Android Archives - Page 10 of 12

Denver Startup: Closely Gives Small Businesses A Competitive Edge With Perch Dashboard

As a small business owner how do you keep track of what your closest competitors are doing? Do you wear blinders and pretend they aren’t there? Do you shop at competitor locations to see what they’re doing? Do you plant spies? Do you set up Google alerts?

While some of these things (except wearing blinders), may seem effective, they all involve time and most small business owners don’t have that. Luckily there is a Denver based startup called Closely that is looking to simplify the monitoring of your competitors in one easy to use dashboard they’re calling Perch.

Perch is currently in a closed beta. The founders at Closely are hoping that Perch will give local merchants a snapshot of competitors marketing activities and help merchants build ideas of how to respond.

“We found that the majority of businesses don’t quite yet understand the level of activity surrounding them,” Closely CEO Perry Evans told Street Fight in an email. “As the application that they learn to rely on for daily tracking and watching, we’re in a front row position for helping them participate.”

Evans, started his career in technology as head of the Mapquest publisher group so he’s very familiar with the benefits of LBS, group deals and the other technologies that are preying and benefiting local merchants.

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Leesburg VA Based Startup: Time Razor Promises You’ll Never Miss Out

Time Razor, a Leesburg VA based startup just recently took their project out of stealth mode. The company is venture backed and puts a new spin on events, and time management. TimeRazor was founded by Barry White (no relation to the R&B singer), who has a mixed background mostly in real estate development. However in the hustle bustle world of the DC suburbs we’re sure a developer knows a thing or two about time management.

What TimeRazor ultimately does is cut out the noise from other similar event recommendation apps. Through their proprietary software and algorithms TimeRazor combs through over 300,000 events a day and serves up suggestions and updates for events that the user would actually like to attend. They call this technology the “distillery”.

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Philly Startup: Lokalty Combines Local Loyalty Reward Cards With The Power Of One

Three University of Pennsylvania graduates, Balu Chandrasekaran, Philip Tribe and Bipen Sasi created a startup last October that puts an entire new spin on recommendation, reward and loyalty at the retail level. We’ve often suggested that the recommendation/reward space is going to become hotter than daily deals as merchants focus on retaining and growing their customer base through loyalty. While Lokalty is only available in Philadelphia at the moment, these three entrepreneurs get that.

According to their website Lokalty was born in February 2011 out of an idea that the three had at a Rittenhouse gym. They started working on the project seven months ago and went live just five months ago. As we suggested above, they were growing tired of daily deals and wanted to find something more effective for both the merchant and the customer.

The idea behind Lokalty has been tricky as Chandrasekaran told FlyingKitemedia:

“Growing the company has been tricky”, says Chandrasekaran, who says he and his partners have taken on a difficult task, marketing to businesses and consumers at the same time. “It’s the classic chicken and egg problem.” While Lokalty means marketing for retailers, “most small business owners would rather hear sales pitches that address the cost side instead of the revenue side.”

After the trio gets over this hurdle, the benefits to a platform like Lokalty are easy to see. A customer in the Lokalty program, like may of us, has a key ring full of rewards cards. With Lokalty you get one card for all the network merchants. Lokalty makes it so if you buy enough coffee from Elixr you can get free bagels from Spread Bagelry . You can use points from one merchant in the network with any other merchant in the network. So not only is the Lokalty program encouraging repeat business at one merchant, but they’re encouraging discovery and repeat business at all the other merchants in the network as well.

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With Incredible 4G Leaked, Could Verizon Be Launching This Device AND Another More Similar To Its One Series?

We knew something was up when Verizon dropped the price of the Rezound to $49, and with previous rumors of a 4G DROID Incredible popping up, it was definitely a possibility that Big Red was trying to make room for their next 4G LTE HTC device. These rumors became even closer to fact when pictures starting popping up like crazy yesterday of the alleged “Incredible 4G”.

