StartUp Beat

-The L.A. Times ran a noteworthy story this week about the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation and the recent expansion of its focus.  The institute is a solid addition to the various startup development organizations in the area: USC innovation institute reinventing itself

-More about Amp’d Mobile – Adding to the numerous news bits recently about Amp’d, the company cemented its place in the Los Angeles business community by renewing its lease at The Olympic Studios complex.  Here are the details: Amp’d Mobile Renews 71,900 SF in Los Angeles

Posted by startupbeat at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/30/07 – Marina Del Rey-based Language Weaver, a software company that develops enterprise software for the automated translation of human languages, has announced the launch of Kontrib, a “social bookmarking” site that allows users to submit, vote and comment on user-generated stories in multiple languages.  The company says that Kontrib is the first news bookmarking site to integrate automated machine translation of stories.

Language Weaver says Kontrib uses its automated language translation software, a proprietary software engine developed using statistical methodology, or mathematical probability algorithms, to automatically translate English, Spanish, French and Arabic-language news items and postings into any or all of these languages. If a user submits a story in English, Spanish, French or Arabic it is available in the other languages in a matter of minutes.

According to the company, the patent-pending Website’s ultimate goal is to foster communication on the Internet by breaking down the language barrier, allowing people from many cultures and languages to see each other’s postings in their own local language.

“Our goal in developing Kontrib is to make use of current language technologies to help bridge the gaps that exist across societies due to language barriers,” said Bryce Benjamin, CEO of Language Weaver.  “We’ve thought for a long time that our translation software should be useful in promoting communication and understanding within our global community. Kontrib represents our first step to help make that goal a reality.”

Kontrib – www.kontrib.com

Language Weaver – www.languageweaver.com

Posted by startupbeat at 07:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/30/07 – It has been a busy week for Los Angeles-based Amp’d Mobile.  In addition to announcing another content deal with Nickelodeon, Third Screen Media now says that Amp’d will be using Third Screen technology to advertise in its mobile video offerings.

According to Third Screen, the company will ad-enable the breadth of Amp’d’s content offerings, including Amp’d’s linear TV services, video-on-demand, WAP offerings and the promotion inventory in the Amp’d Live user interface.

It was also widely reported this week that the FCC may fine Amp’d and two other companies $100,000 each.  The Associated Press says the penalty may be imposed for the companies’ failure to protect consumers’ personal calling records from thieves.  See the full AP story here: FCC might fine Amp’d Mobile.

Both Amp’d and fellow Los Angeles-based mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Helio have been very active lately.  The companies are clearly taking different approaches to the mobile market—Amp’d focusing on mobile content, and Helio rolling out innovative new devices, like its recently released Ocean phone.

Amp’d Mobile – www.ampd.com

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3/29/07 – Amp’d Mobile, the Los Angeles-based mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and mobile content company, continued its stream of new content announcements with a new partnership that brings programming from Nickelodeon and The N to new channels on the company’s Amp’d TV content service, beginning this week.

The companies say that as part of the new partnership, Nickelodeon and Amp’d will also launch a marathon programmed channel targeted to 18-25 year old audiences based on the property SpongeBob SquarePants in second quarter 2007.

Nickelodeon Mobile on Amp’d Live will include several short form clips, from 30 seconds to two minutes in length, from the networks top-rated animated shows including SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Fairly OddParents, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Catscratch, as well as tween live action hits Just Jordan and Drake and Josh, according to Amp’d and Nickelodeon. Nicktoons and the live action hits will refresh on a weekly basis.  The N Mobile content will feature short form clips, behind-the-scenes content, sneak peaks and webisodes from teen successes including Degrassi: The Next Generation, Instant Star, South of Nowhere and Beyond the Break.

Amp’d Mobile – www.ampd.com

Posted by startupbeat at 07:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/29/07 – Santa Monica-based TeleFlip has announced what the company calls its “premier product offering” – flipMail.  The service enables mobile phone users to receive their personal or business emails right on their existing phones without any special handset, mobile Internet connectivity, or any downloadable software applications.  TeleFlip made the announcement at the big CTIA mobile technology show in Orlando, Florida.

The company is positioning the service to brand marketers who want to reach customers via mobile phones.  The company says that “TeleFlip now eliminates the need for the marketer to acquire mobile phone numbers and, as an extension to their existing e-mail marketing programs, guarantees mobile marketing ROI.”

TeleFlip was part of the DEMO 07 class, where the company first officially demonstrated the technology publicly. 

The company says flipMail will launch throughout the United States and Canada in April.  Future service offerings will include premium subscriptions with extended functionality such as calendar alerts and access to weather, sports and news content, according to TeleFlip.

