New York City (Photo credit: kaysha)

From it’s Midtown base, 29th Street Publishing hopes to revolutionize magazine publishing using simple apps for serialized content. There are currently two dozen apps in development at 29th Street.  They promise to make the apps more simple, making the path to subscription easier for writers with online audiences that may not necessarily be paying.

One of their apps is for the website Bygone Bureau, whose editor said that he sees promise in being able to generate revenue to pay his writers using essays already on his website. He’s also considering offering some articles exclusively on the Bygone Bureau app.

Five of the 29th Street apps have been released and are only purchasable through Apple Newsstand. Both Apple and 29th Street receive a cut of the money paid for each app.

The Wall Street Journal

English: Thrillist’s logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NY startup Thrillist has announced that 45 percent of their revenue comes from their iPhone app, JackThreads. This shows the payoff that can come when startups focus on a mobile-intensive strategy for The startup was recently added to the Venture Beat list of  ”10 NYC Startups we’re crazy about” and now receives over $40 million in revenue annually.

Venture Beat wrote that one of the most challenging aspects is discovering how to use mobile strategy and monetize from it.

Venture Beat

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When a Teaneck, New Jersey man lost his iPhone5 at Port Authority last year, his friend was able to track his missing phone using a “find my iPhone” app. Now more and more people are using applications like this to find their phones before the phone runs out of battery or is reset.

Instead of reporting thefts to police, some victims are taking matters into their own hands and trying to find their devices themselves. The NYPD had a reported 15,973 thefts of Apple products in 2012, however the Bureau of Justice Stastics says that only 52% of burglary victims reported thefts in 2011. The NYPD, however, do not encourage people to try to recover their own property, according to NYPD spokeswoman Det. Cheryl Crispin.

AM New York

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With iPads and other tablets  becoming more commonplace, many banks and other companies are focusing on their mobile applications before turning to their desktop applications, Wall Street and Tech reported.

Instead of replicating the apps that they had formally created for smartphones, banks and firms including Merrill Lynch and E-Trade were able to use the larger screen of a table to remodel their apps, often fitting what would be on several screens before onto one screen on the tablet.

Lucille Mayer, co-CIO of Pershing an online provider of technology services for global financial institutions, believes that by 2015 there will be twice as much development on mobile rather than desktop.

Wall Street & Technology

New York City taxi cabs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With growing support for smartphone apps to help NYers hail cabs, a lawsuit has been filed against the New York City Taxi and Limousine Comission to block these apps. The Livery Roundtable and Black Car Assistance Corporation‘s suit is one of a series of legal actions against the taxi industry efforts of Mayor Bloomberg.

They’re criticizing the TLC’s approval of a year-long pilot program to allow taxi drivers and passengers to use the apps, saying that the technology would cut into their business of having pre-arranged customers. TLC Commissioner David Yassky, however that that the suit is trying to keep NYers in the “dark ages” and that it is “wrong.”

MyCrains New York

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Foursquare announced new updated to it’s Android application which will include helping make it easier for users to find nearby spots and friends through it’s main map, engadget reports. They have moved the “To-Do List” function to the left side and the “Check In” button to the bottom corner. The most recent version is currently live, but Foursquare will have new changes over the next few weeks.

Engadget.com

Metal die-cast model of a Checker taxicab (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NYers may soon be able to track their cabs with app called Hailo, according to The New York Post. The app, which has been approved for use in Toronto and London is now before the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission for official approval. They’ve recently received millions in funding from both Richard Branson and Union Square Ventures, led by capitalist Fred Wilson. Users open the app and signal that they want a cab, and the participating taxis are alerted and told where the user is located so that they can pick them up.

In return for the service,  Hailo receives a small percentage of the fare. The Hell’s Kitchen start-up is already expected to earn millions in cab fees in the next year and even more if it receives approval in NY.

