TechnoPreneur

Sandbox Network - Paris Meetup

2010-11-20T19:15:00.005+01:00

Time	Friday, November 26 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Location	Depending on final numbers. We have secured 3 places. (Options below)

Created By	Michaela Wood

More Info	We invite you to the first Paris Sandbox meetup. Some organizations incubate companies - Sandbox incubates people. Our mission is to accelerate young innovators and help them to have a global impact. Our goal is to connect young people with different skill-sets who are passionate about what they are doing. We give them the right environment to grow and to leverage their creative capacity. In a trusted environment (online & offline), each person will be able to build meaningful relationships, learn from each other and get access to resources, a network of innovators and senior people that will help them realize their next big idea. Our members are innovators from all fields: research, art, architecture & design, creative industries, business, venture capital, high tech entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, journalism & writing etc. We have no affiliation. The growing community counts 450 young leaders in more than 80 cities in 40 different countries. One focus of Sandbox Network is to create local communities with physical spaces where members can get together. Sandbox organises regular events in New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangalore, Delhi, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Prague, Geneva, Zurich, Stockholm, Moscow, St Petersburg. We invite you to the first Paris meetup! We have secured 3 places and will go for 1 of them depending on final numbers (Carpe Diem, Le Bistrot des Colonnes, Le Palais de Tokyo). Please RSVP before Wednesday 24). For any questions, feel free to contact me: woodm@hec.fr

Event Registration @ http://on.fb.me/d57xW9

How arre teens using their cellphones...?

2010-05-31T19:58:00.003+02:00

(Click on image to zoom in)

Brands4Friends launches in Japan

2010-03-10T18:44:00.013+01:00

Brands4friends a leader in Pvt. Sales in Germany & Austria (and UK with SecretSales) has recently opened doors in Japan

Brands for friends Japan will be headed by Armel Cahierre

www.brands4friends.jp

(seen on two extremities L-R are Armel Cahierre B4F Japan CEO & Christian Heitmeyer B4F CEO)

German Apple Ad featuring Qype

2009-11-20T18:04:00.005+01:00

See Qype Radar features here or download on iTunes here

Goom launches iTélé La Radio

2009-11-17T18:06:00.004+01:00

iTélé La Radio: Listen here by Goom

Best iPhone Apps of 2009 (via CNET)

2009-11-06T14:55:00.002+01:00

Best iPhone Apps of 2009:

Best Social Media App: Facebook

Sixty-five million people a month currently access Facebook from their mobile phones, according to the social network. Its impressive iPhone application shows why mobile is exploding for Facebook. The original app has been upgraded twice, most recently with a new icon-based homescreen and personalisation features to help users keep tabs on their most important friends. The app is an excellent example of focusing on the features most useful for users on the go, while also making it simple to upload photos and videos. The best Facebook app on any platform, and currently the best example of social media on the iPhone.
Download from iTunes: free

Best Game: Flight Control

With more than 20,000 games available, the iPhone is laying waste to DS and PSP for quantity. What about quality, though? While there's no shortage of visually stunning 3D titles emerging, it's actually a 2D game that's taken the App Store by storm. The subject is air-traffic control: planes appear on-screen, and you guide them in to land by tracing their flight paths with your finger -- making sure they don't crash. Updates throughout the year have added new levels and aircraft, while its online leaderboards have fuelled bragging. There's even a Google Maps mash-up showing the top players around the world.
Download from iTunes: 59p

Best Celebrity App: Jamie's 20 Minute Meals

Jamie Oliver as an iPhone star? You might not like the man, but you can't find fault with his application. It's a collection of 50 recipes, complete with step-by-step instructions, photos and even 75 minutes of video of the man himself. No expense has been spared, either: the photos make everything look ravishing, the instructions are idiot-proof, and there's even a shopping list feature to help when sourcing the ingredients. Everything is part of the app too -- it's a whopping 404MB in size -- so you're never left stranded in mid-masala if you lose your connection. Proper -- sorry about this -- pukka.
Download from iTunes: £4.99

Best Music App: Spotify

Spotify doesn't need more gushing from us -- the streaming-music service has been feted by journalists, celebrities and music-biz bosses alike this year. Its iPhone app still deserves a hearty cheer though, for getting around the key Achilles Heel of streaming-music apps: what happens when you get on the Tube? With Spotify, what happens is you switch to the 3,333 songs you've cached on the iPhone itself, in playlists. The free-to-download app requires a £9.99 monthly subscription to actually work, but it's a powerful reason to upgrade. Now, if only it could run in the background like the Android version...
Download from iTunes: free, plus £9.99 per month

