PointAbout was featured in the TechJournal South today for its role in powering the MyTalk mobile social networking application. You can read the full article here.
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PointAbout Featured in TechJournal South
PointAbout Featured in PBS Nightly Business Report
PointAbout was interviewed today for PBS’ Nightly Business Report, in a segment about DC-based start-ups that will air in the month of December, 2008 (full link to segment will be provided upon airing).
The segment will focus on the strategies PointAbout is employing to succeed in the current economic climate. PointAbout, which is comprised of four co-founders with previous start-up experience, was chosen by PBS as a case study for its approach to weathering the state of the economy.
Here is a gallery of photos from the interview:
PointAbout Featured on Craig Newmark’s Personal Blog
PointAbout was recently featured on Craig Newmark’s personal blog (he is the creator of CraigsList) for our role in the Apps for Democracy contest! Craig writes:
Point About (iPhone app) Do you find yourself in a hurry, walking down Connecticut Avenue wondering where the closest Metro is, Dupont Circle or Farragut North, and what time the train is coming? Point About is a real-time, location-aware D.C. alerting tool for the iPhone, which includes crime reports, building permits and more, all from where you are standing.
PointAbout to Power MyTalk
MyTalk has selected PointAbout to power its service. Full press release below, or click here to see the actual release.
Mytalk Selects PointAbout To Power Proximity Aware Mobile Networking Services
Firm to leverage PointAbout’s thin client applications for social network and mobile advertising platforms
Bethesda, MD (PRWEB) November 26, 2008– Mytalk, an early stage mobile networking firm, today announced that it has selected PointAbout’s thin client mobile device applications to power Mytalk’s proximity aware social networking service and opt-in mobile advertising platform.
Mytalk is developing a proximity aware services portal with powerful and easy-to-use mobile networking capabilities, including the ability to identify other members from closest to furthest based on proximity, and communicate via text or voice – quickly, easily and safely. PointAbout’s thin client applications provide location and user profile data for each mobile device user, which translates into a more robust experience for Mytalk members while creating new proximity based revenue streams for businesses seeking to engage with mobile consumers.
“By partnering with PointAbout, Mytalk can seamlessly extend its Web-based mobile networking service to millions of users in a short period of time,” said Michael Hodge, founder and CEO of Mytalk. “And because PointAbout handles the heavy lifting by providing location and user profile data for each mobile device user, Mytalk can focus its efforts and resources on designing a feature-rich, proximity-aware mobile social networking application.”
Mytalk will also offer an opt-in mobile advertising platform and other strategic partner services for businesses to connect and engage with mobile consumers based on the proximity and personal preferences of each Mytalk member.
“Mytalk is building a truly innovative location-based services portal, one that is poised to change the way consumers and businesses utilize and benefit from proximity social networking,” said Daniel Odio, co-founder, PointAbout. “PointAbout’s thin client springboard will enable Mytalk to mobilize its brand across multiple phone platforms efficiently and cost-effectively.”
The Mytalk portal is currently in development with an anticipated launch planned for January 2009. Individuals interested in joining the MyTalk community or receiving email or sms updates on participating in our upcoming beta launch can visit http://www.mytalk.mobi. To receive more information on Mytalk and its service, please contact info@mytalk.mobi.
About Mytalk
Bethesda, MD-based Mytalk is developing a proximity aware services portal with powerful and easy-to-use mobile networking capabilities, including the ability to identify other members from closest to furthest based on proximity, and communicate via text or voice – quickly, easily and safely. In addition to Mytalk’s social networking application for mobile users, the firm is also developing an opt-in mobile advertising platform and other strategic partner services for businesses to connect and engage with mobile consumers based on the proximity and personal preferences of each Mytalk member. For additional information visithttp://www.mytalk.mobi.
PointAbout Wins 11 Awards in AppsForDemocracy Contest
PointAbout was just notified by the Office of the CTO of Washington, DC and Mayor Fenty that we have won the Silver medal + 10 others for our AppsForDemocracy submissions. You can find all the medal winners here.
Daniel R. Odio, COO of PointAbout above with Washington, DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty
Here is a video of the entire awards ceremony:
(PointAbout mentioned in minute 14 of the video above)
PointAbout Featured in Potomac Tech Wire
As seen in Potomac Tech Wire today:
o PointAbout Launches iPhone App to Help Voters Find Polling Place
Washington, DC — With the presidential election now less than a week away, DC-basedPointAbout, a developer of mobile applications, said that it has launched a downloadable application for the iPhone that allows voters to find their nearest polling place. The company said that it has taken an existing web service developed by Google and made it location-aware. Now, with one click, users of the company’s “Get Out To Vote!” application can find the closest voting station to their actual physical location. “Based on an informal poll of friends and colleagues, we’ve realized that many people don’t know where to go to vote on election day,” said the company. PointAbout said that it has made the tool a featured application on the front page of the PointAbout iPhone Application Gallery through Nov. 4.
http://pointabout.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/find-your-nearest-voting-station-on-election-day/
PointAbout’s First Branded Application
PointAbout just released its first private-labeled application, called “DC Alerts”. This video shows the differences between the regular PointAbout application and the branded version.
