The deadline to submit your application to be a part of the next i/o ventures startup program is Monday, January, 16th.

San Francisco-based i/o ventures is an early stage startup program that focuses heavily on mentorship. They work closely with founders from product launch through the next stage of company development, sharing what has proven to work for product scaling, revenue growth and fund raising.

They’re a great team so we recommend you check them out.

It’s that time of the year when you might be thinking about losing a couple of inches, or eating a bit healthier, or making that date-night promise a reality.  Well, sometimes a little peer pressure is the secret to accomplishing goals.  NBC’s Los Angeles affiliate spotlighted Astrid, the best social productivity app you’ll find for your smartphone.  Make a list of the things you want to do and invite your friends, colleagues, and/or family to give you props or smack downs.  I like to use it as a friendly reminder for my peeps.  Saves me from doing the dirty work and makes us all look good.  Give it a spin at Astrid.com or follow them at @weloveastrid

It was clear that Charles Jolley, CEO and co-founder of Strobe was onto something big.  His mission to create an HTML5 mobile app development platform that would enable developers to create apps instantly and easily accessible across multiple platforms and devices was hotly anticipated.  When the company opened the doors to a limited beta and allowed a few to take an early peak inside, they were flooded with requests for broader access.  Apparently, it wasn’t just developers who were eager to get their hands on Strobe.

Yesterday, Charles announced that the team had been acquired by Facebook to help the largest social network in the world create “innovative mobile experiences.”  It was a great pleasure and honor for us to work together with Strobe and we’ll continue to keep an eye on their progress.

A few stories emerged about the acquisition, as shown below.

Related articles

• Facebook Acquires HTML5 App Delivery Network Strobe; SproutCore Lives On (techcrunch.com)
• Facebook Buys A Company To Help It Master Mobile Applications (businessinsider.com)
• Facebook acquires HTML5 app-builder Strobe (intomobile.com)
• HTML5 Apps Platform Creator Absorbed by Facebook (readwriteweb.com)
• SproutCore creator and ex-Apple developer’s cloud company Strobe team joins Facebook (thenextweb.com)
• Facebook Acquires HTML5 Application Developer Strobe (allfacebook.com)
• As Facebook buys Strobe, Tilde embraces its Web tech (news.cnet.com)
• Facebook’s new acqui-hire: HTML5 mobile app startup Strobe (gigaom.com)

I’ve given props to King.com before in this blog, as they’ve been enjoying skyrocketing traffic with their new proprietary social games, like Bubble Witch Saga and Mahjong Saga, and that you can play on Facebook, the web, and on mobile devices.  This week, they had a lot of great news to share.

Here’s the summary:

• King.com has surpassed one billion game plays per month
• The company is one of the Top 10 Facebook Games Developers in the world (in fact, they are #4, surpassing Playdom, according to AppData)
• A new office in San Francisco was opened, heralded by a welcoming 4.2 earthquake (we know how to make people feel welcome in the Bay Area)
• A new mobile development studio in Romania
• A hot new hire, Jong Woo, former President of Gamelab (best known for “Diner Dash” and “Jojo’s Fashion Show”)

Related articles

• Game Maker King.com Now Seeing 1 Billion Plays Per Month, Joins Facebook Top 10 (techcrunch.com)
• Bubble Saga maker King.com hires Microsoft exec as marketing head (games.com)
• Mafia Wars 2, Bubble Witch Saga Top This Week’s List of Fastest-Growing Games by MAU (insidesocialgames.com)
• King.com hits top 10 Facebook developers, 1B games played per month (games.com)
• Bubble Witch Saga pops on Facebook, King.com hits 900M gameplays (games.com)
• King.com Launches Mahjong Saga on Facebook; Miner Speed for Android (socialtimes.com)

With more than 2.5 million downloads on Android, today Astrid brings its leading social productivity app to the iPhone.  Astrid lets you update your To Do lists via email, text and voice as it provides you with statistics on the whether your tasks are active, completed, inspiring others to finish a job or simply something you’ve supported with comments.

I’m so excited, as I can now use Astrid to gently poke and prod my peeps with Astrid’s playful reminders that will make the team smile as they get things done (I’m sure they’ll enjoy it more than my barrage of emails at all hours of the day and night).  You see, it’s one thing to set up your own to-do list.  But it’s another thing when you also rely on others to get things done.  Have you reviewed that press release yet?  Queued it up on PR Newswire?  Have you guys pitched the release to x, y, and z?  Now I can set up my list of To Do’s for the team and see who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.  Of course, the team can also see when I’ve been slacking off and falling behind on my list as well (hmmm, better make this post short as I gotta get back to my Astrid list…).

