If you think about it Instagram, originally developed as a silly app to check into bars and take pictures of beer, had it right. The world is about ‘mobile first’. And to that end, the emerging worlds of the so-called BRICK nations are clearly ‘mobile first’. So it’s interesting that Appies, an accelerator out of Brazil, has now announced its first seed round, (terms not undisclosed) from Trindade Investimentos.

Appies plans to back mobile application developers not startups, and sees where that takes it. Admittedly, not every app developer wants to start a business or a startup. They just have a good idea for an app.

The company has been created by long time Brazilian entrepreneur Bob Wollheim and app developer Dirceu Paula.

“Everyone is aiming at Silicon Valley. We look horizontally towards India, Russia, China, Brazil and beyond. Devs know how to code, we will help them with the business and will transform them into geekpreneurs,” says Wollheim.

Why are apps a big deal in Brazil? According to national telecom agency Anatel, Brazil has 224 million cell phones for 190 million inhabitants. So mobile development is a big deal.

Appies is, at the moment, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It’s Creating a co-working space for app developers, running events and programs, hackathons, the usual thing.

Partners now include mobile operators Telefonica,Vivo and affiliate program Lomadee.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Kindle Fire owners take note: Aol, TechCrunch’s not-so-evil overlord, has a new app for you. Aol just released a retooled version of PLAY By Aol specifically for the Kindle Fire. This reskinned app is optimized for the Fire’s 7-inch 600

Who doesn’t want to be more efficient, smarter and healthier? According to Kleiner partner Chi-Hua Chien, the mobile revolution can, potentially, do all three – developing applications and services on our smartphones that make us more efficient, smarter and healther. And that’s why Kleiner, Chien admitted to me when I interviewed him at our Mobile First CrunchUp event last week, is crying out to invest in mobile start-ups that focus on healthcare, education and personal efficiency.

But as we enter a Web 3.0 world characterized by an explosion of personal data, won’t all our security be compromised by these new mobile businesses? Not according to Chien, who, using examples of Kleiner investments like Reputation.com and Klout, argues that what he calls the “core tenets” of this world are “privacy” and “control”.

This is the second part of my two-part interview with Chien. Yesterday, he told me why we aren’t in a bubble.

How Mobile Will Make Us More Efficient, Smarter & Healthier

Why Consumers Must Have Privacy & Control Over Their Data

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

No, we are not in a bubble. Not, at least, according to the Kleiner-Perkins partner, Chi-Hua Chien, who spoke at our Mobile First CrunchUp event in Palo Alto last Friday. Indeed, as Chien told me after his CrunchUp panel, he views today’s two great investment sectors – in mobile and in social – as unique opportunities to reinvent all Internet businesses.

According to Chien, everything is going mobile and everything is going social. Which is why, of course, Kleiner has set up two funds – its iFund and its sFund especially for mobile and social. And it’s why, as Chien explained to me, that Kleiner wants to invest in what he calls those “super verticals” that enable “amazing” mobile and social experiences.

This is a two-part interview with Chien. Tomorrow, he talks in more details about three additional areas – healthcare, education and intelligent personal assistants – in which Kleiner is actively seeking to invest.

What is mobile

We Are Not In A Bubble

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

“I’ve used all these different devices — they suck.”

Short. Sweet. To the point. Rarely do you find that at tech conferences. Luckily,

Today during our Mobile First CrunchUp in Palo Alto, CA, our own Jason Kincaid led a panel focused on designing the mobile experience. On the panel were Bump’s Jake Mintz, Soundtracking’s Steve Jang, and Google’s Matias Duarte (the Director of User Experience for Android). Not surprisingly, much of the talk was iOS versus Android. Such is the state of the mobile world right now.

It was a good panel for such a talk because Soundtracking is iPhone-only right now, Bump is out there for both iPhone and Android, and Duarte is obviously an Android guy. Jason came right out with it. “Why are iPhone applications better looking than Android applications?”

After a laugh, Duarte answered. “Why are Sicilians more handsome than other gentleman?,” he asked, which brought even bigger laughs from the audience. In other words, this is a case where beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in his view.

But then he tried to answer the question more directly. “There’s no reason why you can’t have a beautiful Android app or an ugly iPhone app,” Duarte noted, saying that he sees a ton of Android applications every day (obviously), and many of them are very nice-looking.

“The Android ecosystem is honestly just a little younger,” he continued, to explain why some may view things this way. “You need to give people time to develop on it.”

Mintz had a theory along the same lines. “Right now we find it harder to hire Android developers. People who are really excited about mobile — iOS came out first,” he noted, again signaling that the iOS first-mover advantage. “They learned iOS first.”

But he also had another theory. “I bet if you put 100 designers in a room, more are Mac users and more are iPhone users,” Mintz said. “It’s reflecting the users of the platform,” he continued.

Jang agreed with Mintz. “There’s a cultural advantage working on the Mac platform. Most designers use Macs,” he said. “But now there’s an opportunity on both platforms for designers,” he continued, indicating Android’s huge growth.

All seemed in agreement that over-time, Apple’s iOS app design advantage will even out.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

At today’s Mobile First CrunchUp, Erick Schonfeld sat down with AdMob and Churn Labs founder Omar Hamoui, and Instagram founder Kevin Systrom to discuss how both founders approached mobile development vs. the web.