TeleFlip - www.teleflip.com

Posted by startupbeat at 07:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/29/07 – Calabasas-based Fulcrum Microsystems and Applied Micro Circuits Corporation have announced a new, jointly designed SFP+ 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch reference design that combines Fulcrum’s FocalPoint FM2224 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch chip with AMCC’s QT2035S SFP+ physical layer IC.  The companies say they are demonstrating the solution at the OFC/NFOEC Technical Conference and Exposition this week at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Fulcrum was founded in 2000 based on research conducted at Caltech.  It is a fabless semiconductor company focused on developing interconnect devices that offer low-latency, fine-grained flow control and high throughput.

Fulcrum and Applied Micro Circuits Corporation say the joint reference design is a 24-port, pizza-box-style switch with 12 SFP+ module cages and 12 CX4 connectors.  Fulcrum says the use of its switching technology ensures wire-rate switching performance with the industry’s lowest latency of 200 ns.  The companies say the combined design provides the highest density and highest performance 10GE switching solution available on the market today.

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation – www.amcc.com

Fulcrum Microsystems - www.fulcrummicro.com

Posted by startupbeat at 07:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/28/07 – The long-awaited release of eJamming AUDiiO was announced today, the first real-time Internet collaboration technology and service for musicians.  The company, based both locally in Valley Village and in Florida, also debuted the eJamming AUDiiO portal, which the company says will become a resource-rich community where musicians can connect, showcase their music, find teachers or students, and buy and sell gear.

eJamming, which debuted at the DEMO 07 conference, says it has solved the latency issues that have hampered collaborative services of this type in the past.  The company says it uses “proprietary data-thinning schemes and patented Internet delay-management algorithms” to achieve the real-time synchrony among musicians in different locations that is critical for a satisfying online collaboration.

eJamming AUDiiO hopes to provide a virtual practice and recording studio for musicians and singers worldwide though which they can write, rehearse, record, learn and play together over the Internet.

Founders Gail Kantor and Alan Glueckman, both entertainment industry veterans, say that they see the service enabling connections between new and old songwriting partners, connections between bands and new members, players finding bands, singers finding arrangers, music students finding and collaborating with teachers, and even online rehearsals.

According to Kantor and Glueckman, the genesis of eJamming was their attempt to develop an interactive music education curriculum to connect kids over the Internet.  When they discovered a technology for Internet collaboration did not exist, Kantor and Gluekman say they brought in technologist Bill Redmann, who built the prototype for a real-time, music-connectivity software program that they patented several years ago.

eJamming says its AUDiiO software also includes a host of features designed to enhance the online collaborative experience such as CD-quality recording capability, searchable profiles that allow musicians to identify others with like interests, JamVite instant messaging so musicians can invite one another to jam, an automated calendar for scheduling sessions and full MIDI capability.

eJamming - www.ejamming.com

3/27/07 – Pasadena-based ClearMesh Networks has announced the launch of its next-generation wireless mesh solution, the ClearMesh Sentry Mesh.  The company says that Sentry Mesh enables system integrators and security professionals to roll out a wireless network providing 100 mbps of full duplex bandwidth per hop to support high-resolution video surveillance and IT applications.

“The Sentry Mesh is optimal for education and medical campuses, business parks, industrial complexes, retail malls, and ports,” says Suresh Nihalani, president and CEO of ClearMesh Networks.  “Enterprise IT departments now have a secure network to integrate campus LAN connectivity and campus surveillance.  System integrators can now deploy a wireless network supporting dozens of high-resolution video surveillance cameras and offer centralized network management through the ClearMesh Management System.”

ClearMesh says the Sentry Mesh is the only high-bandwidth wireless Ethernet solution that offers integral quality of service functionality, to ensure voice and video traffic performance.

Kelly Williams. director of marketing communications for ClearMesh, says high-bandwidth is the company’s primary value proposition.

“Currently, there is no other solution on the market that provides a wireless mesh solution with the capacity that ClearMesh provides,” said Williams.  “Our Sentry Mesh products can act as a ‘backhaul’ to other wireless solutions by locals such as Strix Networks, but our bandwidth is five times more than what they provide and our technology is not based on RF technology, it is based on using an infrared spectrum.”

Williams also says that wireless video surveillance is a primary target market for the company, and customers range from education or corporate campuses to municipalities who need video surveillance for downtown or high crime areas.

In addition to surveillance, ClearMesh says the wireless infrared mesh provides excellent value for bandwidth aggregated back to a central NOC or for applications requiring extremely high bandwidth throughout a campus environment.

Williams says that ClearMesh currently has three customers and is running 10 trials of the service.

