Jhoombox A Set Top Box That Sings!

Washington DC startup Jhoombox has made the Android based set top box a lot more fun. In addition to doing the things that most set top boxes do, like provide access to Netflix, Hulu and a slew of other web based services, Jhoombox has a full featured Karaoke system as well.

Jhoombox’s combination of hardware and software is like a Pandora for karaoke. Some of the features include the ability to record your karaoke sessions and quickly upload them to YouTube. You can also collaborate with other Jhoombox users on the net and sing duets and group songs over the internet.

They came up with the idea because people love to do karaoke and a set top box is a way to bring all the content to one centralized location. Karaoke singers now have a library of hundreds of thousands of karaoke songs at their fingertips.

The company has been working on Jhoombox for the last year and held a private beta in the fall of 2012. They plan on launching to the public, first with a Kickstarter campaign in the spring of this year.

Jhoombox is fun and innovative and you can find out more at jhoombox.com

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Holografyx A New Way To Display For Brands And Marketers

A few weeks back when we were at CES 2013 we saw a nifty new startup from Canada called Holografyx.

Earlier this month we brought you an interview we did with Russian startup Displair. Their technology created a multi touch display in thin air, which could be the wave of the future.

Holografyx is also doing something cool with display. They’ve created a way to holographically super impose text and other graphics on top of wares that are being displayed in a show case. Towards the end of the video you can see exactly what I mean. While it’s definitely not as earth shattering as Displair the technology provides yet another way for marketers to show off to customers.

They also have an interesting franchise model to push their “360 cube” show case system to market.

Check out the video below. For more info visit holografyx.com

Frobot Is The RedBox Of Frozen Yogurt

Jeremy O’Sullivan and Melissa Nelson are two entrepreneurs in Southern Virginia. Nelson is a self proclaimed (well actually co-founder proclaimed) frozen yogurt fanatic. O’Sullivan is a CPA by trade but decided to jump out of the corporate world and into the startup world when the two of them launched FroBot.

Nowadays there’s a vending machine for everything. If you venture over to Asia there’s a wider variety of vending machines than even here in the states. But go to any major city in the U.S. and most airports and you’ll find a Best Buy in a machine, an Ice Cream machine, crazy new soda machines and even the Dippin Dots machine.

Nelson and O’Sullivan have created a new kind of vending machine called FroBot. FroBot is the smallest single unit frozen yogurt retailer and is as simple (or perhaps simpler) to use than even RedBox.

What about the quality of frozen yogurt in a machine?

Nelson tells nibletz.com: After extensive research we’ve found the best frozen yogurt comes from… freezing real organic yogurt, flavored with organic ingredients…not that cheap frozen chemical water junk that too many shops are serving. We’ll never serve a product that has ingredients using 10+ syllable words only a chemist understands.

Check out the rest of our interview with FroBot below

Find Me Coffee, Coffee Discovery Startup

Whether you’re looking for a chain coffee shop, a drive through or the shop that serves as a city’s cultural mecca, you can find your next cup of joe using the app from Toronto startup Find Me Coffee. We’re all aware that Toronto has one of the largest startup ecosystems in the western hemisphere, and a lot of that innovation is being fueled by coffee.

Find Me Coffee makes it easy to find the nearest coffee shop using your smart phone.

We got a chance to talk with the team behind Find Me Coffee. Check out the interview below.

Wedjinni A Bulgarian Startup In The Wedding Planning Space

Wedjinni a Bulgarian startup founded by Theodore Batzakas is hoping to become an internet head turner in the do it yourself wedding planning business. More and more wedding sites have gone the route of integrating wedding planning tools, however Batzakas says that Wedjinni is easier to use and at the same time more robust.

After getting married himself, Batzakas realized there was a huge hole in the market for something like Wedjinni, telling nibletz.com in an interview:

“We got married. And while doing it, we found that organizing this thing is not easy at all! So we thought that a great tool was needed in this business to help couples do that in a more enjoyable way, without messing with previous-era tools. We had the expertise, we had the idea, so we now have wedjinni.”

With tools available from theknot.com and Martha Stewart’s OmniMedia, is their really room for something like Wedjinni? Check out our interview with Batzakas below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

SplitThe Check, The Bill The Kitty With Kittysplit

You gotta love it when startups name themselves after exactly what they do. That’s the case with Berlin startup Kittysplit. The company, founded by Caspar Wrede and a team of four friends have found a way to split checks, and settle up when more than one person is paying for anything from a meal to a bar tab to a weekend holiday.

The app uses an easy three step wizard for splitting up the “kitty” and it’s free of charge.

When asked how they came up with the idea for Kittysplit, Wrede told nibletz.com “The ski trip where everyone has a different mix of how they got there, where they stayed, and what they ate — splitting the costs afterwards was a huge headache. The shared apartment whose expenses are kept via a mind-bogglingly complex Excel spreadsheet. We searched in vain for a painless solution online. Finally, the 5 of us got together, drank beer and stroked our chins, and set out to to make splitting costs as easy as humanly possible.”