New York Post

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The New York Post

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PeopleHunt demoed its new iPhone app at last night’s NY Tech Meetup. The Next Web reports that the SoHo-based company’s app turns the idea of Meetups into spontaneous get-togethers based on “things you can show, tell or teach one another.” The app taps users’ Facebook groups and other groups like NY Tech Meetup to form a new network of people. After a group is formed, users can submit things to share or search for information. Network members can introduce themselves and chat. The app has just left private beta and is globally available.

The Next Web

Patch of New York City Police Department (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The recently released NYPD iPhone app lets users stay up-to-date with the latest in crime-fighting activities. It is also useful in helping build neighborhood organizations and crime-watch coalitions. “[The NYPD] recognizes that community members are our partners in the reduction of crime and improvement of the quality of life in our neighborhoods,” the NYPD said in a statement. “Technology is a vital tool that connects law enforcement with its communities around the world to help improve safety and security.” According to the Bayside-Douglaston Patch, the app contains several features including wanted posters, breaking news, crime videos, crime statistics and NYPD Facebook.

Bayside-Douglaston Patch

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The Metropolitan Transit Authority released an iPhone app for subway arrivals, and less than a day later an independent developer created the app, Subway Time for Android. The MTA decided to let private developers create Windows and Android apps, and designers Elad Katz and his wife obliged. Katz, who works for the digital ad agency R/GA and his wife, who works at Wireless Generation, read about the app on a long line for cabs at JFK airport. He told The Wall Street Journal, “By the time we were at the cab, we had decided that we’re going to do some reverse engineering and replicate the app on Android.” The app was available 16 hours after the MTA’s Friday morning news conference.

Wall Street Journal

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bMobilized received $2.5 million in Series A funding from Alliance Venture, Investinor and Alden AS. The NY-based company, which moved to the U.S. from Norway in 2010, helps small businesses optimize their websites for mobile with HTML5. Only two percent of small businesses are optimized for mobile systems, according to SMB DigitalScape. PandoDaily reports that bMobilized charges sites $9 a month and has grown 400 percent this year.

PandoDaily

CNET

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Vimeo just released a new app that allows Xbox 360 users to stream video on HD TVs using the Xbox LIVE online entertainment platform. Vimeo, owned by NY-based media conglomerate IAC, said in a press release that members can synch their profile with their Xbox LIVE account. That allows sharing videos on Facebook and finding out what friends are watching. They can also use a hand controller or Kinect voice and gesture controls to search, browse and play.

Social Times

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The recently released Google Maps app for iOS devices features Zagat restaurant reviews. This feature competes squarely with Apple’s map app, which uses Yelp. Both integrate restaurant reviews, but according to Crain’s New York Business, the move is a boon for Zagat (which was bought by Google last year.) Unlike Apple, Google incorporates public transportation data in its app, making it easier for NY residents to plan trips, find restaurants—and read Zagat reviews. Since its release last week, Google Maps is the top ranked free download in the iPhone App Store.

Crain’s New York Business

Forbes

ShopKeep POS

ShopKeep POS, an iPad point-of-sale provider, received $10 million in funding from Canaan Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners and TTV Capital. ShopKeep’s app can ring up sales, process credit cards and print or email receipts. According to VentureBeat, the NY-based startup’s app is used in more than 3,000 stores. Its cloud-based tool gives merchants data and analytics on customers, sales and inventory. CEO Jason Richelson said this round of funding will invested in business and product development. The company received an earlier round of funding–$2.2 million from the same investors.

VentureBeat

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The Verizon Foundation announced the Innovative App Challenge last week. The prize, sponsored by Technology Students Association and the Verizon Foundation, will award ten teams nationwide $10,000 in cash grants and training from MIT professors. Verizon made the announcement at Bronx Academy of Promise Charter School, which recently incorporated smartphones and NOOKs in classrooms. According to the New York Daily News, the once-failing charter school received an “A” on its most recent report card. Students are also designing a mobile app.

Students said using technology such as tablets and smartphones is easier because they don’t have to go to the library and cheaper than buying books. Principal Catherine Jackvony said that before the addition of tech, students were struggling. She told the News, “Last year, we purchased laptops and hired a technology teacher. Between extra help for students and the technology, that’s built up scores, and we got an ‘A!’”

