Outils logiciels CAO 3D. Location-Sharing App Glympse Adds Groups, Calendar Integration To Eliminate All Those “I’m Running Late” Messages. Glympse, the location-sharing app which first debuted back in 2009, is still hanging in there. The app arrived at a time when its competitors were the original, location-based social networks such as Loopt and Brightkite, now long gone. But Glympse survived – and today, it’s getting a revamp. The company, which has slowly grown its install base to 3 million users, is updating its mobile apps on Android, iPhone and iPad with several new features, including support for groups, calendar integration, and more. Although the app looks a lot different now than it did back in May 2009, the core functionality has evolved very little over the years. Instead of offering a social network for check-ins, Glympse always believed there was value in the more utilitarian functionality of sharing your location with friends on a more individualized basis.
Today Glympse is hoping to expand adoption with the introduction of new use cases. PATHJOY. Leap Motion Overwhelmed By Developer Response. It seems like we can expect amazing things from the Leap when it launches next year. Leap Motion reports that it has been flooded with requests for developer units, and an impressive assortment of unique and innovative applications for the motion-sensing device. A few months ago Leap Motion revealed the Leap--a device that lets you interact with a computer using motion and hand gestures. It is similar in function to the Microsoft Kinect, but the precision claimed by Leap Motion makes the Kinect seem like trying to tie your shoes while wearing oven mitts. Leap Motion has received more than 26,000 requests from developers interested in working with the Leap. At this point, there are developers from 140 countries, and all 50 states in the US lined up, and anxiously anticipating an opportunity to work with a Leap developer unit.
The proposed apps span a wide range of innovative purposes. The video certainly makes it look compelling, and I’ve already pre-ordered mine. Visa Europe, Not Square’s Investor Visa Inc, Puts Brakes On iZettle As mPowa Expands To Android. A bit of a setback today for mobile payments and specifically iZettle — the startup modelled as a kind of “European Square” for merchants to take card payments on their phones. The company today had to shut off accepting Visa cards in three of the markets where it has been running pilots — Denmark, Finland and Norway — over what appears to be a problem with how it authenticated users on its platform, using an electronic signature instead of a PIN. The problem came to light when users started to receive emails from iZettle with the news (we have one from a reader below) and comes at a time when competition is heating up among point-of-sale mobile payments players, with mPowa, who you might better know as Square’s hand nemesis, now extending its payment services to Android; and Square reportedly getting a $200 million investment on a $3.2 billion valuation.
“We don’t have a problem because we’re not chip and sign,” Dan Wagner, CEO of mPowa, told TechCrunch. iZettle says it’s ‘confused’ by Visa blockade — European technology news. Tinkercad - An easy-to use, free 3D modeling tool • Tinkercad. Beyond Meat. Even the most devout vegans and vegetarians have to admit that today’s meat substitutes are no substitute for the real thing. Some of them are tasty, but none actually have the same taste and texture of a piece of chicken, a burger, or a steak. They’re not fooling anyone. That’s why most people in meat-loving countries like the U.S. haven’t traded in their steak for Tofurky, even when they have health problems that should compel them to do so, and even when they realize that livestock are responsible for approximately 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond Meat, a startup that makes vegan meat analogues, is manufacturing products that purportedly taste and feel like real meat (we haven’t yet confirmed this ourselves), have a better nutrition profile (no cholesterol, no saturated fat, but lots of protein), and will eventually be available at a lower price point than the industrially farmed stuff.
Kleiner, too, was impressed with the company’s potential. Leap Motion. Welcome to Treehouse, Start Learning Today. My Conferences | ÜberConference. Beyond Meat™ Season 3. CouchSurfing raises $15M to build a human travel network. Long before the recent crop of collaborative consumption startups found fame, there was CouchSurfing, originally a non-profit that helped connect travelers to hosts.
The feel-good story, however, was threatened last year when it incorporated with a B Corp certification and raised $7.6 million, prompting user fears that CouchSurfing was selling out. But the service has only continued to grow in popularity, adding two million more members in the last year to get to 5 million members. And now, it’s looking to build upon that momentum with a new $15 million Series B investment, led by General Catalyst Partners with help from Menlo Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network. The San Francisco-based company will use the new money to shore up its infrastructure, improve its products and hire more employees. CouchSurfing often gets mentioned along with Airbnb, which also helps people find a place to sleep from fellow users.
