Portland became the first American city to get Clear-branded WiMAX service on January 6 - Clearwire calls Portland "the fastest unwired city in the West.. Clearwire recently gained control of Sprint's Xohn network to provide Clear-branded WiMAX service. Portland and Baltimore, MD are the only two pure WiMAX networks in the United States so far, with Baltimore still operating under the Xohm name.
"Today is a historic day for the evolution of mobile computing and communications services in Portland, and the U.S.," said Benjamin G. Wolff, Clearwire CEO. "Clearwire is reinventing wireless by delivering an unmatched combination of Internet speed and mobility. We're providing a valuable service designed to improve our customers' productivity and make their lives more enjoyable, wherever they happen to be in our coverage area."
Clearwire announced in early December that they have raised $3.2 billion for a nationwide WiMAX network, from Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google, and Bright House Networks. WiMAX offers wireless broadband acess, data and telecommunications services, and portable connecvity. Clearwire had made some enthusiastic plans to upgrade its 46 pre-WiMAX markets in the near future, there has been speculation that upcoming WiMAX deployments might be slowed due to the financial crisis. Clear offers residential users wireless service with no installation, and mobile users only need to plug in a mobile WiMAX-enabled USB modem to their laptop. Many computer companies are announcing embedded WiMAX technology compatible with the Clear network in teh first half of 2009. Sprint is reselling access to its 3G network to Clear, which will allow 4G WiMAX devices to work even where there is no WiMAX.
Grand opening events are happening at Portland's three Clearwire retail stores on Saturday, January 10, with gift certificates and prize draws occuring. The stores are located at: 15th and Broadway, 92nd and Sunnyside (Clackamas Promenade), and Burnside and 23rd Place (Uptown Shopping Center).
Clearwire, (NASDAQ: CLWR), offers a robust suite of advanced high-speed wireless broadband services to consumers and businesses. Clearwire’s open... [more]
Vancouver's Paystone Technologies Corp announced on December 19th that they would be shutting down their online payments system.
Paystone would like to thank all members who have used and supported the Paystone Online Payment System over the past 5 years. Unfortunately, recent legislative and regulatory changes in Canada adversely impact Paystone's on-line business model, rendering continued operation impractical.
Paystone has been kicking around the Vancouver tech scene for years thanks to the deep pockets of Chairman Milton Wong. In an article published in SFU's aq magazine in 2003, Wong refered to his investment as a major financial commitment and to Paystone as a "very speculative, very creative" real time online payment solution company.
A lot has changed in the micropayment space over the past five years - check out this snippet from a Globe & Mail article from November 2003 titled Technology firms jostle for pocket change:
...Vancouver-based Paystone Technologies Corp. makes payments the normal way, one at a time, with money that customers have preloaded into a special account. President Alan Thompson says Paystone is talking to lots of big players-particularly in music and gaming.
Claiming nearly 700 active, though modest, merchant sites, the company has real-life bragging rights. You'll often find it, I discovered, in a face-off with PayPal for the customer's transaction. Paystone has just cut a potentially juicy deal to enter the burgeoning Chinese market, where paper money and coins still rule-and where consumer Internet commerce is just taking off.
There has got to be some ex-Paystone folks out there reading this - any idea why an early leaders like Paystone wasn't able to grab a share of the huge micropayments market?
Paystone Technologies provides secure, convenient and quick online money transfers and payments for its customers around the world. Our Products... [more]
Vancouver social media enthusiasts rejoice - Third Tuesday Vancouver returns on February 17, 2009. There will be no Third Tuesday Vancouver in January, so just think back to all of the warm fuzzy memories from Third Tuesday Vancouver 2008 meetups. Stay tuned to the Events Page for more details as we get closer to the event. The promoters are hoping that 2009 will be even better!
As a follow-up to our January 2009 Canada Startup index yesterday, comScore has provided us with their take on the top contenders.
In the above chart, the Online % Reach is the percentage of Canadians online that each entity reaches. As an example, Metrolyrics reached 8.9% of all Canadians during November 2008, making them the hands-down leader.
ZipLocal had the biggest month-over-month improvement rising from 2.7 to 3.2 and leapfrogging RedFlagDeals.
Thanks again to comScore for sharing this valuable data with Techvibes.
RedFlagDeals.com is Canada's largest bargain shopping community! Saving money is as Canadian as poutine or rolling up the rim on a double double.... [more]
Founded in 2004, MetroLeap Media Inc. is leading provider of entertainment content within the music and video game Internet market. Its flagship... [more]
ZipLocal is the difference between getting advice from the phone book vs. your trusted friends and neighbours. ZipLocal makes it easy to find what... [more]
Portland bloggers have another valuable resource coming their way - the newly-formed Portland WordPress User Group is hosting their first meeting on Thursday, January 15 at CubeSpace. The meeting will go over future meeting times and dates; topics, ideas and speakers; ideas for regular help sessions; and an overview of cool new WordPress 2.7 features.
