Uber Jumps In To Help DC’s Furloughed Federal Workers

We’re now in the 16th day of the federal government shutdown. Startups are trying to help furloughed employees in whatever ways they can.

Last week we reported that Washington DC-based 1776 had launched a website to help match employees with job opportunities and volunteer work for startups. Sure everyone needs money, but some furloughed employees have expressed the fact that they are also bored to tears. The site gives them an opportunity to work with something innovative and exciting. It gives the startup access to a potentially high qualified employee base.

Now the San Francisco based car hailing startup Uber has responded to the needs of the furloughed federal workers in the DC area.

Through Friday, Uber is offering their UberX product free for two rides up to $20 each.

While the Uber app is known for it’s black sedan and SUV service, UberX is a taxicab alternative. Rather than sedan service, users of UberX are picked up in midrange vehicles like Toyota Prius, Toyota Camry and similar type vehicles. All of the vehicles seat up to four people.

Uber is introducing the UberX product to the DC market, where their original service is still going very strong. At the same time it allows them to expose the service to the capital’s federal work force of hundreds of thousands which have gone without pay for over two weeks. It is important to note that the promotion is actually open to anyone in the DC area, but those affected by the shutdown will find that the company’s promotion came at the right time.

How does it work?

Enter promo code DCLOVESuberX in the Uber app.
Slide the car type selector to ‘uberX’—this promotion does not apply to uberTAXI, UberBLACK, or UberSUV.
Take up to two free rides before Friday, 10/18, at 11:59PM.
DCLOVESuberX covers DC area rides up to $20. Trust us—at these rates, $20 will get you far!

Here is a list of participating businesses:

201 Bar
9:30 Club
Al Dente
Argonaut
Atlas Fitness
Atlas Underground
Art Jamz
Bacchus Wine Cellar
Bearnaise
Bethesda Blues & Jazz Club
Blowout Bar
Boundary Stone
Brasserie Beck
Cactus Cantina
Cafe Deluxe
Capella Washington Restaurant
Capitol Hill Fitness
Capitol Lounge
Cashion’s Eat Place
Charlie Palmer Steak
Chef Geoff’s
Chez Billy
Chupacabra
Co Co. Sala
Daisy Baby Boutique
Darlington House
DC Improv
Duo Boutique
Edgar Bar & Kitchen
Farmer Fishers Bakers
Fia’s Fabulous Finds
The Front Page
Graffiato
Granville Moore’s
Gymboree – Play & Music
H Street Country Club
Hela Spa
HR-57
I.M.P. International Spy Museum
Hank’s Oyster Bar

Lauriol Plaza
Liberty Tree
Lisner Auditorium
Mangolens Photography
Marcel’s by Robert Wiedmaier
Mixx
Mellow Mushroom
Merriweather Post Pavillion
Mussel Bar and Grille
Muncheez Mania
Nellie’s
Pure Barre
Queen Vic
Qi Spa
Redwood Bethesda
Scratch DC
Sculpt DC
Shakespeare Theatre
Skin Beauty Lounge
Smith & Wollensky
Soupergirl
Snallygaster
Sticky Rice
Spirit Cruises
The Sweet Lobby
Tango DC
Tom Yum District
Tortilla Coast
Tusuva Body & Skin Care
U St Music Hall
Union Pub
Velocity 5 – Arlington
Vendetta
Vinoteca
Whitlow’s on Wilson
Willow Fashion
Wildwood Kitchen
Wingos
Zest American Bistro
zipcar

This Uber Case Should Be A Wake Up Call For Arrington Haters

Back in December we were one of the earliest startup focused sites reporting on these allegations of rape against an Uber driver in Washington DC.

The unthinkable, that some opponents of private car hiring app Uber had been anticipating, had finally happened. According to our good friends at In The Capital, a DC Uber driver had been accused of raping a customer.

