By night, Jay writes for TechCrunch and has been contributing to the blog since 2009.
By day, he manages Digital Strategy for Alliance Data. Prior to that, he held Art Director and Designer jobs at GSW Worldwide and Resource Interactive leading interaction design and mobile prototype projects.
You can reach reach him at jaydonovan at crunchgear dot com.
Recently, I took a look at IK Multimedia’s iRig STOMP digital stomp box. In order to test it out, I used AmpliTube Slash — a version of the same company’s amp modeling app that’s based on the Marshall amp sounds of Slash (you know…Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators).
The app sounded quite good, so I inquired if I could ask Slash a few… → Read More
Do you remember life before the Internet? Can you recall a time when meeting someone new took place serendipitously and was uncluttered with all the profile searching and stalking? A time when there was a little mystery in taking weeks or months to uncover the contents of a new friend’s music collection?
A time where, when you did meet someone interesting, you didn’t have every bit of… → Read More
The first thing I asked Andres Godoy and José Daire about their new app called Hop.in — launching this week at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco — was “isn’t this just like Pinterest?” Andres was quick to note that the point of the app is not as much about the content as it is about the gesture-based controls that make sharing or logging the content a breeze. It’s about the “how” not the… → Read More
Machina is a menswear clothing brand that is in the process of mounting a Kickstarter campaign to promote a new product. The campaign doesn’t start for about a month, but the company has a demo version of its unique “wearable” MIDI controller live on the floor of TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this week.
The Machina MIDI Jacket will come in a couple of different styles, but the basic… → Read More
I didn’t think that I would travel 2,400 miles to attend and help cover TechCrunch Disrupt, only to run into a startup from my home town of Columbus, OH, but lo and behold — it happened.
guestHub, are here at Disrupt, showing off their new platform for identifying conversion-driven influencers as they pertain to marketing event and campaigns. It officially launches today. → Read More
IK Multimedia’s iRig STOMP pedal interface for iOS is now officially available.
I should also mention that approaching this official launch, I’ve been playing with the iRig STOMP for a week or so, (coupled with the iPad version of AmpliTube Slash), and the pedal is a real gas. It’s a really great little piece of hardware. → Read More
Here’s an interesting approach to Augmented Reality marketing: turn hats into Zombie heads.
The Zaphat (pronounced like Zap Hat, not Zafat) is a new line of fashion apparel where the logo on the accoutrement acts as the target for an iOS/Android app that uses Augmented Reality to transform the wearer into an avatar of their choice.
In other words, when you wear a special hat, people can… → Read More
I have to admit, when I first heard about the Kickstarter project for the iCache Geode Mobile Wallet I thought to myself “yeah right…good luck with that.” The process seemed unlikely to me.
First of all, how are the card networks ever going to let someone temporarily “clone” their cards onto another dynamic card? Secondly, how fast could the process work? There could be a lot of… → Read More
Indoor positioning systems are on the rise and are meeting a service void for consumers. I don’t know about you, but I constantly use outdoor mapping apps for all variety of location needs. However when I step into a mall or museum or campus building, I can sometimes be left hanging, so to speak, with regard to my location.
That might be on its way to becoming a thing of the past.
Starting today, the Venetian-Palazzo Casino and Hotel (owned by The Las Vegas Sands Corp.) is beginning to employ an app technology by Meridian as their indoor navigation service of choice in order to help you get around their casino more efficiently. This new “wayfinding” technology will reside in the resort’s new app called VP Pocket Concierge.
As I sit here with 75% of my laptop battery left, drenched in sweat, in a totally dark house, recapping my first Startup Weekend experience — unfortunately I am one of the last of the 500,000 central Ohioans affected by power outages due to last weekend’s storms — I realize that I love the Startup Weekend concept.
That concept, which we have covered before on several occasions, is simple… → Read More
Qualcomm announced an upgrade to their Vuforia Augmented Reality platform on Wednesday. Vuforia is a platform that focuses on using images as the “targets” to launch an AR experience, rather than requiring consumers to scan QR codes or other glyphs.
So instead of scanning a barcode, you just scan a specific picture to start the AR experience on your mobile phone or tablet (it could launch a… → Read More
In an attempt to watch their development, I’ve been keeping tabs on a small Columbus OH startup called Cannon.fm. I first talked with them several weeks ago before their product launch, and have been interviewing them occasionally, to see how they are adapting, changing, improving, revising their business model and product.
That product — a streaming radio iOS app called Cannon.fm that is… → Read More
When it comes to Augmented Reality browsers on mobile devices, I always particularly liked Junaio (just one of the many AR tools created and maintained by Munich-based company Metaio). It’s an especially appealing option since it’s quite powerful, and has many, many content channels to choose from (a good side effect of their successful developer outreach – they have over 10,000 active content… → Read More
First of all, let me say that the Dry Case Waterproof Backpack is designed for use in outdoor environments with the main goal of keeping things in the inner compartment dry. Clearly, all the marketing pictures at DryCase.com, show people using the bag in wet, outdoorsy places (on a canoe, on a boat, etc), and with that in mind the biggest question is “does it actually work?” I put it through the… → Read More
Intrigued upon hearing about these StartupWeekend vets, I managed to track down Cannon.fm founders Ryan Cox and Mat Marcum in order to get a little more info about their interesting and imminently launching streaming music startup.
