Star Wreck Studios builds permanent community for collaborative movie making
If you’ve heard of the movie Star Wreck, then you’re already familiar with Star Wreck Studio’s operating procedure: Take a community of thousands of online movie-making buffs, and have them collaborate on a feature-length film.
Star Wreck, a $20,000 film, is said to be the… Continue Reading
Robot Asimo judges rock-scissors-paper contests
Honda’s humanoid robot Asimo has taken another step on its way to become human-like. Actually, make that superhuman-like. Asimo, which resembles a small astronaut, doesn’t only dance, serve coffee and conduct operas, but now can judge rock-paper-scissors contests.
The judging is made possible by Asimo’s new… Continue Reading
The Ozone Man raises seed funding for air cleaning service
The Ozone Man Inc, a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based start up, has raised $350,000. The company offers ultraviolet ozone generators, using the ozone to clean the air of pollution, odors and bacteria
A customer can buy the Ozone Man Deep Cleaning service, starting from $395, after… Continue Reading
Startup Senseg promises “game changing” tactile technology
Imagine this: an iPhone with a keyboard you can actually feel, even though there are no physical keys.
That’s the goal that many mobile phone suppliers including Apple would love to reach. Touch and feel screens in mobile phones are already available, at least from Samsung and LG, but… Continue Reading
Planet 9 Studios’ RayGun could make GPS fun
Can someone build a GPS system that’s not a boring necessity and instead is a fun way to socialize with your friends? That’s what Planet 9 Studios, a San Francisco startup, wants to accomplish with RayGun, a GPS navigation and social networking application. It is… Continue Reading
Gay Ad Network makes a river from small streams, while PlanetOut struggles
This is a tale of two niche advertising companies: One is a young company planning on a bright future, and the other is an older company that once had such a future. Both target the gay and lesbian audience.
Gay Ad Network, a newcomer in gay-focused… Continue Reading
California environmental advisor Terry Tamminen on trains, energy efficiency, Al Gore and more
Terry Tamminen is the former top environmental advisor of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is also former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He has a reputation for having “turned Arnie green”.
Tamminen left his post as permanent advisor in 2006 but says he… Continue Reading
Nokia develops navigating system based on image recognition, landmarks
Nokia, the world’s biggest mobile phone supplier, is developing a new kind of navigation instruction system for mobile phones. With landmark-based navigation you won’t even need to know your address or cross streets to get directions. You just take a picture of a nearby landmark,… Continue Reading
Engage’s new dating service: Fall in love – or be publicly embarrassed?
Would you invite friends to an online dating service, to help you in your escapades?
Engage, a San Mateo-based startup, believes you will. Friends are helpful in connecting you with dates in the offline world, so the idea is they’ll vouch for you online as well…. Continue Reading
SiBEAM delivers high-definition wireless adapters this year, raises $40M
SiBEAM, a company developing technology to stream high definition video more quickly than any existing technology, has raised $40 million in third round of funding.
The financing was led by New Enterprise Associates. The other firms backing up SiBEAM are Foundation Capital and U.S. Venture Partners.
SiBEAM,… Continue Reading
Family network site Sampa raises $1M
Sampa, a Redmond, Wash.-based company offering a family networking service, has gotten a $1 million investment from more than 10 investors, including Seattle angel investor Geoff Entress and former executives at Micorsoft, Netscape and Lightsurf.
Sampa is a free service for families to share blogs, pictures, stories,… Continue Reading
Robotics start-up Willow Garage believes open source OS will soon put robots in our homes
If Menlo Park-based start-up Willow Garage has its way, in just a few years you’ll be able to hire a robot to come and clean your house once a week.
The company is building open-source robots and giving them away to university research groups in an attempt… Continue Reading