EverSlide Turns Evernote Notes Into Slideshows
EverSlide is a basic, but potentially very useful, hack built over the weekend at the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 hackathon. As you might guess by the name, the service turns your Evernote notes into slideshow presentations. And it’s crazy simple to use, too. The first line of text in your Evernote note becomes the slide’s title, the second line becomes the slide’s content, and to create a second slide, you just insert a horizontal line from Evernote’s editing menu at the top. Then, boom, instant slideshow!
The hack was created by computer science student Michelle Fernandez and Andrew Leung, who’s currently in between work. The team met at the hackathon, and said they got the idea for the project by reading the Evernote forums where employees had posted ideas for hacks. (And word has it, the Evernote staff here, too, got pretty excited for this idea as well – they told EverSlide’s founders that they talked about the hack amongst themselves for some fifteen minutes after hearing about the team’s plans.)
The service is very minimal right now, given it was built over the weekend in between those midnight Nerf Gun wars and all, but the plan is to add more customization options in the future, including the ability to edit the fonts or colors of the text, perhaps, the ability to add photos, and more.
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TechCrunch’s Freezing European Team Departs To Launch Unerdwear – 3D Softwear Startup
If there’s one thing tech nerds need more than anything else it’s style – these days, warmth. Which is why TechCrunch’s European team (Ingrid, Mike, Natasha and Steve) are excited to announce the launch of our very own range of softwear: Unerdwear. Knowing that Europe’s weather is starting to resemble a feature-length episode of Game Of Thromes (Winter is coming… it’s still here… when will it end…?? etc…), we hope you’ll join us in this endeavour by signing up pre-launch. We’ve obviously handed in our notice to Eric and Alexia and will all be shortly leaving TechCrunch to go full time into the hot (we hope) world of 3D Undergarment Printing.
Like all new startups, we’ve registered on AngelList which we’re pretty sure will be land us a funding round any day now.
Shipping starts in a few weeks, which will be fine, because at this rate Winter will still be here in Europe.
You can check out our research into this amazing new space here and Like our Facebook page here.
After extensive AB testing the initial line will heavily feature nerds, dinosaurs and cats.
We hope you’re as excited – and warmed up – but this new development as we are. Underdwear here we come.
Read the rest here: TechCrunch’s Freezing European Team Departs To Launch Unerdwear – 3D Softwear Startup
MakerBot Announces Its First Easy-To-Use Desktop 3D Scanner, The Digitizer
Bre Pettis, founder of 3D-printer manufacturer MakerBot, announced their first desktop 3D scanner, the Digitizer, at a SXSWi keynote today. Pettis was coy about availability or final design but instead was focused on making a splash at the event.
“We’re excited to put ourselves out there with the announcement. I have a tradition of announcing things at SXSW. I don’t think there are many actual physical products announced at SXSW, so it’s special,” he said.
Officially called the MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner, the device will work in concert with the MakerBot printer to complete the constellation of services MakerBot offers. For example, you will be able to scan an object and print it immediately on a MakerBot printer.
According to today’s release, the design shown at SXSW is a prototype and there is no launch date slated although Pettis said it would be available “this Fall.”
Pettis, for one, is excited.
“It’s a natural progression for us to create a product that makes 3D printing even easier. With the MakerBot Digitizer, now everyone will be able to scan a physical item, digitize it, and print it in 3D – with little or no design experience.”
“It’s going to be another pathway for people to make 3D models,” he said.
UPDATE – I’ll be posting live photos from the event. The scanner uses two lasers to map small, breadbox-sized objects and a webcam to create a digital model of any object.
Read more: MakerBot Announces Its First Easy-To-Use Desktop 3D Scanner, The Digitizer
VMware CTO Steve Herrod Joins General Catalyst To Boost Enterprise Investments
After nabbing Accel partner Adam Valkin for its Boston office, General Catalyst is announcing another new investment partner–Steve Herrod.
Herrod was previously the CTO of enterprise and virtualization giant VMware. Herrod is joining the firm’s Palo Alto office as a managing director investing and supporting early stage enterprise companies.
During Herrod’s 11 year tenure at VMware, he helped build and scale a 3,000 person engineering organization, whose products have produced $4 billion in annual revenue. Prior to VMware, Herrod co-led the development of a virtual CPU with “Code Morphing” technology at Transmeta Corporation, and also held roles at Silicon Graphics and MIPS Technologies.
Herrod, who will continue to serve in an advisory role to VMware, was actually employee 90 at VMware. He explains that he feels enterprise infrastructure is ripe for innovation. he’s particularly excited about the transformation in where businesses run applications, how people are consuming applications (i.e. on mobile), and how the consumer world is entering into the enterprise.
As enterprise investing ramps up in 2013, General Catalyst is clearly bringing on more talent to pursue additional opportunities in this market. And Herrod will have plenty of cash to work with–The firm just raised a $500 million new fund in 2011.
See original here: VMware CTO Steve Herrod Joins General Catalyst To Boost Enterprise Investments
After Signing Deals With Twitter And Flickr, Aviary Nabs Former OneRiot CEO Tobias Peggs As CEO
After signing deals with Twitter and Flickr to power photo filtering and editing, Aviary is bringing on a new CEO. Former OneRiot CEO and Walmart exec Tobias Peggs will be joining the startup as CEO. Former CEO and co-founder Avi Muchnick will assume the Chief Product Officer role.
Most recently, Peggs was CEO at OneRiot, managing that company’s transition from consumer to B2B, and leading the startup to an acquisition by Walmart. Muchnick says that his experience in growing the business through the distribution of SDKs to developers will help Aviary do the same.
“Our network has been growing massively, and we are so excited for the next chapter of Aviary,” said Muchnick. “Tobias has extensive experience with managing accelerated growth and he completely understands our business — working with developers to meet their needs, as well as the emotional aspect of creative expression that the end-user experiences. We couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.”
Aviary started out with a direct-to-consumer product that allowed people to beautify and share their photos, and the company decided to switch gears and provide its tools to other apps and sites.
Currently there are 25 million monthly active users of Aviary’s products, across a distribution network of 2,500 partners. Partners include Flickr, Box, Walgreens, and Twitter. And Aviary just passed 2 billion edits. Peggs will be overseeing and leading the company’s future growth as a business. You can read more about the transition and Aviary’s future here.
See original here: After Signing Deals With Twitter And Flickr, Aviary Nabs Former OneRiot CEO Tobias Peggs As CEO