Monday DEMO Coverage Round-Up (Part 1)
At my personal blog, I posted an alphabetical list of all the demonstrations scheduled for the conference (with descriptions). We’re going to repost that list bit by bit here at the blog as the demonstrations take place with our comments and pointing to our favorites.
These are the demonstrators for today with links to other takes around the blogosphere and beyond, as well as what Rex, John and I thought based on our viewings of the demonstrations.
Home-Account, Inc. – Home-Account is an intelligent, Web based mortgage buying subscription service. Home-Account will help America’s 75 million homeowners take control of their largest assets and use them to insure their financial security, likely saving hundreds of dollars per month in the process. Think of it as a Kayak.com for mortgages: the service grades and analyzes the homeowners and their mortgage, presents scenarios to improve their mortgage and then pinpoints the best realistic mortgage option in the market.
Other takes:
Home-Account launches mortgage-finding service – CNET
DEMO: Home-Account recommends mortagages, without sales motivation – Venturebeat
Our take: Sounds interesting if you can get past the part about it being one of the most boring segments of business in America. It’s hard to make anything about mortgages interesting, but it’s a very valuable service, and worth checking out if you ever plan on owning a house.
Coveroo makes your personal electronics truly personal. A Coveroo replaces the original back cover on your mobile device or MP3 player with a custom version featuring a laser-engraved artwork from your favorite band, TV show, movie or artist. We have hundreds of designs – from Barbie to Bart Simpson – or you can upload your own artwork. Coveroos are made using a high quality engraving process so they don’t fade or wear like skins or stickers.
Other takes:
DEMO: Coveroo lets you personalize your cell phones with laser imagery – Venturebeat.
Coveroo: Custom Lasered Artwork for Mobile Phones – UberGizmo.
Our take: Looks cool. Depends on price how successful this will be.
Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Project Guru from Symantec provides the necessary tools and services to enable “tech savvy” users to efficiently and effectively provide IT support remotely to family members and friends without the need to spend a lot of time on the phone or visit in person.
Other takes:
Symantec’s ‘Guru‘ Makes You the Helpdesk – PC MAgazine
Symantec Project Guru: Remote Tech Support Over the Web – UberGizmo
DEMO: Symantec launches Project Guru for family tech support – VentureBeat
Symantec Previews Web-Based Remote Support Innovation at DEMO 2009 – CNNMoney
Z-Commerce for Facebook is the very first product on the market that provides a simple and effective, non-advertising based way for Facebook developers to monetize their applications.
Other takes:
Zuora Brings Subscription Billing To Facebook Apps – Washington Post
Facebook as an enterprise cloud platform? – CNet
DEMO: Zuora launches subscription engine for Facebook apps – VentureBeat
Zuora: Completing the SaaS Circle – E-Commerce Times
Lehman Brothers Spins Off Venture Capital Arm – New York Times
Zuora’s Tien Tzuo to Present at Cloud Computing Conference in NYC – SYS-CON Brasil
Our take:
The presentation wasn’t what won us, it was the concept. Adding the ability to subscribe with money is a powerful thing on Facebook. There are very few ways to more quickly spread an app than by putting it on Facebook (other than putting it in the iPhone App store). Our only concern is that Facebook themselves may steal this technology so they can get a piece of the action, and they’ve shown very little compunctions in doing this in the past.
BG Live HD is the first standards-based, high definition broadcasting solution for the Internet. The product works with Flash players, requiring no plug-ins or downloads. It can broadcast at resolutions up to 1080p at 30 frames per second with four-second delays from the source. BG Live HD takes minutes to setup, is surprisingly affordable and operates with standard, off-the-shelf hardware that has the ability to input native HD as the source.
Other takes:
Demo: BitGravity shows off inexpensive HD live-streaming – CNet
BitGravity Adds Live HD Streaming – WebHost Industry Review
BitGravity Introduces Live, HD Streaming – Contentinople
Our take:
BitGravity has been a favorite of ours – I was introduced to them after a meeting with Tom Green several years back. They have high quality, have a finger in all sorts of ventures, and seem to be genuinely affordable.
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