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.

See over 100 startups from everywhere else at this huge startup conference

Everywhereelse.co Unveils “Best Of Everywhere Else” Startup Contest

All of the participating Startup Village startups for everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference are hereby invited to submit a video up to three minutes long, highlighting what your startup is, and what your startup does.

There will be another live pitch contest during the conference in downtown Memphis Tennessee February 10-12th where you’ll get to pitch investors. So you may want to keep your video geared towards consumers. You want to tell the general public why your startup is the best startup “everywhere else”.

This is your chance to get your social networks, friends and family to vote for you even if they aren’t coming to the conference.

If your startup is not signed up yet for the Startup Village, booths for the village will close officially on Tuesday January 22nd so go register now by clicking here.

Here are the requirements:

– The video can be anything you want highlighting you, your team, your product or your startup
– we would advise you to make the video great for the general public, consumers and investors
– Videos can be NO LONGER than three minutes.
– When your video is ready to go please upload it to drop box and share it with video@everywhereele.co or box.com and share it with video@everywhereelse.co.
– The videos will be uploaded to the internet next Sunday January 27th where voting will commence. The videos will be uploaded by everywhereelse.co the startup conference, for the express purpose of this contest only. After the contest the video and it’s contents remain your property. They will live on our channel indefinitely. We may use any video submitted for marketing for this or future events, and in news stories as they pertain to the business and the contest.
– Videos will only be accepted until 11:59:59pm Eastern Time on Sunday January 27th.
– The voting period will run from January 28th to February 3, 2013. The five startups with the most votes will do a final pitch off at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference on Monday February 11, 2013 in front of the judging panel. The panel of the judges and an audience participation vote will decide the final winner.

If you have any questions please email video@everywhereelse.co

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.

We’ve got a village full of startups at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Norfolk’s Hatch Startup Accelerator Reveals New Class

Back in July we interviewed Zack Miller, the director of the new startup accelerator in Norfolk called Hatch. Miller, a Hampton Roads native, decided to start an accelerator program for the region. He decided to put it in Norfolk which is the epicenter for Hampton Roads. Hampton Roads already has three accelerators in Innovation Research Park, Hampton Roads Technology Center and James City County Incubator.

They’ve just unwrapped the latest class which started a few weeks ago. This new class of startups includes:

RoboCent enables small business, non-profits and political campaigns to easily send call and text notifications to their subscribers, starting at 1.3¢ per message. Through RoboCent’s streamlined and user-friendly platform, clients can receive feedback from their customers, monitor their calls and texts in real-time and send out urgent notifications to subscribers within 5 minutes.

Go Wedding Pro is a tool built by photographers for photographers. GWP will help wedding photographers stay on top of their clients’ needs by organizing wedding day details and client info is easier to maintain and access on the go. Go Wedding Pro will make it easier to stay on top of client info, contracts, invoices and tracking post production . From booking to delivering images GWP is the wedding photographer’s best friend.

CampusWise is a college classified company catering exclusively to college students. Our aim is to provide a safe and friendly environment so that students are able to trade both goods and services strictly amongst each other. Each school will have a customized page that will only be accessible to those students who share the same university email.

uVest is the first personal investment application designed for casual investors who do not have the knowledge, desire, or time to do complex market research and analysis to discover trading opportunities. uVest is designed specifically for mobile users who want to casually browse and enter trading opportunities from verified, high return traders at their convenience.

These four startups are going through Hatch Norfolk’s intense 12 week program which includes mentoring, business development, team building and product building. Their applications were evaluated based on team, product, market, pain point and execution.

To find out more about Hatch Norfolk click here

Is an accelerator right for your startup? Find out in the accelerator track, headed up by the Global Accelerator Network at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Important Techstars Deadlines Approaching

Techstars, the globally recognized startup accelerator brand has some important deadlines coming up for startups interested in applying for their programs.

The deadline for the next Techstars New York session is this Friday January 18th. Finalists will be notified by February 2nd. The program runs from April 2nd to June 28th. Interested startups can apply here.

Nike introduced a new Nike+ accelerator program in partnership with Techstars. The program will be based in Portland Oregon close to Nike’s world headquarters. The program will run from March to June. The deadline to apply is February 3rd. If you’re interested in this new innovative program with one of the nation’s biggest brands you can apply here.

The Microsoft accelerator for Windows Azure is also another partnership with Techstars. That cohort will take place in Seattle Washington from April to June. The final deadline for those applications is February 2nd. You can apply here.

