Besides giving you a heads-up on cool culture in several cities, a favorite feature of Flavorpill is the number of freebies we hook up for readers. Now, instead of making you wade through the site or mailer for giveaway opportunities, we’ve compiled them all on a Giveaways page, handily accessible via a tab on the homepage. Here, you can see what we’re giving away, as well as find the answers to past giveaway questions, including the often hilarious submissions to our creative queries. Currently, this tab only exists for the New York site, but if you’re in a different Flavorpill market, hang tight — your tab is on the way!

Hopefully all you faithful readers (and giveaway fiends) noticed some sweet mailer changes we deployed this week. If not, allow us to direct your attention to them now…

Our table of contents up in the top left corner got a serious slim-down: now those links direct you to the plethora of events listings that couldn’t even fit in the mailer — they’re all up on the site. Plus, we now call out all of the giveaways in a single issue, and link to our new Giveaways page on the site. It’s a soft launch, so the mailer is the only way you’ll access this page, which houses all the correct answers, as well as winning submissions to our creative questions. Not yet a subscriber? Fix that and start winning.

The A/V heads here at HQ have succeeded in bringing streaming audio to Flavorpill.com. We’ve got players up on our website and are currently streaming live performances from both New York’s One Step Beyond museum series and LA’s Fridays Off the 405. So now, whether you missed A-Trak’s set (and Kanye’s guest appearance) at OSB, or just want to relive John Tejada’s performance at the Getty, you can stream full sets any time. Check back after each Flavorpill party — streams appear within a few days of the event.

Hoping to find A-Trak’s January OSB DJ set or see how the Retro Kids got down at the February edition? Our new Museum Series page gives you all the One Step Beyond info — from audio files and Vimby videos to editorial listings and event photos — and even the press we received from each party! We’ve also got a page for our west-coast museum series: you can check out upcoming shows and past round-ups from Fridays Off the 405 (at the Getty in LA), with videos coming soon.

A few ‘pillers attended PSFK’s conference here in NYC this last week, and the day proved to be as insightful and stimulating as promised (once certain A/V bugs were exterminated). There was just one problem: during a particularly applicable panel on “Social Media,” digital trend-spotter Steve Rubel bluntly stated, “The website is dead.” As dedicated online purveyors of culture, Flavorpill is heartily site-based. How will we maintain status as a cultural destination without existing as a… destination? After all, “There is no there there.” While Rubel talked it out with Marc Schiller and Noah Brier — and almost came to blows (well, metaphorical ones, anyway) with Josh Spear — we were left to ponder the future of our own web services, of curation, of web 3.0 and beyond. Where will we fit in? What do you think — is the website, as we know it, dead?

Change is good, and we’re embracing it this week at our news publication, Activate. We’re thrilled to launch a new section called Blogosphere, where our goal is to reflect the changing tenor of news coverage and commentary. Blogs serve up what print cannot, and whether you find them infuriating or enlightening, they are here to stay. Each week, we’ll filter the gems from the chatter on buzz topics around the world. On the photo front, we are rolling out a new Flickr group devoted to your photo journalism. If you are an active photog, join the group and send in your best shots. -Catherine New, Activate Managing Editor

For all you voyagers and puddle-jumpers out there, we’ve just updated the header on our homepage for better browsing. Now, if you’re a Chicagoan planning to mix business and pleasure in Miami, you can find your next Flavorpill city destination in a tool bar across the top of the page. It’s one less excuse to stay glued to your couch at home.

If you hadn’t noticed, Flavorpill.com got a mini-makeover last Friday. While we were lacing up our high-tops and picking out our fades in anticipation of Jazzy Jeff’s stint at One Step Beyond, our event detail pages got pimped out. Each event page now has Google Map imaging and navigation, as well as some useful links to help you find similar or related goings-on that are either on that day of the week or in the same genre. We’re hoping this helps you navigate the site and easily find other intriguing bits of culture in your city. So, what’s the verdict? Let us know what you think in the comments section below, and stay tuned for more improvements!

Some of you may recall us soft-launching our mobile application a month ago. Since then, we’ve been taking your feedback (thank you!) and banging on the app quite a bit. Today, we launched an update that has cleaned up the interface and simplified a lot of the interactions. Some key features that we’ve improved include:

• Directly message with your friends
• Photos within the event listings
• Upload profile photo from your phone
• Notification when your favorite venues have upcoming events

These improvements have made Flavorpill Mobile a lot more fun to use, but there’s still more work to be done.

If you haven’t tried it out, please sign up and check it out. While you need a WAP (mobile web) enabled phone to use it on the go, you can still try it out in your browser right now.

Thanks to everyone who’s been testing for us, and for your patience. As always, if you experience any problems with this or any of our features, please let us know.

Last week, we redesigned our Film mailer sign-up page to include content from our partnership with the Sundance Film Festival. Now, besides signing up to receive the soon-to-be-launched Film mailer, you can check the Live@Sundance series, which offers exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage from the ‘08 fest. A slew of industry veterans lend perspective, from technicians and directors to writers and actors. The ten thoughtfully crafted shorts are a welcome substitute for those of us who were unable to make it to Park City this year, and a great preview of what to expect from our upcoming Film publication.