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The Official @TechStars Demo Day Festivities, Complete with Pre-Parties & Robert Randolph!

TechStars Demo Day has become a big event for the Boston startup community.  Investors and entrepreneurs from across the country and world descend on Boston to check out some of the great companies being built here.

Last year, Katie Rae was gutsy enough to give us at DartBoston the chance to throw an after party for her TechStars Demo Day.  Other than the fact our talent for the evening, Coolio, nearly missed his performance, the night went off without a hitch.  In fact, not only did we get to rock out to gangster’s paradise but behind Coolio’s performance, we got to watch the Bruins win the stanley cup on Royale’s 9 foot LED screen (check out the video below)!

This year we are kicking it up a notch.  Along with another incredible performance at Royale with Robert Randolph and the Family Band we’ll have two pre-parties to get everyone geared up for the evening.

One pre-party will be hosted by Boston Seed Capital, GSN and Intelligent.ly at the W Lounge from 5:00pm to 7:30pm.

Eventbrite - W Lounge Pre Party

The other pre-party will be hosted by Terrible Labs and Boston Startup School, with media partner BostInno at Terrible Labs’ new HQ from 5:00pm to 7:30pm.

Eventbrite - Terrible Labs Pre Party

It’s exciting to see so many organizations getting involved with Demo Day this year and I have no doubt that May 3rd will be an unforgettable day for the Boston startup community!

DartBoston/Techstars Afterparty from Apolis Media on Vimeo.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/channels/the-official-techstars-demo-day-festivities-comp...

‘Glee’ Gets a Big Welcome Back From Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

Glee returned Tuesday night after a six-week hiatus. But the FOX show’s struggling ratings didn’t keep devoted fans from making the “Big Brother” episode of Glee a smash on Twitter — the hashtag #gleeisback was trending.

Glee tantalized its audience with a cliffhanger right before its break in February. The show’s return answered the major question concerning one particular character’s fate. The episode also featured guest star Matt Bomer as Blaine Anderson’s (Darren Criss) brother.

Glee is a fan favorite on Tumblr, too, where it spawns a growing number of Glee-inspired blogs, memes and GIFs.

This infographic by Trendrr.TV analyzes Twitter’s response to key moments of Tuesday’s episode, “Big Brother.” Do you tweet while watching your favorite television show? Let us know in the comments.



BONUS: Ridiculous Glee Memes



Musically Oblivious 8th Grader


quick meme

Click here to view this gallery.

Infographic courtesy of Trendrr.tv
Thumbnail courtesy of Flickr, jj_duncan80

More About: GLEE, memes, social tv, social tv charts, Trendrr, TV, Twitter

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/04/11/glee-twitter-social-tv/?utm_source=feedburner&...

Fanhattan hooks up with Facebook to make video discovery social

Video discovery app maker Fanhattan is getting a lot more social, integrating with Facebook’s Open Graph to allow its users to share what they’re watching with friends. It’s also quietly rolling out a Facebook app that will let its users search for and find web-based videos from directly within the social network.

Fanhattan had already begun work on making its mobile apps more social, by hooking up with Facebook Connect and allowing users to share what shows they had “liked” on the social network. But with the latest update to the Fanhattan iOS app, the startup is taking things a step further, connecting with Facebook’s Open Graph so that users can “seamlessly share” the TV shows and movies that they discover on the app to their timeline.

Users can set up the new app so that they automatically share what they’re watching just by going into their settings and choosing to share their activity. Or, if they’re a bit more finicky about letting everyone know they’re big Real Housewives fans, they can selectively toggle their social activity on or off — or even delete certain videos by removing it from their recent activity.

Fanhattan is pushing the Open Graph implementation as a way for users to show off their “video IQ,” and to gain the sort of social currency that comes with searching for and watching cool content. It’s also a way for them to keep track of what they’ve been watching.

