TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Here's a look at the top stories on TechFlash for the month of February. Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting over the past month, and we'll be looking forward to bringing you more tech news as it happens in March. By the way, see any themes from the past month?

Video: Bing Maps at TED

Is Microsoft getting its mojo back? Maybe

Gates, Ozzie, Microsoft execs patent 'personal data mining'

Microsoft Bing Maps adding Flickr images, live video, stars

My Fling with Droid? Is it time to dump the iPhone and go Google?

Microsoft, Amazon strike patent deal covering Kindle and Linux

Comcast's list of 33 new HD channels includes MSNBC, MTV (July 2009 story)

Microsoft's self-powered TV remote, no batteries required

Microsoft's new Windows Phones add Xbox, Zune, 'live tile' design

Microsoft's new keyboard will let gamers smoosh 26 keys at once

Will Poole

MOD Systems continues to add firepower to its growing team, naming former Coinstar executive Dan Gerrity and former Microsoft Windows executive Will Poole to the board. The news follows a series of appointments at the company which were announced last week, most notably former Clearwire exec Robert DeLucia who joined as chief financial officer. They also come amid ongoing legal troubles with MOD's founder and former CEO: Mark Phillips.

Poole is a well known technology executive, having previously served as senior vice president of Windows Client and corporate vice president of the Unlimited Potential Group at Microsoft. Prior to leading Coinstar, Gerrity served as CEO of aviation startup Naverus.

Seattle venture capital firms sometimes get a bad rap for failing to bankroll cutting-edge companies. But MIT Technology Review doesn't quite see it that way. The esteemed publication recently listed the 25 most innovative privately-held companies in the world, and interestingly enough no fewer than five venture capital and angel investment firms with ties to the Seattle area have companies on the list.

That's the good news. Now, here's the bad news. None of the companies they are backing are from the Seattle area.

3Tier Group has raised $3 million in equity financing, according to a filing with the SEC. The money comes on the heels of the Seattle company's completion of its "REmapping the World" effort, a two-year initiative to create a reliable source of information related to global wind speeds and solar resources.

Mike Koss had a hand in developing some of Microsoft's most important products during his 19-year career, from Excel to Outlook to Sharepoint. But the 49-year-old software developer -- who left Microsoft in 2002 to pursue his own entrepreneurial ventures -- now proudly proclaims that he's turned into a "Google fanboy." We chatted with Koss about his role as leader of Seattle's newly-formed Google Technology User Group and why he believes Microsoft has fallen behind in the innovation race. The self-titled "launch director" at Seattle software incubator StartPad.org also shared stories about his early days in the software business, including interactions with Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer.

Source: Renaissance Capital

The slumbering market for initial public offerings shows signs of awakening, but experts can’t predict how long the grogginess will linger. Just two Washington companies have completed initial public offerings in the past 24 months: Seattle biotech Omeros and Bellevue insurance firm Symetra Financial.

The IPO drought in Washington state actually has been going on for some time. Over the past nine years, only 12 venture-backed companies have completed IPOs. That compares to 1999 — the peak of the dot-com bubble — when 14 companies went public. Most of the IPOs in the state occurred between 1995 and 2000 when a total of 49 companies completed public offerings.

Nationally, the outlook has been equally grim.

PopCap Games has experienced success before on the iPhone. But nothing quite like this. The Seattle company today said that it has sold more than 300,000 copies of its Plants vs. Zombies application -- and it has done so in fewer than 10 days.

PopCap says that's a record for the iPhone, and the $2.99 game has now grossed more than $1 million. Given Apple's customary 30 percent cut, that means PopCap has netted more than $700,000.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is known for a lot things: e-commerce, the Kindle and an enormous laugh. But who knew that the Seattle entrepreneur had developed the Midas touch when it comes to angel investing?

BusinessWeek, working in conjunction with YouNoodle, today released its list of the top 25 tech-oriented angel investors in the U.S. Bezos ranked seventh on the list, boasting 18 angel investments all of which are still alive today.

