Nibletz Staff - 87/87 - Serious Startups

Boulder Startup: Seamless Toys, Creates Atoms, Things To Build Things That Do Things, For Kids

Boulder Colorado startup Seamless Toys, is one of the coolest startups we’ve heard about all year (and we’ve reported on over 1500), they’ve created Atoms, essentially toys that help kids build things that do cool things. Think erector sets, legos and blocks but for kids living in today’s times.

ATOMs were built to work in conjunction with the stuff kids already have like LEGOs, stuffed animals, Barbies, even those good ole erector sets. Seamless Toys boasts that within five minutes of taking ATOMS out of the box, kids can be creating things. Not only that but kids as young as five can create toys that interact with smart phones, move around, explode and more.

There are 13 unique modules that include a motor, light sensor, sound module, knob module, battery brick, splitter, IR laser, IR target, LED, Flip Flop, accelerometer, iOS control brick and our favorite the exploding brick (parents no worries there are no pyrotechnics involved).

Last year at CES 2012 we saw Cubelets which are robotic construction kids for kids. While those are cool, what the folks at Seamless Toys have been able to do is integrate and make their ATOMS Express toy sets something that compliments existing toys and makes them do whatever a kids’ imagination can come up with.

Imagine creating a lego house with lights that turn on and off by iPhone, or a garage door that opens. Imagine a dinosaur that rolls across the floor and has a mouth that opens. You could even build lego villages that explode.

All of this is why ATOMS were able to meet their $100,000 Kickstarter goal in just 22 days.

We got a chance to catch up with the team behind ATOMS, check out our interview below.

Memphis Startup: Xtrant Named Official Project Management Tool For Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Project management is an integral part of every startup and every startup conference. Often times founding teams are bogged down with multiple tasks. Without an effective project management solution, things can get chaotic quickly.

There are several project management tools out there like Basecamp and Asana however we found a new project management startup called Xtrant that allows collaboration, cloud based file storage and an extremely easy work flow. Xtrant is based in Memphis TN home to the everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference event.

Xtrant has a freemium model so it’s easy to sign up for an account and you simply pay to get more storage.

The startup was founded by James Sposto of Sposto Creative. It’s been evolving for the last 10 years and started as an internal tool that Sposto and his company used for managing web development, marketing and advertising projects. The different levels of access allowed them to share creative with their teams and important, more confidential information like contracts with the key stakeholders, a feature that’s made it into the public release.

Xtrant is in public beta at the moment but will officially debut at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. You’ll be able to find Xtrant on the conference level with our top tier sponsors like Baker Donelson, Archer Malmo, Startup America and others.

We’re also privy to some important, and cool information, you should sign up for Xtrant now. In the coming weeks we will have an official “everywhere else” project in the Xtrant system where attendees, and startups in the Startup Village can win cool prizes.

Xtrant will be hosting a few cool events as part of the conference so stay tuned for those details as well.

Linkage:

Check out Xtrant online here

Auburn Startup: GetCharitable Nominated For 2013 Mobility Award At CES

An Auburn Alabama startup that accelerated in Oklahoma City’s BluePrint For Business accelerated has just made history, by getting nominated for a distinguished 2013 Mobility Award at CES 2013.

GetCharitable, founded by Auburn University students Michael Isaacs and Kyle DeTullio, makes donating to charity extremely easy for the slackest of slacktivists. The app, currently available in the Google Play Store for Android devices, downloads a sponsored image daily.

Once the app is installed it’s so easy, GetCharitable says:

“That’s it! Once the app is running, you needn’t do a thing – just kick back and wake up each morning with the confidence that you saved a hungry child’s life as a new sponsored image appears each day.”

The Auburn startup was nominated for a prestigious “2013 Mobility Award” as part of the Mobiletrax event. Mobiletrax and the Mobility Awards were founded by longtime industry expert Gerry Purdy PhD.

