Jeanne Pinder (left), the founder and CEO of Clear Health Costs and Jessica Lawrence, managing director of NYTM.

“How different is this room right now, in terms of the percentages of women versus men?” Jessica Lawrence, the managing director of New York Tech Meetup asked the audience at the second Change the Ratio and NYTM Women’s Demo night on Tuesday. She had a point. The crowd gathered at Facebook's Midtown offices to watch women-run founders demo their startups was diverse in terms of age, race, and ethnicity, yet predominately female.

Ms. Lawrence kicked off the evening by confessing that, even as the event’s organizer and a former Girl Scouts CEO, she had mixed feelings about the self-selecting event. “In some ways," she said, "having a whole separate stage just for women sometimes kind of defeats the purpose."

However, Ms. Lawrence went on to explain that in her year and a half of work at NYTM, she has had an extremely difficult time getting female-founded companies to apply to demo. “I couldn’t believe it was because there were no female founded startups in the city, so I decided to do an experiment and put out a call for Women’s Demo Night,” she explained. “And low and behold, 37 female founded startups applied."

“They were all hiding, and now I know who they are and where to find them, so I can invite them to demo at NYTM,” Ms. Lawrence said. The end goal "is to get the ratio to the point where we don’t have to have Women’s Demo Night because half the people demoing at NYTM are women.”

Ms. Lawrence described the event's atmosphere as more “intimate” than a typical NYTM. The rules for demos were also more welcoming—presenters had a loosely-timed five minutes rather than three, and early stage companies were welcome to include Powerpoints and screenshots if their pitches weren’t yet flawless. Attendees grazed on spreads of cheese and cookies, while others looked longingly at Facebook's ping pong table and mini basketball setup.

The demos were as diverse as their founders, featuring everything from Upswing.me, a platform designed to connect black and ethnic women with hair stylists specializing in curly hair (a huge market) to Continuum Fashion, a combination design lab and fashion label that uses 3D and advanced digital printing technology to change the way consumers approach apparel.

“Fashion is about so much more than just buying,” said Continuum cofounder Mary Huang. Along with a pair of her company's 3D-printed shoes, Ms. Huang was also wearing a dress designed using a photo a friend took in Barcelona made by a company called Constrvct--an interactive brand featured on Continuum. “We don’t want to be a site where you just order things,” she added, explaining that all of the user-created designs on Constrvct are public in order to encourage “a creative space for fashion design.”

The night also featured demos from two different gift-giving Facebook apps, Gift Simple and Gift Hit, as well as Fun Org, an event-finding app that launches Wednesday in New York and San Francisco.

But most impressive presentation of the night came from Jeanne Pinder, the founder and CEO of Clear Health Costs, a startup dedicated to increasing the transparency of the healthcare industry. “The problem we’re trying to solve is that nobody has any idea what stuff costs in healthcare,” said Ms. Pinder, who worked at the New York Times for over 20 years before receiving multiple grants to launch Clear Health Costs.

The site, which is currently in beta, uses crowdsourcing as well as a number of other journalistic techniques to gather information about what patients are paying for health care procedures all over the New York City area. “We’re finding that prices vary by a factor of 10,” she noted.

As an example of the type of data she's gathering, Ms. Pinder drew upon an effort to use crowdsourcing to determine the variation in the cost of birth control prescriptions throughout the city. On the site, users can share information about how much they paid for certain procedures and prescriptions, and where. “People are really excited about sharing things,” she said somewhat dryly, going on to reveal results which showed that in Park Slope one can buy birth control for just $17, though two blocks away the same prescription costs $50. The price range for a cardio stress test is even more striking, with procedures varying anywhere from $150 to $1,790.

“The idea is to tell patients where they can get their services, and at what price,” Ms. Pinder said before announcing that the team has finished collecting comprehensive data for the New York area and is currently working expanded into another city.

(photo: flickr user USFWS Pacific)

Job Search CareerSonar, a new job search site designed to help users discover the most promising career opportunities by integrating their Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, just announced their private beta launch. You can try out the site now with an early access invite.

Pets PetFlow, a New York-based scheduled pet food delivery service, just announced that it fulfilled more than $2.5 million in pet food and supply orders during the month of July. The company projects it'll generate more than $30 million in sales by the year’s end.

