Chute Your Photos

Chute wants to host all your photos for your apps. 

Every time a developer or a site owner wants to build photo functionality into their app or website, they're essentially forced to re-invent the wheel. Mobile developers aren't always familiar with the ins-and-outs of web development, just as the same can be said for web developers, so Chute has built a system that works for both, handling the entire backend environment for uploading, processing, authenticating, resizing, and serving images.

TC review

Instant Cloud For Devices

It would be so cool if you could buy any wifi-enabled device and have it instantly connected to the cloud and have it securely accessible to your app. That's the promise behind Yoics.com.

In a world where everything is connected to the Internet, it is actually hard to network various devices to one another. This is especially true for the various silos of LAN and mobile devices from various makers. To make a device on a LAN remotely accessible requires the network router to be configured to open a port and for the remote user to know the (static) IP address and port number to access it. This type of complex configuration is typically beyond the skill set of most consumers and also creates a security vulnerability that can be exploited by a variety of threats.

TC review

Find Any TV Show With GuideBox

Guidebox is all about TV — and just TV. It doesn't care about movies; it doesn't care about web video. Just TV! So if you are into TV, and want to watch TV on the web or on your phone or tablet, it's worth a look.

TC review

Cooler Way to Find Video Channels

9x9.tv has a cool way to search for online video content for your Android device. 

The app provides curated channels of video that are designed to mimic viewing habits of regular TV viewers. It does this by breaking videos down into various categories and showing just the most appropriate nine channels based on the time of day. It calls that "day parting," providing morning shows in the morning and late-night clips at late-night and primetime content in primetime. The idea is to make online video viewing kind of more like the way people watch TV.

TC review

NFC For Marketing & Ads

Tapit is not waiting for NFC to take off for payments. Considering iPhones don't have built-in NFC chips, that may be a long while. So Tapit thinks there is a big market for physical ads that have built-in NFC chips and that there are already enough NFC-enable mobile phones that can read these. Not a bad idea to consider how Tapit can fit into your product.

TC review

The Mobile Labor Force

Following the eminent demise of the unions, come these new job opportunities which absolutely give the right to work to people wherever and whenever they want. By understanding these services and registering as a provider, you can start making money with or without a formal job.

Recruiting the New Labor Force

Hash Cookies?

This is a big deal. RadiumOne is splitting revenue shares with sites that drop cookies onto their users' browsers based on hashtags the users are interested in seeing. It's a big deal because now site owners don't necessarily need to clutter the sites with image ads, but rather can simply drop cookies with any apparent disruption to the users. As the user navigates across other RadiumOne sites, the cookies are read and appropriate ads are shown to them.

Anyways, any startup should now consider this alternative source of revenue.

TC review

Use Your Car As A Taxi

An easy way to convert your own car into a taxi. People will find you and you can lift them up.

Lyft

SideCar

Code Playgrounds

Familiar with jsFiddle?

Here is another one: 

Plunker

Smartphone For Reading

I don't want to want my battery on reading on my smartphone. What to do? How about getting a dual screen smartphone where on of the screens is a digital paper screen like an eReader's?

YotaPhone

Followup TC story

JuicyCanvas Customizable Art & T-shirts

Nice way to customize art to your own tastes.

JuicyCanvas.com

TC Review

The experience is pretty straightforward. You go to the JuicyCanvas site and choose a piece of art that you like. Then you can tweak it to your liking, adjusting the size, rotating it, changing the colors, and so on. When you're done, you can pay JuicyCanvas to print the piece and ship it to you. You can also share your version on social networks.

Cisimple: Help For Mobile Developers

Having a hard time building, testing and deploying apps to Android or iPhone?

The platform, built on Mac infrastructure, offers a way for developers to automate builds, testing and deployment of their mobile applications. It saves time, which means developers can then run tests more frequently. Whereas before testing might be done two to three times per week, using something like cisimple can see tests run two to three daily instead.

Cisimple also currently integrates with testing platform TestDroid, as well, and plans to integrate with other services in the near future, including those for testing, crash reporting, internationalization, beta and App Store distribution, and more. The long-term goal is to make cisimple something like a dashboard for picking and choosing which of these services developers want to work with. Rohling says he wants the service to be as streamlined as possible. "Think Heroku – the ability to go in and pick add-ons, that's exactly what we have planned."