While most exhibitors at the International CES are vying for “Best of CES” awards and nominations the Mobility Awards are a distinguished honor voted on by top level peers in the mobile industry as well as mobile focused media.

What’s particularly noteworthy for this honor in regards to GetCharitable is that this is the first time that such an early stage startup has been among the nominees. That alone speaks eons to the viability and prospects for the idea focused behind this mobile, socially conscious startup.

The winners will be revealed during a ceremony and banquet January 9th in Las Vegas during the International CES.

Linkage

Getcharitable

CM4 Has The Ultimate Case For Dads & Grads With iPhone 4 & 4s

A premium accessory manufacturer in Austin Texas has come up with the ultimate case for people on the go with an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4s. It’s the perfect gift for any dad or grad with an iPhone.

The Q-Card case houses the iPhone in a protective silicone case, protecting it from bumps and bruises. At the same time it has a tight fitting card carrying pocket on the back side of the case. This pocket is perfect for dads who have business cards to hand out at events. It’s also perfect for grads that are looking for a case to hold their license and their debit cards.

For dads the case comes in a very executive looking black finish. It almost looks like a hybrid between a wallet and a phone case.

For grads that need a little more style, CM4, the creator of the Q-Card case has just announced new colors. The Q-Card case is now available in Pink Sapphire, Pacific Green, and Pearl White.

The sleek, streamlined Q Card Case matches the essentials of a wallet with the modern elegance and efficient utility of the iPhone 4/4S. The Q Card Case employs a patent-pending construction that provides comfortable and easy pocket or purse removal. Natural Throw™ buttons compliment the phone’s tactile response to maintain an organic connection with your phone. The case also comes with a protective Screen Guard™ to ensure the screen looks pristine even with every day wear and tear.

“We’re excited to release these new colors that our fans have been anticipating,” said Matt Altschul, president and CEO of CM4. “The case delivers protection, comfort, convenience, and style in one eye-catching package.”

If you want to get one, head on over to CM4 here

Dads & Grads Gift Idea: Satechi Premium Aluminum USB Hubs

Whether you’re getting your high school graduate a MacBook Air for college or your dad has a MacBook pro, one of the things Mac is known for is the lack of usb ports on their laptops. Satechi solves that problem with their new Premium Aluminum USB 2.0 and 3.0 hubs.

Satechi not only allows the user to connect their computer to up to four more USB 2.0 or 3.0 devices, but they keep the stylish look of the Macbook series of laptops in mind with their brushed aluminum appearance. The USB hubs by Satechi don’t look like a mess of tangled up USB cords and just another peripheral, they look like they were meant to go with the MacBook (and yes ultra books and PC laptops as well)

The Satechi Premium Aluminum 2.0 4-Port USB Hub is the perfect companion to any Mac user’s computer. The shiny and sleek design features an aluminum finish and white cable complimenting the Apple aesthetic. The Premium Aluminum 2.0 4-Port USB Hub features a compact, strip-shape design taking up little desktop space and allowing for maximum portability.

The slim and convenient Satechi 3.0 4-Port USB Hub supports up to four additional USB devices at up to 10x faster speeds than USB 2.0. Similar to the Satechi Premium Aluminum 2.0 4-Port USB Hub, the 3.0 4-Port USB Hub boasts a thin and portable design.

You can find the Satechi Premium Aluminum 2.0 hub here

You can find the Satechi 3.0 4 port USB hub here

Gifts For Grads & Dads, Aviiq’s 2nd Generation Portable Charging Station

If your dad or grad does a lot of traveling or is always on the go, Aviiq has one of the best accessories ever made, especially if that grad or dad has a lot of portable devices.

The second generation Aviiq Portable Charging Station is a nice travel bag sized case with a charging system and wire rack that can charge up to 4 USB devices using only one outlet port. It’s perfect for the hotel room, the dorm room or the lunch room.