The accusation came by way of the Cleveland Park Email listserv. Cleveland Park is a neighborhood in Washington DC. The Cleveland Park list serv post says the crime was caught on tape.

In The Capital reported that Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Hugh Carew, had confirmed they investigated forcible sexual abuse case in Cleveland Park that occurred on December 8th. There are conflicting reports between the actual police report which suggests the attack happened on a Friday while the police report says it happened on a Sunday.

This email on the Cleveland Park listserv started it all:

A woman’s teen-age daughter used Uber car serve to return to her home
last night after a late evening. The car drove up the family’s driveway
around 3:30 AM. The girl walked to the door but the driver called her
back. When she went back, the driver struck her on the head and raped
her.The family has a security camera in the driveway. The camera showed the
driver carrying the girl’s limp body back to the house. She is now at
home, trying to rest. The entire family is of course very shaken.

Because of the cameras, they know who did it. As of this morning, he had
not yet been arrested, but many officers are involved and he will be.

On Friday, our good friends at InTheCapital were again on the case, this time reporting that the charges were dropped on Thursday.

InTheCapital reports:

As of now, the Washington Post has just come out with a report that the statements given by the woman and the driver regarding the sexual contact were in fact contradictory, and that the physical evidence as well as the testimonies given by both the driver and the woman seemed to indicate different stories. According to the driver, the woman was the one who initiated sexual contact as they were parked in her family’s driveway and they engaged in consensual oral sex. He also denied having intercourse with her, and after their encounter he carried her to the driveway where she then got up and walked inside. DNA evidence from the report does contradict the driver’s testimony to no intercourse, but security video of the woman’s driveway does show the woman walking to her side door and apparently waving to the driver as she walked in to her home. She also told authorities that she had no memory of having done this.

While both nibletz and InTheCapital both reported that these were just allegations, this should say something about all of those folks on the Mike Arrington witch hunt. In fact there are still no “charges” in that case…

Move on now and if you need a lift go download Uber.

Uber’s Biggest Competitor Hailo Raises $30 Million For Eastern Expansion

We’ve been covering Uber’s biggest competitor Hailo since last March. The European startup aggressively expanded throughout Europe in major cities like Dublin and London before coming over the the U.S. Now, according to report from TechCrunch and AllthingsD they’re ready to expand eastward to Asia.

They just announced a $30 million dollar raise led by Union Square Ventures, Japanese telco KDDI, Richard Branson and others. The company is expected to use these funds to expand to Asia. Back in March they announced a $17 million dollar raise with funds used from that round to expand into the U.S.

Hailo reportedly has 10,000 drivers using their service across the globe and have had over a million passengers since launch. Hailo is operating in Dublin, London, Chicago, Toronto, Boston and Chicago. They plan to add New York, Madrid, Barcelona and Tokyo in the immediate future.

Like Uber, Hailo allows customers to use a mobile app to hail a ride. Hailo works with Taxi cabs which can be a lot cheaper than the black sedan service that Uber users are accustomed to hailing. However, Uber has gotten into the taxi game, testing a taxi hailing platform in Washington DC during the inauguration. Also, regulators in California along with other states, seem to be backing off regulations when it comes to hailing and ride sharing apps, which should help smooth things along for Uber, and of course Hailo.

The space is getting crowded with startups from Flywheel, to Taxi Magic and even Atlanta startup CanCents, which we interviewed earlier today.

You can see ride sharing startup RidePost and more great startups from “everywhere else” at everywhereelse.co the Startup Conference next week.

Uber Introduces Uber Taxi In DC Ahead Of Inauguration

Black car hailing service Uber is no stranger to Washington DC. The nibletz.com team got a chance to hang out at the Uber DC offices in DC’s Dupont Circle over the summer and learned then that DC loves Uber.

Last year for President’s day the creative Uber team had their customers hailed around in actual motorcades which was quite a site inside the beltway.

