By night, Jay writes for TechCrunch and has been contributing to the blog since 2009.
By day, he manages Digital Strategy for Alliance Data. Prior to that, he held Art Director and Designer jobs at GSW Worldwide and Resource Interactive leading interaction design and mobile prototype projects.
You can reach reach him at jaydonovan at crunchgear dot com.
With tablets and smartphones consuming more and more video content, a new app for Android simply called “PAUL” aims to ease that ever-increasing network strain by using a predictive cache/download algorithm.
Similar to peak-shaving in electrical grids, PAUL begins to predict your video consumption habits and downloads videos that it thinks you’ll like, whenever you’re logged into a WiFi… → Read More
ChoreMonster launched an update to their app a few days ago which includes: a parents section, a redesign of the kids section, a new Monster Carnival and yes…even a new character named TeeCee exclusively for all the TechCrunch readers out there. We never asked for this, but I have to say… “Damn it feels good to be a Monster.” → Read More
I spent a lot of time at CES 2013 searching for new audio goodness and one of the cool things I found was IK Multimedia’s latest product called the iRig HD. Not “officially” announced yet and missing a release date, there were still a few demo units at their booth in the South Hall. → Read More
When peak performance is your goal, every second counts. I guess milliseconds count too. Product development consultancy Cambridge Consultants had this in mind when they developed their new automatic gear-shifting system for performance bicycles called The Connected Bike. The idea is to shave off those precious seconds of time you use both considering and shifting gears while riding. We took an… → Read More
I can tell you that the very, very last place I expected to see Lemmy Kilmister, from the band Motorhead, was at CES 2013. However, the metal pioneer emerged from the chaos with his new line of headphones — Motorheadphones, that is — to sell to the masses. → Read More
Last week, TYLT sent out a press release touting their new lineup of products, including several 3D renderings. I have to say that after getting a chance to look at a few of the actual products here at CES, the lineup looks impressive and the renderings seemed accurate. → Read More
The new line of TYLT device charging accessories will be officially released at CES in January. However, these makers of so many bright and colorful smartphone battery extending concepts still released some details about their upcoming vendibles a bit early…and they look pretty great. I will be interested to check these out in person in a couple of weeks at the massive tradeshow. → Read More
My first encounter with Golla bags happened at the Mobile World Congress in 2012. Their vibrant display at the event was hard to ignore. Even now, it’s hard to ignore the breadth of designs and options they give you for protecting and toting your personal gear.
They sent over their Carter Large Pro Sling Camera Bag for review and I must say there is a lot to like about it. → Read More
LaunchGram is an alert service that allows consumers to subscribe to news about imminently launching products. After doing so, they receive email alerts and breaking news about those products.
We first told you about the service back in April. At the time they only let you subscribe to breaking news about video games, electronics, cars and movies but now TV shows are on their list of… → Read More
Santa Monica company PaeDae launches its new prize network for online and mobile game developers today. The best way to describe how the network works is: “It’s like a white-labeled version of Kiip, but it also includes virtual rewards too.”
So this means that, like Kiip, gamers are rewarded for successful game play and are given offers for items when they complete certain gaming tasks — like… → Read More
What is OffersBy.me? It’s a new website/app offering discounts for goods and services. And although it is currently only serving up offers in the company’s hometown of Columbus, OH (expansion is planned) it has some cool features that set it apart from behemoths like Groupon or LivingSocial.
OffersBy.me lets customers offer up how much they are willing to spend for a particular good or service… → Read More
Munich-based augmented reality pioneers Metaio announce today a whole slew of new products. These include:
• A new SDK - powered by a new Augmented Reality Experience Language (AREL)
• An update to Metaio Creator (their AR desktop publishing tool for non-technical users)
• Advanced camera technologies like continuous visual search and SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and… → Read More
I’ll stop by any startup showcase I can, but it’s always a bonus when it happens to be local. Last week’s TechTomorrow showcase, sponsored by TechColumbus saw nearly 50 regional startups show off the results of their hard work – here are just a few ideas and demos present at the event worth mentioning. → Read More
Recently, I took a look at IK Multimedia’s iRig STOMP digital stomp box. In order to test it out, I used AmpliTube Slash — a version of the same company’s amp modeling app that’s based on the Marshall amp sounds of Slash (you know…Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators).
The app sounded quite good, so I inquired if I could ask Slash a few… → Read More
Do you remember life before the Internet? Can you recall a time when meeting someone new took place serendipitously and was uncluttered with all the profile searching and stalking? A time when there was a little mystery in taking weeks or months to uncover the contents of a new friend’s music collection?