“We created AViiQ after experiencing much frustration by the lack of portable travel solutions, and tangled or misplaced cables were one of the biggest headaches,” said Alan Yeung, Co-Founder of AViiQ. “We all travel with multiple electronic devices and the new Portable Charging Station with Cable Rack System gives users an easy way of storing and organizing cables, and charging multiple devices at the same time.”

Aviiq didn’t just throw together a USB hub for charging, they’ve also taken into consideration that most phones can charge off a 5watt USB source while Android tablets and iPads require a 10watt charge. Both are available in one easy to use, easy to carry case.

Everything folds up nicely in it’s own zipper bag that’s available in a variety of styles. They run for about $79.99 but when you think about the headaches and extra cords that you’re going to shed, it’s definitely worth the investment.

For more information visit this site

DC HealthTech Startup MedClimate Presents At TechBUZZ

MedClimate, a DC area startup in the HealthTech field, presented last week at TechBUZZ as part of Capital Connection 2012.

MedClimate is looking to take a problem that many new and expectant parents face with doctors and that is, getting questions answered without increasing wait times in already packed waiting rooms. As Tim Barnes, Founder of MedClimate, points out in his pitch, everyone has experienced long waits at doctors offices.

What you may not have considered is that as information has become more and more available to patients, including new parents and expectant parents, wait times in waiting rooms are increasing because more patients are asking more questions. This definitely makes sense when you’re the parent, or patient, but never in the waiting room itself.

Through a disruptive approach to appointment management and using things like videos, video messaging, and making web and mobile appointments, medclimate hopes t o streamline care and make wait times less painful. They plan on doing this all and still allowing for an increase in patient/parent care questioning.

MedClimate plans to use video conferencing to allow patients to ask questions and get immediate feedback from their doctors from the comfort of their own home, or office, while still allowing the practitioner to collect payment via insurance.

The ultimate goal is to not affect everyones already busy schedule with unnecessary appointments.

Check out Barnes pitch below:

Interview London Startup: ColourDNA Discovery Of Things In A New Way

If you’re a starutp pitching “discovery” these days you need to make sure you have something unique, fresh and disruptive. London based startup Colour DNA is one of those startups.

Colour DNA isn’t about the things your friends like, it’s about the things that you like.

Once you sign up for the service you pick a color that matches your personality or your favorite color (it’s colour because it’s the British spelling). From there you use an icon with your colour and a heart symbol to mark all the things that you love. Sounds simple so far right?

Then through their property algorithms, ColourDNA matches your likes with other likes across the network. All of these places, foods, events and things also get their own colour based on the spectrum of colours that everyone who loves them has used.

So now you get matched with the things you love and ColourDNA matches you with the people you have the most matches with. Then, ColourDNA takes the things those people love that you don’t love and matches you to those things as discoverables.

Now ColourDNA has helped you discover things and share your things with others. Pretty simple huh?

There’s a lot more to it then meets the eye. Ben Poynter, Co-Founder and CEO of ColourDNA told TechCrunch in an interview earlier this year:

“We are all about discovery new things to enjoy in life based on your interests.. and a few other factors like your favourite colours. We think the interest graph should be about making it easy to discover new things that you’ll love through personalisation, much like Facebook has made it easier for you to re-connecting with your friends.

“I think Pinterest has done a great job as a beautiful and intuitively designed curation tool. We are less a curation tool, and much more a discovery tool… A key feature for us is that a user doesn’t need to know anyone to get an immediately rewarding experience from their unique actions. We push you personalised recommendations by unlocking how your interest graph overlaps with other users, so that you can discover great new things that you would struggle to elsewhere without having to spend a considerable amount of time endlessly browsing.”

