OurCrowd and LetsVenture Announce Collaboration on Setting Up New ‘India Investment Fund’ to Begin Investing in Indian and Israeli Entrepreneurs and Startups

OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform

By Robert Hoskins, Crowdfunding PR

Bengaluru, India – OurCrowd, one of the landing equity crowdfunding in Israel, announced that it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with LetsVenture, one of India’s largest angel investment syndicates for seed stage and venture capital for startups and growing businesses. As part of this partnership, OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform, giving selected Indian startups access to accredited investors globally and to business development opportunities.

OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform

OurCrowd and LetsVenture will be also be collaborating on an ‘India Fund’ to invest in Israeli, Indian and global startups. The investment into this fund would primarily be from family funds and high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in India and OurCrowd’s global network of accredited investors.

Leveraging LetsVenture’s domestic network, OurCrowd will offer Indian corporates access to the Israeli innovation ecosystem.

“Having made startup funding easy, our vision is to make angel investing easy with a focus on portfolio management (startup reporting, portfolio diversification and exits). The partnership with OurCrowd aligns with our vision of offering our investors access to some of the best startups across geographies including Israel, along with giving LetsVenture portfolio companies access to global investors for their next round of funding. In this partnership with one of the largest equity crowdfunding platforms globally, we do believe this is a win-win for both of us,” said Shanti Mohan, Co-Founder & CEO, LetsVenture.

In addition to this, LetsVenture will facilitate ‘Take to Market’ activities for OurCrowd’s portfolio companies to access the Indian market, the activities of which are under development by LetsVenture and are targeted to commence in 2018.

Commenting on the announcement, Jon Medved, OurCrowd CEO, said, “India is a critical growth market for our business with a huge number of very exciting startup investment opportunities in a range of sectors. Israel and India have a great joint heritage sharing many of the same entrepreneurial qualities that are the backbone of our economies. I am excited to be entering into this collaboration with LetsVenture, which I believe will deliver great value to our investors.”

Elias Ghosalkar, Director of Corporate Development at OurCrowd, added, “OurCrowd, with its strong global presence and established industry leadership is well poised to support the Indian startup eco-system and its stakeholders via its strategic collaboration with LetsVenture. This strategic collaboration helps build much needed bridges between the Israeli and Indian startup ecosystems, and opens the doors to tapping into high growth potential synergies. Indian investors, startups and corporates gain access to global expertise, know-how and innovation via the OurCrowd network, which will truly help put the ‘Startup India initiative’ on a fast track and further strengthen the economic linkages between Israel and India.”

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Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR

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Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.

On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.

Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding PR” to see why Mr. Hoskins runs one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding PR, social media and marketing agencies that has amassed a huge social media following and is dedicated to supporting a wide variety of donation, rewards and equity crowdfunding campaigns.

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FitForLaunch.com Launches Rewards-Based Crowdfunding Campaigns for Enomad, Knops, M3 and Snapmaker

To date, the new crowdfunding platform has successfully raised $8.2 million for product development and guarantees delivery for crowdfunded pre-orders

By Robert Hoskins, Crowdfunding PR

Fulton, Maryland – FitForLaunch announced the launch of its new platform for crowdfunding pre-orders. FitForLaunch is unique in that it offers consumers peace of mind with a delivery guarantee, so that they can pre-order the coolest tech without any risks. Should a business fail to deliver within 12 months, FitForLaunch will either refund their purchase or secure an equal or better replacement.

FitForLaunch.com Launches Rewards Crowdfunding Campaigns for Enomad, Knops, M3 and Snapmaker

Every company that joins FitForLaunch undergoes a thorough vetting in 5 key areas: Market feasibility, technical feasibility, production feasibility, financial feasibility and creator feasibility. Each key area is evaluated by a team of subject matter experts; only companies that are viable in all key areas are permitted to join the platform and considered fit for launch.

FitForLaunch debuted in June 2017 with four companies (M3D, Snapmaker, Knops, and Enomad) that have already had successful crowdfunding campaigns representing a total of $8.2 million raised for product development. FitForLaunch expects to add a dozen additional vetted companies every month and aims to help them increase pre-order revenues by addressing new markets.

FitForLaunch companies also benefit by having access to strategic advice in areas of marketing, manufacturing, employment, and even taxes.  Helping companies learn how to keep their costs down and have sound strategies maximizes their chance of success.  FitForLaunch’s experience allows us to help companies avoid pitfalls and save hundreds of thousands, if not millions.  A short conversation with an expert can have a huge impact and is an additional value for companies joining the platform.