Over the summer when Uber had some trouble with members of the DC city council everyone from tv news celebrities to members of congress actually took to Twitter to have some legislation that would have halted Uber’s DC efforts, squashed. Eventually the city council backed down.

This time around it’s another good piece of news for Uber as they are unveiling a new form of Uber-ing just in time for the Presidential Inauguration next week. Uber has unveiled the new Uber Taxi feature.

With Uber Taxi customers will be able to use the same app to hail a traditional DC cab. No worries Mr. T won’t be pulling up to cart you away but what you will have as the opportunity to save a little change over Uber’s traditional black sedan and limo services, and also you’ll be able to hail a cab in DC without getting passed by.

“Just like with our black car service, open up your Uber app and you can easily request a DC taxi, pay with your credit card, and do it all with just the tap of a button. In a nutshell, UberTAXI offers the reliability and convenience you expect from Uber at a lower cost, so you can pick exactly what kind of ride you need, whenever you need it.” Uber said in an email to their customers.

They continued “Thanks to the pro-innovation, pro-consumer legislation passed last month by the DC Council, we know that Uber is here to stay, which is why we are rolling out new transportation options like UberTAXI. But make no mistake: it’s still an experiment, and we will continue to improve on UberTAXI as more people use it.”

Uber does warn that their traditional sedan service will be the default when Uber-ing in DC but the Taxi feature will be there after you take the latest update.

We’ll warn you from experience that it may take a little while longer than normal especially based on their service in Charlotte during the DNC. However Charlotte was a pop-up market for the convention while Uber in DC has been running now for over a year.

There are plenty of great DC startups coming to everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, over 2000 tickets sold but a limited number are still available.

DC Uber Driver Accused Of Rape

The unthinkable, that some opponents of private car hiring app Uber have been anticipating, has finally happened. According to our good friends at In The Capital, a DC Uber driver has been accused of raping a customer.

The accusation comes by way of the Cleveland Park Email listserv. Cleveland Park is a neighborhood in Washington DC. The Cleveland Park list serv post says the crime was caught on tape.

In The Capital is reporting that Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson Hugh Carew, has confirmed they are investigating forcible sexual abuse case in Cleveland Park that occurred on December 8th. There are conflicting reports between the actual police report which suggests the attack happened on a Friday while the police report says it happened on a Sunday.

Uber DC General Manager issued a statement saying:

“We cannot comment on an ongoing criminal matter, but it is our policy to deactivate the driver account of someone if we receive information that they have been suspected of committing a crime,”

The email on the listserv reports that the crime was actually captured on the family’s home security cameras, with a clear shot of the perpetrator.

Here is the complete email:

A woman’s teen-age daughter used Uber car serve to return to her home
last night after a late evening. The car drove up the family’s driveway
around 3:30 AM. The girl walked to the door but the driver called her
back. When she went back, the driver struck her on the head and raped
her.The family has a security camera in the driveway. The camera showed the
driver carrying the girl’s limp body back to the house. She is now at
home, trying to rest. The entire family is of course very shaken.

Because of the cameras, they know who did it. As of this morning, he had
not yet been arrested, but many officers are involved and he will be.

Linkage:

Source: In The Capital

Uber on nibletz.com

everywhereelse.co is the biggest startup conference in the US

Election Day: Uber Will Get You To Or From The Polls Free!

Today is election day and no matter who you’re voting for you need to stand up and vote to be heard. As we’ve said numerous times, if you can stand in line all night for an iPhone, the latest iPad or the new Wii U, you can certainly stand in line to vote for the next President of the United States.

Our favorite Silicon Valley startup (and one of the only SV startups we report on) Uber, wants to make it easier on people trying to get to or from their polling place.

Uber has teamed up with Rock The Vote to offer all voters in America who’ve never tried Uber, a “Free(dom) Ride” to or from their polling place. As long as you’re in an Uber market simply download the Uber app from the iTunes app store or the Google Play store and if you’re a first time Uber user, use the code “VOTEUBER”, request a ride and as long as it’s under $20.12 it’s free. Otherwise the first $20.12 is free.