4moms Raises $20M To Bring Robotic Baby Products Worldwide. It’s safe to say that, aside from some more basic changes, childcare equipment like strollers and playpens haven’t seen much innovation over the years. Advancements in safety have largely been a priority of companies making these products, but has anyone ever stopped to think about what a few high tech additions could do for the stroller market? You might find this an absurd proposition, but one Pittsburgh startup has just raised $20 million to help them keep doing just that. 4moms, the company behind an array of high tech baby products, has just finished a round of fundraising led by Bain Capital Ventures to bring their unique brand of futuristic childcare gadgets worldwide.
The startup was founded in 2005 by CEO Robert Daley and CTO Henry Thorne, and since then its products have reached more than 500 retailers throughout the US. According to today’s announcement, the $20 million will go to ramping up product development and expanding the 4moms brand into new markets across the globe. Tripping: Couches to Castles | Kayak of Airbnb | Vacation & Short Term Rentals from HomeAway & FlipKey.
Work For Us Turns Facebook Fan Pages Into A Recruiting Tool. Facebook is great for keeping up with friends. And of course brands are using it as marketing tool by creating Fan pages. But it can also be used by companies as a recruiting tool. I’ve written before anecdotally about how Citysearch uses Facebook ads for recruiting by targeting the ads at the hiring manager’s friends.
Well, now there is a full-fledged Facebook app for that called Work For Us Work For Us creates a tab on a company’s Fan page which turns it into a mini-job board. You can see an example here for BuildASign or SPG Creative Marketing. People can apply for the job right inside Facebook, or Like a job and therefore spread it to their friends as a social referral. The company behind Work For Us is Work4Labs, a startup funded by French angel investors Stephane Le Viet and Gautier Machelon. 16-Year-Old Programmer Raises Seed Round From Billionaire Li Ka Shing To ‘Summarize The Web’ Launching today on the App Store is a new application called Summly that, in short, attempts to summarize the Web. The app was formerly known as Trimit (which we covered back in July), before Founder (and 16-year-old programmer) Nick D’Aloisio raised a seed round from billionaire Hong Kong investor Li Ka-shing and his investment vehicle, Horizons Ventures. Horizons encouraged D’Aloisio to change his startup’s name to “Summly Limited”, which he has done, all in tune to what we are hearing is a sum of money that’s over $250K, which the startup will use to ramp up hiring, for development, and creating patents.
At the very least, it’s a lot of money for a 16-year-old. Do you remember what you were doing at 16? So what is this Summly app that everyone’s so excited about? And it seems to be working. Why? For more, check out Summly on the App Store here. Hot Background Location App Highlight Gets Funding As It Plans SXSW Update. A new generation of location apps is here, just in time for the world’s best event for using them: the South By Southwest music, film and tech extravaganza starting next week in Austin, Texas. Ahead of it, my favorite of the bunch, Highlight, is announcing that it’s pushing out a new version for the event, and bringing in funding. But before I get into the news, what’s special about Highlight, and competitors like Glancee? Instead of asking you to check in, they simply run in the background, sending notifications to you when interesting people are physically near. For SXSW, these apps can help you sort out the most relevant folks from the crowd. The way Highlight’s iOS app works, in particular, is that it has you log in with Facebook, then it shows you anyone nearby who has friends or even just interests in common as you go about your day-to-day life (note that interests equals Facebook pages that you’ve mutually liked).
Intel Capital Augments Layar's Reality With A $14 Million Capital Infusion. Augmented reality startup Layar has raised roughly $14 million (€10 million) in its second round of funding, which was led by Intel Capital and joined by previous backers Sunstone Capital and Prime Ventures. This brings the total of capital raised by the Dutch company to a healthy $17.4 million. Layar says the new funding will be used primarily to enhance its open mobile AR platform and the promotion thereof to third-party developers and brands in an effort to increase the amount of available augmented reality content ‘Layar layers’. The company will continue developing its mobile application, dubbed the Layar Reality Browser, which is currently available for iPhone, Android and Bada handsets.
