The 10 Dating Apps You Definitely Don’t Want

We’re told that online dating leads to 1 in every 5 relationships. If these were the only dating apps out there, that probably wouldn’t be the case! ABCey brings you the funniest, creepiest, and downright bizarre dating apps out there for some Friday fun!

1. LuLu | Also known as the most terrifying app to men, LuLu lets you describe men you’ve seen with a series of hashtags. Some of the ones you’ll want to avoid are #CheaperThanABigMac, #WanderingEye, and #OwnsCrocs. Ouch!

2. On the Rebound | This app links to Facebook and notifies you if anyone becomes single. Because the only thing better than being “Facebook Official” is being Facebook Unofficial.

3. Flavor Connect | What’s your dating flavor: strawberry fling, lemon fancy, or vanilla fidelity? Something tells us that vanilla isn’t very popular!

4. Hot or Not | This app promises to answer the age-old question, “How do I tell someone if I like them?” Rating them on a scale of 1-10 is sure to get you a first date!

5. Cloud Girlfriend | In this dating realm, nobody expects you to be yourself! Dubbed as virtual fake dating, this site lets you create an avatar that flirts with other anonymous users’ avatars.

6. InstaDo | This exactly is what it sounds like. Through this app, you can invite someone to coffee, dinner, or to “do it.” Somehow, we don’t think you’ll even get the coffee!

7. Haloo | You will immediately be dubbed “stalker” when you walk up to someone with this opener: “Hey, I saw through my phone’s GPS that you were near me and read that you like red wine and country music. Are you free later?”

8. SpeedDate | This app gives you coins every time you chat with someone that helps you unlock “special flirting powers.” Who said dating isn’t a game?

9. KimYe | Pretend you’re the proud parents of baby North in this game to woo Kim’s heart. Avoid Reggie Bush, Ray J, and her other exes while you battle to beat the 72-day clock- or else you’re “Humphried!” We’re thinking Kim will want to sit this one out.

10. GothicMatch | Dubbed the “best underground community site for Gothic and Vampire people.” I’m in if Edward’s in!

What do you think of these dating apps? Which is the best, worst, or funniest? Let us know in a comment, on Twitter, or on Facebook!

ABCey’s Weekend Line-Up: 6.28.13-6.30.13

This weekend we are in celebration mode as we commemorate a landmark victory to the gay-rights movement striking down a federal law that denies benefits to same-sex married couples. Go Cali! Per usual, there are tons of great events happening all over San Francisco that you don’t want to miss, including SF Pride (what impeccable timing)! ABCey invites you to put your computer down and enjoy the weekend activities!

1. San Francisco LGBT Pride – June 29-30, 2013- Downtown and Castro Valley San Francisco, CA. -With over 200 parade contingents, 300 exhibitors, and more than 20 stages and venues, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration and Parade is the largest LGBT gathering in the nation. This is a celebration that will go down in history because of recent marriage act that was passed early this week. “San Francisco Pride has been said to be one of the last remaining pride events that can truly be called a rite of passage.”

2. Pinot Days San Francisco 2013– Sunday June 30, 2pm-5pm-Fort Mason Center San Francisco, CA- Pinot Days celebrates the amazing noble grape in all its gloriously diverse styles, and this year’s offering is more broad and complete than ever. Over 140 artisan winemakers representing every domestic pinot noir region will pour the fruits of their craft, each sharing their unique interpretation of pinot noir and the stories of their winemaking. Drink, Laugh and enjoy this delicious wine festival in beautiful Fort Mason!

3. Treasure Island Flea Market, Summer Kick Off -June 29-30, 2013- Treasure Island Great Lawn San Francisco, CA-The Treasure Island Flea is the last weekend of the month year round and features hundreds of local crafters, makers, and collectors. This flea market is know for its live music and beautiful views of the Bay. Free Parking with $3 dollars admission and kids 12 and under are free!