Best Office App: Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite

Would you believe it: Microsoft hasn't released its Office suite for iPhone. That's left the way clear for rivals, with Quickoffice Mobile Suite being the best of the bunch so far. Its basic features include Quickword and Quicksheet for editing Word and Excel docs respectively. Copy and paste, text formatting, formulas and all the other features you'd expect are there. But it's the features beyond that which make it a must-have for iPhone-toting workers. Files can be transferred over Wi-Fi, and it can be used to remotely access your MobileMe iDisk. But even just for basic document editing, it's an excellent choice.
Download from iTunes: £5.99

Best News App: Newsstand

As a headline-surfing tool, the iPhone is a joy -- from iPhone-optimised Web sites such as BBC News and The Guardian through to dedicated apps for a host of newspapers and broadcasters. For those with a slightly more technical bent, however, Newsstand is the best RSS reader available on any smart phone. Partly because of its smooth synchronisation with Google Reader online, and partly because it's slick and smart. Categories, an integrated mini-browser, and the ability to share stories via email or Twitter all work like a dream, while there's also the option to browse via a virtual newspaper rack. That feature's a novelty, but the app is most certainly not.
Download from iTunes: £2.99

Best Novelty App: I Am T-Pain

Spotify might be the best iPhone app for listening to music, but I Am T-Pain is the most innovative and downright silly (in a good way) app for making it. The app uses the same Auto-Tune technology that every R&B star and their aunt has used in the last year, allowing you to sing along to a selection of T-Pain songs with your voice turned suitably robot-like. The results can then be published to Facebook or emailed to friends -- with a freestyle mode to send them any message you like. I Am T-Pain is a novelty, but it's a novelty that'll keep you and your friends laughing like a drain for, ooh, weeks. Which is weeks longer than most novelty apps.
Download from iTunes: £1.79

Best Money-Saver: Meter Readings

iPhone users who are parsimonious with their remaining pennies will love Meter Readings, which for just 59p aims to save you much, much more in the long term. How? It lets you track your household utility meters -- electricity, gas and water -- and then calculates how much you're using them and how much it's costing you. Crucially, it supports the fiddly multi-tariffs favoured by many energy suppliers here in the UK, before turning everything into pretty graphs to pore over when trying to figure out whether to change supplier. Not an app you'll show off in the pub, but one that'll ensure you can afford a few extra rounds.
Download from iTunes: 59p

Best Communications App: Nimbuzz

The best messaging app for iPhone remains its native email client, but since that comes built in, we've looked further afield. Nimbuzz is the best unified instant-messaging app for iPhone, supporting traditional IM networks like Yahoo, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger, as well as social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. The addition of Skype is what makes it worth having, however, as does its price: free. Its interface does a good job of making sense of all these networks, and the latest version offers push notifications. Against stiff competition, this is the app we'd recommend for now.
Download from iTunes: free

Best Finance App: iXpenseIt

Like Meter Readings, this app isn't one of the sexier uses for iPhone. It's mightily useful, however, for anyone looking to track expenses or plan a monthly budget. The interface is clean and quick to use, with good visual representations of your spending by category. It feels secure too -- a concern for many corporate users -- with password protection and the ability to backup and restore data at will. And if you want a gimmick -- but a genuinely useful one -- you can take snaps of individual receipts to be stored in your records too. Just what the company accountant ordered.
Download from iTunes: £2.99

Best Health App: iFitness

Want to lose pounds at a startling rate? Buy a pay-as-you-go iPhone. Ho ho ho. But if you're looking to get fit, there's no shortage of iPhone apps that can help. iFitness is the most polished and comprehensive one available, offering a database of more than 230 exercises, complete with photos showing how you should look when doing them. There are instructions too, but the real value of this app is the ability to compile a custom workout, and track your progress -- complete with the ability to email the results to yourself. The ability to backup this data is important, too.
Download from iTunes: £1.19

Best Travel App: Qype Radar

Yes, you can use your iPhone to find train times, but what to do once you get where you're going? For a British audience, this is where Qype Radar comes in. It offers user reviews of restaurants, bars, shops, hotels and hundreds of other categories of place, with a five-star ratings system, and extra information including addresses and phone numbers. It ties in Google Maps to offer directions, and also lets you upload your own reviews from your iPhone, including photos. Plenty of blather is talked about user-generated content, but Qype Radar is one of the apps making UGC genuinely useful in your daily life.
Download from iTunes: free

Best Location App: foursquare

The same people who were buzzing about Twitter in its early days are buzzing about foursquare now. Cynics may mutter that this isn't a recommendation, but it's certainly a sign foursquare should be more than a novelty. The gist is simple: 'check in' when visiting places in a supported city (only London so far in the UK), and earn Xbox-style achievement badges for specific milestones. It's part game, competing against your friends for points, but also part nightlife guide, letting you see who's been where most recently. It relies on having a few mates using it, but if you do, it's an intriguing mash-up of social networking, location and game.
Download from iTunes: free

