Start Up Monday – SideCar

Startup Monday is ABCey’s weekly post that features some of the best and brightest companies in the Bay Area. They are often companies that we have our eye on or have worked with in the past & would like to share with friends and followers of ABCey Events.

This week, we’re excited to feature Sidecar — a San Francisco based transportation network that provides convenient and affordable transportation across the country. Ride-share companies seem to be in the news everyday in the bay area, but we love SideCar because it offers features that other similar companies do not! More firms in the market are making the ride-share industry super convenient, and we love it!

SideCar matches riders with drivers in their area, but also offers them a choice of which driver they want to pick them up, male or female, and what kind of car that driver has! If you like your driver, you can make him/her a favorite and see where he/she is on the map whenever he/she is on duty. The final great advantage of SideCar is that not only is it an on-demand service, you can also schedule your pick up in advance. When we tried it out, there were some great promo codes available that make it easy and fun to sign up!

Have you tried SideCar? How does it stack up against similar ride-share services you have tried? Could this service be used to get attendees to and from events? Let us know what you think of Sidecar in the comments below, or on Facebook and Twitter!

Tech Tuesday: The 10 Best Disruptive Apps

Tech Tuesday highlights the best and brightest ideas in the tech world. ABCey would like to recognize these up and coming companies for their innovative ideas and ability to think outside the box!

So many innovative ideas in the tech world come in the form of disruptive services, meaning they show up an existing service by presenting a better version. Think of them as tech life hacks!

1. PaperKarma | You can FINALLY stop getting catalogs from that weird store you bought from 5 years ago! With the PaperKarma app, just take a picture of the unwanted mail and they take care of the rest.

2. Sidecar | Ride-share companies connecting the car haves and have-nots are incredibly popular cab alternatives, but Sidecar is our favorite. It was born and raised in San Francisco, the cars are nice and the people friendly, and we’ve never had to wait more than 3 minutes for a ride!

3. Fantastical | This event calendar for Mac lets users customize the language in their event details so it’s easier for them to read. Plus, Fantastical recognizes the event’s location and can invite your contacts to join you!

4. SwiftKey | It is so nice to stop saying, “damn you, autocorrect!” Swiftkey for Android, iPhone, and tablet learns how you type so it can better predict your next word. Their newest feature, Flow, allows the user to send messages by swiping their finger over the letters.

5. Sparrow | By incorporating Dropbox and drag-and-drop attachments into e-mail, Sparrow became the highest grossing app less than a day on the market! Since its acquisition by Google, we expect to see some awesome changes to our gmail mailbox!

6. Dark Sky | While you can never really trust the weather reports for the Bay Area, technology is getting close! Dark Sky tells you the weather report in your specific GPS location with up-to-the-minute accuracy.

7. Robin for Android | Watch out Siri, there’s a new girl on the road! Navigating traffic can be tough, but Robin handles your social media, navigation, music, parking, and texting for you! Just tell her what you want with hands-free voice control and let her take on the tasks while you’re at the wheel.

8. Camera + | This app makes Instagram’s filters look like the dark ages! Unlike the iPhone camera, this app allows you to manage brightness, focus, and exposure with separate taps before you take your picture. The incredible editing features will turn your snaps into works of art!

9. Spotify |Instead of making the uncomfortable decision between buying every song on iTunes and stealing songs online, Spotify showed us a new way to enjoy music. Live streaming Spotify radio on your phone kills your battery but it’s completely worth it!

10. Dropbox | The world breathed a collective sigh of relief when Dropbox freed us from flash-drives. Now, we can’t imagine a time before sharing files wasn’t as easy as clicking “upload” and “share!”

Do you use these apps? Tell us what you think of them and our list in the comments section or on Facebook and Twitter!