For many people, getting a tattoo is a way of expressing culture, membership or rebellion. In the near future, tattoos may be used to communicate, entertain and help us heal. Scientists at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, along with colleagues at other institutions in the U.S., Singapore and China, have developed technology that integrates the…
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Just a few hours ago in Chicago, over 100 of Illinois’s up-and-coming entrepreneurs gathered for the unveiling of the new Illinois Innovation Network. Among the announcements were the creation of Startup Illinois and the formation of the Illinois Innovation Network, both efforts to support and accelerate growth of Illinois’ high-growth entrepreneurs. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn…
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Whether you hate electronics shopping (guilty!) or are just super-crunched for time, Cazoodle’s recently launched local Shopping Search service can help you quickly find exactly what you are searching for at stores near you. And you’ll be able to find the best price from more than 2,000 merchants. Cazoodle provides real-time inventory information (somewhat reminiscent of Goodzer),…
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Coming off of one of our biggest Tech Cocktail mixer events in Chicago this past week, which showcased 14 early-stage start-ups, we thought it would be fun to do a quick poll. While Chicago has birthed a number of start-ups over the years from 37signals and Threadless and SitterCity to Feedburner and Groupon, we wanted…
Read MoreTech Cocktail is in Champaign, Illinois tonight, showcasing 6 awesome startups. The event is on the University of Illinois campus, just across the street from the research park and nearby an entire host of high tech companies. As we’ve mentioned before, Champaign is home to Wolfram Alpha and it also houses some of the fastest supercomputers the world….
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Everyday, people are posting social media messages, photos and videos, loading the Internet with their own personal “social breadcrumbs”. With all this data out there floating around, there’s a lot of interest in how it can be utilized. Products like PeopleBrowsr, Rapleaf and qwerly help brands, companies and marketers sift through the data. Radian6, also…
Read MoreContinuing our focus on Champaign, IL startups, today we’re looking at ZingZag!, a software download that enables anyone to create a rich media Facebook Fan page (or other sites). The majority of Fan pages out there don’t take full advantage of the opportunity (we’re including ourselves in that bucket), using the standard options that Facebook…
Read MoreChicago-based mobile game startup The App House has just announced the upcoming launch of “Confidence: the Game,” a family-friendly trivia game show app for the iPhone, iPad, and iTouch. Play Confidence: the Game against a friend on the same device, over Game Center, or challenge one of eight distinct computer opponents, each with his, her,…
Read MoreSigning up for a mailing list while at an event is usually a clunky process. It’s either super old school—you write your email address on a piece of paper—or just regular old school—enter your name and email address on an iPad or in an Excel spreadsheet on someone’s laptop. Ditch the iPad, laptop, pen and…
Read MoreBye-bye, PowerPoint presentations. So long, WebEx. See you later, grainy video conferences. Hello Nuvixa! If you have been looking for a way to add excitement and a high level of engagement to your presentations, you’ll want to check out this Champaign, IL-based startup. They have brought a revolutionary approach to video communications by uses 3D…
Read MoreUntil now, looking for an apartment on or close to your campus has been a hectic and difficult process. Every college student knows that location is everything when it comes to your experience, so you definitely want to make sure you choose the right spot for you. Save yourself time and aggravation by using College Apartment…
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We’re starting to see signs of spring and with the birds chirping, we feel drawn to celebrate with our friends in Champaign-Urbana, where innovation thrives. Aside from the university, the region is full of big tech and active startups and investors. So we’re looking forward to partnering with the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation, our…
Read MoreSingleHop, the Chicago-based IT infrastructure and web hosting provider, announced earlier this week the launch of its new cloud hosting platform, Cascade. The new platform completes SingleHop’s unique strategy of bringing the benefits from traditional dedicated server hosting and cloud computing advancements together into a new and better system. Cascade combines the flexibility of cloud…
Read MoreWe are in Champaign, Illinois today, home to the University of Illinois, to rally together the local tech community. Champaign is currently home to Wolfram Alpha and it also houses some of the fastest supercomputers the world. Legendary entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Mosaic which turned into Netscape, is a University of Illinois alum along…
Read MoreI have spent many hours on end in corporate telesuites communicating with development teams across the world. This experience is not a bad one but the one flaw of these earlier technologies is that in order to do it you have to invest in expensive camera technology. While Skype and other video chat products do…
Read MoreOne of the reasons we love bringing TECH cocktail to Champaign is the broad spectrum of products we get to learn about and help showcase that we just don’t see anywhere else. On occasion, we all need to leave the world of Web apps and see what other innovations are out there to inspire. One…
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There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with... Read More
Two months after the iPad 2 debuted in March, around 40% of users surveyed said their iPad was their primary computer, up from around 30%... Read More
With our Startup Mixology Conference coming up next week followed by our classic Tech Cocktail DC Summer mixer which will showcase a handful of early-stage... Read MoreComing off of one of our biggest Tech Cocktail mixer events in Chicago this past week, which showcased 14 early-stage start-ups, we thought it would... Read More