The cinemagraph technique for instance was known only by a a few last year, with the most striking work by Jamie Beck. See here examples of her work:

Like most of her work, these were produced painstakingly, with a set, models, bulky cameras and then long hours spent in post-production. The results are worth it though: the images each have a mesmerizing quality, as our brain associate them to a fixed moment in time, but also the impression that there’s more than meets the eye.

For the first time, cinemagr.am offers its users to get the same effects. If you buy the application ($1.99 on the iTMS), you can capture a moment, choose an area that you’d like to animate, and upload it right away, à la instagram. Here, everything can be done in minutes, compared to the regular technique that requires days in Photoshop.

Here’s one of the best examples I’ve seen from cinemagr.am:

In this example, it seems that cinemagram keeps and even accentuates all the image problems you can get on the iPhone: image artefacts, the ISO noise, the off-white balance, the low dynamic range coupled with low detail resolution. The low quality means that it’s unlikely that a user would keep one of the shots for the future, or feature it on a digital wall, for friends & family. It’s more likely that cinemagrams will be used more as snapshots, for quick sharing on twitter and facebook, and that’s probably what iPhone are really looking for, in the same way that they’ve quickly adopted instagram as their favorite imaging app.

What do you think? Did you try it? is it going to be your favorite iPhone app? Let us know.

Serge Landry, co-founder of Miralupa, shared with me the stats they got after they just released a new version for Chromia Wars:

- 1760 games played in the last 5 days

- 69% of new gamers vs 31% existing

- average playtime: 8mn

- 15% are finishing the game

What’s more interesting is also the sales: +22% IAP for the paid version . The MARGE platform is geared to be used by other developers, who can use those stats for better marketing, and perhaps even later use the lobby to drive even more users

What’s next? Miralupa will be launching soon an Android version, with an optimized version for the Xperia Play. Sony-Ericsson for instance is looking for Augmented Reality apps for the Xperia Play and Chromian Wars is a good candidate for their tablet.

The event is free (with free breakfast and lunch), and covers everything you need to know about mobile development on the latest smartphones: Android, NFC, HTML5 plus also Samsung technologies such as bada and SmartTV. If you are looking to connect with Samsung and do a special app for them, Samsung reps will also be there to discuss, answer questions, and also give you tips on how to get to the Samsung Apps store.

The event starts at 9AM, and has 2 tracks: one mobile track and another focused on TV. Each presentation/session lasts 30mn, and there are also many breaks to let you talk to other participants to switch tracks. The afternoon covers IceCreamSandwich, Flash on TV and more goodies. All in all, a great day to learn for mobile developers.

Register on the Wavefront website

It’s a diverse group of investors, with investors mainly from Montreal but also from Vancouver, and with a good mic mix of VCs and angel investors. The startup has now relocated to Vancouver, BC, and the $1m investment will be used to help hire a team there.

What’s also interesting here is that it’s the first startup in FounderFuel’s first cohort to announce its first successful investment, and this sends a strong message to all of those who are still not sure about the accelerator program.

Playerize already announced a seed round back at the FounderFuel demo day, quoting huge uptake from the service, both from users and customers, and has since then developed the service to include more platforms. Playerize is at the interesection of gaming, social, web, mobile and saas, with demonstrated revenues, plus also a viral growth strategy baked-in. The team is also neat experience in business and startups. What more could you ask for in a startup?

Checkout also wavo.me’s story about FounderFuel, if you want to read more about founderfuel

Appifier, still in beta but already accessible to a few early users, helps bloggers reach the mobile market, by giving them a dedicated mobile version of their site, with a simple registration and a few clicks.

With the number of blogs estimated to 151 millions in Feb 2011, Appifier is attacking a big market, in a time where users’ attention is shifting to twitter and mobile applications.

