpark that gives you player stats for the home and away teams, MLB updates, and SMS/chat service with other DSers in the stadium. You can also order food, watch live video, listen to radio coverage from KOMO and compete against others in mini-games and trivia. A new feature launching this weekend is Pitch Effect, which will let fans see the trajectory of each pitch, speed and placement.

It was tested last year and fans had to pay $5, which is probably the cheapest thing you’ll find at the ballpark, but its free this season. Awesome. Someone in Seattle want to take me to a game and let me borrow your DS?

We’ve been talking quite a bit about our reader meet-up on May 1st in New York City, but we didn’t want the West Coast (you and I both know it’s the best coast) to feel left out, so we’re having an admittedly smaller meet-up on Friday the 25 in Seattle.

You’ll get a chance to meet with Yours Truly, our own Devin Coldewey, and Peter Ha‘s flying in via Virgin America from NYC just so you can yell at him.

We’re also working on getting reps from a few of our favorite local tech companies there as well, so it’s a good time to see what we insiders get to experience. Mostly the “no comments” and “are you nuts?”

We’ll be meeting at six o’clock and going till eight at the wonderful McLeod Residence in Belltown, which has a fully stocked bar. And there will be a very special CrunchGear drink special.

If you’re interested in attending, email me at tips@crunchgear.com and let us know so we can make sure to get everyone in. See you there!

Here’s your chance to get a little bit of exposure and see what everyone else in the Indie Game community is up to. IndieCade 2008 is set to take place July 10-13 in sunny Seattle (it’ll actually be at Open Satellite in Bellevue) and they’re looking for submissions to be showcased at the show.

Call for Submissions:

Indiecade invites independent game artists and designers from around the world to submit interactive media of all types – from art to commercial, ARG to abstract, serious to shooter – for consideration. Work-in-progress is encouraged.
A diverse jury of industry leaders will select entries for top prizes at the IndieCade @ Open Satellite Festival. All entries for the Festival will also receive consideration for presentation at the other 2008 IndieCade international showcase exhibitions.

Submissions Deadline: April 11, 2008 at Midnight PST.

IndieCade

Those of you who are still using standard definition need to seriously think about your futures. You’re holding the rest of us back, and I’m starting to think it’s time to cut the dead weight.

After the jump, the new channels, and what I think about them! Because it’s Friday and you care!

Animal Planet HD: Shows about people who talk to dogs, in High Definition!

Discovery Channel HD: We have something similar now, but I’m stoked to see Mythbusters in HD every day.

Learning Channel HD: This channel used to be good, now in HD! HD!

Home and Garden HD: I don’t care, cuz I own neither, in HD! HD! High-Definition!

Food Network HD: That’s right, the gourmand’s version of the Playboy network in 720p. HD! Hi-Def!

Sci Fi HD: Oh, yes, you heard me. You heard me in 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, and saw it in High-Definition HD Hi-Def HDTV!

Comcast has promised 60 channels of HD programming by the end of the year, and is on pace to make good on that promise. Go, Comcast!

[Thanks for the tip, Paul!]

For the last half hour, East Coasters have been having their way with Leopard, meaning about 20% of the Macdorks along the Atlantic are currently installinating the hot new OS. As the world turns, each timezone will get its own chance as the 6:00PM launch time passes.

Your truly will be heading down to the University Village Apple store to talk to total nerds Apple users to gauge their reactions to the new OS. Or at least its box, as it takes awhile to install.

If you’re in the Seattle area and want to meet up, feel free. If you’re going to be there at 6:00 to join the fun and want to say hi, drop me a line at matt at crunchgear dot com and I’ll promise not to make fun of you, new friend!

Also, upgraders are encouraged to tell us about their first impressions over at BFF, it’ll be interesting to see what works, what doesn’t, and what should.

The University Village Apple Store in Seattle was mysteriously robbed of serviced laptops and refurbished iPhones that were waiting to be restocked early Monday morning. It seems the burglars came in through the ceiling and even swiped one of the technicians pimped out laptops that was locked down in the cubicle area. Coincidentally our very own Matt Hickey has been trying to sell us ‘discounted’ iMacs and iPhones since Monday afternoon. Is it just coincidence or was Matt one of the culprits? I’m not sure, but I got a bitchin deal on a new 24-inch iMac.

Laptops stolen from Apple Store [Seattle PI]

Score one for my homies on the West Coast, the first iPhone kiosk has gone up in Seattle. The display is looping a video of the UI, docks to charge your iPod while you drool over the video and “alarm sticker things.” It’s making our own Matt “Hawt Scoopz” Hickey dance around the store and do his happy dance. If you have them in your town, send us the pics!

I know, I know. CES is just days away, and it’s a barbecue that has my expensive panties in a wad, but I desperately want this, though it does not actually yet exist. Perhaps it’s out of consideration for the neighbors of others, or perhaps out of concern for fire safety, or perhaps because it’s from some German-sounding guy’s mind, but it’s just a concept at this point. But I love this kind of thing. When someone has an idea so simple yet brilliant that it induces cries of “why didn’t I think of that!?” then I know I’ve found something to love.