TC Review

Singly for Mobile & Web

If you need to integrate third party services into your website or mobile app, Singly.com can help.

Today, the company offers integration support for over 35 services, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google, Github, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Klout, Flickr, Instagram, WordPress, YouTube, PayPal, Reddit, StockTwits, SoundCloud, Rdio, Yammer, FitBit, RunKeeper, Zeo and others. iOS and Android SDKs are available, and Singly works with web-based applications, too. More integrations are coming, and the team will also respond to feedback from developers to solve future challenges and pain points on mobile in ways that can benefit the developer community as a whole.

TC review

VISA To Compete With Paypal

V.me is VISA's new service to compete with Paypal. Check it out.

TC Review

StitchLabs: From Cart to Fulfillment

StitchLabs.com promises to handle all your order processing, inventory management, and order fulfillment, all in one go. 

TC review

Curated Social Media For You

With some new services, you can automatically post curated social media on your site. Just pick a topic or choose from the people you follow.

TC story

OlaPic

Chute

Nitrogram

Statigram

Some Hot Crowdfunding Sites

Here's a nice list of some up and coming services.

15 Of The Hotest Crowdfunding Sites Out There

Philips Hue: $199 Light Bulb

Philips is selling its new Hue light bulb exclusively at Apple Stores for $199. But who is going to pay that kind of money for a light bulb?

It's features are sleek. Basically, they have integrated WiFi into the bulb so that it can be remotely controlled and programmed from a smartphone.

The Smart Lightbulb

Cardrops: An Unlock Gadget

Here is an interesting gadget and use of it. This gadget attaches on the inside of your car's trunk. It serves two purposes. One enables the GPS location of your car. The other enables the service to open your trunk to deliver something to it. Cardrops delivers anything you order online to the trunk of your car, only in the UK.

Cardrops.com

TC Review

I wonder what other interesting services there could be for such a gadget.

Memoto Takes Photo Every 30 Seconds

Nice concept. Nice product. Memoto is just launching on Kickstarter. It's a tiny wearable camera that takes a photo every 30 seconds so you can capture all your daily unexpected events. Upload them to their site and you get a very nice search capability based on time and place. 

TC Review

Unbankers Rejoice! Rixty & MOL Unite

Some great news for those who don't have credit cards or bank accounts, a pretty much rely on cash. Rixty and MOL are joining forces to span the globe. They command about 500,000 payment places combined around the world. These services allow you to trade in your cash for a credit card pre-loaded with your money and that you can use online. Perhaps you have seen one of Rixty's branded cards called the Green Dot MoneyPak at your local Walgreens.

TC Review

MOOC News

Some news about Massively Open Online Courses.

It seems some universities are bearing arms to keep these new MOOC from educating their own students.

Minnesota Bans Stanford's Unauthorized Free Online Education

There are some good links there for other MOOC services.

MassPay by Dwolla

Need to do lots of payouts to your sales team or commission earners?

Look at Dwolla Mass Pay which lets you payout up to 2,000 people at once. Fees are $0.25 for transactions over $10 and free for under $10. Caveat: payouts only to US-based people at this time.

Another Cloud IDE for Mobile Development

Here is another promising mobile IDE that runs in the cloud, so no installation and minimal configuration needed.

Icenium

Others are:

Kii Cloud

Tiggzi.com

Apps Builder is an Italian newcomer

Outlook Better Than Gmail?

It seems Outlook.com is a whole lot better than Gmail.com

http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/guidesfavorites/a/Outlook-com-Review-Why-Outlook-Is-the-New-Prince-of-Webmail.htm

Generate QR Codes with PHP

Here is an easy to follow article about how to generate QR Codes using PHP.

http://phpmaster.com/generate-qr-codes-in-php/

The Gifting Bandwagon

It seems everyone is jumping on board to produce the ideal gifting service. Even Facebook is getting ready to announce their gifting initiative. 

Facebook to Launch Gifting App

http://www.dropgifts.com/

https://wantful.com/

https://www.wrapp.com/us

http://www.give.it/

Irrive: Collaborative Social Scrapbooks

I wonder what a scrapbook would look like if you and all your friends could make one together.

