Cracked Already: Chaos Computer Club Crack’s Apple’s New TouchID

TouchID, Apple, iPhone, iOSGermany’s Chaos Computer Club has reportedly cracked Apple’s newest feature, TouchID. As you probably know, people lucky enough to pick up an iPhone 5S this weekend are able to open their iPhone and charge their iTunes account with a simple thumb print.

Using some pretty comprehensive technology, the fingerprint scanner, built into the iPhone 5s’ home button, scans the users fingerprint. Rather than comparing it to a stored fingerprint locally or on a server,the technology compares the data in the fingerprint to verify the identity of the user. It also requires that the user be alive, breathing and attached to the person it belongs to.

For their customer’s protection, Apple has blocked the TouchID feature from developers. Apple insists that no one actually has a saved version of the fingerprint, but for now the technology is protected from anyone not working at One Infinite Loop.

Well despite being protected from developers, hackers have been able to crack the TouchID feature.

The biometrics team at Germany’s Chaos Computer Club were able to use a hacking technique that dates back to 1994 in order to breach the TouchID security.

The blog nakedsecurity has simplified the procedure for cloning fingerprints and then unlocking an iPhone 5s to these 7 steps:

  • Take a hi-res (2400dpi) photograph of the fingerprint.
  • Digitally invert the image so that the valleys of the print are black.
  • Laser print (1200dpi) the image with a very thick toner setting.
  • Smear white woodglue (or latex) over the printout and allow to set.
  • Carefully peel off the glue or latex sheet.
  • Breathe on the surface so it’s slightly moist and conductive.
  • Unlock phone.

What’s more in this story is that the hackers at Chaos Computer Club didn’t use a picture of the iPhone owners fingerprint to clone, rather they lifted the print off of a glass surface and were able to make a working duplicate.

Now obviously this is a lot of steps to take to just get access into someone else’s iPhone, but it sure beats cutting a finger off  (which won’t work anyway).

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Knoxville Based bounceit Launches Social Decision Making Platform

bounceit, Knoxville startup, Tennessee startup, startup launch

A group of Knoxville entrepreneurs has launched a new and exciting social decision making app called bounceit. Now social decision making isn’t anything new, we’ve seen several startups try and succeed in this space.

Startups like Brooklyn based JustDecide come to mind when we think about social decision making platforms. Where others have fallen short in the past though, the crew at bounceit has figured out ways to make social decision making more fluid, easy to take in and easier to decide and vote on. Their highly visual platform makes the entire process more intuitive.

Users begin by uploading a question or statement, accompanied by a photo: “Should I buy this outfit?” “Is this car cool?” “Want to go out after the game?” Other users vote your question up or down for yes/no, or like/dislike. A realtime line graph shows you all theirresponses over time to aid in your decision making!

bounceit1Until bounceit, many people relied on Facebook and their own social networks to help make decisions; “With bounceit!™, a user can post an opinion, decision, idea or just a cool photo, and thanks to our unique line graph they’ll actually see instantly if people agree or not. It’s crowd-sourced decision making at its best! With our graphing capabilities, a user immediately sees if something is a like or a dislike. You can see whether there is overwhelming agreement or any struggle it has gone through among users. That tells a much more powerful story than a bar graph or percentages.” co-founder Gary Hardin told nibletz in an interview.

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Hardin explained, “People today research and bounce ideas off friends before they do something or buy an item. bounceit!™ streamlines that process for them. Crowdsourced sharing and decision making is everywhere now. We just make it more fun and in one centralized location!”

Bounceit is now available in the iTunes app store, download it here. For more information visit bounceit.com. Check out Bounceit in person at Everywhere Else Cincinnati.

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Sioux Falls Visual Marketing Startup Lemon.ly Launches Full, A New iOS App

lemonly, lemon.ly, Sioux Falls Startup, Startup, John T. MeyerLemon.ly, a visiual marketing startup based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is known for eye popping infographics and graphically pleasing data-driven campaigns. Companies like Samsung, Planters, and even the Grammy Awards have used Lemon.ly for infographics, data visualization, interactive, design, and presentations.

The company boasts a solid rock star team, including co-founder and CEO John T. Meyer who is speaking at Everywhere Else Cincinnati in September.

