Categorie: mobile

How Glancee And Highlight Are Fixing Those Background Location And Notification Problems

apps, mobile, social, TC

90c31a8e6d2111e18bb812313804a181_7Somewhere off in the future, there will be a mobile app that shows you all of the nearby people who you might find interesting — without you having to click a single button to check in. But we’re not there yet, as thousands of South By Southwest attendees have been discovering over the last few days.

New background location apps like Highlight and Glancee have certainly been trying hard. As everyone else has partied, the tiny teams at these startups (and their various rivals) have been working around the clock to tweak the notifications they send and the nearby people they show.

Have they been successful?

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Licensed To Spin: Turntable.fm Inks Deals With The Big Four

apps, mobile, social, Startups, TC, turntable.fm

turntable-title-imageFrom the outset, the biggest appeal of social music platform Turntable.fm has been its synchronous listening in public rooms where anyone can become the dee-jay. Of course, turn back the clock six months, and Turntable probably didn’t see Facebook as a competitor. However, at f8 the social network launched Turntable-inspired synchronous listening and chat and went public with some big partnerships with the likes of Spotify and Rdio. At the time, Turntable could only grin and say “thank you,” but now the startup can reply with some big guns of its own, as it announced deals with the “Big Four” record labels — Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, and Warner — at SXSW today.

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Just.me Wants To Be The Go-To Social App On Your Phone

mobile, social, Startups, TC

just meKeith Teare, co-founder of TechCrunch and partner at incubator Archimedes Labs, isn’t thinking small when it comes to his new project Just.me — he says that it’s “asking and answering the question of what would happen if the phone was upgraded to be truly social.”

The app hasn’t launched yet, but Teare previewed it today at the South by Southwest Startup Accelerator, and I got a few more details from him afterward. Right now, he says that if you want to share something from your phone, you have to open a different app depending on whether you want to share a text update, a photo, or a video, and depending on who you want to share it with.

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Social TV App Peel Adds Real-Time Cheering To American Idol

mobile, social, Startups, TC

51459084-05CB-4ECC-A222-6F7B8F20CF16There are loads of startups trying to build a social TV experience that goes beyond checking in to your favorite TV shows. Now social TV app Peel is taking a stab at it, and it’s aiming at one show in particular: American Idol.

Now, the Peel app (which, to be clear, is not officially connected to the show in any way) will provide a parallel experience as you watch. As each contestant takes the stage, you can tap the screen to either boo or cheer them — not just once, but as many times as you want. Maybe one cheer for their song choice, and then a boo as they stumble, and then three cheers as they hit a particularly tough note. A sliding bar shows how much you’ve booed and cheered, and you can boo and cheer and the judges as they rate the singers. And there’s a button to tweet your thoughts as you follow along.

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Social Discovery Apps Like Highlight Are A Recruiter’s Wet Dream At SXSW

apps, Glancee, Highlight, mobile, social, SXSW2012, TC

highlight-homepageThe history of location-based social discovery apps is a lot longer than the current hype surrounding Highlight and Glancee, currently darlings of the South by Southwest festival.

Back in 2007 TechCrunch’s founder Mike Arrington noted the existence of social mobile apps like Lime Juice, Rummble, Mig33, ZYB, Mocospace, Aka-Aki, Nokia Sensor, Dodgeball, Mobiluck, MeetMoi and Imity, just to name a few. The problem was none had critical mass, in part because smartphones were still thin on the ground. Nokia’s Sensor app was way ahead of its time, but only worked on Nokias and via Bluetooth to “see” who was around you. Aka-Aki had a little more success out of Berlin for a while but in recent years has been eclipsed by newer players. Badoo remains the one to beat in this sector, with 115 million users and many using it via mobile apps.

The first uses of these types of location based ‘social discovery’ apps appealed, shall we say, to the baser instincts: hooking up with people for fun and frolics. But there’s a new use on the block and it’s rearing its ominous head at South by Southwest: recruiting.

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Instagram Reaches 27 Million Registered Users And Says Its Android App Is Nearly Here

apps, mobile, social, SXSW2012, TC

screen-shot-2011-11-06-at-12-35-53-am (1)Instagram, the photo-sharing app that has taken a definitive lead on iOS, said it has surpassed 27 million registered users.

Co-founder Kevin Systrom didn’t disclose daily active users. But he did say of all the users who have been active in the last week, 67 percent of them used the app yesterday.

“It’s Facebook-level engagement that we’re seeing,” Systrom said.

He didn’t really offer any clarity on rumors that the company is raising $40 million at a $500 million valuation.

“Good companies are always fundraising,” he said. “Whether you’re meeting people or considering firms, you’re always fundraising. But it doesn’t mean we’re active. We’re trying to create a long-term, viable company that doesn’t come and go with fads. It should be something that lasts and creates meaningful value.”

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The Economics Of Emotion

advertising, emotion, marketing, mobile, neuromarketing, Opinion, social, social data, TC

msnThe most recent commercial for the BMW i3 and i8 concept cars is a great example of something enlightened marketers have known for years: emotion is the key driver behind purchasing decisions. Yet, today, most businesspeople still follow the old adage, “Emotions and business don’t mix,” relying on rational data to drive decisions instead.

Doesn’t the advertisement make you want to buy a BMW? Don’t you want to feel cool or look more successful, technology-forward and progressive? Well, that desire is emotion at work. Steve Jobs inherently knew the emotion of his consumers was critical currency in building the Apple phenomenon, and with over 1,700 CMOs admitting that building an enduring connection with consumers is a top priority in a recent IBM survey, leveraging emotion is fast becoming a top business imperative.

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Politix Wants To Be The Center of Your Political Identity

mobile, social, TC

photo (1)Online forum Topix has become increasingly focused on politics for the last couple of years, and today at the Launch conference, the site took the next step in that direction. Accompanied by a patriotic marching band, CEO Chris Tolles announced a new service called Politix.

There’s no shortage of political websites, but CEO Chris Tolles says there’s “no place for your political profile online.” Sure, you might read a political article on The Huffington Post and even leave a comment, but there’s no centralized location for all that activity. And you might occasionally share those articles on your social network of choice, but “you don’t want to be that guy on Facebook” who’s constantly annoying his friends with political commentary.

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“Reverse Craigslist” Zaarly Celebrates Its Birthday With A New Reputation System

ecommerce, mobile, social, Startups, TC

2Call it a victory of emotion over technology.

Today Zaarly is launching version 2.0 of its “reverse Craigslist,” where people can ask for everything from a beer to help with data entry. The biggest change is that the buying and selling process is no longer anonymous. Instead, users can now create profiles on the site, and they decide when to expose them — either when they first post a request or when the transaction is about to take place. Users can now also review and recommend each other.

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