New Technology News

Sunday, December 8, 2013

When I met Siqi Chen, founder and CEO of the startup behind a new journaling app called Heyday, a few weeks ago, he said he’d built an app that offered a “more holistic” approach to tracking your life on your iPhone. Well, the app launched on Thursday, and since then, I’ve been testing it out to see whether Chen was right.

My initial conclusion? First, this is a journaling app that I’m actually going to stick with. Second, I need to get out more.

It helps, I suppose, that I got to hear Chen lay out his case for using the app. He said it’s meant for people who have wanted to keep a physical journal but never managed to find the time or motivation to do so consistently — and I’m guilty as charged.

With Heyday, that journal gets created automatically from the data and content that’s on your phone — that’s your location and your camera roll for now, but Chen said he plans to add other data sources, and eventually to build “the ultimate artifact and story of your life.”

There are other apps like Rove and Saga that automatically track your location and allow you to add photos, but Chen argued that Heyday is less location focused and, as mentioned above, more holistic. One example is the fact that Heyday, unlike the other apps, doesn’t really track when you’re going from place-to-place — it only cares about where you are when you’re not in transit. (That reflects a different focus but also helps Heyday save battery power.)

AWhen we talk about using the content on your phone, Heyday can even reveal your activity before you installed the app, based on the photos in your photo roll. Of course, that means you need to have stored old photos on your phone, and I haven’t (I usually upload mine to Facebook or Twitter and delete them after a couple of weeks). It also means random photos (the selfie that can out blurry, perhaps, or the receipt that you photographed for your expense report) will show up as well, but it’s easy to delte them. And obviously it’s more useful if you take plenty of photos — when I was out with friends on Saturday (which, along with Saturday night, is basically the only time with interesting content, because it’s the only time I did something interesting) I found myself reminding myself to take more photos than I normally would have.

Which brings up the point that Heyday isn’t going to have much to say if you’re not really doing anything. For most of last week, for example, I was just at home or at the office, and today, I lazed around my apartment, so my Heyday journal for those periods is pretty much blank. But maybe the fact that the app makes me feel vaguely guilty about staying in is a good thing?

Chen also emphasized Heyday’s approach to privacy — basically, there’s no sharing within the app itself, but you can choose to share individual updates on Facebook, Twitter, and email. In contrast, Saga has been adding social features.)

(There was a snafu on the privacy front after the launch, when Heyday accidentally emailed everyone on its waiting list but failed to bcc them, which meant, in the company’s words, that “the email address you used to sign up *on our waiting list* was exposed to all 997 emails on our waiting list.” However, Heyday noted that no accounts were compromised and that it would be implementing “a two-person rule on all future newsletter sends.”)

Just to be clear, when I say that I’ve been using the app for the last few days, I basically turned it on and left it alone, and then I opened it today to find that, yes, there was a pretty accurate representation of what I’ve been up to. So by that standard, it works pretty darn well.

I should also mention that Hey, the startup behind the app, has raised $2 million in funding from Google Ventures, Spark Capital, CrunchFund (which, like TechCrunch, was founded by Michael Arrington), SV Angel, and others.

testfinaltechnews

Heyday, The New Journaling App, Reminds Me That I’m Kind Of Boring

4:23 PM

Unknown

When I met Siqi Chen, founder and CEO of the startup behind a new journaling app called Heyday , a few weeks ago, he said he’d built an app ...

On the importance of images and layout in writing.

Load up your favorite tech blog. Or almost any blog, really. There’s a good chance it looks like shit. There’s a better chance that the reading experience is even worse. And we put up with it, day in and day out.

Why? Because that’s where the content is.

Enter Medium 1.0. While there are some questions as to what exactly Medium aims to be, there is no question that it’s already a beautiful product. As a writer, it’s evolving into exactly the tool I want to use when writing. It started with a focus on the fundamentals: words. Now the product is wrapping those words in an obvious trapping that has long been under-appreciated in writing: images.

I think back to when I was a kid and would sit for hours mesmerized by a magazine. Was it the writing that had me so engrossed? Sometimes. But sometimes it was the visuals. And more often than not, it was a combination of the two.

Somehow that symbiotic relationship was all-but destroyed as content moved onto the web.

Sure, there are some newer players out there now that are trying to bring back some elements of this relationship, namely the Vox Media properties (here’s one great example). And yes, all the traditional magazines have been ported (often quite poorly) into apps for iOS and Android. But Medium is the first product I’ve seen that opens up the tango of words and images to all.

