Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

T-Mobile Shows It’s Serious About Minnesota, “Not Slowing Down”

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Everyone loves a challenger, and T-Mobile sure seems to be enjoying that role, as much here in Minnesota as anywhere. Yesterday, Steve Borsch and I had the opportunity to sit down with Tim Adams, the carrier’s new VP/GM for Minnesota and Wisconsin (see June 2 news), and have a wide-ranging chat with about T-Mobile’s plans and their latest 4G offerings. Tim has impressive executive experience in tech and retail, and was virtually bubbling with excitement about new T-Mobile’s initiatives in Minnesota and new offerings from the company to keep up, or ahead, of the big guys.

You might think the most important thing happening in T-Mobile’s world would be AT&T’s impending (but not yet approved) deal to acquire the company, and that was of course the first question we brought up with Adams.  Naturally, he could provide no more information than what’s been publicly announced. But he had much more to talk about. “We’re not slowing down. We’re not waiting for the acquisition,” he said. “Minnesota is a very important market for us, and we continue investing heavily and adding staff here.”  Across the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, T-Mobile has invested more than $43 million in continuous network upgrades since the start of 2010, according to Adams, and now has more than 350 cell sites operating 4G service in the Twin Cities area.

Which brings me to the most exciting news that T-Mobile was announcing yesterday:  T-Mobile’s Faster 4G Network Now Available in the Twin Cities — America’s Largest 4G Network is now twice as fast in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  Its super-fast “HSPA+42” (as in Mbps) network is now available “in the majority of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area,” the company’s release said, and customers will experience “speeds twice as fast as T-Mobile’s current 4G network on compatible devices.”  Before you start hyper-ventilating, it also states this:  the recently introduced Rocket® 3.0 laptop stick, its first HSPA+ 42-capable device, offers “average download speeds on our HSPA+ 42 network approaching 10Mbps, with peak speeds of 27 Mbps.”  Okay, it”s not 42 — but, trust me, I’ll take it!  …  [Read More…]

Event: “Mining the Mega Mobile Opportunities”

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Rob Weber from W3i just gave me a heads-up on what looks like a fabulous mobile event occurring this Wednesday evening. Here are the details:

What: TiE Minnesota in conjunction with the St. Thomas Graduate Programs in Software and the sponsorship of MentorMate is bringing together premier leaders in the Minnesota mobile community to address “Mining the Mega Mobile Opportunity.”

Who: TiE Minnesota is the local chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (“About” page) and St. Thomas Graduate Programs in Software (see speaker/presenters here)

When: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 from 6:30 – 9pm

Where: 3M auditorium is in Owens Science Hall (OWS) room no. 150 (Map)

Cost: Charter Member $15.00; Member $15.00; Student Member $10.00; Non Member $35.00

More details: and to register, go here.

Minnov8 Gang 126 – iShivani at Apple’s WWDC

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The Gang chats with Shivani Khanna (LinkedIn; Twitter), Software Development Manager at W3i, who was at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) this week and is reporting on what transpired, what she thought about key announcements, and more.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: “Sugar Rush” by Beau Hall via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:45 — 31.9MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Minnov8 Gang 115 – Mobile March Marchers Marching

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Due to the overwhelming success of the Mobile March Twin Cities event this past Saturday with 250 attendees—and the surprisingly excellent previous evening’s Mobile 3D event—very strong evidence now exists that Minnesota has both world-class mobile developers and business users embracing mobile development and mobile use. (Note: photo on the right was modified from this TwitPic taken at the event by Stewy1000).

