startups

The latest effort from James Cameron has all the earmarks of a science fiction movie -- but in real life.

The movie director has joined Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt in backing Planetary Resources, a mysterious company that promises to "create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources.'"

It's not entirely clear what the company does, but according to a press release uncovered by MIT's Technology Review, Planetary Resources "will overlay two critical sectors -- space exploration and natural resources - to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP.&… Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Is 3D where photography is going? Two companies at the Demo conference here today are betting on it.

ArqBall makes a mobile app that creates 3D images, or "spins," of physical objects. Designed for commerce initially, it lets you quickly create a 3D spinning model of an object for sale and embed it in a sales page. The demo made the creating app look very easy to use: You put your object on a turntable or lazy Susan, put your iPhone in a stand facing it, and run the app. The software creates the … Read more

If your world isn't already complex enough, or if you're just a control freak, it's time to add some ninja to your life.

Sensor-equipped platforms called Ninja Blocks are designed to bring the Internet of things to a ubiquitous, open-source reality.

The result of a recent successful Kickstarter project that raised more than $100,000, Ninja Blocks obey simple "if this, then that" commands to add functionality to your environment through the Web.

For instance, when your friends are playing on Xbox Live a Ninja Block could trigger an action in your living room, like turning on a lamp. Or a Ninja Block could text your phone when a package is delivered to your door. You could also activate household lights or electronics via your Ninja by talking to Siri. … Read more

Foursquare is celebrating its third-annual 4sqDay in impressive fashion.

Whenever users check in on the service today, they'll be awarded the 2012 4sqDay badge, which is accompanied with a message announcing that the startup now has 20 million users worldwide, and has hit a whopping 2 billion check-ins since it was founded in 2009.

"In 2010, Foursquare fans declared April 16 4sqDay (4/4^2 - nerds after our own heart!)," the message that accompanies the badge reads. "Two years and two billion check-ins later, you're still why we get out of bed each day. … Read more

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--It's nearly 10 a.m. in the City Council chambers here, and 43 people are waiting for their turn to speak.

These are not citizens with civic matters on their minds; divided into two lines that stretch out from either side of the podium in the center of the room, these veterans of Google, Cisco, NASA, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Microsoft, Boeing, Sun, and others, are here looking for a new lease on their professional lives.

One by one, they lean into the microphone to introduce themselves. They mention where they've worked in the past, list their skills, … Read more

"It is easier to mine happiness than create it."

--Brian Wong, CEO, Kiip

The concept behind Brian Wong's company, Kiip, is, in my estimation, brilliant. Kiip is a mobile game advertising company, but with a unique twist. It doesn't pop ads up while you're in the middle of a game, or nag you while you're waiting for a level to load. Rather, Brian sells advertisers the opportunity to reward players when they have accomplished certain things, and he makes a set of utilities that developers can use to offer up their players' accomplishment moments … Read more

Dave McClure, one of the most active early stage investors in Silicon Valley, is trying to add to his arsenal.

McClure's incubator and seed fund, 500 Startups, revealed today in an SEC filing that it's raising a new fund. The target size for the new fund: $50 million fund. That's not a lot for a VC fund, but for a fund like McClure's it represents a lot of investments. He plows an average of $50,000 into about two startups a week. To date, 500 Startups has made about 260 investments, including Twillio, Hipster and Udemy.… Read more

"Everyone in the Valley uses a Mac."

--Stephen Brady, CEO, Found

I was curious why a desktop software maker would launch its first app on the Mac. Despite its vocal supporters, Apple still accounts for only a small percentage of the global computing desktops and laptops.

Stephen Brady, the CEO of the startup Found (see my review, Personal search app Found scans cloud and local data), explained it to me. Mac users are more engaged, he said. They download more stuff. And then there's the Mac App Store, which just takes a lot of the hassle out … Read more

Sometimes it's hard to turn the other cheek. That's when it's best to use both cheeks.

Shitter turns Twitter into toilet paper. Startup Collector's Edition will print four rolls of choice throne-room reading material for $35.

If you're the self-deprecating sort, they can be your own tweets. But it's infinitely more amusing to print out those of your least-favorite celebrity. You can choose one or several feeds for your order.

The Shitter rolls can get about four tweets per sheet; that's a lot better than this DIY Twitter toilet paper printer from Germany. Shitter, meanwhile, is printed in the U.S. and ships internationally. … Read more