Filters Are your Instagram photos not looking grainy enough lately? If so, you may want to check out StrutType, a new photo app designed to replicate the process of using a strut folding camera. Apparently, the app applies a series of filters, canvases, textures, light leaks and other aging techniques to “render an authentically antiquated image.”

Sharks Now every week can be Shark Week with Zite’s new shark category, which launched Monday. The “personalized magazine” app figures out the things you like to read (in this case, about sharks) and apparently gets better at catering to your taste as you use it.

Intermediary TheyPosted, a site that aggregates pictures posted by celebrities to various social media sites, just announced its launch. Billed as a “searchable firehose of pictures posted by celebrities,” the site advertises that “you don’t even have to be on Instagram and Twitter to see what the Stars are posting.” As further evidence to this point, the company brags that TheyPosted was the fourth organic search for “Michael Phelps Instagram” during “the first few days of the Olympics.” So, if you really want to see what celebrities are doing on Instagram without being on Instagram, this is the site for you.

One stop shopping Hearst Digital is partnering with Mulu to integrate the muluBox shopping widget on Seventeen.com. Designed to make web content more easily shoppable, muluBox enables customers to shop directly for products mentioned in videos and slideshows. A portion of proceeds from muluBox purchases on Seventeen.com will go to support Stomp Out Bullying.

Inc.5000 Inc. just released its 2012 list of the 5000 fastest growing companies in the U.S. Congrats to the three New York companies that made the top 50: Livestream (12), Spongecell  (27) and OnForce Solar (43).

Coming to America The Berlin based startup Trademob is debuting smartBoost—no longer just a powdered energy drink but a data analysis software program designed to help app marketers increase user retention, in-app engagement and app store ranking. The company already has operations in Berlin, London and Paris, and plans to move a full time team of five to ten employees to New York over the coming months.

Online ed Less than two weeks after Skillshare announced the launch of hybrid classes, CEO/Co-Founder Michael Karnjanaprakorn has seen unprecedented interest in his class “Launch Your Startup Idea for Less than $1000,” with 2,584 students currently enrolled.

Back to school The NYC-based ed-tech startup Schoology just announced the opening of the Schoology App Center, featuring over 20 apps built on the Schoology collaborative learning platform for K-12 classrooms.

Apply now Incline, a social enterprise which offers training classes to military veterans looking to start a career in technology, is now accepting applications for its six-week Introduction to Web Development Intensive Course.

Conference Tickets are now on sale for DataGotham, a conference celebrating the NYC data community which will take place September 13-14 at NYU Stern. Speakers will include Steven E. Koonin, the founding Director of NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, and Michael P. Flowers, the Director of both New York City’s Policy and Strategic Planning Analytics Team.

Bat Haus, Bushwick’s new coworking space. (photo: Bat Haus)

Summer love Do you ever find yourself wishing that couples therapy was cheaper? Well, here’s an app that claims to be just as effective, and for only $7.95 a month (limited time only). Couplewise combines digital interactive versions to cognitive behavioral therapy techniques and research from leading cognitive behavioral therapists as well as crowdsourcing the wisdom of other couples “who have been there.” The company claims that 79 percent of their beta users say that their relationship has improved as a result of the app, and none say it has worsened—what are you waiting for?

Attention freelancers Coworking has come to Bushwick with Bat Haus, a new community office space open to freelancers of all disciplines. The space opened last month and has apparently been hosting art groups, writing meetups and fashion shoots. If its sunny decor doesn't seal the deal, they also have a backyard with a grill and potlucks for members. Full time membership is $275 a month, part-time $175, and it’s $15 for a day pass.

Apply now The Startup Spotlight Series is now accepting applicants to pitch to partners GAP, Unilever and General Electric on their product at the annual ad:tech conference in November. Sixteen finalists will receive coaching from digital marketing thought-leaders as well as free Innovation Alley exhibition space at the ad:tech Expo.

Lucky users Tidal—a company that creates channels to link users with brands and publishers—and Condé Nast just launched the Lucky Magazine Community, a new site where readers can submit original posts and instantly syndicate content from existing blogs.

Funding news The News Funnel, a customizable news aggregation site geared towards business readers, announced last week that it closed its first round of funding with $1 million in outside capital raised.

Class of 2012 Tech Launch, New Jersey’s new tech accelerator, created in response to an order from Governor Christie, just announced its inaugural class of 2012. Startups to watch out for include: CodeSquare, Echolocation, Flying Kick, Nickelbus, Nuskool, Pervasive Group, Photoflow, QuickClix, SeamBLiSS, and True College Bound.

