October 27th, 2009
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A new generation of database products and companies is beginning to emerge, and one of the more interesting examples is Swedish-based Neo Technology, the developer and vendor of the neo4j graph based database (graph in the data structure sense). The neo4j product has been in development for over 8 years, and Neo Technology are today announcing a new $2.5M round of funding. The company has been developing the neo4j project as a commercial product, and is now taking it to market with a dual-license model.
Written by Nik Cubrilovic on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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Last May we wrote about a new company called Crash Corp that was being formed by Digg’s long-time Chief Architect Joe Stump and Social Thing founder Matt Galligan, who were looking to build alternate reality mobile games. Over the last six months a lot has changed: the team has changed the company name to SimpleGeo, and they’re now building something that’s entirely different, and significantly more ambitious: an infrastructure that other applications can use to easily build location-based applications.
The new company caught our interest when we learned that AOL’s former chief life streamer David Liu had invested in the company. Stump and Galligan declined to comment on the company just yet (they’ll be launching at Under The Radar next month) but we were able to glean some information from Under The Radar’s directory of presenters.
SimpleGeo is ready-to-use location infrastructure. They currently have three products: a geo-spatial Context Engine, Storage Engine and a comprehensive SDK. The SimpleGeo Context Engine enables application developers to quickly and easily get relevant information about specific locales including (but not limited to) ZIP codes, real-time weather, and geo-tagged media. Additionally, the SimpleGeo Storage Engine makes it possible to store and query location data in a scalable fashion, as well as perform complicated geospatial operations effortlessly.
Located in Boulder, CO
It sounds like SimpleGeo is looking to become something analogous to an “AWS for location”. And that may well be a very smart move — Location based services are clearly about to explode as more mobile devices support GPS and fast internet connections. And you can be sure that the new startups and services that emerge won’t want to have to reinvent the wheel whenever they want to integrate location into their app. We’ll be keeping an eye for more on this one soon.
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Written by Jason Kincaid on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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Wireless networking company Aruba Networks is the latest business to adopt a software-as-a-service model. Today, it’s announcing AirWave OnDemand, an online service for monitoring your company’s network.
Bryan Wargo, general manager of Aruba’s AirWave division (Aruba acquired AirWave last year), said the demand for network management software — which lets users check the status of their wireless devices and spot problems — is growing beyond large, enterprise-scale companies, but many of the organizations “can’t necessarily afford the same type of infrastructure.” The traditional model of buying servers, installing software, and managing the system is too expensive if you’re a small business, he said.
AirWave OnDemand offers the same features as AirWave’s standard software, but it’s easier and cheaper for a small organization to get started. The service uses a virtual private network (VPN) to connect your wireless devices to Aruba’s data center. Potential customers include educational institutions, hospitals, small businesses, larger companies with multiple locations, and big-box retail stores.
And when Aruba expands its customer base to network management software, it isn’t the only company that benefits, Wargo said.
“What we’re excited about is our reseller community using this as a platform for their own managed services,” he said.
AirWave OnDemand will cost $10 per device per month, and will be generally available in December.
Written by Anthony Ha on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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Nexus Venture Partners has invested $4 million in Vdopia, a San Jose-based company that serves video ads to iPhone users while their apps are downloading from the App Store.
Vdopia has developed a way to serve these videos in a format called “pre-app” that is perfect for placing a brand-reinforcing ad that accompanies the app. It’s a lot like watching Hulu. Watch the demo video here to see how it looks on the iPhone. Vdopia can also serve “in-app” ads built directly into the app. What’s important is that the user isn’t sent off somewhere else. Everything appears to work within the app.
Vdopia believes mobile ads done right may beat TV ads. That’s a big claim, and Vdopia puts question marks and parentheses around it. But the comparative table they sent me — click the thumbnail at right to see it full-size — suggests that there are reasons advertisers are excited about mobile opportunities right now.
The chart at right shows how radical a difference the embedded pre-app approach is: Vdopia’s video ads for the iPhone register a 400 percent boost in clickthrough rates over internet in-stream ads. iVdopia, the platform’s name, works best with brand-reinforcing ads tied to the app being downloaded, which is why the clickthrough rates are much higher.
Vdopia claims its ad network already serves more than 100 million visitors every month. The company specifically focuses on brand-centric advertising. Its Brand Connect program offers multiple ad formats across multiple internet TV channels, and promises “brand-safe content” that won’t be embarrassing to the advertiser in question.
But wait there’s more! Vdopia also has a new CEO. Rohit Sharma is not the cricket player with the same name. He was EVP and CTO of optical switch maker ONI Systems, which Ciena bought in 2002.
Written by Paul Boutin on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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Foursquare and Loopt have put location-based social networks on the map, and have potentially created a viable business model as well. Now there’s a new kid on the block, called Stalqer, which best described as a Foursquare on steroids. The iPhone app, which will be free, should hit the app store in the next few hours.
In theory, Stalqer is very similar to Foursquare in that it tracks your and your friends’ locations and broadcasts this information via the application and through push notifications. But one of the key differentiators is the fact that Stalqer updates the location in the background, which Foursquare, and most other apps, don’t do at the moment. This is because the device does not allow third party apps to run in the background. But Stalqer has found a way to record your location without you having to actually open up the application. So how does Stalqer do it?