The ancillary benefit to Fanhattan is that it could introduce a whole new method of content discovery through the social initiative. Fanhattan VP of Marketing and Product Chris Thun told me in a phone interview today that the company is working to enable three different types of content discovery — algorithmic, curated and social — and seeing what your friends are watching will help enable that last method.

In addition to integration with Open Graph, the startup is also using Facebook as a new place for users to search for and discover content, with the launch of a Facebook app that mirrors the mobile experience. Thun said Fanhattan wants to be available on all platforms and devices — whether they be iOS or Android phones or tablets, PCs through the web or connected TVs — and rolling out a Facebook app is one step in that direction.

Thun says the most recent update was simply a soft launch of new capabilities: Fanhattan is looking at this all as a first step toward building something bigger, and expects a more full-featured integration with Open Graph and an improved Facebook app over the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, it’s going to see what the response to the new features are and refine its apps — both mobile and on the web — to improve the user experience.

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from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/video/fanhattan-facebook-open-graph/?utm_source=feedburner&...

Curiosa Notifies You When Its Time to Update Your Jailbreak Apps [Cydia]

iOS (Jailbroken): Cydia provides access to a lot of really cool jailbreak-only apps, but it can't actually tell you whether you have new updates until you open it up manually. A new app called Curiosa puts Cydia updates right in the Notification Center, so you're alerted as soon as an update is availbale for your favorite jailbreak apps. More »


from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5901555/curiosa-notifies-you-when-its-time-to-update-yo...

Expect a Flood of Competitions As US Tries To Spur Public Inventions

coondoggie writes "When it comes to stirring the brains of genius, a good competition can bring forward some really great ideas. That's the driving notion behind myriad public competitions, or challenges as they are often labeled, that will take place in the near future sponsored by your US government. The competitions are increasing by design as part of the $45 billion America Competes Act renewed by Congress last year that gave every federal department and agency the authority to conduct prize competitions, according to the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy."

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from Slashdot http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/04/11/171249/expect-a-flood-of-competitions-...

Web developers: Watch out for Meteor!

 Meteor, a new real-time JavaScript framework targeting web app developers, is causing quite a stir on Twitter and Hacker News.

The product will let developers keep working in “pure” JavaScript and use the same APIs on client and server devices, according to Meteor’s web site. The Meteor platform API works everywhere, but development happens on the local laptop with Meteor handling the data updates and synchronization to the server.

What seemed to wow developers was Meteor’s claim to perform “hot code pushes” which update the app while users are connected to it — without disrupting them. According to the web site: “when you push a new version, the code is seamlessly injected into each browser frame in which the app is open.”

That’s a big claim that some commenters want to hear more about. One Hacker News reader wrote: “I dread the tests that would be necessary to make sure that hot updates won’t break anything.”

The software — which the company says is open source — is still in early stages (preview version 0.3.2 to be exact.) Meteor’s FAQ:

Meteor is still under rapid development. Expect major API changes in each release. Everything that we release has passed our automated tests and also a manual QA process, but we don’t have 1.0-level test coverage, so a bug or two may sometimes slip through.

Meteor people include Geoff Schmidt, who co-founded of Miro, an Internet TV platform, and founder of MixApp,  a realtime peer-to-peer music network. Two years ago he was  employee #9 at Asana, where he worked on the Luna application platform.

What …. the …. meteor.com/screencast
Trying to wrap my head around this…. my guts scream: AWESOME … my head says: what?! #meteor
Simon  (@zimmen) April 11, 2012

The discussion thread on Hacker News is lively with many commenters professing to be blown away at first glance, and then more than a little bit curious about the innards of the framework.

Wrote MichaelJansen:

My first impression of this: wow. If Meteor is all it appears to be, this is nothing short of revolutionary.

My second reaction: what happens when the magic ends? When I was new to Rails, I really loved how easy it was to get started with scaffolding, a nice DSL for specifying relations, nifty form helpers. However, the first time I veered a little off the golden path and wanted to do something a little more complicated (that was not supported by the form helpers at that time), I ran into a huge wall.