Long distance Congrats to Keku, an international calling service that provides cheap calls from smartphones, landlines and tablets to any phone number in the world, which just hit half a million customers.

Now hiring inSparq is looking for a back-end developer, Cut On Your Bias needs a CTO. Secco Squared wants a VP of sales, a sales and business development associate, and an operations manager, and OMGPOP/Zynga needs interns (with “sparkling personalities”).

Adam Israfil, 14, presents an app to help readers find books suited to their taste.

“It’s pretty safe to say we’re all geeks here,” said Xavier Suarez, a particularly self-aware 16-year-old from Brooklyn, gesturing to a classroom full of fresh-faced fellow high school students. Betabeat had trekked down to Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus for the first pitch presentation of NYC Generation Tech—a new initiative by the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship to provide mentorship for disadvantaged high school students interested in technology.

The program, which is still in pilot phase, consists of a two-week summer bootcamp followed by a series of weeknight meetings in the fall, hosted at the local offices of top tech companies like Facebook, NASDAQ and Warby Parker. The 30 accepted students work in teams to develop a mobile app prototype using MIT App Inventor, targeted at other New York City students.

To be eligible for the program, students must be entering grades 9-11 in the fall, have a minimum 3.0 GPA and 90 percent attendance in school. They also either have to qualify for free or reduced lunch or attend a school where more than 50 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. In December, the students will demo and pitch their finished apps and business plans to a panel of judges and venture capitalists for a $5,000 cash prize.

Last Friday, the halfway mark of the summer bootcamp, each student pitched their own rudimentary app idea to an audience of their peers. Jordan Runge, the head instructor of NYC Generation Tech, told Betabeat that the first week, students got an introduction to technology and entrepreneurship, brainstorming grievances and inconveniences that they could address in an app. That day, after pitching, the students were instructed to form teams of four or five based on the similarity of their app. Over the next week, each team will decide on the best app idea to pursue for the remainder of the program.

In the LIU classroom, students pitched with idealistic enthusiasm, describing apps clearly designed to solve problems they encounter in their own lives. Topics like homework, grades, after school snacks and “time management” were raised repeatedly, and a large number of pitches involved creating personalized schedules to help students manage various commitments, especially while staying on top of school work.

Ms. Barry, age 16.

Mona Barry, 16, bemoaned the inconvenience of not knowing your grade in a class until report cards, and explained that her app would alert students when their grade was in danger of falling below a certain standard. Other pitches involved instant messaging systems to enhance communication between students and teachers (“Isn’t it awkward to friend your teachers on Facebook?” asked one of the students) as well as support groups for teenagers suffering from bullying and depression.

Harry Trustman, a 15-year-old from Brooklyn, addressed summer reading grievances, marketing his app “Bookmark” as a solution to “a summer reading list filled with books you’ve never heard of.”  His app aims to improve on the customer reviews on sites like Amazon, which, in his experience, can’t be trusted. “I bought Twilight based on positive reviews, but it was terrible!” he exclaimed.

“Bookmark” would enable users to fill out a taste profile, read reviews written by peers with similar taste, and connect with students who have already read the book—a step up from Sparknotes, Mr. Trustman claimed, asserting that the study-site didn’t really answer questions and was ultimately “just another thing to read.”

Mr. Trustman wasn’t the only student to invoke the fallibility of user reviews. Many students noted that many sites require users to be 18 to provide reviews, and designed their apps to allow teenage users to access relevant reviews from written by peers.

Jose R., a sophomore from Queens, gave perhaps the most eccentric pitch, which he described as an “easy-to-use stock simulator.”

“What I need to do is make people rich,” he said, explaining that since, “Most people don’t know how to pick stocks . . . this app is for anyone who wants to learn how to make money and has the Internet—so, pretty much everyone.”

NYC Generation Tech is one of the first tech mentorship programs designed for high school students, with the aim of exposing these concepts to a more diverse group. Ron Summers, an instructor in the program, said that he finds the students's eagerness and inexperience to be a great advantage.  “Instead of thinking, I can’t do it, I don’t have those skills, they’re willing to just try it out,” he said.

Mr. Runge, the head instructor, echoed these sentiments, admitting that he actually finds it easier to work with younger students on tech projects than with adults. “You have a bunch of students who are interested in these topics, but they never really know how it works or they never realized they could be part of the creation process,” Mr. Runge said. “We get to illuminate the fact that ‘No, you can be, you’re just like anyone else and you can do whatever you want and here’s how you do it.’”