Here are the requirements:

One FREE(DOM) RIDEto OR from the polls is available for any first time Uber client up to $20.12 off – any amount exceeding $20.12 will be charged to your card on file.
The Uber trip must begin or end at a national polling location and is valid during voting hours on Tuesday, November 6th.
The FREE RIDE requires an Uber account and use of Uber’s iPhone/Android app orm.uber.com mobile web to request.

Uber didn’t forget about their loyal customers either this election day, here are some other promotions going on:

Chicago: FREE(DOM) TAXI RIDE for Chicagoans
Philly – A FREE Uber ride up to $50 to the most creative “I Voted Today!” TwitPic! Tweet all entries to @Uber_Philly
San Diego – A FREE Uber ride up to $50 to the most creative “I Voted Today!” TwitPic! Tweet all entries to @Uber_SD
LA – A FREE Uber ride up to $50 to the most creative “I Voted Today!” TwitPic! Tweet all entries to @Uber_LA
ATL- A FREE Uber ride up to $50 to the most creative “I Voted Today!” TwitPic! Tweet all entries to @Uber_ATL. More details here.

Remember this election day vote, and then vote Uber.

Linkage:

Uber’s election day blog post

Other Uber coverage from nibletz.com (including why we cover Uber even though they’re in the valley)

You should be here too, in February

Uber Hits Mega Capacity In Charlotte At The DNC 2012 And Issues Uber Users Credits

As our long time readers know Uber is the only Valley based startup that we cover on nibletz.com we do this because they are building out their business across the country and around the world, and each new Uber city is treated as it’s own business. We’ve got great ties to Uber in Washington DC, and New York as well as in San Francisco.

So picture this, we were at the huge StartupRockon, Startup America party last night featuring The Roots and Uber started tweeting away from their special Uber DNC Twitter account. Uber isn’t officially in Tampa or Charlotte but they’ve put together “pop up” Uber shops for both the DNC and the RNC (last week in Tampa).

Anyway, back to the story. I was standing in line and I was actually next for a Taxi when low and behold a small group of people runs out in the street and jumps my cab. When I confront the gentleman in the group about taking my cab he politely tells me to use Uber and gives me one of their “black cards” that we’ve come to know and love here. Well, ok I’ll take that $20 Uber trip and use it in DC or New York. As for tonight though, I found it alarmingly odd that the Uber team was getting in a yellow taxi.

As I had found out earlier in the day Uber was extremely backed up. Around 2pm on Monday afternoon I was able to get an Uber ride with minimal effort and a mild 40 minute wait. Last night though at midnight we started getting messages that Uber was way over capacity and they were sorry.

An email from Max arrived in my box with an additional credit for trying to use Uber last night and failing miserably.

Of course the story here is the great job, no make that phenomenal job Uber has done looking after their customers (except for jacking my taxi last night). It’s that same die hard enthusiasm for their customer base that has them fighting cities around the country so that they can deliver an uber good Uber experience.

As for getting Uber at the convention, it may be tough, but this morning I waited two hours for a cab so do whatever you can and stay hydrated.

Linkage:

More DNC 2012 coverage from Nibletz here

Follow Uber’s pop up shop here @uber_dnc2012

Here’s Uber’s DNC 2012 page

Copenhagen Startup: ClickATaxi Going Global Immediately, INTERVIEW

The transportation hailing app space is a hot one. In the United States the clear winner is Uber. They’ve expanded to many major cities across the country with plans for even more. Uber is being hit with a lot of challenges though because they are utilizing hired limousines and sedans rather than taxis themselves and they operate in a gray area when it comes to taxicab regulations. We actually use Uber quite a bit on the sneaker-strappend nationwide startup road trip.

In the UK, Skype backed HailO is the big taxicab hailing app. They recently received $17 million in funding to expand across the pond to the United States where they will go head to head with Uber.