That old black and white photo above of the woman holding some sort of portable videophone is from this surprisingly prescient Modern Mechanix article from 1956 that starts out with this:

“ON SOME night in the future a young man walking along Market Street in San Francisco may suddenly think of a friend in Rome. Reaching into his pocket, he will pull out a watch-size disc with a set of buttons on one side. He will punch ten times. Turning the device over, he will hear his friend’s voice and see his face on a tiny screen, in color and 3-D. At the same moment his friend in Rome will see and hear him.“

We can now laugh at how quaint this seems coming from a 1956 perspective, but when you think of the collision of technologies available to us today (e.g., GPS; fast wireless networks; Wifi; voice apps w/video; tools to develop and create apps) and the huge numbers of people rapidly acquiring mobile devices that are ‘always on and always connected’, you can understand why so many ‘marchers’ were marching forward at Mobile March. See the full 1956 Modern Mechanix article, scanned and on their blog, here.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: David Bennett Cohen is the artist & the song is “Blues for a Summer’s Dream” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

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Discussed during the show:

Minnov8 Gang 114 – Racing Toward Our Mobile Future

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If you pay any attention to technology news you know that we’re racing toward a mobile future that is already changing how we interact with one another, figure out where to eat, how to get the best deal and, in short, how to effectively be connected to the world.

Joining us on this episode of the Minnov8 Gang is Justin Grammens, co-Founder at Recursive Awesome, LLC, owner of Localtone, LLC founder of the Mobile Twin Cities User’s Group, and co-founder of Mobile March. Justin covers the startups that will be demonstrating their mobile apps next Friday evening (the night before Saturday’s MobileMarchTC) during the Mobile 3D event.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: John Gilliat is the artist & the song is “Nylon Heat” via the podsafe Music Alley.

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 56:22 — 32.7MB)

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Discussed during the show:

Upcoming Events:

Twin Cities Premier Mobile Event

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The Twin Cities premier mobile event, Mobile March, will be here in just a few weeks. It’s a day long event dedicated to exploring the latest in mobile technology and trends. The name Mobile March not only denotes the month in which it takes place, it also emphasizes the ongoing advancement and growth of mobile technology and the related lifestyle. If the attendance is as big as last year’s event—and is already shaping up to be more well-attended than 2010’s with even the preliminary agenda looking stronger—it will sell out very quickly. Registering now is the smart choice and you can do so here.

Founded by Justin Grammens, Phil Wilson and Linda Cummings in 2010, they point out the essence of the event on their website, “…Mobile March offers two tracks of learning; Mobile Development and Mobile Business. By offering content that appeals to mobile developers, business people, and users we also hope to facilitate a greater understanding between the constituencies that make mobile happen.  Whether you make money with mobile or just use it to stay connected, we invite you to join us for Mobile March.“

If you’re keeping track of the explosion in mobile devices (and networks like Verizon beefing up their networks with 4G) then you’ll instantly understand why this is such a timely and important event for you to attend.

When: Saturday, March 19, 2011, 8am – 4:30pm
(cocktail party begins at 4:30pm)

Where: Best Buy Headquarters Campus

Register Here

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…]

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…]

Internet Trends at Web 2.0 Summit

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By now you’ve undoubtedly seen much from last week’s Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. As internet/web/mobile people, it’s always incredibly enlightening to see Mary Meeker from Morgan Stanley deliver her Web 2.0 Summit “State of the Internet” talk (slides as PDF here or embedded–simply click “more” under the video).

It’s always great to see her in action (view below) as well as to see all the videos from the Web 2.0 Summit playlist from O’Reilly & Associates.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yL9yrttESI

Take a look at the presentation embedded as a slide show–>…  [Read More…]

Minnov8 Gang 100th Podcast

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Wednesday night the Minnov8 Gang gathered at Chino Latino for our 100th podcast. Set up by Phil Wilson with the gracious participation by Christopher Lower (who arranged things with the restaurant), it was a fun and lively evening with good conversation the result.

When Minnov8 was founded in 2008, Dan Grigsby and Garrick Van Buren joined Steve, Tim, Graeme and Phil in building the foundation. Both joined us for this podcast. Our guests for this milestone show included Lisa Foote and Brad Roberts of MixMobi; Christopher Lower of Sterling Cross; and our “fifth Beatle” Julio Ojeda Zapata.

Lisa Foote; Garrick Van Buren; Christopher Lower; Dan Grigsby; Julio Ojeda Zapata

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Asymmetry & their song “Next Time Around” via the podsafe Music Alley.

Recording the podcast at Chino Latino. Photo compiled from several taken by Julio (click for larger view)

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The Podcast

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:16:32 — 44.0MB)

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