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Category: DEMOfall 2006 (Page 3 of 5)

MojoPac Separates and Virtualizes the App Layer from the Hardware

As touched on previously, this offering from RingCube lets you use any computing device, like an iPod, cell phone, or USB drive, as if it were your own personal computer. Mojopaclogo The difference from earlier attempts to do this is that it works with any application. And, when you use it, it’s totally isolated from your real PC. “What happens on MojoPac stays on MojoPac.”

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Buzz from the Opening Reception at DEMOfall

First of all, the attendance is 700, which surprised me. Even more than Demo ’06 in February in Phoenix (generally regarded as the larger of the two events). Demofalllogo_1 So Becky Sniffen, longtime conference PR honcho (and a former MN resident while she attended Carlton College), told me at the very crowded outdoor cocktail reception alongside the harbor here in San Diego. “Well, the industry has been picking up,” she said. No lie.

The first guy I met at the reception (or should I say the first guy to find me) was Karl Harris, VP of engineering at Flurry.com, which has a very cool Java app that lets you get your email on the phone you have now. Flurrylogo Yeah, that’s right, your small one — so you don’t have to carry around some humongous (and expensive) smart phone. Karl demoed it for me, right there, real fast, on his own phone. Now that’s the way it should be! Why beat around the bush? I think Karl had the best gig going at that reception. I was in a hurry to move on and work the crowd, and so was he. You have to love what Flurry enables: “Mobile email for everyone.” And it works on the RAZR, too, the one I carry, which Karl said is one of their most popular. Will yours work? Here’s what they say on the signup page: “All phones under 3 years old should work.” Check it out: a quick tour here. Karl told me the company is still early stage and not yet VC funded, but they’re looking to make connections here. [Plenty of opportunity for that.]

Sauntering over to the bar to grab another Pinot, I ran into Joe Lichtenburg, VP biz dev for Eluma, which is all about “social networking for brand marketers,” which sure got my attention. He said he’s amazed, even though his firm is just getting going, at the great reception he’s already getting from senior marketing execs to what they have to offer. Elumalogo_1 These people are obviously hungry to tap the power of social networking, Joe said, but don’t quite know how. His firm, of course, will be happy to give them what they need. Two areas he’s especially focused on right now are the TV and newspaper markets. And I know Joe’s a smart guy because, when I immediately suggested he contact Internet Broadcasting System in the Twin Cities (one of the best kept secrets in the Internet business — specifically, they create and manage web sites for many TV stations), he said he just had, and had a great discussion with their head of biz dev.

[By the way, when I learned Joe has quite a background in middleware and web services, I had to bring up the mystery about another of the presenters at DEMOfall, Grand Central Communications (a question I posed in a previous post). Who are these guys, supposedly a VOIP startup, and why do they have the same name and domain as a web services company founded in 2000? Joe didn’t know, either. But I think solved the mystery this morning online. They’re funded by the guy who founded the company of the original name: Halsey Minor.]

We were then joined by Don Thorson, venerable Silicon Valley tech marketing guru, who I’d run into earlier — now with a new startup called Jajah. Don says this VOIP firm, founded by some Austrian guys, has a real simple message — “free global calls from regular phones.” Nuff said! Jajahlogo But, as TechCrunch noted this morning, the secret here is making it dead simple. So far, offerings in this area are just too complicated for most people. But the market there is huge, and Jajah is a hot play for it. More later on this one…

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Cool Stuff So Far at DEMOfall

And I’m not even there yet! I’m just on the plane reviewing webarchives I saved before I left of some of the startups that’ll be debuting at the event. Well, at least these sound cool now, in concept. The proof is always in observing the on-stage demos, then asking questions of the founders later.

Mindtouch has renamed its wiki appliance the DekiBox (deki is “smart” in Japanese), so much better than their old name. It’s available in two versions: a 25-user version for $3,000 and a 100-user version for $5,000. Seems like a very attractive price point for the benefits such a device promises.

Genius Interactive is announcing an AJAX-based, on-demand service that lets companies track how customers are using their site and then personalize the experience and interact with them. Here’s how NetworkWorld described it: “The customer clicks on a link and the browser kicks off the dynamic application, which notifies sales representatives via e-mail or SMS that the customer is on the site. The sales representative can bookmark product pages with virtual notes or special coupons, or chat live with the customer.” Sounds to me like a pretty cool AJAX business app.

RingCube will debut MojoPac, which lets you put any app on any storage drive. So, for example, this software will let you install, say, Microsoft Office on an iPod, and then let you run it from the iPod instead of the PC. How cool is that? And, no, you don’t need to put the OS on the device.

• Photobot from Tribeca Labs is software that uses advanced photo-enhancement algorithms to automatically enhance images taken by a digital camera. The software scans your hard drive and enhances the images in the folders you specify in your setup – doing things like red-eye removal and adjusting exposure settings and color. “The software will find bad pictures and make them good, and good photos and make them better,” says James Graham of Tribeca Labs. Who’s it aimed at? You got it — the average Joe who wants nothing to do with fixing his shots; just wants to shoot ’em and show ’em. But that’s a big market.

That’s it from 35,000 feet. More when I land and take a taxi over to the Harbor Island Sheraton to take in the opening reception…

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