On Fridays we’re going to start putting together a few links to good reporting done on the region, quick follow-ups to previous posts, events, and anything else we find mildly interesting or noteworthy. We don’t know exactly what this Friday post is shooting for yet, but hopefully you might be better informed, cultured, and entertained.
So starting off the roundup, Angry Birds got some of the craziest PR material you could possibly think of by getting NASA astronaut Don Pettit to do a little Angry Birds stunt on the International Space Station. The video promotes the new Angry Birds Space levels, which add a new gravity dynamic to the game. It’s true NASA is strapped for cash, but still you have to respect Rovio for playing the game better than anyone else.
GigaOm interviewed Wrapp’s CEO, Hjalmar Winbladh, about their competition with Dropgifts – a clone of the Wrapp service by the Samwer brothers’ Rocket Internet Factory.
We, along with The Guardian and TheNextWeb, rumor mongered whether the new iPad would include Senseg’s haptics technology. It… will not.
iZettle launched its open beta in the Nordics the other week and hit #2 on the Norwegian app store, 7 in Finland, and 11 in Denmark.
GigaOm has seen reports that Spotify will be launching in Germany this upcoming week.
The deadline for Startup Wiseguys accelerator in Tallinn is March 11th.
A couple Aaltoes kids are in the Valley and Austin, Texas this week for SXSW. Aaltoes is also hosting a “build it” 48 hour hackathon starting this evening (!) that may still have some tickets left.
Two new regular-meeting groups are starting up in Helsinki. Startup Helsinki, got a good crowd together at Nola to mingle last Wednesday, and will be meeting the first Wednesday of every month. At the Aalto Venture Garage, they’re also throwing a “Divine Breakfast” every Wednesday morning from 08:30 to 10:30. Cost of attendance is 2 euros, and includes coffee and baked goods.
I’m sure there’s more news and events to cover across the region, but it’s getting late. If you come across anything interesting, or if you want to provide a sentence or two about an event you attended, feel free to pass it along to editor (at) arcticstartup (dot) com, or tweet it our way @arcticstartup.
