With the cost of a Super Bowl XLVI being about $3.5M, advertisers pulled out all the stops this year with a combination of ads that not only entertained viewers, but also made use of mobility and social media to influence preference for the brand, just as we suggested prior to the big game. So what…
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If you’ve ever been charged with event planning – in your job or otherwise – you know it can be an overwhelming and detail-driven process. From conventions and expos to festivals and high school reunions, event planning means having lots of balls in the air, so you’d better be a juggler, right? Austin-based Whindo is…
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An amazing thing happens when you are socially connected. When your Facebook friends expand from the cities you have lived in to your past jobs, or you find yourself in a complete life change that pushes you to meet new people, you want to get past the online to meet people in person…a novel concept…
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When a US Airways plane landed in the Hudson River on a freezing January day in 2009, some of the earliest photos came from users posting to Twitter and Flickr. Now, a new app called Spread is helping more user-generated photos make the news. Spread lets amateur and professional photographers submit their work for news…
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Deaftel, a new iOS app, aims to ease phone communication for those who are hard of hearing. Currently, all available services for those who are deaf or hard of hearing (such as IP-Relay) involve the assistance of a relay operator. Although this effectively allows those who cannot hear to communicate via telephone, because an operator must deliver the message,…
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If the holidays are sneaking up on you this year, consider giving your friends a “cling.” iOS users on Clingle, a location-based social network, can now send holiday gifts – like $5 for a latte at Starbucks or $10 Fandango movie tickets. Best of all, they can make the gifts a “surprise,” so they don’t…
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App developers, raise your hand if this sounds familiar: You create a beautifully designed iOS app that solves a major problem. Everyone loves it in beta. You launch it on the Apple Store, charging maybe $0.99 or $3.99, and hundreds or thousands of people download it within a few days. Then adoption drops off a…
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A new site designed to make that tough decision of where to eat tonight a bit easier for restaurant-goers and food lovers has launched in DC. From the Food Network, the reservation site CityEats is partnering with Graffiato’s Chef/Owner, Mike Isabella, and competing directly with OpenTable. CityEats’ innovative cloud-based technology attempts to make reservations easy…
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Between crowded meter spots and overpriced garages, trying to find parking in a busy city district can be a major headache. Luckily, now we have Parking in Motion (PIM) – the new parking app that lets you find and compare parking wherever you may be. PIM brings real-time parking information and services to consumers through…
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It’s not mind control, but new technology out of Denmark comes close: Senseye is working on eye tracking software that lets your eyes control your phone. The software uses your smartphone or tablet camera to detect where you’re looking on a page. Based on that, you can scroll, click on icons, and play games –…
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There are few places in the U.S. that speak to our love for shopping like the Mall of America in Minneapolis, so it is fitting that QR Codes met their match there on Black Friday. Mall of America worked with Minneapolis-based mobile agency MixMobi to deliver time changing offers within each of the QR Codes…
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How come I’m able to tweet out thoughts to “followers” I’ve never met, thousands of miles away, but not engage in seamless conversation with the people physically around me? Hyper-local chat application Saylo is changing all that, letting you stand up in any room and say or ask exactly what’s on your mind. Say it’s…
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Ever been in an airport – say LAX or O’Hare – trying to either find the person you are picking up or your friend who is picking you up – with a constant stream of texts going back and forth? Or what about meeting someone at Starbucks in a major city, only to find out…
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Smartphones have opened many new channels for mobile communication. In the old days, you could either call your contacts or text them. Today there are endless ways to communicate and even more ways to follow your contacts: email, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn…and the list goes on. Contapps, a popular free Android app, helps users manage…
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Since leaving Digg back in March, Kevin Rose has been hard at work building his next company – Milk Inc. Milk is a mobile development shop with plans to build a number of applications. The world got its initial preview of Milk’s first application called Oink at the Web 2.0 Summit a few weeks ago….
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During our Delivering Happiness bus tour at SXSW, Jen Consalvo had a chance to chat with StepCase founder Leon Ho. If you’re not familiar with StepCase, they create simple and flexible mobile photo-sharing apps like Steply, Darkroom, and others. Leon’s wide ranging conversation with Jen covered the company’s background, Leon’s prediction that mobile will become…
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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 More
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... Read More