ClearMesh is demonstrating a Sentry Mesh network utilizing live surveillance at the ISC West conference, taking place in Las Vegas this Wednesday through Friday.

ClearMesh – www.clearmesh.com

Posted by startupbeat at 08:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/27/07 – Westlake Village-based Inphi Corporation, which designs and develops integrated circuits for processing high-speed digital data in computing and communications systems, has introduced the 1347TL 11.3 Gbps Transimpedance Amplifier (TIA)/Limiting Amplifier (LIA) for fiber optic systems.  Inphi says this device has the highest stressed receiver sensitivity, lowest cross talk, highest gain and lowest power for 1310-nm/1550-nm 10G-Ethernet and 10G-SONET optical communications.

“As the industry moves to the smaller form factor modules such as XFP and SFP+, low cross talk and lower power consumption become critically important,” said Dr. Loi Nguyen, founder and vice president of technology for Inphi.  “The new 1347TL, like all of Inphi’s TIAs, are the least sensitive to cross talk between transmitters and receivers and consume the least amount of power of any device in the industry.”

The 1347TL-S02D is currently shipping in pre-production quantities and full production is expected to begin in the second quarter of this year.

Inphi Corporation - www.inphi-corp.com

Posted by startupbeat at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

-IdeaLab startup Aptera Motors unveiled the prototype of a concept car with gas mileage of 200 miles per gallon last week at the TED conference.  The company is based in Pasadena.  Here is a photo and brief write-up at Engadget: Aptera takes wraps off 200 MPG prototype car 

-WiSpry adds to executive team – WiSpry, an Irvine-based provider of high-performance radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical systems for cellular phones, today announced the hiring of Joseph Adam as vice president of operations.  Adam was previously vice president of external manufacturing at Skyworks.

3/26/07 – Los Angeles-based mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Helio today unveiled Ocean, a dual-slider mobile phone combining a traditional numeric keypad and a separate full QWERTY keyboard in a single device.  The Ocean is planned for launch in spring of this year at a suggested retail price of $295, and is perhaps the most ambitious entry yet in Helio’s product line targeted to youth and young adults.

Helio says the phone is designed expressly for social networking, merging instant messages, text messages, picture messages and emails from all the major portals, Internet service providers and corporate Exchange servers, in one location.  The company says Ocean also delivers full over-the-air music downloads, video-on-demand, a high-resolution camera, an HTML browser, MySpace on Helio, GPS-enabled Google Maps for mobile and Helio’s Buddy Beacon service.

“We started working on Ocean before Helio was officially a company,” said Dr. Wonhee Sull, president and COO of Helio.  “We envisioned our ultimate device, what future members would want to carry, and with our company’s unique technology and design assets, we created a form factor and an experience that is a world’s first. Ocean is the result of the passionate dedication and hard work of countless innovative Helio employees and technology partners.”

Helio says that Ocean includes a huge, 2.4-inch, 260K color high-resolution QVGA display viewable in both portrait or landscape modes, external stereo speakers, a 2.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom and flash for photos and more than two hours of continuous video recording, Bluetooth for wireless voice and stereo Bluetooth for untethered music and videos, 200MB internal memory expandable via microSD to over 2GB, and USB Mass Storage Mode for drag-and-drop sideloading of content.

In addition, Helio says that Ocean features what the company calls an “integrated messaging dashboard” that includes access to Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, MSN Hotmail, Gmail, Helio Mail, and EarthLink email, as well as the ability to add additional email accounts.  It also incorporates instant message access through Yahoo! Messenger, AOL’s AIM Service and Windows Live Messenger.

Helio says the advantage of this integrated messaging interface is that users don’t have to choose between text messages or picture messages—Ocean does all the work through one interface, automatically sending an SMS for text messages or an MMS when a picture or video is attached.

The Ocean’s camera will take advantage of a service called “Helio UP”, which lets users take a picture with their device, tag it with metadata including a title, description, keywords and location information and upload it directly to Helio Album, Helio’s photo service.

Helio – www.helio.com

Posted by startupbeat at 08:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

-The big buzz in the technology world this week has been the announcement by News Corp. and NBC of a joint venture to create an online video network to rival You Tube.  The yet-to-be named venture is going to be headquartered both here in Los Angeles and New York.  Even more than that, this is a local story because of the potential impact the issue has on the future of Hollywood and the entertainment business.  News sites are abuzz about this issue, but two of the better pieces of analysis about this topic can be found on TechCrunch (Dear Clown Co: Name This Thing Fast Before It’s Too Late) and the L.A. Times (Hollywood’s big online rival: the little guy).

