So iOS 7, it seems , is going to do away with much of the skeuomorphic design that has crept into the operating system and its utilities. Jony Ive, rumor has it, has done away with all the textures and real-world analogs in iOS 7 and has switched to a flat design instead. Good for him, but if that’s all that is new in iOS 7, Apple has a real problem. It’s not the design of iOS, but rather the fact that its own service offerings like Siri, iCloud and iTunes aren’t all that great when compared to what its competitors in Mountain View (and may startups ) are working on. Phones, for all intents and purposes, are pretty much thin slabs of metal or plastic with a high-res screen on top. There are few ways a company can use design to really set itself apart Read more »
Fitocracy Users Come For The Gamification, But Stay For The Community
It’s no surprise that fitness gamification network Fitocracy is thriving — the company recently announced that it had surpassed 1 million users and has signed deals with personalities like the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger . But the company recently received its latest honor as one of Time Inc’s 10 NYC Startups to Watch. We took the opportunity to speak to co-founders Brian Wang and Dick Talens about why gamification seems to be working in the fitness world. At first glance, gamification seems to make sense based on the fact that fitness goes with athletics, sports or “games,” if you will. But devices like the Nike FuelBand and its various counterparts have shown that users grow discouraged when they can’t maintain steady progress, as measured by the quantified activity. But Fitocracy uses gamification as a way to get users interested in and hooked on the app, which lets you track your fitness and receive props from friends and the community for advancing. According to the founders, users come for the gamification but stay for the community, which becomes the source of inspiration as opposed to getting encouragement from your own progress. Read more »
Google Starts Using Computer Vision To Let You Search Your Google+ Photos
Google almost completely revamped the Google+ photo experience last week, but somehow the company didn’t get around to announcing one of the coolest photo-related features in its repertoire yet: Google now uses computer vision and machine learning to let you search your own photos for things like sunsets, food and flowers. I also tried terms like “cars,” “beach” and “bikes” and Google consistently returned the right results. This search is built into Google+, but you can also use the regular Google search and use the query term [ my photos of xyz ] to find the right images. That’s a huge step forward for photo search in Google. As Google rightly notes, “searching for your photos can be challenging because the information you’re looking for is visual.” I know I’m anything but diligent about tagging my photos, so this new search feature actually allowed me to find random images I had uploaded to Picasa Web a long time ago. As Google’s Vic Gundotra noted when he announced the new features for Google+ Photos at I/O last week, Google wants to help its users manage their photos. “Organizing photos is often a hassle,” he said, but oddly enough, the company didn’t announce this search feature at I/O and instead waited a week before launching it. Read more »
New GPS-Powered Handlebars Send Texts to Your Bike
For cyclists looking to pimp their bikes with smartphone integration, look no further — new stylish technology from startup Helios makes your bike "smart." Helios Bars boast an integrated headlight and two rear LEDs, and riders can use the left and right lights as turn signals. But what sets the product apart is the ability to connect handlebars to a smartphone via Bluetooth 4.0. Using smartphone connectivity though Helios' iOS app, the rear lights on the handlebars take advantage of a GPS connection — so they can help you navigate via Google Maps' API. After inputting a destination into Helios' app, your phone plots a route. Then, once you start biking, the rear left and right lights blink, indicating where to turn. Read more »
PopExpert Online Video Education Marketplace Raises $2M In Seed Funding From Learn Capital And Others
As edtech startups continue to challenge the current state of higher education, and various niche startups focus on educating people through digital means, yet another company is getting a boost when it comes to helping people learn. PopExpert , a learning marketplace that lets students connect with experts in one-on-one video chats, has just raised a $2 million seed round led by Learn Capital , with participation by Jeff Skoll, Ken Howery, Michael Chasen, and Expansion VC . The site’s premise is simple: users can sign in and search for what they want to learn. Right now there are experts in multiple fields across the spectrum of “life, work, and play,” including meditation, nutrition, relationships, productivity, career mentoring, language and music. Once you log in, you can search for something like “yoga” and see a list of experts, validated with credentials and tagged with a price per session. From there, just choose your expert, schedule the session, and get ready to learn Read more »
Last Call For Pitch Applications To The Austin Meetup + Pitch-Off. Also, Get Tickets Here!