“The big difference between working with adults is that [for high schoolers] we really have to fast-track their learning to get them to a place where they can have the language and background knowledge and context so they can even talk about this,” Mr. Runge said, calling the program fairly fast-paced.

After the pitch presentation, Mr. Trustman and his new team members reflected on the first half of their experience. “The week was really awesome,” Mr. Trustman said, recounting the field trip to Makerbot the day before. “I think yesterday was my favorite because we got to make 3D sculptures of ourselves,” he explained. “And we saw 3D printers in action!” Mr. Suarez interjected excitedly. The students were also visited by a number of guest speakers from the tech industry, including Jared Cohen, the director of Operations at Kickstarter.

The boys told Betabeat they were more nervous about time constraints than creating a prototype of the app. "It’s like, I’m going to have fun, but at the same time the deadline is a week around the corner,” Mr. Suarez confided.

LaGuardia Airport General Manager Tom Bosco introduces Marie.

Wednesday was the first day on the job for Marie, LaGuardia Airport’s newest customer service hire: a virtual avatar designed to answer questions and help guide visitors through the airport.

The round-faced, chestnut-haired young woman we saw before us was merely a video of a human woman--the Port Authority wouldn't disclose the actress's name--projected on to a 2D flat screen shaped like a woman's body. The static effect was less Tupac hologram and more Tour Guide Barbie™.

Standing in the arrivals area of Terminal B, Marie spews a stream of basic information for arriving passengers, including the location of the bathrooms and baggage claims, and directions to various forms of ground transportation. In a rare moment of silence, the avatar shifts her eyes pointedly from left to right, performatively twiddling her thumbs.

“You can see, when nobody’s asking her any questions, she looks around, she smiles, she twiddles her thumbs a bit,” Tom Bosco, the General Manager of the airport remarked with a laugh, visibly charmed by the new addition to the airport staff.

“She can answer questions?” Betabeat inquired enthusiastically. Mr. Bosco quickly conceded, that no, the avatar was not capable of processing or responding to human interaction, explaining that the technology currently plays a 90-second sound loop which reactivates anytime a person is within 30 feet of the apparatus.

“But she answers the basic questions a customer might have, like where are the restrooms, where do I catch the train, where’s the departure board, those kind of things,” Mr. Bosco explained.

A group of LaGuardia’s live customer service employees were less generous when assessing the avatar’s utility. “If you’re walking, are you really going to stop and wait until she gets to the part about the bathroom, or are you going to look for a sign,” one customer service representative who wished to remain unnamed asked rhetorically.

Marie, named after the wife of the airport’s namesake, Fiorello LaGuardia, is one of three identical avatars debuting on behalf of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey this summer. “Libby” appeared at Newark Liberty International Airport on July 27, and “Sarah” begins work at John F. Kennedy Airport on Thursday. Each installation cost the Port Authority $60,000.

“We think it’s a good investment,” Mr. Bosco said confidently, explaining that the three avatars will undergo a trial period of six months before any decisions are made to add more.

Emphasizing that the technology will not be replacing human staff, Mr. Bosco assured us that the avatar "supplements the existing staff.” And indeed—near the end of her minute-and-a-half long spiel, Marie informs her audience that they can also visit a nearby welcome desk or talk to “other” customer service representatives for further assistance.

Mr. Bosco explained that he also hoped Marie would help with the airport’s initiative to reduce "hustling" by unlicensed cab drivers by warning visitors, “For your own safety, don’t accept rides from individuals soliciting rides.” Other tips are a little more painfully obvious: "Once aboard the bus, listen to the announcements for your stop,” Marie perkily advises.

The point, Mr. Bosco insisted, is that this newfangled technology is more likely to catch people's attention. “If you saw a TV screen, would you pay attention to it, or would you pay attention to her?” he argued, clearly believing the answer to be self-evident. Yet despite some reports from Newark Liberty that passengers found Libby to be “freaky” or even “scary,” most passersby at LaGuardia seemed largely unfazed. Indeed, as much as she captivated Mr. Bosco, many failed to fully register Marie's virtual presence.

The redesigned Nestio iPhone app.

