Meplus 1 Making It Easier For Everyone To Pay

Washington DC startup Meplus 1 is a new company looking to make it easier to pay in a variety of locations. Meplus 1 is an iPhone app that will soon be available on Android as well. The app integrates with already existing POS systems like Micros, POSitouch, Dinerware, Digital Dining and POS.

Customers use the iPhone app to open up a tab at restaurants and other establishments. As they order they add to the tab and at the end of their meal or transaction they use their credit card information, safely and securely stored in the app, to pay, hence making life easier for consumers, merchants and busy servers.

The app is similar to Tabbed Out and the TGIFriday’s app, but more robust in the POS systems that it’s capable of interacting with.

Now at the end of a meal a customer doesn’t have to wait for the server to bring the check, take the check back to reconcile and then bring the check back to the table. It’s also safer for customers in that they don’t have to hand their credit card over to the server. It’s all done within the app.

Meplus 1 is also not limited to just restaurant tabs. Their app is great for bars, lounges, restaurants and night clubs. They also provide five layers of security which prevents fraud and chargebacks which can be costly to both consumers and merchants.

We got a chance to talk to Justin Broady, co-founder of Meplus 1. Check out the interview below.

uSwapia Trading & Bartering Even If You Don’t Want What They Have

Rehoboth Beach Delaware startup, uSwapia, is the latest to tackle direct and indirect bartering. Many sites have tried to replicate and improve upon the bartering model provided on Craigslist.com. uSwapia has found a way to barter, or trade, services and goods with someone even if they want what you have but don’t have what you want.

Rather than being stuck with a service or item you don’t want uSwapia has a better way as Kevin Clark the company founder explains:

“So I’m an acupuncturist, and have listed myself on the uSwapia site. I state that for 1 token, I will offer somebody an acupuncture service. Fred the baker pulled his back lifting a bag of flour and wants some acupuncture. I don’t want any baked goods, because I’m still holding onto a little bit of holiday weight, but that’s ok. Fred comes in, the site transfers a token from Fred’s account to my account after the trade is completed, and then I can use that token to go hire Suzy the personal trainer to help get me back into shape in time for summer. Tokens are really just placeholders for trades, and basically everything is traded for 1 token. (We find that most trades would retail for between $50-150, but by taking dollar amounts out of the equation, we are trying to shift the emphasis to building community in one’s neighborhood, while operating under the premise that sometimes we are ahead, and sometimes we are behind, but that it all evens out in the end.)”

In essence not only has Clark provided a new way to barter and trade online but also a better one that solves one of the main problems that people have with trading and bartering in the first place. When you take to Craigslist for example you see what everyone has to barter and what they want but sometimes you don’t have anything close.

Check out the rest of our interview with Clark below.

R360UND Is The Ultimate Go-Pro Companion Video Interview At CES 2013

Adrenaline pumping, action sports videos have taken a new place in the active sportsmans life thanks to things like Go-Pro. You could spend months watching GoPro videos on YouTube. You’d see people climbing mountains, surfing big waves, ski-ing, ski jumping, sky diving and more. But even with the best technology, and all the best Go-Pro accessories, a barrel roll looks like a barrel roll on video.

What if you wanted to capture more?

What if you wanted to see how much you were actually rolling, or how high you had actually jumped?

Well back in October you may remember Kara Swisher said that sensors would be all the rage in 2013, and they most certainly are.

R360UND (Rebound) is a sensor technology that allows the use to take amazing readings while they’re participating in extreme sports. Whether it’s down hill skiing, sky diving, ski jumping, or any other fast paced adrenaline pumping activity, R360UND is the device that you need to compliment the awesome video you took with the GoPro.

The R360UND device can attach to your helmet, snowboard, skis or whatever else you want to attach it to and it captures all the motion. The device can tell how high up you are, where you are, what motions you did and what actions your snowboard or skateboard did. You can then take that data and overlay it on your action video which helps tell a much clearer story of what you just did and it’s great for bragging too.

Check out our co-founder Nick Tippmann’s video interview with Paul from R360UND below.