Systrom, whose popular iOS photo sharing app just passed 7 million users, explained that the biggest opportunities for Instagram are on mobile, not the web. “I don’t believe Instagram could have been a website and website only,” Systrom explains. “The nature of the app is about sharing photographs in the moment.” And the mobile phone is the optimal platform for this task.

Of course, Instagram is growing fast for an iOS only app, adding 2 million users in less than two months. While Systrom believes the future for Instagram lies in mobile development (hopefully that means an Android app soon?), there is work being done on a stronger web presence. But he it’s not as simple as just putting all the iPhone app’s functionality on the web. He explains, “We’re trying to create what we have on the iPhone and make it an interesting experience on the web.”

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Tickets to our Mobile First CrunchUp sold out in one day and we just released our last set of tickets to our annual summer party at August Capital. If you were not able to get a ticket to the CrunchUp (which also gets you into the after party), here is one more chance.

Camber Tech Inc has offered to give away their two tickets to the CrunchUp to two lucky TechCrunch readers. Camber Tech Inc are the guys behind Adlibrium, the first local advertising and commerce platform that runs on mobile devices. They are also doing a non-profit mobile advertising initiative. You can check out their CGI commitment here.

As you know, the Mobile First CrunchUp is this Friday, starting at 1:00pm, at the AOL Auditorium in Palo Alto. Our annual summer party at August Capital is following right after in Menlo Park. You can read all about the logistics here.

If you want at chance at winning these tickets, just follow the steps below.

1) Retweet this post, making sure to include the #GoAdlibrium hashtag

2) Leave us a comment below telling us why you would like to come

The contest starts now and ends tonight at 10:30pm PT.

Please only tweet the message once or you will be disqualified. We will choose the winners at random and contact them tonight with their tickets. Anyone can enter, but please note this giveaway does not include airfare or hotel.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

The next phase of the web will be ruled by mobile. It’s already happening. Just think about how many killer apps and products are mobile-first or mobile-only. This Friday right before our 6th annual summer party at August Capital, we’ll be holding a half-day Mobile First CrunchUp to talk about where are we in terms of creating mobile products and why so many startups are going after mobile before they even create a desktop Web product.

How do the current platforms help or hinder this progress? What new mobile experiences are being created? And how are startups going to make money from all of this?

Our speakers will include mobile founders, engineers, and VCs from Instagram, Foursquare, Kleiner Perkins, Android, Tango, and more (see full agenda below). If you want to buy tickets, we sold out immediately. But you will be able to watch it streamed live right here on TechCrunch starting at 1PM PT on Friday. Please join us. However, we still do have some tickets for the August Capital summer party afterwards. Our last set of 100 tickets are on sale now.

Update: Tickets are now sold out.

Mobile First Agenda:

1:00 to 1:15: How Did We Get Here And Where Are We Going
Joe Hewitt, Software Engineer

1:15 to 1:30: Why Mobile First
Omar Hamoui, Churn Labs
Kevin Systrom, CEO Instagram

1:30 to 2:00: Designing The Mobile Experience
Matías Duarte, Director of User Experience, Android
Steve Jang, CEO Schematic Labs/Soundtracking
Jake Mintz, Co-Founder Bump Technologies

2:00 to 2:30: Money Matters
Chi-Hua Chien, Partner Kleiner Perkins
Howard Hartenbaum, Partner August Capital
Eric Setton, Co-Founder Tango
Tristan Walker, Director Business Development, Foursquare

2:30 to 3:00: Break

3:00 to 3:15: Mobile Demos

3:15 to 4:30: Roundtable with all of the above

August Capital Party

The August Capital Party will be held on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park this Friday, July 29th, from 5:30 – 10:00pm, following our Mobile First CrunchUp. We will have an amazing mix of startup demos, networking, giveaways, drinks, and much more. Tickets to the summer party are $40. These are our last set of 100 tickets, so please act fast if you would like to come.

Tickets are on sale here.

We still have a very limited number of press passes available. Contact Elin Blesener to request press pass consideration.

Here are the logistics for the party.

About the 6th Annual Summer Party at August Capital
July 29, 5:30 – 10:00 pm
2480 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park CA 94025, Map
Get Tickets @ Eventbrite: $40 based on availability. #tcaugustcapital

Also, parking will be extremely limited so we encourage you to leave plenty of time to find parking, or carpool with friends and co-workers. To help with parking, Zimride will be hosting a free rideshare service. You can check it out here.

A huge thank you to all of our sponsors who made this possible.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Mobile video calling app Tango is taking off, recently passing 17 million registered users in half the time it took Skype. It got that far with about $14 million in venture capital. Today, Tango announced that it just raised another $42 million in a series B financing led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the same VC firm that first invested in Skype. Angel investor Len Blavatnik and Alex Zubillaga also participated.

So far, Tango has been a mobile-only product, allowing people on both Androids and iPhones to conduct video chats with each other. With the proliferation of video cameras in smartphones, the service is taking off. The company will now take the fight to Skype’s home turf, the PC. A Windows PC version will launch by the end of the summer, allowing Tango video calls to take place between iPhones, Windows PCs, Android phones, and iPads.

Tango co-founder Eric Setton will be speaking at our Mobile First CrunchUp on July 29. So will Howard Hartenbaum, the August Capital VC who invested in Skype way back when he was working at Draper Fisher. The two should have plenty to talk about.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch