Jay Donovan

Jay Donovan

Writer

Jay was a freelance writer for TechCrunch.

The Latest from Jay Donovan

Verifone, FIS and Modo are creating a new way for consumers to pay with loyalty points

Verifone, FIS and digital payments startup Modo announced a new system that will enable customers to pay for any merchandise they want using only accrued credit/debit loyalty points. The novel part of

Cognovi Labs is watching the U.S. Presidential Election with its predictive, social sentiment tool

The main IP of a startup called Cognovi Labs is a tool called Twitris. Twitris uses both human and machine learning to interpret Twitter traffic to predict sentiment. The tool can also quantify a rang

Cognovi Labs will study the presidential debates tonight with their emotional sentiment tool

TechCrunch first reported on Cognovi Labs back in June when the Dayton, Ohio-based analytics startup correctly predicted the Brexit outcome hours ahead of the final vote. Tonight, the company has set

The multi-functional Balldur is a Swiss Army lamp

At its minimalist worst, the Balldur is a cool looking lamp. Smooth wood and ceramic with a bulb that would make Thomas Edison proud, the Balldur (whatever that means) feels like an artifact from a Te

Auto-Trash sorts garbage automatically at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon

No, Auto-Trash does not mean wrappers and french fries lingering on the floor of your car. Auto-Trash is a Raspberry Pi-powered trashcan that can automatically sort items by type. It works by using a

App platform Kinetise aims to bring app building to the enterprise

Kinetise, an app building platform and Disrupt hackathon favorite, aims to democratize the the the process of creating native mobile apps for iOS and Android in the enterprise. Using a drag-and-drop i

Bylined crowdsources product photos for brands

A startup from Columbus called BYLINED is aiming to make it a bit easier for brands and people to come together in a win/win situation resulting in more unique photography. Through their free app a

HTC selects Lifeliqe as educational VR content partner

This morning, visual learning platform Lifeliqe announced a strategic partnership with HTC to become their provider of educational virtual reality (VR) content for the Vive. Lifeliqe already has ma

The Twitris sentiment analysis tool by Cognovi Labs predicted the Brexit hours earlier than polls

Cognovi Labs is a new analytics startup that relies on Twitris to take a sample of social media chatter to deduce real-time, large-scale, automated sentiment about specific topics. As a real-world exa

Columbus, Ohio officially winner of DOT Smart City Challenge and $140 million in innovation grants

With the Columbus Dispatch (and many possible runner-up cities) reporting two days ago that Columbus was the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, official word

Relax surfers, Dorsal’s crowdsourced shark reporting app is now available in the USA

Dorsal is a mobile app that lets anyone who sees a shark in the ocean file a report (complete with geolocation). The same app can also provide alerts for sightings. Sort of the “Waze of shark spo

Columbus, Ohio rumored to secure a total of $140 million in grants as the U.S. DOT Smart City winner

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting this afternoon that Columbus OH is the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Smart City Challenge beating out San Francisco, Austin, Portland, Kansas Cit

The Basslet wearable subwoofer delivers beats and basslines directly to your body

I first tried on a prototype of the Basslet wearable subwoofer at SXSW 2016. Built by a Berlin startup called Lofelt and headed by CEO/cofounder Daniel Büttner and CTO/cofounder Gwydion ap Dafydd (ex

A device called the Remo spots a market for automating wall mount air conditioners

I’m usually cautious about Kickstarter campaigns, but when the data looks right I’m encouraged to peer deeper. Haruumi Shiode reached out to me with his CleanTech concept for a product ca

TextMe and Aquto partner to offer wireless data as currency

Communication service TextMe is partnering with sponsored wireless data rewards company Aquto to offer a new data loyalty program to TextMe users. According to TextMe’s Chief Revenue Officer Julien

Lumus secures $15 million to expand their augmented reality optical display capabilities

<a target="_blank" href="http://lumus-optical.com/">Lumus</a>—makers of transparent near-to-eye displays for augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR)—announced this morning that they have sec

Hourly employee scheduling startup When I Work secures $15MM from Drive Capital

Minneapolis-based startup When I Work, secured $15 million in a Series B round led by Drive Capital. Arthur Ventures and High Alpha also participated. This follows a $9 million Series A led by e.ventu

Lenovo gets serious about VR with Movidius partnership

Today, Movidius announced that electronics behemoth Lenovo is the latest company to adopt their tiny, low-power (sub-one-watt) Myriad 2 visual processing unit (VPU) “to provide advanced vision proce

Lifeliqe debuts VR-enabled educational content to keep kids interested in learning

San Francisco-based startup Lifeliqe (pronounced "life like") debuted and demoed its new virtual reality, educational content experience from the floor of the Augmented World Expo 2016 this week. A

Magic Leap is giving 10 Twilio devs early access to its SDK

Today Magic Leap founder/CEO Rony Abovitz made a new announcement—strangely via remote video feed at Twilio's SIGNAL developer conference. Magic Leap are planning to integrate Twilio's tools and ser
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