EduPath, Micello take home top honors in MobileBeat Startup Competition

The two panels of judges for MobileBeat 2010′s Startup Competition have spoken: mobile test-prep application EduPath nabbed the top prize in the consumer-facing app category, while indoor mapping provider Micello won the mobile infrastructure and services category.

The companies were selected from a field of 10 companies in each category, not to mention the more than 100 startups who applied to compete.

EduPath just launched in the Apple App Store today, providing students with the … Continue Reading

MobileBeat Startup Competition: Infrastructure players try to shake up the way you use your phone

The MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, sponsored by Palm, wrapped up this afternoon with the introduction of five more infrastructure and services companies working to break down and rebuild the way we all use our mobile phones. Two winners at the end of the day — selected from a field of 20 consumer apps and infrastructure services — will receive prestigious Tesla Awards.

The panel of judges for the afternoon portion of today’s contest includes Peter … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Enole provides a single sign-on solution for the real world

Enole is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

Identity authentication startup Enole provides a secure way for people to use the same login information to access the internet through a multitude of devices, and will be particularly useful as more and more connected devices come online in coming months.

Built on top of DNS, Enole’s cloud-based platform … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Sentegra's meWallet makes secure mobile payments a reality

Sentegra is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

Mobile transaction startup Sentegra has come up with an all-encompassing mobile wallet platform with its meWallet system. In addition to secure mobile payments, meWallet also includes authentication and certification functionality, as well as digital ticketing.

The system is buoyed by Sentegra’s “idGadget” devices, and a web-based back end platform. … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: POIdo makes location-based advertisers compete for your attention

POIdo is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

POIdo, one of a number of location-based advertising startups, is putting a new spin on the concept. The Moscow-based company is able to target advertisements at users based on their exact locations, the context of them being there, and their recent behavior in other applications on their phones.

A … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Thumbspeak helps your company get feedback from people on the go

Thumbspeak is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

The first opinion network made for mobile phones, Thumbspeak gives companies and app developers a way to rapidly collect insights and feedback from their customers by asking them questions on their phones. The goal is to offer this type of service at a competitively low price.

Users who download … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Aava offers a truly open-source mobile device platform

Aava Mobile is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

Now one year old, Aava Mobile offers both open hardware and software, giving mobile developers enough leash to make truly creative designs and applications. It is this year’s People’s Choice winner for the MobileBeat Startup Competition.

Aava’s platform, geared toward original equipment manufacturers and mobile operators, lets customers … Continue Reading

MobileBeat Startup Competition: Infrastructure and services companies go head-to-head

The MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, sponsored by Palm, recommenced this afternoon with the introduction of five infrastructure and services companies striving to improve the architecture underpinning our mobile systems. Two winners at the end of the day — selected from a field of 20 consumer apps and infrastructure services — will receive prestigious Tesla Awards.

The panel of judges for the afternoon portion of today’s contest includes Peter Barry, head of venture capital and startups … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Anyfi pitches an answer to mobile network capacity woes

Anyfi Networks is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

Noting the fact that 98 percent of fixed broadband capacity goes unused, Swedish startup Anyfi Networks is in the process of patenting technology that turns broadband network operators’ spare capacity into mobile broadband. Considering how limited mobile network capacity has become, this could be a major development.

“More … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: AFK keeps gamers connected to their worlds from anywhere

AFK Interactive is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

AFK Interactive’s M4 platform (Massively Multi-user Mobile Monetization) is the holy grail for gamers: It allows you to stay connected to massively multi-player online games (MMOs) like World of Warcraft, virtual worlds like Second Life, and social games like Farmville from any mobile device.

AFK is well aware … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Call Loop soups up marketing campaigns for voice, text and email

Call Loop is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

Referring to itself as “Constant Contact for voice and text,” mobile startup Call Loop allows marketers to tie together voice, text and email marketing messages into coherent, automated campaigns. The mission is to make life easier for marketers and make their messages more engaging for prospective recipients.

Typically, … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Locomatix launches new location-aware app development infrastructure

Locomatix is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

Locomatix, developer of a location-aware technology, today announced the launch of its new cloud infrastructure for the development of location-aware consumer applications. The company’s technology helps to integrate location into new and existing applications.

Locomatix has developed 4 consumer location-aware applications as examples for developers wondering how they could … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Micello pushes forward with indoor maps

Micello is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

We’ve been covering the indoor map company Micello for months now — first with its iPhone app launch at DEMOfall 09, and then with its Valentine’s Day promotion. The company will be presenting at the MobileBeat 2010 conference in San Francisco this week, and it looks like it has … Continue Reading

Mobile investing: Angels and big VC firms converge on capital-efficient deals

As mobile applications and startups become less pricey to fund, big investment firms are overlapping more and more with Silicon Valley angel investors as their funds and deal sizes shrink.

Today’s “Smart Strategies for Mobile Investing” session at MobileBeat2010 reflected this new convergence, fielding two distinguished angels, Jeff Clavier of SoftTechVC, and Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures, as well as a representative from one of the best know tech venture capital firms in the world, … Continue Reading

MobileBeat Startup Competition: Meet the next generation of consumer applications

The MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, sponsored by Palm, kicked off this morning with the introduction of five new consumer applications hoping to change the way you use your phone on a daily basis. Two winners at the end of the day — selected from a field of 20 consumer apps and infrastructure services — will receive prestigious Tesla Awards.

As emcee and VentureBeat Executive Editor Owen Thomas noted, the stakes are pretty high in this … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: SkyEye turns your phone into a personal surveillance system

SkyEye is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

New mobile application SkyEye turns your mobile phone into an around-the-clock security and surveillance system for your person. Using your phone’s camera, it continually snaps pictures throughout the day and streams them to the company’s secure database where they can be stored if you need to review them.

“Any … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: BlogRadio lets you listen to blog RSS feeds

BlogRadio is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

BlogRadio has come up with an interesting solution for RSS overload: The service lets you listen to any blog RSS feed with its natural text-to-speech technology.

The service works as you’d expect from the description above: You supply it with an RSS feed, and it spits out a streaming … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Snaptu wants to make dumbphones smarter with apps

Snaptu is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

Mobile app startup Snaptu has a simple goal: To bring the rich mobile app experience seen on the iPhone, Android, and other smartphones, to every cellphone — in particular, low-end phones (often referred to as “dumbphones”).

The company has developed an application that runs on any phone that supports … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: Vaayoo’s Socialbox turns your phone into a social media dashboard

Vaayoo is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

Vaayoo provides a platform for application developers, web publishers and social networks to create and serve up new social and multimedia apps. Now its new SocialBox applications ties together everyone’s favorite social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and more to make it easy to share media and content … Continue Reading

MobileBeat: MyTalk introduces a smarter social mobile network

MyTalk is one of 20 promising startups included in the MobileBeat 2010 Startup Competition, and is in the running for one of two coveted Tesla Awards.

At first glance MyTalk may just look like another location-based social mobile network. Though a deeper dive shows that this application may offer a bit more than location-based check-in points and knowing where your friends are eating on a Friday night.

MyTalk defines itself as a location-based network that … Continue Reading