Portland is definitely a blogging town: on January 16, check out the one year anniversary party for Beer and Blog. Beer and Blog meets every Friday between 4:00pm and 6:00pm at Green Drago.
Portland has lots of opportunities to get involved with the blogging community, network, and learn some new tricks - all bloggers are encouraged to come out to these meetups!
Techvibes is pleased to welcome Vancouver, BC based Zapp Worx Design on board as a sponsor.
Zapp Worx is situated in Gastown and pride themselves on being one of Vancouver's longest-standing graphic design firms, offering outstanding service and delivery under the most difficult situations.
Luie Zappacosta created Zapp Worx Design in 1987. Zapp Worx has grown into a full-service design and print firm, with services ranging from brand creation to web design and print design, complete with an in-house digital print facility.
Luie's team of graphic designers have trained in some of the most prominent art schools locally and internationally including Emily Carr School of Design, the University of Macedonia and The Human Academy in Japan.
Websites and print communications that entice customers, empower clients and out-do the competition. [more]
Seattle's Picnik - #2 on our January 2009 Seattle Startup Index - has had quite a year and to top it off they have been named to Time Magazine's 50 Best Websites.
Today they announced that their site visits from 2007 to 2008 exceeded company and industry expectations with a 1,400 percent increase in site traffic in the last year.
In December 2007, Picnik had 1.7 million monthly visits, with 631,000 unique visitors -- in December 2008, Picnik reached over 24 million monthly visits and 7.4 million unique visitors. From the most recent numbers, this translates to a month-to-month increase of 25 percent.
"Within the last year, the landscape for Web-based computing and online photo editing have changed dramatically and we think Picnik has been that change agent," said Jonathan Sposato, chief executive officer of Picnik.com. "We are heartened by how far Picnik has come in less than two years, and can't wait to see our momentum continue to rise in '09."
Picnik gives real people photo-editing superpowers. Since Picnik lives online, users get fast, easy access to a powerful set of photo editing tools for editing, sharing, and printing images using any Internet browser on any computer platform. Most importantly, Picnk is integrated with a wide variety of photo sites including Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, Photobucket, and MySpace - so you can edit your photos wherever they are from wherever you are.
The Picnik team is headquartered in downtown Seattle. We love making great software for real people, eating the food at Pike Place Market, and... [more]
Looks like the battle between Toronto's Yangaroo and Vancouver's Destiny Media is far from over. Today Yangaroo announced that it has received allowance of its United States Patent Application #10/431,854 titled "Content Distribution System and Method" from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
"The allowance of this patent confirms YANGAROO as the foremost innovator in its field," said John Heaven, President and CEO of YANGAROO. "The formal Letters Patent grant is expected to follow shortly. This patent will provide us with another significant competitive advantage and will add substantial value to our company. The music and advertising industries understand and respect the value of intellectual property and we will continue to lead our sector through innovation and invention. We will maintain our focus on expanding our patent portfolio and plan to vigorously defend our intellectual property rights."
In October Destiny Media announced that it received a “Notice of Allowance” from the USPTO for their digital music distribution patents and Yangaroo reacted swiftly with a press release claiming that it would not impact their pending patents or infringement and defamation claims against Destiny. Looks like they were right. Stay tuned to see how Destiny Media reacts.
Either way, it's great to see Canadian companies lead the way in the digital delivery service space.
Destiny Media Technologies, Inc. is a leader in developing easy-to-use tools for distributing digital media through the Internet. The company's... [more]
YANGAROO's patented Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS) is a leading secure B2B digital delivery solution for the music and advertising... [more]
Philadelphia's First Round Capital just announced that they're coming to Vancouver to host an Office Hours event.
The First Round Capital team had such a good time, at our inaugural Office Hours, that we’ve decided to make it a semi-regular practice. Back in October, Josh Kopelman, Rob Hayes and myself met with more than 50 entrepreneurs. The energy from the event proved what we already knew: the economic downturn hasn’t dampened the entrepreneurial spirit.
On January 15th, we’ll be partnering with our good friends at W Media Ventures to host an Office Hours in Vancouver. Chris Fralic and Kent Goldman will represent First Round Capital, with Boris Wertz of W Media Ventures acting as the local host. And just like the original Palo Alto edition, we’d love to meet with entrepreneurs, people thinking about becoming entrepreneurs or folks who would like join a start-up. We’ll be available for a bunch of informal ~15 minute chats. Again, there’s no agenda. We’ll provide the napkins to write on and the coffee to keep you warm while you wait.
FRC Office Hours Vancouver takes place on Thursday, January 15th from 4-6pm at Agro Cafe at 1207 Hamilton Street in Yaletown. If you'd like to drop by, be sure to fill out this quick form - while it's not required, I'm sure it will help get you in the door.
Disclosure: W Media Ventures' Boris Wertz is a Director of Techvibes Media Inc.
W Media Ventures is a Vancouver-based venture capital firm focusing on Consumer Internet opportunities in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.... [more]
First Round Capital is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping talented entrepreneurs build remarkable companies. We are not afraid of... [more]
