Hojoki Launches Mobile Apps to Cut Through Cloud Confusion
Darrell Etherington
April 27, 2012
Keeping track of all your cloud-based activity can become a bit of a headache, with new services consistently popping up and vying for attention. Google announced Drive this week, adding to the potential for cloud fatigue. But German startup Hojoki, which today announced its iPhone and Android mobile applications, is hoping to make managing multiple cloud-based productivity apps easier, by aggregating activity streams from some of the most-used services under one roof. Read more
Zapstreak Debuts its “AirPlay for Android” Solution in Private Beta
Darrell Etherington
April 26, 2012
Users of Apple’s iOS devices (at least the most recent ones) can beam content from their iPhones and iPads to televisions via Apple TV and home theatre receivers thanks to its AirPlay feature. There are several Android apps out there like iMediaShare that offer similar functionality on a per-app basis, but startup Zapstreak thinks the big-picture opportunity to offer a truly platform-wide solution for making this happen on Google’s mobile OS is something it’s in the best position to provide. Read more
DITTO Launches Online Eyewear Boutique With $3M in Funding
Darrell Etherington
April 26, 2012
A new Mountain View startup founded by Kate Endress, ex-Google Engineer Sergey Surkov and ex-Nokia engineer Dmitry Kornilov called DITTO (no, not the one recently acquired by Groupon) is launching its online eyewear retail site to the public today, alongside the announcement of a $3 million seed funding round led by August Capital. Read more
Meet Invy, An iPhone App For Simple Scheduling
Darrell Etherington
April 26, 2012
Netherlands-based Bread & Pepper is a three-person app-building startup that has so far worked for other companies. When it came time to create the first app it owns entirely, Invy, the founding team of Petar Radošević, Joeri Djojosoeparto and Wouter de Bres decided to tackle something they identified as a pain point for themselves: scheduling meetings. To be sure, it’s something other online tools have tried to answer. Montreal-based Tungle.me, acquired by RIM in 2011, provides online scheduling via email Read more
Showyou Adds Signups and Social Grids to Its Web Presence
Darrell Etherington
April 25, 2012
Video discovery iPad app Showyou, which debuted on the iPad over a year ago in April 2011, is today unveiling its new HTML5-based web presence, which brings the iPad experience to any modern browser almost in its entirety. It’s move that Showyou CEO Mark Hall told BetaKit is designed to expand the site’s potential user base, but without making compromises to the overall experience the company provides. Read more
Sayduck Using Augmented Reality for ‘Try Before You Buy’ Furniture App
Cheronne Thurab
April 25, 2012
When furniture shopping, it can be difficult to picture how an item will really fit in with your decor. To solve this problem London and Helsinki-based startup Sayduck has created an augmented reality mobile app that allows users to see exactly how a piece of furniture looks in a room. Founded by Mikko Martikainen, Niklas Slotte and Mikael Ylinen, who all have backgrounds in software development, mobile marketing and digital printing, Sayduck demoed at Seedcamp this month. Read more
Livesheets Launching Web-based Spreadsheet Tool for Calculations
Cheronne Thurab
April 24, 2012
London-based stealth startup Livesheets is looking to reinvent spreadsheets with their web-based calculation tool that founder Daniel Maxwell calls ”mind maps for numbers.” Maxwell said in an interview that unlike what he calls the “rigid and somewhat boring” nature of spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel, his team has focused on creating a product that is fun to use and allows users to protect their original content. Read more
Currently Adds Hollywood Headlines to Suite of Curation Apps
Cheronne Thurab
April 23, 2012
The appetite for celebrity gossip is large, and new app Currently Famous launches this week to bring Hollywood’s headlines to the masses in real-time. The app comes from Currently, a company that builds niche news curation apps including Currently Tech News, which launched over a year ago when founder Richard Giles became frustrated with mobile news websites. Read more
71lbs Launches to Help SMBs Save on Shipping Costs
Cheronne Thurab
April 23, 2012
Florida-based startup 71lbs intends to help small and medium-sized businesses keep tabs on their shipping costs and save money. Founder and CEO Jose Li told BetaKit that since most consumers are unaware of Fedex and UPS’ money-back guarantee, which guarantees that shipments arrive on time or costs are reimbursed, over two billion dollars go unclaimed yearly and his company plans to get that money back into consumers’ pockets. Read more
Sports Social Network JockTalk Launches with All-Star Founder
Darrell Etherington
April 20, 2012
Niche social networks can be a tough sell; after all, why should users sign up for yet another service when they can discuss the things they love on existing platforms like Twitter or Facebook? Sports social network JockTalk, which launched this week in private beta, is built on the belief that if done right, users can derive a lot more value from a single-focus sharing community than from a less-focused tool, and JockTalk co-founder and former MLB All-Star outfielder Shawn Read more