Best Utility: RedLaser

Are barcodes exciting? Not really. But RedLaser makes a good fist of making them much more interesting. It lets you scan barcodes using your iPhone camera, identifying products and then hunting down the best price online via Google Products and Amazon. The key use: you're in a shop and want to check if a product is available cheaper online. It's fully localised for the UK in terms of currency and Web sites, too. The serious use might be saving cash and sending high-street firms bust, but the silly use involves scanning every barcode in sight, just to see if you can stump it.
Download from iTunes: £1.19

Best Kids App: Bebot Robot Synth

Bebot isn't designed specifically for kids: it's not one of the many colour-spotting, shape-sorting toddler apps on the iPhone. Even so, it's the single app that's made this writer's child constantly try to steal dad's iPhone throughout 2009. It's a musical synthesiser that's capable of some powerful effects, if you get into the filtering, looping and distortion settings. What's of more relevance to toddlers, however, is the fact that when they touch the screen, a cartoon robot moves his mouth to make the noises. Simple, but sublime. If proper techno DJs had this, they might smile more.
Download from iTunes: £1.19

Most Futuristic App: Layar Reality Browser

We'll admit it: the main reason right now for having an augmented-reality browser on your iPhone is so you can tell people you have an augmented-reality browser on your iPhone. It sounds a bit Tron, and is a cheaper alternative to an actual lightbike. But AR apps such as Layar are also hugely intriguing, layering Web data over your handset's live camera feed, letting you spin round in Piccadilly Circus, for example, and see what places nearby have Wikipedia entries. Developers can create their own layers for anything they like -- gigs, house prices, sex offenders... It's a glimpse at the future. Possibly.
Download from iTunes: free

(via CNET)

Google Acquisition Map

2009-09-28T12:15:00.003+02:00

Found this real cool Google Investment chart done by the guys at MeettheBoss (Thanks! guys) which explains the acquisitions done by Google and their synergies...

The map is classified by : Industry Verticals, Year, Interlinks etc...

Check it out...

The All New Goom Radio ....

2009-09-27T14:02:00.006+02:00

Goom has just launched its version with new features such as creating your personalized radios, give it your color and share it on the medium of your choice...

The quality of music is all top of the class.... Also Goom goes live in the US of A !

Go Goom @ www.goomradio.com and choose the language of your choice....Enjoy !

Goom Radio : Goom(FR)/Goom(EN)

If websites were (only) human...

2009-08-19T19:00:00.003+02:00

An underlying message...??? Perhaps ...

Qype Hits 10 Million Unique Visitors..... and counting

2009-06-14T10:26:00.010+02:00

Qype earlier this month reached a very big Milestone dear to any Internet/Digital Media startup : it's 10 million UV (Unique Visitor) mark.....

The numbers are very impressive and only continue to grow better; if we breakdown the 10 million UV (by the number of days in the month and further on by the hours in the day...) it works out to 228 people/minute, or about 4 people/second !!!

Moreover, with the launch of the Qype Radar v2 brought in a huge wave of users from their phone writing reviews, uploading photos and a lot more...

Qype has also become an indispensable platform for business owners who use it for local business.

Go Qypers... and for those of you who are yet to discover Qype.... go for it @ Qype(Website) / Qype Radar ( iPhone Application)

About Qype :
Europe's leading and fastest growing local online review site. Find, review and share products, services, places and events.

9 specific country sites (UK, DE, FR, ES, IE, AT, CH, PL, BR) with reviews in 6 languages of places and services in over 140 countries.

Goojet gets €6M to further accelerate its development

2009-06-11T13:05:00.007+02:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.grapheine.com"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Webdesigner paris Graphéine&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
Check out this cool Goojet clip from a popular Bollywood movie ;-) ... (Thank you Bombay TV)

Have you tried the new Goojet ....

Goojet is

The new open space where the web and mobile worlds converge
A space inhabited by heterogeneous services (information, communication, social networking, e-business transactions, etc.), tuned to individual users and open to contributions from different sources.
A place where users easily create their mobile world: they select and customize the services they need and organize their space to their personal taste;
A place where they can create their own services for their private usage or for promotion to the community.

Digitick acquires secondary ticketing site Zepass

2009-06-02T11:17:00.005+02:00

Leading French e-Ticketing company Digitick announced that they have acquired leading Secondary Ticketing site Zepass.

About Zepass :

(EN) Leading French Secondary ticketing site. Zepass allows individuals to buy and re-sell tickets for : travel(trains), concerts, spectacles, sports matches etc. Its an absolutely free to use services for sellers.