A time where, when you did meet someone interesting, you didn’t have every bit of… → Read More
The first thing I asked Andres Godoy and José Daire about their new app called Hop.in — launching this week at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco — was “isn’t this just like Pinterest?” Andres was quick to note that the point of the app is not as much about the content as it is about the gesture-based controls that make sharing or logging the content a breeze. It’s about the “how” not the… → Read More
Machina is a menswear clothing brand that is in the process of mounting a Kickstarter campaign to promote a new product. The campaign doesn’t start for about a month, but the company has a demo version of its unique “wearable” MIDI controller live on the floor of TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this week.
The Machina MIDI Jacket will come in a couple of different styles, but the basic… → Read More
I didn’t think that I would travel 2,400 miles to attend and help cover TechCrunch Disrupt, only to run into a startup from my home town of Columbus, OH, but lo and behold — it happened.
guestHub, are here at Disrupt, showing off their new platform for identifying conversion-driven influencers as they pertain to marketing event and campaigns. It officially launches today. → Read More
IK Multimedia’s iRig STOMP pedal interface for iOS is now officially available.
I should also mention that approaching this official launch, I’ve been playing with the iRig STOMP for a week or so, (coupled with the iPad version of AmpliTube Slash), and the pedal is a real gas. It’s a really great little piece of hardware. → Read More
Here’s an interesting approach to Augmented Reality marketing: turn hats into Zombie heads.
The Zaphat (pronounced like Zap Hat, not Zafat) is a new line of fashion apparel where the logo on the accoutrement acts as the target for an iOS/Android app that uses Augmented Reality to transform the wearer into an avatar of their choice.
In other words, when you wear a special hat, people can… → Read More
I have to admit, when I first heard about the Kickstarter project for the iCache Geode Mobile Wallet I thought to myself “yeah right…good luck with that.” The process seemed unlikely to me.
First of all, how are the card networks ever going to let someone temporarily “clone” their cards onto another dynamic card? Secondly, how fast could the process work? There could be a lot of… → Read More
Indoor positioning systems are on the rise and are meeting a service void for consumers. I don’t know about you, but I constantly use outdoor mapping apps for all variety of location needs. However when I step into a mall or museum or campus building, I can sometimes be left hanging, so to speak, with regard to my location.
That might be on its way to becoming a thing of the past.
Starting today, the Venetian-Palazzo Casino and Hotel (owned by The Las Vegas Sands Corp.) is beginning to employ an app technology by Meridian as their indoor navigation service of choice in order to help you get around their casino more efficiently. This new “wayfinding” technology will reside in the resort’s new app called VP Pocket Concierge.
As I sit here with 75% of my laptop battery left, drenched in sweat, in a totally dark house, recapping my first Startup Weekend experience — unfortunately I am one of the last of the 500,000 central Ohioans affected by power outages due to last weekend’s storms — I realize that I love the Startup Weekend concept.
That concept, which we have covered before on several occasions, is simple… → Read More
Qualcomm announced an upgrade to their Vuforia Augmented Reality platform on Wednesday. Vuforia is a platform that focuses on using images as the “targets” to launch an AR experience, rather than requiring consumers to scan QR codes or other glyphs.
So instead of scanning a barcode, you just scan a specific picture to start the AR experience on your mobile phone or tablet (it could launch a… → Read More
In an attempt to watch their development, I’ve been keeping tabs on a small Columbus OH startup called Cannon.fm. I first talked with them several weeks ago before their product launch, and have been interviewing them occasionally, to see how they are adapting, changing, improving, revising their business model and product.
That product — a streaming radio iOS app called Cannon.fm that is… → Read More
When it comes to Augmented Reality browsers on mobile devices, I always particularly liked Junaio (just one of the many AR tools created and maintained by Munich-based company Metaio). It’s an especially appealing option since it’s quite powerful, and has many, many content channels to choose from (a good side effect of their successful developer outreach – they have over 10,000 active content… → Read More
First of all, let me say that the Dry Case Waterproof Backpack is designed for use in outdoor environments with the main goal of keeping things in the inner compartment dry. Clearly, all the marketing pictures at DryCase.com, show people using the bag in wet, outdoorsy places (on a canoe, on a boat, etc), and with that in mind the biggest question is “does it actually work?” I put it through the… → Read More
Intrigued upon hearing about these StartupWeekend vets, I managed to track down Cannon.fm founders Ryan Cox and Mat Marcum in order to get a little more info about their interesting and imminently launching streaming music startup.
Cannon.fm is like a lot of other streaming music services out there — Pandora and Spotify come to mind — however this lean team of eight or so have an… → Read More
The microphone in the iPhone 4S is pretty good — I have found it to capture excellent quality on all my consumer-ish recordings and videos. Of course, that is not to say it could not be improved.
When the iRig MIC Cast was announced at CES this year, I was pretty excited. I have gotten a lot of use out of the original iRig MIC and this miniaturized version seemed poised to make my travel… → Read More
New York City