For now the platform is web based. Wrede says an app is in the works but he wants to make sure that the mobile app doesn’t complicate things.

Check out the rest of our interview with Wrede below.

Spottlife Aiming To Simplify Your Social Life

People in today’s world have been inundated with social networks. Many people want to be a part of as many social networks as they can because they don’t want to miss anything from anyone important to them. This is a daunting task though when you consider managing just the most popular social networks on a day to day basis.

Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Instagram can be a pain in the butt to manage. When you’re on your smartphone it’s a constant, battery draining, switch from network to network.

That’s why many startups have taken to creating social network aggregation tools. Spottlife is one of those tools with a different twist.

Using the Spottlife mobile app users can aggregate all of their social content into one app. They can also use the app to post to all or one social network at a time. These features certainly aren’t new, we’ve been using tools like Hootsuite for that part, for a long while. Where Spottlife differs in it’s clean and fairly intuitive UI. It also provides you with aggregated updates of not just your variety of social networks but based on what’s trending and popular with your friends.

For instance today the most popular topics are probably the Inauguration, the Super Bowl and Martin Luther King day. Spottlife with show you the most popular topics and a number indicating how many of your friends are talking about this topic. Users also have the ability to filter out certain topics that might not pertain to them.

Brandon Mihai and Scott Gammenthaler are the cofounders of the Chattanooga startup. Mihai tells us in an interview that he has put his studies on hold from Southern Adventist University in Chattanooga, to focus on Spottlife. Gammenthaler is pulling double duty, serving as the CEO of Spottlife and preparing for college graduation in the spring. The startup is incubating at co.lab in Chattanooga.

Check out our interview with Mihai below.

What’s Not To Love About BagServant, A Startup About Handbags?

Every woman is always looking for the most stylish and affordable handbag. Shopping for handbags can be a real pain. I know when I go into a mall with a Coach Store, Dooney store and department store, I’m at a loss because I can never make the right decision. Lord knows I can’t afford them all.

Wimbledon startup BagServant is here to help women everywhere find the latest greatest bags. Not only are they the only search engine devoted to handbags from just about every designer but they also have virtual concierge services. Their concierge can help you figure out just want you want, and of course when you want more, you just go back to BagServant.

Lenka Gourdie is the woman behind BagServant. She has a background in consumer marketing and worked for one of London’s fashion manufacturing houses as well. She and her staff have an impeccable eye for the latest trends, styles and of course fashion.

Some of the best fashions in the world come out of the UK and that holds true at BagServant as well. We got a chance to talk with Gourdie about her startup and London’s exciting startup scene. Check out the interview below.

Styku Has Created An Online Virtual Fitting Room Using Microsoft Kinect VIDEO INTERVIEW

Los Angeles startup Styku has done something rather innovative utilizing the Microsoft Kinect platform. Using four Kinect sensors, Styku has created a way to do a full body scan and create an online fitting room.

According to the company you can actually use just one Kinect at home but to get the most accurate measurements you can go to a retail partner that has their technology installed and have a body scan done. From there the magic happens.

On the back end Styku takes the body scan and matches it to a stores inventory to show you exactly what sizes they recommend for you. In shopping for clothes, size can actually be a mystery. Women and men can go into one clothing store and have one size selected and a different store which has clothing cut a little smaller or a little bigger and have a totally different size recommendation.

Styku combines the inventory and specifications from a stores entire inventory, with the exact measurements garnered from the body scan, to offer the exact fitting size.

Check out the video interview below and for more info you can visit styku.com the smart fitting room.

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Tech Tips A Great Alternative To Styli For Tablets And Smartphones

Last year at CES 2012 we saw a North Carolina startup called TextRings in Eureka Park. As you can tell from our narrative we weren’t very impressed and if they’re still in business they’ve had minimal to no traction as far as we can tell. The problem they were trying to solve is still a big issue however they were trying to solve it with rings that looked like you would find them in the treasure box at the dentists office. Couple that with the astronomic cost of entry and it was destined to earn our “least favorite startup” of Eureka Park in 2012.

Fast forward to 2013 and we got to meet Sri Vellanki. Not only has Vellanki had a pretty distinguished career to date, she’s a beautiful young woman entrepreneur and she’s from Montana. Here Montana startup called Tech Tips, is similar to Text Rings in that she is looking to solve the problem of input on smartphones and tablets, specifically for women.

Tech Tips is a product that fits on the finger tip, rather than in a ring format, and allows a natural extension to ones fingers for the specific purpose of input. Strokes are more natural because they feel natural. It’s almost like using your actual finger for the input.

Naturally when we first arrived at the Tech Tips booth we were surprised to see something similar to Text Rings, but I can assure you that this is definitely a much better product with a great founder.