During my tech blogging days, people used to ask me why I would always use images from films in my posts — even when the content seemingly had little to do with the visual. The answer is pretty simple: those images create an immediate bond with the reader, even if they don’t realize it.

I feel the need. The need, for you to read.

Maybe I was writing about a fairly obtuse tweak Google was implementing to increase the speed of a product. To some people, that’s interesting. To others, nothing could be less interesting. But to most people, they weren’t sure if they should care, and as such, few read such stories. So that’s where you have to get creative. Hook them with a headline, and keep them with an image they can relate to — say, something from Top Gun vaguely related to what was being talked about in the post: speed. Boom.

And that’s just one, albeit sort of gimmicky, way that images can augment words. As you’re undoubtedly aware because you’re a human being, sometimes visuals can be 100x more powerful than any words. And again, I think back to my favorite magazine experiences: words with the right images can be 1,000x more powerful together.

Sadly, the main way most of us see visuals next to text these days is in the form of an advertisement. Not only does this form of visual not augment the reading experience, it makes it roughly 10,000x worse.

One problem is that we’re no longer talking about beautiful, Mad Men-esque advertisements. We’re talking about flashy banners, tiny squares, or ugly links. And unlike in magazines, those hideous ads sit right next to the content you’re reading — sometimes even embedded within it!

02303_yellowone_1680x1050

In other words, not only do images and words not form a symbiotic relationship, in many blogposts, they’re antagonistic. These types of images aim to stop you from reading and focus solely on them. And, in an ideal world for the advertisers, you’d click the ad, taking you away from what you were just reading. What a shitty reading experience.

Unlike, well, this.

This is lovely.

So I applaud Medium’s move to take us back to a time where words and images were far more complimentary — and in some cases, inseparable. And I hope it spurs the development of more content and tools that are presented to us as if images aren’t a complete afterthought.

Just compare reading this post thus far to reading something like this:

Mashable

Or this:

AllThingsD

Or this:

GigaOM

Or this:

VentureBeat

Or this:

Business Insider

Or yes, this:

TechCrunch

Clutter. Clutter. Clutter. Clutter. Image overload. Ads galore. Very few images that actually augment the reading experience. Many that take away from it.

This is why people miss the glory days of RSS (maybe the only reason). You could argue that this is one of the main reasons to use Pocket or Instapaper (they strip out a lot of the gunk). Hell, Apple even felt the need to build a “Reader” feature into its Safari browser. Think about how ridiculous that is for a second. A web browser needs a feature to make it easier to actually read on the web.

It’s enough to make you want to gouge your eyes out.

testfinaltechnews

Let It Full-Bleed

1:39 PM

Unknown

On the importance of images and layout in writing. Load up your favorite tech blog. Or almost any blog, really. There’s a good chance it lo...

It’s has to be one of those cold half-light afternoons, a radio in the house mumbling something low and steady, Click and Clack or the news, the snow might be fresh, might be coming, might not come for weeks. The heater kicks on in the basement and the warmth balloons up through the rooms, a fog of comfort along the floor.

Those are the afternoons perfect for reading. When I was serious about my reading I’d gather ten or fifteen books from the library and scoot through them in rapid succession, dumping the books that got boring, finishing the books that caught my fancy. I got through most of Vonnegut on those afternoons, a lot of Bradbury. I read Richard Powers and lot of fiction that I couldn’t quite follow but liked the sound of. I read a lot of Stephen King. A lot.

This is a pean to that crepuscular time time between two and six, that four hours of daylight on a few very specific days – maybe the days between Christmas and New Year’s, maybe the some mid-winter weekend when you have little to do and can afford to laze and read – when the book makes perfect and absolute sense.

Those afternoons happened all year round, to be sure, but the holiday book is a better book. It’s new, perhaps, freshly unpacked, or maybe it’s a discovery you found on your visit home from college or away. Maybe it’s an old friend or maybe it’s a stranger. Maybe it smells of the basement, a mix of mulch and mold, or maybe it smells like new paste. Either way, it wants us to open it.

Soon it won’t smell it all. Soon it will be all bits.

If there’s anything to recommend the purchase of paper bound to cardboard it’s in honor of the holiday read. There is nothing like it, I think, and it made lovers of the written word out of many of us. The ways books change our brains is myriad, almost as myriad as the ways we’ve been changed by our electronics. But I like to think the slow saunter through a broke-spine copy of On The Road changes us in ways Reddit and 24/7 news sites can’t. That squib of glue and pulp changes how we think, how patient we are, how much we fall in love with the world and its wonder.