A new Copenhagen startup is looking to shake up the whole space by launching globally all at one time. ClickATaxi is trying to build a network of worldwide cab drivers to make one all-inclusive app. ClickATaxi CEO and founder, Soren Halskov Nissen, thinks it’s ridiculous for travelers to have to have multiple taxi cab apps and then have to remember which countries or which cities each app works in. By taking on the entire world from the beginning they hope to quickly build scale with travelers.

We got a chance to talk with Nissen in the interview below.

Uber Says F*ck You To Massachusetts Cease & Desist, For Now

Please before you fire off a hate mail telling us that Uber is based in San Francisco (The Valley) we know this already. Since Uber expanded outside of the Valley to “everywhere else” we’ve written about Uber on occasion. They are really great people, and each city office is a corporately owned office, they are actually run more like franchises. Their Washgton DC and New York office are really good to us (disclosure Uber likes what we’re doing on our road trip and supplies us with uber cards when we are in their cities. They care about the rest of “everywhere else” like we do)

Uber has been served with a cease and desist from the Division of Standards of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Division of Standards is using the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a vehicle to try and push their anti Uber agenda. Massachusetts contends that, because the National Institute of Standards and Technology doesn’t have guidelines in place for GPS location technology, Uber can’t legally operate in Boston.

Uber’s says in this blog post, that they’ve had their legal team go over this with a fine tooth comb and they feel that they are not in any kind of violation. As such they plan on continuing to operate in Boston, despite the Cease & Desist, as they have since October 2011.

The sedan hailing app service was recently under fire in Washington DC. On July 11th we reported that Washington DC area cabbies had solicited the help of Washington DC City Councilwoman Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3). Cheh has proposed legislation that would make the minimum fare for an Über ride $15 which is a five times higher than the minimum fare for a normal sanctioned district cab.

By the end of the day that had been squashed as locally based celebrities and even members of congress took to Twitter to defend Uber.

NBC’s Luke Russert took to Twitter to express his dismay:
“I’m willing to bet #DC cabbies after 12am will say, ‘cash only, no credit’ or claim that their credit machine ‘is broken.’” Russert tweeted earlier in the day.

He wasn’t alone, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) tweeted about the issue from his official Twitter handle @Jasoninthehouse, “Uber fans unite! D.C. Council wants to keep fares high. This is wrong! #UberDClove political website rollcall.com reported.

After that public outcry on Twitter Cheh removed the Uber portion of that Taxi bill.

For now Bostonians, fear not as Uber is still in service until the Division of Standards comes with a better argument.

Linkage:

Here’s Uber’s website

Here’s their blog post

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

We’d love your support here

#OMGUBERICECREAM Startup: Über Bringing On Demand Icecream Tomorrow!

It’s national ice cream month and Über has had an eventful week. The San Francisco startup, which operates in several major cities, has decided to make Icecream as easy to order as an Über ride.

Tomorrow (Friday the 13th) if you are in San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, New York or Toronto, and you have the latest version of the Über mobile app for your smartphone you’ll see a button for IceCream. Once you hit it you’ll be able to order an Icecream truck right to your location. Über warns, if your request doesn’t go through just try again there’s plenty of Icecream to go around.

For a $12 charge to your Über connected credit card, you’ll get 5 Icecream treats. Über can’t list every type of Icecream available because their Icecream partners vary by city.

Über describes the process on their blog:

You can request ice cream by selecting the ‘ice cream cone icon’ in your Uber app.

Set the location where you want the ice cream truck to show up and tap ‘request ice cream delivery here.’

You’ll receive an ETA and be able to communicate with the driver.

The ice cream truck will deliver five ice creams (you will have the option to order more when the truck arrives).

We’ll bill your credit card card on file $12 for each bundle you order and hook you up with some sweet Uber swag.

Not only that but if you tweet about it with the hashtag we used in the headline #OMGUBERICECREAM you could win free transportation from Über.