FitForLaunch encourages companies with new products to take pre-orders using a crowdfunding-type mechanism as opposed to setting up their own ecommerce site until they are in stock.  Leveraging a platform like FitForLaunch also helps protect them from fraud, chargebacks and merchant processor holdback reserves.  Many creators do not realize that credit card processors have the potential to devastate a startup by denying them access to the funds they’ve raised.  New companies also may lack the resources for setting up their own ecommerce site and maintaining it along with screening purchases against fraud and dealing with chargebacks.

FitForLaunch was born out of witnessing failures that were predictable due to our fundamental understanding of the crowdfunding space and experience with manufacturing operations.  We saw trust in the crowdfunding space falling and wanted to do something about it.  We developed a proprietary system for predicting success – our own underwriting process for gaging risk.  We then surveyed buyers and found an underserved market of purchasers that would pre-order projects only if given a guarantee, even with a significant additional fee.  FitForLaunch was then setup as a way to effectively communicate and support our own vetting and guarantee process.

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Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR

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Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.

On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.

Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding” to see why Mr. Hoskins runs one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding PR, social media and marketing agencies that has amassed a huge social media following and is dedicated to supporting a wide variety of donation, rewards and equity crowdfunding campaigns.

SpaceoutVR Launches Equity Crowdfunding Campaign on Netcapital.com to Raise Money for a New High Tech Mobile Virtual Reality Company

The team has had an exciting quarter leading up to this campaign, with several big milestones including a seed funding round with $365k invested

By Robert Hoskins

Troy, NY – SpaceoutVR, Inc. announced the launch of an equity crowdfunding campaign on Netcapital.coml to raise money for a Mobile Virtual Reality software company. Their product, Spaceout.VR is a free to play Social VR MMO for iOS & Android that monetizes with upgrades and features for entertainment, gaming and communications.

SpaceoutVR Launches Equity Crowdfunding Campaign on Netcapital.com to Raise Money for a New High Tech Mobile Virtual Reality Company

“We are pleased to offer our friends and fans an opportunity to grow with our company,” said SpaceoutVR’s CEO, V. Owen Bush. “Equity crowdfunding is how the future is funded and SpaceoutVR is the future of immersive entertainment.”

The VR MMO engages players with fun VR experiences. Players aim to win by building the biggest Space Station in VR. Using machine learning and social media analysis, the MMO populates personal spaces with the digital content that players love. A social feed allows players to meet, share, and leave messages for each other. A gamified user economy will drive the revenue of SpaceoutVR, Inc.

With two years of operations, over 250,000 app downloads and over $1.2M invested, the startup is on the launchpad to success. The team has had an exciting quarter leading up to this campaign, with several big milestones including a seed funding round with $365k invested.

SpaceoutVR has been selected as a top featured VR app for the Google Play Store and smashed new records in engagement with an average session of 18.33 mins in May. The team launched Spaceout.VR v 1.3.1 with a Social VR Feed and in-app 360 Photo Sharing.  Spaceout.VR is now a top featured app on the Google Cardboard VR Library.

On June 29, 2017, SpaceoutVR won the CEG Technology Award “Judges’ Choice for Technology”. They were also awarded a free booth at both TechCrunch Disrupt in May and at the Northside Festival, June 7-9 in New York.

The company was co-founded by four senior executives in Gaming, Entertainment and Digital Marketing. SpaceoutVR, Inc. hopes to become a defining brand in mass-market consumer VR, and they have the experience behind them to make it happen.

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Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR

---

Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.

On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.

Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding” to see why Mr. Hoskins runs one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding PR, social media and marketing agencies that has amassed a huge social media following and is dedicated to supporting a wide variety of donation, rewards and equity crowdfunding campaigns.

 

Top 10 Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding Offerings Ranked on the Amount of Crowdfunding Raised

Searching for the Hottest New Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding Investment Opportunities?

For fun, we thought we would keep track of the first wave to Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding Offerings to see who has raised the most money to date. The current crowdfunding campaigns are ranked in order by the amount of money they have raised as of May 24, 2016 at 4:00 pm.

After the first week, it looks like crowdfunding campaigns with lower investment amounts far outpaced larger investment requirements.  The same is true of lower crowdfunding investment goals. For example, GameTree has a minimum investment of $100 and a fundraising goal of $100,000 and barely two weeks into their campaign they are 90% funded.