3/23/07 – LogicalApps, the Irvine-based provider of embedded governance software for enterprise applications, announced that Fidelity National Information Services has selected its ACTIVE Governance to manage the company’s Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) programs.  LogicalApps says Fidelity is implementing ACTIVE Governance as a key element of its Oracle rollout strategy in order to embed proper controls into its Oracle environment.

ACTIVE Governance, the company’s flagship product, is the first software solution to not only monitor system activity in real-time, providing notification, workflow and an automated remediation framework, but also to embed governance policies and processes directly into the Oracle E-Business Suite, according to LogicalApps. 

“ACTIVE Governance enables our customers to build a better business and get compliance as a great by-product,” said Chris Capdevila, LogicalApps co-founder and senior vice president of strategy and corporate development.

LogicalApps tells StartUp Beat that it currently has over 300 customers, primarily Fortune 2000.

“As a strategic supplier to the financial services industry Fidelity recognizes the need to assure their customers the highest level of business integrity by building good governance into the very foundation of their ERP platforms,” said Jim Zierick, CEO of LogicalApps.  “ACTIVE Governance is recognized by the leading industry analyst and risk advisory firms for its superior technology and architecture on the Oracle platform, so it’s always gratifying to see our customers benefiting from those features in the real world.”

Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) provides solutions that support the success of financial services companies across the nation and throughout the world.

LogicalApps - www.logicalapps.com

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3/23/07 – Los Angeles-based LegalZoom.com, an online legal document preparation service, has announced that it has secured financing from Polaris Venture Partners, a national venture capital firm with over $3 billion under management.

The company is not releasing the funding amount, but chairman and co-founder Brian Liu says that the it will be used for expansion and “general corporate purposes.”

LegalZoom charges a flat fee for its legal services, which range from wills, living wills and small claims, to business services like incorporation, LLC formation and copyrights.

Liu says that the company’s primary value proposition is reduced cost.  “We charge a flat fee for each of our services, which are a fraction of what an attorney would charge,” said Liu.  “For example, a last will and testament is $69, and forming an LLC is $139 plus filing fees.”

Co-founded by famed attorney Robert Shapiro in 2001, LegalZoom says that more than 400,000 people have used the service to write wills, incorporate a business, file a trademark and take care of other common legal matters.

“We provide a unique service, which is helping small businesses and families prepare their own legal documents,” said Liu.  “There are other websites that specialize in only one or a few services, but only LegalZoom offers a comprehensive solution for people’s legal document and filing needs.”

The company says that Alan Spoon, the former president of The Washington Post Company and current board member of several leading media companies, including IAC/InterActiveCorp and Getty Images, will join LegalZoom.com’s board of directors along with Jason Trevisan, principal of Polaris Venture Partners.  In addition, LegalZoom says that Kamran Pourzanjani, president and co-founder of the leading price comparison web site, PriceGrabber.com, is also joining its board of directors.

“Families and businesses repeatedly need to handle essential legal documents such as wills and filings, but it can be cumbersome and expensive to hire an attorney.  LegalZoom.com has built a strong business by providing broader access to the legal information and documents that millions of people need,” said Alan Spoon, managing general partner at Polaris Venture Partners. “We look forward to collaborating with the team as they continue to expand their business.”

LegalZoom.com – www.legalzoom.com

Polaris Venture Partners - www.polarisventures.com

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3/22/07 – Newbury Park-based EdenTree Technologies, provider of software solutions for lab management and test automation, and Calient Networks, a supplier of carrier-class fiber optic cross-connect systems (FOCS), have announced that the companies have signed an exclusive technology and distribution agreement for integrated network lab automation solutions.

EdenTree says its Lab Manager software, the Lab Operating System and software platform for managing, scheduling, configuring and tracking lab resources, has been integrated with Calient's DiamondWave family of all-optical switches for more than two years, providing a drag-and-drop graphical user interface (GUI) and API for controlling the switches in lab environments.  In April 2006, the companies announced a reseller agreement that expanded on their existing technology relationship.

According to the companies, EdenTree will become Calient’s exclusive reseller of DiamondWave switches into the labs of network equipment manufacturers and service providers.  Further, the companies say they have expanded their integration to include Calient’s new FiberConnect fiber optic cross-connect switch, and tightened their product integration with new features that allow users of EdenTree Lab Manager to manage optical power levels and obtain optical status information directly from Calient switches.

“EdenTree's rapidly growing sales organization is encountering more and more customers needing cost-effective all-optical switching infrastructure in their labs,” said Jay Oyakawa, president and CEO of EdenTree Technologies.  “Calient's FiberConnect is the most cost effective all-optical switch on the market, allowing us to offer our customers a scalable solution for automating optical connections in labs of any size.”

