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HaxAsia’s accelerator program brings Asian hardware startups to Silicon Valley for crowdfunding

Apr15
by on April 15, 2014 at 10:23 am
Posted In: accelerator, Around the Web, Asia, Hardware, Insider

Hardware
As more consumer hardware startups crop up on crowdfunding platforms, an accelerator program HaxAsia has launched in Singapore to give a helping hand to those focusing on Asian markets. Behind the accelerator is a group of investment firms — Ruvento Ventures, IncuVest, DI-Group and SpinUp Partners. Slava Solonitsyn, the managing partner of HaxAsia, says: We’ve seen the explosion of successful crowdfunding launches recently, which brought to the world great products such as the Oculus Rift and Pebble Watch… However, most of the hardware teams launching crowdfunding campaigns often fail to communicate their product ideas well, lack the distribution network and underestimate the manufacturing risks and costs. All…

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Meet Sticons, a hybrid of stickers and emoticons that chat app Line has just introduced on Android

Apr15
by on April 15, 2014 at 7:26 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Asia, messaging app, Product Updates

If stickers and emoticons still aren’t enough for you to express your emotions via chat apps, Japanese messaging service Line has now introduced ‘Sticons’ — a hybrid of stickers and emoticons (the name pretty much says it all). Sticons can be used in text messages just like emoticons, but what’s unique is that when you send them in a standalone message, they morph into large, individual images — just like stickers. Line has rolled out Sticons on Android first, though it says an iPhone update is also coming in the near future. There are over 1,000 different Sticons to choose…

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Gramofon from Fon: A Spotify-streaming jukebox that’s also a Facebook-powered social WiFi router

Apr15
by on April 15, 2014 at 7:00 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Product Launches

Gramofon
There’s no shortage of video-focused, Internet-connected boxes on the market and most of them can handle music streaming too. But what if you stripped out the video and concentrated entirely on audio? That’s what ‘social WiFi’ company Fon is doing with its new Gramofon device. Hook a Gramofon box up to your Internet connection and not only will it stream music from Spotify, but it will act as a social jukebox where your friends can sign in via Facebook to line up songs to play. Oh, and because Fon has plenty of experience in building routers, you friends can use…

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