The San Francisco company has some pretty big fans.  Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Asana and Facebook blurbed the software on its Web site, as did Gary Tan, founder and designer of Posterous.

Given the hue and cry raised already, it looks like web developers will be kicking the tires on this one for some time.

Check out the video:

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from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/cloud/web-developers-watch-out-for-meteor/?utm_source=feedb...

BBC Sport connected TV app launches on UK TiVos, brings BBC News along

BBC Sport connected TV app launches on UK TiVos, brings BBC News along
As a part of the BBC's run up to this year's Olympics, it is bringing new approaches to broadcast technology in a number of ways including 3D, online streaming, multiple HD channels and now, connected TV apps. Today it's launching a BBC Sports app for connected TVs that bring in new interactive features via the BBC Red Button which will first appear on Virgin Media's TiVo platform, along with a port of its BBC News app. First up for the interactive treatment? F1 racing, starting with the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend. In the app viewers can access live coverage of the race, highlights from previous races, and multifeed coverage of the race including in-car cameras and driver trackers. There's a video demo and press release embedded after the break (viewable in the UK only), and the Sports app is expected to hit more devices before the Olympics starts, although it's unclear which ones.

Continue reading BBC Sport connected TV app launches on UK TiVos, brings BBC News along

BBC Sport connected TV app launches on UK TiVos, brings BBC News along originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceBBC Internet Blog  | Email this | Comments

from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/11/bbc-sport-connected-tv-app-launches-on-uk-...

With Springpad 3.0, My Notebook is Smarter Than I Am. And Prettier Too.

My first reaction to Pinterest was that it felt like the internet with all the words sucked out of it, and that’s basically how I still feel. But you can’t deny that the visual organization has some real appeal, and that’s part of why I’m excited about the latest from Charlestown-based Springpad, which launched its updated cloud-based smart note product, Springpad 3.0, complete with Android and iPhone apps today.

While the defining metaphor for Pinterest is the pinboard — visual, eye-catching, but cluttered — for Springpad, it’s the notebook. But Springpad 3.0 marries the intelligence of its smart note product with an eye-catching layout. “Pinterest meets Evernote,” if that helps you.

But it’s the “smart” part of the equation that really adds the value both for the user and for Springpad as a business. Say you have a notebook on movies you’d like to see and type in “Hunger Games.” Springpad doesn’t just capture that little note of text; it knows what you’re talking about so what goes into the notebook isn’t just the name, but all the information about the movie.

That’s also where Springpad hopes it can eventually generate revenue. If you’ve expressed an interest in watching The Hunger Games, that’s valuable information to Moviefone or Fandango, and therefore a potential revenue model for the company. But for now, Springpad is solely focused on perfecting the product and attracting users.

“As the world of infinite options creates more clutter and noise on the web, people are looking for new options to organize the stuff they care about,” said Jeff Chow, Springpad co-founder and CEO in a release. “The new Springpad takes valued information to a new level by offering a completely re-designed experience that couples the intuitive intelligence of our platform with the knowledge of our community.”

I was lucky enough to spend some time with the beta product, and created a mix of public and private boards. I put some work tasks in a private one, and in a public one I shared the next few books on my reading list. Sure enough, Springpad was smart enough to match them to Amazon data, even for some relatively obscure titles. I also created a notebook with some Boston companies I’ve written about. Many of them weren’t already in any of the databases that Springpad accesses, but you can search the web and then pull in relevant information, like location or an image from a website and then add tags.

I haven’t yet downloaded the mobile app, which will be a big determining factor for whether I make Springpad a part of my daily routine. But I’m encouraged that I can import my Delicious bookmarks, as I’m a social bookmarking addict who’d happily move to another platform. And I should mention that Springpad also lets you invite users to edit your notebooks, so groups can edit lists, curate content or even manage projects?