Edentree says its Lab Manager drag-and-drop GUI allows test engineers, developers, customer support personnel and other lab users to design and schedule test topologies consisting of devices that are interconnected by DiamondWave AFM and FiberConnect switches.  The solution transparently and dynamically builds the topologies, eliminating manual recabling and providing automated and remote control of test topologies, easier sharing of equipment, and a dramatic increase in test velocity.

The companies count Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, Nortel, AT&T and Verizon, among existing customers of the combined Calient and EdenTree solution.

Calient Networks – www.calient.net

EdenTree Technologies - www.edentreetech.com

Posted by startupbeat at 07:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/22/07 – There is more news from Amp’d Mobile, the Los Angeles-based MVNO and mobile content provider, as the company today unveiled the MOTO Q, Amp’d Edition from Motorola.

Amp’d says the phone is designed for enhanced mobile entertainment and aimed at its target youth market who thrive on entertainment and social networking.

“With the increased acceptability of smart phones among consumers, the MOTO Q, Amp’d Edition provides our youth demographic an open platform approach to our unique entertainment experience,” said Peter Adderton, founder and chief executive officer of Amp’d Mobile.

Amp’d says the phone features one of the slimmest QWERTY designs on the market and Windows Mobile 5.0 software.  It also includes EVDO technology, 320x240 vivid display, rich multimedia content and stereo sound, according to the company.

Additionally, Amp’d says it is the first U.S. carrier to utilize Adobe’s Flash Lite technology as the main user interface.  With this technology, the company says consumers can experience the company’s Amp’d Live broadband content and programming lineup to its fullest potential, including streaming TV, Amp’d Original programs, music, viral videos, 3D multiplayer games, ringtones, wallpapers and more.

Amp’d announced an expansion into the Canadian and Japanese markets earlier this week.  In addition, reports surfaced yesterday that the company had raised an additional $107 million in funding.

Amp’d Mobile – www.ampd.com

Motorola – www.motorola.com

Posted by startupbeat at 07:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

-CircleUp featured in The Pitch – Newport Beach-based CircleUp is now featured in The Pitch by StartUp Beat.  The Pitch is where executives at local tech startups pitch their companies directly to StartUp Beat readers through an article that outlines the business model, product line(s) and the people behind the company.  Check it out at: www.startupbeat.com/thepitch

-SpaceX launch a success – El Segundo-based SpaceX yesterday successfully launched a test rocket into space.  SpaceX is one of the first commercial space travel companies, was founded by 2002 by Elon Musk , the founder of PayPal and the Zip2 Corporation.  The company was awarded the COTS contract by NASA to demonstrate delivery and return of cargo to the International Space Station.  Here is TechCrunch briefly on the launch: Congratulations to SpaceX, They Made It Into Space

Posted by startupbeat at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/21/07 – Cognition Technologies, a Santa Monica-based Internet search technology company, has announced the commercial release of CognitionSearch, its evolutionary meaning-based linguistic search technology.  The company claims that CognitionSearch dramatically increases the precision and recall of search results when compared to traditional search methods and technologies.

Based on computational linguistic science, CognitionSearch “understands” both the user query and the content of the documents being searched, which enables the software to deliver higher performance in the areas of precision and recall, the two main metrics that are commonly used to evaluate the effectiveness of search engine technology, the company says.

“The most significant and, until now, unsolved problem facing search technology has been how to increase the precision of search results without sacrificing recall, and vice versa,” said Scott Jarus, CEO of Cognition Technologies.  “CognitionSearch solves this problem by ‘understanding’ what the user is asking, and then returning only those results which are relevant to the query.  As an example, CognitionSearch understands the difference between a ‘bat’ used in baseball and a ‘bat’ that flies around in a cave.  It also understands that the word ‘bill’ has seven different meanings, which are dependent upon the context of the query or sentence to resolve the word’s understanding.”

Cognition says that the underlying technology in CognitionSearch has been in development for more than 20 years.

Rather than competing directly with Google, Yahoo and the like, Jarus tells StartUp Beat that the technology is an enhancement to existing search engines.

“The technology is complementary and augments pattern matching search technology such as Google, Yahoo and Ask,” said Jarus.

CognitionSearch software is initially being offered to enterprise customers in the litigation support and life sciences markets.

Jarus says that in the short term Cognition licenses its technology to these content holders and application companies that want to provide advanced search capabilities within their applications.  “Ultimately, Cognition will monetize CognitionSearch, once there is sufficient critical mass of users,” said Jarus.

CognitionSearch is now available for use by the general public through the company’s demonstration web site at www.cognitionsearch.com.  Users have the ability to search content in the areas of health, politics, government and legal.