10 days, people! TechCrunch invades Austin in just ten days from now, with our legendary Meetup + Pitch-off series. The magic started in New York this year, with a hugely successful pitch-off, an amazing turn-out and lots of fun memories. So we’re heading out on the open road with the event, which includes a networking meetup as well as a 60-second pitch-off competition with awesome prizes. Over the course of the year, we’ll be hitting up Boston, San Diego, and Seattle, but the first stop on our journey is in the great state of Texas. Austin, are you ready? The Austin Meetup + Pitch-Off will be held at The Stage On Sixth promptly at 6pm on May 30, and will come to a close around 10pm Read more »
How Hike, India’s Fast Growing Mobile Messaging App, Is Banking On SMS & Local Diversity To Beat The Big Boys
It’s still practically a newborn but Indian mobile messaging app Hike is already channelling almost a billion messages a month between its five million registered users. Those numbers sound insignificant when you stack them up against the big beasts of the messaging space – WhatsApp claims 200 million+ monthly active users , and some 600 billion in and outbound messages – but Hike’s growth is impressive when you consider it’s only just over four months old. WhatsApp, of course, has been around for almost four years. Mobile messaging is hot property right now, with tech giants like Facebook and most recently Google bent on owning the messaging space. The reason for all this interest in cross-platform chit-chat is that mobile messaging looks poised to steal social networking’s crown jewels: aka the cool factor, and thus the user engagement (Hike incorporates social status updates and emoji-based moods into its messaging app, to hang on the social chain). But the idea that there can be one ultimate mobile messaging winner — or one player as dominant as Facebook in the full-fat social networking space — seems unlikely. And that’s what Hike is banking on to disrupt WhatsApp and keep Facebook Messenger and its ilk from crashing its just-getting-started party. There’s no doubt that local market realities intercede much more on mobile than on the traditional social networking playground of the desktop, especially in emerging markets where device, network and carrier variations influence how people communicate based on how they can afford to communicate. Read more »
Grubless? Online Takeout Giants GrubHub And Seamless In Talks To Merge
Today, thanks to the maturation of the web, digital tech, and smartphones now in seemingly every pocket, startups are finding it easier than ever before to build scalable solutions to finally address the many inefficiencies in our food manufacturing, production and distribution systems. As interest in food tech balloons, one area in particular appears to already be at the tipping point: Online and mobile food delivery. Over the last few days, we’ve hearing about a merger between two of the largest companies in the space. Rumor has it that “arch rivals” GrubHub and Seamless are in talks which could see them join forces as part of a merger. While our sources tell us that the talks are serious, the terms of the merger are not yet clear and, of course, any potential deal could fall through. Furthermore, it’s not yet clear what kind of synergies would take place, how management of the new entity would be structured or even what the new business will be called. The two companies would not confirm on the record on any of the above. Read more »
Instabeat Is Google Glass and Nike FuelBand for Swimmers
Wearable gizmos are the next frontier in the world of technology. And fitness trackers like Fitbit or Nike+ FuelBand already give runners a great way to track their workouts. But what about swimmers? Until now, they've been left out of the gadget tracker fad. But Instabeat, a wearable accessory for swimmer's goggles, might change that. Think of a mix between Google Glass and a Nike+ FuelBand and you get Instabeat Instabeat is a device that attaches directly to a swimmer's goggles and displays, in real time, his or her heart rate, calories, laps and flip turns. Instabeat is adjustable to any pair of goggles and after the swim can be connected via USB to a computer to display the swimmer's results and track them on a dashboard Read more... More about Fitness , Wearable Tech , Tech , Gadgets , and Health Fitness Read more »
Indoor Mapping Startup Meridian Adds Notification Zones To Their Strategy
Indoor mapping software startup Meridian , continues to evolve their product strategy with a recent update to their offering . Called Zones , the company’s newest update to their indoor mapping platform — and indoor is the key word here — allows geo-fence style app push notifications to be scheduled, by drawing polygons on location maps. When customers with the accompanying app walk into one of those indoor areas represented by the polygon on the map…Bam! They get a push notification. To be sure, it’s a real marketing opportunity and a concept underserved by the current, mostly GPS-based location awareness model for mobile devices. Differentiators There are several geo-fencing platforms out there — PlaceCast , Digby Localpoint , Wifarer and ShopKick all come to mind — so what is the big deal here? Meridian’s VP of Marketing Jeff Hardison, believes there are several differences in the Meridian approach. First of all, this notification system will work even when the accompanying app is not open nor in active use — essentially working while the app is in background mode — without significant battery drain. Other geo-fence providers might be able to do this via GPS or cell tower triangulation, but not by WiFi sensing, which is how Meridian works Read more »