Now they’ve taken their eye for design and user experience and turned it into possibly the easiest to use, read, and understand mobile app for goal tracking. In fact the name in itself is totally awesome: it’s called Full.

Full lets the user track, measure, and visualize what’s important to them, with a simple, clean, and easy to understand design. With Full you can track anything from your workout regimen to how many books you’ve read. On their blog, lemon.ly even suggests you can track how often you call your mom (you know, the important stuff).

Features include:

> Add an unlimited amount of monthly goals

> Quantify how many times you want to achieve your goal

> Swipe to ADD, SUBTRACT, EDIT, or DELETE your goals

> Visualize your goal history to see how you did and improve next month

The app is available now in the app store here.

See Lemon.ly co-founder and CEO John T Meyer at this huge startup conference.

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Is iTunes Radio The Pandora Killer?

iTunes Radio, Pandora, Apple, WWDC, iOS

Almost a month ago, Google held their annual developer’s conference known as Google IO. At the conference over 5000 Google developers across all of their platforms gathered at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for three and a half days of pure Google.

In that same venue, more than 5000 Apple developers, across all of their platforms, are gathered this week for the World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC).

Last month Google unveiled a new product called “Google Play All Access”. During the ceremonious unveiling, Google touted all kinds of features that positioned the part-radio, part-streaming music, part-cloud library, customizable music platform as a Spotify killer. Unfortunately, since the unveiling we haven’t heard much else about it. For all intents and purposes Google’s new music service has gone the way of Google Music, which is far from Apple’s stranglehold on library functionality and Spotify’s streaming offerings.

Today, during the WWDC Apple announced iTunes Radio. This was one of the longest rumored announcements for this year’s conference, which is being held more 200 days since Apple’s last announcement..

iTunes Radio will give users a variety of ways to get “radio like” streaming services via iTunes. Without any customization an iTunes user will be able to use iTunes Radio to hear radio stations generated by algorithms based on what’s already in the users iTunes library. Apple has also curated several stations based on genre, very similar to Pandora.

 

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The service will be ad-supported and free to any iTunes user. Those users who pay for iTunes backup service iTunes Match will get to use iTunes Radio without ads.

Apple plans to make money by selling the streaming tracks at regular iTunes store prices. When you’re listening to an iTunes radio track, a purchase button will come up that will enable a friction-less download of the song that you are listening to.

Apple has some advantages over Pandora, Slacker, and even Spotify because they already have 600 million devices on the market, which means 600 million iTunes users. They’ve also already negotiated their own licenses with most of the major labels. Billboard Magazine reports that Apple will pay $.16 cents per stream in addition to a portion of the advertising revenue. However, payments won’t begin until Apple reaches a pre-established threshold of users on the iTunes Radio service.

Will iTunes Radio bring the music streaming crowd back to Apple? U.S. residents will be the first to test it out.

Images: VB 

Apple is throwing a curve ball to would be iPhone thieves.

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Apple Solves The Stolen iPhone Problem

Apple, iOS, WWDC, Activation lock

A stolen iPhone or iPad can be an incredibly big problem for a lot of people. The problem can get even worse for a startup founder. Often times startup founders have test flight, alpha versions of their product on their iPhone. They may also have proprietary user data and other really important information. Sure using a number code to unlock your iOS device can hinder some would be thieves, but plenty of them know the work-arounds.

Well today at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), Apple software VP Craig Federighi put a damper on future iOS device thefts.

Apple has baked a new feature called “Activation Lock” into the new iOS 7 operating system. The feature works side by side with “Find My Phone.” When the user loses their iPhone, they can use their iTunes account to disable that particular device from getting re-activated for any reason. In effect the stolen iPhone has just become a total brick.

Now of course, like “Find My Phone,” the user is going to be responsible for actually turning the service on. Once it’s on though, you’ll have the comfort of knowing that no one else can access anything on your device or get it reset and start using it as their own. As for actually getting your phone back, well, for now you’re on your own.

iOS 7 will be available to developers today and the public beginning later this fall.

Source and image: VB

Top Android Developer Cyanogen gets the startup bug.

