14 DAY TRIAL // Remember the $100 million iFund supplied by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers? iPhone developers surely have not forgotten about it, and especially not the developer of on-the-go lifestyle applications going by the name of Pelago. The company was the first chosen to receive part of that fat iFund, BusinessWeek is reporting. The second is iControl.
According to Pelago's description of Whrrl, the application (probably hitting the App Store as soon as firmware 2.0 debuts) makes use of the iPhone's mapping capabilities. Users will be able to find restaurants, cinemas, parks and pretty much anything around a certain given radius using this feature. Kleiner Perkins partner Matt Murphy explains it best:
"Say you're lost in Las Vegas and need a restaurant recommendation. With iPhone in hand, you can scan the locations of nearby restaurants, just Italian restaurants, or just those recommended by foodie friends. Or you could search for the highest-rated bars or kid-friendly activities recommended by friends from your social network. There's going to be a 'what's going on around me right now' button," says Kleiner Perkins. "You're always one button away from that immediate context."
Now that developer Pelago is iFund material, you might be interested in knowing that this company is hiring "talented and driven folks" that want to join its team.
The second developer to grab a piece of the iFund is iControl. They are the makers of some nifty home automation software that lets you control air conditioning, the lights, window shades and so on. As you can imagine, the possibility to do all this (and more) directly from your handset deserves a certain degree of "attention."
Kleiner Perkins' $100 million iFund is to be divided among companies that want to develop new applications for the iPhone / iPod touch. Only la cr?me de la cr?me of developers are likely to be selected and granted funding for their work.
With Apple widely expected to announce its next-generation iPhone two weeks from now at WWDC '08, BusinessWeek believes that one of the two apps that have just received iFunding will be showcased.