CognitionSearch – www.cognitionsearch.com

Cognition Technologies – www.cognition.com

Posted by startupbeat at 08:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/21/07 – Los Angeles-based mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and content provider Amp’d Mobile has announced that its exclusive entertainment content is now available to more than 30 million mobile users around the world.

Amp’d announced its launch in Canada earlier this week and now says it launched in Japan on March 1 via a new portal service designed exclusively for KDDI subscribers.

The company says that its focus on the 18-to-35 year old demographic has created a unique opportunity to expand the company's content service-Amp’d Live-internationally, and that by the end of this year, more people will access Amp’d Live outside of the U.S. than within.

“Young people in Tokyo have a lot in common with kids in Toronto and Toledo,” said Bill Stone, president of Amp’d Mobile.  “Technology and pop culture have brought the mobile generation together.  Amp’d is the only mobile entertainment service offering a wide spectrum of content that appeals to this crowd.”

Amp’d says that much of the original and exclusive content the company offers its U.S. customers is available to Amp’d Mobile’s international audiences.  Additionally, its international facilities house production studios in which to create original content tailored for the local markets.

For example, Amp’d says that Amp’d Mobile-Japan debuted its first Amp’d Original Presentation on March 9.  Boston Gyro: The Big League Report provides real-time baseball reports covering Japanese players in the U.S. from sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe.  All Amp’d Japan content is delivered in Japanese or in English with Japanese subtitles specially designed for mobile phone browsers.  In Canada, clients are able to access content in both French and English.

Amp'd Mobile - www.ampd.com

Posted by startupbeat at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3/20/07 – Fonality, the Culver City-based open source telephony company, yesterday announced a new enterprise telephony appliance based on trixbox, a leading Asterisk-based open source Internet protocol-PBX, and a range of complementary professional support options.  The company made the announcement at the Spring Voice On the Net 2007 conference in San Jose.

Fonality says the trixbox Appliance comes pre-installed with the trixbox software platform and is an industrial grade rack-mountable server with dual hard disk and dual power supply redundancy options.  It is aimed at businesses with five to 500 employees, according to the company, and can be purchased for use with voice-over-IP, E1/T1 or up to 48 analog lines.

Fonality says the appliance was created for trixbox and Asterisk resellers, as well as IT professionals, and costs $999.  Fonality also sells an Asterisk-based PBX marketed directly to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), called PBXtra.

“The trixbox Appliance is actually aimed at more technical professionals, either resellers, computer consultants or IT professionals, who will be able to install and configure the Appliance,” said Chris Lyman, Fonality CEO.  “The small business owner would be more likely to purchase PBXtra which comes ready to use and requires little technical expertise to operate.”

The trixbox Appliance is powered by Intel, which recently invested Fonality through Intel Capital.  It comes with pre-configured Sangoma line cards with Octasic echo-cancellation hardware inside.  Fonality says that broad support for the appliance has been announced by a growing trixbox ecosystem that includes phone manufacturers Polycom, Aastra, and Grandstream, as well as voice-over-IP service providers VoicePulse and Teliax.

“The trixbox Appliance, built on Intel-based servers, is another proof point that open source telephony solutions can deliver full-featured yet very affordable solutions to the global mid-market,” said Lisa Lambert, managing director, Software and Solutions Group, Intel Capital.  “Fonality's investment in trixbox should provide the opportunity for the company to grow their market position and leadership.”

The company says the trixbox Appliance includes trixbox 2.2, a new release of the popular distribution that integrates Asterisk with Apache, MySQL, SugarCRM and PHP.

In addition to delivering an appliance, Fonality is offering professional support options to customers through a new suite of comprehensive technical support packages that can be purchased on an annual basis for a complete deployment, or in hourly increments for ad hoc support.

Lyman says that the trixbox Appliance is another piece in Fonality’s SMB-focused product matrix.

“Fonality brings many open source solutions to the market.  trixbox is home depot.  PBXtra is a pre-fabricated house,” said Lyman.  “The combination of PBXtra, which has more commercial Asterisk-based deployments than any other provider, and trixbox, home to the largest and fastest growing Asterisk-based and open source telephony community, allows us to be a leader in open source telephony across the spectrum, from fully supported commercial solutions to a free, flexible open source project and community.”

More information about trixbox – www.trixbox.org

Fonality - www.fonality.com

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3/20/07 – Santa Monica-based ReferNow, Inc. last week threw its hat into the growing referral marketing and word-of-mouth market with the launch of ReferNow.com, a web-based tool that the company says simplifies the creation, management and measurement of sophisticated referral-marketing campaigns.