If you’d like shop around and make your first non-accredited investment in a Title III, Regulation CF offering, please review from the offers listed below.

You might also check out their company websites, their social media credentials on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and then Google their founders names and companies to see what they have done to promote their company in the news media.

It will be easy to see what management teams have done the proper prep work, planned effective marketing campaigns and the others that haven’t even been able to put together a simple company website.

If they can’t build a simple website, how in the world can they run a successful business?

Here is also a quick snapshot of what Title III Crowdfunding Platforms have raised the most money:

1.   WeFunder.com            $243,871
2.   StartEngine                  $142,602
3.   SeedInvest                     $74,800
4.   NextSeed                        $26,900

Total: $461,273

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1. The Legion M Entertainment (media company)

Crowdfunding Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised: $120,611

2. Taxa Biotechnologies (genetic plant engineers)

Crowdfunding Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised:  $111,860

3. MF Fire (an app-drive, low emissions wood stove)

Crowdfunding Platform: SeedInvest

Amount Raised: $40,900

4. Native Hostel Austin (Luxury hostel in Austin

Crowdfunding Platform: NextSeed

Amount Raised: $26,900

5. Bloomery SweetShine (distillery)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised: $35,700

 

6. GameTree (Social network for gamers)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised:  $90,360

7. Treasure State Internet (fiber optic installation)

Crowdfunding Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised:  $8,800

8. StartMart Cleveland (Coworking space)

Crowdfunding Platform: SeedInvest

Amount Raised: $7,000

9. Gigmor (Connecting bands with venues and gigs)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised: $14,905

10. Urban Juncture (developing commercial real estate)

Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised: $2,600

11. Graphic Armor (personalized condoms)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised: $1,636

12. NextRX Inc (Medical marijuana network pass)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised:  $0

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Interactive Gaming Company Launches $300,000 EquityNet Crowdfunding Campaign to Develop and Market Software that Plays on SmartPhones, Personal Computers and Game Consoles

Halitron, Inc., formerly  Teknik Digital Arts, Inc., is engaged in the development and marketing of interactive gaming software to play on cell phones, personal computers, and game consoles

By Robert Hoskins

Newtown, Connecticut –Halitron, Inc., an equity investment holding company, (OTCPK: HAON.PK) announces the launch of a $300,000 equity raise through the EquityNet.com crowdfunding platform and is offering 21,428,571 common shares at $.014 per unit.

Halitron Equity Investment Holding Company

Halitron, Inc., formerly  Teknik Digital Arts, Inc., is engaged in the development and marketing of interactive gaming software to play on cell phones, personal computers, and game consoles. Over the coming weeks the Halitron will announce a new mission statement and outline its strategic plan which involves acquiring related sales & marketing as well as manufacturing businesses and rolling them into one very efficient and low cost operating infrastructure.

“After a thorough review of a number of crowdfunding platforms, we selected www.EquityNet.com’s portal as their service provides access to over 20,000 accredited investors.  We are excited to raise the initial capital which be utilized to further enhance operations and allow us to prepare for upcoming acquisitions,” states Bernard Findley, Halitron’s CEO.

Mr. Findley is experienced in growth opportunities as well as distressed acquisitions and work-outs.  He communicates with the investment community and operational teams in order to execute on strategic plans that are intended to benefit shareholders.

Since 2008, he has acquired and consulted for over 16 brands that were bankrupt, distressed, and/or insolvent.  Through these acquisitions, Mr. Findley gained invaluable experience with disappointed equity holders, senior lenders, unsecured vendors, and customers. While the turnaround world often comes with delivering “negative” messages, Mr. Findley has salvaged value on assets when many thought there was none.

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Front Page PR Seeks Entrepreneurs, Small Businesses and Franchises that Want to Take Advantage of the New Texas Crowdfunding Rules to Market Equity Investment Opportunities

Top 50 cities in Texas are home to 13.3 million residents that will soon be able to invest up to $5,000 per year in private equity investment opportunities

By Robert Hoskins

Austin, Texas – Front Page PR (www.crowdfundingPRcampaigns.com), one of America’s leading crowdfunding PR and marketing firms, announced that the firm is now seeking new startups and entrepreneurs that want to take advantage of the new Intrastate Texas Crowdfunding Exemption rules that allows companies to raise up to $1 million from non-accredited investors.