A Kindle loaded with books is the next best thing, sure. But it’s a cold comfort, isn’t it? That glass and plastic and bright light?

The opening scene of The Neverending Story, when Bastian escapes to the attic to read his secret stolen book is a formative image for me. It’s that mix of running, rain, fear, excitement, and wonder that defined my winter reading jags. It defined the narrative that said when I opened this strange new tome I’d meet characters from across the universe. Imagine Bastian doing the same thing today – somehow stealing an ePub, side loading it onto a Nook, pressing power – and the drama isn’t there. Maybe someday it will be, but not now.

So as we roll into the season of quiet afternoons and long dark evenings, when the weather gets nasty and there’s no reason to take to the streets, when the apartment or the ranch or the duplex gets warm and and there are no appointments, and the books are there, old friends waiting for a visit, then visit them. We owe it to the book not to forget for no matter how fast memory fades the written word, stamped on old paper, is still the best repository for the world we’ve ever created.

testfinaltechnews

In Praise Of The Holiday Book

12:53 PM

Unknown

It’s has to be one of those cold half-light afternoons, a radio in the house mumbling something low and steady, Click and Clack or the news,...

TechCrunch Moscow today features a whole 38 startups pitching to enter the final on Day Two, which features the main conference. You can catch the pitches live today on the live video stream but here’s a run-down of al the companies, as they describe themselves.

The Startup Alley features over 70 startups that met the requirements of an exhibition participant, being less than 3 years old, and having raised no more than $3M investment. Evan Nisselson (LDV Capital) is MCing the Startup Pitches.

The TechCrunch Moscow event partners are Digital October and Kite Ventures. Follow TC Moscow on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the hashtag on Twitter.

10TRACKS

A cloud music storage and streaming service targeting owners of large music collections to enjoy their music over Android, iOS, WP8 devices. Our storage system helps to upload music to the cloud 30 times faster, save space and lower costs. Songs can be uploaded to the cloud from iTunes, Winamp and different devices. Folders and subfolders structure are preserved. Music can be listened even without internet access. We offer 3 Gb for free and $25/year unlimited. Sign up right now!

27 FACES

Special application that includes unique computer vision algorithms. It utilizes a video sensor to scan the space in front of a digital display or a showcase, detects human faces and tracks their position. At any given time 27 faces detects from all potential viewers only those who were looking directly on the screen, recognizes their gender and age group. Collected data is anonymously transmitted in encrypted form to a central server for storage and analysis.

3PLET

Music tech company, providing digital publishing solution and platform for music and visual artists to jointly publish, share and monetize their music and art on mobile and connected devices. We turn music, images, text and metadata into a beautiful application called 3plet. 3Plet is a mobile music album and artist-centric sales and communication channel, new industrial standard for music album releases.

ADVERTONE

A platform that integrates all available Advertising Networks (AN) by means of parsing and API methods. Our aim is to provide a system that facilitates the maximization of revenue of publishers. It allows controlling, customizing and making A/B testing any AN from a single interface. It relieves from most of the routine work and the necessity to change promotional codes on a site while changing an ANs.

AGORA

Platform for e-commerce in B2B segment. It enables e-commerce, procurement of products and electronic document flow between suppliers of products, online shops and offline retailers. Agora accommodates more than 2000 companies from different industries. Geography includes all regions of Russia and CIS. Our solutions simplify the time-consuming processes and minimize costs. Agora is an electronic instrument for procurement and marketing needs.

AIRLIKE

Cutting-edge mobile application that makes transferring content from your phone easy and fast, almost like sharing air. You can conveniently send and receive contacts, photos, or videos to and from your friends with a simple point-and-shoot of your smartphones. The Airlike app also creates a personalized account for each of its users, allowing you to carefully choose what you would like to share. Sharing content is almost effortless with Airlike.

AMAZING HIRING

A set of tools for recruiters: browser plugin + search engine, allowing any company to quickly find IT-specialists which are the “best fit” for the company. It allows searching through multiple Internet-sources and unites profiles of a candidate into a “consolidated profile”. AmazingHiring gives an ability to “score” a candidate before interview – based on both: qualifications and “culture fit” for a particular company; ranking search results appropriately.

