Cutting the Ribbon at MakerBot's new Sunset Park facility

New Tech City gets new managing editor WNYC announced yesterday that Manoush Zomorodi will become managing editor of New Tech City, the weekly tech podcast and segment on Morning Edition. According to the press release, Ms. Zomorodi—who co-created and currently hosts the program—“will oversee a new phase of New Tech City, in which WNYC plans to expand the weekly segment into…a digital media enterprise with videos, live events and other components that break from traditional radio programming.”  Keep your eyes and ears peeled, folks!

Google Glass gets Fancy Oh you fancy, huh? This week saw the release of Fancy, a new shopping app for Google Glass. Users can take a photo of whatever they’re looking at, and Fancy will connect them with “the coolest stuff” that matches their snapshot. Take a photo of your kitchen cabinets, and Fancy will match you with the sweetest new silverware set. Grab a shot of your Real Housewives DVD collection, and Fancy will hook you up with a life. Just kidding. But you get the idea.

Brooklyn techies prepare for battle Watch out, Silicon Valley. This week, the Brooklyn Tech Triangle announced plans to make New York the new “global epicenter of the innovation economy.” Next week, leaders of the initiative will propose changes to workforce development, real estate, transportation and public environs that will hopefully “help New York surpass Silicon Valley as the nation’s top tech hub,” according to a statement. Maybe New York should just equip all its tech offices with two-story slides—that might help.

MakerBot makes moves Last week, 3D printing powerhouse MakerBot announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The 55,000 square foot factory will house the manufacturing of various 3D printing, replicating, and scanning technologies, as well as a “Bot Farm,” where 3D prints are produced for MakerBot’s Manhattan store. They might be high-tech, but MakerBot would like to specify that skilled humans—not robots—are responsible for manufacturing their futuristic products.

NYCResistor hosts a high-tech drinkfest This Saturday, party it up ‘till two in the morn with NYCResistor at their 4^th Annual Interactive Show. At 8p.m., head on down to the NYCResistor’s headquarters at 87 Third Avenue in Brooklyn, where “hackers from around the region [will] show off their cool interactive projects with beats and beers provided.” This year’s theme is “Digital Archaeology”—in other words, see if you can put a new spin on an old piece of technology. Let me just dig up my old Tamagotchi…

Learn to fundraise like a pro Have a startup idea, but no cash? No problem—check out General Assembly’s Assembled Capital workshop this Saturday from 10:30a.m. to 6p.m., where a team of industry pros will turn you into the next fundraising aficionado. Learn “fundraising strategies for early-stage startups, common misconceptions and best practices in fundraising, the future of crowdfunding, honest stories from entrepreneurs on successful (and less than successful) capital raises, and more,” according to the event page. Tickets are $299, but who knows? Maybe you’ll run into Zosia Mamet. 

Gym, Tan, Laundry with NJ Tech Meetup Heading to the Jersey Shore this weekend? Check out Friday night's Summer Social at the Berkeley Hotel in Asbury Park, hosted by NJ Tech Meetup and Jersey Shore Tech Meetup. Show off your Google Glass or chat about your latest startup idea over cheap drinks and live music. "This meetup is to welcome summer, have a drink, and meet some new people. Bring biz cards and a smile," the event page says. Spray tans not included.

A pretty Mujjo case (Photo: Mujjo.com)

Checking In to the New Yelp Foursquare already set its sights on overtaking Yelp with the launch of its super useful local search engine. But its newest iOS update really goes for the jugular: Foursquare now gives locations a 1-10 rating to show you how much people actually like it, instead of the app’s old star rating system. Per the Foursquare blog, the rating is calculated by an amalgamation of “tips, likes, dislikes, popularity, loyalty, local expertise, and nearly 3 billion check-ins from over 25 million people worldwide.” Yelp is going to have to do better than Ernest Hemingway to keep up.

Do-Gooders Keep On Doing Good The New York tech community has banded together over the last week to help victims of Sandy. And now Rain NYC and TelAPI are co-sponsoring a hackathon in conjunction with the Node.js Knockout to build applications that will help future disaster relief efforts. It's a 12 hour competition and teams will be responsible for building telephony applications that hopefully will improve communication or information dissemination when there's limited electricity and power.

No App To Wash The Dishes Yet Though There's a ton of recipe based apps and magazines for the iPad, but Panna, released this week, stands out because they feature recipes that you haven't actually thought of before, plus their above average food porn really doesn't hurt either. The bi-monthly magazine features a slew of celebrity chefs like Jonathan Waxman and Rick Bayless. These chefs host video segments that are broken up step-by-step and downloadable for offline streaming, which is good if your wifi doesn't reach your kitchen. Individual issues will cost $5.99 each, and a full year’s subscription is $24.95. But there's a launch special right now and a year's subscription is only, $14.99.

More Brooklyn Please Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, are of course known as The Brooklyn Tech Triangle. They're already getting a bus line of their very own, but now WXY Architecture + Urban Design are planning to help grow tech infiltrate the three neighborhoods to a greater degree. Andrew Kimball, president & CEO of The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, says that he wants the Navy Yard to become a hub for "maker" companies like Makerbot. Brooklyn is the place to be right now and it's about to get even busier.

Love Thy Favors NeighborFavor, a free app that was launched in August, helps you find people that live near you willing to help out with tasks. Although the app wasn't designed for emergency purposes, the company says NeighborFavor can definitely be used for the Sandy relief efforts: like picking up emergency supplies for those in need, offering alternate transportation, and coordinating times to help with the cleanup.