Front Page PR is one of the leading Crowdfunding PR firms in America

On December 1, 2014, for the first time in 80 years, Texas-based startups and entrepreneurs will be able to sell private equity shares to all residents living Texas. In addition, all parties will be able to use mass marketing to advertise and publicize their equity investment opportunities using media outlets that focus on Texas Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), which are home to more than 26 million potential customers.

Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA)	Population
Houston – The Woodlands – Sugar Land	6,484,279
Dallas – Plano – Richardson – Irving	4,627,393
Fort Worth – Arlington – HEB	2,358,186
San Antonio – New Braunfels	2,334,363
Austin-Round Rock	1,938,858
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission	862,768
El Paso	862,638
Killeen-Temple	445,356
Corpus Christi	443,351
Brownsville-Harlingen	439,437
Beaumont-Port Arthur	413,982
Lubbock	304,682
Laredo	275,686
Amarillo	265,821
Waco	260,728
College Station-Bryan	246,910
Longview	226,407
Tyler	222,781
Abilene	170,164
Wichita Falls	152,426
Midland	150,721
Odessa	145,960
Sherman-Denison	125,901
San Angelo	113,969
Victoria	96,883
Texarkana	93,457
Total:	24,063,107

Approximately 20 million of these customers are over the age of 18 and will be able to invest up to $5,000 per year in private equity placements. Once the state educates its residents and new investors become Internet savvy investors, Texas will represent a $100 billion per year pool of venture capital that small businesses and entrepreneurs can use to raise start up funding.

This will prove to be a boon for the large majority of ideas and business plans that are currently being rejected or ignored by the states 70+ business accelerators and incubators.

Any business that has received the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) rubber stamp to be pre-approved for SBA loans should strongly consider opening a business in Texas. Franchisors and franchises are the perfect business model to help franchisees raise money using the new Texas crowdfunding rules. Unlike many startups that will have an unproven track record, franchises with 5 or more profitable locations should be able to provide investors with a better than average chance of success.

Rural areas are a prime target for economic development in Texas where the demand is present for new restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls, trampoline parks, entertainment venues, but until now have not had access to traditional venture capital due to their location.

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Contact:
Robert Hoskins
Front Page PR
(512) 627-6622
rhoskins@frontpagepr.com

 

IgnitionDeck Acquires Crowdfunding Assets Fundify and CrowdPress to Power Star Citizen-Class Fundraising Campaigns on WordPress

The growing software developer has embarked on a strategy to buy up  and integrate the world’s most powerful crowdfunding tools on the WordPress platform in order to build best-of-breed fundraising platforms

 By Robert Hoskins

Apollo Beach, Florida – IgnitionDeck, Inc. announced that it has acquired two of the most popular and powerful tools that offer customers a  no-commission-fee crowdfunding platform. Fundify was purchased from Astoundify and CrowdPress was purchased from BoxyStudio. These assets position IgnitionDeck as a powerful force in the crowdfunding industry and gives the company a dominant position within one of the leading online publishing platforms, WordPress, which accounts for more than 60 million websites worldwide.

IgnitionDeck – The Crowdfunding Industry’s Most Popular WordPress Platform Templates

IgnitionDeck’s No-Commission-Fee crowdfunding tools let fundraisers host their own donation pages, keep all of the money that they raise, and control their relationship with users. Self-hosted campaigns offer a professional-looking and money-saving alternative to sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which charge commissions on all funds raised, limit fundraising time periods, impose their own branding, and control the communications between fundraisers and donors.

A crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter campaign that raises $2 million would pay a platform commission fee of 5% or $100,000 for doing nothing more than allowing a client to upload a video, write a crowdfunding profile and add up to 20 perks.  A similar campaign running on Indiegogo that falls $1 short of its goal would pay a 9% commission or $180,000.

For example, Star Citizen, one of the most funded crowdfunding campaigns in history utilized a Kickstarter campaign, running between October 19th and November 19th, 2012. It raised $2,134,374, but had to pay a Kickstarter commission fee of approximately $106,718.

Roberts Space Industries, Chris Robert’s  Star Citizen is the Most Funded Crowdfunding Campaign in History, Dwarfing Kickstarter and Indiegogo

To circumvent paying this fee for their second crowdfunding campaign, Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts turned to IgnitionDeck to help him host his own fundraising campaign using his video game’s website, Roberts Space Industries, versus going with Kickstarter.  Star Citizen used IgnitionDeck for the first $13 million, thus at 5%, saved ~$650,000 by going IgnitionDeck direct.

