I absolutely hate carrying around both my phone and my wallet in my pocket. What if I could just carry around my phone and my driver’s license? That would be awesome. If MobilePay USA takes off, my wish will come true.
The company, which was the TechCrunch Disrupt attendee pick to come out of the Startup Alley today seems fairly amazing. It’s an iPhone app (right now, but they will expand it to many mobile platforms) that replaces your credit cards and loyalty cards. You simply enter in your credit card data (but don’t worry, it isn’t stored on your device, it’s securely stored in the cloud) and you can pay for things with the click of a button rather than fumbling around for and carrying all your credit cards. → Read More
If navigating the murky waters of credit scores and debt leaves you scratching your head and wishing someone would just tell you what to do, you’re in luck. Credit Sesame is a new startup launching in private beta today at TechCrunch Disrupt that’s looking to help do just that — give the site access to your financial data, and it will present you with a handful of options, along with bulletpoints explaining why they work for you. If you’d like to try the site out for yourself, head to CreditSesame.com/TechCrunch and use the password OpenSesame.
Credit Sesame doesn’t take long to set up — the company says it takes a couple of minutes — but it does require sensitive information including your social security number (which the site needs in order to access your credit history). → Read More
If your partner has an erratic sleeping schedule, an annoying alarm, or is a perpetual snoozer, you can understand how hard it can be to woken up several times during the night or the morning. Often time after being woken up early or in the middle of a deep sleep, it can be difficult to get back to sleep. Lark, which is launching at TechCrunch Disrupt today, promises to help couples sleep better in the same bed.
Lark’s flagship product, Lark Up, is a revolutionary silent waking system that wakes you silently and naturally. The system involves an iPhone app and a small band that you wear across your wrist while sleeping. You set the iPhone app to the time you need to wake up and the app will transform your phone into a night time alarm clock. The band includes a small device and sensor with blue tooth technology that will vibrate at the time you are supposed to wake up. Plus there’s no more jarring, loud alarms; so your boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, or husband won’t be woken up by your alarm. → Read More
Voxy is a multi-platform way to learn a language, currently using both the web and mobile text messaging to teach ESL to Spanish speakers.
Perhaps the best part about Voxy is that it uses game mechanics to drive a language learners progress and commitment, engaging users who would otherwise be bored and get distracted from the task at hand. Founder Paul Gollash refers to the importance of breaking down language learning into “small bits everyday” so that users can “learn from life” hence Voxy’s personalized curriculum. → Read More
The New York-based startup ADstruc — an online marketplace for outdoor advertising — closed a $1.1 million series a investment led by DFJ Gotham, with participation from RRE, Founder Collective, Jeff Clavier, David Cohen, Kal Vepuri, David Tisch and Social Leverage (Howard Lindzon) today.
The 26-year-old founder and chief executive of ADstruc, John Laramie, developed his auction and listing-based platform through TechStars Colorado, but relocated and incorporated in New York this year. → Read More
People are obsessed with airline mileage, but it’s really difficult to keep track of what programs you should be a part of let alone which ones are advantageous. A Mint for travel, Superfly collects user data like rewards balance, elite status, travel expenses, analyzes travel patterns and compares them to already existing mileage program. → Read More
Remember the Samsung NX100 camera? It was announced during CES this year, and we’re finally seeing it ship. The NX100 is a micro 4/3rds camera with a 14.6mp sensor, 3″ AMOLED display, and the ability to record videos in 720p. You can pick one up for $599, and it comes with a 20-50mm lens that uses Samsung’s NX mount. [via OLED-Info] → Read More
Roughly two weeks have passed since the developer-only release of the iOS 4.2 Beta. Know what that means? It’s time for another Beta! iOS 4.2 Beta 2 just went live in Apple’s dev center moments ago. Now, the only question: will you do what you had planned to do tonight, or spend the evening digging around in the new Beta in search of hidden gems? → Read More
Shwowp, which is like a Tripit plus Blippy plus Mint for shopping, hails itself as a customer empowerment platform. Founded by Internet marketer Tara Hunt, Shwowp (in the same space as RightCliq) attempts to solve the problem of all our purchase data being scattered across multiple silos like Amazon, Bluefly, etc, by trying to corral our diverse shopping history into one place.