New York Daily News

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Illustrating the pervasiveness of apps, John Bringardner said when his wife was in labor, they both spent a lot of time on their phones. She was using Full Term, an app that measures contractions, while he was reading books on his Kindle app. Now his wife uses Total Baby to track feedings, diaper changes and the baby’s development.

Their prevalence has created a full blown app economy–and over half a million U.S. jobs.  It used to be common practice for companies to develop a Web product and then add mobile applications, Somak Chattopadhyay, a partner at Tribeca Venture Partners, told NYU Alumni Magazine. Now the reverse is true–about half of Tribeca’s investments are now in mobile.

Nathan Hull, a NYU associate professor, said his iPhone programming class is very popular. One student, Patrick Grennan, created an app that plays music and records video simultaneously—allowing a user to make a music video on the fly. “What is inventing,” Hull said, “but taking things that exist and putting them together?”

NYU Alumni Magazine

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Barnes & Noble has recently launched a Nook app available in the Windows Store, according to the Verge. The reading app is available on Windows 8 and Windows RT devices and supports books, newspapers, comics, and magazines. Microsoft announced a Windows 8 Nook app following their $300 million investment in Barnes & Noble digital reading business early last month.

The Verge 

Time 100 2006 gala, Michael Bloomberg. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bloomberg LP recently launched the Bloomberg App Portal, which is a platform that allows software companies, financial firms, universities and other developers to distribute their applications, according to Wall Street and Tech. Bloomberg is hoping its portal will open up the financial app market to smaller, innovative developers. ”We don’t have a monopoly on innovation and there are others in the industry with great ideas and content,” said Claudio Storelli, global business manager and head of the Bloomberg App Portal team, in an interview with Wall Street & Technology. “We have opened up the platform for third-party developers so they can work with our terminal and bring value added content to our clients.”

There are currently 46 tools in the app portal that are useful for data analysis, news and research, portfolio management and risk analysis, valuation and pricing, data visualization and technical analysis.

Wall Street and Tech 

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JIBE, a NY-based startup, has created a niche for itself as a mobile recruiting solution. According to Business Insider, JIBE signed on with Walmart eight weeks ago, which has 3,800 job openings and has 1/3 of its job board traffic from mobile devices. Before JIBE, Walmart didn’t have a way to help these people have an easy way to apply via mobile device. Joe Essenfeld, JIBE founder, said, “Most big companies have already built mobile apps and sites. But recruiting is a totally different function.” Visiting Walmart’s site on mobile redirects the user to JIBE. Resumes can be uploaded via Google Docs, LinkedIn, email, or Dropbox. Additionally, GPS tracking notifies users of nearby job opportunities.

A majority of the deals JIBE’s sales people sign are six-figures. Essenfeld noted that 250,000 people a month visit the mobile career sites that it hosts. He expects the visitors will reach 2,000,00 once more big-name clients are part of JIBE’s service. Last year, JIBE raised $6 million in Series A funding and a Series B fund is currently in the works. When JIBE first launched it was a web-based feature that helped applicants create better connections with HR managers, however the company soon realized there was a larger mobile opportunity available. Essenfeld said, “We built this product in 2009 without knowing it,” Essenfeld added. “It was totally by accident.”

Business Insider

Downtown New York (Photo credit: sreevishnu)

After Hurricane Sandy the NY tech community mobilized its resources and time to help with donations, rebuilding, and other relief efforts. Here is a round up of some different NY tech initiatives that are doing their part to help those affected by the storm:

• WNYC‘s New Tech City reported on the efficiency of the recovery post-Sandy. Host Manoush Zomorodi spoke with NY Tech Meetup chairman Andrew Rasiej, who helped launch nytechresponds.org where over one thousand tech experts have offered to donate time to businesses and non-profits struggling from tech problems caused by Sandy. In DUMBO, Rasiej noted that the tech community has allied before– in the aftermath of September 11. This disaster led to the creation of the National Tech Corps, a group of techies that would be available after or during emergencies for tech support. However, neither the Bush or Obama administration focused on this initiative, but there are similar ideas in the works to ally the tech community on a national level. Rasiej said, “The NYTM is trying to show that we can provide critical tech support, and it shouldn’t just be the role of government to provide relief and recovery.” Rasiej suggested using open mapping, search databases to help people find lost loved ones, and equipment supply to help communities help one another post-disasters.

