Went down to the launch of the BizSparks program at Geek Terminal today. What’s it?

“As part of the BizSpark program, Microsoft will significantly subsidise costs of development software for technology startups over a three year period. The program enables fast and easy access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools and production licenses of server products with no upfront costs, as well as technical support and market visibility. Through BizSpark, Microsoft will also rally the support of local government agencies and network partners comprising of academic institutions, venture capitalists and incubators to provide start-ups with guidance, mentorship and resources to drive business success for them.”

In attendance from left to right at the launch was, Prof Wong Poh Kam, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre; Mr Michael Yap, Deputy CEO, MDA; Ms Jessica Tan, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore; Mr John Fernandes, Director of Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft Singapore; Mr Pierre Hennes, Partner, Upstream Ventures; Mr Alvin Yap,  GameMo.

Startups interested in applying for this program or finding out the details can check out: http://www.microsoftstartupzone.com/

Sounds like a pretty useful service for startups who are cash-strapped and need to be able to stretch their dollars and also to launch themselves into the Microsoft Ecosystem.

Posted in Industry News by Justin | No Comments »

I am sitting here live with Paul Kedrosky right now.. I am not gonna repeat his profile here.. There’s more than enough good info on him online.. Some interesting points mentioned.. Going to metion one right here!

Universities should be less focussed on commercializing their patents and technologies but instead, the should be focused on alumnis and giving them a good experience in the university. He quoted examples from Stanford and University of California, San Diego whereby the top donors to the universities were mainly non-entreprenuers i.e. all the other non entreprising students in the school.

This is an intereresting thought considering that universities are always looking at grooming entreprenuers and “licensing” technologies to them in hopes of getting the next Sergey and Larry. His argument that the over-realiance on grooming entreprenuers in somewhat of a waste since the university administration is not even aware of what technologies or companies will and will not succeed.

This brings about another interesting point. Did Stanford really know that Larry and Sergey were a bunch of geniuses who would start the next big multi-billion dollar industry changing company? Or did they get them to start a company such that those 2 punks would finally leave the campus and stop hogging the school’s bandwidth?

We’re having discussions on entrepreneurships and cultural differences between Silicon Valley and Singapore right now..

Alright he left.. Have a safe flight back Paul :)

Posted in Website News by Mohan Belani | No Comments »

Paypal, an eBay company acquired in 2002, finally launched a local website. Check out the new PayPal Singapore website - they’ve added some new features just for Singapore users.

Some of the new features available at this local paypal site are:

• topping up your account with funds from local banks
• Fast & secure payments on eBay.com.sg.
  PayPal is now seamlessly integrated in the checkout process. Buyers can pay for items instantly without sharing financial details and sellers can accept payments from all major credit cards.
• Improved navigation and content organization!

Paypal users, rejoice! Non-Paypal users, why not make use of this opportunity to take a tour and find out how to make online payments less of a hassle for yourself! Find out more!

Posted in Newsbyte, Websites from Singapore by leslie | 1 Comment »

After lots of teasing with their youtube videos, RentSpace has finally gone live. The same team that brought HomeSpace has created a new site specifically catered to Singapore Rentals.

In a space with much competition, setting up a separate site for rentals may at first glance seem like a bad idea. Vinod shares with us that the roadmap for HomeSpace and RentSpace are slightly different and it’s all about providing users with the best experience possible specific to what they’re looking for.

RentSpace has over a thousand listings at launch and they are looking to steadily increase this figure to make their search more comprehensive. RentSpace uses the same technology that HomeSpace is based on and is a full featured map based search engine.

RentSpace also features a new rental request page. This page allows you to submit a request for a property that you are looking for. Many a time, rentals are not marketed well enough and hence do not get the level of exposure that they should. Let them know what you’re looking for (location, budget, size) and they’ll have someone look for a unit that meets your criteria, even if it’s not on RentSpace.

Do check it out and let us know what you think. www.rentspace.sg

- Vinod

Guest Author, Currently runs The Real Group, a Garag3 incubatee

Posted in Startup Profile, Technology in Singapore, Web 2.0 Asia, Web 2.0 Singapore, Websites from Singapore by vinodnair | No Comments »

We are excited to announce that Forum Nokia is holding “Calling All Innovators“, a contest for developers in the Asia-Pacific region to create mobile applications that will solve real problems for real people around the world!

The contest was officially introduced in a launch event at Timbre @ The Arts House on Friday 31 October. The audience chilled out to food and beer while learning more about the S60 5.0 platform and the global contest.

There will be 3 categories of this contest:

1. Eco-Challenge (Applications that include reducing energy consumption, and/or foster eco-communities. Interest in applications for use with S60 platform devices.)
2. Emerging Markets (Applications should be specific to subjects that include education, health, infotainment, and rural agricultural services. Interest in applications for use with S40 and S60 platform devices.)
3. Technology Showdown (The true test of a real innovator. All applications will be considered, including those for Web Runtime (WRT) and Widgets, Java, Flash Lite. Interest in location-based services.)

More on Contest Rules can be found here.

Participants will stand to win:

• US$10,000
• 3-day, 2-night trip to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where you get to demonstrate your winning application
• A chance to win the Grand Prize of US$35,000 when you compete with the other winners from Europe and North America at the Mobile World Congress
• Opportunity for your apps to be featured on Forum Nokia and other Nokia internal distribution channels

Also, be sure to check out our LOLpic widget on the top right of the side bar on this page. You can get one for your own blog or website as well!

Posted in Website News by ewen | 3 Comments »