CES Archives - 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.

Startup America Stage Headed To International CES

The Startup America partnership has done a phenomenal job of promoting startups across the United States at key events throughout the year. Last year they had an entire area at the Hilton Hotel for startups as part of SXSW. They also partnered with Startup Rockon to bring equally amazing programming to stages at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

Continuing with that theme, Startup America has teamed up with the Consumer Electronics Association to bring the Startup America Stage to Eureka Park at the International CES. The International CES is the largest consumer electronics trade show on the western hemisphere and is happening January 8-11th in Las Vegas.

The Startup America stage will be part of CES’ startup pavilion called Eureka Park, which is housed at the Venetian Hotel and easily accessible via a free shuttle from the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“Innovation defines the International CES and we are thrilled to partner with Startup America to bring programming that highlights the young start-ups and entrepreneurs who will shape the future of technology,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. “We look forward to the exciting sessions on the Startup America Stage at the 2013 CES shining a light on the companies and innovations of tomorrow.”

“Eureka Park will be home to some of the most cutting-edge startups from across the country this year at the 2013 CES,” said Scott Case, CEO of the Startup America Partnership. “We’re incredibly excited to bring together startups, investors, large companies and media to highlight the amazing innovations taking place at this world-class event.”

Innovation is a major theme, this and every year at CES however the past few years they’ve added an exhibit area for startups. Last year Eureka Park was packed. CEA is able to attract startups with lower cost both space, provided they meet the criteria.

CEA has also announced that Eureka Park is 40% bigger this year, adding even more startups and innovation to the mix.

The Startup America stage will feature panels, keynotes, and Q&A’s from top speakers in the entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem across the country.

Linkage:

For more on the International CES visit here

For more on Startup America visit here

Startup America is also part of this, the largest startup conference in the US

Pennsylvania Startup: PrizeMonkey Lets You Win Free Snacks From Vending Machines

Wait free snacks? Yes free snacks!!!! Brad Thorne, the founder of PrizeMonkey is a true startup entrepreneur and founder. He told an awesome story to the StartupAmerica partnership website.

But first lets dive into what PrizeMonkey is. As we just said, Thorne is a true #startup founder and entrepreneur, in otherwords he’s poured his heart and soul into an excellent idea and for the time being he can’t even afford snacks in a vending machine, so he created a platform that solves that problem.

PrizeMokey gamifies the vending machine. Through Thorne’s innovative technology your wi-fi enabled smartphone connects with the wi-fi enabled, and PrizeMonkey enabled snack machine. Now, instead of paying for snacks, you can play sponsored games for your chance to win free snacks. Again, for emphasis, you play games on your smartphone and instead of racking up virtual points, you can win free snacks.

You’ll be able to pick from your choice of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Lays Potato Chips, heck even rice cakes if their in the machine. Whatever’s in the machine that’s Prize Monkey enabled can be yours for winning these games.

It’s a win-win for the end user and the game sponsor. The sponsor wants to engage the end user and what better way then with candy and snacks.

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CEA Opened Eureka Park In 2012

The Consumer Electronics Association, the producers of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), this year introduced a new area to CES. Over the years CEA has added several category specific areas to the ever-growing show floor. China, Korea and Japan all have their own areas in addition to the ability to spring for a full booth on the main show floor.

Eureka Park was housed in the Venetian hotel which was also home to the exhibits in the 70000 area and PMA which is the photography convention that merged with CES this year.

Putting Eureka park in the Venetian hotel as opposed to the convention center, allowed CEA to offer start-ups their own place to play and show off their wares, apps and ideas. It also allowed CEA to offer booth space at the largest trade show in the western hemisphere at a lower cost than the premium spaces at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

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Unboxing And Review Of The ClarityOne EB110 Earbuds From CES

While at CES, we were privileged to be invited to the ClarityOne press conference where we heard first hand of the clarity and the sounds of the audio of what they put into their speakers. Using what they’ve learned after 12 years of testing and tinkering they presented the EB110 Earbuds. At a price of $129.99 USD they are not the cheap headphones you pick up at Wal-Mart or Target, and you can tell. The minute you put these on and turn up the volume you can tell right away something is different. At a frequency range of 15Hz to 20kHz and a transducer at 7.5mm the sounds coming from these little earbuds are something that can’t be truly appropriated even with words. Currently

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Video Game Manufacturers Razer And Red 5 Take A Stand Against SOPA at CES

The interwebs are going wild about SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act). We’ve all read the story by now about XDA and many other web companies like Reddit, who are going dark this week on January 18th to raise awareness about SOPA.

Well these guys at CES could not have said it any better. Although many in the video game industry are believed to be protected by SOPA because of online piracy, many companies actually agree that SOPA is too restrictive and that the government shouldn’t be able to exert as much control as they are proposing.

It’s true that millions of dollars are lost in online piracy but it’s very hard these days to associate actual numbers to the losses of the copyright holders and creators. On one hand copyright owners may be losing initial dollars from someone downloading an mp3 or a torrent of a movie, on the other hand it’s well-known that even pirated copies of music, videos, movies and software lead to building not just scale but popularity.

SOPA affects everyone who uses the internet. If SOPA is to pass than then websites could be shut down without warning if a site is believed to be violating copyrights. In addition SOPA could cause websites from being blocked from ad payment networks and payment facilitators like PayPal.

For more on SOPA read this wiki

CES 2012: Surf Easy Personal Internet Web Browser

At CES 2012 we met with the investors of a new start-up called Surf Easy. Surf Easy is a personal web browsing product.

The Surf Easy personal web browsing solution is actually Mozilla’s Firefox on a secure and encrypted USB flash drive. When you put the Surf Easy USB key into a Mac or PC it asks you for your password and then opens up your own personal, private and secure web browser. Unlike traditional web browsing, everything you browse while using Surf Easy is stored on the USB key.

The Surf Easy web browser keeps your cookies, passwords, and history safely on the key itself and send your information encrypted to their cloud based servers. This way whether you are using your own computer, a hotel computer or a friend’s computer your information stays with you.

Surf Easy also saves your bookmarks, and as much history as you would like so you can pick up where you left off. They were at CES 2012 in Eureka park with their private investors.

Surf Easy may miss the boat though, as the service costs $60. We’re not sure that the price makes it an attractive solution to something that can be easily replicated. We are also nervous about the fact that they wouldn’t allow us to self test.

We Talk With Selena Gomez Backed Post Cards On The Run

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7o5qegNMIk&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0]
Some may know her as a Disney Channel princess while others may know her as the other half of Justin Bieber, but Selena Gomez is now part angel investor. Gomez has invested in a new company called Postcards on The Run.

Postcards is a simple concept, an app for your iPhone or Android device allows you to send real post cards through the mail for a very small fee, for your friends back home. Did you take a picture that is worthy of timeless saving? Would you rather sent a personalized postcard from Disney World with you and the fam instead of another postcard with a picture of the Magic Kingdom?

These are all perfect use cases for Postcards On The Run.

According to JWT Intelligence turning digital products into physical goods is one of the biggest trends as we head into 2012 and Postcards on the Run is on the cusp of that. Our Senior Editor, Brent Fishman talks with Postcards on the Run at CES 2012’s Eureka Park, a booth area specifically for start ups.

Selena Gomez artist page on Google Music Store and Apple iTunes