Join 2000 attendees, 440 investors, and over 100 startups at the biggest startup conference in the U.S., everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, here’s more info

Display Moves To Thin Air With Russian Startup Displair: CES 2013 Video Interview

Imagine a world where you could just walk right up to something and right before your very eyes in the open air was a display. No monitor, no projector, just a display in the air. Now imagine if it was a multi-touch point display. You’re not far off from visualizing Russian startup Displairs, display technology.

As you can see in the video with our co-founder Nick Tippmann, the Displair unit is showing the hit game Fruit Ninja right in the middle of the air. The best part is you can actually use your hands to slice the fruit right in the middle of the air. It’s like some awesome step into Kinect or Nintendo Wii-verse technology.

The founders of this Russian startup see the potential in 4 dimensional game play. They also see the technologies potential in advertising and marketing. They had impressed some of the people from Coca Cola who stopped by their booth at CES’ Eureka Park last week.

Displair could display virtual Coca Cola water falls and create interactive games far beyond any consumers wildest dreams.

This is just the type of technology and startup that CEA was looking for when they set up Eureka Park last year. We saw some other wild tech this year as well like Tactus, a micro fluid technology that makes tactile keyboards just morph up from the screen of a smartphone or tablet device.

Check out our video interview below with Displair.

Join the over 2000 attendees who’ve purchased tickets to the largest startup conference in the U.S., everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

Cariloop The Expedia Model For Geriatric Care

Elder care and geriatric care are on the rise. As the baby boomer generation starts turning towards assisted living and geriatric care, the industry continues to grow. In 2013 we’re starting to see a new trend of somewhat computer savvy seniors, and their kids, turning to the internet to help find care and services. We’re also at a time where more and more seniors are trying to prolong their independence by living at home. However, they still need resources.

Austin based Cariloop is a startup that is applying an Expedia like model to finding elder care and geriatric services.

Cariloop’s co-founder Michael Walsh tells us in an interview:

:Cariloop is a web-based platform designed to help geriatric care and service providers digitally market their capabilities. Cariloop’s search engine then allows anyone – healthcare professionals, consumers, patients – to get a more current, accurate snapshot of the providers in their area, reach out to them directly, or share their information with others…all in real-time.”

This gives users access to information that used to take months and months and hundreds of brochures to sift through. Now it’s all accessible at your fingertips and easily comparable.

Check out the rest of our interview with Walsh about this exciting new trend in elder care:

3D Printed Audio Startup Goes Lord Of The Flies Style At CES 2013

A California startup called Simply Amplified has created a product that amplifies sound from your smartphone or music player without any moving parts, wires, batteries or electricity. In fact it takes the same principles for amplifying sound that you may find in a conch shell. The company has even designed some of their unique speakers to look just like shells.

As you can see from the video below all you do to amplify the sound from your device is simply set it into the shell like frame and listen as the sound comes out the larger opening.

All of the Simply Amplified speakers are designed to look fashionable on any table or shelf where they’ll pull double duty as wireless, non electric amplifiers and as conversation pieces.

Simply Amplified calls their amplifiers Symphony Shells and we really haven’t seen a product quite like it. But what does it sound like? It was just as clear as some of the BlueTooth connected speakers we saw on the main show floor at the LVCC.

Check out our video interview below.

Do you have your ticket for the largest startup conference in the U.S.?

This Amazing Hat Called Cynaps Lets You Hear Music From Your Phone Through Your Head

We saw the most amazing hat at CES 2013 in Eureka Park. The hat is called Cynaps and the startup that created it is called MaxVirtual.

Cynaps, uses bone induction technology which when connected to a smartphone or other music player, lets you actually hear the music through the vibrations in hour head. No headset, no earphones and no earbuds required. The sound is conducted directly into your inner ear through vibration.

Our cofounder Nick Tippmann was able to try the Cynaps out and says that it sounds just as good as headphones. The company spokesperson that we interviewed said that it’s perfect for anything requiring headphones. You can listen to music, watch movies, even take a call or skype with the Cynaps hat.

There are a couple buttons built onto the brim that allow the user to end and start calls and playback.

