Tech Tuesday: Get to Know The Nominees

We’ve been counting down the days to the Tech Crunch Crunchie Awards (13 days!) and can’t wait to see who wins Best New Start Up. We’ve done some digging and would like to introduce you to the 5 fantastic nominees in this category!

1. Anki: Making artificial intelligence accessible to everyone! The vision is to bring consumer robotics into everyday life. How exactly did they do this? By first developing an awesome artificial intelligence game called Anki Drive. This unique game learns and adapts, with the sole goal being victory. This is just the beginning of Anki, and we can’t wait to see what they do with artificial intelligence next!

2. Coinbase: Itching to invest in Bitcoins but wary of the security discrepancies that haunt the crytpocurrency? Enter Coinbase, the digital wallet that helps you manage your Bitcoins safely and securely! With 13,000 merchants using Coinbase and investors funneling over $6 million into the fledgling company, Coinbase is guaranteed to expand Bitcoin use to the average consumer.

3. Glow: Hassle free fertility tracking is the focus of the app Glow. Expanding beyond fertility, the young company is beginning to target many more aspects of women’s health and is available on Android and iOS. Women have access to daily questions, a community discussion board and a color-coded calendar that corresponds to their personal women’s health goals. We love that it is a portable, discrete app encouraging and teaching women about their bodies and health!

4. Tinder: Tinder is one of the hottest apps in the hook up culture’s circles. Working on off the time honored binary system, if two users mutually agree the other is attractive, you are able to message each other. Tinder opens the channels for any number of relationship types and is also a fun way to scope out and meet new people!

5. Whisper: Whisper is a new anonymous social media platform where you can be free to share your thoughts with the world. With endless options to customize your posts you can truly express your thoughts while getting feedback on your own. Whisper also has private messaging, which we think is a must for every social media platform!

Who is your pick for Best New Start Up? Let us know in the comments section below or on Facebook & Twitter! We’ll let you know the winner after the Crunchie Awards in San Francisco on February 10th!

Top 5 Mobile Dating Apps

What’s the newest trend that is rapidly gaining acceptance? Online dating apps! You heard right- apps, not sites. Research says that more singles are taking their search for love wherever they go, with mobile apps on phones or other devices. The proliferation of dating apps is now taking love to a whole new level, remaking an industry that’s expected to reach $1.2 billion this year. ABCey has compiled a list of mobile apps that make finding a potential love interest simpler and easier than ever!

1. Blendr: Essentially a broader replica of the famed Grindr (which, of course, is also an option and owned by the same company), Blendr is designed to get you and the object of your desire together as quickly as possible. The app displays your potential partners based a little on a short interest survey and a whole lot on who’s currently nearby and willing. You can set how precise your displayed location is, meaning you can get as creepy or aloof as you want.

2. Tinder: Tinder’s user interface is simple and relatively clean compared to the other free dating apps floating around, and there’s a definite emphasis on anonymity, which turns out to be great for both privacy and pride’s sake. You anonymously pick who intrigues you nearby based on their picture, and if the object of your desire reciprocates, you’ll both be alerted. If they decline, you remain blissfully ignorant

3. OKCupid: For the traditionalists among you, OkCupid’s comprehensive app might make you the most comfortable. You’ll get all the perks of the traditional, web-based OkCupid matchups, with the added option of broadcasting your general location and your willingness to… uh… make a new friend. All you have to do is switch on the “Locals” option, and you can send messages to anyone else in the area who has done the same. The best part is that you get to feel less creepy by pretending its not just an app for finding nearby sex buddies but with all of the perks.

4. Let’s Date: This app has unveiled a new feature designed to help match users with others in the hope of finding something compatible. Calling it the Wingman feature, this Science-backed company allows men and women, who are not actively looking to date, the ability to scour through the service’s dating pool and share the dater cards of interesting people with their single friends. This feature is available on its iOS app today.

5. Badoo: Top rated and the world’s largest social network that you probably haven’t yet heard of, Badoo is brilliantly effective at providing one simple and universally compelling service: hooking up members according to their profile pictures and location. “Chat, flirt, socialise and have fun!,” implores the home page, alongside photos of prospective friends.

How do you feel about online dating apps? Are there any we missed? And of course, if you need help planning that big date- you know who to ask! Let us know which ones you’ve tried in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!