4. Wine Tasting at San Francisco’s Winery-Friday, Jun 28 12:00p to 5:00p- Winery SF 200 California Ave, Bldg. 180 North San Francisco, CA -Enjoy wine tasting at The Winery SF in their stunning tasting room & event venue. SF winery brings the ultimate “California wine experience” to San Francisco allowing visitors to see the winemaking process first-hand and experience highly rated boutique wines from a team of top winemakers from Napa, Sonoma & beyond. Tastings start at $10. Group Tours, Tastings & Barrel Sampling Available.

5. Startup Founder Boot Camp– June 29, 2013 1pm to 5pm- Sandbox Suites 567 Sutter St San Francisco, CA. -Starting your own business? Why should you go in it alone when there are expert resources at your fingertips? If you are looking to learn from experts and get advice about your startup, look no further. Sandbox Suites has pulled together the best guys in the startup world to teach you what you need to know before you embark on the road to success. This workshop is for entrepreneurs, founders of startups or for anyone that is interested in learning successful business tips.

Let us know which events you’ll be attending! Please let us know in the comments or find us on Facebook or Twitter!

Your Ultimate Guide to SF Pride!

As LGBT Pride month comes to a close, the 43rd Annual San Francisco Pride Celebration is just beginning! ABCey put together the ultimate guide to help you make the most out of one of our city’s biggest events of the year.

1. Download | The San Francisco Pride 2013 App is available for download on most smartphones. Put Pride in your pocket with schedules, event information, maps, and even where to find bathrooms throughout the weekend!

2. Ride | The easiest way to get to Pride is to take BART to Civic Center Plaza. However, BART workers are deciding whether or not to go on strike this weekend, which would severely impact transit all across the bay. Visit BART’s website or download the Embark iBart app for train schedules.

3. Tweet | For any and all Pride updates in real-time, make sure to follow SFPride and SFPrideLive! SFPride is the official account for the Pride Parade and Celebration, while SFPrideLive handles the festivities’ televised and online broadcasts. Either way, your Twitter feed won’t miss a beat!

4. Party | The best thing about Pride is the celebrating! There will be so many fun LGBT events this weekend, so keep track of them with Wsup Now. This app isn’t only a calendar: it shows you what events are near you, shows you how to get to them, and lets you post pictures if you’re there! The official Pride calendar can be found on SF Pride’s Official Website.

5. Know | This year, the LGBT community faces many high-profile issues locally and globally. Stay educated by keeping up with the controversy surrounding Bradley Manning and the Prop 8 and DOMA Supreme Court decisions.

The Pride Celebration runs from 12:00 p.m.- 6p.m. on Saturday, June 29th and 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 30th. Sunday’s parade kicks off at 10:30 a.m. from Beale Street along Market and ends at Market and 8th St. in the heart of downtown San Francisco.

Will you be participating in any San Francisco Pride celebrations? Tell us about it and let us know if our tips helped you! Shoot us a comment or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

Tech Tuesday: Tout!

Tech Tuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming companies for their innovative ideas and ability to think outside the box!

If you really want to wow your social media followers, stop typing that status update! We’re in an age where we can share our lives in real-time, and there’s no better way to do that than with Tout.

Here’s how it works: using the Tout smartphone app, shoot a short 15-second video. After uploading your video to Tout, the app makes it super easy to share with your friends. Tout was designed to be a form of social media and to make it easy to share footage with the user’s other existing social media networks. You can tweet it, post it, use the blog widget, and more!

Everyone seems to be touting Tout! When you visit the homepage, you have your choice between subscribing to the Wall Street Journal, ESPN, or celebs like Shaq. This social media network is great for news junkies who love getting up-to-the-minute updates around the world. Of course, it’s also cool to post a video of your cat sleeping.

Have you used Tout? Tell us what you think! Send us a comment below, a Tweet, or visit out Facebook!

Startup Monday: Playground.fm

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past that we would like to share with the friends and followers of ABCey Events.

What do you get when an engineer, a web developer, and a DJ walk into a room? An app that takes music sharing to the next level. Meet Playground.fm, your next app store download!

Playground.fm addresses the problem many of us didn’t even know we had. Between all of the music databases, websites, and filters designed to make finding new, non-mainstream music easier, we still rarely ever filter through the noise to discover our favorite new songs.