How cool is that?

Linkage:

Here’s uber’s website

Find out more here at uber’s blog

We are on a sneaker-strapped nationwide startup roadtrip!

Washington DC City Council Looking To Price Über Out Of Town?

Back in January what brought you this story about Washington DC’s response to Über moving into town. Über is a mobile app hailing service for affordable limos and town cars.

Although Über is a Silicon Valley based startup, each new market is treated as its own separate company even though they are ultimately all head quartered in San Francisco. The Washington DC unit is by far the one that’s run into the most difficulty.

Über works just about effortlessly in all the markets they are in. You download the app to your smartphone and tell the app where you are. From there an indecent network driver is dispatched to you. You pay via the app so no cash needs to change hands. In DC, New York and San Francisco I’ve never waited more than 15 minutes for an uber ride.

Well as we reported back in January the taxicab drivers in Washington DC have had a major a problem since Über put up roots in Washington DC’s DuPont Circle neighborhood.

DC cabbies (which have even had a movie made about them starring Mr. T) were furious over the business they would possibly lose to Uber who according to the DC Taxicab Association, operates under a loop hole and should have to be licensed the same way limos are.

Now it appears the cabbies have enlisted the help of Washington DC City Councilwoman Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3). Cheh has proposed legislation that would make the minimum fare for an Über ride $15 which is a five times higher than the minimum fare for a normal sanctioned district cab.

After the outcry on Twitter Cheh removed the Über portion of a proposed taxi bill from the legislation.

Rollcall also reported that lifetime DC political figure, former Mayor who was busted smoking crack while in office in January of 1990, wasn’t a fan of Über either. The Washington Post’s Tim Craig tweeted: “Marion Barry said he’s opposed to Uber because its a ‘San Francisco-based company’ and cab drivers ‘don’t need limousines coming in here.’”

Linkage:

Find out more about Über here

Source: rollcall.com

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

It would be more than totally awesome if you helped us out here.

So What’s The Big Deal About Amsterdam Startup: Karma

(photo: TheVerge)

The tech based interwebs typically go hog wild anytime Josh Topolsky and the crew at The Verge write about anything. It’s just about the same reaction when Michael Arrington suggests something on Twitter. 90% of the time both Arrington and the Verge are right about what they are writing about. But as far as I’m concerned, not this time.

An Amsterdam based startup called “Karma” was in the spring class of TechStars New York and presented on Thursday morning during TechStars NY Demo day.

Their product was actually pretty cool, and under a different set of circumstances, or maybe two years ago, it would have been a game changer. But really, it’s not. Combine that with the fact that they lied on stage during their demo day presentation and we’re quickly called out by Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick, and well, maybe they should just go back to Amsterdam.

But before we get into the lies, the cars and the planes… let’s talk about why fundamentally this is a stupid idea, in 2012.

Karma is a “hot spot” sharing startup. According to their pitch deck they promote what they are calling “social telecom”. It works like this. The actual user purchases a re-packaged Sprint/Clearwire Overdrive miff portable hotspot for $69 from Karma. They then pay as they go $14 per gig for internet.

Then, they share their wifi with complete strangers. Now it’s pretty secure that’s not the issue. When a sharer signs onto XX persons Karma mi-fi they are taken to an “about” page about the owner of the hotspot, perhaps you can do some of your own advertising or invite them to see pictures of your dog.

The “sharer” signs into the miff using their Facebook and they are given 100mb of internet on that particular mifi. The person who’s miff they are on is given a matching, free 100mb. So potentially if you let 10 people sign on per week through their Facebook you’re earning an extra GB in free internet from Karma.

Now statistics show that the average Joe uses 221mb of internet a month so it’s really not a bad deal on the surface.

Why don’t I like it? Well first off it’s Clearwire’s WiMax service. In June 2012 unless you live under a bridge in the arctic circle you know that Clearwire nor Sprint is taking on the daunting task of building out any more wi-max network. That faux G is over and making way for LTE.

