NY Tech Meetup: How to organize your life, death and TV (in no particular order)
By Dennis Clemente
NY Tech Meetup folks: Ever thought of how to organize the way you organize; how to watch TV endlessly; and yes, how to realize you’re not immortal, after all? It’s the May edition of the most entertaining tech meetup in the city. Even the hosts are entertaining. And that inquisitive 11-year-old boy Peter is back asking the most interesting questions.
Last May 6’s presenters at Skirball Theater were Centrallo, Endless TV, Everplans for the first three startups this blogger just mentioned followed by HackHands, Lifedots, Pagevamp, the funny duo of Poncho, Qvit, Strayboots and Hack-of-the-Month presenter Heat Seek NYC.
Centrallo took to the sage first telling us how its app can organize your life. You can create unlimited lists within lists and share them with your network. You can also view priorities and focus on what matters most. It’s only on iOS for now; Android is next.
What if the phone and TV had a baby? The presenters said it would deliver EndlessTV. It picks the TV/video clips you want to watch, almost non-stop as it still has ads to sustain it. Its success will definitely hinge on how it refines the selection for you, having been spoiled by the streaming music brands Spotify and Pandora.
Death comes to us all, so how you can prepare for it? Everplans said it’s got your back but questions about it arose from the live audience: How much information about yourself are you willing to put online? How can you expect old people to go online?
Another “messianic” startup, HackHands wants to save developers the trouble of figuring out development challenges with its instant coding support—24/7 at that. Right now, it offers support for Ruby on Rails only.
How about saving your photos the Lifedots way? Or turning your Facebook photos into a website via Pagevamp? Both of these startups tap Facebook, although the former also allows you to use Twitter and its iOS app for you to get photos from your social pals to keep for yourself.
Pagevamp makes use of your photos to create a website in one click. It’s riding on the Facebook eco-system, so you have to have Facebook to use it.
Poncho is all about personalization of your weather service. It’s certainly fun compared to the weather sites we’re used to. You get emailed about the weather as it relates to your daily rituals.
Qvit offers a virtual dressing room online. You measure yourself first then you go online to see how clothes will look on you, as worn by a model; it’s only an image, not a live model.
The three women behind it said they are working with 30 brands now. And soon enough, even your face could appear on the site along with the clothes you’re trying out—online.
Because it has an API, the virtual room can be recreated on retail shop’s sites.
You might not have guessed Stray Boots by its name right away, but it’s a neat idea when you have people asking you where to go. If you’re too busy to be the tour guide, you can just create an itinerary for them to go to. It generates all the landmarks and interesting places for you.
Even a better idea, Heat Seek NYC, as the Hack of the Month, helps tenants prove their apartment is too cold when landlords don’t turn up the heat during wintertime. Just so you know the legal requirement in the city is 55 F. It’s a heat sensor that connects to Wi-Fi, by the way.
The founders said “it’s our way of ‘algorithmic advocacy-ing’.”
Why did I say the The NYTech Meetup is the most entertaining of all tech meetups in NY? It is for most people, but this blogger has more fun when there are actual investors in meetups, giving their own feedback to the presentations.
