90% of Y Combinator Startups Have Already Accepted The $150k Start Fund Offer
Late last night the 43 startups in the most recent Y Combinator class got quite a surprise. Start Fund, a new fund created by DST’s Yuri Milner as an individual and SV Angel, offered each of the companies a 0,000 investment in the form of a convertible note with no cap and no discount. Most [...]
imo.im Quietly Building One Solid Multi-Network Instant Messaging App
When I first covered imo.im back in February, I wrote it was one of the best Web apps for instant messaging you’d likely never heard of, and chances are you’ve forgotten all about it since then. To be honest, so had I, but the team got in touch last week to let us know it had added some useful new features to the service over the past few months and that we should give it another look. We aim to please, so here goes.
Imo.im is a multi-network IM tool, which means you can use it to log on to multiple messaging services like Windows Live Messenger / MSN, AIM / ICQ, MySpace, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, Gtalk and even Skype and get a single, complete contact list from inside your browser and chat with people on your list using text, voice or video. It also boasts a basic desktop client, which is unfortunately still Windows-only.
Recently, imo.im added Facebook Chat to its list of supported IM services, which was about the only one it sorely lacked when I first wrote about the app. Now that its supports chat sessions with your Facebook friends as well, it’s more than ever a close competitor to better-known startups who offer web-based IM clients like Meebo and eBuddy Webmessenger. And it supports Skype chat in addition to the classic ones, which – correct me if I’m wrong – I have yet to see integrated in any other web-based application (note that apps for mobile devices like fring and Nimbuzz support Skype chat).
Also new in imo.im is a ‘broadcast’ feature that allows users to send free messages out to other imo.im users (e.g. job openings, chat invitations, etc.) and a complementary photo sharing service that allows people to share images with other users across all networks. Finally, the startup is experimenting with a ‘whiteboard’ feature that enables users to work on diagrams, drawings and more with each other. Next up: perfecting the service’s search and chat history functionality.
Also on the roadmap is an iPhone application, which the startup aims to put up on the App Store in the coming weeks (we’ll be watching).
The company, which was co-founded by Georges Harik – one of the first 10 employees at Google and manager of several of its early products – claims it has so far attracted half a million users to try out its service even though it’s still in alpha mode looking at the logo.
Give it a whirl – no registration or download required – and tell us what you think.
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Learn Aperture Without One to One
When Apple changed its One to One policy, I had no idea it would eventually affect me personally. As a consumer who recently upgraded to a high-end digital camera, I am also looking to upgrade my digital photo editing and organizing software.
Naturally, as a contributor to this blog, my first thought was to upgrade from iPhoto to Aperture. The problem is, where do I turn to learn how to use all of Aperture’s features? The One to One program would be perfect for me, but that’s no longer an option unless I purchase a new computer from Apple.
For those of you who may have forgotten, the old One to One program cost $99 and included weekly one hour (read: one academic hour, which actually means 50 minutes) sessions for an entire year. Customers could learn about a wide variety of topics, from how to use a Mac, to uploading photos to MobileMe, to editing images in Aperture.
In order to provide an alternative for those like me who’ve been hung out to dry, I’ve done my best gathering resources for people who like a little guidance when learning new software. Fortunately, Aperture is designed so that newcomers can easily figure out how to import photos from a memory card and organize them into projects, but anything more advanced may require additional patience and resources.
- Apple tutorials podcast
- Quick Tips with Richard Harrington podcast
- Apple’s Aperture forum
- Apple’s Exploring Aperture book
- Amazon’s Aperture 4+ star books
- Retail workshops – Don’t expect much unless you live close to a major store. Those in Northern California have two options: San Francisco and Corte Madera.
Let us know about any other good resources you’ve come across for learning Aperture.
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Tweetboard: Add a Twitter-Powered Forum to Your Website
This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.
Name: Tweetboard
Quick Pitch: Tweetboard is a Twitter-powered “microforum,” and runs on your site rather than being a “destination” site.
Genius Idea: Tweetboard is for website owners who want to display threaded Twitter conversations on their own site and create an instant Twitter-powered forum, where all tweets from the Tweetboard link back to the publisher.
The unobtrusive Tweetboard forum sits on the left hand side of your screen as a small tab indicating the count of tweets since a viewer’s last visit. Visitors can then click the tab and the Tweetboard will slide open with a view of all tweets pulled in from your Twitter stream, threaded appropriately. Tweets pulled in include your account updates and @replies to other users. Replies, however, show up in context of the original message, so as to create a back-and-forth conversation-like feel.
This conversation format spontaneously adds a Twitter friendly-forum to display chatter between you and your followers, friends, customers, and would-be clients. Users can even use Sign in with Twitter to tweet from the page, expand replies, add their own reply, and filter tweets by date, last activity, and most active.
Tweetboard is a pretty nifty addition that many a brand or startup — or even celebrities that want to have a fan forum — should consider implementing on their site. Not only does it reinforce that you have a strong Twitter presence, but it could help reduce support emails, increase your reach across the Twittersphere, grow site traffic, and help new customers/users get engaged.
140ware, the company behind Tweetboard, is automatically approving alpha invite requests to Twitterers who make their request to @140ware in this form: “Requesting an invite for Tweetboard Alpha (http://tweetboard.com) by @140ware, for my site: http://ReplaceWithYourURL.com.”
Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”
Reviews: PHP, Twitter
Tags: forum, tweetboard, twitter