Irrive.com

TC review

Raspberry Pi

If you thought coding a webserver with a few lines of Node.js was cool, then try take it down another notch. This time throw away your server hardware and start from scratch using Raspberry Pi. 

The Raspberry Pi is a $35, full-blown micro computer that runs Linux. Use its video, audio, network, and digital I/O to create media centers, web servers, interfaces to external hardware—you name it. 

Update: May be the Raspberry Pi is not so easy or cheap to use.

Hot New Development Frameworks

These are cool new frameworks for developers to use for fast programming.

Firebase.com

Derbyjs.com

Meteor.com

Email APIs

The new services for programmatically accessing your emails:

Mailgun

CloudMailin

SendGrid

Nice Waiting List iOS App

These guys are probably getting it right. A very nice iPad app for restaurants to use to manage their waiting clients list. 

NoWait

TC review

Cloud-Based Mobile App Development

Forget about installing all those SDKs on your computer. Do all your mobile develoment, from Windows Phone to iPhone, using Tiggzi.com.

Mobile Development with ShoutEm

Another service for mobile app and web app development, that uses HTML5. 

ShoutEm

TC review

KiteDesk

Another service to integrate all of your personal data, from Facebook to Gmail, etc.

KiteDesk

TC review

PowerInbox

PowerInbox allows you to be more interactive with your emails. For example, you can send a post directly to your Facebook or Twitter, without having to login to those separate services. 

Sanebox: Tame Your Inbox

Sanebox.com connects to your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts to prioritize your emails at Gmail, Yahoo, Apple, AOL, etc.

Good review here

Icon Fonts

Icon Fonts are awesome. They are especially made for Retina Displays and look fantastic regardless of the zoom level. 

http://css-tricks.com/flat-icons-icon-fonts/

Google Icon Fonts

LittleBits

LittleBits Electronics Discovery Kit for kids

CSS Animations Done Right

Animations are not just done with javascript and jQuery any more. CSS3 is very good at it as well. This is the code you need to use for that.

Animate.css

Mobile Fixed Menus

On mobile devices it's difficult to implement fixed tabs or menus that do not scroll with the rest of the content, and to make it compatible across devices.

The elegant solution is to use iScroll 4

Best Mac Editor

Best all around text editor IMHO, Coda 2

Mobile App Wireframing

Here are some cool services for doing wireframes for mobile apps.

OminGraffle

Balsamiq

iMockup
Graffletopia

Konigi Stencils

Other Free Ones

Make Your Own Cartoons & Memes

Free tools for making your own comic strips and memes

Responsinator

A ncie way to check how your website will look on tablets or phones.

http://responsinator.com

Play Games, Learn Music

JoyTunes wants to teach you to play real instruments with interactive video games.

JoyTunes.com

Web Tools

From time to time I've posted some tools for web developers that I've read about. Here is another list.

Knockoutjs.com

Adaptive-images.com

Src.Sencha.io

on{X}

Html5boilerplate.com

Modernizr.com

Html5reset.org

Sammyjs.org

Caniuse.com

Css3please.com

Colorzilla.com/gradient-editor

Quirksmode.org

Titanium

Coffeescript.org

on{X} Microsoft Loves Android

Microsoft invented a service that can create notifications on your Android phone based on some triggers you set. It's all a bit blurry still but it could have significant impact.

on{X}

Tango Card

Easy gift card rewards....I'm not sure how it all works yet, but definitely one service to keep an eye on. 

Tango Card

Fun E-Learning

There are lots of different approaches to the amorphous market of 'e-learning' but only a handful ever feel much like fun. I think amongst the best of these are sites like MangaHigh which teaches Math, or Moshi Monsters which has subtle learning tasks for kids.

Another which works well is Quipper

Source: TechCrunch

Steps For Learning a Foreign Language

Some useful steps for learning to be fluent in a foreign language

I Learned To Speak Four Languages In A Few Years

Steps for Making a Mobile App

Some useful steps for making your own mobile app.

How To Build An App Empire

UPDATE: Consider using Tiggzi.com from start to finish with cloud hosting and AppStore submission.

Auto-Crop Your Photos

With Croppola.com you can upload your photos and have them intelligently cropped to some presets, like 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratios.

Why Go Away To College?