After that, Star Citizen hired Turbulent to further customize the Star Citizen/Roberts Space Industries site and as of July 13, 2014, the Star Citizen campaign had raised approximately $48,050,064 from 498,029 pledges, which is more than any Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign.

Customers that have a large community of followers and feel comfortable in setting a goal of $2 million or more on Kickstarter would save a minimum of $100,000 by hosting an IgnitionDeck crowdfunding campaign on their own website. The more money raised, the more IgnitionDeck will save them.

After the experience with such a successful crowdfunding campaign, the IgnitionDeck management team realized that they needed more functionality.  Of all the tools they analyzed, it was clear that buying the functionality that the Fundify and CrowdPress themes provided would be strategic to the future direction of IgnitionDeck’s WordPress crowdfunding platform.

Launched in 2012, Fundify soon became one of the most popular tools for hosting multiple crowdfunding projects simultaneously, enabling people to “be their own Kickstarter.” The CrowdPress design theme provides a customizable front-end to Fundify’s functionality. All of these solutions– IgnitionDeck, Fundify, and CrowdPress– let hosts avoid the typical 4% to 9% commissions levied by commercial crowdfunding sites, have sold thousands of copies, and enjoy active user communities.

According to IgnitionDeck co-founder Nathan Hangen, “The IgnitionDeck and Astoundify teams have had multiple positive interactions. During one recent conversation, we began toying with the idea of bringing Fundify into the IgnitionDeck product suite. Within weeks, both teams knew it was the right thing to do, agreed on the terms, and shook hands.” Says Astoundify co-founder Adam Pickering, “We’re proud of Fundify, and all of the success and good will that it has generated. We are glad to see it become part of the IgnitionDeck family– it’s a perfect match.”

In January 2014, Indiegogo announced Indiegogo Outpost, which replicates IgnitionDeck’s ability to embed a crowdfunding campaign on a host’s website. The Outpost feature was scheduled for release Q1 2014, but it has not yet been delivered as of this writing.

The Fundify theme only costs $60. IgnitionDeck yearly license fees range between $79 and $349. WordPress hosting for a 90-day campaign costs about $20.  All forms of online crowdfunding incur transaction fees from a payment processor such as Amazon, PayPal, Stripe or WePay.

WordPress is a robust publishing system that takes most non-computer literature users a day or so to learn. The other option is to hire  a WordPress consultant who is familiar with off-the-shelf tools like IgnitionDeck and Fundify to create and launch a custom crowdfunding site for you.

In addition to standalone crowdfunding platforms for single campaigns, the IgnitionDeck Enterprise Edition allows anyone to build a full-scale, white-labeled crowdfunding site that can be branded and setup to compete directly with Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

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Crowdfunding Expected to be a Hot Consumer Electronics Topic at CE Week in New York

By Robert Hoskins

CE Week announced plans to host an innovative new lineup of keynotes and Crowdfunding conference sessions from the most well known names in the technology industry. The 2013 CE Week Line Shows and Exhibits are scheduled for June 26-27 at the Metropolitan Pavilion and Altman Building in New York City. This event is the official show headquarters of a week-long series of CE technology events taking place in the city over the course of CE Week, June 24-28.

CE Week LIne Shows & Exhibits is the Official Headquarters of CE Week, featuring the show’s largest exhibit floor of new products and start-ups, the largest concentration of conferences and attendees.

To kick off CE Week, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is producing a Research Summit on Monday, June 24, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This event at the High Line Hotel will provide timely intelligence on the unique and important market trends and transformations emerging in the consumer electronics industry.

Aereo Founder and CEO Chet Kanojia will join Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA, for an in-depth conversation about how technology innovation drives Aereo’s business strategy, at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 26.

Living in Digital Times will display the best and brightest in mobile app technology at the Mobile App Showdown. During this live event at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, ten finalists will put their apps to the test and the audience will cast the deciding vote on the best app.

Top company executives from Pioneer, Monster, Kenwood, Toshiba, IK Multimedia, Samsung and BlueBOLT will introduce new products and discuss what’s ahead for their companies during press conferences.

