Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Archives for December 2010

Minnov8 Gang 105 – 2011 Tech Predictions

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The Gang once again discusses our predictions for the new year. If you listened to last year’s show, you’ll know that Phil predicted we’d see parachute pants make a comeback, but alas they did not and Phil still has to wear much tighter and more restrictive trousers than he’d prefer.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Opening version of the New Year’s Eve favorite Auld Lang Syne was performed by J.E.L.L.i., and the closing version of the song was performed by Mario Ajero. Both made possible by the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 52:26 — 30.4MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Happy Holidays from the Minnov8 Gang!

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We’ll be back with our final Minnov8 Gang podcast of the year on December 31st, our “2011 Predictions” show.  That is, we’ll be back if we’re not hit by some drunk guy driving a sleigh out of the sky tonight.

W3i Having a Merry Christmas After Launching Recharge Studios and ‘Dolphin Play’ Game

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W3i, one of the most successful Internet startups ever in the state of Minnesota, has launched Recharge Studios, which is both a mobile app launch fund for game developers and an app publishing business — and also the first product of that unit, a social game for the the Apple iOS platform called “Dolphin Play.” The announcement was recently covered by several sites, including Inside Social Games, 148Apps, and Pocket Gamer. (More below on what it all means for Minnesota developers, in the words of W3i’s Rob Weber.)

The St. Cloud, MN-based W3i, founded in the late 1990s by the three Weber brothers — Ryan, Rob, and Aaron (the latter has since left to launch another startup) — now has some 70 employees, boasts 33 consecutive quarters of profitability, and is on an annual revenue run-rate in excess of $30 million. CEO Andy Johnson added big-company experience when he joined the company a few years ago, having run the Internet business of Fingerhut, before that company was acquired in 1999 for $1.7 billion by Federated Department Stores. W3i’s business is all about helping app developers increase their user base — read: get more downloads. Until recently, that primarily meant Windows desktop apps (more than 400 million app installs to date). But, in the summer of 2010, W3i made a significant entry into the mobile app distribution business (iOS initially, natch) with the launch of its Apperang business.  (Minnov8 coverage here.)

In parallel with kicking off Recharge Studios, W3i announced that Dolphin Play, its first mobile social game, is now available in the App Store.  It’s based on “the Internet’s most downloaded screensaver, Living 3D Dolphins.” The company said it launched its all-new, free-to-play simulation game to be “just in time for the holidays.” (And I gotta say, I’m loving Santa in scuba gear today!) The company knows what it’s talking about when it comes to screensavers, because its original name was Freeze.com, which is still a thriving site it runs where consumers can get free screensavers and other downloads for Windows machines. In its latest announcement, W3i said the Living 3D Dolphins screensaver “provides a visually stunning backdrop for Recharge Studios’ debut game.” …  [Read More…]

Winner of “iPad Means Business”

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As mentioned on our podcast “Minnov8 Gang 104 – We Are All Virtual Now“, listeners who emailed in with the code word (it was ‘zap’) would be entered in a drawing to win a copy of Julio Ojeda Zapata’s new-hot-off-the-presses book “iPad Means Business“.

Our winner? Jim Roots (@jbroots) from St. Paul. Among other adventures, Jim and his wife Stephanie run AvaBava Designs, a business they started due to her passion for creating fun accessories including hair clips, headbands, super-hero masks and flower hats for children, and since Jim had business, marketing and his own creative passions that would nicely round out what a startup like theirs would require.

The business began and quickly evolved after a chance encounter when a children’s store owner spotted their daughter wearing a floral headband Stephanie had made.  The owner wanted to know if she would make more floral headbands for her to sell in her shop, so she did, and they now also sell her wares on the wildly successful “makers and buyers” site Etsy. Take a peek at their very fun, creative and beautiful products here.

After connecting with Jim to let him know he’d won—and asking if he’d send along his address so Julio could ship him the book—Jim sent along this very nice email to Tim, Graeme, Phil and I which I just had to share:

Steve and the Minnov8 crew,

Thank you! I’m excited about the book! As requested I shared a note with Julio with my address. You guys do a fantastic job with the show and thank you for bringing light to the wealth of creative digital talent in the Twin Cities.

BTW – I reconnected with Graeme at a Best Buy/STAR Collaborative event a few months ago to hear thoughts from Larry Lieberman on social media. Graeme – you are a hoot! I’m looking forward to talking with you again soon and welcome the chance to meet with the whole crew. After we met I went through your podcast archives and really enjoyed the tour. You guys are now the highlight of my commute.

Thanks again for the book and I’m also looking forward to hearing your 2011 tech predictions.

Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year!

Jim

Most importantly to me—and since I get so much teasing on my music selections that kick off and wrap up the podcast—I truly appreciated Jim adding a “P.S.” at the end of his note that said, “Steve, Keep picking out those killer blues tracks!” You bet I will, Jim.  😉

Minnov8 Gang 104 – We Are All Virtual Now

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Joining us on this week’s show (a longer-than-usual one but we’re off next week returning 12/31/10) is Julio Ojeda Zapata to discuss his new book “iPad means business.” It documents how the touch-screen device is becoming a lifesaver anywhere people need to get a job done. The book tells the stories of tablet-wielding workers, companies, students and teachers. Joining us mid-show is Don Ball, co-founder of CoCoMSP, partner in PolymerStudios, and a guy who is a thought leader about coworking. We talk about the event he attended in San Francisco on this topic and more. Rounding out the show is our call to the mobile phone of Lisa Grimm (@lulugrimm) Digital Public Relations Specialist at Mall of America (@MallofAmerica), who was outside the mall with her colleagues (photo) running the Twitter-followers-only Big Secret Parking Party.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Dom Duff & the song “March Azur” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:15:47 — 44.1MB)

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Discussed during the show:

FCC: 68% of Broadband Connections NOT Broadband

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just released an 87 page report entitled, “Internet Access Services: Status as of December 31, 2009” (PDF). What this report reveals—that 68% of so-called “broadband” internet connections don’t meet the FCC’s new minimum standard of 4 megabits per second (mbps) download and 1mbps upload—should be taken in to consideration whether you’re an internet or web-based developer, a company delivering ever-richer and more robust services (i.e., bandwidth intensive ones) or are just curious about the true state of broadband in the United States.

Though many people who have commented here on Minnov8, through Twitter to our account (or our personal ones) seem truly excited when reports in 2007 showed the U.S. exceeded 50% of households had broadband. Then that excitement is tempered with reports like this one stating “U.S. Broadband: Still Expensive; Still Underwhelming” compared to the rest of the world.

But it wasn’t until this FCC comprehensive analysis appeared this week that a clearer picture of the true state of broadband penetration appeared. Take a look at Figure 1(a) from the report (after the jump) and you’ll note that over 92 million of the 133 million U.S. households with broadband have download speeds between 6mbps and 3mbps with 58% of the total having less than 3mbps download speed!

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Minnov8 Gang 103 – Surfin’ the Cloud

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The Gang talks Dell buying Compellent; Google Zeitgeist; and much more. Our guest this week is none other than the CTO of Visi, Jason Baker, who talks about becoming the first Tier III design certified commercial data center in Minnesota as well as what’s coming soon with ReliaCloud.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Kahuna Kawentzmann & the song “Late Bird” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:15 — 37.4MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Startup Spotlight: Drivetrain

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Minnesota, developer, entrepreneur, and tech catalyst, Dan Grigsby, has joined forces with Tom Brice and Pete Schwamb to launch a mobile, social and web application development agency. Drivetrain’s kick off event was held at Pizza Luce in Minneapolis. In a unique approach the launch party went beyond the normal “all about us” agenda, that any launch party should be, to include collecting food for Second Harvest. Kudos to Dan and his team who report they received enough food for a thousand meals for local families in need.

Here’s Dan talking Drivetrain and offering a little insight into 2011. Tis the season for making predictions for next year.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DfQXQLIsX8

Minnov8 Gang 102 – Mostly Soupy, Trivial Sales

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This week we’re delighted to have on Julio Ojeda Zapata from the Pioneer Press to talk about Verizon’s 4G wireless rollout as well as Johnee Bee, celebrating his 200th Mostly Trivial podcast and, though it didn’t come up on the podcast, we later discovered that Mostly Trivial has an iPhone app! (iTunes link).

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson (Graeme Thickins is off this week)
Music: LA Big Daddys & their song “Why I Sing the Blues” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:25 — 34.7MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Waiting for a Better Price Before Purchasing at Best Buy? Now You Don’t Have to – There’s an App for That

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Ever been burned buying a consumer electronics product right before a price reduction and wished you’d have waited?  Or, how many times have you been burned and not even known it?  Now there’s a solution for both these problems: it’s called Gazaro Protect.  Gazaro is a company that’s been developing a cloud-based, realtime retail pricing platform for several years, using artificial intelligence technology, and is focused initially on consumer electronics. Today, it announced its new pricing protection service, including an iPhone app.

Maybe you’re thinking you missed out on the best prices on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Well, get this: Gazaro’s research shows average pricing on featured products at Best Buy during the 2009 Holiday Season was actually lower in the week before December 25 than it was on Black Friday or Cyber Monday (see chart).  One in three products dropped in price during the holiday season, with an average price drop of about 15%.  Gazaro says its new service helps you take advantage of these price drops.

How does it work?  Using either Gazaro’s web site or its new iPhone app, Gazaro Protect lets consumer electronics shoppers lock in the lowest prices by letting them know when a price drops after they buy, so they can then go get money back. It’s a free web service and mobile app that automatically notifies you of these money-saving price adjustments after you buy. The net advantage, Gazaro says, is you get last-minute holiday prices without having to fight the crowds, or risk a product being sold out if you wait too long. 

…  [Read More…]