(FR) Service de petites annonces entre particuliers, dans un cadre 100% légal, pour l'achat et la revente de billets d'occasion : billet de train, billet prems, place de concert, place de spectacle, place de match, etc. Le service de revente de billet est 100% gratuit pour les vendeurs : zéro commission, zéro frais fixe !

Goom Radio featured in the French Magazine L'Express

2009-05-27T18:37:00.005+02:00

Goomradio: le nouvel eldorado ?

The Pyramid of Internet Piracy

2009-05-20T10:45:00.002+02:00

Goom Radio Raises $16M First Round For Broadcast Service

2009-04-15T20:33:00.004+02:00

Battles between streaming-music sites and the labels over royalties have scared off some internet radio startups, but not all. One that is persevering is Goom Radio, which has raised over $16 million in first-round funding, to bring its mix of professional and user-gen playlists stateside. The New York company launched a version of its service in France last fall. Backers include Wellington Partners Venture Capital, Elaia Partners and Partech International.

The company is headed by Rob Williams, former president and market manager for Clear Channel New York. He’s joined by chief sales officer Drew Hilles, who led dMarc Broadcasting through an acquisition by Google, where he served as a director for four years. The company recently hired broadcast vet Joe Anastasi as account executive of the sales team. Anastasi was recently at Google Audio. About two months ago, Google shut down its Radio Ads product and is now developing a streaming audio-ad-placement service.

Goom’s subscription service is free and ad-supported. In addition to allowing its community to select stations tailored to their interests, Goom also notes that it employs DJs, programmers and journalists to provide the music and news. The funding will go toward building up its sales team and technology. Release

(via Paidcontent)

RED HERRING 100 2009

2009-04-08T18:42:00.002+02:00

The list has come... FINALLY :-)