ReferNow was formed by Internet entrepreneur Kevin DeMeritt, who designed ReferNow.com to leverage marketing dollars for companies that spend a significant portion of their resources on advertising, and for those businesses that rely heavily on referrals.

According to DeMeritt, “ReferNow was designed to get customers talking about and recommending their favorite businesses to everyone they know.  All of these people, and the people they know, are your potential customers.”

ReferNow says that the ReferNow.com site includes an intuitive centralized, web-based dashboard which it says provides all of the tools a business person needs to manage a successful referral marketing campaign: coupons, point management and reporting (representing the number of referrals made, the number of referrals sent and the number of referrals that have resulted in new business).

ReferNow’s Nicole Wicks says the site was the result of DeMeritt’s experience marketing his company, Lear Financial.

“For five years, he worked hard to perfect a referral program for Lear, and during that time he realized that the model he built could be used to manage referral programs for any business,” said Wicks.  “And it has worked—Lear Financial has grown from $5 million in sales to over $75 million in nine years—and he consistently states that he couldn’t have done it without his customers helping his business grow.”

“Once people started telling their friends about Lear, business really took off,” said DeMeritt.  “Creating an easy, stress free method to encourage referrals was the best marketing investment I have ever made.  A referral-generated lead costs next to nothing, and represents a highly qualified potential customer, who usually is ready to purchase.”

The company says that since its launch last Wednesday, it has signed up more than 15 companies, and Wicks says they are roughly looking to have 2,000 members by year-end.

In order to reach that goal, the company is offering all new users a 30-day free trial, allowing them to set up a referral campaign and use the complete system to see how well it works.  Users are charged a monthly fee after the trial.  Wicks says the company’s initial marketing includes online keyword campaigns, viral videos, public relations and direct marketing.

Funding for development was provided by DeMeritt, with private investors being brought in subsequently, according to Wicks.

ReferNow – www.refernow.com

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3/19/07 – Amp'd Mobile, the Los Angeles-based mobile entertainment provider, has launched in Canada, bringing its collection of original and exclusive content to a new audience.

The company says that Amp'd Mobile Canada is the first integrated mobile entertainment company for youth, young professionals and early adopters between the ages of 18 to 35, and the only third generation (3G) carrier in Canada specifically targeting that demographic.  The Canadian service is the result of a partnership between TELUS and Amp'd Mobile.

Amp’d says that using the TELUS Wireless High Speed service (EVDO), subscribers can easily access traditional services such as voice and text, as well as exclusive music tracks and videos, live entertainment, 3D games and mobile communities all within Amp'd Live, a user interface designed specifically for 3G technology.

Amp’d says it bases its mobile entertainment content offerings on three main areas: highly coveted and exclusively licensed content, original programming created specifically for Amp'd and user-generated content such as viral videos.

The company has also formed exclusive partnerships with MuchMusic and the NHL Players Association, leading a long list of Canadian content providers including the NHL, The Score, MTV Canada and The CBC, according to Amp’d. Partnerships with Musique Plus, Musimax and 33 Mag begin an ongoing commitment to French and Quebecois content.

Amp'd says it is also opening studios in Toronto, and to celebrate it has planned two weeks of Amp'd Studio Sessions.  Kicking off the celebration is EMI-artist Pride Tiger, performing today in the company's studio at 3pm.  Amp’d says other acts scheduled to appear include Stars of Track and Field, Kardinal Offishall, Roz Bell, The Klaxons and Die Mannequin.

Amp’d Mobile – www.ampd.com

Amp’d Mobile Canada – www.ampd.ca

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3/19/07 – Irvine-based Integrien, provider of “integrity management” solutions, has been included in the list of “Cool Vendors” in the March 7 “Cool Vendors in IT Operations Management, 2007” report by Gartner, Inc.

According to the report, Gartner has “provided analysis on emerging vendors in the IT operations management market that are delivering tools that meet some of the most critical needs managing growing IT complexity around application management, event management and e-mail availability.”

“We believe this is a significant validation of Integrien Alive and its ability to improve IT efficiency for organizations by predicting and preventing network outages and slowdowns before they impact business operations,” said Roy Agostino, CMO of Integrien.

Integrien says that its Integrien Alive product solves a number of problems related to maintaining application availability and service levels.  The company says Alive pinpoints the source of problems when a distributed application suffers performance degradation or outage, picking up issues even when all components seem fine, then predicts problems based on the pattern of abnormal events that competing products pass through as an alert storm.

“Companies that spend billions of dollars to fix slow or failing applications on average still only have 82 percent application availability and low ROI,” said Agostino.  “This puts productivity, revenue and customer satisfaction at risk. Smart companies are seeking Integrien’s learning technologies to predict and prevent problems before they occur—a fundamentally new way of looking at the problem.”

Integrien Corporation – www.integrien.com

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3/16/07 – ThisNext.com has announced the expansion of its blogging toolset by adding a new member to its Shopcasting Suite family called “BlogIt.”  The company says BlogIt is a tool that allows bloggers and social networkers to distribute attractive content easily and quickly, allowing users to create personalized HTML code that can be copied and pasted to multiple platforms.

“Serious bloggers and social networkers usually maintain multiple blogs, including their own. It is not uncommon to see a blogger in five or even ten different social environments online,” said Gordon Gold, This Next CEO and co-founder.  “Until now there hasn't been an easy tool to allow quick and easy casting of images and content.  We have designed a great tool that empowers users by allowing them to broadcast their opinion and product recommendations quickly and easily.”

ThisNext says the first product unveiled in the Shopcasting Suite was a customizable badge for publishers looking to promote individual products.  The company says BlogIt now takes the process one step further by allowing users to quickly create and showcase a graphic visual collage in matrix form, and can be up and running in just seconds on MySpace, Vox, StumbleUpon or anywhere else users socialize.

ThisNext - www.thisnext.com

3/16/07 – Culver City-based Fonality, the open source IP telephony company, announced today that it has been named to the “Pulver 100,” an annual list of high-growth private companies that represent the future of IP communications.  Fonality says it will be honored at the spring 2007 VON Conference and Expo next week in San Jose, Calif.

“Pulvermedia is proud to name Fonality to this year’s Pulver 100,” said Jeff Pulver, founder and chairman of Pulvermedia.  “The Pulver 100 continues to grow in significance, because companies like Fonality are helping to drive acceptance for IP telephony among smaller businesses with their PBXtra product line.”

“With 2,000 businesses in 37 countries using our phone system, it’s great to be recognized for the innovation we’re delivering and the momentum we’ve created,” said Chris Lyman, Fonality CEO.  “We are thrilled to earn this award from Pulvermedia and look forward to celebrating with fellow honorees next week at VON.”

Fonality - www.fonality.com

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-More on Viacom/You Tube – Paul LaMonica of CNNMoney.com writes today about Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit being a potential boom to smaller online video companies.  See yesterday’s The StartUp Beat for comments from Scott Flacks of Los Angeles-based Stickam, one of those companies that could benefit.  Here’s LaMonica’s article: You Tube rivals: Thanks, Viacom!

-Donna Bogatin at ZDNet blogged this week about the potential for a Google entry into television advertising, and featured L.A.-based SpotRunner—a company that enables local businesses to advertise on local TV at an affordable cost.  SpotRunner has a good team with a lot of expertise and seems to have a head start in the market.  In addition, despite a lot of testing, Google has yet to prove that they can be an effective online advertising “agency” beyond their search engine and its affiliates.  Here’s the write-up:  SpotRunner vs. Google: Let the TV advertising battle begin!

-Wired this week featured a Q&A with Michael Eisner about his new venture into web content production.  His company, Beverly Hills-based Tornante, announced this week that it has produced and will begin showing episodes of a new series on various web video sites.  Here’s the interview: Meet Michael Eisner’s Prom Date

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3/15/07 – Practical Instruments CEO Brad Hines this week announced that the Pasadena-based company is changing its name to Soliant Energy, a move that comes just a week after the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the company a $4 million grant to accelerate the on-going development of its Heliotube product platform.

Hines tells StartUp Beat that the name change was simply a branding decision.

“Our new name reflects the solution our technology offers - reliable solar energy,” said Hines.  “As the solar industry continues to enjoy record growth, it's important that we make it easy to communicate Soliant's value proposition to current and future partners and stakeholders.”

The announcement was made by Hines during an address at the fourth International Conference on Solar Concentrators (ICSC), in El Escorial, Spain.  The address entitled "Trends in the Economics of Solar Concentrators" discussed the recent progress of solar concentrator technology and the economic environment created by incentives world-wide.

Hines, a former NASA chief architect, said in his address that the market opportunity for concentrating photovoltaics has never looked brighter.

“Solar concentrating technology solves one of the key problems that has previously limited growth in the solar sector: cost,” he said.  Hines also noted that as clean energy incentives become more performance based, concentrators will command more attention due to their superior capacity factors and annual energy yield.

According to Soliant, the ICSC is the preeminent global platform for solar technology experts to discuss cutting-edge research, industrialization and commercialization of solar concentrators for generating electricity or hydrogen.
 
Soliant Energy – www.soliant-energy.com

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