APPERCODE

Framework for mobile applications development with 100% of common codebase between iOS, Android, Windows. Unlike HTML5-solutions, Appercode provides native interfaces, comparable with the development for each platform individually, but 3 times faster. From May to December 2013 Appercode earned $50k in test sales, won a $60k grant from Microsoft, won the largest Russian tech startups contest Generation S ($80K), and released the product in 10 countries.

APPLICATIX

Platform that allows to crowdfund mobile apps/games launch marketing. Applicatix is a way to publish a finished app/game. It combines advantages of self-publishing and working with traditional publishers. The platform gathers money from crowd investors, giving them a share of future app/game profit in return and then uses that money to market this application. Traditional marketing used at pre-launch and unique marketing quests are added after the application launch.

APPNOW.COM

We automatically convert Facebook and VK communities into iOS and Android apps, resulting in new pages, m-shops, magazines, company pages and intranet-apps. Features: instant App Store and Google Play publishing; free converting to the mobile audience; automatic content generating, YouTube channels, Instagram feed. New features for communities: retention, monetization, m-commerce.

AVIASHOPPER

How to get to the airport? Where to find the check-in? Where to go while waiting for a flight? These are just a few of the problems happening at your stay at the airport, especially if you’re there for the first time. AviaShopper-the first mobile Guide for airports around the world! Due to special technology supporting the information up–to-date, AviaShopper makes it easy to navigate and to spend time with pleasure in every airport, as well as to solve a lot of tasks for the traveler: buy tickets, booking hotels or taxi.

BEENS

Relationships are deeds. You do good deeds every day, even though you don’t notice that sometimes. You surprise your friends, inspire your colleagues or just help someone. Those who have been touched by that may mark your deeds in Beens. Your deeds build your Beens Index. Beendex shows how good you are in a single number. Something that sets you apart. Get surprises, emotional benefits and a better job. Become better and get more.

BESTFINAPPS

First mobile financial applications Store, compatible with EasyFinance Platform API. Apps are created by independent developers, checked and certificaticated by EasyFinance and its partners, that guarantees user’s financial data security and safety. Apps deployment in BestFinApps enables developers to access to 150 000 auditory, use ready cloud technologies of EasyFinance Platform and to profit from users as well as from corporate clients.

BOARDMAPS

Innovative solution for Boards, Committees and other governing bodies, which facilitates planning and conducting onsite, provides history and access to related issues, tracks why certain decisions were taken and how they have been implemented, generates meeting minutes. BoardMaps improves corporate governance, involves users in the meeting preparation stage, shows required actions with intuitive interface, allows remote and absentee voting, available in local or cloud hosting.

CASHFON

A secure, simple and convenient tool for making instant payments and micropayments directly from any bank account without the need for Visa/MasterCard (or other such plastic!). Payments are made using mobile phone of any generation and/or NFC sticker.

CONNECT2ME

How much does the Product or Service really cost? Connect2me claims that it costs exactly the sum that other users are ready to pay for it right now. Accumulating the user`s money rates for particular products or goods, Connect2me offers the Sellers to agree with the offered average price. If one does not agree with it, there definitely comes another one whom it suits perfectly well. Lowering the margin vs sales turnover growth. What will the members of the market choose?

CROCOTIME

We eliminate workplace time waste. You are the boss and you don’t want employees shopping online or browsing facebook for your bill. We can help you to stop it. Our software tracks usage time of unproductive sites and programs. We provide you with an exact number of wasted hours for departments and individuals. Our software is specially designed for medium businesses and enterprises.

DM LABS

We turn data into competitive advantage by means of state-of-the-art Data Mining. Enterprises discover new opportunities for accurate trend prediction, uncover valuable customer information and reduce their risks. We will make your business smarter!

DREAMROOMER

Online service that allows landlords to find the ideal tenants. To rent out your apartment, register on the website, upload the photos of your apartment and invite tenants to whom you would like to rent. When a tenant agrees, you will see each others contact and from there on come to an arrangement. Realtor free. Therefore, with the help of Dream- roomer you can find tenants that will perfectly suit you and you them. Find the tenant of your dreams!

DUSK RIFT

Protect your city from evil Shadows! Dusk Rift is urban fantasy online game where powerful vampires, lycans and shadow hunters unite to protect shops, restaurants, schools and universities in Moscow, New York, Tokyo and other cities across the world. Gameplay is a blend between ultra popular Candy Crush Saga, innovative Ingress and modern MMORPGs with multiplayer battles. Monetization is free2play: premium account, powerful combat boosts and fashion items. Soon on iOS/Android/WP and web.