The beauty of our branding approach is that it allows your business to quickly & easily “mobilize” your brand across multiple phone platforms, which right now include the iPhone, with BlackBerry and Android in testing, and WindowsMobile, Symbian and others to follow. We will have BlackBerry released within 2 weeks with other phones rolling out over the next 90 days.
All your business has to do is code to HTML, just like you’ve been doing. PointAbout takes care of the rest. All of the infrastructure investment you’ve put into your website or web application can be leveraged in the PointAbout application. We pass you the pertinent user information from the phone, including latitude & longitude, city, state & zip, the device ID, accelerometer information, etc. You can then use this information in your website, which is now “location aware”, because you are sitting inside the PointAbout thin-client springboard.
You also get the added benefit of having the PointAbout Application Gallery included, which vastly increases the stickiness and usefulness of your private-labeled application. You can filter which applications are included in the Gallery, so complimentary applications can be included to enhance the value of yours.
For more information or to discuss a specific implementation of PointAbout for your business, please Contact Daniel Odio at Daniel.Odio@PointAbout.com or 202.250.3846.
PointAbout featured in Bisnow
PointAbout featured in Bisnow for its participation in the Deloitte Tech Venture Center panel on mobile advertising.
Click here to view the full Bisnow write-up. Bisnow writes, “Yesterday morning¸ we rose early to hear about a certain market that’s growing despite the economic downturn: mobile advertising. We joined about 30 others for an executive briefing at the Deloitte Tech Venture Center in McLean, where we learned the number of mobile devices in the U.S. will jump more than 32% next year. You mean there’ll be even more than there are Starbucks?
PointAbout co-founder Daniel Odio and Mobile Posse CEO Jon Jackson. Daniel’s three-month-old startup creates shell mobile applications that use the phone’s GPS to retrieve useful information. They even created a Metrorail app to show your nearest stop and scheduled wait time. (We hope the 2.0 version will help us find an empty seat on the bus.) Jon tells us Mobile Posse is a targetedmobile advertising platform and just inked a deal to carryGaithersburg-based Weather Bug’s info.”
PointAbout Is Now LIVE On The Apple App Store!
It’s a big day here at PointAbout, as we were just approved through Apple’s Application Store (click here to go to the application – this will open iTunes on your computer). Now anybody can download PointAbout to their iPhones.
We’ve had over 600 iPhone users download the application in the first 12 hours with no marketing efforts! (yet 
) Here are some other stats that are knocking our socks off:
- Over 11,000 page views in the PointAbout “thin-client” native app in first 12 hours
- An average 12.82 page views per visit
- A bounce rate of just 5.79%
- Average time on the PointAbout thin client of over four minutes
- The top applications are “cheapest gas near you” and “weather in my area”
Here are some of the reviews we’ve been getting:
“The first benefit I see is that this FREE application could replace a half dozen lesser apps I have on the iPhone which would give us more room and less clutter on our Springboards.
App store link http://appshopper.com/link/pointabout-let-your-favorite-websites-find-you
More info http://appshopper.com/navigation/pointabout-let-your-favorite-websites-find-you
Study the app store images and read the reviews to see if you agree with me that this application could simplify your life and iPhone. Couldn’t you get rid of apps like Where! and similar ones like gas buddy, Starbucks etc? Did you notice you can expand this application for new services and web sites?”
And here are some reviews from the iTunes store:
Go ahead and download PointAbout yourself and tell us what you think!
PointAbout Grubstake Presentation
PointAbout was one of 5 companies that presented at the Grubstake Competition. Click Here to listen to the audio of the presentation, or watch the video here:
Here are some pictures from the presentation:
*** ORIGINAL POST ***
We’ll be presenting PointAbout at the Grubstake business funding competition tomorrow. I’ll post a video of the presentation here after it’s done.
PointAbout is one of five companies selected to present out of a field of 30+ entries in front of an audience of 200+ people. Grubstake is the longest running competition in the region. More details on Grubstake available here.
PointAbout – How It Works
We just released a video describing what PointAbout is, what it does and how it works.
