DEMO: Nubli says it can sort your e-mails by importance
Sunnyvale-based Nubli is launching EmailSmarts today, an e-mail assistant that automatically finds the most important e-mails and helps users answer them efficiently.
A plug-in for Microsoft Outlook, EmailSmarts uses machine learning to tease out important messages. Such an idea would be the Holy Grail of all e-mail overload, so we lean toward the skeptical side whenever a company proposes an idea like this. The company didn’t reveal more about its algorithms but we’ll report more … Continue Reading
DEMO: Lunchster automatically books your lunch dates
With work pressures multiplying, it isn’t easy to get away for a lunch with friends. Lunchster automates the process of booking lunch dates with the people you want to keep close to you. The service, unveiled at DEMOfall 09, takes all of the work out of arranging lunch meetings.
These folks looked pretty polished on stage. They said a recent survey said that most people work near about 16 friends or colleague with whom they’d … Continue Reading
DEMO: Fuze Box promises a richer web meeting experience
Fuze Box is launching a web meeting service called Fuze Meeting that it says goes far beyond desktop sharing applications like WebEx. It also includes high-definition content, social contact integration, and mobile meeting features. This, in turn, could make businesses more productive during meetings.
The San Francisco company launched Fuze Meeting today at DEMOfall 09, the technology conference co-produced by VentureBeat. During its presentation on-stage, the Fuze Meeting team accessed a high-definition video meeting on … Continue Reading
DEMO: Whodoyouknowat backs professional social networking
Whodoyouknowat is a social networking service for professionals that allows users to share old and new contact information launching today at DEMOfall 09, the technology conference co-produced by VentureBeat.
When you join, you can see your colleague’s contacts and use that to make introductions. Different levels of membership can give you deeper access to professional contact information. It alerts you if the contact information you have is outdated.
The company says it is slightly different … Continue Reading
DEMO: MyOwnRealEstate.com plays landlord for you
Lots of applications will match apartment seekers with apartments available to rent. But MyOwnRealEstate.com takes care of managing the apartment — and the relationship between landlord and tenant — after the apartment has been rented.
The web site, being unveiled today at DEMOfall 09, has property management tools where a tenant can channel maintenance requests and rent payments directly to the landlord. It is offered as a software-as-a-service application, so you can log into the … Continue Reading
DEMO: Micello takes mobile maps into their final frontier — inside
Micello is launching a new iPhone application that tackles one the last areas still not covered by established mapping applications — the insides of locations like shopping malls, college campuses, and convention centers. It also integrates social networking services into the application, which could prove useful if you’re, say, in a large convention center for a big event and want to see what other people are doing. Micello says it will bring maps of more … Continue Reading
Spot.Us partners with USC to foster local journalism
Spot.Us, a web site that cultivates local and investigative reporting by connecting journalists with outlets willing to pay for their work, announced today that it will team up with the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, to give students a network for publishing their content in the Los Angeles area.
In addition to linking writers with publications, Spot.Us allows any visitors to its site to financially back reporting projects. They can even choose … Continue Reading
DEMO: Article One Partners uses the crowd to determine if a patent is valid
There are lots of patents granted every day, but it’s very hard for any given expert to predict which ones are valid. Article One Partners is addressing this problem by tapping the wisdom of crowds.
Article One, unveiled at DEMOfall 09, finds groups of expert advisors who “crowdsource” the question of whether a particular patent is valid or not. The company is now adding a new feature where clients of Article One can now directly … Continue Reading
DEMO: TravelTrac lets you create your own location-tagged travel magazine
Most of us take pictures and videos while on a trip and share only a tiny amount of them with friends and family. TravelTrac is for those of us who might want to share a lot more.
Unveiling at this week’s DEMOfall 09 conference, TravelTrac lets you create your own online travel magazine, while you’re still on the go. It has an iPhone app — and upcoming BlackBerry and Android apps — that allow the … Continue Reading
DEMO: HP launches inexpensive SkyRoom high-quality video conferencing
Consumer video chat services are getting ever closer to the quality of enterprise video conferencing services. Hewlett Packard makes the Halo video conference system that delivers wall-sized video conferences with picture-perfect quality.
At the DEMOfall 09 conference this week, HP is introducing a younger cousin of Halo, dubbed SkyRoom. The SkyRoom offers affordable video conferencing with high-quality video and screen-sharing systems that are very easy for rank-and-file workers or even consumers to adopt. It won’t … Continue Reading
DEMO: Third Iris lowers cost of video surveillance by shifting processing to the cloud
Video surveillance systems require a lot of processing power to convert video from one form to another. Third Iris reduces the cost of that processing by doing more intelligent processing that lets the video camera minimize the use of expensive bandwidth while still making use of cloud-based video storage.