The app sets up an email account which operates in the background, and collects large amount of data out of the POP or IMAP handshake relevant to location, primarily via the IP address. Stalqer’s founder Mick Johnson also tells me that the app contains iPhone configuration profiles that make it easy to install an email account pointing to Stalqer’s servers on the user’s iPhone. So when the phone checks for mail, the app gets a location point, which Johnson says happens on average, every 15 minutes.
Loopt has also found a work-around the whole background update issue by partnering with other companies in the mobile industry for an “Always-On Location Service (which costs users $3.99 per month).
In addition to background functionality, Stalqer lets you import your Facebook friends, via Facebook Connect, to the app. If your friends have made their general location public via Facebook, The app then syncs your friends with your iPhone contacts and will then show you where your friends are. So, Stalqer will basically pull any public information about your friend (i.e. what city they live in) and show where the friends is on your application, if if they haven’t downloaded the app. At the moment, you cannot see anyone on Stalqer who is not your friend on Facebook.
You can see your friends’ locations via a list format and on a detailed, high quality map. Similar to FourSquare, you can check into listed locations rather then just the app recording your location via an IP address. Stalqer has close to a half million bars and restaurants listed in the U.S and you can add locations as well. Stalqer will steadily add non-U.S. locations in the future. The app is actually missing one of the key gaming aspects of FourSquare—the ability to collect badges or mayorships. Since the app operates in conjunction with an email account and your address book, it allows you to conduct a conversation with your Stalqer friends within the app. The app also features an augmented reality view of your friends’ locations. And while Slaqer is only available for the iPhone, Johnson is hoping to roll out versions for the Blackberry and Android in the future.
So for me, the key issue with this app is privacy. The background location technology is certainly innovative but I really feel strange about Facebook friends knowing where I am at all times, even if I have not started up the app on my phone. Privacy has been an issue with Foursquare and I suspect that it will become an issue for Stalqer.
But Johnson says that Stalqer has very powerful security settings that let you specify whether you want your location broadcasted and you can also indicate specific friends who can see your check-ins. Plus you can make sure the app only shows your greater surround area (i.e. San Francisco) vs. your exact location within the city. And you can make customer lists with close family and friends who can see your detailed whereabouts.
At the moment, Stalqer isn’t monetizing the app because Johnson is waiting to see if the app will gain popularity. And Johnson adds that Stalqer is aimed towards a younger crowd (which is apparent from it’s demo video), who may not be as concerned with the privacy issues.
Stalqer seems to be focused exclusively on broadcasting background location and tapping into your social graph via Facebook whereas Foursquare’s new app includes gaming, Twitter integration and a few more bells and whistles. But Foursquare is addictive and Stalqer could be too, if you really want to stalk your Facebook friends. Of course, Facebook is rumored to be launching their own location based technologies, so it should be interesting to see how that effects Stalqer.
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Written by Leena Rao on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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Mission Bay Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm focusing on seed-stage investments in biotech companies spun out of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences and the University of California, announced that it closed its new fund, its first, at $7.5 millon.
Counting Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, John Wadsworth Jr. of Manitou Ventures, and Pfizer among its limited partners, the firm says it will be giving 20 percent of the profit it makes on its portfolio companies back to the University in order to endow the Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, also known as QB3.
Written by Camille Ricketts on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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As the endless brouhaha ringing from all corners of the Internet has proven, AT&T (or Apple, or whoever takes the blame in the end) really dropped the ball on this Google Voice thing. Whether it was rejected outright or shelved indefinitely, competing parties have been quick to play on their delays.
First, Palm essentially put third-party Google Voice dialer gDialPro on its shoulders and carried it across the finish line by ensuring that it was one of the first (and still one of just a few) applications to land on the webOS App Catalog. Now, Sprint has come along and done something rare: they’ve dropped long-established fees. With Google Voice’s new keep-your-number feature in mind, Sprint will be doing away with the call forwarding fees associated with third-party voicemail services come mid-November.
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Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Written by Greg Kumparak on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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RingCube Technologies, maker of operating system virtualization software that facilitates more portable computing, is offering $211,000 worth of rights and securities, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Mountain View, Calif., the company is backed by Mohr Davidow Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. It last raised funds in 2007, bringing in $12 million. In 2006, it took in a first round of funding totaling $4 million.
Written by Camille Ricketts on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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Dilithium Networks, provider of converged video services for wireless internet and mobile applications, has brought in $10.9 million of an $18.1 million round of equity and securities, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Petaluma, Calif., the company is backed by CM Capital Investments, Deutsche Bank, Infocomm Investments, Jafco Ventures, Motorola Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners. The company has now raised close to $44 million in capital to date, including $8 million bagged in June.
Written by Camille Ricketts on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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Response Logix, maker of software deigned to help car dealers catch and respond to online leads within ten minutes and offer reasonable quotes, has raised $5.6 million in a round of venture financing led by Emergence Capital Partners and including AH Belo, Belo, GRP Ventures and Shasta Ventures, reports Dow Jones VentureWire. Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company also helps dealers keep in touch and follow up with their customers to improve their customer service ratings.
Written by Camille Ricketts on October 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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