...favorite iphone app: Uber, limo service at taxi rates (so don't drink, drive and kill people on NYE) http://t.co/hE9KYlT0... Read More

Despite the fact that I live and work near Times Square, and that around a million people gather annually in the heart of New York City to ring in the New Year, I’ve never been inspired to stand outside till midnight to watch the ball drop in person. Now — whether you can’t make it to Times Square or just don’t want to — there’s an app for that. (Obviously!) First introduced last year, the Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball App — 2012 shows a live stream of the Times Square Ball atop One Times Square, as well as video content leading up to and during the event. I’m told there will also be a live stream of Lady Gaga flicking the switch with Mayor Mike Bloomberg, to get the ball rolling, literally, at 11:59 pm ET. With the app, users can share photos of themselves via Facebook and Read More

Uber, the private car share service that allows you to summon town cars via an iPhone, has opened up shop in Paris in time for international Internet conference LeWeb. Adding context to the jumpy video of the very first Parisian Uber ride above, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who was on my flight from SFO, tells me that there are a few Uber-enabled cars in the city of Light currently, and tomorrow that number will start steadily increasing. I’m still waiting for confirmation of pricing and other details (I’ll update this post as soon as I know). Sure there are already many options for those seeking taxi service within Paris, but Uber, with its appeal to the tech-savvy and fashionable, has a good chance of gaining a foothold in the class-conscious international capital. “This is going to end the monopoly of the taxis in Paris,” said LeWeb founder Loic LeMeur,”You will have models Read More

...@sib1013: Glad to see @uber come to Seattle! And with Android http://t.co/8Yc7Aej & iPhone http://t.co/6ud77O5 apps #mobileapps... Read More

Uber is a service that connects an iOS app to a car booking network, so essentially you can use your iPhone to signal that you need a car, and then one shows up, complete with a driver ready to take you to your destination. We've seen taxis do this with Taxi Magic, but Uber is designed to not only set up people who need transportation with their own drivers, but also car services with new customers. Now Uber is headed for an even bigger test in New York, after launching in the San Francisco market. The New York Times says the company is set to take on the Big Apple, where taxis and public transportation options usually hold sway. It'll be interesting to see how this all works. I expect more of these kinds of services to hook into smartphones in this way. Of course, using a car service will always Read More

The idea of using the Internet to parse out small jobs is not new. But a new crop of businesses has popped up that use the iPhone to help people find and perform small tasks near them. One of the most ambitious of these projects is Gigwalk, which lets anyone with an iPhone sign up to perform tasks such as photographing an intersection or documenting a restaurant using nothing more than the camera on their device. Although the tasks performed by each individual are small, the idea behind Gigwalk is to find large companies that need tasks performed that would otherwise be to costly and laborious to complete. In private beta for the last few months, the service is already being used by GPS mapping firm TomTom and restaurant listing service Menupages to crowdsource tasks that are core to their businesses. “You can take care of a lot of scenarios that Read More

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Quick Pitch: UberCab is an on demand car service that allows you to request, track and ride with ultimate convenience. Payment is cashless and hassle free. Genius Idea: It’s not as if urban cities such as San Francisco are ever devoid of cabbies or car service drivers — they’re out there, just never when you really need a ride. And then when you do manage to hail a ride, you better be carrying cash lest you want to get the evil eye from the driver. Young startup UberCab has set out to tackle these transportation travails one city at a time, starting in San Francisco. UberCab is equal one part Read More

Finding a cab, especially during peak travel times or in less-traveled areas, can be an incredibly frustrating task. But car services are often much more expensive than the average cab ride. Enter UberCab, a new service that offers an on-demand car service via an iPhone app or SMS. After signing up for an UberCab account and downloading the free iPhone app, you can then set your location and request a car service from the application. The app will determine your location and you can set your exact pickup location. UberCab will then send your request to their network of drivers who happen to be in the area. The driver will accept your request and you can then input your end location. The driver will alert you when arriving, and once you entire the car, you hit begin trip on your app to begin your fare. The driver also has a connecting Read More