• PC Mag covered the joint donation efforts of Tumblr and Humans of New York (HONY) photo blog in response to Sandy. In less than 24 hours, the fundraising team raised $100,000 for hurricane victims. HONY was started by Brandon Stanton, a NY photographer that set out to catalog the people of the city. The HONY Facebook page has over 424,000 fans and features daily photos of people that Stanton meets in NY. Tumblr and HONY dedicated the next ten days to helping Sandy victims, and reached their ten-day goal of $100,000 in one day. According to a spokeswoman for the campaign, the average donation is about $63. Tumblr and HONY are providing incentives and rewards for donations, including following HONY for a day. This prize can only be obtained by donation $2000+ dollars, so far three people will be shadowing Stanton. If you donate $30,000, HONY and Tumblr will gift you Stanton’s Canon EOS 7D, the camera that he uses for his photographs, this prize has yet to be claimed. All proceeds go directly to the Tunnel of Towers foundation which gives resources to areas hit hardest by the storm.

• AMNY compiled a list of volunteers that came forward during Sandy to help out in the best way they knew how. Jessica Klein, Mozilla designer, grew up in Belle Harbor in the Rockaways. During Sandy her parents refused to evacuate Klein’s childhood home, and when she arrived at the scene the next day her parents were stranded on the second floor and her neighborhood was in shambles. Klein decided to use her technology skills to help those in need. She created Rockawayhelp.com to coordinate volunteers and distribute donations, answer insurance questions, and address problems with power restoration. Before long, Klein was meeting with FEMA officials and organizing supplies for those in need. On Thursday her team joined up with Team Rubison, a disaster relief group, to do an intense clean up in the area. Nick Weissman of Williamsburg Brooklyn is a photographer who took pictures after the earthquake in Haiti. However, after Sandy Weissman felt like doing more than taking photos. He has been working with the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective to show Charlie Chaplin movies to antsy children and disabled people who have been stuck in shelters since Sandy. the collective also delivered food and other supplies to people in Coney Island. Additionally, Noah Reisman, a medical student at NY Methodist Hospital, volunteered his time and medical expertise to those in need of medical help after the storm.

• Reuters reported on NY-based iPhone app Budge, which set out to make donating to charities a social effort. The app lets friends challenge each other in games and activities. The loser has to make a donation of either $1, $2, or $5 to one of the charities supported by the app. Hillan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Budge said,”For us it’s really about changing the way people think about donating. We are driving to change the culture and say you can have fun while you do good.” Though the donation price tags seem small, they can add up. Klein noted that some people end up donating $24 to $50 in the course of a month. The app is partnered with organizations like Breastcancer.org, World Food Programme USA, and more. However, Budge is looking for more charity partners to aid with Sandy relief. Budge is free and available in the US and Australia.

WNYC New Tech City

PC Mag

AMNY

Reuters

After | Hurricane Sandy Brooklyn, New York | Frankenstorm (Photo credit: MichaelTapp)

During Hurricane Sandy, government officials used a new alert system, which contacted anyone within an affected geographic area whose mobile device could get text messages, according to the New York Times. This was the first time the system was used in New York and now tech firms and the city are looking for other technology-related relief efforts. “It’s becoming very evident that just below filling basic needs of food, water and shelter is this connectivity issue, and connectivity can help fulfill other needs,” said Jessica Lawrence, the managing director of the New York Tech Meetup.

The New York Tech Meetup signed up over 800 potential volunteers to help build tools on the fly. One of the most useful has been the Sandy Coworking Crowdmap, which provided businesses displaced by the storm to find places to set up shop for free. Another relief project is Neepmapper, which allows people to text requests for volunteers or donations. The site then plots those requests on a map.