The company’s VIASS surveillance system, unveiled at DEMOfall 09, uses cameras that are triggered into action by sensing movement. That way, the cameras do not record … Continue Reading
Silver Spring Networks gobbles up Greenbox to become Smart Grid powerhouse
Silver Spring Networks, a startup that provides IP-based networks and advanced wireless meters to utilities and their customers, just announced that it is acquiring Greenbox Technology, a maker of monitor displays that show homeowners how much energy they are using and how much it is costing them. This extends Silver Spring’s lead over the competition as it eyes an increasingly likely IPO.
In addition to generous funding, Silver Spring also enjoys high-profile utility partnerships with … Continue Reading
DEMO: Enroute Systems launches ShipIt! to manage shipments
Enroute Systems is launching ShipIt! today. The online system tracks shipments across many vendors, to optimize delivery times and lower costs for businesses.
ShipIt!, which is being announced today at DEMOfall 09, the technology conference co-produced by VentureBeat, helps businesses pick the best and cheapest carrier. It charges about 10 cents to $1 per shipment. Bellevue, Washington-based Enroute Systems has raised more than $425,000 of funding from angel investor groups including Keiretsu Forum and the … Continue Reading
Education site eduFire adds live video classes for entrepreneurs (50 free passes)
eduFire is offering a new business channel where venture capitalists and successful executives will offer advice to young entrepreneurs and the unemployed.
It’s like startup education for the masses, where the classes are small and students get to ask questions via email, instant message, or video chat. The goal is to provide online education that might otherwise cost a lot more money if you went back to school to learn it, said Jon Bischke, chief … Continue Reading
DEMO: Dubzer translates Web sites for business owners
Dubzer, a startup that’s launching today at DEMOfall 09, the technology conference co-produced by VentureBeat, makes it easy for business owners to translate their web content for international audiences.
You enter your URL and the startup will aggregate every line of text so you can edit or translate it. Dubzer backs machine translation as well as human translation. (It has a similar aim to NativeTung, another company showing off its technology at the conference today … Continue Reading
DEMO: Diditz turns Facebook albums into pages that can be indexed on the web
Diditz lets users turn their Facebook photo albums and videos into pages that are indexable by search engines. It uses tags and categories to sorts Facebook content and lets users share it through sites like social bookmarking service Digg, Stumble Upon and Twitter.
It also targets business and brands by letting them create a special Diditz tab on their Facebook fan page where user-generated content from fans can be shared.
The College Park, Maryland-based company … Continue Reading
Second Life's users have spent more than a billion hours in the virtual world
Linden Lab announced today that the users of its Second Life virtual world have spent more than 1 billion hours — or, if you prefer, 115 years — inside the world.
The San Francisco-based company tossed out some very interesting numbers today that suggest interest in the virtual world is gathering steam. The company said that users hours grew in the second quarter to 126 million hours, up 33 percent from a year ago. Second … Continue Reading
DEMO: Cardagin is a loyalty, discount card for the mobile era
Cardagin Networks is based on the idea that there should be an easier way to do loyalty cards in the era of smartphones.
It lets small- and medium-sized businesses send out targeted mobile advertisements and track customer habits to market to them effectively in the future. The Charlottesville, Virginia-based company has raised about $150,000 in a friends and family round and is launching today at DEMOfall 09, the technology conference co-produced by VentureBeat.
Cardagin is … Continue Reading
VentureBeat Profiles, a directory of info and buzz about companies
I’m pleased to introduce a site called VentureBeat Profiles, which lists comprehensive information about tens of thousands of companies and executives.
We just launched the site this morning. It offers all kinds of ways to find, discover and share information about companies.
The site lets VentureBeat’s users, as well as the companies themselves, update corporate profiles directly, submit press releases, and follow the buzz about their companies on a Twitter stream contained on their profile … Continue Reading
Serious Materials puts together $60M for green building supplies
Serious Materials, a developer and manufacturer of green building materials like windows and drywall, announced today that it has brought in $60 million in a third round of venture funding. The Sunnyvale, Calif. company didn’t say how it plans to use the money, though it has been building up its sales staff in recent months.
One of the highest-profile green buildings companies in the Silicon Valley, Serious Materials has now raised $120 million in financing.
