VentureBeat » Application

Everything.me secures $25M because smart simply isn’t good enough

Rebecca Grant — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:14:06 +0000

These days, being smart just isn’t enough, or at least not for phones. Everything.me has raised $25 million to bring mobile devices from “smart to dynamic.”

The HTML5 based platform responds to users’ activity by changing the apps on screen to accommodate their needs. According to a statement issued this morning, the technology bridges the gap between the web and mobile:

“Rather than the static experience of today’s smartphone, a dynamic phone adapts its offering of apps on the fly, matching the content and services a user needs with the most relevant apps available – whether locally or from the cloud.”

This is the third round of funding for this product, which was first released as DoAT at TechCrunch Disupt in May 2011. The $25 million brings total investment to $35.5 million. This round was led by Telefonica Digital, and as well as SingTel Innov8, Mozilla and previous investors including Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), DFJTF, BRM Group and Horizons Ventures. Everything.me is based in Israel. Read the press release.

Filed under: Cloud, Deals, Mobile

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Honey, I shrunk the web: Netbiscuits raises $27M

Rebecca Grant — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:47:23 +0000

In the US, biscuits go with gravy. In the UK, biscuits go with tea. In Germany, biscuits go towards mobile publishing, or at least Netbiscuits do.

Software company Netbiscuits has raised $27 million for its technology that efficiently adapts web applications to smartphones. These days, it is important for companies to have a mobile presence, but creating native apps can be time-consuming and expensive. The Netbiscuit Mobile Cloud Platform powers, optimizes, and delivers web applications across a range of devices, so the business doesn’t have to. It also offers analytics, hosting and monitoring solutions.

Currently, Netbiscuit has a global network made up of 110,000 mobile web apps and sites. It will use this investment to expand further into the US and European markets and work on research and development. Stripes Group led this round, a New York based Venture Capital Firm. Read the press release.

Filed under: Deals, Mobile

Israeli supermodel launches iPhone app for social video (exclusive)

Christina Farr — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 19:39:27 +0000

The first users of Minit, an iPhone app to record and screen short videos, may have found themselves revealing intimate life stories to Noa Tishby, a model, producer, actress, and in a recent development, a tech entrepreneur.

“Minit is a platform for personal stories,” Tishby explained. “It is in a way like having your own reality show.” The Israeli starlet recently joined the Tel Aviv-based startup to head up business development.

Got a minute and a story to share? The recently launched app is available for free on the App Store. Sign up, and you’ll be led through a wizard to help you get started. The app is integrated with Facebook and Twitter to help users quickly discover which friends are registered. (Unless you happen to be Israeli, you’ll probably be the first in your extended network.)

Like Twitter, you can follow users whether you know them or not — unsurprisingly, Tishby has the most followers.

Once you fill out a profile, a video stream will appear with 60-second clips. Minit users are chatting about relationships, style, and a variety of light-hearted topics — if you’re incentivized to do so, you can issue a video comment in response. Videos can be intimately shared between friends, or publicly broadcast to the world.

The team describes Minit as “100% video. No filters. No text. No photos. No bull.” Tishby prefers the snappy term, “voicemail for video”, and told me that she routinely uses the app to send messages to friends while boarding international flights.

It sounds promising, but the user interface is still a bit raw. I’m told its doable (it takes a long thumbnail tap) but I couldn’t find an easy way to delete clips once they’re posted. I had a few technical issues with the sound quality, and the videos are slow to load. To be fair, the app is still in the nascent stages of development.

The company may have landed a supermodel, but it faces strong competition from headline-grabbing social video startups, like Airtime and Socialcam. However, with all the recent press about celebrity investors, this may be one of the few cases where one has come on board as a cofounder.

When the three Israeli developers behind Minit approached her, Tishby told me she was intrigued by the nexus between entertainment and technology. “I have been approached by tech companies in the U.S. and Israel that wanted me to partner with them,” said Tishby, adding that she was “floored” by the concept for Minit.

The app is self-funded, but Tishby told me they are in the process of reaching out to potential investors to secure a first round.

Filed under: Business

The FBI wants to spider social media to prepare for the worst

Meghan Kelly — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:31:17 +0000

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is creating a tool that will crawl Facebook, Twitter and more to catch emergencies before they happen.

According to a posting on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the FBI’s Strategic Information and Operations Center (SOIC) is feeling out the IT industry to see if anyone can create a “social media application.” The application should be able to spider through public content posted on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It should also be intelligent enough to pick out certain key words and phrases that indicate a certain event is taking place. The point of the application is to give the government readiness when dealing with emergencies, terrorist situations and other situations needing immediate response.

“The application must be infinitely flexible and have the ability to adapt quickly to changing threats to maintain the strategic and tactical advantage,” the Request for Information said, “The purpose of this effort is to meet the outlined objectives…for the enhancement [of] FBI SOIC’s overall situation awareness and improved strategic decision making.”

The tool would be used in “reconnaisance and surveillance missions, National Special Security Events (NSS) planning, NSSE operations, SOIC operations, counter intelligence, terrorism, and more.

Cybercrime is also in the FBI’s mind when creating this tool. With onslaught of cyber criminals working in large groups, not necessarily in one place, social media has been used as a place for planning attacks. For instance, the hacktivist group Anonymous used Twitter to spread the word about denial of service attacks being used to take down the Department of Justice website last week.

While Facebook still remains a fairly private ground for content, firehoses like Twitter supply news the second it occurs. Indeed, we even tweet about important events before we even know they’re important. For example, one man even live blogged Osama bin Laden’s capture on Twitter without realizing what he was hearing. Catching and decoding these types of social media messages may act as essential insight for national security advisors.

In order to identify the location of these events the pulled data should be compiled on a map. This map may show where conversations are taking place, or potentially places they are referring to. The FBI’s preferred maps for use in the app are Google Maps, Google 3D Maps, ESRI and Yahoo Maps. The map’s user interface should include different layers including a layer for where US domestic terror events may be happening, data about worldwide terror events, where US embassies, consulates and military installations are globally, weather conditions, and a video of traffic in the area.

Think you’re up to the task? Check out the job listing here.

FBI image via Shutterstock, hat tip NewScientist

Filed under: Business

ICANN opens the floodgates on top-level domains

Tom Cheredar — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:54:46 +0000

ICANN, a nonprofit overseeing IP address spaces, voted Monday to approve extending the number of available top-level domain extensions, or TLDs. No longer will companies and organizations be restricted to the 22 existing extensions like .com, .edu, .org.

The move marks the biggest change to Internet addresses in nearly four decades. It means companies and other organizations can apply to turn their brands into an internet domain extension, such as “.iPad” or “.Prius”. But it won’t be cheap. Applications for a new TLD will cost an estimated $185,000, according to ICANN’s Frequently Asked Questions page. If approved, there is also an annual $75,000 maintenance fee.

The application process will run from January to April 2012. ICANN, which plans to launch a global campaign to raise awareness of the new TLDs, anticipates between 300 and 1,000 new TLDs could be created under the new application program per year.

ICANN’s plans to lift restrictions on generic TLDs began formulating in 2008. The organization said it felt that expanding the domains would offer people new ways to express themselves and massively increase the “real estate” of domains available for commercial use.

It’s not clear how many companies will feel having their brands as domain names will be worth the costs. While large companies like Google and Coca-Cola may want to snap up a uniquely branded TLD, cyber squatters aren’t likely to participate. ICANN’s lengthy and expensive process should keep only well established brands and organizations in the running for a new domain extension. But it could also deter smaller companies from participating.

Filed under: Business, Media

RIM acquires calendar scheduling app Tungle.me

Sid Yadav — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:55:20 +0000

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) announced this morning that it has acquired Tungle.me, a calendar scheduling application, for an undisclosed sum of money.

Tungle.me, which launched at DEMO in 2007, offers a service to synchronize and schedule meetings across various calendaring applications — including Microsoft’s Outlook, Google Calendar, and Apple iCal. Additionally, it helps prevent timezone and double-booking conflicts, and integrates with devices such as Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s own BlackBerry.

The service has managed to build a fair amount of traction since launching, currently put into use by 40 percent of Fortune 1000 companies and over 800 universities around the world.

While RIM has yet to mention what it plans to do with the service, the company is most likely going to keep it running in its current form, going by its similar past acquisitions of Gist, an e-mail contact manager, and DataViz, a document platform for Outllook.

The Montreal, Canada-based startup was founded by Marc Gingras. It raised $6.36 million over two funding rounds, with investors that included Desjardins Venture Capital, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, and JLA Ventures.

Filed under: Business, Mobile

Fix your golf swing with Zepp's motion capture iPhone app

Matthew Lynley — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:28:34 +0000

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Sports app startup Zepp has a mobile app that can finally fix your golf swing golf swing.

The company showcased a motion-capture application that can be used with sports like golf and tennis. It ran through a demo of the app on stage at today’s Launch conference in San Francisco. Its first application, Golfsense, is in Apple’s App Store application approval process and will come out soon, the company announced today.

The company manufactures a motion-capture device that attaches to a glove or a user’s hand and tracks the person’s motion. Golfsense, for example, tracks a person’s golf swing and rates it. If it’s a terrible swing, the app makes some suggestions about how to fix it. The app displays a 3-dimensional map for each swing the user takes, and overlays it with what a good swing should look it.

Golfsense users can also sync up with other Zepp users and trade swing data. If there’s a professional playing golf nearby with a Zepp device, amateurs can download his or her swing data and compare it to theirs. There’s also a practice mode that lets users swing repeatedly as if they were at a driving range and gives a bulk rating — as well as specific suggestions on how to improve swings.

The company seems pretty bold in its pricing. It wants to charge between $200 and $300 for the application and the motion sensing device that attaches to a glove. But Zepp’s motion capture technology can be applied to other sports — like tennis or football — so the price point might be worth the trouble. Zepp also plans to release an Android and Windows Phone 7 application soon.

Filed under: Business, Mobile

NBA to launch Turnstile check-in app for games

Cody Barbierri — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:13:04 +0000

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The National Basketball League (NBA) may be looking to take advantage of the growing popularity of consumers checking-in to locations through its own application dubbed Turnstile, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The new application is supposed to be released with the start of the new season later this month and will focus on giving fans the ability to check-in to games both in-person and while watching on the television. A smart move as many fans aren’t able to physically make it to an arena, but may be avid fans – watching every game from home.

A fan who checks-in will have their location and update shared with the majority of the major social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. However, the app won’t just be for check-ins, but also offer fans real-time game stats and highlights as well as discounts and rewards if physically at a game.

As pointed out by the WSJ, the NBA isn’t the only one looking to take advantage of fans checking-in to games. The National Hockey League started using Foursquare to give fans tips and hints for finding freebies within venues. Some National Football League teams, like the Washington Redskins, are also experimenting with Foursquare as well as location-based service newcomer Scvngr, which is about to hit 500,000 users according to the company’s Blag (yes, Blag – they are Bostonians).

The application will be free and available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices.

Filed under: Business, Mobile

CheckPoints wants to reward you for checking into store products

Cody Barbierri — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 22:15:38 +0000

Millions of consumers use location-based mobile apps to check-in to locations every day. But CheckPoints, a new mobile shopping application, is looking to take check-in services to the next level by asking you to check into products within stores. Each check-in rewards the user with points that can be redeemed for prizes like gift cards, miles or gadgets. The iPhone app is expected to be approved today or tomorrow by Apple.

Checkpoints has created a location-based shopping application that not only lets you check-in to a physical venue, but also products as you walk around the store. So what’s in it for users? The company says that for every check-in the user gains points. These points can be redeemed for actual products within the company’s Reward Store, including things like $1 gift cards for CVS or Home Depot (300 points) or an iPad (a lot more points).

Users are able to check-in to products by using the phone’s camera from within the application. The camera reads the barcode and acknowledges the product and the amount of points to be added to the users account. For example, if you were in your local grocery store, once you check into the location, you can then walk around and check-in on a carton of milk, a can of Pringles and a block of cheese — each accruing points.

The company is also working on business partnerships with brands to offer additional points and a way for the brand to engage with the consumer, which can be in the form of messaging, recipes, instant coupons or other special deals. Current partners include Belkin, Energizer, Seventh Generation and Tyson Foods.

Checkpoints isn’t the first to think that checking into products is a good idea and attractive to brands. Popular location-based gaming application MyTown, a product by Booyah, has allowed users to do this for some time now. MyTown even lets brands provide specials and rewards to users, similar to CheckPoints. The big differentiator is that CheckPoints allows the users to redeem the points for real prizes, not virtual ones like MyTown.

