TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Coming soon to Seattle: a restaurant, bar and nightclub where social interaction won’t only be real. It will be virtual too.

The Social, a gay “ultra lounge” scheduled to open in mid-August on Capitol Hill, will have what its owners think will be the city’s first iPad ordering system for food and drinks.

Developed by HubWorks Interactive LLC, the system is marketed as a way to increase efficiency for restaurants and bars.

But what excites Laura Olson, co-owner of The Social, is how the system gives customers added ways to connect. With an iPad in each booth, they not only will be able to order food and drinks using the touch screens, but also use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and foursquare, and even order drinks for and have online chats with people in other booths.

Tatango founder Derek Johnson.

Derek Johnson began Tatango while at the University of Houston when a professor assigned him to start a “fake company” for an entrepreneurial class. The beginnings of the company were from his dorm room and based on a simple problem but with an easy solution – communication between his fraternity brothers.

Johnson saw SMS messaging as a solution to this problem. Tatango allows companies to send out promotional text messages to subscribers for a small fee. Tatango is different from other companies because companies must advertise their text number to customers, who opt in to the service.

Tatango has experimenting in different arenas, but decided to narrow its focus to SMS marketing in Johnson said as a result, Tatango has cut expenses in half while doubling revenue.

The newest version of Internet calling service Skype now lets Android 2.0 users make video calls. However, the catch is that only a few phones current support the video calls: the HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, Sony Ericsson Xperia pro and the Google Nexus S. Skype says it plans to support more devices in the near future, but gave no timetable. Also in the lastest version is a redesigned Android user interface. A new main menu makes it easier to navigate through contacts, access your profile and check your Skype credit balance. There's also now a mood message box so you can share your feelings or experiences.

Microsoft is turning out the lights on its Hohm energy management service, citing "slow overall market adoption."

In a blog post on the Hohm site today, the company said it will discontinue the service on May 31, 2012, but plans to continue to tackle the "incredible energy and environmental challenges of the 21st century."

Microsoft has claimed that the Android OS infringes on intellectual property.

It’s been a busy week for the lawyers over at Microsoft.

The Redmond tech giant has entered into yet another patent agreement for Android-based mobile devices, the third this week. This time it’s with Onkyo, a company better known for making higher-end stereo equipment than tablets.

"We are pleased that Onkyo has taken advantage of our patent licensing program for Android devices and has signed this agreement," said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft. "This agreement and similar agreements recently announced evidence the momentum and success of our licensing program."

For retailers online, it's all about building an audience and promoting the right products. And Seattle-based Wishpot says its new social commerce platform, Venpop -- already proven to increase traffic by up to 300 percent -- is just the thing to boost clicks and push the best products to fans.

The service has been in the works for a little over a year, but officially launched today.

It's about promoting the most interesting products to generate traffic and engagement, said Wishpot CEO Max Ciccotosto. The platform creates an interactive storefront on Twitter and Facebook where retailers can promote new products, sales and popular items via notifications (such as a wall post or tweet.)

The battle over online sales taxes in California hit a new stage late on Wednesday.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law Wednesday night that will require Amazon.com Inc. and others to collect taxes on goods sold through their Websites.

So Amazon.com followed through on a threat made to cut ties to its 10,000 affiliates in the state.

RealNetworks has finally launched Unifi, its personal cloud service, which lets users store digital content -- music, photos and video -- in the cloud and access the media from any device. Customers in Vodafone Germany are the first to gain access to Unifi, but Real plans to roll it out to the U.S. this fall.

The cloud service is going up against some serious competition: Apple's forthcoming iCloud and music lockers from Amazon and Google. But Real talks up Unifi's flexibility and multi-functionality -- customers can play their iTunes collection on an Android phone, take a picture with an iPhone or Android phone and automatically save it to the cloud, and catalog and access all their digital media from a variety of platform and devices (including Facebook and Flickr).

Steve Ballmer

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer finally addressed critics point blank at a Seattle Rotary Club luncheon today.

"You tell me if I have the energy, conviction, passion or we're not driving all the change we need to drive," said Ballmer in response to a brave question from Northwest Asian Weekly publisher Assunta Ng, reports The Seattle Times.

