Say you’re running an oil company and you operate dozens of offshore drilling platforms. You have a fleet of gas-guzzling helicopters to transport the hundreds of technicians who commute every day from the shore to their rig or from one rig to another—but the numbers traveling and their destinations change every day depending on Read more
Category: Dynadec, HR Apps, Software, XconomyAOL, the New York-based Internet portal company soon to be spun off by Time Warner, said today that it has acquired Going, a Boston startup that publishes an online guide to nightlife, music, and cultural events in Boston and 29 other U.S. cities. The purchase is part of a strategy at AOL to invest in more sources of Read more
Category: Consumer Web, General Catalyst, Going, Highland Capital, Social Networking, XconomyWhen you’re a technology reporter and you stumble across the same startup two or three times in quick succession, it’s the journalism gods telling you to write a story. I first stumbled across Spreadshirt on Tax Day, April 15. (As I’d later learn, the Leipzig, Germany-based startup has been famous among Web-savvy fashionistas for years, but I’m Read more
Category: Consumer Web, eCommerce, XconomyLiving Proof, a Cambridge, MA-based startup that applies advanced material science to the beauty industry, has adopted interactive online shopping software developed by fellow venture-backed Cambridge firm Allurent, according to a press release. Living Proof, which has been well chronicled for its products that combat frizzy hair, will use Allurent’s software and widgets Read more
Category: Allurent, eCommerce, Retail, XconomyWhere does technological innovation happen around Boston? What are the sources of new software and hardware creations? You’ve probably heard about Google and Microsoft moving to Cambridge in the past couple of years—but did you know Microsoft has two labs in Cambridge, not one? Or that another Silicon Valley company has a research lab just upstairs from Google Read more
Category: Conduit Labs, Google, IBM, Microsoft, XconomyGreen Mountain Power—the Colchester, VT-based electrical utility that serves approximately one-quarter of Vermont residents—said today that it has joined the New England demand-response pool managed by Boston-based EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC). Green Mountain customers who are already registered through the utility to receive payments or rate reductions in Read more
Category: EnerNOC, XconomyCambridge, MA-based data warehousing appliance maker Dataupia has laid off nearly two-thirds of its staff and scaled back its operations while it seeks new funders, Xconomy has learned. We contacted Dataupia today after hearing a rumor that the four-year-old startup had shut down—a rumor that turns out to be exaggerated but not wholly unfounded. “Dataupia is very Read more
Category: Data Management, Dataupia, XconomyIf you’re watching a movie, a commercial, or a TV sports promo and you see a special effect with an especially stunning glow, glint, flash, flare, light ray, starburst, sparkle, explosion, or atmospheric wave, there’s a good chance it was created using software from Cambridge, MA-based GenArts. The venture-backed startup, launched in 1996 by MIT computer Read more
Category: GenArts, XconomyMost eyes in the mobile industry are on San Francisco today, where Apple unveiled the latest version of its smart phone platform, the $199 iPhone 3GS, at its Worldwide Developer Conference. But that hasn’t diminished the buzz around Palm’s newest phone, the $200 Palm Pre, which hit stores on Saturday and has already sold at least 100,000 units. One of the leading apps Read more
Category: Mobile, uLocate, Where, XconomyAt the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles last week, Cambridge, MA-based GamerDNA, an online community for hard-core video gamers, launched a new service called TweetMyGaming. The site shows a real-time stream of all Twitter messages mentioning video game titles. The idea, as with GamerDNA’s other services, is to help gamers see which games are Read more
Category: GamerDNA, Gaming, Xconomy