Hunting season Nestio has redesigned its iPhone app, designed to help apartment hunters stay organized and share information with friends. In addition to improved camera functionality, the 2.0 version has some new features, including an activity screen to help users see what progress their roommates have made in the search, as well as a checklist to help potential renters and buyers remember what features to look for when they’re viewing an apartment.

Guilty convenience Gilt Group just announced that they have (finally) added search capabilities to the site. Members can now search each Gilt store by category, brand and price—just like almost every other website that exists.

1000+ Zinio—which produces interactive versions of existing magazines, providing a reading platform which enables readers to easily navigate text, interactive graphics, animated illustrations, and videos—just announced the production of its 1000th interactive magazine.

Learn python Codeacademy, an interactive, user-generated platform for users to learn programming, now offers users the ability to learn python, in addition to front-end technologies like JavaScript, HTML, CSS and jQuery.

Female report American Express has released more results from its second annual State of Women-Owned Businesses report. Though the numbers report growth of women-owned businesses in 2012, AmEx concedes, predictably, that things could be better. If you don’t feel like reading the whole report, they’ve made some helpful infographics to get people talking.

Manhattan Transfers The predictive game studio PrePlay—which creates mobile and tablet games designed to enhance the experience of watching sports, reality, and other “awkward” television shows—is expanding its Manhattan operations and moving into a new Midtown headquarters at West 38th Street, following its $3.1 million series A funding.

Virtual college Yale has partnered with YouVisit to enhance virtual tour features available to prospective students on their website. Now, high schoolers, pre-frosh and curious parties all over the world can take “realistic and engaging” virtual walking tours of the campus and enjoy full-screen 360 panoramas of various Yale landmarks, which are also available for a bunch of other less prestigious institutions.

Changeup The interactive video startup Qwiki just announced that they’ve hired Sonya Penn, formerly Time.com’s Director of Business Development, as VP of Business Development.

Next big thing The Paley Center for Media is partnering with the New York Comedy Festival to put together a special “comedy-themed” edition of Next Best Thing, the Paley Center’s quarterly showcase for digital media startups, and they’re currently accepting submissions from startups to present at the November 7 event. Interested parties should send a description of their company, presenter bio, and presentation draft to paleymediacouncil(at)gmail.com; submissions are due September 14.

HBO Girls star Allison Williams, left, and CollegeHumor's Josh Ruben. (Photo: Timothy Reilly for CollegeHumor)

A surprisingly diverse crowd showed up at The Gramercy Theater last night for the annual CollegeHumor Offline show. The audience was almost half female and included numerous fans significantly older than the site's namesake demographic.

The content, however, was exactly what you’d expect if you’ve ever perused CollegeHumor for some sophomoric fun. The show featured a familiar crew—Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld of the site’s most popular series, Jake & Amir, Elaine Carroll of Very Mary-Kate—delivering familiar punch lines, most to the effect of, “I put my dick in your Sprite.” CollegeHumor’s editor in chief Streeter Seidell opened the show with a few jokes about peeing himself and disliking farmer’s markets before assuring the audience that there were a lot more “cumming jokes” to look forward to. In that respect, the performers did not disappoint.

The highlight of the show was HBO’s "Girls" star Allison Williams, who, in a floral cocktail dress and stilettos looked indistinguishable from Marni, her prim-and-proper character on the show. Ms. Williams, of course, has reportedly been dating CollegeHumor and Notional founder Ricky Van Veen for some time now. A CollegeHumor representative declined to comment. However, the two are often spotted together at parties and recently appeared hand-in-hand in a video shot at Jakob Lodwick's wedding.

“Tell me about your show because there’s a lot of sex and I don’t know if it’s simulated,” Gale Beggy, the CollegeHumor personality played by Josh Ruben in drag, asked.

“Gale, all of the sex is simulated,” Ms. Williams responded with good-natured exasperation. “It’s not a porn.”

Despite Ms. Williams’s background in improv (“All of my experience before Girls was live,” she told Betabeat after the show) the majority of her jokes fell painfully flat. When asked about her own beauty procedures, Ms. Williams first responded “This isn’t my face…I just got it,” before telling the audience that she uses “a lot of blood, a lot of cat urine,” and “your saliva, actually” to keep herself looking fresh.

Her exaggerated attempts at physical comedy—putting a hand on Mr. Ruben’s knee and constantly pushing up his stuffed chest—didn't do her many favors, although the audience didn’t seem to mind. As Ms. Williams exited the stage, a voice from the crowd shouted, “nice legs."