The DROID Incredible 2 gained a lot of praise for being a solid device, but one of its major downsides was the lack of 4G LTE, even with the network being launched prior to the device. This left Verizon in a position to market the Thunderbolt, but it seemed as if the original DROID Incredible never really got a proper successor. With the Incredible 4G however, the DROID Incredible’s may be able to reign yet again. The only possible issues I can see with this device is that it must be on par with HTC’s One series, and even its recently announced Evo 4G LTE for the device to be a success. Being that Verizon has plenty of choices, including the Galaxy Nexus, users may want to think twice about jumping on the Incredible 4G bandwagon if it seems the device is lacking what other HTC devices aren’t.

However, this may not be an issue, as the device is poised to run Ice Cream Sandwich (with Sense 4.0 of course) with a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz. It does have a 4″ screen though, meaning it will be smaller than both the Rezound and Thunderbolt were, but it is right on par with the DROID Incredible 2. This could mean that Verizon is planning on releasing this device and a larger device more similar to its One series, but we won’t know for sure until we hear directly from Verizon or HTC. Verizon launched the Thunderbolt and the DROID Incredible 2 around the same time, and they could be planning something similar with a larger device, and an “Incredible”-sized device such as the one shown above. Stay tuned for more details on the “Incredible 4G” and any other devices Verizon may have up its sleeve.

Source: Droid-Life

Massachusetts Startup: 7 Lunches Brings Lunch Specials Right To Your Email Or Phone

The daily deals space is blowing up like crazy. Other than social discovery apps, daily deals has to be the hottest app platform out there right now. It’s getting crowded, but every once in a while something different comes along in the daily deals space worth mentioning.

7 Lunches is one of those things. With the hustle and bustle lives we all live these days, the cost conscious business professional doesn’t have time to comb through lunch specials on restaurant websites. They also don’t have the time to cruise down to their local hot spot to just “see” if there is a good special. We need to know the specials and we need to know them now.

That’s how co-founder and co-creator of 7 lunches, Ryan Maturski came up with the idea for 7 lunches. He was eating in a local sub shop in North Adams, MA and he told the owner that he should send his daily lunch specials out via email. Voila. Marturski and co-founder Jeff Lee set out to do just that, not just with the sub shop but with every restaurant that they could get to participate.

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Rawporter Roadshow: We Talk With Ric Fleisher about Urgnt.ly And The DC Startup Scene

As the Rawporter Roadshow continues we got a few minutes to sit down with serial entrepreneur Ric Fleisher about his latest startup urgent.ly. Fleisher has had several successful exits and is proudly working on his current startup that came about out of necessity.

Fleisher found that as more and more location based service startups came out they were all focusing on what they believe people want. Urgnt.ly is a new kind of location based app that focuses on what people need.

As the story goes it was a Friday evening and Fleisher had just finished doing the dishes. Before he went to bed he set the dishwasher to run overnight. He was awakened Saturday morning by his son that told him there was water in the kitchen. Fleisher got dressed and went downstairs expecting to find a puddle of water. Instead he found that his entire kitchen and surrounding areas in his home had been completely flooded by a dishwasher that was still spewing water.

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Instagram: To Delete, Or Not To Delete

Instagram finally arrived on Android just last week, and iPhone users were in a huge uproar over “those Android users” getting into their club. Instagram also received 1 million downloads in the first day, showing that there really was a lot of Android users joining the club. However, a lot of the Android community couldn’t see the point in actually using the app, because we’ve already had those filters in so many other applications. Still, enough Android users saw a way they could use the app that Instagram put a pretty big footprint in the Play Store.

Today, Mark Zuckerberg announced via Facebook that the social giant would be acquiring Instagram. A lot of users were upset about that. A lot. It has gone as far as people exporting their photos and deleting their account as soon as the announcement was made, and others setting up a date for a massive account deleting party, much like the “Quit Facebook Day” we saw last year when Facebook made some privacy changes. This leaves the newly joined Android community with a question. Should we continue to use Instagram? Because with only a week under our belts it couldn’t be something we can’t live without. And for users who haven’t even started using the service, should you even join?

The Instagram team had to have seen a huge issue coming, because they added this statement to their official blog letting users know things would be the same:

“It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience.

The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You’ll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you.You’ll still be able to share to other social networks. And you’ll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.”