Bloggers can experiment with the current software, customize logos and colors, and preview results on their iOS devices with the Appifier Sandbox app. If they are satisfied, they can publish it on the App store, but either paying a one-time fee or pay a recurring subscription fee, on a SaaS model that gives the blogger additional analytics, push notification delivery, and also free updates of the application.

Having both business models is interesting. The first one gives pricing power to publishers, allowing them for instance to charge premium content, depending on their audience, and is also more interesting if they are doing exotic content. Of course, that means more time is required for management of the application. The recurring subscription fee is interesting for those who don’t want the management hassle, and will probably the revenue model chosen by resellers.

Check the video below to see how it works:

I’ve tried the service, and it’s a little bit more complicated than what was promised, since you have to install a json plugin, and you have to be persistant to go through the process, but it’s certainly a hundred times simpler than hiring your own iOS developer and UI designer. With Appifier, you can reach the mobile market with no upfront investment. The process seems magic, a bit like phpFog and all those new Iaas/Paas platforms where you can get a new app built for you in a few minutes, but just pointing to a url.

With this new service, Appifier is targeting 2 different markets: wp developers who can resell it to their clients as a value-add, and also end-users, from whom they collect directly valuable feedback. Mike Gozzo, one of the founder, says:

“we also spent months validating that both the need for an iPhone app and the need to have it rapidly built was indeed present among bloggers and other WordPress users. We got involved with Canada’s WordPress community and even worked with sites like Montreal Tech Watch and Forget the Box to understand their unique use-cases and guide our product development [...] we worked hard to ensure that the resulting product was something that they would find remarkable. “

An engineer and MBA, Mike Gozzo (@gozmike) partnered with Steve Panetta (@stevepanetta), an experienced graphic and UI designer, who got tired of turning away customers who wanted a mobile version of their site. With releases every day, and early customer development, they’re on their way to make a star product, and maybe become one of the early Montreal startups which will be profitable from day 1.

Appifier is testing now the product, squashing bugs, and is open to talk to investors interested in media and mobile markets.

Personally I won’t switch to Google + just because of its social circles (FB has it too now). I’m a lazy user and the App has 2 seconds to  either WOW or fail. Google + did not wow me at all.

Well, you can expect a huge WOW! with Path. The reason to switch over to Path.com from FB is not because your friends are on it. I’m switching because it’s so beautifully made. If Apple was to design a social network I’m sure it would look like Path.

The initial onboarding experience (on an iPhone) was so rich and intuitive that I let out a: “damn..  that’s not bad at all!”.

Top things I liked about Path.com:

• The timeline function is very intuitive and fun (unique to path.com)
• Most important buttons are a click away
• You can upload videos onto your timeline (watch out Youtube)
• Good selection of lenses for your camera (watch out Instagram)
• Quick status updates and location tagging (Foursquare and Twitter beware)
• You can also request for all your data to be sent to you by the Path.com team (try that with Facebook).

Facebook’s iPhone app looks so clunky next to Path that it doesn’t even compare. FB is trying to cram the desktop web experience onto your smart phone, while Path was created specifically for it. It’s like dropping an elephant and a fish in the water. One is gently gliding while the other one is threading in panic trying to keep afloat.

I have a little secret to share. I’m not going to add a single friend on Path.com. The Path App is the elegant replacement for my paper journal that I didn’t know I need.

When you have a social app that is good without adding friends you know you have a recipe for success.

Wavefront, a service company specialized in mobile commercialization, is coming this monday in Montréal with a special event called the Holiday WaveGuide.

The event is geared at Android developers, mobile entrepreneurs, plus also growing tech companies who want to know more about monetization opportunities. The key partner they have at that event is Samsung, which is now a thought leader around Android with their Samsung Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S2 devices and the Galaxy tablets, and also their superior distribution channels. The Bada ecosystem lets developers reach dozens of millions of Samsung handsets for instance.

