Turntable.fm Releases Piki to Help Find Music Recommendations From Friends

Alcohoot Brings Quantified Self to BAC

on May 22, 2013

The Launchpad is a series that introduces Mashable readers to compelling startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here . Name : Alcohoot One-Liner Pitch : Alcohoot is a breathalyzer that attaches to your smartphone. Why It's Taking Off : The device fits comfortably in a pocket or purse and accuracy is comparable to police-grade devices, plus, a companion app ensures you're empowered to make safer choices based on your blood alcohol content (BAC) While serving in the Israeli military, Jonathan Ofir and Ben Biron would drive by a sign outside their base that read "X soldiers killed from drunk driving" and the number steadily increased Read more... More about Startup , Iphone , Business , Startups , and The Launchpad Read more »

How Hike, India’s Fast Growing Mobile Messaging App, Is Banking On SMS & Local Diversity To Beat The Big Boys

on May 18, 2013

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

on May 18, 2013

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 »

Good.co Helps You Find Employers That Match Your Personality

on May 9, 2013

The Launchpad is a series that introduces Mashable readers to compelling startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here . Name : Good.co One-Liner Pitch : Good.co lets you see how well your personality matches up with specific companies and employees, so you end up at a place that's really the right fit for you. Why It's Taking Off : It offers job hunters a way to find companies that are a better fit and companies a way to find employees who are a better fit, so neither waste more time and money than necessary. Job listings can give you a sense of whether you're qualified for a particular role, but not necessarily whether you're a good fit for the company and its culture. One new website hopes to change that Read more »

Coming Soon: Your Personal Flying Car

on May 8, 2013

It's 2013 Where's my flying car? Answer: about eight years away. Terrafugia is a Massachusetts company previously best known for the Transition, which is best described as a plane you can drive. Its wings fold up, meaning pilots can drive it off the runway and straight home. Which is great for pilots, but what about the rest of us? Now Terrafugia is working on a full-on futuristic flying car, the TF-X, which it expects to start selling in the early 2020s. Think of it as a cross between a Google self-driving car , a helicopter and a plane. The carbon-fiber vehicle takes off vertically, right from your driveway (presuming you have 100 ft of clearance), using electric-powered rotor blades mounted on each side Read more... Read more »

Taking A Spin With Joyride, Which Aims To Liven Up Your Commute With Its Android App

on April 25, 2013

Last month, a startup called Joyride came out of stealth mode and announced that it has raised $1 million in funding . Since the company is building a platform for creating entertaining drivetime experiences, we decided that the best place to see the Joyride app in action was on the road. Co-founder and CEO Jeff Chen described Joyride as an attempt to “make drive times more fun and more interesting” — instead of just listening to the same songs on the same radio stations, you could say, “Hey, let’s play a game together.” Or, “Pull up the latest comedy clips.” Or, “Teach me a new language.” It’s an application that you’ll eventually be able to install on your smartphone, which you then connect to your car stereo and control with your voice. The first application is a trivia game, which you can see me play above. (Since we were playing with a pre-release version of the app, we decided to make the filming process go a little smoother by partially relying on the touch controls as well.) There’s a social component to the game, where you can try to do better than your friends or other players did — it’s timed so that the experience feels like you’re playing each other live, even though it’s really, in Chen’s words, “fake synchronous.” The game is fun, but Chen acknowledged that it’s not going to be how people spend all their commute time. That’s why the company hasn’t launched its product yet — it’s working on a feature that plays comedy content from around the web, and it’s looking to expand the functionality in other ways Read more »

Turntable.fm Releases Piki to Help Find Music Recommendations From Friends

on April 11, 2013

Turntable.fm has the best and worst luck of any startup. After launching its social music streaming service in early 2011, Turntable received the kind of media exposure and hype that most companies would kill for. But a few months later, the service's traffic dipped and people started questioning whether it was the next big thing or the next big flop. Since then, Turntable has continued to try building momentum by signing licensing agreements with the four major record labels, releasing an Android app and optimizing its website to allow for thousands of users to listen to music in the same listening room, effectively creating a true, virtual concert space. It's unclear, however, whether any of these updates have really moved the dial much on the public's perception of the company. Read more... More about Music , Apps , Startups , Turntable.Fm , and Business Read more »