The CE Week SuperSessions will address popular topics including 3D printing, crowdfunding, and the next generation of gaming. Sessions include:

Polygon SuperSession: Video Gaming’s Other Next-Gen [June 26 at 1:35 p.m.] – With so much attention focused on new video game consoles from Microsoft and Sony, both of whom are poised to usher in another “next generation” of gaming later this year, it’s easy to miss that an entirely separate alternative generation of video game consoles is taking shape. Join us as we explore this nascent “other” generation, typified by a focus on mobile hardware, open operating systems, digital delivery and an indie-friendly publishing model.
Moderator: Christopher Grant, editor-in-chief, Polygon

CNET SuperSession: Bringing 3D Printing to Consumers [June 26 at 3:15 p.m.] – We hear about new 3D printing breakthroughs almost every week now, ranging from houses to prosthetic skull implants to 3D printing on Mars. For consumers, 3D printing is either science fiction, or it suffers from the perception that it’s an expensive, time-consuming hobby with little practical utility. How can consumer-facing 3D printing companies improve their image and attract more mainstream users? Should that even be the goal? This panel will explore the issues and solutions around taking 3D printing to the mass market.
Moderator: Rich Brown, senior editor, CNET

Mashable SuperSession: The Battle Over Smartphone Screen Size [June 27 at 10:15 a.m.] – Since 2010, the average size of cell phone screens has increased by almost a full inch. Plus-size phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note have expanded the displays of all models, to the point where it’s impossible to buy a top Android phone with a screen smaller than 4.7 inches. Does this trend have a ceiling, and what does it mean for people with normal-size hands?
Moderator: Lance Ulanoff, editor-in-chief, Mashable

PCWorld/TechHive SuperSession: Who’s Fastest? Wireless Speed Test Results [June 27 at 12:15 p.m.] – PCWorld/TechHive Editor Mark Sullivan and OpenSignal Co-Founder and CEO Brendan Gill present results from their annual study of 4G and 3G wireless speeds. This year, testers visited 20 cities and measured speeds at the street level to give wireless customers independent data on which carrier offers the best speeds and coverage in the U.S.

Engadget SuperSession: Crowdfunding the Hardware Revolution [June 27 at 1:45 p.m.] – Welcome to the dawn of the age of hardware startups. Sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter have changed the way we think about starting a business, from funding to user feedback. We’ll talk to success stories about the new business paradigm and discuss some tips for getting started in the world of crowdfunding.
Moderator: Brian Heater, director of media, Engadget

The CE Week Line Shows Conference Program is part of the full CE Week conference program, including 50-plus sessions and featuring more than 150 speakers. Conference tracks include the CEA Research Summit, Crowdfunding, Women in CE Forum, Connected Car Conference, Digital Health Summit, 2^nd Screen Summit, Ultra HD Conference and Techlicious Summit.

To register for CE Week visit https://secure.events-registration.com/ceweek2013/ Join in on the CE Week conversation by tweeting using the hashtag #ceweek.

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Torment Closes as the Best Crowdfunding Game in Kickstarter History

By Paul Tassi

Forbes – I realize that saying something is the “most something” in Kickstarter history isn’t all that impressive given how young the service is, but what Torment: Tides of Numenera has achieved is definitely worth highlighting.

Torment: Tides of Numenera raises more than $4.1 million on Kickstarter

We’ve been following the project for a while now, and the funds just kept pouring in as Torment beat the Ouya in the race to a million dollars in donations. I mean “pledges,” or “commitments” or whatever we’re calling it when you give money to Kickstarters these days.

So what’s the final total? After meeting its $900,000 goal in under 24 hours, the Kickstarter has ended its run with $4,188,927 in donations, more than 450% of its goal.

This makes it the most funded game of all time, and the second most funded gaming-related project on the site besides the Ouya itself which ended up raking in $8.5M in donations. I mean pledges.

Read more…

Sticky Bees is a Bug Killing Video Game

by JC Fletcher

Sticky Bees is a weird, simple, adorable iOS game about smashing hundreds of bugs with your big bee body. That bee body has legs, it would seem, as developer Fourfire is working on a sequel for iOS and Android.

Sticky Bees Video Games

Fourfire, founded by Scribblenauts lead designer Matt Cox, has turned to Kickstarter for funding of Sticky Bees: Unleashed, which keeps the bee violence concept but adapts it into a sort of endless runner, with enemies coming in from the right at ever-increasing speeds. It diverges from most endless runners in that the goal is to smash as many objects as possible rather than none, and you’re swiping to dispatch them rather than tapping to avoid.

With 27 days to go, the Kickstarter has attracted $1,760 in funds, toward a relatively tiny $29,000 goal. Rewards range from early game access to plush Sticky Bees, to naming rights for items and levels, to personalized music videos.