For new developers who are are still deciding between iOS and Android, Samsung will be bring a lot of their latest devices for developers to play with, including the new Nexus, developer’s version Galaxy Tab 10.1, plus also prototypes of the SmartTV. So that’s a lot of devices to hack with, and it’s good to see Wavefront and Samsung reach to the Montreal developer community and try to give some kind of technical assistance. What I’d love is if they have some sort of permanent program or special representative developers could reach out to.

Date: Monday, November 28, 2011 / Lundi, le 28 Novembre, 2011
Time/Heure: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (EST) / 18h00 – 20h00 (EST)
Location/Lieu: Phillips Lounge, 1184 Place Phillips, Montréal, Québec [MAP/CARTE]
Cost/Coût: Free. Pre-registration is required. Assorted drinks and appies will be served. / Gratuit. Enregistrement à l’avance est requis. Breuvages et bouchées assorties seront servis.
RSVP for the event

The video game mobile startup Miralupa is launching today Chromian Wars on the App Store, a mobile multiplayer game, where players are invited to battle tanks against each other, using real-world surfaces. It’s quite impressive to see the game already out, as they were still prospecting offices in Q2 this year. Their development cycle is probably faster than a few web startups in the city!

With a simple graphic printed on a piece of paper, players can start or join a game, and then control their tanks with the touchscreen. What’s interesting is the camera and sensors tracking, meaning you can also control the game by moving or rotating your iPad, à la Wii.

Chromian Wars is just a first step for Miralupa, and while they have high hopes to revolutionize the gaming industry, the game is quite basic. It has standard 3D visuals, the story won’t win any award, and the music neither. What Miralupa hopes to achieve though is to give that sense of wonder for people who will be trying out the game, and at the same time, interest enough independent game developers as well as studios in their technology. Named MARGE, the Augmented Reality technology developed the game is planned to be available to third-parties, making it a building block on both the iOS and Android platform.

Check out the game. It’s available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, with a version for Android already planned.

That was a very ballsy comment, in a world where most designers have granted God status to Apple and its design sense.

In lieu of the boring grey and “swedish-style” design, Conor Clarke suggests a drag and drop interface, where users can find in a few seconds a music clip from youtube, play it, and then add it to your playlist. The music video will play on the right sidebar, and they can also “follow” the artist from more updates.

The founder says this reflects better users’ need, when everyone these days are sharing music over Twitter or Facebook. Their back-end engine can apparently crawl your timeline and save your music playlist.

On the distribution side, wavo.me provides a free wordpress plugin that will show site visitors a playlist. For artists, wavo.me plans to bet on a “360 monetization” with planned ticket sales, merchandise sales, fan engagement, and many other fancy features.

For those in the startups community, wavo.me was at the International Startup Festival back then, with an early version working on the iPhone and iPad — although not without bugs. It was heavily focused on the product back then, and neither Conor or Gabriel Lespérance mentionned back then monetization plans.

You can join now wavo.me for an early beta. Let me know what you think in comments!

Playerize was introduced today by one of their new investors (Rho Ventures) as opportunistic entrepreneurs. With the explosion of social gaming, mainly on Facebook, one of the challenges is how to acquire players. For game publishers who want to get beyond simple facebook ads, Playerize can also provide google adwords campaigns, display ads, social ads, and email marketing. Playerize can also provide monetization tools, increase engagement, and provide retention tools to publishers, meaning they’re aligning themselves to be the #1 provider for any game developer looking to make a living out of their facebook app.

One of Playerize’s focus was a dashboard, showing clearly user acquisition, as well as other metrics to track the app.

Like a few FounderFuel startups, the product is still rough on the edges (most pages linked from the homepage are not working, see above, and the homepage seems there’s something missing as well), but this is minor and it’s only a couple of days of work. Having done a few facebook and adwords campaigns, I’m also surprised to see they managed to technically scale that part of the product. If this was the case, congrats on a job well done! A few VCs and angels saw the opportunity and the team already announced they have closed a round of funding. Congrats to the Playerize team!

Check out playerize