I have a small balcony just like the one in this photograph, so I can actually envision myself using this to give my Foreman Grill (Lean, Mean, Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine) a rest. In fact, I even photoshopped what it would look like on my Seattle balcony. Allow me to editorialize:

Thank you.

Bruce Grill [via Gizmodo]

OK Bucakroos, it’s high-Noon on Sunday, which means both of our contests to win Zunes (among other things) are officially over: the Seattle contest and the rest-of-the-country. We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to enter. In our book, you’re all winners. Except you, Ryan Stickney of Seattle, WA. While we do love creativity, the image above was not on the list of photos for the contest. Also, there is no Crunchgear/Zune logo page, also a disqualifying infraction. He did, however, include an image of unicorns humping Cold-War style, so he gets honorable mention. Otherwise, we’re a little disappointed at the turnout of the Seattle contest. When we were giving away tickets to see Band of Horses with Zune Insider, you guys were ravenous. When we make you actually work for it, not so much. Next time we’ll keep it simple so as not to disturb your rainy day hangover.

We’ll be randomly drawing two names from the dozen or so qualified entries right now, and we’ll be getting a hold of the winners shortly. Remember, if you can’t be at Minnie’s at 9AM, you forfeit your breakfast, your Zune, your Belkin Kickstand case, and notoriety. Forfeit, we say!

The rest of you who’ve been slugging it out for the remaining Zune across the country: Nice work! While some of the entries are just lame, many of you went above and beyond the call of importunity. Well done. Our crack panel of celebrity judges are currently pouring over the gigabytes of submissions and will select a winner shortly. Stay tuned here to see the winning entry.

And for those looking at the Win A T-Mobile Dash contest, fear not, it’s still going on. All you have to do to win is help impel our editor John’s no cellphone for 30-day cold-turkey detox. Can he do it? Only with your help. And if you’re the best helper, you’ll get a T-Mobile Dash, since he won’t need it.

Thanks everyone, and thanks to Cesar from Zune Insider for the hookup, the nice people at Belkin for the Kickstand cases, and to The Stranger for double Slogging us (Seattle Reference).

Since we love other bloggers, we’ve gotten together with Cesar over at Zune Insider to give two lucky Seattle residents the chance to win on Monday, November 13, a Zune and a high-end Belkin leather. That’s a full day before they’re unleashed upon the world.

So here’s the full deal: Two winners will receive a Zune at a special breakfast on Monday at Minnie’s in Belltown with Cesar from Zune Insider, the wonderful band the Secret Machines and yours truly. If you’re down with indie rock, you most likely know who this band is, and you most likely love them, no touching though—at least not without asking.

After breakfast, we’re off to Westlake Center, where the band you just enjoyed your eggs and sausage with will rock faces at a super special show. And then, later that evening, you’ll be invited to another formerly-secret show, this one with the lovely Blonde Redhead at the War Room (but remember, there is no fighting in the War Room) on Pike and Harvard, where we will drink booze.

So what is it you have to do to win this Price Is Right-worthy prize package? We want you to show us how much you love CrunchGear and Zune. We want you to print out this document. Then we want you to have a photograph taken of you holding this document with four places around Seattle in the background: the Fremont Troll, the arrow over the Cha Cha, Safeco Field, and the Experience Music Project building-blob-thing. Once you’ve got all four photos, email them to matt at crunchgear dot com with the subject “Seattle Zune Contest.” We’ll randomly pick two winners from the pack. Make sure to include your name and a phone number. Your deadline is Sunday at Noon, got it?

You don’t necessarily have to live in Seattle, but it’ll help for the photos. And, in order to get your free Zune and Belkin case, you MUST be at the breakfast on Monday morning in Seattle, SO MAKE SURE YOUR MONDAY IS OPEN. If not, we’ll go the next lucky Seattlite.

So get busy. We’re checking our emails, we’re waiting for your photographs, we’re waiting to see who will rock out with the Secret Machines and a shiny new Zune.

Do you like Hasslehoff? Of course you like Hasslehoff. Everyone loves him, especially after his cameo in Borat. We can tell you now that the thing we can’t tell you about has something to do with Hasslehoff being in Seattle. And some Seattle people. And their digital cameras. Intrigued yet? You should be.

Keep your Monday open, friends. Play hooky if you have to. Work is not nearly as important as a shopping spree with the Hoff.

Oops! Did we just give it away!?

No, we’re funnin’ with you. Our announcement has nothing to do with Hasslehoff. Or shopping. But you’ll like it, stay tuned.

Non-Seattle folks, never fear. We have a surprise for you as well.

Sorry to say, you’ll have to wonder some more. It’s not time yet. But thanks for checking back. I can tell you when we’re going to tell you what the Surprise is: In the Future, that’s what.

And so you know: by Seattle-Area, we mean for anyone who can reasonably be in Seattle on Monday morning. Except people from Bremerton, you guys are assholes. Then we have another surprise for the rest of the world.

At some point during that time, we’re going to have something very special for our Seattle-area readers and for our readers in the world at large. We can’t say what it is yet, but you will like it. Tell your friends to check, too. Tell your girlfriends, boyfriends, neighbors, band mates, drinking buddies, parole officers, driving instructors and whoever else, just make sure you don’t miss it.

Oh, and Seattle people, find a digital camera and keep your Monday open.