This app promises to scour the web to bring you a selection of music personalized for you. How is this done? When you log in through Facebook, Playground.fm sees your friends and determines which of them share your taste in music. You also choose to follow playlists created by the app, like “Swag” and “Fresh.” The app gets all the dirt on you and delivers a playlist from famous DJ’s, music fans, and music from your friends.

Playground.fm is helping to bring music sharing and promoting into the social and social media age. Yes, we have Spotify and Pandora, but we hate their ads. Playground.fm is ad-free and has no royalty fees, which makes easy listening that much easier. Plus, you can download as much free music as you wish onto your mobile device!

Because Playground.fm supports amateur and professional DJ’s, you’ll hear tomorrow’s hits first. Improvements to the app, like a music-mixing feature, are on their way! Are you ready to become a DJ?

What do you think of Playground.fm? Tell us in a comment or on Facebook and Twitter!

5 Ways to DIY “Rustic Chic” Events

It’s finally summer and the long, lazy days are the perfect setting for a chic rustic party. Instead of spending too much on invitations and centerpieces, try ABCey’s best ways to DIY your next rustic event!

1. Centerpieces | Mason jars are a popular staple for rustic centerpieces, so try using other vessels! Old or new glass bottles of varying shapes and sizes are a good way to play up proportionality around the table. If you want more of a shabby-chic vibe, head to the pantry for some canned goods. You can strip them down and leave them bare or adorn them with lace or a ribbon!

2. Invitations | DIY-ing your invitations is possible for even for largest of guest lists! Use stamps to give your invitations a vintage, cattle brand feel.

3. Decorations | Decorating your rustic event can be very hands-on and is a great opportunity to show your event’s personality. Paper lanterns, strings of pinecones, and using wooden ladders as a tiered display are easy ways to adorn the event space.

4. Food | Rustic events pair well with classic comfort foods. For cute hors d’oeuvres, whip up a charcuterie and cheese plate, mini pies, or tacos. If you decide to cater, you can still dress up the place settings with mini chalkboard name tags and utensils sealed with burlap and twine.

5. Party Favors | The possibilities are endless! If the event is rustic, keep the favors simple yet put together. Try out homemade jams, cookies, candles, or soaps. If you used the centerpiece ideas, send them home with guests! Put the gifts in wooden baskets, personalized burlap sacks, or mini cardboard box and voila!

Which of our DIY ideas are your favorite? Tell us in a comment or on Facebook and Twitter!

ABCey’s Weekend Line-Up: 6.20.13-6.23.13

This weekend marks the official start of summer! Across the bay area, there are nighttime yacht cruises, a free BBQ, and hackathons galore. Celebrate everyone’s favorite season with ABCey!

1. API Hackday 2013 | Sunday, June 23rd | 8:00 a.m.-5 p.m. | 169 11th St. San Francisco | This all-day coding fest is where to be if you’re a developer who really wants to design apps and mashups with APIs. Admission and all the meals you could want are free so you can focus on creating the next best app! At the end, hackers will present their ideas and creations to the judge panel and have a chance to win some pretty cool prizes.

2. “Grilling in the Mo” Annual Fillmore Summer Fest Kick-Off | Saturday, June 22nd | 1:00 p.m.-5 p.m. | 1900 Geary St. San Francisco | Celebrate the official start of summer with some free BBQ! Bring the kiddos along for face-painting, line dancing, and fun for all.

3. Mobile Commerce World 2013 | Monday, June 24th | 8:00 a.m.-7:30 p.m. | Palace Hotel, San Francisco | Businesspeople in all fields will benefit from learning how to grow and expand their mobile commerce and marketing strategies at Mobile Commerce World. This three-day event will teach you everything to know about developing efficient mobile products and strategies and how to create the “next big thing.”

4. Hack//Meat: Re-imagine the Future of Meat | Friday, June 21st- Sunday, June 23rd | 8:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. | Institute of Design at Stanford | Food and tech come together in a giant hackathon to decide the future of the meat industry. Everyone from policy experts to technologists and other “steakholders” will be ready to discuss and develop new technologies and tools to progress the meat industry in America.