Clearwire most likely has no interest in this partnership with Karma for their LTE product which is still a good ways away.

Now secondly, it may be against something you didn’t read in the Clearwire TOS, in fact it probably is, but there’s nothing that says you can’t sell your wifi/mifi password for say $2.00 or $5.00 to a colleague or friend. If you get a couple of those guys, then you’re paying your whole internet bill in no time.

Then there’s that whole issue of Facebook, and tracking and data going back to Facebook, Karma, Clearwiere and everybody’s partners.

Next is, how do you go about sharing this anyway. Do you sit down in Central Park and say “Hey Bro, you can get on my wifi, all you gotta do is sign in through Facebook”, yeah that doesn’t sound the last bit shady.

Now we may not have to worry about Karma. They lied on the stage at TechStars Demo day today and it didn’t slip past the great crew over at Betabeat.

Reportedly (and now admittedly), Karma’s CEO Robert Gaal, stood on the stage at Demo Day and said that they had already forged partnerships with ride sharing startup Uber and American Airlines. Whoops….

Apparently their partnership with Uber was a total lie and Kalanick quickly took to Twitter to correct Mr.Gaal with these tweets (source:BetaBeat)

Gaal failed miserably at trying to diffuse the situation and then eventually took to Tumblr to all but admit he was lying and not just about Uber about American Airlines too. Gaal said on Tumblr:

We apologize profusely for claiming Uber and American Airlines are working with us – a statement we never received explicit permission to use. And we apologize to TechStars and the whole TechStars community. We did not mean to overstate anything or unfairly take advantage of the network and the opportunities it has opened up for us.

The Verge and their comment community hypothesized that for Karma to be truly successful in the United States, they would need to partner with one of the major carriers, after today’s spectacular Demo Day performance, that’s not likely happening.

Linkage:

I mean if you want to, you can check out Karma here

Here’s the source piece from the Verge

And the story about the mistruths from BetaBeat

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” here are more stories from “everywhere else”

Brother can you spare a Big Mac?

DC Startup: Hitch An Uber Alternative To Taxicabs VIDEO

We were asked several times at the TechCocktail event Thursday night who our favorite startup was at TechBUZZ earlier in the week. In my opinion it was a three way tie between Syllabuster, Cont3nt and Hitchrides.com

Hitchrides.com is another alternative source for transportation in the form of an app. It blends crowdsourcing, social networks and transportation. Hitch is good for the environment and for the user.

David H Miller the founder of Hitch says that Hitch is a way for drivers to make money whether they are driving to or from work, down the street, around town or a long ways away. It’s like the ride-share section of Craigslist but safer, more efficient and for money.

more after the break
Read More…

Uber: Mobile Web App launched for those “other OSes” Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry

Yesterday Uber announced on their blog that they would begin to support Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 devices (and beyond, whatever that means). With the launch of m.uber.com users of the once dominant and almost relevant Operating Systems can finally take advantage of one of my personal favorite startups.

Prior to the mobile app being launched it was not possible to order a cab through devices other than iOS or Android, before that even Android was waiting in line (pun intended). Uber said in their blog post,

We’re excited to announce that our latest product, m.uber.com has been built with love and care for BlackBerry, Windows Phone and beyond! We want to make the Uber experience available to everyone, regardless of phone or carrier. That’s why we’ve introduced mobile web requests to let you request an Uber at any time from any phone……And when you make requests, you can also save favorite locations for places you frequently request from, such as home or work.

We recently stopped in to Uber’s Washington DC office but did not get a chance to spend any time talking to them about their expansion into new cities nor could we discuss the full-blown assault by the DC Taxi Cab Association. We are huge fans of the service though and we have been keeping a close eye on when they will be invading my hometown of Philadelphia. If you are in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, Seattle, Chicago, Toronto, or New York and you haven’t used Uber yet….you should. It’s that good.