When we first noted Scott Lipsky's stealthy PhotoRocket last summer, the Seattle entrepreneur didn't want to share too many details about the online photo sharing service. Well, six months later, not much has changed. Lipsky, an early Amazon.com employee who co-founded online advertising giant aQuantive, still isn't saying much about the project.

But the company has started to bring on some key talent, including the hire of former Atlas Accelerator managing director and Qpass executive Michael Cockrill who recently joined as vice president of product and technology. In addition, Gary Roshak -- a former vice president at Yahoo, Mforma and Marchex -- has joined as a consultant.

We're excited to kick off the TechFlash Live event series for 2010 with a fun networking get-together and panel discussion at a great venue, Seattle's Showbox Sodo, on March 23rd. The topic for the evening discussion will be the future of advertising. Details and registration are available here.

It promises to be an insightful and timely discussion.

Advertising is at a crossroads, with digital innovations creating better ways for companies to reach their customers and build their brands using everything from traditional websites to video games. In the meantime, many technology startups are faced with a dilemma — bet the future of their businesses on advertising, or look for alternative sources of revenue?

We all know that 2009 was a tough year for startups and venture capitalists, with just one IPO and venture capital totals down by some 40 percent in the state. But the Alliance of Angels, a Seattle angel investment group with more than 100 members, released information today that runs counter to the grim headlines of the past few months.

The group said that its members invested $9.1 million in 29 early-stage companies last year, a record amount in the 12-year history of the group.

Perry Satterlee, who left the chief operating officer position at Kirkland-based Clearwire, has landed in a new role at a neighboring company which also has ties to wireless pioneer and Clearwire chairman Craig McCaw.

Satterlee today was announced as CEO of Recon Dynamics, a Kirkland company which is using signaling technologies to remotely track products and people. The company also announced today that it is acquiring the assets of S5 Wireless, a Sandy, Utah-based company backed by McCaw's Eagle River Partners.

As we've noted before, Seattle (for whatever strange reason) seems to be ground zero for online recipe companies. Now, one of the leaders in the space, AllRecipes.com, is announcing a new version of of its popular Dinner Spinner iPhone application. The new app -- dubbed Dinner Spinner Pro -- gives cooks full access to the AllRecipes directory and allows them to create interactive shopping lists and personal recipe boxes.

The new version costs $2.99, which compares to the free version of the original Dinner Spinner offering. That free app -- which AllRecipes says is the number one food app on the iPhone with more than 2.8 million downloads -- will remain.

Nakao, Trussel and Foreman at Tuesday's panel on location-based services.

I had the privilege on Tuesday night of moderating the Northwest Entrepreneur Network's monthly Think Tank panel, which happened to be on the hot topic of location-based services. (Given the packed house, everyone seemed to locate the venue just fine at Seattle University). Our panelists -- including Kevin Nakao of WhitePages, Kevin Foreman of Point Inside and Bryan Trussel of Glympse -- covered a lot of ground during the 75 minute chat. They discussed everything from the battery life of phones to mobile advertising rates to some of the potential privacy concerns around location-based services.

When I kicked off the event by asking the audience how many people owned a GPS-enabled phone, nearly every hand went up. Granted, this was a geeky crowd. But Trussel of Glympse said that three years ago, probably only 10 percent of the crowd would have raised their hands.

"The real innovation and the real excitement is this new ability -- that is really only a couple years old -- of being able to use your phone to dynamically know your location," said Trussel, whose company has developed an app that allows the user to share his or her location on a mobile map.

Americans still love their daily dose of TV. And, increasingly, it appears that they not only like watching the tube. They also like reading and chatting about their favorite shows. That's one way to interpret recent results from comScore, which just named BuddyTV the third fastest growing Web property for the month of January.

BuddyTV, a Seattle startup which allows TV fans to chat about their favorite shows and read gossip about the stars, posted 8.7 million unique visitors during the month of January. That compares to 5.8 million unique visitors in December.