Techstars is the founding member of the Global Accelerator Network. Patrick Riley the Managing Director of GAN and the GAN staff will be on site at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference with three panels on accelerators and talking to over 2000 attendees who’ve purchased tickets across the country, as well as over 100 startups in the startup village about what accelerator would be best for them. For tickets or more information click here.

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?

Former Facebook Chief Invests In Nashville Startup Streamweaver

Nashville startup, Streamweaver launched in September. The company offers a new, more socially integrated video experience.

According to TechCrunch, Streamweaver has actually found a way to make video more social. This is achieved by not only sharing videos with friends, and tagging video recordings, but in playback StreamWeaver allows for split screen. This way friends at the same event can watch their friends videos in a more complete, multiscreen display.

Early on Streamweaver was able to raise $2.6 million dollars locally from Tennessee Community Ventures and Mountain Group Capital according to the Tennessean. Both firms are part of the TNInvestco program.

Now they’ve raised a $1.3 million dollar Series A round that was led by former Facebook Privacy head Chris Kelly. Kelly joined the social giant in 2005 when there were only about 25 employees. He left in 2010 and began investing in startups. Kelly also recently invested in video startup GoDigital that produces documentaries.

“As mobile users, we all love to share content and connect with others on the go … and I’ve seen a lot of social startups,” Kelly told TechCrunch, “but Streamweaver is making a difference in how we collaborate with each other and collectively create interactive content.”

You can tryout Streamweaver here

After Battle With Depression Reddit CoFounder Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide

The 26 year old founder of Reddit died yesterday in New York. Aaron Swartz was reportedly dealing with depression which was compounded by a July 2011 indictment for hacking JSTOR.

Swartz, often considered by many as an Internet pioneer, had allegedly set up a laptop in a closet at MIT with the intent to take the pay wall protected JSTOR content and distribute it for free. It’s believed that Swartz’ hack was why JSTOR moved to a more liberal freemium model.

Swartz appeared in court September 24, 2012 where he plead not guilty.

Swartz began his tech career at 14 when he co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification widely used today. He also founded Infogami which eventually merged into Reddit.

“The tragic and heartbreaking information you received is, regrettably, true,” confirmed Swartz’ attorney, Elliot R. Peters of Kecker and Van Nest, in an email to MIT’s The Tech

Big News: Global Accelerator Network Partners For Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference

Now that the International CES show, and Eureka Park are winding down this weekend, we’ve got a ton of news about the largest startup conference in the country, everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference. As you may have heard the conference has already sold (not forecast, but sold) nearly 2000 attendee tickets. In addition we have over 130 startups in the Startup Village with a very limited amount of spaces left for your startup. For more on Startup Village booths click here.

Well the conference has some big news that they’ll be announcing over the next week or two starting with a great partnership that will really help startups “everywhere else”.

Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference is pleased to announce that the event has partnered with the Global Accelerator NetworkGAN is an organization of over 50 of the top short-term, mentorship-driven, seed stage accelerators around the globe. Their members include TechStars, Excelerate Labs, TechWildcatters, LaunchPad LA, StartupBootcamp, and more.

Global Accelerator Network’s Pat Riley will be on hand at everywhereelse.co as well as an entire team from GAN.

Everywhereelse.co will feature three accelerator focused panels. The first panel is “what I learned in an accelerator” featuring startup founders that have been through accelerator programs across the country. We’ll have founders from 500 Startups, YC, TechStars, Brandery, Jumpstart Foundry, The Fort, Seed Hatchery and several others. This panel will help give entrepreneurs an insight into the life of the startup accelerator.

The conference will also feature a panel of some of the top accelerator Managing Director’s across the country. While many startup accelerators live to the same principals and road maps some may be different. We’re going to have Managing Directors from startup accelerators across the country.

The third accelerator focused panel will address the reasons why your startup should or should not apply to startup accelerators. This insightful panel will draw from some of the best entrepreneurs who could talk about why your startup should do an accelerator and what vertical accelerators your startup should apply to.

To that end, Global Accelerator Network will be on hand throughout the conference helping entrepreneurs and founders figure out which accelerator may be best for them and then help them apply.

Is your startup in the startup village at “everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference“? It’s not too late to register here!

$319 Million Pledged On Kickstarter In 2012

Kickstarter, the crowdfunding website used as a Launchpad for entrepreneurs across the globe announced this week that $319 million dollars had been pledged in 2012.

The money was pledged for a variety of projects from cd/album releases to gadgets, apps and software. 2.2 million people accounted for the pledges.

18,109 projects were funded with the $274 million collected out of the $319 million.

Business Insider reported that 177 countries helped projects raise money, which is 90% of the countries in the world.

There are three crowdfunding panels at this startup conference.