Technically Philly is a news site covering technology, startups and venture capital in Philadelphia.

Tag Archives: RedLasso

Startup Roundup: Local angle to Twitter’s Fail Whale; NuPathe sets IPO terms

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Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

LTL Prints has been racking up partners weekly, according to the deluge of press releases we get, but that’s why not why we’re playing this one. The Old City-based wall graphics company has an interview with Twitter’s Fail Whale creator — and LTL featured artist — Yiying Lu. It’s not about failure at all:”I wanted to create a visual greeting – a visual ‘comfort’ for my friends back home for all the events that I was missing,” Lu says. Check it out if not for the story, for the original sketches.

Conshocken-based biotech firm NuPathe — read our Q&A with the company, which is developing a migraine treatment patch, here — has set the terms for the debut of its initial public offering, at between $14 and $16 per share, hoping to raise $75 million with the offering.

We’re way psyched to see this one come through the pipeline: ZVRS, a company which is taking advantage of iPhone 4′s Facetime to provide translation services for the hearing impaired launched launched at Hard Rock in Center City. Remember that, ahem, social entrepreneurship thing here in Philly we’ve been writing and talking with folks about? Yeah, cough. It’s happening.

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Startup Roundup: QlikTech debuts IPO, augmented soccer for iOS4 for World Cup blues

startup

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

Radnor’s QlikTech launched its initial public offering last week, selling 11.2 million shares at $10 each, an initial market capitalization of $940 million, Seeking Alpha reports [h/t/ PhillyTechNews]

We love this. Local Laan Labs has created an augmented reality soccer game that lets you use an iOS4 camera to kick a ball around. Great for soccer wanna-be’s.

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Startup Roundup: HootSuite and Skullcandy pick Philly partners

startup

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

Aria Systems has announced that social media dashboard Hootsuite has chosen Aria’s cloud billing and subscription management tools to manage its paid subscription offerings.

Trendy audio headset manufacturer Skullcandy has partnered with GSI Commerce to take advantage of the latter’s digital marketing services TrueAction.

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Local tech veteran leads virtual event software VCopious

Companies that host extravagant events—where hundreds or thousands of staffers travel to a single location, sometimes for several days—are cutting back. And virtual reality platforms that mimic the success of social network Second Life are filling the void online.

In Conshohocken, virtual event software solution VCopious hit the ground running in May, led by local seasoned tech entrepreneur Kenyon Hayward.

“The reality is that the virtual environment marketplace is on a very strong upswing,” Hayward, the company’s CEO, says.

In addition to saving costs on those lavish conferences, using virtual reality hosting software, companies can use the virtual space 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can have customers or employees interacting with content.


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Startup Roundup: Interdigital “most inventive,” Rush Limbaugh gets RedLasso

startup

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

King of Prussia-based Interdigital Communications, which invents wireless technologies, has been listed as the Daily Beast’s #1 most inventive company, with 717 patents awarded in since 2005.

RedLasso has partnered exclusively with Clear Channel subsidiary Premiere Radio Networks to allow the company’s radio shows to clip audio from television clips. Expect to hear more Wendy Williams clips on the network’s shows, like Rush Limbaugh, Jim Rome, Casey Kasem, Ryan Seacrest and Glenn Beck.

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Startup Roundup: Comcast applies for patent to halt ad fast-forwarding, Duck Duck Go to accept sponsorship

startup

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

Radnor’s Guideworks, a joint venture of Comcast and TV Guide, which maintains Comcast’s interactive programming grid—likely one of your daily-used UIs—has applied for a patent that will display “substitute media” when you fast forward through an advertisement. That’s right folks; your Comcast ad-skipping days will soon be coming to a close.

Viddler has opened its HTML5 beta, timed with some hot press from USA Today to boot. Like our coverage of Fishtown design shop WellFed last week, Viddler’s another local company effected by Steve Job’s anti-Adobe-ism, if that was a word.

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Friday Tech Links: Big Brother in Lancaster, girls still hate tech and More

Lancaster security cameras on the streets are monitored by civilians working for a nonprofit group. They pan, zoom and call police if they see a crime. Linda Johnson / For The L.A. Times

Lancaster security cameras on the streets are monitored by civilians working for a nonprofit group. They pan, zoom and call police if they see a crime. Linda Johnson / For The L.A. Times

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

You’re probably being watched in Lancaster.

This city of 54,000 in the middle of a rural county of the same name just may be the most closely scrutinized place in the country, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

As many as 165 closed-circuit TV cameras that will soon bring constant live surveillance of very nearly every street, park and other public space. That would be more outdoor cameras than cities as large as Boston and San Francisco.

Two more things are unique about the camera network, as the L.A. Times story suggests: it was built and maintained by a private nonprofit group and few seem concerned about the privacy implications.

The group, which hires civilians to move and follow the cameras and dispatch police to suspiscious activity, hasn’t found much public outcry.

“Years ago, there’s no way we could do this,” said Lancaster’s police chief Keith Sadler told the Times. “It brings to mind Big Brother, George Orwell and ’1984.’ It’s just funny how Americans have softened on these issues.”

There is some question as to the effectiveness of cameras, though. In what the Times report calls the largest U.S. study, US Berkeley researchers evaluated 71 cameras that San Francisco put in high-crime areas beginning in 2005. In December, they released a report that found “no evidence” of a reduction in violent crime, though it did note “substantial declines” in property crime near the cameras.

Hat Tip Philly Tech News.

After the jump, the continued spat over a state film tax credit, robot-loving high schoolers and eight more of the week’s tech stories you shouldn’t miss, including our best read story of the last seven days.


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Regional entrepreneurship foundation takes major players on its advisory board

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A slew of big names were named to the advisory board of the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship to Youth.

All told, 13 new members were appointed, including former RedLasso CEO Kenyon Hayward, RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, the longtime president of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and Temple University President Ann Weaver Hart, according to a press release.

The regional incarnation of the New York City-based nonprofit is headquartered at Temple and follows the group’s mission of providing entrepreneurship education programs to young people from low-income communities.


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Friday Q&A: RedLasso CEO McGowan and President O’Kane

picture_6Last year, to the dismay of bloggers everywhere, the popular RedLasso video sharing service – which allowed users to search, customize, and embed video clips from national networks – was forced to shut down after Fox and NBC filed suit against the company.

On Monday, the Center City-based company announced that it had reached a licensing agreement with Fox Television Studios allowing users of the online video sharing platform to syndicate online customized clips from 27 of Fox’s regional television stations.

Technically Philly sat down with RedLasso CEO Al McGowan and President Kevin O’Kane Thursday evening to discuss how the deal went down, where they’re looking for funding, and what Philly entrepreneur Pat Croce has to do with the video sharing company.

Transcript of interview was edited for length and clarity.

Explain what’s been happening with RedLasso and the recent licensing deal

Al McGowan: When Kevin and I got together a few years ago, we said look, ‘This marketplace is changing. The way people are consuming media is changing. Let’s work with our friends in the media and figure out a way to help solve that problem for them.’ Kevin found some technology and put it on top of media, which allowed them to digitize it and extend the life of that content, especially on the news and information side.

Broadcast goes out on the air and right into the garbage can. Why not capture and digitize it and let it have another life on different platforms, like mobile and the Web. So we designed a platform that allows extending the life of that content to keep monetizing it. That’s the whole basis of RedLasso.

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RedLasso announces licensing deal with Fox, service to return in April

redlassoRedLasso, the popular online television video sharing platform forced to close its service last year pending copyright infringement litigation with several major television networks, has been given a major lifeline.

From one of the litigators—Fox Television Stations—nonetheless.

King of Prussia-based RedLasso has entered into an agreement with FTS that will give users of the video service the ability to syndicate licensed content from 27 of Fox’s regional television news programs, according to a press release from both companies.

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