Shwowp users can make a purchase, forward the receipt or order information to wow@shwowp.com and the service will synch that info to your account. Once there you change the data, view your buying patterns and share information about your experience like how long to took to get to the store, availability, how influenced you were by what your friends were buying, etc. → Read More
“Entertainment Shopping” is one of the more controversial genres of startups emerging on the web. The basic premise: you pay for a chance to get something at far cheaper than it normally sells for, but there’s a risk that you’ll come away with nothing. It’s part gambling, part bargain hunting and it’s proved to be very popular, with sites like Swoopo leading the charge and other sites bringing the model to hotels and other verticals. And today, TechCrunch Disrupt Finalist ToVieFor is bringing entertainment shopping to a new market: high fashion.
If you like Gilt Groupe (a site that offers high-fashion items in fire-sales), this should be right up your alley. Log onto the site, and you’ll see an array of high-end handbags and accessories being sold off at a potentially steep discount. If you want to buy one (or at least, a chance to buy one), you need to buy some ToVieFor credits, which run 99 cents and are cheaper in bulk. And then you can get down to business. → Read More
[Insert ironic joke here about how the MEpad is an open platform and how there's no need for a battery, let alone a removable one.] $9.99 for a 50-sheet 5.5 x 8.5 pad. → Read More
By now you must have heard the news that AOL has acquired us. Here are videos of the on stage signing of the agreement and an interview with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong immediately afterwards.
So how did all this happen? And What happens to TechCrunch now?
In May I had a chance to interview Tim on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt: New York. After the talk we went to the speaker room for a quick private chat (this happens after most talks unless the speaker has to rush out). → Read More
If you’ve ever gone job hunting online (and who hasn’t these days?) you know just how incredibly inefficient the process can be. Job listings are littered across the web, making it difficult to filter for the ones that match your skillset. And then when you actually go about applying to a job, you have no idea how you stack up against the competition — or even how many other people have applied. Gild is a new site launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt that wants to make the whole process more efficient for technology professionals.. and maybe even a bit more fun.
Gild is social gaming meets career advancement, which sounds like a contradiction but looks like it might just work in practice. The initial process is pretty straightforward: sign up and set up a profile for yourself, listing off each of your skills and your past work history (the site can import your CV and LinkedIn data). And then the real fun begins. → Read More
Gather around, gather round. Let’s take a few minutes and admire what the Internet pundits claim is the future of TV. The story goes that Best Buy was showing off this Sony NSX-46GT1 HDTV powered by a Google TV Dish Network box at the retailer’s holiday preview event in NYC today. HD Guru happened to be there and snapped these pics while a demonstrator gave him a tour. Everything sounds like it works as advertised. The universal search and full Internet is there as well. Hopefully the platform launches soon. I have high hopes for it. → Read More
If you want that BlackBerry tablet, the PlayBook, your best bet may be to visit a Best Buy near you. Best Buy’s chief executive said that when the device hits the market (hopefully before the end of the year), “we’ll be happy to offer it to our customers.” → Read More
“I hope we’re not entering a world where Silicon Valley becomes Versailles”
That was Matt Cohler speaking today at our TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco. Cohler, a partner at Benchmark Capital (and one of the original employees of Facebook), sat down with our own Mike Arrington to talk about the state of the venture capital industry.
Cohler made his provocative statement in the context of him talking about his concern that politics are coming too much into play behind the scenes in Silicon Valley these days. The whole “Super Angels versus VCs” thing is a part of this. He finds the debate over these terms silly — if you’re investing your own money, you’re an angel, if you’re investing someone else’s money, you’re a VC, is how he sees it. The so-called “Super Angels” are just micro-VCs, he said. → Read More
Gripe attempts to capitalize on the human propensity to complain about things as well as the increasing importance of online influence and power. Its location-based mobile app is based on the premise that people want the ability to press a button and resolve grievances towards local businesses and service providers.
Gripe uses as leverage a person’s online clout, namely the number of Twitter and Facebook followers and the reach of those followers to turn “turn complainers into customers.” It also takes status badges on services like Tripadvisor into consideration as somewhat of a threat in order to get a service providers attention and resolve the problem. → Read More
Sumazi attempts to make introductions, positioning itself as “an intelligent recommendation engine for professionals that introduces connects you to the people you don’t know but should.” Sharing the same space with Hashable, Sumazi has the very ambitious goal of being the world’s ultimate super connector.
Founder Sumaya Kazi brings up the example of being able to meet a good UX designer, and promising that with just a few clicks of a button, Sumazi will help you extend your average meaningful connections per year number from four to a lot more. → Read More
Ahem. Well, Bose also had some news of its own today. It announced the existence of something called the VideoWave. It’s a 46-inch LCD TV, which, by itself, isn’t so exciting. What is exciting is the fact that the sound the TV produces is actually… how should I put this? Really, really great. Yes, that’ll do. → Read More