With so many online initiatives to bring more college courses to the internet, is it really necessary to be physically present at a university? For some subject matter and degrees, perhaps not. Here is an initiative from Harvard and MIT to offer free online courses.

Harvard, MIT Will Bring Classes To The Masses With Their 'edX' Online Learning Initiative

edxonline.org

Real-time Neighborhood Trends

Want to know what's going on in your part of the world that's popular? It would be neat to gather this information from all the nearby Foursquare check-ins. Well that's what Livehoods.org is doing.

Review by The Verge

Marvia: Like Adsense For Print

Marvia.ads is like Adsense for all types of print publications. Read the review by TheNextWeb.

Marvia.ads provides a platform with which advertisers can create and place ads in all types of publications, removing the human cost of sales, design and traffic. All the publisher needs to do is add a button to its website and it can then receive submissions, without any technical integrations or setup.

The USPS Is On A Roll

Some great news about the massive re-structuring and all the new services, features, and pricing.

http://thedigitalnirvana.com/2012/04/the-usps-is-on-a-roll/

CustomMade Works For You

If you want to make something, hire someone at CustomMade.com to make it for you. Or if you are a crafter or artisan, post your experience so others can find you.

CustomMade.com

TC Review

CourseHero

Online service that syndicates Youtube videos into valuable course material in many subjects.

TC Review

CourseHero.com

A Mobile Merchandising Platform

Check out Pengu.in for a developer's SDK for turning

images into merchandise. Pretty cool. One company using them is

MoPho

A similar SDK is by Sincerely.com

TC review

Interesting Restaurant Payment Gadget

Here's an interesting payment gadget for the restaurant industry. It's called The Rail.

http://bit.ly/x1BXS4

http://viableware.com

PSD 2 Facebook Fan Page

Now here's a creative service. These guys went the extra step to think about why someone would want an HTML version of their PSD design, besides the obvious for the website. My hats off to these people for providing this nifty service.

PSD2FanPage.com

Awesome Art of All Types

I hope to work with these people some day. Their art is amazing in whatever medium you can imagine, whether its graphics, video, 3D, etc. 

Wetanz.com

HTML5 Predictions for 2012

Very interesting and probably right on the money.

TechCrunch predictions

Skitch: Doodling Done Right

After choosing your starting point (a photo, screenshot, etc.), you can edit your creation using a number of built-in tools that take advantage of the iPad's touchscreen interface. Objects you draw on the screen can be moved around with your finger or pulled into the trash. A pencil tool lets you draw freehand. You can add text. And you can drag, pull and adjust other objects like arrows, circles, squares and lines.

None of this is entirely ground-breaking stuff, but Skitch does what it does very well. It's a pleasure to use.

TechCrunch Review

Skitch

Transformers Stroller

The 4Moms Origami Stroller is like a transformer that goes from being an ordinary stroller for a baby, down to a nice little buggy car for a toddler. It looks really neat.

This "transfomers concept" should be taking off very soon into other types of products. I wonder what could be next?

WoozWorld: A Facebook For Kids

Another facebook site for kids.

WoozWorld.com

Antengo: A Real-time Craiglist

It's time for a real-time craigslist alternative, now that everyone carries around a smartphone.

Antengo.com

Creative Use of Instagram API

CanvasPop.com uses Instagram's API to provide canvas prints of a user's instagram photos. Very nice and one to emulate.

Best Free Icon Sets

This guy from Germany,  Oliver Twardowski, has produced some of the all-time best and free icon sets I have ever seen.

Free Icon Sets

Map of Site Visitors

Free. Get a map on your site of all your visitors worldwide.

ClustrMaps.com

Mixel: Can't Wait 2 C What U Made!

With Mixel, your friends and the world is waiting to see what you made. Take any images from anywhere, mix'em, and you get a "mixel".

Mixel.cc

Become An Artist With Mixel's Remixable iPad Collage App

OneDrum Keeps The Beat For Office Docs

Sitepoint.com writes:

Having trouble getting your clients to use Google Docs? I know the feeling. My clients work a lot in MS Office, and many are too scared to try Google Docs, think it's too much of a hassle, or can't access it from restricted corporate networks. The result is outdated documents, endless change-merging—you name it. It seems I'm always searching my emails looking for the latest version of whatever they've sent me.

