The as-usual sold-out NY Tech Meetup opened with a sentimental Face Time sendoff to the organization’s long-time board president, Nate Westheimer, and closed with thunderous applause for two back-to-back company demos, presented by Citymaps and Dash Labs.
Citymaps
Citymaps is an app that enables users to “create collections of places with easily searchable themes.”Co-founders Elliot Cohen and Aaron Rudenstine stressed the difference between traditional maps, which help users “get from point A to point B,” and their app, which allows users to create an information-rich personal map of places, connected to their social networks. They reminded the audience that“sometimes mapping with friends is better than mapping alone.” Services of note include reviews, local deals and the inclusion of over 80 million “places” across the world. Citymaps is currently used in select New York taxis and the co-founders hinted at a major deal in the works.
Dash Labs
Jamyn Edis and Brian Langel of Dash Labs demoed Dash, which connects smartphones to cars and “unlocks enhanced performance, cost savings and social driving.” The service provides“real time feedback while driving, so consumers can improve their driving and maximize fuel efficiency.”The app offers local deals on auto-related services and products to those who opt-in. During their presentation, audience members applauded the app’s ability to track (and later prove) driving speed during trips. [Note: Consumers must purchase an OBD device before they can use the app and Dash only works with automotive models released after 1996, which should not impact most drivers.]
Earlier in the evening, Emily Hughes and Andrew Nicol of TripExpert announced that their platform now provides reviews of restaurants and tourist attractions in addition to hotel reviews. Prior to this service extension, TripExpert served travelers by rating and ranking hotels based on professional reviews from over 30 travel guides, magazines and newspapers. The service aims to make life easier for travelers by combining available professional reviews into one trusted and reliable score.
Additional event highlights included a trio of entertaining presentations from Hack of the Month, HackNY winners. Adam Obeng, who placed both first and second at the event,introduced Chirp, which shortens tweets to shorthand and emoji,and provides a text-to-emoji translator, which was a crowd favorite. Obeng confirmed his intention to further develop the product,after he does some additional consumer research. He was followed by NYU students Julie Pan, Bob Gardner, Omayelli Arenyeka and Nicole Winter, who demonstrated CHINTASTIC, which helps users create chin videos.The team created a unicorn and rainbow-filled video onstage, and then shared a pre-made example. Finally, Sam Agnew and Manny Lopez demonstrated ROMDOM, their Javascript NES hacking framework, by programmatically editing an emulated version of Nintendo’s iconic Super Mario Brothers onstage, altering the background music and color scheme.
Attendees also heard from Technology Education And Literacy in Schools (TEALS), a grassroots program that recruits, trains, mentors, and places high tech professionals from across the country into high school classes as volunteer teachers. Any volunteers?
CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE DEMOS
All image credit: Craig Williston / Qool Foto
DataCamp
DataCamp is an online data science school that uses video lessons and interactive coding challenges to bring the learning experience as close as possible to the actual data scientist experience.
Presenters: Jonathan Cornelissen, Dieter De Mesmaeker
ShareRight
ShareRight makes it easy for digital creatives to share, protect and monetize their digital assets.
Presenters: John Mullaly, Yasutaka Sato
CityMaps
Think of it as building your own personal map, with visual billboards of the places of interest to you. CityMaps enables users to create collections of places with easily searchable themes so they never forget a place again.
Presenters: Elliot Cohen, Aaron Rudenstine
Fedora
Fedora is an online course creation and commerce platform that gives teacher entrepreneurs and companies total control of their content and marketing.
Presenters: Ankur Nagpal, Conrad Wadowski
Photochromia by Paint All Over Me (POAM) and The Crated
This creative collaboration explores second-generation wearable technology through UV responsive garments, pursuing a future where garments respond to our environment.
Presenters: Maddy Maxey, Meredith Finkelstein
Chirp
This program shortens tweets to shorthand and emoji and translates text into emoji.
Presenter: Adam Obeng
Chintastic
This real-time photo booth for your chin. Select your song, choose a background video, and watch your chin come to life, lip syncing in real-time!
Presenters: Julie Pan, Bob Gardner, Nicole Winter, Omayelli Arenyeka
ROMDOM
This Javascript NES hacking framework allows for programmatically editing emulated Nintendo games in real time.
Presenters: Sam Agnew, Manny Lopez