The question remains: is augmented reality a fad or poised to go mainstream? The jury is still out on that, but Intel Capital and Layar’s initial backers are clearly betting on the latter to happen in the near future, and on the Dutch startup to help make it a reality. Startup Leadership Program. [Social Commerce] Les 5 startups à suivre de près. Les médias sociaux ont changé la façon dont nous faisons nos courses en ligne, et les statistiques le confirment. Environ 81% des consommateurs reçoivent des conseils de leurs amis et leur famille, relatifs à l’achat de produits à travers un site de réseautage social. Mais le passage au social commerce ne fait que commencer, et les revenus du marché devraient atteindre 30 milliards de dollars d’ici 2015.
FrenchWeb vous propose ici un zoom sur 5 startups, françaises et américaines, spécialisées sur ce créneau : Pepita, Brand Ministry, Prodcast, Chirpify, et Lockerz. Brand Ministry booste la popularité de ses clients sur les médias sociaux Créé en 2010 à l’initiative d’Alexandre et Julien Oudart et Arnaud Testu, Brand Ministry aide ses clients à faire des réseaux sociaux un outil de développement, de notoriété et d’acquisition de nouveaux clients. Pepita, spécialiste de la monétisation sur les réseaux sociaux Prodcast : le réseau social des produits et avis consommateurs.
Chirpify. [US] Lancement de Zgarage, accélérateur dédié aux startups européennes. Nestadio Capital annonce le lancement de Zgarage, un accélérateur permettant aux startups européennes de développer plus rapidement leurs produits et services aux Etats-Unis pour conquérir ensuite les marchés mondiaux. Ce programme, d’une durée de 6 à 9 mois, a pour vocation de soutenir le développement des startups et des porteurs de projets dans le domaine du web et du logiciel.
Il offrira a chacune d’entre-elles un accompagnement juridique, commercial, technique et logistique, puis s’occupera de les mettre en relation avec des partenaires ou investisseurs américains. Nestadio Capital proposera par ailleurs aux lauréats de cette formation un investissement allant jusqu’à 100 000 $ pour couvrir la totalité du financement du programme. Zgarage est également partenaire du programme BizSpark Plus de Microsoft, qui est lui, destiné à soutenir et à accélérer le développement des startups en phase d’amorçage dans les domaines du logiciel et du web. Airtime. Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning Hint At The Future Of Airtime [TCTV] As of today’s launch Airtime is a one-on-one video chat network, but what about tomorrow? Co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning tell us “it’d be pretty cool” if Airtime became an app platform.
The former Napster founders wouldn’t rule out the possibility of photo-sharing on Airtime either. During the star-studded launch party we also got the stunning Olivia Munn, former host of Attack Of The Show, talking about whether Airtime’s just for geeks, or if your grandma’s going to get on board. Munn, who’s featured in Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO drama The Newsroom, said she sees Airtime having serious mainstream appeal. One thing Parker and Fanning don’t have love for is retreading old problems. “It seems like the right thing to do is tackle problems other people aren’t working on. For more on Airtime, check out our coverage: Introducing 'Airtime': Facebook launches new app (and Zuckerberg surprises users by popping up on the video chat service) By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 23:39 GMT, 5 June 2012 | Updated: 23:43 GMT, 5 June 2012 After more than a year in development Facebook’s latest app, called Airtime, has launched – and Mark Zuckerberg surprised users when he checked out the video chat service for himself today.
Created by Napster founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, Airtime is a one-on-one video chat service that allows users to share live video with their Facebook friends, as well as strangers who have similar interests. One New York blogger, Ronen V, tried out the new app today and was shocked when Zuckerberg was the first 'stranger' he chatted to. Airtime app: Mark Zuckerberg was among the first users of new Facebook app, Airtime, today. New York blogger, Ronen V, left, only had time to thank Zuckerberg for creating Facebook before the billionaire moved on to talk to someone new on the video chat service The app appears as a split screen with the user on the left side and the person they are chatting to on the right.