Note: This article has been revised from the original to clarify some of the language.
DirectTV: Satellite television provider DirectTV of El Segundo has launched an on-demand video app made safe for kids. The app, which is available on the iPhone and iPad for DirectTV subscribers, offers several hundred popular children’s shows and movies, with age-based ratings.
Little Labs: Venice’s Little Labs, a smart watch development company, now offers an Apple Watch casino game named “Slots Time.” The app, as the name implies, takes slot machine gaming and puts it on your wrist. No money is at stake, however.
Karma: L.A.’s Karma launched a browser extension that rates the trustworthiness of other users in peer-to-peer marketplaces. The extension, which is currently being tested, operates on sites like Airbnb, Craigslist and eBay. The ultimate goal is to create an all-encompassing “Karma Score” for individuals, connecting the dots between separate user rating systems.
Vidity: Backed by 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, SanDisk Corp. and Western Digital, the Secure Content Storage Association of Los Angeles started its high-quality video download technology named Vidity. The back-end tech allows viewers to download video across multiple devices and will be licensed to content distributors and device makers starting in June.
Private Me: Anonymous search engine startup Private Me of Los Angeles launched. The company offers a search engine that doesn’t keep or pass off user data to advertisers. Instead, users own and control the distribution of their data, which is stored for them by a collection of non-profits.
Opinit: Emoticon-based social media app startup Opinit of Los Angeles opened its iOS app for beta testing. The app allows users to share Internet content and rate it via emoticons.
Tape: L.A.’s Tape, an app that allows users to share and stitch together video clips from each other, launched. Via the app, users can add filters, effects and music from iTunes to their crowdsourced videos, which they can then share back to the online community.