Springpad has over three million users, the company says, and has raised $7 million from Fairhaven Capital. It plans to raise a B round later this year. There’s a whole other article to be written about how Springpad allows you to curate memory, but for now I’ll just point to a previous post on that subject.

Depending on how users respond to the release of 3.0, Springpad could have the potential to be that consumer web company that Boston claims it desperately needs. So go give it a try, and if you do you’ll see I (wfrick) added a notebook on Boston startups, so if you know of any you think I should be writing about, or if you just want to contribute, go add them there!

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/04/11/with-springpad-3-0-my-notebook-is-smarter-than...

In The Decline of City-Based Newspapers, MIT’s Center for Civic Media Works to Create Informed Communities

The founding fathers of the MIT Center for Civic Media — Henry Jenkins, Chris Csikszentmihályi and Mitchel Resnick — knew the media’s overall focus was skewed.

“The focus was, ‘How do we save newspapers?’” says Andrew Whitacre, the Center’s communications director. “No one was asking the predecessor question, ‘How do we make sure we have informed communities?’”

So, in a joint effort between the MIT Media Lab and the Institute’s Comparative Media Studies program, the team entered the Knight News Challenge to bring the Center for Civic Media to life. They won an initial four-year, $5-million grant from the Knight Foundation, who looked to the Center to “develop new technologies and practices to help newspapers as a greater number of Americans use the Internet as their primary news source,” according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

The Center officially opened in 2008, and began moving beyond the discussion of newspapers and into the “Information Age,” where Whitacre says they predicted “everything was going to be much more geographic-based than anyone imagined.” In the years to come, their prediction came true. “So much of these tools have been very localized,” Whitacre says, admitting they’re “very quickly filling this decline of city-based newspapers.”

The Center’s defined “civic media” as “any form of communication that strengthens the social bonds within a community or creates a strong sense of civic engagement among its residents.” Students, researchers and faculty members have then developed tools around that idea, such as Sourcemap, a social network built around supply chains, enabling collective engagement with where things come from and what they are made of.

Whitacre says the Center’s been working with different groups around MIT, including the new Open Documentary Lab and CSAIL. They’ve also teamed up with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the Nieman Journalism Lab, as well as organizations outside the higher ed realm.

Projects like Lost in Boston: Realtime have helped the city’s halfway houses. “People are really dependent on good information to hold down jobs,” Whitacre says. The problem, however, is that people need to get to those jobs, and for those who don’t have smartphones, it’s hard to tell when their next bus might be coming. So, the Center’s helped install LED signs in several houses that flash when a bus is 15 minutes away, taking into account walking time.

The Center’s site reads, “Transforming civic knowledge into civic action is an essential part of democracy.” And through the projects they’re developing, the Center’s been able to help strengthen our democracy.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/04/11/in-the-decline-of-city-based-newspapers-mits-c...

James Cameron to create sparks with Robogeddon on Discovery Channel

James Cameron to create sparks with fighting robots, Robogeddon coming to Discovery Channel
Fresh off his return from the briny deep, James Cameron is set to create a television show for the Discovery Channel called Robogeddon. Similar to BattleBots and Robot Wars, the program will feature a competitive death match of sorts, where robots tear each other to shreds in pursuit of being the last machine standing. In addition to Cameron's participation, the show will also feature the stamp of Mark Burnett -- famous for such reality television titles as Survivor, Shark Tank and The Voice. It's also said that Donald Hutson, the two-time Super Heavyweight Champion of BattleBots, will be among the show's competitors. No date is set for when we'll see the sparks fly, but if you want to get in on the ground floor, might we suggest hitting your local scrapyard?

James Cameron to create sparks with Robogeddon on Discovery Channel originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TG Daily  |  sourceThe Wrap  | Email this | Comments

from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/11/james-cameron-to-create-robogeddon/