Still, a lot of users hate Facebook, and cannot imagine to see their hip Instagram community flooded with around 900 million Facebook users (and growing). This leaves it up to each and every individual to assess where they are in the social network, and where they think it will go. If you think Instagram is on its way down the drain, go ahead and delete your account, but be warned. If you delete your Instagram account, your photos will be gone forever, and you will never be able to create another account under the same username again. Deleting an Instagram account is very permanent, and unlike just “deactivating” a Facebook account.

On the other end, and personally the way I see most fit to go, you can wait it out. I downloaded and began using Instagram the day it was released on Android, and have intermittently used it since. I don’t use it as much as Twitter, but I definitely use it more than Facebook. Will Instagram be ruined forever? Who knows. Will Instagram be ruined by Facebook and all of its massive user base? We don’t know. One thing we do know though, is Instagram is still there, and nothing has changed yet. If the company continuing to add services to their app and improves upon it more and more, how will the users who quit on the day of the Facebook acquisition feel?

I’m not saying I like the acquisition, because I definitely don’t. But I do think users should wait and see what happens before they go deleting their accounts forever. That’s not to say I’ll never delete mine, I’m just not deleting it yet.

Print Your Instagram Pics To Posters, Stickers And More With Prinstagr.am

Social Print Studio, a San Francisco based company, that specializes in making apps that print photos from social networking sites like Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter to stickers, posters and other printables. They’ve just announced their most recent endeavor surrounded by the phenomenon we all know as Instagr.am.

Now your favorite Instagram photos with their glorious filters can be captured in real life non virtual goodness. Sometimes the memories you’ve created need to be shared outside of the online world and that’s where Prinstagr.am fits in.

For $25 you can have between 50-400 of your favorite Instagram pics made into a 40 inch poster with all the photos laid out on a grid. That cute picture of your kid that got 400 likes on Instagram can now be made into 48 miniprints and shared with your entire neighborhood for just $12.

In all seriousness though with more and more people using photo apps and camera phones, and of course digital cameras less and less pictures are printed out. Taking your USB stick to Walmart or Target for that special photo novelty is time consuming and cumbersome and sometimes doesn’t even turn out right. With Prinstagr.am you’re not going to have that problem.

Check it out for yourself right here.

Source: Gizmodo

Instagram For Android, Why Did We Even Need It?

Instagram for Android came out today, and by searching Twitter, you could find either utter stupidity in the hatred or joy that it’s finally on Android. Both views though are utterly stupid. For one, those iPhone users are idiots and need more proof just reread what was said above, or click on Twitter in the first sentence and just follow the stream of stupidity down to your local Apple store.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Instagram isn’t a “good” application, it’s just Android really never needed it. We have applications such as Paper Camera, puddling camera , Retro Camera Plus . Just to name a few. What Instagram did for the iPhone is something that has been done since Android first came out. Third party Camera applications with trendy filters that the camera couldn’t do on it’s own.

Instagram For Android Review

So Instagram is finally on Android. We’ve been waiting for this hit iPhone camera app to come to Android for a while now, and while some of the community is saying “Android didn’t need Instagram, we have our own Retro Camera”, the fact of the matter is this: Instagram is a big deal. Instagram has received millions of downloads on Apple’s App Store, and no doubt will receive a ton of downloads on the Play Store as well. However, a lot of times when apps are ported from iPhone to Android, they lose much of the polish that made them what they are in the process. Did this happen with Instagram? Should you jump on the bandwagon and give this app a try? We’re here to tell you.

Instagram on Android is very simple to set up. You simply download the app, input your credentials, and you’re on your way. Once you link all of the social media accounts you choose, you can find all of your friends that have linked their Instagram accounts to these networks, and easily follow them. Once you add all of your personal friends, the service will then suggest users you can follow to keep up-to-date on some of Instagram’s most popular photos.

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When you finally get into the app, you can immediately see the home tab where your stream of pictures show up. From this page you can scroll through and look at all of the different things uploaded, like them, and comment on them as well. The scrolling is very smooth and you can easily expand and comment on photos. Their are a lot of cool aesthetics to make the app shine, such as the name of the uploader scrolling with the picture until it is bumped of the screen by the next uploader. You can also do other cool little things like double-tapping on pictures to like them, and so forth. Next to the home tab is the popular tab, and from here you can check out all of the most view and liked pictures on Instagram. They show up in a grid format where you can see about 20 pictures at one time with a little room to scroll and a refresh button in the corner to bring up new content. When clicking on these pictures you can see the same normal options: liking and comments.

