Fashion fanatics have a number of online tools at their disposal—including countless places to design their own creations—but expert industry forecasts have traditionally been available only to paying professionals. Proving once again the increasing clout of the creative masses, London forecasting firm Trendstop now offers a free mobile app that delivers high-end fashion predictions to anyone.

Trendstop typically provides forecasts and analysis to fashion industry professionals, with clients paying some USD 3,495 a year for full access. Now, however, any mobile user with a passion for fashion can download the company's Trendtracker application for free.

Available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and other mobile platforms, Trendtracker lets users monitor the latest runway looks, fashion news, trend ideas and inspiration right from their mobile phones. Coverage includes daily trend reports, news and photos from fashion shows from around the world, and runway schedules and event guides.

Where's the line dividing amateurs and professionals? That becomes a little less clear each day, thanks in part to consumers' insatiable infolust and the real-time apps that increasingly feed it. It's all part of what our sister site calls nowism. What up-to-the-minute data can your brand offer to forge a new point of connection with creative consumers...?

[springwise]

Augmented Reality is a pretty hot topic currently, but it seems to me that the Japanese in particular have really embraced the concept of mixing the real world with computer-generated imagery and data. One case in point is the Crimsonfox project [JP], an “Alternative Reality” scavenger hunt game event that took place over the weekend in Tokyo, Japan.

The main idea here was to use a tailor-made augmented reality app on the iPhone (which is only available in the Japanese App Store) in a mass-player game in the real world, namely the central district of Shibuya.

And over 200 players showed up in flesh and blood on the day of the event, all equipped with iPhones. Using said app, GPS and the built-in compass of the 3GS, players ran around in the city looking for hidden (physical) hints to find the real-world hideout of a “secret society called Moonlights”.

On the screenshot below, you can see those hints in red and an interim goal in blue.




Players were able to “scan” hints they found with their iPhones, for example a graphic printed on a piece of paper somewhere. The app would then verify the hint by superimposing an emblem (see below) over the image on the iPhone camera, give away points for finding the right hint and then lead players to the next part of the game.





Very cool concept, so it wasn’t too surprising that the Crimsonfox project was watched by a total of 7,000 people live online. Tokyo-based Ubiquitous Entertainment, the main organizer of the event, was even able to win the support of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

While this is probably possible in Japan only, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this kind of event copied for marketing or other purposes outside this country in the future (hit this link for more information on the game in English).

[mobilecrunch]

Pandora was saved by the iPhone, and now it has ambitions to turn public, Claire Cain Miller at the New York Times reports.




The music streaming service was profitable on $50 million in revenue last year, according to Claire's reporting. An analyst tells her it could do $100 million this year. Revenue comes from advertisements, subscriptions and payments from Apple and Amazon.

Pandora struggled to build a business for years, but when the iPhone opened up to third party applications, Pandora started adding 35,000 users per day, double what it was doing before.

It had a near-death experience in 2007 when a court ruled that Pandora, and other web-based radio services, would have to pay $0.19 per song played. The royalty was later reduced to $.08 per song, or 25% of revenue, which saved Pandora.

Now, Claire says the company is being courted by investment banks. It hired Steve Cakebread as CFO. He was CFO at Salesforce.com when it went public.





So, could Pandora actually go public? Certainly, but we don't see it any time soon. A company needs to hit these metrics to go public, according to Fred Wilson:

• Revenues greater than $100 million
• EBTIDA greater than $10 million
• Growing both faster than 25% per year
• You are *absolutely sure* you can make your numbers for at least three years out

If Pandora can hit those targets for two years, then it might get serious about an IPO. For now, it's just warming up.

[businessinsider]

TripIt, the travel startup that consolidates all of your travel information into a single itinerary, has raised $7 million in a third round of funding.



The idea behind San Francisco-based TripIt is to give travelers all the information they need for their trip in one place — their flight itinerary, hotel, maps, weather information, and more. The company has also introduced a groups feature so that you can collaborate with colleagues on travel plans, and a pro service with real-time alerts.

TripIt has also taken steps to integrate with other services and applications, like introducing an application for professional networking site LinkedIn, and allowing other companies to build applications on top of TripIt data and services. (The company shares in the revenue from those apps.)

The round was led by new investor Azure Capital Partners and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, which also participated in TripIt’s first and second rounds. The company has now raised $13.1 million in all.






What is TripIt ?

With today's myriad of travel sites, even the most experienced traveler has their hands full managing all the details of a typical trip. Booking airline tickets, hotels, rental cars and restaurants leaves you with lots of separate pieces of paper. Throw in maps, directions, things to do, and weather and the chaos multiplies.

TripIt turns chaos into order by making it easy for anyone to:

• Organize trip details into one master online itinerary -- even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites
• Automatically include maps, directions and weather in their master itinerary
• Have the option to book restaurants, theatre tickets, activities and more right from within the online itinerary
• Safely access travel plans online, share them, check-in for flights, or print an itinerary

[venturebeat]