The show concluded with Jake & Amir, who gave the audience a list of ten first date ideas (three of which involved proposing marriage and one which involved a trip to Napa Valley) and ended with a freestyle rap about aardvark cum, featuring Hoodie Allen and a fully suited aardvark.

After the show, we spoke to Mr. Seidell, who, currently 29, has been married for almost a year. He laughed when we asked if he ever feels like he is outgrowing his audience. “It’s the Internet, so its hard to tell exactly how old they are, since everybody acts like they’re 13,” he said. “We always joke like, 'Oh, do you get fired when you’re 30?' And the first of us just turned 30, so we’ll find out I guess.”

When asked about the funniest thing he’s seen on the Internet lately, Mr. Seidell had to think. “I literally see thousands of funny things online each day,” he explained, adding, “I don’t want to give a bad answer.”

He proceeded to recount a video featuring an Olympic gymnast perfectly landing a vaulting pass where in the background you can see the judge’s jaw drop, before conceding, “That’s not really that funny, I guess. Honestly, the thing I probably laughed the hardest at was a gif of a cat falling off a counter, so that would be, sadly, what I think is the funniest.”

We turned the question around to Ms. Williams, who barely hesitated. “I like any video of a person who just had dental surgery,” she offered enthusiastically. “And I’ve watched a lot of them lately.”

"A Private Night on Alcatraz"—it could be yours on Vayable.com.

The Olympics BuddyTV has added a dedicated Olympics quicklist to its TV guide, allowing users to see a chronological, up-to-date list of all coverage on their available channels--since, despite the numerous apps which cater to online streaming, the majority of viewers still watch the Olympics on television. Quicklist subscribers can also receive real-time alerts and view extensive editorial coverage of the games.

Alt. Olympics Tomorrow marks the start of Battle Royale—an ongoing, vote-based competition hosted by Kings of the Web, where YouTube entertainers and fans compete for cash and recognition. For more information regarding how this competition will determine “who truly rules the Internet,” here’s the trailer.

Accessorize Case-Mate, a mobile accessory design company, just announced a partnership with triple threat Common (an artist, actor and author), who joins Selena Gomez in an attempt to convince Millennials to outfit their cellphones and tablets in style. Keep an eye out for Common at Fashion Week, where he will be co-hosting a “mobile accessories fashion event.”

Advisory notice The New York-based music licensing startup Jingle Punks, which specializes in original music for film, television and advertising, just announced that director Brett Ratner will join the company’s board of advisors.

App for that The HipGeo app is launching today, enabling users to create automatically location-based streams from photos, videos and text—”instantly transforming these elements into rich virtual storytelling journals,” or so they claim. While we are somewhat skeptical of the utility of an app designed to make it even easier to share content on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, it's worth mentioning that Jerry Yang is an investor.

Changeup The Cambridge-based social TV analytics company Bluefin Labs just announced JP Maheu--the former CEO of Razorfish and Publicis Modem—as its new CEO. Cofounder and current CEO Deb Roy will stay on as chairman.

Vacation better Vayable, a “marketplace for travel experiences”—such as $250 fishing trips with a local Fijian king and overnight (romantic?) visits to Alcatraz—just announced funding from Y-Combinator. The site, which currently offers over 2500 experiences in 600 cities, claims that revenue has been growing rapidly over the past few months, aided by the recent launch of their concierge feature (which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like), and that it’s already raised an undisclosed amount from several prominent angels in the Bay Area.

(flickr.com/nataliemaynor)

Shop ‘til you drop Shopkick—a location-based shopping app which rewards shoppers for walking into stores and interacting with products—has just announced a partnership with Macy’s. As of last week, customers at Macy’s more than 800 brick-and-mortar U.S. locations can now earn rewards and receive exclusive offers whenever they walk into a store, which was made possible through a technology partnership with Mood Media. The app is available for both iPhone and Android.

Shopping, continued Local startups Local Response and ShopLocal are teaming up to combine the former’s real-time intent monitoring system and the latter’s SmartCircular API—which will generate mobile-based incentives for in-store customers, including coupons, loyalty rewards and discounts. (Which sounds a lot like Shopkick, if you ask us.) ShopLocal’s promotional services are already used by retailers like Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Staples, CVS and Sears—which isn’t exactly what we’d expect from such a seemingly obvious name, but there you have it.