FOODROCK

Customer-facing SaaS platform for the restaurant industry. Restaurants directly connect with customers using a network of real-time, integrated services. Restaurants can manage their business more effectively and make more profit. For users, FoodRock is an E2E (end-to-end) mobile app which makes every dining experience more convenient and more personal.

GAMEWELCOME

Unique synergy of extensive database, marketplace and media channel integrated into one of the best specialized social networks. Not only video games fans can develop their community of friends, but also online stores, vendors and media have the option start their accounts in order to get in touch with potential customers. Our strategy is to provide the end user with definite service. You are GameWelcome!

GBOOKING

GBooking is like Amazon for the services market: it allows consumers to search, compare and book services on the web, like car, medical and beauty care. Our algorithms calculate discounts during weak business hours and publish them on partner sites, thus increasing the customer reach and converting tens of thousands of leads into real customers. We integrate with search engines, online catalogs, coupon sites, CRM and CMS systems, empowering them with our optimization and booking widget.

GETSHOPAPP

The GSA mCommerce SaaS/ecosystem helps eCommerce become mCommerce. For the large percentage of non used mTraffic it provides automatic generated native android, iOS, html5, and tablet APPs, 2.5% peer2peer payments and a loyalty system as well as mMarketing to iShops. GSA monetizes with ads, subscriptions, acquiring, and affiliate marketing. Revenue sharing reduces marketing cost. Cooperations with CMS generate thousands of Apps. Plans for the near future: pushes, SmartTVApps, and augmented reality.

GETSY

Digital loyalty program. In each store we set up Getsy iPad, customers download the Getsy App or get the physical Getsy card, checkin his QR code through the in-store iPad each time they buy something, earns points and get special rewards.

GIFTBOARD

We came up with how it is possible to give gifts in a new way: easy, fast and cool. Giftboard is a mobile app that allows you to give a real gift in less than a minute knowing only the phone number or gift id of the recipient. You can give your friend a cup of coffee with the best wishes of a good day or congratulate a colleague on his birthday being on a business trip in another city. Giftboard make it possible to give presents every day not only on holidays.

GLAMCOM

An outlet and a consignment store of new and pre-owned luxury clothing, shoes and accessories at affordable prices. Glamcom.ru provides a simple and safe online service which redefines the format of consignment retail for both buyers and sellers.

HR VALUE

SAAS solution for online recruiting, which solves the problem of low efficiency of mass internet recruitment. HRMarker automates the process of screening resumes, reducing the original set of candidates. Service is self-learning system that learns by analyzing of HR specialist process action. In this way, a knowledge base is formed, that allows to recommend the required information to the next user without using search engine, but through the base of recommendations.

IKTOTAM CONNECTOR – SMART INTERCOM

Device that connects your apartment’s intercom with your smartphone. Guests that dial the intercom can be viewed on your smartphone or tablet and you can chat with them. iKtotam records your visitors and saves video and audio data to cloud storage. As well Connector lets you open the entrance door to your guests with a single tap on your smartphone. Instantly respond to visitors or ignore them. Connector helps you keep your home and the ones you love safe.

KIDERUDITE

We help parents choose reliable, educational applications for children, and provide them convenient reports on progress and achievements. Applications for Kid Erudite undergo a rigorous selection process by teachers and child psychologists. We select the best applications and build a coherent and comprehensive educational system. We will develop applications to cover any gaps in the curriculum with our developers team for platforms iOS, Android, WindowsPhone, and Windows 8.

LIFEPAY

LifePay provides admission of the credit card payments on smartphones with full guarantee transaction security anywhere you have the Internet access. All you need is cardreader, connected by audiojack to a smartphone (based on iOS,Android or WinPhone) and preinstalled LifePay app. Cardreader is free – we subtracted only a 2,7% percentage of each transaction. Operation’s safety meets the requirements of PCI DSS. All of the statistics are accounted in the personal office.

Lightpack

LIGHTPACK

Open-source device, which lightens your computer or TV screen to strengthen the presence effect. The device needs to be mounted on your TV or computer screen and to be connected to your PC, Mac or HTPC via USB. The software analyses what you currently have on the screen and sends this information to the Lightpack device which in turn lightens the surface behind the screen with matching colors using the RGB-LEDs available within the Lightpack device.

LOOKMEDBOOK

A service that helps people organize their health. Now the user can already find a doctor or clinic, to register in online reception, to receive information on diseases and recommendations on who specializes in them, and much more. Website and application available.