The South Carolina startup is already up, running and selling the Cynaps hat for $60 here.

Cynaps offers a new level of safety when it comes to hands free operation. While you’re hearing the sound coming through your inner ear with the vibration, you can still hear other sounds as well. The main sound source becomes the focal point but if you were driving or biking with your Cynaps hat on you would be able to hear a car horn or other important noises.

Check out Nick’s interview with Max Virtual Below:

Over 130 startups and 2000 attendees from across the country & around the world are headed to this startup conference

Hundreds of Broken Headsets Lead To Chicago Startup RockRah CES 2013 Interview

If you’ve been a smartphone user for the past few years than you probably have something in common with me, and that is a junk drawer filled with earbuds. Some earbuds are frayed. Some don’t work in the right ear. Some don’t work in the right ear. Some have cords that are too short. Then there’s the other problem of losing ear buds. I’ve lost plenty of pairs of $30 Apple earbuds in my time.

A Chicago startup called RockRah is trying to solve that problem.

While there were plenty of iPhone cases and plenty of earbuds and headphones at CES 2013, in fact enough to bring reporters to near nauseam, they didn’t combine the two like RockRah does.

RockRah has fashioned a smartphone case that has retractable earbuds built into the back of the case. The housing for the case houses the earbuds so they don’t get lost, or tangled up. You have your earbuds right there when you need them and then when you don’t need them they retract right into the case. Kinda smart huh?

RockRah has been in development for about a year now, and it looks like they’ll actually make it to market in the next few months.

Check out our video interview below:

Plenty of startups from Chicago are going to be in the startup village at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, is yours?

We Found A Morphing Tactile Keyboard Startup At Eureka Park CES 2013

A startup in California is working on getting their technology implemented into smartphones at the OEM level. They report that we should see their Tactus product on smartphones soon. So what does it do?

Tactus is a morphing tactile keyboard that literally just pops out of the phone. We’re not talking about some cheesy slide out qwerty keyboard or any kind of hardware accessory. As you’ll see in the almost unbelievable video, the keyboard just morphs right onto the screen.

In the interview the Tactus representative says that their CEO was inspired by Steve Jobs because he refused to switch to a Blackberry or other smartphone with keyboard built in.

Tactus’ technology is called “Microfluid technology” which makes the keyboard rise out of the screen and then when you’re done with it, it disappears as quickly as it appears. Our co-founder and CEO Nick Tippmann got a chance to play with it during this interview and said it was nothing short of amazing.

The startup showed it off to the TechCrunch crowd at their booth in the parking lot of the convention center where Matt Burns reports that it was the most popular demo during the entire show, stealing the thunder away from the likes of the Pebble Watch, Oculus Rift and Razer Edge.

TechCrunch called it “the future” and we’d have to agree. Check out the video below:

Want to see something else amazing, check out the largest startup conference in the country, everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

CES 2013: LivMobile Is Simplifying That Second Screen

A startup in Florida called LivMobile is looking to simplify that second screen for anyone that wants to watch any kind of video from any source. They’re doing this with a web based browser app that turns the browser into the video playback source.

We find out in the interview that the idea for LivMobile was born when their CEO was looking for a second way to view video. He was watching a football game and when they went to time out he wanted a second screen to know when the game was back. Nowadays second screens are common place.

With all the different video apps out there, LivMobile hopes to cut through all the clutter and bring together all video in one easy to use HTML5 browser based product.

Nibletz co-founder and CEO Nick Tippmann got a chance to interview LivMobile at their booth at CES 2013’s Eureka Park. Check out the video below:

You can find out more about LivMobile at livmobile.tv

The startup village at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference has 135 startups in it, is yours?

GeckoCap Is Gamifying The Asthma Inhaler, We Checked It Out At Eureka Park

Millions of kids across the country and around the world suffer from Asthma. Fortunately, for many of them the Albuterol rescue inhaler helps them live mostly normal lives. The problem is that many kids either forget to take their inhaler or forget to tell their parents and loved ones that they used their inhaler. It’s actually pretty important to a parent to know when their kid couldn’t breathe.