COMPANY	COUNTRY	SECTOR
abiquo	Spain	Computing
Accedo Broadband	Sweden	Entertainment & Media
ACTIMOS	France	Internet & Services
ActionBase Software Solutions	Israel	Computing
Acumem	Sweden	Computing
Adactus	Norway	Other
AdJug	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
Ads-Click	Switzerland	Internet & Services
AlertMe.com	United Kingdom	Energy
ALK Solutions	Germany	Internet & Services
Amazee	Switzerland	Internet & Services
ammado	Ireland	Entertainment & Media
Anevia	France	Communications
Animasher	Sweden	Entertainment & Media
Aqwise	Israel	Other
Arimaz	Switzerland	Entertainment & Media
Ariston Group	Germany	Computing
AskMarkets	Greece	Internet & Services
ASOCS	Israel	Communications
AVIQ Systems	Switzerland	Entertainment & Media
AXSionics	Switzerland	Security & Defense
Bambuser	Sweden	Internet & Services
belysio	Poland	Internet & Services
Beverage Metrics	Switzerland	Other
Billmonitor	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
BLUE LION mobile	Germany	Communications
bMenu	Norway	Internet & Services
Bview	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
Canatu	Finland	Other
Cassiber	Switzerland	Internet & Services
Celona Technologies	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
ChapDrive	Norway	Energy
ChromoGenics	Sweden	Energy
Ciklum	Ukraine	Internet & Services
Clarizen	Israel	Internet & Services
Clearpace Software	United Kingdom	Computing
Codima Technologies	United Kingdom	Software
commercetools	Germany	Internet & Services
Conferendum	Germany	Internet & Services
Conservus International	United Arab Emirates	Internet & Services
Copal Partners	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
CoreOptics	Germany	Communications
Crystalsol	Estonia	Energy
Delta Solutions	Netherlands	Entertainment & Media
DIGITRAD	France	Entertainment & Media
DIVOLUTION	Germany	Internet & Services
Earnix	Israel	Computing
Eclipse International	Belgium	Communications
eCommera	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
Ecospeed	Switzerland	Internet & Services
Edetiendas	Spain	Internet & Services
eGazety	Poland	Internet & Services
EGS Group	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
Electro Power Systems Spa	Italy	Energy
eleven	Germany	Internet & Services
Envault	Finland	Security & Defense
Epithelix	Switzerland	Biosciences
Epuramat	Luxembourg	Other
ErockIT	Germany	Other
E-Senza Technologies	Germany	Communications
Etherlive	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
Evolva	Switzerland	Biosciences
Experteer	Germany	Internet & Services
Foamix	Israel	Biosciences
Frog2Frog	Sweden	Internet & Services
Golden Gekko	United Kingdom	Entertainment & Media
Gravity Technologies	Hungary	Internet & Services
Greentube I.E.S.	Austria	Entertainment & Media
Guzuu.com	Switzerland	Internet & Services
Handmade Mobile Entertainment	United Kingdom	Entertainment & Media
HexaTraining Technologies	France	Internet & Services
Hitflip Media Trading	Germany	Internet & Services
Hocoma	Switzerland	Biosciences
Huddle.net	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
Idevio	Sweden	Entertainment & Media
IDIT I.D.I. Technologies	Israel	Computing
IKIVO	Sweden	Communications
In Real Life (IRL)	Netherlands	Internet & Services
InfoGin	Israel	Other [Mobile]
IntelliMedia AG	Germany	Internet & Services
INTERA	Slovenia	Internet & Services
Jahia	Switzerland	Internet & Services
JayCut	Sweden	Internet & Services
Jinni	Israel	Entertainment & Media
JogThe Web	France	Internet & Services
Just Landed	Spain	Entertainment & Media
Kentico software	Czech Republic	Internet & Services
KeyLemon	Switzerland	Internet & Services
KeyPoint Technologies	United Kingdom	Computing
Lagan	United Kingdom	Other
Libcast	France	Internet & Services
Locle	Ireland	Internet & Services
LOVEFiLM	United Kingdom	Entertainment & Media
Masabi	United Kingdom	Communications
me2me	Switzerland	Communications
Meltwater Group	Norway	Internet & Services
Metaversum	Germany	Entertainment & Media
MiniFrame	Israel	Computing
mmCHANNEL	Spain	Entertainment & Media
Mnemis	Switzerland	Internet & Services
Mobile Nordic	Norway	Other
Mobiquant Technologies	France	Communications
Mobypicture	Netherlands	Internet & Services
MUSICJUSTMUSIC Distribution	Germany	Entertainment & Media
Muzui	Denmark	Entertainment & Media
MVine	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
Napatech	Denmark	Communications
NaviExpert	Poland	Internet & Services
negPOINT	Austria	Internet & Services
NetGuardians	Switzerland	Computing
Netigate	Sweden	Internet & Services
Neuropie	Switzerland	Computing
never.no	Norway	Communications
Nimbuzz	Netherlands	Communications
Nordic River Software	Sweden	Internet & Services
Novapost	France	Internet & Services
NuLens	Israel	Biosciences
Nvivo	Spain	Internet & Services
Octoshape	Denmark	Internet & Services
OculusAI Technologies	Sweden	Internet & Services
OpenCloud	United Kingdom	Communications
OpenTrust	France	Security & Defense
Open-Xchange	Germany	Internet & Services
Oversi	Israel	Communications
Oxford Nanopore Technologies	United Kingdom	Biosciences
Pancomp International	Finland	Other
Passpack	Italy	Internet & Services
paysafecard	Austria	Internet & Services
Penny	Sweden	Computing
PlayAll	Germany	Entertainment & Media
Player X	United Kingdom	Entertainment & Media
plista	Germany	Internet & Services
Plusfoursix	Sweden	Communications
PLYmedia	Israel	Internet & Services
Polymita Technologies	Spain	Computing
PopCatcher	Sweden	Entertainment & Media
Primequal	Switzerland	Biosciences
Private Sale	Germany	Internet & Services
Procedural	Switzerland	Entertainment & Media
Proximion Fiber Systems	Sweden	Internet & Services
Qimaya	Germany	Internet & Services
Qiro	Germany	Internet & Services
Qoof	Israel	Internet & Services
QuantaSol	United Kingdom	Energy
Quick.TV	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
Rabbitsoft	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
RapidRabb.it	Germany	Internet & Services
REAC Fuel	Sweden	Energy
ResearchGATE	Germany	Internet & Services
routeRANK	Switzerland	Internet & Services
Rozmic Wireless	United Kingdom	Computing
Rubberduck Media Lab	Norway	Internet & Services
sarys	Switzerland	Other
Scalado	Sweden	Computing
Scent Detection Technologies	Israel	Security & Defense
semantic system	Switzerland	Other
SENSIMED	Switzerland	Biosciences
Service2Media	Netherlands	Internet & Services
Severa	Finland	Internet & Services
Shopall	Spain	Internet & Services
SLA Mobile	United Kingdom	Communications
Slicethepie	United Kingdom	Entertainment & Media
smaboo	Germany	Internet & Services
smartclip	Germany	Internet & Services
Smartfundit.com	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
smartShift	Germany	Computing
smava	Germany	Internet & Services
SMS Guru	Germany	Communications
SMS PASSCODE	Denmark	Computing
sobees	Switzerland	Internet & Services
Solarcentury	United Kingdom	Energy
Spirofrog	Germany	Internet & Services
Squace	Sweden	Internet & Services
Streamcore	France	Computing
StreamPlay	Finland	Other
Suntrica	Finland	Energy
Supertext	Switzerland	Communications
Ta with you	Spain	Internet & Services
Tagattitude	France	Other
TellmeTwin	Ireland	Internet & Services
The Cloud	United Kingdom	Communications
Traffic Broker	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
Trigami	Switzerland	Internet & Services
TV Genius	United Kingdom	Internet & Services
T-VIPS	Norway	Other
Twenga	France	Internet & Services
U4EA Technologies	United Kingdom	Communications
Ubidyne	Germany	Communications
UBIqube	France	Communications
Unkasoft Advergaming	Spain	Other [Mobile]
Videoplaza	Sweden	Internet & Services
Vilant Systems	Finland	Computing
vionto	Germany	Internet & Services
Virtual Italian Parks	Italy	Internet & Services
VOSS	United Kingdom	Communications
Voxbone	Belgium	Communications
Vringo	United Kingdom	Entertainment & Media
WIRELESS MUNDI	Spain	Communications
Wuala	Switzerland	Internet & Services
WYPLAY	France	Entertainment & Media
XConnect Global Networks	United Kingdom	Communications
Xelerated	Sweden	Computing
XIHA	Finland	Entertainment & Media
Xjet	Israel	Energy
XWiki	France	Other
Yasmo Live	United Kingdom	Communications
Yooplus	Italy	Internet & Services
YouLynx	Spain	Entertainment & Media
Zimory	Germany	Computing
Zmags	Denmark	Internet & Services