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Revealed: What It Takes To Get A Top 10 Rank In The Apple App Store

With so many mobile-first and mobile-focused startups in the world these days, one of the biggest hurdles startups and app developers have is breaking the highly coveted Apple App Store Top 10. With many startups, that are truly starting from the beginning, without the help of a rock star team, cracking the top 10 can make or break a company.

Reading those words may be scary, but that’s the breaks with literally millions competing in the same space.

Trademob analyzed 72 campaigns conducted over an eight month period from August 2012 to March 2013. The analysis revealed average CPI’s (cost per install), during boost campaigns as well as data about the required volume of installs necessary to achieve a position in the top 10 of Apple’s App Store in each country.

Trademob found that installs required for top 10 status in the “free” chart for Apple’s App Store in the US were 3x as high than the UK, the next ranking country. Likewise the US also had the highest cost per install.  They also discovered was that even if an app cracked the top 10 in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, they still wouldn’t necessarily have the installs needed to crack the U.S. top 10.

The data set specifically looked at boost campaigns and their effect on app installs for iOS. It also highlights the “organic uplift” achieved from a boost campaign.

” In order to rank in the top 10 of the iOS App Store, an app must achieve a high number of downloads within 72 hours. App marketing boost campaigns can boost an app’s ranking by generating (buying) large numbers of downloads in a short amount of time. The downloads achieved during the last 24 hours have the biggest impact on the ranking position”. Trademob wrote.

If you’re an app developer and a mobile focused or mobile first startup, check out the data below.

 

Mobile tips, iOS tips, iOS rank, startup tips, TradeMob, Infographic

 

Now check out this infographic: 10 Rules For A Great Startup Idea

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Interview Spotlight: New York Startup Problemio

Problemio,New York Startup,startup interview” We hope to decrease the failure rate of new companies.” That’s the goal Alex Genadinik has for his startup Problemio. It’s a lofty goal of course but with his suite of four apps designed to help educate new business owners he may actually be successful at it.

The four app business starting series, that makes up Problemio, is based on data collected from over 10,000 businesses. The app suite is available for iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet.  They focus on skills every founder needs like  1) Business ideas 2) Business planning 3) Fundraising and 4) Marketing.

If learning from apps isn’t enough there’s also a live chat feature that allows users to chat about the topics covered in the apps.

We got a chance to talk with Genadinik check out the rest of the interview in our interview spotlight below:

What is your startup, what does it do?

Problemio is a 4-application business-starting guide available on the following mobile platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android, Amazon Kindle and the NOOK device from Barnes and Noble which. The apps focus on 1) Business ideas 2) Business planning 3) Fundraising and 4) Marketing.

The apps are based on the 10,000+ businesses planned on the original business plan app which also happens to be one of the highest ranked business apps on Android 

Users of the apps are able to get expert help in chat form, access to planning tools, as well as numerous articles curated especially to cover the common concerns of entrepreneurs who came before them.

Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?

Alex Genadinik is the single founder of Problemio. Alex is originally a software developer. In his past independent projects he found that without proper advice or mentors, it was difficult to avoid serious mistakes with his projects, which ultimately made it very difficult for those projects to be successful. That experience inspired the building of the planning tools to help others prevent similar mistakes.

Where are you based?

The company is based in New York, NY.

What is the startup culture like where you are based?

I find New York to be very vibrant with people generally embracing technology. The biggest difference between New York and any other place where I worked in the past in terms of being a startup hub is that during any given weekday, people come to Manhattan from hundreds of nearby cities and few neighboring states. That creates an extraordinary density of people sharing and collaborating on what is next. Additionally, since New York has such a deep business culture, people understand the value of networking here much more than other places where I have lived before, including San Francisco and parts of the Valley.


What problem does your startup solve?

The main problem Problemio is solving is helping entrepreneurs get support, mentoring and advice to help their businesses. We hope to decrease the failure rate of new companies.

What is one challenge that you’ve overcome in the startup process?

Not only did I have to learn native Android and iOS programming to create the apps, but I also had to figure out how to market the apps and make the apps into a financially viable business. Since I am the only founder, every day is filled with balancing tech, app ux, marketing, and many other things that need to get done. Balancing all that and still making sure there is quality in everything I do has been the biggest challenge so far.

What are some of the milestones your startup has achieved?

At the time of writing this, we have had over 65,000 combined downloads across all the Problemio apps, and over 10,000 businesses planned on the apps. Most recently we released the 4-app series across all the major devices which took quite a bit of work.

What are your next milestones

Our next goal is to grow the 4-app series and making it the premiere business apps across Android and iOS. By user reviews, we are already the best. Now it is just a matter of conquering the app stores, which will be our biggest focus this Spring. I will also be looking for various companies who work to help entrepreneurs to advertise directly on the app.

What are some of the advantages/disadvantages growing your startup outside of Silicon Valley?

I found that the New York tech hub is easier to navigate because everyone is pretty close. The Valley is made up of a number of places which are pretty far from one another. For example, there is San Francisco, Berkeley across the bridge, Palo Alto and San Jose a long drive away. And in New York, I can just about walk to the next tech thing in midtown!

What’s next for your startup?

I am always looking to make the product better. I will be looking to add video and phone support in addition to the current chat-based help that the entrepreneurs get. Additionally, I will be focusing on growing app sales and doing more marketing. I doubt I will be raising money as I rather focus on improving the fundamentals on my business. One thing I might do is actively look for mentors.

You can download Problemio for your device here. 

The nibletz, nationwide sneaker strapped road trip continues, more here.

Am I The Only One On Earth Who Thinks Mailbox Sucks?

Mailbox app,iPhone,gmail,startupsI stood in line to get the latest app phenomena mailbox. I’m an early adopter so I was able to get into the app about 36 hours after my text message saying it was officially ready. I went through the process of downloading the app that showed me how many people were behind me and how many were in front of me. When I actually got into the Mailbox app there were over half a million people behind me.

To that, the creators of Mailbox get a big fat well played. They created an ear piercing buzz and created hype that will never be replicated quit that way again.

I’ve heard and read so many stories about how impressed people are with mailbox. A couple of my journalist friends seem to love it, even ones with much larger publications than nibletz. I can’t seem to figure that out one bit.

I also just read this piece on Business Insider, it’s a love letter from Cablevision’s PR Guy Jim Maiella, who’s been using email just as long as I have. Again I can’t figure this out.

I would assume that some of my journalist friends at larger publications than nibletz receive more email than I do. Perhaps I’m wrong, but for the record on a week day I get between 300-500 new emails on my main account.

I try to separate accounts where my important account is one address and my account for PR folks to bombard is another, but I’m talking about my “important” account, that’s where I receive 300-500 emails per day.

I can’t see how Mailbox was designed for anyone who gets more than a handful of messages a day, or anyone who’s corporate account is with Gmail.

So let’s go over why I think Mailbox sucks.

long pressing and swiping right can take entirely too long for people who receive a high volume of messages.

Quick deletion

All of the promotional mentions before Mailbox was released said that it would allow you to delete email quickly. I’d say a good 90% of my emails can be deleted by just reading the preview line of the email.

To delete an email on Mailbox you need to long press to the right. This may seem cool and hipster but it takes a lot longer to long press to the right than it does to simply batch check a bunch of emails in the GMail app or the native iOS app and then hit trash.

There’s also the issue of the wrong swipe. I tried the first few days to use the long press and swipe deletion method but every once in a while I swiped too fast telling the app to take an entirely different course of action.

While later is a great feature, Mailbox doesn’t bring through the rest of your folders, again troublesome for someone who is more than a casual emailer

Folders Suck

When I installed the Mailbox app it added a few cool delegation folders to my GMail account. The later folder is the one I liked the best.

What it didn’t do is allow me to take the actual useful emails that I needed to keep and put them into the folders they need to go into. I found myself going to inbox 0 and then trying to keep up with Mailbox so I could use it but it wasn’t a pleasant experience to say the least.

The first two days using Mailbox I tried to keep emails I needed to delegate until the end of the night and then go back to the computer and delegate them accordingly but that just ended up being one more headache.

I’m definitely not one of those “email haters”. I love email I would much rather someone email or text me than actually talk on the phone. Talking on the phone takes too long and requires a secondary form of input if the person is talking about something important. For instance if I take a phone call from a business colleague about business, I’m most likely taking a note on a computer, phone or iPad so email takes out an entire step.

I was under the impression that Mailbox would improve my efficiency… not so much.

I’m still waiting for an email app that will allow me to one click and create a calendar item in Google Calendar and than click back to the contact, record and keep them all together. Yes I’m looking for a GMail CRM.

After this posting though, Mailbox is going into my trash box.

 

500 Startups Backed, Speek, Releases iPhone App

Speek, DC startup, statup news, launchLast year after TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, most people thought that conference calling app Uber Conference was the bees knees. They had won the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield and were all the rage from the big publications. Meanwhile, back in the Washington DC suburbs Evite founder John Bracken and co-founder and PandoDaily contributor Danny Boice were busy working on Speek.

Speek is actually the easiest way to execute great sounding conference calls. Everything is handled through a web/cloud based interface and all you do to initiate a call is direct the participants to  your Speek page, for instance mine is http://speek.com/kyle from there I can control who’s in the call, file sharing, information and anything else that pertains to a conference call.

The whole process is extremely easy and doesn’t require jotting down pin numbers or long codes, which can be quite cumbersome driving down the highway.

Well today Speek has released their iPhone app which makes it just as easy to initiate conference calls from your iPhone as it is from the web (although it was pretty easy just using a mobile browser like Chrome).

With Speek’s iPhone app, you can make super simple, free and visual conference calls. Reserve an easy-to-remember username (i.e.,http://speek.com/YourName) for your calls, instead of fumbling for a traditional phone number and PIN.

Features:

  • Talk instantly with one-click calls
  • Know who’s joined the call
  • Know who’s talking
  • Share images from your phone
  • Comment, mute and add/remove participants

Avoid the hassles of traditional conference calls with:

  • No telephone numbers and PINs
  • No scheduling
  • No elevator music
  • No interruptions

Check out Speek in the iTunes app store and go register your user name before all the good ones disappear. If for some reason you want to try it out feel free to Speek to me at http://speek.com/kyle 

Join the nearly 1800 people who’ve bought tickets to the largest startup conference in the United States, more info here!

Fitness Startup PumpUp Picks Up The Pace Again With iOS App

Pumpup, Canadian startup,Waterloo startup,startup,startupsBack in May when the high princess of startups inside the valley Sarah Lacey suggested there were no good fitness startups we found out about Waterloo startup PumpUp.

What makes pumpup.co so great are a number of things. For starters the three founders behind pumpup.co know their roles and do them well. In an industry that can run a little top heavy on the ego side they have the entrepreneurial founder, the sales, marketing and bizdev founder and of course the athletic trainer founder. You couldn’t have a fitness startup without one.

The UI is intuitive and it’s made for the average person, not the overly buff set that don’t need the gym as much as us normal folks.

Now, to make things much easier to manage PumpUp on the go, they’ve released an iOS app for iPhones and iPod Touch, both devices that make it into the gym while you’re working out.

With over 40% of new gym memberships cancelled in less than a year, people are looking for an easy-to-use solution that gives them the guidance and motivation needed to get fit. By asking a few simple questions about people’s fitness goals, where they want to work out and the equipment they love to use, PumpUp automatically builds a highquality workout designed specifically for each user.

PumpUp is meant for people who want to get started with a fitness routine but don’t know what to do, or those who want to take their fitness to the next level. PumpUp shows users what to do, how to do it,and over time, adapts their plans to ensure they continue to improve.

“People aspire to be fit and live a healthy life but most people find difficulty in reaching their goals,” says Phil Jacobson, co-founder & CEO of PumpUp. “We’re simplifying the experience by asking you what you want and taking care of the rest. Getting fit doesn’t have to be tough; people just need to be shown what to do. With PumpUp, that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

The PumpUp App is available as a free download on the Apple App Store on iPhone or iPod Touch at http://itunes.com/apps/pumpup. PumpUp is free to try for 30 days and costs $4.99/month on an annual subscription. To celebrate the launch and New Year, an annual subscription for PumpUp is only $2.99/month for the rest of January 2013.

Pumpup your startup everywhere else at everywhereelse.co The startup Conference, details here!

iPhone 6 Rumors Already?

Apple’s product cycles are getting shorter and shorter. This may prove worrisome for investors who, despite Apple stock still being on top, have seen a rollercoaster ride this past year.

When Steve Jobs was alive and well and running Apple, it seemed that their products got updated on an annual basis. We would have an annual press event and launch for iMacs and Macbooks and another event later in the year for mobile products. That all seemed to change after Jobs passed away and next in line Tim Cook took over.

After AT&T’s exclusive deal with Apple ran out and Sprint and Verizon joined the ranks of wireless carriers selling the iPhone, Apple sped up the cycle, but not just on the iPhone, but on the iPad as well.

Last year, around this time, rumors of the iPad 3 started to bubble. At a press event in California Tim Cook unveiled the iPad 3, or what it was officially called “The New iPad” right before SXSW, consequently a year, almost to the day, after the release of the iPad 2.

So in the fall of 2012 when reporters were once again summoned to Silicon Valley, they left scratching their heads when Apple announced not only the iPad mini but the iPad 4th generation as well. The new generation of Apple’s 10″ flagship tablet immediately made “The New iPad”  (not even the iPad 2), obsolete. It was “The New iPad” that halted production and purged from retail locations.

This left not only journalists scratching their heads but Apple fans as well. Loyal Apple fans and users were used to re-upping their mobile products on a somewhat annual basis and their computers either annually or every other year depending on the feature sets.

While Apple rumors are bubbling every day, it’s disturbing to some that not barely three months after the September 21st 2012 release of the iPhone 5, rumors of the iPhone 6 are hitting the net.

Now usually the earliest of Apple rumors originate from some no name blog site that’s getting a few hundred hits a week, however trusted startup and technology site The Next Web (TNW) has reported that “Developers Begin Seeing New Apple iPhone Hardware and iOS 7 in Usage Logs”.

While this is no indication that the iPhone 6 is just around the corner, the TNW article and this article at Business Insider suggest a mid year release date for the iPhone 6 refresh. That could put the release anywhere between May and August of 2013. August of course could line up perfectly with an annual release, and May would still seem a bit early.

The iPhone 5 was one of the most significant upgrades which was why the newest version got a number change, unlike the 4 to the 4s. The iPhone 5 increased the speed, added 4G LTE, a new (miserable) maps product and changed the connection port from 30 pin to their proprietary “lightning” port.

Many are hoping that the next iPhone will be even thinner and also incorporate new technologies like NFC.

We’ll have to wait and see for now.

 

Brooklyn Startup Kapture Turns You Into A Brand Ambassador

Kapture,kaptu.re, Brooklyn startup,startup interviewA startup in Brooklyn New York, called Kapture is turning people everywhere into brand ambassadors based on the photos they take with their smartphone cameras. Everyone loves sharing pictures over social media, now, when you’re snapping away, and you catch a brand, you could be rewarded.  Kapture is allowing new ways for retail brands, consumer goods, and other businesses to capitalize on pictures being taken of their products, services and businesses already.

When a user shares a Kapture moment with a social network like Facebook, or Twitter they can be instantly rewarded with items that range from discounts to physical goods. Rewards can be redeemed immediately or stock piled for a later date.

Michael Szewcyk, the co-founder and President of Kapture is no stranger to startups. In fact, he was working for a Silicon Valley based startup, Qwiki when he had the idea for Kapture. He quickly moved back to New York and began the launch process.

Kapture started last December with 25 businesses on board in the greater New York area. Rewards including things like a free glass of champagne for users who took a picture at Gansevoort Park’s rooftop Bar. Legendary ping pong club spin, offered a free drink to people who posted pictures of their game.


Kapture also makes it easy for people to find opportunities to earn rewards, which the startup conveniently calls “Photo Ops”. Within the iPhone app, users can find photo ops and then partake in the ones they want to get the prizes for.

We got a chance to talk with the Kapture team. Check out the interview below.

Read More…

St. Louis Startup LockerDome Announces First Game Built On LockerDome Platform

LockerDome,Dime Magazine,St. Louis startup,Gabe Lozano,startup,startups,startup newsWe’ve been continually covering St. Louis startup LockerDome since April of this year. LockerDome is a venture backed sports social network that allows players of any age and any level to engage throughout their entire career. LockerDome was founded by Gabe Lozano who’s the son of online payment software pioneer Bob Lozano. The elder Lozano helped launch cloud solutions and development firm Appistry as well as PayLinx.

LockerDome is backed by Cultivation Capital as well as Square co-founder and local St.Louis entrepreneur Jim McKelvey.

We’ve had the privilege of talking with Lozano quite a bit over the last six months. In fact he served as an impromptu, remote mentor for one of the teams that participated in Memphis’ Startup Weekend over the summer.

On our last trip to St. Louis Lozano was very excited when he was telling us that they had started to open up the LockerDome platform to developers and some of the ideas that may come out of that. Today they’re announcing the first game/app that has been built on top of the LockerDome platform, “Basketball Memory App by Dime Magazine”.

Dime Magazine is the the basketball lifestyle magazine that’s been around since 2001. The Memory App by Dime Magazine will live on the Dime Magazine Network on LockerDome and leverage LockerDome’s over 2.5 million monthly unique visitors. Users will match the popular basketball lifestyle magazine’s covers featuring the biggest names in basketball as quickly as possible and win cool basketball related prizes. The first of these prizes is a pair of the recently launched “Polarizing Pink” Nike Air Foamposite One shoes provided by Foot Locker.

“We are pleased to be partnering with Dime Magazine and IDC Projects to deliver the first game to LockerDome’s rapidly growing and highly engaged sports audience,” said Gabe Lozano, co-founder and CEO of LockerDome. “This exciting new game featuring the stunning artwork from previous Dime covers and the wonderfully addictive Memory Matches technology represents the next step in the evolution of LockerDome as a sports media platform.”

“We’re excited to use our expertise in mobile games to be part of this synergistic approach to encourage interaction between basketball fans and brands.” said Michael Orlando, CEO of IDC Projects.

“Over the past decade, Dime Magazine’s covers have featured the best basketball players in the word. We’re excited to bring Dime to a robust mobile platform like LockerDome, and to give our fans a fun, new experience through this innovative and wonderfully addictive new game,” Dime Magazine’s CEO and co-founder Josh Gotthelf said in a statement.

Since re-launching in January, LockerDome has been one of the fastest growing sports-specific websites in the world. Many top sports agencies are leveraging LockerDome as a means to maximize their client’s social media efforts on Facebook and Twitter and to better engage their fanbases. The official brands and networks the St. Louis-based company represents includes NBA superstars Blake Griffin, Rudy Gay, David Lee and Stephen Curry, NFL superstars Troy Polamalu, Larry Fitzgerald, Maurice Jones-Drew and Marshawn Lynch, and MLB Legends Pete Rose and Wade Boggs, among others.

Linkage:

Download the game for your iOS device today, here

Sign up for LockerDome here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more startup stories from St. Louis

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Los Angeles Startup: Smarter Stand, Works For iPad Mini Too

smarterstand,ipad,iPad mini,iPad accessory,LA Startup,startups,startup newsDotan Saguy, the founder of Los Angeles startup Smarter Stand, has just written in to tell us that his unique device works for iPad Mini as well.

We reported about the Smarter Stand over the summer when it had surpassed 10x it’s funding goal on crowdfunding site Kickstarter. When all was said and done Smarter Stand received over 15x the original amount they had hoped for. The best  part, the Smarter Stand is one of the simplest little iPad accessories ever produced.

Essentially what Saguy has done, is created a clip that holds Apple’s optional smart covers in place at one of the creases. Without the Smarter Stand, the smart covers fold like an accordion of sorts. With the Smarter Stand in place, the material and hard material under the cover remains in place and the smart cover can be converted into a stand with many different angles.

When Saguy had heard about the release of the iPad Mini he couldn’t want to get his hands on one to see if the Smarter Stand would work on the smaller smart covers. He is happy to report that it does.

If you were lucky enough to get a Smarter Stand from the original Kickstarter campaign and have since bought an iPad Mini go ahead and try it out, it works great. If you just purchased an iPad Mini and a smart cover and want the Smarter Stand all you have to do is go to smarterstand.com

Linkage:

Get a Smarter Stand today at smarterstand.com

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