A Boston startup called GeckoCap is hoping to help kids get back into a regular habit of using their inhalers and telling their parents and loved ones when they do.

Using the companies patent pending technology, a connected cap is placed on the top of the Albuterol cartridge on an inhaler. This cap has sensors, a transmitter and cool LED lights. The cap also keeps kids honest about their inhaler use and keeps a log of when it’s used and what the conditions at that time were.

All of the data collected from the GeckoCap can then be distributed to a child’s pediatric team and their parents.

We caught up with GeckoCap at Eureka Park 2013 at CES 2013. Check out the video interview below:

Oh my nearly 2000 have bought tickets to the biggest startup conference in the country everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference.

Shimi The Dancing Robot From Atlanta Startup Tovbot Debuts At CES 2013

You’ve always wanted a dancing, djing companion robot for our iPhone right? Well if you did you’re in luck. A group of entrepreneurs hailing from Georgia Tech, IDC in Israel and MIT Media Lab formed a company called Tovbot and have now introduced their first product to the world, and it’s name is Shimi.

Tovbot says they specialize in social, expressive, connected robots and Shimi definitely speaks to that mantra.

“Shimi is a robotic musical companion. He’s like your personal DJ, the guy that knows how to keep a party going and always knows what you want to hear next” Tovbot says on their website.

While companies have been trying to make robots interact with music for quite sometime it seems like Tovbot has really nailed that goal. The robot also doesn’t feel like some cheap piece of crap that’s going to have howling, treble filled speakers. The sound that comes out of Shimi is pleasant, although we didn’t get to hear it that loud.

Check out the video below from our interview at Eureka Park at CES 2013:

Over 130 startups, and over 1800 attendee tickets sold so far for the largest startup conference in the US everywhereelse.co The Starutp Conference

TDC Games Shows Off America’s Funniest Home Videos Hybrid Board/Tablet Game At CES 2013

A startup from the suburbs of Chicago called TDC games showed off an exciting new way to play board games. Combining the power of QR codes, along with video playback, the company has created a hybrid America’s Funniest Home Videos game.

A Hybrid Game?

We’ve seen the app interactive toys at toy stores and department stores everywhere, we’ve even seen games like Life that have taken to the iPad for the “spinner” experience, however TDC Games utilizes the iPad in the game in different ways. For the America’s Funniest Home Videos Game, when the player selects an action card, they scan it with their tablet or smartphone (iPhone, iPad and Android devices) a video pops up with a decision box.

In the demo we watched it was a video clip of a kid kicking a soccer ball in the gym. The player would have had to decide what was going to happen next in multiple choice. That would dictate the next move on the actual game board.

TDC Games has licensed an entire library of proprietary America’s Funniest Home Video clips for this game which makes it interactive.

The Illinois based startup has several games in the works that will utilize several different technologies found in mobile devices to enhance the family game night.

Check out our video interview below:

Several startups from Chicago’s startup community are in the Startup Village at the largest startup conference in the U.S. it’s not too late to exhibit at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Draw Something Meets Twitter With New Social Startup Didlr: CES 2013

We met a very interesting, and fun, app startup from the UK and Atlanta Georgia at Eureka Park. The startup, called Didlr, essentially combines Draw Something and Twitter for a fun new way to socialize and interact with people across the globe.

Users download the app to their smartphone or tablet, on just about every platform commercially available. After the app is downloaded you go through the normal social networking notions like creating a profile and inviting your friends. Once you’re all set up you can get to Didling.

A Didl is using your creativity through drawings and creating pictures rather than through words. As they tell us in the interview below, 140 characters is a lot more limiting than creating pictures. Didlr allows you to be as creative as you like, or can be.

Thousands of people have already flocked to the service and see it as having a little more meaning than playing the once uber popular Draw Something.

Like Twitter you can follow friends, or Didlr’s whose pictures you like. Also, the more popular a Didl is the longer it stays on the front page of the app.

Creatively speaking Didlr has included a good sized color pallete and various brush tools for any artist.

Check out our our cofounder and CEO, Nick Tippmann’s interview video below.

See startups from across the country and around the world at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference