Faculte bags $2.7M for rich media presentations-made-easy

Faculte bags $2.7M for rich media presentations-made-easy

Faculte, provider of a simple platform for making multimedia presentations, online videos and pre-recorded webinars, has raised $2.66 million in a first round of preferred stock, according to regulatory filings. The San Bruno, Calif. company says Calumet Venture Fund and a handful of angel investors… Continue Reading

Slideshow creator Animoto syncs business model and traffic, raises $4.4M

Slideshow creator Animoto syncs business model and traffic, raises $4.4M

Animoto is one of those companies that makes my job fun. It’s a web-based slide show company that has figured out what looks to be a sustainable business model — and it has just closed a $4.4 million round of funding.

I first covered the company… Continue Reading

Who did Apple hurt with its Macworld announcements?

Who did Apple hurt with its Macworld announcements?

[Disclosure: The author previously worked at Flickr, one of the companies mentioned in this story.]

In yesterday’s keynote address at Macworld, Apple unveiled a series of software product upgrades that will potentially encroach on the territory of a handful of startups and larger companies. Should you… Continue Reading

SundaySky wants to turn web content into instant video

SundaySky wants to turn web content into instant video

Israeli video production company SundaySky wants to help web sites repackage their content as video — whether as a means to promote sales, build out their communities, or communicate better with their audience. SundaySky says that turning site content into videos can be time consuming… Continue Reading

Animoto’s iPhone app makes instant slideshows from your junky pictures

Animoto’s iPhone app makes instant slideshows from your junky pictures

Everyone loves slideshows. You sit back and watch as the images before you help you reminisce about a past event. But why wait? Now you can make a slideshow minutes after taking photos thanks to Animoto’s new iPhone app.

You simply select between eight and 16… Continue Reading

Domo arigato, Mr. Animoto, for adding text to videos

Domo arigato, Mr. Animoto, for adding text to videos

Forget those awful photo montage videos on YouTube that teenage fans make for TV shows like “Gossip Girl” and “One Tree Hill.” Animoto, the company that allows anyone to become a music video producer by syncing up photos with tunes, now lets users add text… Continue Reading

Roundup: A vintage Bill Gates rant, A123’s grid ambitions, Japanese browsers and more

Roundup: A vintage Bill Gates rant, A123’s grid ambitions, Japanese browsers and more

Bill Gates reflects on crappy Windows experiences — As the beginning of a farewell series to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the Seattle PI has printed a long, stream-of-consciousness rant by Gates about the frustrations of using a piece of Windows software in 2003. “The lack of… Continue Reading

Photo-music video creator Animoto raises round from Amazon

Photo-music video creator Animoto raises round from Amazon

Animoto, a company that lets you create music videos out of your photos albums, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Amazon.com.

New York-based Animoto offers a way to create a more advanced version of the sorts slideshow widgets you see on MySpace, made by… Continue Reading

Slideshow company Animoto makes clever use of Facebook’s platform

Slideshow company Animoto makes clever use of Facebook’s platform

We don’t usually write about individual Facebook applications when they launch (there are thousands of them, and most of them are poorly made), but Animoto’s is worth taking a look at. It cleanly and simply makes use of Facebook’s data and distribution, to bring its… Continue Reading

Animoto’s better online slideshows

Animoto’s better online slideshows

Animoto helps you produce widget-based slideshow in slicker ways than you can with Photobucket, Slide and RockYou.

The difference?

While most other sites rely on Adobe’s Flash-based video technology, Animoto relies on its own technology to pair photos and a music track together to create them. The… Continue Reading