LOOKY

TV guide for you and your friends. Information for over 200 channels in 100 different regions. See what’s showing on TV- a brief description, list of actors and the information about them, related tweets, schedule of the following episodes, and much more! Set reminders so that you won’t miss your favorite showб share shows with your friends and discuss them in the chatrooms.

MEDESK

Cloud healthcare platform that captures and securely stores patient medical data from any source or provider allowing integrated healthcare delivery. It is a fully featured ecosystem for the private healthcare market that facilitates the collaboration of all the major players – clinics, patients, CROs, employers, insurance companies, and medical device vendors. Today, the platform serves more than 100,000 patients across Russia.

MEDIAGLOVES

Textile treatment liquid. It is a simple and inexpensive way to make your favorite gloves compatible with touchscreens. We have invented it for all touchscreen device users. So there is no need to take off your gloves answering a call or a text message anymore. MediaGloves is a transparent liquid, unnoticeable when dry, safe for both glove and skin. Inventing mediagloves is our way to create something new something different, make our world a better place.

MICROCRED.IT

Multifunctional SaaS service for automation of business activities of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Allows managing the full cycle of microloans from application for a loan to collecting overdue arrears. Service built on Windows Azure cloud infrastructure and requires no additional software or hardware costs, provides an intuitive user-friendly interface and allows MFIs to start work with minimal financial and time costs.

OBEREG

Telecom & IT service based on a wristband for on-line health control. It automatically monitors heart rate, falls and skin temperature. If your relative feels bad you will be alerted by an SMS or call; it works as a mobile phone. User health statistics are available in an on-line account. Research proved our service fits the existing need of millions of people in Russia and other countries. We hope that TechCrunch will help us find the right partners to expand our outreach and serve more people.

OBMENIGRAMI

Universal and convenient service for swapping and trading used games and accessories for consoles. How the project operates is simple: gamers create a virtual shelf with the games they are offering and they may ask each other for specific games to trade. As the project has a geolocation feature, all gamers see games that are available in their neighborhood. Then the only thing they have to do is to set up a meeting. This service is already accessible in all CIS countries.

OHMYDELIVERY

Service for tracking parcels. It tracks sites of postal and courier services and shows information for all of user’s parcels. OhMyDelivery also allows online stores to integrate tracking of order status directly in user’s account. In addition to this, service will allow to collect feedback about the quality of goods and delivery from users. The application is available in the AppStore.

ORDER KING

Frequently, you are waiting before you’ll be served in most of mid-range restaurants. Average waiting time in Russian restaurants is 20 minutes. You can miss your plane or meeting and you don’t control this time. Using Order King you can place orders directly from your smartphone or tablet. And it will be served directly to your table. Also you can pay for your meal and give tips with your smartphone.

PLAYZUM

Playzum’s mission is to provide a platform that gives gamers the ability to socially interact with other users and friends on gaming achievements, game recommendations. Cool Features: Easy access from any device, Game-based check-in, Social game guide with recommendations and reviews, Game friend finder.

POSTRO.IM

Collective buying platform of the furniture, building materials, tools and sanitary ware. Allows the retail buyers get the wholesale price. This is possible through buying directly from the manufacturer without extra charges of distributors and stores. When buying directly from the manufacturer the Collective buying participant saves up to 40% in construction and 70% in repairs. We use original strategy for group buying China’s model – self-organized and execute. Warehouse clubs function.

RENTSOFT

Billing and management platform for cloud services (SaaS, IaaS). Service providers (xSP) use RentSoft to reduce costs and increase cloud services sales. RentSoft provides such features as recurring and metered billing, cloud service marketplace, client area, services automation, invoicing and payment processing, event notifications, promotions and bundles, statistics, ERP integration, affiliate program.

SKYDNS

Cloud service that keeps online threats at bay. We will ensure your internet surfing is safe and comfortable, with annoying ads, porn, dangerous websites and other sources of trouble securely blocked. At home or on the corporate network, on computers or mobile devices – anytime, anywhere you are guaranteed the best experience and protection from cybercrime.

SKYPORT

Bonus loyalty program for small and medium enterprises (SaaS). The program is installed in the venue and works on an iPad. Each venue that uses SkyPort has its own bonus program (similar to frequent flyer’s program) tied to the industry specifics of the venue. Gamified process of bonus accumulation enables venues to promote certain services, increase average spending and reward their best customers with extra bonuses. Already works in beauty salons, medical centers, fitness-centers and shops.