via Red Herring

Goom on National Television (in French)

2009-03-25T15:47:00.011+01:00

Have you tried Goom...Internet's FIRST Professional High-Def Radio.... Plenty of stations to try and listen ELSE ELSE make your own and share it with your friends ...

Plein Ecran du 14/03/2009 - Spotify et Goom: vive la musique gratuite ! sélectionné dans Actualité et Blogs

www.goom.com

Webcam Brings 3-D to Topps Sports Cards

2009-03-09T18:02:00.008+01:00

UPDATE: Total Immersion gets quoted on CBS(Article, Video)

Since the 1950s, Topps has sold baseball trading cards filled with photos and stats, bringing the game to life. Now the company is bringing its cards to life.

A fanciful depiction of a 3-D image of Ryan Howard of the Phillies from a Topps 3D Live card.

Watch the video at : Total Immersion Topps Video

Beginning Monday, collectors who hold a special Topps 3D Live baseball card in front of a webcam will see a three-dimensional avatar of the player on the computer screen. Rotate the card, and the figure rotates in full perspective. It’s called “augmented reality,” a combination of a real image with a virtual one.

“This is the ‘Beam me up, Scotty’ version of a baseball card that will get kids to buy more. We see this baseball season as a redefining moment for us,” said Steve Grimes, chief digital officer at Topps.

Topps needs to augment reality because baseball cards are struggling in the Internet age. Today’s collectors, most of whom are still boys, can just as easily and less expensively find the sports facts they want online.

While once a $1 billion business, the market for sports trading cards has shrunk to $200 million in yearly revenue today, according to information provided by Major League Baseball Properties in a recent lawsuit against a former card licensee. (The players’ association licenses the right to use players’ likenesses.)

The baseball card business is dominated by Topps, based in New York, and Upper Deck, based in Carlsbad, Calif. According to Chris Olds, editor of Beckett Baseball, a card collectors’ publication, Topps has the edge. “When people think baseball cards, they think of Topps,” he said.

Michael Eisner, the former chief of Walt Disney, did too, and in 2007 his Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners bought Topps for $385 million. They hatched big plans to make trading cards relevant again.

Total Immersion, a French company, brought Topps the augmented reality technology. It has already been used in a theme park and for some auto design work. Using the technology, card collectors see a three-dimensional version of a player and can play elementary pitching, batting and catching games using the computer keyboard.

Mr. Eisner said Topps expected to ship 10 million packs of Series 1 (12 cards for $2) and Topps Attax cards this year (5 for $1). Scott Kelnhofer, editor of Card Trade, an industry publication, says the Total Immersion technology could strike a chord with boys. “This is the boldest technology idea we’ve seen in sports cards so far. The key is not to have it be a novelty and then it’s on to the next one.”

Mr. Eisner says he does not see Topps as a trading card business. “I see it as a cultural, iconic institution not that different from Disney; it conjures up an emotional response that has a feel good, Proustian kind of uplift,” he said.

Mr. Eisner has also created Back on Topps, a 17-episode Internet comedy that spoofs his acquisition of the company. He is developing a movie based on another of the company’s products, Bazooka Joe bubble gum. He also wants to create sports films.

Topps and Upper Deck already drive collectors to the Web by inserting special cards with unique codes in the packs. Entering the codes at Toppstown.com or UpperDeckU.com allows fans to create avatars, trade virtual cards and enter virtual worlds and interact with other visitors.

On deck: virtual cards that “come alive and contain video,” said Louise Curcio, vice president for marketing at Upper Deck.

For Mr. Eisner, the Topps 3D Live cards are a natural extension of the brand. “We take technology as our friend,” he said. “The playing card is the beginning, not the end.”

(from NY Times)

Disclosure: Total Immersion, the company powering the 3D technology is a Partech International company

Eight mobile technologies to watch

2009-02-02T17:06:00.002+01:00

Gartner has identified eight mobile technologies that will evolve significantly through 2010, impacting short-term mobile strategies and policies.

1. Bluetooth 3.0

The Bluetooth 3.0 specification will be released in 2009 (at which point its feature set will be frozen), with devices starting to arrive around 2010. Bluetooth 3.0 will likely include features such as ultra-low-power mode that will enable new devices, such as peripherals and sensors, and new applications, such as health monitoring. Bluetooth originated as a set of protocols operating over a single wireless bearer technology. Bluetooth 3.0 is intended to support three bearers: "classic" Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ultrawideband (UWB). It's possible that more bearers will be supported in the future. Wi-Fi is likely to be a more important supplementary bearer than UWB in the short term, because of its broad availability. Wi-Fi will allow high-end phones to rapidly transfer large volumes of data.

2. Mobile User Interfaces (UIs)

UIs have a major effect on device usability and supportability. They will also be an area of intense competition in 2009 and 2010, with manufacturers using UIs to differentiate their handsets and platforms. New and more-diverse UIs will complicate the development and support of business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) applications. Organizations should expect more user demands for support of specific device models driven by interface preferences. Companies should also expect consumer interfaces to drive new expectations of application behavior and performance. Better interfaces will make the mobile Web more accessible on small devices, and will be a better channel to customers and employees.

3. Location Sensing

Location awareness makes mobile applications more powerful and useful; in the future, location will be a key component of contextual applications. Location sensing will also enhance systems, such as mobile presence and mobile social networking. The growing maturity of on-campus location sensing using Wi-Fi opens up a range of new applications exploiting the location of equipment or people. Organizations delivering business or consumer applications should explore the potential of location sensing; however, exploiting it may create new privacy and security challenges.

4. 802.11n

802.11n boosts Wi-Fi data rates to between 100 Mbps and 300 Mbps, and the multiple-input, multiple-output technology used by 802.11n offers the potential for better coverage in some situations. 802.11n is likely to be a long-lived standard that will define Wi-Fi performance for several years. High-speed Wi-Fi is desirable to stream media around the home and office. From an organizational perspective, 802.11n is disruptive; it's complex to configure, and is a "rip and replace" technology that requires new access points, new client wireless interfaces, new backbone networks and a new power over Ethernet standard. However, 802.11n is the first Wi-Fi technology to offer performance on a par with the 100 Mbps Ethernet commonly used for wired connections to office PCs. It is, therefore, an enabler for the all-wireless office, and should be considered by companies equipping new offices or replacing older 802.11a/b/g systems in 2009 and 2010.

5. Display Technologies

Displays constrain many characteristics of both mobile devices and applications. During 2009 and 2010, several new display technologies will impact the marketplace, including active pixel displays, passive displays and pico projectors. Pico projectors enable new mobile use cases (for example, instant presentations projected on a desktop to display information in a brief, face-to-face sales meeting). Battery life improvements are welcome for any user. Good off-axis viewing enables images and information to be shared more easily. Passive displays in devices, such as e-book readers, offer new ways to distribute and consume documents. Display technology will also become an important differentiator and a user selection criterion.

6. Mobile Web and Widgets

The mobile Web is emerging as a low-cost way to deliver simple mobile applications to a range of devices. It has some limitations that will not be addressed by 2010 (for example, there will be no universal standards for browser access to handset services, such as the camera or GPS). However, the mobile Web offers a compelling total cost of ownership (TCO) advantage over thick-client applications. Widgets (small mobile Web applets) are supported by many mobile browsers, and provide a way to stream simple feeds to handsets and small screens. Mobile Web applications will be a part of most B2C mobile strategies. Thin-client applications are also emerging as a practical solution to on-campus enterprise applications using Wi-Fi or cellular connections.

7. Cellular Broadband

Wireless broadband exploded in 2008, driven by the availability of technologies such as high-speed downlink packet access and high-speed uplink packet access, combined with attractive pricing from cellular operators. The performance of high-speed packet access (HSPA) provides a megabit or two of bandwidth in uplink and downlink directions, and often more. In many regions, HSPA provides adequate connectivity to replace Wi-Fi "hot spots," and the availability of mature chipsets enables organizations to purchase laptops with built-in cellular modules that provide superior performance to add-on cards or dongles.