Buy Pretty Things If you've ever flipped through a catalog and thought "I wish there was more things to buy for me," then be glad that Pickie now exists. They're a Techstars company and they raised one million dollars in their first seed round from DFJ Gotham, Betaworks, Liberty City Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, MESA+ and several angel investors including Jon Steinberg, David Tisch, and Lars Albright. The app shows you a catalog of products to buy based on what you like and what you've bought in the past. Sounds economically stimulating.

Buy More Pretty Things Mujjo, the tech accessories company that uses finest Dutch craftsmanship to make their products, just released a new line of sleeves for the new iPad Mini. They're mad out of Mujjo's signature wool and "vegetable tan leather." A Mujjo case (with a mini inside) just shot to the top of our Hannukah list.

People Use Phones When They Don't Have Computers Usablenet, the company that makes mobile sites for big businesses, experienced huge traffic jumps on their sites during Hurricane Sandy. They reported a 98 percent increase in mobile traffic to airline sites and an over 16,000 percent increase in traffic to utilities sites. Usablenet says that this suggests that while consumers may not visit utility websites from their mobile devices on a regular basis, they do so in great numbers during an emergency.

Villain No More Time Warner Cable, the scourge of New York cord-keepers, was surprisingly helpful during last week’s storm. Workers at Time Warner’s Red Hook store helped a woman restore power to her electric wheelchair in order to vote. Robert Levy, a Time Warner employee, took the store’s generator to Kacania Taylor’s apartment, which has been out since Hurricane Sandy. Levy and other employees ran an extension cord through the window, and charged her chair so that she could get to the polling place. Can we send our $150 cable bill to Mr. Levy instead of TWC?

(Photo: Wikimedia)

Today Time Warner Cable announced that the company expects to invest $25 million to expand its fiber optic network in both "established and emerging" business sectors around New York City. Many of the areas highlighted in today's announcement happen to coincide with burgeoning tech hubs.

In a press release to Betabeat, Time Warner said it would extend its broadband capabilities in "the World Trade Center, the Flatiron District, all areas of Midtown and throughout the Financial District," in Manhattan. In addition to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Time Warner is also upgrading fiber in the "Brooklyn Tech Triangle, the Brooklyn Army Terminal and Industry City." Long Island City in Queens, the future home to Shapeways 3D-printing factory, will also benefit from the effort.

The investment is part of a deal with the city that was still being hammered out in June when Mayor Bloomberg announced his big plan to improve broadband. At the time, Time Warner was named in the ConnectNYC facet of the mayor's plan, which focused on wiring previously underserved areas and improving connectivity in commercial and industrial buildings.

Today's announcement, for example, was made at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, home to Carnegie Mellon's tech campus initiative, where Time Warner is finishing up "a multi-million dollar investment to provide fiber-based solutions to tenants of the 300-acre business complex."

But Time Warner isn't the only company the city has partnered with, as the Wall Street Journal reports, especially when it comes to residential initiatives.

The city also has tech agreements with Verizon Communications Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp. and AT&T Inc. Companies are laying fiber, providing wireless hot spots in parks and opening learning labs that give residents access to computers.

Time Warner itself is opening a "state-of-the-art" Learning Lab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, "located inside the massive complex and accessible to the public." Good news for the long-neglected residents of the three neighboring housing projects, we hope.

(Photo: Brooklyn Tech Triangle)

The Brooklyn Tech Triangle already thinks it's bigger and better than Manhattan, and now they're getting a transportation upgrade to help them prove it.

The triangle--which includes Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO and the Brooklyn Navy Yard--is getting its very own dedicated bus route, according to a press release issued today by New York state senator Daniel Squadron.

Senator Squadron and MTA stakeholders will plan the new route, which is set to roll out in 2013. "Brooklyn's tech industry is changing the face of New York -- and now, we'll have a bus route that will allow the booming Tech Triangle to continue to grow and innovate," Senator Squadron stated in the release.

And here we thought most startup kids were fiercely loyal to the ice cream-wielding Uber team.

"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.

WTH is a tech engine? (brooklyntechtriangle.com)

Looks like DUMBO isn't the only neighborhood eager to flaunt its tech prowess. According to a new site launched last week, DUMBO is just one 'hood that's part of the "Brooklyn Tech Triangle," which also includes downtown Brooklyn and the Navy Yard. A local coalition from each neighborhood has been tapped to represent its district in the Brooklyn Tech Triangle initiative, which seeks to establish the area as an innovative and welcoming place for tech firms.

According to a recent report commissioned by the initiative's three main partners, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, DUMBO Improvement District and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation:

The Brooklyn Tech Triangle, is currently home to more than 500 creative companies in more than 1.7 million square feet of space.  By 2015 the area is expected to exceed more than 600 firms requiring 3.1 million square feet...Brooklyn has experienced greater and faster growth in the tech and creative sectors than New York City as a whole from 2007 to 2011.  Brooklyn has seen annual average growth of 4.9 percent, compared to -1.4 percent for NYC.

The Brooklyn Tech Triangle initiative intends to use the survey's findings to better understand and address the needs of the area, so that they may "create an area-wide master plan that examines the viability of the tech sector in Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO and the Navy Yard, the reuse of certain real estate assets to accommodate growth and bolster Downtown Brooklyn as a destination for creative companies."

Man, the city is really on its A-game this week. The initiative site's launch, as well as the survey's findings, dovetail nicely with today's announcement that downtown Brooklyn will become the home of a new NYU-sponsored Center for Urban Science and Progress. Of course, it's important to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism, since it's obviously in the best interest of both politicians and real estate developers to make it look like this is indeed a movement and not just spillover from digital DUMBO.

So, "Brooklyn, start your tech engines" the website urges (ugh): looks like the tech turf wars have only just begun.

Check out the Brooklyn Tech Triangle initiative's infographic below.

(brooklyntechtriangle.com)