Sunil Maulik
A list of the top startups at the 2012 SXSW festival
Name your price for anything and get it from people nearby. Free to post; pay only when you get what you want.
y Zaarly, the much buzzed about HTML 5 mobile app that connects buyers and sellers in a localized market place, is now live today in Austin. So if you’re stuck in bed needing Gatorade and Advil (or a change of clothes, or an iPhone charger, or …) you can now hit up Zaarly.com on your phone and put in your order.
With Zaarly people who want things and people who want to provide services are brought together in an unprecedented way, with the focus on the buyer’s needs as opposed to the sellers. Buyers post what they want and how much they’re willing to pay and sellers can log in to Zaarly view the needs and prices of tasks around them. Sellers bid for the tasks, and the buyer chooses the best one, with Zaarly connecting the two via an anonymous Twilio-powered phone number.
Highlight gives you a sixth sense about the world around you, showing you hidden connections and making your day more fun.
Highlight adds a layer of awareness to the daily act of passing people. After users connect their Facebook profiles, it pushes their basic information to other people who use the app. Users can choose to make their information accessible to either everyone or friends of friends. Either way, the app only makes the connection if the two parties have something in common.
The smart journal that helps you share life with the ones you love.
Path, a photo-sharing app has released "Version 1.5" of their iPhone app which allows users to share photos on Facebook, whereas previously they were limited to a Path friends list--which is capped at 50 people. They can be selected to be visible either only to members of that user's Path friends list or to the user's Facebook friends as a whole. The Path interface has also been cleaned up a bit, using an algorithm to determine "top friends" as well as peppering the main activity feed with actions other than photos--friends' comments, views, and reactions to the individual user's photos. In addition, Path has added a new feature called "Lenses" so that users can tweak their photos with artsy filters much in the way that they would do with the Instagram app.
Read more: http://www.cnet.com/8301-14013_1-20042072-284.html#ixzz1okx5stCm
Glancee is a mobile app that helps you discover and connect with new interesting people around you. Download Glancee for iPhone and Android devices.
Glancee's very simple. It looks for people nearby who have friends in common with you or who share the same interests. And it makes it easy to discover the same connections and start a conversation with them. So it's easy to find someone new that you don't know but that we think you would enjoy meeting.
Sonar is a mobile app that uncovers the connections you share with people nearby. It's the easiest way to discover friends at cafes, parks, meetups & conferences.
Social discovery service (and TechCrunch Disrupt alumni) Sonar has some big news today, and just in time for SXSW: it’s arriving on Android. According to founder Brett Martin, support for the Android platform has long been users’ most frequent request for the service.
But that’s not the only thing that’s new. Along with the Android launch, the company is also making a slight, but important shift, in terms of how it will show its users recommended people nearby.
Starting with the Android launch, instead of focusing on people checked in to particular venues, Sonar is now expanding to show you just those people close to your current location and then ranking them by relevancy. Before, Sonar showed its results first as a list of places, which you would then tap into to see its people recommendations. Going forward, the app is defaulting to a people list which starts with your friends, then shows you other relevant folks nearby. (However, you can still switch over to the Places list if you prefer).
If you haven’t heard of Grandstand, now is a good time to start paying attention. For those not familiar with this new up-and-comer, Grandstand takes a refreshingly clever approach to social media; specifically the dynamic of social interactions. It was conceived last spring by the media gurus over at iStrategy Labs when a few developers were able to turn 4Square’s API into a game board. This triggered the idea of using check-ins as a way to interact with visitors and play a game at the same time, creating both a unique experience for customers as well as developing social media brand awareness on the client’s side. It’s a great concept: customers get rewarded for tweets, check-ins and likes with sponsored prizes, and the client will receive more engagement and brand awareness of their company or product.
WeVideo lets you tell your story with video. Our online video editing platform is affordable, simple to use, and uniquely collaborative.
Cloud video editing startup WeVideo has announced it will launch its premium and commercial packages on Thursday, which add in HD video editing and more storage. WeVideo has announced that its service will be accessible through YouTube starting today, a move that will give YouTube’s astounding amount users much better video editing tools free of charge.
Pixable is your photo inbox. Discover and enjoy the best photos shared by your friends.
Pixable is an app that sorts images from your Facebook and Twitter feeds into piles such as “Top of the Day,” “New on Twitter” and “New Profile Pics,” making them easy to view and interact with.
TaskRabbits are your own personal assistants cleaning your home, delivering groceries, running errands, building IKEA furniture, and so much more.
TaskRabbit works by providing its users with a crowdsourced pool of able service providers – called “TaskRabbits” – to complete both everyday and skilled tasks.
Shapeways is creating around 30,000 objects and month, using a number of different materials, including ceramic or stainless steel for household goods, and sterling silver for higher end creations. You can even order glass creations in multiple colors. In order to keep up with demand, the company expects to double its employee roster by mid-2012, as well as open a New York production facility to keep costs down for shipping.