Finally, there's a solution. oneDrum, released this week, is a peer-to-peer coauthoring platform like Google Docs, based entirely in Microsoft Office.

It offers:

• automatic syncing of shared folders and files, so everyone always has the latest version on their computer
• complete version history, so you can roll back to a previous version of the file at any time
• real-time editing of documents (on PC, coming soon to Mac)
• and end to confusion between system and application keystrokes and clipboards
• all over a peer-to-peer desktop application.

Oh, and it's free.

Boxbe Manages Inboxes

I recently emailed a friend of mine and noticed I got a bounce back but it was of a different kind. The subject line said Action Requested and the body had this message:

Please add yourself to my Guest List so your messages will be delivered to my Inbox. Use the link below.

So I clicked the link and got directed to Boxbe.com, at which point I had to complete a CAPTCHA in order to deliver my original message to my friend. Lo and behold I had discovered an auto-CAPTCHA system for all of my email inboxes so I can stop all the nonsense spam. This is awesome stuff.

Lemon Slice Your Online Receipts

How would you like to organize all those online receipts you have stored away somewhere as emails? Well now there are at least two competitors in this space trying to get you to use their service to organize all your receipts stuck in Gmail, Yahoo, etc. 

Lemon.com

Slice

TC review of Lemon

TC review of Slice

Scan Photos/Art With iPhone

Cool. Now there's an app to help you quickly scan printed photos or even art, by just using your iPhone. That'll save some time.

The ShoeBox App

TC review

Modern Client Web Development

This is the new way to program all those fancy, nimble web interfaces cropping up all over the web. In a nutshell you need to use an MVC framework for all client-side web applications. With Spline you will be able to store all your data with models and whenever any change occurs to that data, both the view (HTML) and the server-side with be automatically notified and updated. CoffeeScript enables you to make javascript code sing and dance.

Use Spine.js

Use CoffeeScript

Get this book: Javascript Web Applications by Alex MacCaw

UPDATE: Better to look at Knockoutjs, Angularjs, Ember.js

Cool Image Overlays

Thinglink has some neat options for image overlays that display further info, videos, or where to buy what is shown in the image. This is just another service trying to monetize online images. Big gotcha is that users who share the images will also copy the script tags along with the image source. They are also into "printable NFC-enabled images".

TC review

New Guitar 3.0 Update!

Now there's a demo video of the new Gibson Firebird X Guitar. I just wish I knew more about guitars to really appreciate this new technology.

TC video

NFC 2.0 - No Additional Hardware

The next version of near-field communication NFC 2.0 is being pioneered by Tagattitude and is based on inaudible super-sonic signals.

TC review

Digital Toy Blocks

We've all played with blocks as kids. Today our kids play with computers. Now Sifteo.com has combined blocks with computers to produce interactive blocks. Each block has a tiny screen, senses other similar blocks, and produce sounds via a nearby computer. Because of their dynamic screens, as opposed to static faces, limitless games can be created with downloadable apps. Now our kids don't have an excuse for not playing with boring blocks.

David Pogue's review

Animated Mobile Alerts

This company has created alerts and notifications for your smartphone that show animation or videos, with sound, to alert you about incoming stuff. Pretty cool.

Pops

TC review

Check-In Hardware

Because NFC's are not embedded on all phones yet, this company decided to take matters into its own hands. It created a piece of hardware through which users can tap on with their smartphones and the whole check-in/check-out process is initiated. Pretty cool.

Tagtile.com

TC review

New Guitar 3.0

I don't know much about guitars, although I do play some classical guitar. This new Gibson guitar seems to be a new breed. It's feature list boasts 20 new features which are a bit too technical musically for me to understand.

Gibson Firebird X

TC review

iPad And Real Objects

Here's a neat iPad app that interacts with real objects. In this case the objects are Disney Cars objects with some kind of embedded chips that identify themselves to an iPad. As a child plays with the objects, the iPad detects their movement and appropriately interacts with sounds, scenes, etc. 

This begs the question....what other types of objects could interact with an iPad to produce some kind of valuable experience. Say for example in the health and fitness industry you have different objects such as heart rate monitors and pedometers. What kind of services would be useful if an iPad knew what object you had? If you placed your heart monitor on the iPad, it could display some neat graphs of your heart's activity. Whereas if you placed the pedometer on the iPad, it could display your activity in terms of steps or miles, or even a map of your just completed walking path.