Once you download the app itself you’ll see how all of these different aspects of Colour are relevant in ColourDNA. Check out our video below as well:

Linkage:

Check out ColourDNA at their website here

Here’s more of our coverage of TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2012

We’re on a sneaker-strapped, nationwide startup roadtrip, check it out here

Michigan Startup: Rippld Get’s $50,000 To Expand Social Network For Creative Professionals

Rippld a social network to promote, collaborate and bring creative together has announced the receipt of a $50,000 micro loan investment to continue working and expanding their network.

This innovative startup for creative professionals is a resident at Wayne State University’s TechTown incubator.

“Friends ask us all the time where to find creative talent,” said co-founder Adrian Walker, who conceived of Rippld with his partner Wilbert Fobbs III when trying to get a fledgling video production company off the ground. “I looked at what was out there in the online landscape and nothing offered the kind of access or information people were looking for. Rippld fills that gap.”

Statewide, Michigan has seen a huge uptick in startups forming in the state or moving into the state. In fact, just this morning we reported on the budding community of 37 startups and innovative companies at Ann Arbor’s TechBrewery, and their newest tenant the team behind PaperDesk.

As for Rippld, Michigan is firmly home of the social startup, in fact, co-founder Lander Cornado-Garcia moved back from Chicago to Detroit to help start Rippld.

“TechTown and its sister incubators have been and continue to be critical to Rippld’s success,” said Coronado-Garcia. “The one-on-one coaching, business plan support and networking capability we accessed through TechTown positioned us to be competitive in our bid for this pre-seed loan and validated the integrity of our business model. We owe this victory in large part to TechTown and its partners.”

More after the break
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Grads & Dads Gift Idea: Griffin Studio Connect For iPad

By now most owners of any version of the iPad are well aware of their robust music features. Starting with the iPad 2 Apple added a portable, iPad version of their hit music production software “Garage Band” that is nearly as feature rich, and much more portable, then the desktop/macbook version.

With the Griffin Studio Connect you can connect your iPad to midi-devices, musical instruments and microphones with a 1/4 inch standard output, and even output the iPad using a stereo RCA cord.

Not only that but the Griffin Studio Connect Dock also charges the iPad while allowing you to pass midi right through it to Garage Band and other third party apps. Long gone are the days of removable media multi trackers. Move over Tascam, coupling the Griffin Studio Connect to the iPad is an entirely new recording experience.

For Midi the Studio Connect supports MIDI in and MIDI out so you can use your iPad as a MIDI controller.

The 1/4 inch input allows you to connect any musical instrument (or microphone) into the iPad. It also features a 3.5mm stereo jack with dedicated gain control as well as a 3.5mm output jack and stereo RCA line level outs. There’s also a separate volume control for the front panel, stereo headphone jack.

You can create musical master pieces, beats and even hook up some DJ rigs directly for recording to the iPad.

The Studio Connect won a best of show in the i-Lounge at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. It’s the perfect gift for that music playing grad, or dad on your shopping list this month.

Find out more or buy it direct from Griffin, here.

Grads & Dads Griffin Has Your New iPad Covered With The Survivor Case

If you’re a musician you probably know the name Griffin, they’ve been synonymous with musical accessories for years. However, for the last few years they’ve also released numerous cell phone, and tablet accessories. While they have cases, covers, and stands they also have mobile device controlled helicopters, and musical accessories for your iPad and iPhone.

Griffin’s Survivor Series cases are the only cases that are certified for military duty. The Survivor series case for the new iPad offers three layers of protection.

The case protects against drops, cracks and breaks but it also protects your new iPad from water damage, dust, and other atmospheric and environmental issues that can damage your iPad. If you’re a true die hard iPad user, and it manages your life, and isn’t just a once in a while toy, then you need this case.

Other cases claim to be military compliant however, as Griffin told us in the video below, Griffin and the survivor series cases are the only cases that are certified, military compliant.

The case adds a little bulk to your iPad but it’s an investment worth protecting. The Survivor case is a must have for your college, or real life bound graduate. Even dad will benefit from the piece of mind offered by the survivor series case which can be found here.