TAG & FIND

Turns any smartphone or tablet into a professional RFID scanner. Its main use is to find assets, or sound an alert if they are out of range. Replacing the back-cover of your smartphone, it works with RFID stickers and a mobile application. Our lightweight stickers can attach to any object, and need no battery. We offer businesses a professional cloud-based ERP platform, fully integrated with RFID scanning, for hands-free inventory management, effective items location and loss prevention.

TALKSTER

If you’re young and ambitious in Russia, you need to interact with people and ideas elsewhere. Right now, that’s tough. Talkster will change this. We set up conversations between bright, curious people. They’re in English, over Skype, last 45 minutes and cost Russians $15. On the other end are British students. For them, Talkster represents a challenge: can you strike up a conversation with a stranger? Russians pick the conversation topic beforehand and rate their chat straight afterwards.

TELLLER

A mobile blogging platform that will turn the way how people blog upside down. Today, blogging is hard, time consuming and desktop based. We are making the whole process easy & mobile, and what’s important more beautiful without any extra skills required. With Telller everyone can really start blogging or improve their current blog. Telller will be launched as an iPhone app with a content mirror website later in 2013.

TOEVENTWITHFRIENDS.COM

Mobile social network for event visitors and organizers. Services for event attendees: Finding an event, Finding travel- & roommates, Finding new friends, Making appointments. The event app features agenda, address, twitterwall, geolocation services. Event organizers get: Finding or creating events, Customized app, Scheduling appointments. Free on Android and iOS.

TOO.ME

This cartoon messenger is a cross platform messaging service with a twist. It turns your text messages into funny animations. For example, you can choose your character and make it throw a cake at those of your friends. After you have exchanged several messages you can watch the whole dialog as a cartoon.

UNICOM24.RU

A unique and ready-to-use credit facility even now engaged in partner sales all over Russia. This is a tool for work with b2b customers interlinking business and banks. Such service has been developed for professional market – real estate agencies, realtors, travel agents, insurance agents, car dealers, and tenant builders. Unicom24 is a fully free service, online access to 30 banks, uniform customer profile, assured feedback, and chance to make money out of every credit provided.

VSEVCREDIT

A solution that allows users to receive loans right at home. The development of our unique software allows integration with any online store, providing reliable technical platform. The project received more than 70M RUR of investment, which allowed us to create a high-tech service, to attract major partners and to become one of the leaders in online lending market. Currently the service has more than 100 partners.

WAYRAY

Multifunctional navigation system projecting augmented reality content right in front of the driver. Thanks to cutting edge technology it expands the boundaries of conventional driving making it safer, more efﬁcient and enjoyable. The route is graphically represented as an AR line repeating the motion path. It lets you track information simultaneously while driving, without eye movement and refocusing. Interacting with urban infrastructure the system enlarges it with digital content.

Westudy.in

WESTUDY.IN

Unique educational project providing an opportunity to get online counseling on all your admission questions with our experts – students and graduates of foreign universities from top-300 universities worldwide. It also provides an extensive database of 3000+ educational programs all over the world, internships and volunteer programs.

YUKTIPRO

A platform for collaboration and knowledge management helping small and medium sized teams to achieve their goals with 50% more productivity. User experiences based on neuroscience and gamification underpin a supportive communication and collaboration environment. It invites to celebrate daily achievements invested into teams’ goals and to praise heroes. This personnel engagement tool helps to analyze who contributed most to which goals, what was discussed, and what appealed to the team.

testfinaltechnews

Here Are The 38 Startups Pitching At TechCrunch Moscow Today

12:38 AM

Unknown

TechCrunch Moscow today features a whole 38 startups pitching to enter the final on Day Two , which features the main conference. You can ...

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Today we are kicking off the first day of TechCrunch Moscow. Day one is all about 38 startups pitching to enter the final stages. Day Two will feature many speakers from the Russian tech startup ecosystem and some international speakers. Here’s live video stream.

Since the first TechCrunch Moscow in 2010, the event has created a major splash in the Russian startup and venture industry and is very much at the core of what’s happening. As always, the conference will be accompanied by the Startup Alley and pitches competition, featuring 38 up-and-coming Russian startups.

Evan Nisselson (LDV Capital) will MC the Startup Pitches. Each startup will have 3 minutes for the pitch and another 2-3 minutes to answer questions from the judges.