But in the infamous words of the late great Billy Mays… That’s Not All!

Vellanki has a second product she is just now introducing as well. This product is called Nano Nails. Think acrylic nails that are made with the same kind of coating that’s in those gloves we use for our smartphones and tablets to input data, draw pictures and navigate.

After talking to several women the reaction has been “That’s Awesome”. Both solutions function better than a stylus and certainly better than Text Rings, check out our interview below and for more visit Tech Tips and Nano Nails here.

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PulseWallet The Mobile Wallet Startup We Knew Was Coming. Video Interview

With companies like Google, Paypal and now Isis looking to become the mobile wallet company of choice, there are already new technologies popping up that will make those three alternatives look archaic if executed correctly.

New Jersey startup PulseWallet is ready to challenge the big companies that are pouring millions of dollars into their mobile wallet products with the touch of a finger. PulseWallet’s technology will allow users to keep their wallet information protected and then ready to use via their own finger.

In this video interview they tell us that it’s not a finger print technology but rather biometric security. When the user couples their own finger with a four digit pin, it’s an easy, safe and secure way to pay. Forget using your phone as a mobile wallet with NFC or QR codes, PulseWallet tells us that the future of payment technologies is here.

Imagine going to a gas station or a restaurant and just using your finger to pay.

We got to interview PulseWallet founder Matt Saricicek the cofounder of Pulse Wallet in Eureka Park at CES 2013 earlier this month. It seems this team is onto the future of mobile wallet technology, before the big boys even have their systems in full use.

Check out our interview video below and for more visit pulsewallet.co

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Techstars Hackstar Launches Her Own MassChallenge Startup ZoomTilt, 99Designs For Video

Anna Callahan is a Techstars hackstar turned startup founder who went through Mass Challenge. With all that startup pedigree we know her startup ZoomTilt is already destined for success. The magic comes into play now that they’ve completed MassChallenge and were named a finalist.

But what is ZoomTilt?

Well think 99designs. Callahan loves film making, in fact it was reading a script while working as a Techstars hackstar that made her decide to take the plunge into launching her own innovative idea. The idea, link filmmakers to people who want to build a brand using short films, mini tv shows if you will. If you’ve got a brand and want to see film and tv stars in a video featuring your product, ZoomTilt is the answer. If you want to have an engaging YouTube mini series or Facebook page video series that highlights your brand, ZoomTilt is the answer.

Callahan tells nibletz in an interview that they’ve got hundreds of film makers waiting for the chance to work on your brands short video project. By leveraging the talent and creativity within their network ZoomTilt is able to offer unparalleled, engaging video marketing solutions without a gigantic budget.

So after joining cofounder Chris Bolman, and ditching their first name, CrewTide, which Callahan says made people think they sold nautical supplies, they hunkered down over the summer as one of the 125 startups in MassChallenge and emerged as a finalist.

We got a chance to talk with Callahan about ZoomTilt, in what’s been one of the wittiest, fun and creative interviews to date. Here it is:

gDoc Has Binders Full Of Docs, CES 2013 Eureka Park Interview

This UK startup called gDoc has binders full of docs. There Windows based platform allows users to create virtual electronic, cloud based binders that keep docs, pictures and other files grouped together in project binders. Within the binders themselves, and just like physical binders, users can make tabs and sections so that big projects can be easily organized.

The team behind gDoc came up with the idea when their product guy was working on a huge project and couldn’t easily keep all of the documents and files associated with the project in one place. Now three years later the company is set to launch in a beta later this month and to the public in the spring.

They have an extremely easy pricing structure, $10 gets their user 10 binders for life. Users can change the binders around, dust them off and use them again or if they need more binders they can simply shell out another $10 to get new binders.

Binders within gDoc can easily be synced to cloud based storage options like DropBox and shared with others to work and collaborate on the same project.

Nibletz co-founder Nick Tippmann got a chance to interview the guys with gDoc at Eureka Park at CES 2013 earlier this month. Check out that video interview below.

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Social Event Planning? Here’s Another Startup Called EventWith

EventWith is a Tel Aviv based startup that is trying to conquer the social event planning space.

EventWith is a social utility that helps you plan events and have your friends participate too! Choose together a time and place and set up a shared checklist, so that everyone sees exactly what they are responsible for. Manage your budget, create personal to-do lists and much, much more. It’s never been this easy to split the effort and share the fun! Co-founder Itai Fridman told us in an interview.

Of course this is no new idea for startups, it’s going to be all about execution in a space that’s getting crowded. Fridman and cofounder Daniel Beck insist that EventWith will prevail in the event space because their platform is “transparent” and also encourages all event attendees to actively participate. EventWith also has a fun UI and can handle any size events from intimate birthday parties to PTA meetings.

We got a chance to interview Fridman check out the rest of the interview below.