While checking into products sounds like a good idea, I’m hesitant to believe that users are going to want to walk around a store and scan barcodes while trying to shop, especially when you need a lot of points to get anything worth the effort.

The Venice, Calif. based company, founded in 2010, recently secured a first round of funding for $1 million from co-founders Mark and Todd DiPaola, founders of large search engine marketing firm Vantage Media.

Filed under: Business, Mobile

5 business apps every entrepreneur should have

Shannon Suetos — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:00:50 +0000

(Editor’s note: Shannon Suetos is a writer who specializes in business security systems. She submitted this story to VentureBeat.)

By now, we’ve all heard the phrase “there’s an app for that”. The problem is: There’s an app for virtually everything. Figuring out what’s truly useful for you can be an incredibly frustrating affair.

You already know your smartphone can double as a virtual assistant. And if you’re shoestringing a startup or between funding rounds, using it in this capacity can be a great moneysaver. But first, you’ll need the right apps. Here are five that no entrepreneur should be without.

Google Voice – Need to keep your telecom costs down? Google Voice can help. This Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) program, like its slightly better-known competitor Skype, transfers conversations over the Internet instead of phone lines. It won’t eliminate your monthly bill to AT&T, of course, but it will ensure you don’t run over on your minutes.

Among the free app’s other benefits are:

call forwarding from your personal phone number
Voicemails can be rendered to text and sent to your email account
Conference calling abilities
Call blocking
Anyone associated with your account can send and receive text messages for free

Scan2PDF Mobile – This is a lifesaver when you need a PDF file in a hurry. This app allows you to scan a document and convert it to the popular Adobe format. It’s currently available for iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile users and offers a free trial, but it will cost you $14.99 for the full version.

TextPlus – This app allows you to text up to 100 people at a time from your iPhone or iPad – and it’s completely free. INC. Magazine recently named it one of the best apps for business.

Evernote – This app seems to make just about any app list these days—but it should. It’s a good way to keep organized and allows you to take notes and pictures as well. Another potentially useful benefit of this free app is the ability to archive your tweets. For frequent travelers, this is a great way to keep everything organized and in one spot.

SurePayroll Mobile Payroll – Need some help crunching numbers? This app can calculate wages and deductions, manage payroll taxes, issue checks or direct deposit funds to your employees, provide 24/7 online access to files, send alerts, and provide labor law information. It can also be integrated with other payroll programs such as QuickBooks, Peachtree and MYOB. The cost varies depending on the size of your company and your payroll needs.

Filed under: Business

Dating application Wings hooks featured Facebook spot and $750K

Cody Barbierri — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:01:42 +0000

Triangulate, maker of Facebook dating application Wings, announced today that the application has been selected to appear on the Facebook Application Dashboard (one of only ten). The company also officially announced that it has secured a seed round of $750,000, which appeared in a SEC filing back in March.

The company’s Facebook application is dubbed a “one-click dating service.” Once the application is downloaded, a profile is automatically created based on a user’s profile information, actions and other social channels, such as updates on Twitter and Facebook, movie rentals from Netflix or check-ins on Foursquare.

You can join as a single or as a wingman — someone who helps their friends score dates — to see information on other singles and what their friends say about them. Only the information that’s shared with everyone is used to build profiles.

The application is free, but a paid version is also available through Facebook Credits, which includes exclusive features, like special virtual gifts and profile enhancements, as well as additional matches. Users are given 500 “coins” when they sign up for Wings. You can use these coins to message and get to know your matches better. You can earn more coins by completing more of your profile and inviting friends to help you. More coins can also be bought via Facebook Credits.

The company faces plenty of competition in the online dating industry with major players eHarmony.com and Match.com dominating the market — though working within Facebook gives Wings exclusive access to the social network’s 500 million users. But other Facebook dating apps are vying for the same audience, like Zoosk.

The PaloAlto, Calif.-based company, founded in 2009, will use its new funding not only to add features and functionality to Wings, but also to develop other apps. No additional details have been provided on these future projects. Funding was secured by Trinity Ventures and Playdom Chairman Rick Thompson.

Filed under: Business, Deals