Cannon.fm is like a lot of other streaming music services out there — Pandora and Spotify come to mind — however this lean team of eight or so have an… → Read More
The microphone in the iPhone 4S is pretty good — I have found it to capture excellent quality on all my consumer-ish recordings and videos. Of course, that is not to say it could not be improved.
When the iRig MIC Cast was announced at CES this year, I was pretty excited. I have gotten a lot of use out of the original iRig MIC and this miniaturized version seemed poised to make my travel… → Read More
Mint.com iOS users now have the ability to create and (more importantly) edit budgets directly on their iPad/iPhone. Previously, editing functionality was only available at the main Mint website. Additionally, users can also split transactions, giving them a better more granular look at their financial picture.
The main thrust of this update includes:
Create and edit a budget while out and… → Read More
Imagine for a moment that you are sitting in your front yard in a lawn chair, sipping lemonade while attempting to read the latest news on your WiFi-only iPad. You’re just out of range of your WiFi signal. Your neighbor’s signal is super strong, but that selfish hooligan didn’t leave it wide open for you to leach onto. Wouldn’t you love to be able to use a portion of his spectrum anyway while away… → Read More
On Friday May 18th, Apple filed a motion for a U.S. preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1. This follows a ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Northern District of California), siding with Apple on the question of whether Samsung is in violation of an iPad-related design patent (U.S. Patent No. D504,889). According to Foss Patents, the source of this story… → Read More
If you are looking for Piano or Rhodes-like feel for serious playing, Samson’s Carbon 49 USB MIDI Controller may not be right for you.
However, if you need a keyboard for some light playing or sample triggering, why not keep the expensive Kronos at home and bring the Carbon 49 out for the dangerous outdoor gigs that require expendable equipment? (I have seen many an expensive keyboard dragged… → Read More
Last week at the 10x Xelerator, Andy Sparks impelled LaunchGram.com into motion and lazy people all over the world rejoiced (or they will…eventually). This new service, in the words of Sparks, “aggregates pre-release demand signals for products coming soon.”
The way it works is that consumers can create an account at LaunchGram’s website and subscribe to news about imminently launching… → Read More
VenueSeen launched their new platform today that lets businesses aggregate location specific sentiment, via social photography. What does that mean in layman’s terms?
It means this startup company will monitor and identify any shared photos that a consumer takes inside a place of business. If the photos are shared via Instagram, Foursquare, Foodspotting or Facebook then VenueSeen can… → Read More
David Ellefson Rock Shop is a solid and simple guitar/bass amp-modeling app that runs on iOS. It is made by PocketLabWorks and works in conjunction with the company’s iRiff Port cable/interface. In case you hadn’t guessed by the name of the app, special consultation was provided by David Ellefson (bass player and founding member of Megadeth) in order to achieve the sound of his bass and guitar… → Read More
The first thing that popped into my mind as I interviewed Suzy Bureau about her Columbus Ohio Startup project called The ManCard was “This is all wrong. We should be shooting skeet, or tearing out drywall or fly fishing — anything but sitting in a coffee shop drinking lattes.” Despite the emasculating surroundings our conversation continued as the ebullient Ms. Bureau described the app she and… → Read More
If you tried to judge whether NFC mobile payments are ready for prime time — based on the amount of chatter you hear in your newsfeed — you’d think the contactless technology was on the brink of ubiquitous adoption.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, there are documented sources out there citing that we are four, five, maybe even ten years away from a realistic and… → Read More
With all the talk about the potential of Google Glass, I thought it might be nice to drop back in on the current state of Augmented Reality — the kind where you still use a smartphone to view markers or images.
In the spirit of Google’s “20-percent time”, Melbourne Australia based mobile app development company jTribe developed an Augmented Reality Easter egg hunt for their fair city… → Read More
On the surface this may seem like an unlikely interview. I mean, we’re a tech blog and Andrew Bird is a musician. But beneath the organic and strikingly analog sounds of Mr. Bird’s beautiful music there is this whole sea of technology at work — especially during live solo performances.
Andrew was kind enough to take some time out of his touring schedule on the eve of the release of his… → Read More
Movilway, the company pioneering prepaid mobile payments in Central and South America, recently updated their arsenal of tools to include a new custom Android tablet Point Of Sale (POS) terminal as well as a new MoviPIN system for online purchases. Both systems — available at select locations — bring digital purchasing power to those without bank accounts or credit cards.
“It’s a… → Read More
Another Augmented Reality update from Total Immersion popped up on my radar at this year’s Mobile World Congress. This nifty app, demoed at the Texas Instruments booth, is loaded with retail potential for e-commerce situations. This is not the first AR tool we’ve seen to assist with retail apparel purchases, however it is one of the best. Excellent AR tracking. → Read More
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