5. SPLASH! | Friday, June 21st | 7:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. | 10 Marina Blvd, San Francisco | End your week in a big SPLASH! presented by UCSF’s Partners in Care. Sip champagne while a luxury yacht takes you around the bay to see the Giants game and the beautiful Bay Bridge lights. Proceeds go towards helping families and patient care at UCSF hospitals!

Which event are you most excited for? Tell us in a comment or on Facebook and Twitter!

The Tech Behind the Bay Lights

The art installation by Leo Villareal on the Bay Bridge is absolutely stunning. The thousands of shimmering lights decorating the bridge elevate the Golden Gate’s awkward cousin to the big leagues while adding to the already picturesque skyline across San Francisco Bay. ABCey explores the innovative technology behind Villareal’s masterpiece.

The backstory: Villareal is an accomplished artist whose work spans across America, including the Burningman camp Disorient. Ben Davis, founder of World Pictures Ideas, discovered Villareal’s work at the 2010 Zero1 Biennial in Silicon Valley. As chairman of Illuminate the Arts, Davis recruited the artist to begin the enormous project to adorn the Bay Bridge in light in honor of its 75th birthday.

Villareal used around 25,000 individuall programmed white LED lights to complete his project. Philips Color Kinetics custom made the lights and a complex algorithm to create an ever-changing pattern across the western side of the bridge. The lights are mounted in single strands along the bridge’s cables and use around 150 kilowatt hours during its nightly 7-hour shift. The displays costs around $11,000 per year, or about $4.25 per hour!

The bridge is now not only a bridge, but a contemporary work of art deemed the largest LED sculpture in the world. 50 million people are expected to see the bridge during the art work’s two year lifespan. The Bay Lights are a symbol of the bay area’s world-renoun leadership in the arts, transportation and progress, and, of course, technology.

Have you seen the Bay Lights? What do you think of this project? Let us know with a comment, tweet, or Facebook post!

Tech Tuesday: LolaBee’s Harvest

Whether they’re on your way home from work or part of your Saturday morning routine, farmers markets are the preferred grocers of choice for Bay Area locals. That’s why we love that LolaBee’s Harvest is bringing us the very best farm-fresh food right to our doorsteps!

Every item for sale, from the eggs to the eggplants, is locally, humanely, and ethically produced. You can either stuff your online cart with grass-fed meats and organic veggies or order a LolaBee’s Harvest Box filled with seasonal goodies. The best part: LolaBee’s brings small-town farmer’s market quality into the e-commerce game. You order on the weekends, when most farmer’s markets take place, and in a few days your groceries are delivered straight to your doormat. If you’re not home, don’t sweat it. LolaBee’s Harvest uses insulated packaging to keep your groceries cool for hours.

LolaBee’s Harvest is a business using technology to both progress society while bringing us back to our roots. (Pun not intended!) American demand for local and unprocessed foods has never been higher and farmer’s markets are trending in cities of all shapes and sizes. LolaBee’s is fulfilling this large market’s needs while appealing to the schedules and availability of a busy, online world. In other words, this business is both local and sustainable (pun definitely intended!)

What do you think of LolaBee’s Harvest? Would you use this service? Let us know in a comment or on Facebook and Twitter!

Startup Monday: Instacanvas

Instagram’s filters and effects can make anyone with a camera look like a talented photographer. And, with the help of Instacanvas, that Instagram of your breakfast could be hanging on the wall of someone’s living room!

Instacanvas is an online service that allows people to buy and sell real-life prints of Instagram pictures. Instagram users can create a profile and choose which photos they want to feature in their gallery. The gallery is then published on the website for consumers to peruse and purchase.

As of now, you can turn an Instagram print into a canvas, framed print, 3D prism, greeting card, or iPhone case! More products are in the works, such as wearable art. Can you imagine people walking around with your art proudly displayed on their phone case?

Instacanvas is a compelling startup because it combines social networking and e-commerce to create a product that benefits both the producer and consumer. The photographer receives around 50% of the profits from the purchase and retains all rights to his or her product. That’s big news for someone who is casually sharing their photos with their Instagram followers!

Do you think your snapshots are gallery worthy? Share your thoughts with us in a comment or on Twitter and Facebook!