The pitches will be followed by the Product Announcement from Marina Kolesnik, founder and CEO of Oktogo, and a Success Story of Rocketbank presented by the founder, Victor Lysenko.

You can tune into the live stream by clicking here or below.

The TechCrunch Moscow event partners are Digital October and Kite Ventures. Follow TC Moscow on Twitter and Facebook.

You can also follow the hashtag on Twitter.

testfinaltechnews

Tune In For The Live Stream From TechCrunch Moscow, 2 Days Of Startups And Speakers

11:54 PM

Unknown

Today we are kicking off the first day of TechCrunch Moscow . Day one is all about 38 startups pitching to enter the final stages. Day Two ...

Verizon is looking to get deeper into the content delivery business with the acquisition of Los Angeles-based CDN provider EdgeCast Networks, TechCrunch has heard. Owning EdgeCast, and combining it with the carrier’s global network backbone COMMA will give Verizon access to EdgeCast’s big-name CDN clients while also extending its reach.

According to a source, the deal for EdgeCast — which provides CDN services to the likes of Twitter, Pinterest, and Hulu — is expected to be announced in the coming days, and will be worth more than $350 million. Both EdgeCast and Verizon declined to comment on the matter.

While Verizon has seen success in its wireless practice, growth in the company’s enterprise business has lagged. With the enterprise division expected to remain flat over the next year, adding EdgeCast to the mix could add a profitable new revenue stream.

The deal would follow Verizon’s acquisition of digital media streaming company UpLynk a few weeks ago for a reported $75 million, as the carrier seeks to provide more ways to stream various types of content over its network.

Like UpLynk, EdgeCast would likely become a part of Verizon’s Digital Media Services group. Together, the two acquisitions enable Verizon to provide for more of an end-to-end offering around streaming video, but EdgeCast brings a lot more to the table.

In seeking to differentiate its offering, EdgeCast has rolled out a variety of new services aimed at providing additional value to its customers. That includes a CDN offering just for e-commerce companies, launched in May, as well as the launch of its own DNS routing service in October.

Over the years, Verizon has made various attempts to offer content delivery to Internet companies, but for the most part that usually meant reselling CDN services from third-party providers. (Indeed, a page on Verizon’s Enterprise services portal names both Akamai and EdgeCast as part of its CDN offering.)

EdgeCast is one of several content delivery networks that popped up around the 2005-2008 timeframe to compete with Akamai and Limelight. The company was founded by a group of serial entrepreneurs who had previous success with a company called KnowledgeBase, which had been acquired by enterprise CRM vendor Talisma Corporation. It’s also one of the few network infrastructure companies from that era to not only survive, but thrive in a competitive environment.

The company had more than 6,000 clients and was on pace for a $100 million run rate when it raised $54 million from Performance Equity Management over the summer. EdgeCast has been profitable for several years, company president James Segil told me at the time, which was probably attractive to Verizon.

In all, the company has raised just $74 million, which means a decent payout for investors that include Menlo Ventures and Disney-backed Steamboat Ventures.

What’s less clear is how the acquisition will affect EdgeCast’s reseller business. Since being founded in 2006, EdgeCast has built a tidy and profitable business out of providing the routing and dashboard management for a number of global carriers to deploy CDN Services.

Named clients and partners include Deutsche Telekom, Telus, Pacnet, and PCCW, but it’s also been linked to AT&T for that carrier’s big CDN push a few years back. Being part of a competing carrier in certain markets could mean less reseller traffic, but it could be counterbalanced by increased demand for value-added services and Verizon’s own enterprise clients.

Photo Credit: ComputerHotline via Compfight cc

testfinaltechnews

Verizon Is Acquiring Content Delivery Network EdgeCast For More Than $350 Million

3:39 PM

Unknown

Verizon is looking to get deeper into the content delivery business with the acquisition of Los Angeles-based CDN provider EdgeCast Network...

December is officially here, and it’s a particularly cold weekend for much of the United States. Looking for a way to stay warm? I humbly suggest that you huddle around the cozy glow of your computer screen and watch a new episode of CrunchWeek, the show that brings a few TechCrunch writers together to chat about the most fascinating stories of the past seven days in tech.

In this week’s episode, Leena Rao, Ryan Lawler and I discuss Amazon’s much-buzzed-about experiments in making deliveries using unmanned flying drones, the leaked screenshot that showed just how much money Uber is raking in (it’s a lot), and 23andMe’s battles with the FDA over the marketing and sale of its genetic testing kits.