New York Times 

betaworks (Photo credit: Scott Beale)

NY based Betaworks recently launched Swirl, an app that makes photo albums from Instagram and Twitter, according to Tech Crunch. If a user wants to create an album together they just put a shared hashtag for their picture. Swirl advisor and former Aviary COO Paul Murphy informed Tech Crunch that the app has some intriguing photo sets created in beta due to Sandy and the presidential election.

Tech Crunch 

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NY based Tumblr recently updated its iPhone app with a redesigned dashboard, faster posting and more detailed notifications, according to Venture Beat. Tumblr software enfineer Bryan Irace describes the app as “completely native.” Also included in the updated app are new blog screens with blog portraits and descriptions as well as GIFS that play automaticaly on your dashboard.

About a month ago Tumblr also released an iOS app called Photoset, which allows the making and sharing for sets of photos.

Venture Beat 

Eric Hippeau (Photo credit: jdlasica)

Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau, both former Huffington Post executives, recently released their social video news app, NowThis News. The goal of the app is to make watching news an interesting and exciting experience for the newer generations of consumers.  According to paidContent, the app has categories available for browsing, like: Top stories, Obama vs. Romney, Awesome debates, Malala, Tech and Fun. There is a selection of video clips for each category that users can swipe through, and many clips are introduced by a NowThis News host. Other clips are from users or outside sources, but feature the NowThis News branding.

Former news executive at CNN, Eason Jordan, is the manager at NowThis News. He noted that the app will have eight to 10 original clips added through the day, which is supplemented by another 10 to 15 clips. Jordan said, “We feel like younger people are not watching traditional TV news, they’re getting video news from mobile and social, and we’re building for that audience.” The company launched quietly in April under the name Daily Planet and has about $5 million in funding.

paidContent

New York – Macy’s (Photo credit: PeterJBellis)

Macy’s flagship store in New York has added a new GPS navigation feature to its iPhone app, according to Mashable. The app provides indoor turn by turn directions for the store, which is the largest department store in the US. The app was developed by Meridian, a software startup who has created an indoor GPS platform. Meridian announced recently that it is making two of its indoor positioning software development kits available, Macy’s was one of three businesses to beta test the GPS feature.

“Macy’s is kind of the leader right now in a lot of digital initiatives. They’ve been trying out lots of digital initiatives to engage with shoppers in their homes and in stores,” said Jeff Hardison, VP of Marketing and Business for Meridian, explaining why the startup chose to partner with Macy’s.

Mashable

English: Front view of the American Museum of Natural History (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

More and more NY museums have been incorporating technology into their exhibits for children. According to The New York Times, the American Museum of Natural History has a two week seminar that engages kids by letting them use technology to recreate realistic 3-d models and sea environments to resurrect various prehistoric marine animals. Other museums like the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Philadelphia Museum of Art have followed suit in their incorporation of technology.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has created their own “Murder at the Met” game, a smartphone app that children can play and search for the murder of Madame X, from John Singer Sargent‘s painting. In order to solve the mystery, kids must find specific statues and objects throughout the American Wing of the museum. Not all museums agree with the idea to use technology because some parents and families view museum visits as a way to connect with one another.

The New York Times

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The Huffington Post unveiled their new iPad app, HuffPost Live, recently. The app has a mix of entertainment and social interaction, and can be displayed on a TV screen. According to GigaOm, the site launched its online TV network  in August, which streams 12 hours of live footage daily from NY and LA. HuffPo hopes that the its video production will create viral video clips and content for its customers. This video material is used on the new app.

The iPad app provides access to the daily footage in addition to a comments section and the ability to share shows on Twitter. The most groundbreaking feature of the app is its ability to be shown on a TV screen using an Apple TV. Currently, the app’s commenting system is basic. Users can only flag or like other comments, not create a community of friends like on Facebook, or followers like on Twitter. Usage of bandwidth may also be an issue with the video feed on the app.

GigaOm