What’s up, doc Vitals, an online source for physician information and ratings, just launched a new iPhone app to connect on-the-go patients and doctors nationwide. The app also enables users to create custom “top 10” lists of their favorite local doctors (wouldn’t want to forget your favorite gyno!) and store relevant information like doctors’ phone numbers and photos of health insurance cards.

Build-your-own-website The web hosting and cloud service provider Media Temple has announced an expanded partnership with Virb, a DIY website cloud designed for small businesses, especially artists, musicians and other creative class types. The companies hope the partnership will improve the customer experience by providing users with greater access to both of their tools for site-building, domain names, email, and web hosting.

Google docs 2.0 Cage, a new online collaboration tool, just launched. The venue provides a secure environment for creative teams in web, mobile, print, video, design, 3D and motion graphics to present their work for feedback and approval. This video explains it all in great detail.

I heart NYC Yesterday, the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced the first-ever NYC Best for Business Infographics Competition. New Yorkers are challenged to “demonstrate why NYC is the premier global destination for businesses,” using by designing a visually stimulating infographic. The contest is open now until September 21, when the judging period will begin. Three semi-finalists will be selected, and a public voting period will begin in October. The winners will receive $1000, as well as a full-size print of their infographic, signed by Mayor Bloomberg. Well, what are you waiting for?

Guardian angels Congrats to TreSensa: The startup, which is building a platform for mobile and social developers to create single and multiplayer games compatible with all devices, just announced a $1 million angel round. The company hopes to cut the cost and time of game development, as well as enabling producers to spend more time focused on fun and creativity.

API for that Zaarly, the San Francisco-based mobile marketplace that allows buyers and sellers to communicate directly through requests and responses launched its “Zaarly Anywhere” API last week, enabling users to post requests to Zaarly directly from other websites. Taking a form similar to that of other social sharing buttons which allow users to like, tweet and pin items on the web, the new API caters to the dream of purchasing anything you see on the web.

The Zaarly team is pushing the new API not only as a way for publishers to monetize content, but also as an aid to consumers looking to buy local. “Imagine seeing a beautiful piece of custom furniture, a delicious dinner or the perfect children’s nursery, and then having a local carpenter, chef or designer make it happen,” said Zaarly founder and CEO Bo Fishback, explaining the lofty inspiration behind the new platform.  

"Master Your DSLR Camera:" now available for iOS from Open Air Publishing.

Animated news Reuters has announced the launch of an exclusive partnership with Next Media Animation. Starting this week, Reuters will offer around 20 animated news stories a week produced by Next Media Animation News Direct service, intended to offer visual chronologies of events not captured on video—such as the sinking of the Costa Concordia—as well as present clear illustrations of more technical news.

Master plan The Brooklyn Tech Triangle is seeking proposals for an area-wide strategic plan to support the growing tech sector, which is expected to nearly double in the next three years. Objectives of the designated planning team include improving transportation between the tech triangle and surrounding communities and developing implementable land-use strategies. An information session for potential respondents will take place on July 20 at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership office; proposals are due August 10.

How-to Open Air Publishing, an innovative digital publisher which produces interactive how-to ebooks for iOS, including Master Your DSLR Camera and The Better Bacon Book, just raised $800,000 in seed round funding from Digital Entertainment Ventures, SV Angel, Charles River Ventures and 500 Startups.

Freelancing PeoplePerHour, Europe’s most popular online freelance-work marketplace, just opened its first American office in New York. This week the company debuts Hourlies, listings where users can market services they will sell by the hour. The move is aimed at attracting more Americans to the marketplace, which currently has over 300,000 registered members.

Ads The activity-based advertising company appssavvy just released its adtivity publisher portal, which provides web, social and mobile publishing partners with a comprehensive dashboard and analytics to create and manage display advertising opportunities.

Fresh produce NYC-based task management app Producteev just announced updates for Android and iPhone, including improvements to its export and print features for Producteev task lists. An iPad app is on the way.

Apparel JackThreads’ Adam Gianotti just launched his second clothing brand, Vive Shirt—a collection of blank apparel which he claims is, “my approach to the ‘American Apparel’ line without the expensive price tag.”

Demo day Tomorrow is the second annual FinTech Innovation Lab Demo Day Introduction. Run by the New York City Investment Fund and Accenture, the lab is a 12-week mentorship program for early stage startups in the financial services industry. Tomorrow, the six accepted companies will present their innovations to an audience of potential investors and senior tech executives from companies including Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and American Express.