Disney's Appmates Turn The iPad Into An Interactive Playmat

The Internet of Things

Some profound thoughts about the future internet of things, a world where trillions of objects are connected to the internet.

This is a world where people make the things you would make if you were left to invent stuff on your own. It is a world where people strap domestic digital cameras to weather balloons in order to photograph space, a world where people attach bubble machines to Arduinos and connect them to the web so that when it sees a keyword on Twitter, it blows bubbles.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15018894

Need Lyrics?

How about viewing lyrics in real time as you listen to any song on your mp3 player? That's the promise of an upcoming API from MusixMatch.com and from TuneWiki.com.

TC Review

Turn Anything Into A Biz Card

For now, any t-shirt can be turned into a business card. Just take a photo of your t-shirt and email it to Capturio. Anyone who sees you in the same t-shirt can snap a pic and email again to Capturio, which will then match the pic to your t-shirt and return your contact info to that person. So now it doesn't seem like QR Codes are even necessary.

Springwise Review

Another Images And Ads Venture

So people are trying to figure out how to mingle photos and ads and be profitable. Here is yet another such venture. It's the idea about making any photo be itself and an advertisement at the same time. The goal is to give a dual personality to any online image, that of being a plain image and of being an advertisement of some sort.

Adwords For Images

Stipple

Best TV Remote Control Ever

Hands down, unequivocally the best remote control for your TV ever made, that is if you have an iPad.

Logitech Harmony Link

Dream It, Make It

It's now time to get our kids involved in creating 3D objects of all their dreams. Imagine what could become of stories like Harry Potter?

Origo

FoldFactory

So you are into folding or origami? Check out FoldFactory.com to learn even more types of folds.

Here is the 112th Super Cool Fold of the Week from Trish at FoldFactory. Watch as she teaches you how to create the fun Assymetrical Gate Fold piece with a perfed postcard. 

Web Surf Via SMS

This has got to be an absolute quintessence of thinking outside the box. These guys have figure out how to surf the web using just SMS and MMS, no data plan required. Although it is slow, any website is viewable and fully functional. Truly amazing stuff.

New Android App Smoozy Lets You Surf The Web Without A Data Plan

Smozzy.com

MadPad: Everyday Musical Objects

There are sounds all around us. Record them. Snap a picture of them. Then lay them out like a keyboard and start making music. That's the idea behind MadPad.

Smule's MadPad Turns Your Life Into A Video Soundboard

Art to Digital Instantly

So when was the last time you drew something and then had to find a scanner to be able to put it online? And how would you like to carry around that scanner anywhere you went? Nope, that's not for me. I'd rather just carry a pen and make my drawing appear instantly online. Well, you can almost do that now. Just the "instantly online" isn't built-in, yet.

Meet the INKLING

Wacom's Inkling Captures What you Draw On Paper Digitally

Samsung's ChatOn: iMessages Competitor?

It looks like Samsung may have an answer to Apple's iMessages with their new ChatOn cross-platform service. However, I think iMessages is built into the iOS which means developers can use it within their own apps, whereas ChatOn may be just an app.

TechCrunch preview

Engadget preview

Bizness Apps

If you need to create a mobile app or web app, you might want to consider BizApps first, especially because they are very affordable.

Native Or Web? Bizness Apps Adds HTML5 Platform To Let SMBs Create Their Own Apps

DoughMain: Kids' Financial Education

I need to keep an eye on this service. It seems they have some great ways of helping parents reward their kids for doing chores and also teaching the kids about managing money.

DoughMain Raises $5 Million For Gamified Financial Education Platform For Kids

DoughMain.com

Photos Turned Into Art

So you are photo enthusiasts using an iPhone? You are now doing what's being called "iPhotography," the latest craze about turning ordinary photos into works of art just by using your smartphone.

NYT's Strolling Artists, Bearing iPhones

Webcam: The New Credit Card Reader

Guess what? If you have a webcam, you just got yourself a new credit card reader. So why bother with buying a specific hardware for reading credit cards?

Jumio Comes To Wordpress, Turns Blog Readers' Webcams Into Credit Card Readers