The outspoken billionaire has been the subject of criticism recently, from both employees and shareholders. A recent study from Glassdoor.com found Ballmer has only a 40 percent approval rating, in comparison to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos (83 percent approval rating) and Google’s outgoing CEO Eric Schmidt (96 percent approval rating).

An escape capsule could become an important accessory for a beachfront home.

A tiny Mukilteo aerospace consulting company, started in 2005 by former Boeing engineers, is designing a tsunami escape capsule that could protect up to six people for as little as $1,000.

IDEA Inc. Director of Engineering Scott Hill said that company president Julian Sharpe developed the concept after a visit to Cannon Beach, Ore., where he saw tsunami warnings.

“We had this idea a couple of years ago and we’ve been sitting on it. After the tsunami in Japan, we decided we had to develop it and get it out there for the masses,” Hill said. “If you can save one life, it would be worth producing it.”

The idea is simple: a 7-foot diameter ball, probably made out of aluminum, outfitted with internal seats and safety harnesses. In general it would have to protect people only for an hour or two, until tsunami waters receded, Hill said.

Three Seattle real estate companies — The Benaroya Co., Real Property Investors, and O’Keefe companies — said they are joining forces to acquire, develop and operate data centers.

I’ve been at the ZINO Entertainment Investment Forum this afternoon at the Seattle Harbor Club. It looks like there are about 100 attendees, including 16 startups in the gaming, mobile and film spaces making pitches more than $12.1 million in capital. ZINO has held numerous forums like this before, but this is the first to include these industries exclusively.

There were three discussion panels about each of the three industries and interspersed throughout the day are five-minute pitches by startup founders.

Some of the interesting points include:

- The gaming panel consisted of Academy of Interactive Entertainment President Chris Erhardt, Hidden Path Entertainment CEO Jeff Pobst, and Bungie Executive Producer Joseph Tung. All say the industry is still growing despite the economy (and a Washington Interactive Network study back this up), but the industry has evolved. The free game sphere has grown significantly, and gamers would rather purchase add-ons. Markets have expanded as puzzle and Facebook games have attracted two groups that have strayed away from gaming in the past: the middle-aged population and females.

The Missouri Supreme Court has sided with online travel agencies, concluding they are not short-changing the state on hotel and tourism taxes, reports Tnooz. In a unanimous ruling handed down on June 28, the high court dismissed the suit brought about by the St. Louis County, the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission and several other companies. The plaintiffs alleged that online travel agencies such as Expedia, Priceline, Hotwire and Orbitz should pay taxes on the difference between the discount room price they get from a hotel and the higher "retail" price charged to consumers.

A patent that Microsoft applied for back in 2009 is stirring up some privacy concerns related to Skype today. Called "Legal Intercept," the patent is for interception software that allows a company to "silently record" a call made over a VoIP network. And, since Microsoft acquired VoIP provider Skype back in May, many are wondering just what the company would do with this so-called spy patent. The patent hasn't received approval yet and Microsoft has refused to comment on the issue.

Amazon has threatened to threatened to close its California affiliate program if a proposed online sales tax is approved by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The move is unsurprising, given that the online retailer has cut ties with affiliates in Illinois and Connecticut over similar legislation. Sponsors of the legislation estimate that California could rake in $200 million a year by collecting taxes that consumers have been avoiding when making online purchases.

Federal law says states can only tax companies with a physical presence in a state, but California, Illinois and others have instituted legislation that says any company with an affiliate -- in this case, businesses that link to Amazon products and receive a fee on any resulting sales -- in the state can be taxed. Amazon maintains that this is illegal.

The online retailer sent the following email to its California affiliates today, warning them of the potential termination.

A map of broadband availability in Washington. The gray indicates wireless connections, the green wireline connections.

Washington residents with little or no access to broadband Internet will soon see a change. The Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet), a nonprofit wholesale communications company based in Tacoma, plans to install over 1,000 miles of broadband infrastructure in unserved, rural areas around the state.

“This broadband initiative will create immediate jobs during construction and attract economic investment to rural areas that have struggled from limited access to broadband,” said NoaNet CEO Greg Marney in a statement.

The project will cost an estimated $183 million, $140 million of which was provided by two federal grants as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery acts. Job creation is a huge part of the expansion said Rob Kopp, NoaNet's chief technology officer.