When you click the middle camera button you can choose to take a picture or choose one from the gallery, and after you decide and have a picture Instagram really starts to shine. You can choose from a ton of different filters to add cool effects to your pictures, making them look old and worn out or bright and trendy. There is plenty of filters, and they all add a new, different effect to your photo. Sliding through the filters is very easy, and it takes no time at all for it to be applied to your picture. Once you choose your filter you can choose to post and share with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Tumblr, but alas, there is still no option for Google+.

On the next tab you can see all of the news you and your friends are sharing, such as things people are liking and when someone follows someone new. This can offer a pretty easy way to find new people and discover new photos to like and comment on based on what your friends are interested in. In the next tab you can view your profile and edit your information such as your name, picture, and bio. The push notification settings are also buried in this menu for some reason, but once you get to them you can choose what you want to be notified for which is also a very helpful option.

As a whole, Instagram made a great jump from iPhone to Android. Just about everything from the filters to the polish came along with the port, and the time it took the devs to get it in the Play Store really paid off. Instagram is smooth, easy to use, and really brings the full experience to Android without leaving much behind. Whether you’re into photography or not, you should definitely check this app out.

Be sure to follow us on Instagram too! ElijahIsMe & TheDroidGuy

Instagram’s Play Store link

Flud The “Instagram For News” Raising $8 Million Dollars Heads To Android

San Diego based startup Flud, a social news reader app for iPhone is does a great job of differentiating itself from other news readers like Taptu and Pulse.

They do this by allowing users to create profiles join the platform and share their news with others in their network. The UI is very polished and some in tech circles are calling Flud, the Instagram for news.

Sure everyone has access to the same internet and the same news stories but the way people curate the news is what makes some blogs and most news aggregates so popular.

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T-Mobile: We Are Sorry We Got Caught Spamming You, We’ll Stop

T-Mobile is coming under pressure today for an update they pushed to Android phones who’s users have downloaded the My Account Application. Not for battery drain, but for getting caught Spamming users. Knowing what they where doing, only to back peddle when it came to light it was them.

During a recent software update, a message to promote T-Mobile’s free VIP Zone was mistakenly sent to certain customers and appeared on the notification bar for some Android devices. After T-Mobile was made aware of this mistake, the company stopped the notifications. T-Mobile apologizes for the inconvenience this may have caused customers.

The company sent as an apology to TmoNews who broke the story. Sadly, this isn’t the first time that T-Mobile has done this, nor will be their last. This time they where trying to push their VIP Zone.

T-Mobile isn’t the first to push Spam via the notification on Android. Numerous reports are other applications have as well. Yet time and again users praise Android not Apple either though one OS has always issues of Spam and malicious Apps while the other doesn’t.

Source: The Verge

Seattle Based Urban Spoon Sees Big Growth In Reservations

While OpenTable is still by far the giant in the world of table reservation apps, Seattle based Urban Spoon is making great strides in a territory that once exclusively belonged to OpenTable.

UrbanSpoon has been known since it’s inception for it’s slot machine style interface for serving up great restaurant suggestions. When you open up the Urban Spoon app on your Android or iPhone you shake it and the three bars rotate like a slot machine. They eventually land on a restaurant recommendation.

UrbanSpoon reported to Geekwire that last month they sat one million people using their reservation system. That’s not a lot considering San Francisco based OpenTable claims they’ve sat over 280 million people since coming online in 1999. Opentable also claims to have 25,000 restaurants in their system.

Urban Spoon on the other hand says they have restaurants in the thousands, the San Francisco Chronicle says that Urban Spoon has 4,000 restaurants in it’s network.

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Startup Quick Byte: Buddy Beers

For Startup Quick Byte we’ll take a look at Buddy Beers based out of Berlin Germany. Buddy Beers takes being a friend to the next level by enabling people from even countries away to buy drinks for their friends. The concept is pretty easy, you buy a drink for your friend with the app, they’ll then receive an email and link to the app, if using an iPhone. Show the bartender at the bar in question, then hit redeem and you are now just waiting for the bartender to make the drink your friend just bought you.