Astrid is backed by Google Ventures, Jump Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners and is available at www.astrid.com.  Follow them on Twitter at @weloveastrid.

Related articles

• Astrid comes to iPhone so more people can get things done (Gigaom.com)
• To-Do Manager Astrid comes to the iPhone, Offers cross-platform shared tasks (Lifehacker)
• Astrid for iOS released today (CNET)
• Social to-do list Astrid launches on iPhone (vator.tv)
• Astrid to-do list app now available for the iPhone (MobileBurn)

Image via Wikipedia

Calling all hustlers, hackers and entrepreneurs – you’re invited to the Fleetly Startup Challenge

While we all love working at a startup and enjoy trying to make a difference in the world, we know it’s challenging and sometimes all consuming. As Paul Graham said, “what a startup (bootstrapped or not) takes is 100% of your performance, not 100% of your time. And optimizing for performance means spending some time on maintenance.” So here’s our chance to get the startup community in shape, have a little competitive fun, and promote a good cause.

The details:

• Competition runs from October 25th to December 15th
• Register in teams of 2-6 people on Fleetly (if you’re bigger than that, make more teams)
• Log all exercises and workouts for points
• The team with the most points at the end wins $500 being given in their name to Right to Play, a charity that improves the lives of children in disadvantaged areas through the power of sport.

There are going to be a few extra prizes for the winners, as well as something for all the teams that pass a set threshold, (Fleetly is keeping that secret for now) so get out there do some push-ups and go for a run in the park before the snow starts falling.

Fleetly also would like to encourage everyone to help make that $500 donation turn into a $2,000 donation by adding to the prize money on our Right to Play fundraiser site, which you can link to through the challenge page. They know many startups are bootstrapped right now but this really is a great organization that is making a big difference in people’s lives.

Sign up your team now Fleetly Startup Challenge

Related articles

• Fitness app Fleetly aims to make workouts a game (news.cnet.com)
• Fleetly joins the fitness gamification parade with a mobile and web app (venturebeat.com)
• The Lifehacker Workout: Exercise for Normal People [The Lifehacker Workout] (lifehacker.com)

Last week, Beyonce’s baby bump announcement at the MTV VMAs bumped Twitter’s traffic up to a new record of 8,868 Tweets per second, illustrating the fact that TV is becoming increasingly social.

Google Ventures-backed social TV company, Miso, was on this trend before it was a twinkle in social media’s eye, as they had been working hard on the first social TV app synchronized to the viewing experience.

Launched in partnership with DirecTV, Miso’s app enables real-time social features that change based on what you’re watching.  Viewers can enjoy a seamless, live, second-screen experience as they can see what’s on TV, switch channels from their smartphone and connect with friends in a new way that makes TV watching even more social and more fun.

Related articles

• DirecTV partners with Miso to deliver social TV to living rooms (news.cnet.com)
• Miso links social TV app with DirecTV (sfgate.com)
• DirecTV Taps Miso To Offer Synchronized Social TV Experience (mashable.com)
• Miso now knows what you’re watching, no check-in required (gigaom.com)
• Miso Now Knows What You’re Watching, No Check-In Required (nytimes.com)
• Miso Social TV App Now Synchronizes With DIRECTV To Know What Your Watching (socialtimes.com)
• Social TV Plugs In To DirecTV (adweek.com)
• Let your friends know what you’re watching (sfgate.com)
• Miso teams with DirecTV for ‘new era’ of social TV (lostremote.com)

Last week, Strobe lit up the social media airwaves when news broke they were giving away a limited number of access codes to their highly anticipated app delivery network, a one-stop shop that allows developers to create and manage HTML5-based web apps for smartphones, desktops and tablets from a single interface.  The Twitter-sphere in particular was aglow with requests to @Strobe for the access code, as developers quickly recognized the benefit of using Strobe’s platform to regain control over the way apps are built, published, monetized and managed.  Now the question of whether to go web app or native is dramatically simplified.  Just go Strobe.

Strobe is founded by Charles Jolley, a former JavaScript Frameworks Manager at Apple, where he worked on MobileMe and iCloud. He’s also the creator of the open source JavaScript framework, SproutCore, which powered Apple’s Web services.

Related articles

• Strobe Launches Game-Changing HTML5 App Platform (techcrunch.com)
• Former Apple HTML5 Chief Builds His Own Apps Platform (readwriteweb.com)
• Strobe brokers the peace between web and native apps (gigaom.com)