8. Near Field Communication (NFC)

NFC provides a simple and secure way for handsets to communicate over distances of a centimeter or two. NFC is emerging as a leading standard for applications such as mobile payment, with successful trials conducted in several countries. It also has wider applications, such as "touch to exchange information" (for example, to transfer an image from a handset to a digital photo frame, or for a handset to pick up a virtual discount voucher). Gartner does not expect much of the NFC payment or other activities to become common, even by 2010, in mature markets, such as Western Europe and the U.S. NFC is likely to become important sooner in emerging markets, with some deployments starting by 2010.

(via blogilvy)

Eight mobile technologies to watch

2009-02-02T17:06:00.001+01:00

The age of Digital/Paperless ticketing

2008-11-17T00:14:00.006+01:00

Tickets .....aren't we always worried of they getting misplaced... Don't we all face such a situation : Every single time we fly, we find ourselves checking the location where we put our tickets once every 3-4 minutes. Are they still there? Did we remember to zip up after we last checked? When we pulled our hand out of the ticket pouch, did the ticket sneak out? We may have never lost a ticket, yet we consistently fear that we will.

American Airlines recently launched digital boarding pases with 2d barcodes.Fortunately, the times are changing. As handset displays grow to higher and higher resolutions, functionality generally limited to ink and paper becomes possible. Scannable barcodes can easily be printed onto just about any device made within the last few years, opening the door to ticketless boarding via your cell phone’s display.

Thinking on the same lines we at Partech invested in the leader of primary ticket sales in France called Digitick

Digitick is able to provide you with tickets on your cellphones in the form of a barcode(with in-house technology developed to successfully read these barcodes irespective of mobile screen) or a print@home option. The company also allows for event organizers to monitor in real time the ticket sales as well as help in targeting customers by their buying behavior(type of concerts they attend to..rock, pop etc.) leading to better sales leading to win-win situation for both the concert organizer as he gets an excellent turnout as well as customers as they dont have to wait in lines to buy tickets and rather buy them in the comfort of their home. Moreover, customers are alerted when concerts of their tastes are coming up soon so they dont miss the next Madonna or Amy Winehouse concert when they come to their city next....

Clearly,digital ticketing is the next revolution which would allow better organization of ticket sales, correct client targeting as well eco-friendly as we dont print on paper anymore....!

When buying tickets in France next time do try www.digitick.com...

Qype gets a mention in Les Echos, Financial Times

2008-09-18T11:49:00.011+02:00

One of our Portfolio companies Qype (from Quality or Hype) has been mentioned in the leading press magazines in Europe.

Qype is a UGC based Yellow page destination site with rich reviews on restraunts, cinemas, places to visit and more...with the added touch of social networking and active community it give a user the opportunity to discover all those hidden corner shops/jewels in a city ! Moreover, Qype organizes regular meetups/parties for fellow Qypers, a perfect occasion to make new friends and discover differnet tastes.

Visit Qype at www.qype.com

Financial Times : Qype’s online Yellow Pages get more green

Les Echos (in French): Sur Qype, les internautes mettent leurs bonnes adresses en commun

Google really needs to rework on its Search Algorithm

2008-09-16T11:42:00.009+02:00

I was interested to learn more on the Lehman Brothers crisis this morning and as usual I typed it on Google and something struck me on the results page....Check it out...

Click on the Image to see the Original size...

Jupidi launches mobile flirting site

2008-08-21T20:27:00.006+02:00

· New German mobile flirting startup Jupidi has announced a successful fundraising (days after its launch).

· Portal jupidi.de the company offers single teenagers a new flirting service per SMS.

o The service targets users between the ages of 12 and 19 (calls its offering a ‘social enabling service’)

o Users can anonymously contact their crush by sending an SMS to figure out whether he or she feels the same.

o If so, they can continue one-to-one communication - still anonymously - guided by Jupidi’s matching and flirting program.

Jupidi’s matching process

· The user needs to indicate his or her own name, the name of the person they wish to contact, his or her mobile number and a hint about where they know each other from.

· SMS is then sent to Jupidi via the code number 60777.

· User pays 99 cents for the first SMS contact and 49 cents for each further one. Recipients pay their normal SMS fees only.

Company has now received an investment from German venture capitalist Neuhaus Partners (Amount undisclosed).

(via Tornado Insider)

Social network world popularity index

2008-08-12T20:30:00.010+02:00

Some interesting observations before we get started

Facebook is most popular in Turkey and Canada.
Friendster and Imeem are most popular in the Philippines.
LinkedIn is most popular in India.
Twitter is most popular in Japan.
LiveJournal is more popular in Russia than it is in the United States.
Orkut is more popular in Iran (10th country popularity-wise) than it is in the United States.
MySpace is the only social network which is most popular in the United States.
MySpace, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Xanga, and Twitter are the only social networks in this survey which have the United States in their top five countries, popularity-wise. That is just five out of twelve.

(via Pingdom)